If de Blasio Wants to Change the Status Quo, He Has to Mean It
How’s he doing?
If the next two years are like Mayor de Blasio’s first two, the mayor’s legacy will be this: He was a caretaker mayor in a city that was doing just fine before he got here. If he wants to change that, he’ll have to mean it when he says, like last week, that he wants to “change the status quo.”
“The mayor may not see it this way, but his first two years were easy. No 9/11 recovery crisis, no murder crisis, no fiscal crisis — when our last four mayors each faced one of these challenges.”
Now he is the status quo.
The mayor may not see it this way, but his first two years were easy. No 9/11 recovery crisis, no murder crisis, no fiscal crisis — when our last four mayors each faced one of these challenges.
His biggest first-year problem was getting Gov. Cuomo to give us a little of the extra billions pouring in so that we could send 4-year-olds to school.
Two years in, New York looks the same as it did two years ago — maybe more careworn.
Crime: We’ll end this year with a dozen or so more murders than last year’s record-low 333 deaths. This 5 percent or so increase isn’t a disaster. It happened plenty of times under the past two mayors. Plus, de Blasio has said repeatedly that he’ll keep crime down — and he’s defended broken-windows policing against City Council opposition.
A 2016 with still-rising murders would be cause for worry — but for now, de Blasio’s New York is not a bloodbath.
The economy: De Blasio is a fresh face presiding over a long streak. New York has nearly 4.3 million jobs, 230,200 more than when Mike Bloomberg left. No matter what their education, healthy people are unemployed here by choice.
Our budget problem is what to do with a billion-dollar surplus.
Yet this luck may not last. The city’s job growth weakened this year — to 2.6 percent, down from 3.1 percent last year. And after more than a half-decade of beating the rest of the country in jobs, we’re growing at the same rate. Global economic troubles, including a slowdown in China, may hurt our finance and tourism industries.
A bust wouldn’t be de Blasio’s fault, just as the boom isn’t. But he hasn’t used the good times to try to fix our longer-term problems, including unaffordable pensions and health care for city workers.
So what of the city’s current problems?
New York has always had homeless people and street beggars. One peed on my leg (accidentally) about 15 years ago in the Village, and about 10 years ago, I walked by a man defecating on Madison Avenue.
But over the past seven years or so, we seem to have more.
Vagrancy problems differ by neighborhood. From West Midtown to Fifth Avenue, I’ve seen more young white people, often couples or with pets, sitting with signs.
“The mayor’s new plans to track [homeless] street activity and to keep cracking down on encampments are good. But like previous mayors, he’s kidding himself if he thinks more housing will solve the problem.”
People come to New York to beg for the same reason anyone comes: We have more people likely to give money.
The mayor’s new plans to track street activity and to keep cracking down on encampments are good. But like previous mayors, he’s kidding himself if he thinks more housing will solve the problem. New York simply can’t house every Oxy addict who gets off a bus.
We have to police the streets — and that includes sidewalk obstruction.
The city’s other great crisis — one that also predated de Blasio — is its lawless construction industry. Over the last year, 18 people died in construction “accidents” — perfectly preventable ones.
Thirty-seven-year-old Tina Nguyen had very little chance of being killed by gunfire on a downtown street in March. She was killed by a negligent builder who didn’t secure his plywood.
More fortunate New Yorkers put up with illegal noise every day.
This is our modern quality-of-life catastrophe — and it’s not hard, technically, to fix. Hire more people if you need them, and enforce the laws.
It is hard, politically, to fix. Following the law costs developers more — and they’ve learned they can get away with ignoring it.
The mayor should put a stop to it.
“If people knew that developers would be predictable and courteous in their work, they might be more open to his proposed re-zonings.”
Forcing considerate construction would also help the mayor with succeeding in an important part of his legacy: housing. If people knew that developers would be predictable and courteous in their work, they might be more open to his proposed re-zonings.
De Blasio has two years (at least) to do good — and a city in good shape gives him plenty of room to do it. But he has to do it. So let’s wish the mayor and his family a productive New Year.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post
This piece originally appeared in New York Post