Overall, crime in the city has fallen 50 percent. Burglary has declined 59 percent, and murder has been reduced by 70 percent, according to the most recent Mayor's Management Report.

Behind the statistics, every crime has its story, and every criminal has a tale to tell. And even convicted felons can draft a new future.

"Things are improving now for me," said Alan Brezovsky, a recently-released drug dealer and now a street cleaner in lower Manhattan. "I wish there were more opportunities but I know that they will arrive later on," he said. Several former felons such as Brezovsky, now released from prison, work legal jobs as street sweepers in the Wall Street district.

Once the city's menaces, these released inmates now work, quite literally, to keep the streets clean. NYC24 caught up with three ex-cons who have rejected their pasts and who insist that they, like the city itself, have been reborn.