Taxi Driver captures the essence of grimy, depressed late ‘70s New York City pretty well, I think.

Also, NYC’s reputation was still not great by the early ‘80s and productions generally declined to actually film there instead of places such as LA, but for Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman was adamant about actually filming exterior shots in the city itself. And it was Dan Aykroyd’s suggestion to use a particular NYC firehouse (the still-active Hook & Ladder Company 8) for exterior shots of the Ghostbusters HQ.