Despite fears that, with people losing their jobs and savings, and with budget woes forcing police officers off the streets, our city would devolve into a seventies-era cesspool of rampant killing, theft, and cannibalism, the opposite actually seems to be happening. In the year to date, overall crime is down 13 percent, with the murder rate alone down 23 percent. Is it possible that people actually feel a heightened sense of kinship in this time of crisis? Perhaps! Or maybe there's just not as much to steal. [NY1]