CITIES: Strong Arm of the Law

May had been unseasonably moist and June unreasonably cool, but this week New York City's 7,795,471 residents finally read unmistakable signposts of an impending weather change — and with it a threat of sociological change. Shortened were Manhattan's winter skyscraper shadows; the tall towers of stone, glass and burnished metal reached upward nearly shadowless under the hazy midday sun.

Tenements, still the city's drab cincture to its towers, menaced a thousand rubbish-strewn, treeless streets. Subway passengers broiled; Broadway theaters and side-street restaurants hung "Delightfully Air Conditioned" banners or closed for the...

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