John Lindsay became mayor of a city that was in the midst of massive transformation. The population and the economy were shifting, with industrial jobs leaving and hopeful newcomers arriving in large numbers from the South and Puerto Rico; meanwhile, the costs to the city of welfare support were mushrooming. New York was further transformed by the events of the 1960s and 1970s—the growing movements for civil rights, gay rights, and women's rights, the mounting opposition to the Vietnam War, and the spread of the "counterculture."

Lindsay’s aggressive strategy with trade unions and his Republican affiliation made his administration a target of repeated strikes by municipal workers, which began the very day he took the oath of office, with a 12-day transit strike. The results were expensive pay increases that contributed to stretching the city’s budget beyond sustainable levels.