Empire State Building In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wein, and Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly-sought retail area. In
Crime in New York (state) Crime in New York (state) This article refers to the situation of crime in the U.S. state of New York. In 2012, there were 451,142 crimes reported in the state of New York, including 686 murders. In 2014, 409,386 crimes were reported in the state, including 616 murders. In 2007, New York City had 494 reported homicides, down from 596 homicides in 2006. This marked the first year since 1963 (when crime statistics were starting to be published) that this total was fewer than 500. In 2008, there were 523 reported murders, a 5.2% rise from the previous year. In