The American Spectator

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p> strong> em> The Prince of the City : br> Giuliani, New York, and the Genius of American Life /em> br> by Fred Siegel br> (Encounter Books, 320 pages, $26.95) /strong> /p>

A FEW YEARS AGO my son played football at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. On orientation night they showed parents a TV news clip of how the team had to travel each day to an East River park for practice.

As the players disembarked from the bus, the camera panned around, catching sight of heroin addicts shooting up and drug dealers casually closing deals on park benches. "We often have a tough time getting out of here," remarked one player. "Gangs have attacked the bus with rocks."

Wait, what was happening? Was this the New York we knew? Then I realized what was going on. This news clip had been made about ten years ago, before Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York. In those days, open drug dealing and mini-riots in public parks were a normal part of life.

Prince of the City is Fred Siegel's finely detailed, nearly reverent account of how one man -- and one man alone -- turned around the greatest city in the world and proved that American cities could once again be habitable.

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