I can't believe I'm about to say this

In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price - New York Times
If you want a really good idea of what it was like in New York at the time of Guiliani's tenure as mayor...just watch the syndicated shows that took place in New York during his time.
Though thinly veiled shows such as "NYPD Blues" and "Law&Order" constantly talked about, picked apart, and razzed the sitting city government at the time.
Things like....locking up transients because they made the city look bad....suddenly cutting the overtime pay even though the officers still had to do the work...characters who were used to "replace" those of the mayor.
Although some of it you have to take with a grain of salt and not as complete gospel--they give you enough of the insights to know where he was coming from...or rather the effects of his administration.
For instance, there was an episode of Law&Order where they are looking for a suspect and the one person who could help them is an illegal, the only leverage that they have they are not allowed to use--they are trying to get a murderer off the streets but they can't do it because New York is a sactuary city.
Actually as it turns out, it didn't matter in the end because the INS isn't listening to the mayor and move to deport the witness-before the trial...even a court ordere saying the witness is to stay as a 'material witness' doesn't help.
BUT it does show what we can expect on a national setting.
The story this links to...the one about the chauffer....I swear I saw something about this on one of those shows too.