"People who flock to cities looking for jobs and more interesting lives will flock back again if jobs and more interesting lives are to be found where they came from. It has been suggested that, with modern systems of communication, the America of the future may be simply a network of small towns. But should we not say Walden Twos? A few skeletons of cities may survive, like the bones of dinosaurs in museums, as the remains of a passing phase in the evolution of a way of life."
- B.F. Skinner, Walden Two (introduction)

Early depiction of Post-stonewall NYC

There are a number of film narratives that take up the rather Hitchcockian idea of following an an object. Sometimes this motivates an anthology narrative, telling a group of mildly related stories (a la Ophuls LA RONDE). Examples include Julien Duvier's TALES OF MANHATTAN (1946), which follows a coat, THE GUN (John Badham, 1974) which follows a gun, Sacha Guitry's Les Perles de la Couronne uses a story of a necklace to construct a story which covers generations; TWENTY BUCKS (1993) by Keva Rosenfeld. There's also a German film, I believe, that follows a penny? These are narratives of circulation. DIABLE DE PARIS is an antecedent.

Joseph Wambaugh's THE BLUE KNIGHT (1975)

Joseph Wambaugh's POLICE STORY

James Willwerth seems to have been a crime correspondent for TIME in the late 1960s and 1970s. A search using his name on the TIME website brings up a number of articles. "Narcotics: Search and Destroy - The War on Drugs" describes a 1972 heroin bust in Chinatown, for example, as going off as "motion picture perfect."

Willwerth is also the author of Jones: Portrait of a Mugger, and Badge of Madness: The True Story of a Psychotic Cop. There's an excellent New York Times book review of the former.

Above is Paul Signac's Vue de Porte de Marseille from 1905. In the background is the Basilica de Notre Dame del la Garde. The depiction is very similar to William Friedkin's opening shot of The French Connection, which begins by zooming out from a view of the basilica into a port scene. The MOMA acquired this painting in 1955. Was it on view between then and 1970? Could Friedkin have seen it?