For the first time in his life, George Pataki is concerned about the future of New York City.
In an exclusive interview with The Post at his Peekskill, New York office, the former three-term Republican governor said crime, COVID-19, and poor leadership in city and state government have pushed the edge to the Big Apple.
“For the first time I fear for the future of New York City. The de Blasio administration has been a disaster and New York has been hit by one decision after another that really jeopardize its future. It’s not just City Hall, but Albany as well, ”said the 6-foot-5-inch Pataki, frowning at his desk. “This cannot be allowed to continue or New York City is going to die.”
Pataki, 75, has been out of politics for more than a decade. His office is filled with smiling photos of him during his salad days in Albany, and crammed with Yankees-signed baseball bats and gold leaf shovels that his staff sometimes use to clear snow in the winter. Images of Theodore Roosevelt, Pataki’s political hero and his son Teddy’s namesake, are everywhere.
Lately Pataki has turned to writing. His new book, “Beyond the Great Divide: How a Nation Became a Neighborhood” (Post Hill Press), delves into his time as Governor on September 11 and offers insights on how Americans can overcome their differences for rebuild a common future. He also continues to practice law at Norton Rose Fulbright; Before the pandemic, you could sometimes catch him on the North Subway entering Manhattan.
But, behind the scenes, he remains highly aware and involved in political developments across the state, marking what he says are failed initiatives like bail reform, rent reform, police elimination, and deception. Chirlane McCray’s mental health, ThriveNYC, which has resulted in “Having Homeless Mental Illness on Every Street in New York.”
“Many people are going to lose their lives unnecessarily due to the demonization of the police and the decriminalization of the acts in which people should be arrested and locked up instead of being released on the street,” he said.
Pataki, now known to his intimates simply as “governor,” cut his political teeth as a local working-class mayor of Peekskill in the early 1980s. Lower Westchester is referred to as the “wealthy” part of the county. Locals still recognize him, even through his pandemic mask. Pataki said he was especially upset knowing that the adverse effects of the state’s shoes, now under the dominance of a single Democratic party, would not affect those with money and power.
“It is the person who works the night shift who will be killed, or the guy in a warehouse who will be held and shot,” he said, repeatedly pointing to the city’s sharp rise in violent crime. “If you’re a writer for The New York Times and you live in a safe Upper East Side neighborhood and you take Uber, it’s not going to affect you.”
Although he declined to take personal photos, experts tell me that he is furious with Andrew Cuomo and that he is particularly appalled at the governor’s executive order forcing nursing homes to accept older people who tested positive for COVID-19. At least one Pataki confidante said the situation has angered him enough to even consider competing against Cuomo in 2022 and denying him the same fourth term that Pataki denied his father, Mario, in 1994.
“You never say never,” Pataki said, when asked if he would run again, noting that he would still be “the youth candidate in a [presidential] Democratic primary.
Pataki added that he opposes some of the most drastic efforts by supporters on both sides and rejected calls for civil or criminal charges against public officials for actions taken during the pandemic. And even if he were the governor, he said he would not remove De Blasio from office, however tempting it may be.
“The consequences in our political system are political. If you make the wrong decision, people have the right to change their point of view and choose new leaders, “he said. “The criminalization of political differences is a third world negative that has become too common in our country.”
In national politics, Pataki repeatedly refused to endorse President Trump’s reelection and declined to say who he would vote for, adding that if the elections were held today, Trump would lose. When asked to evaluate the President’s performance, Pataki crossed his arms and took a deep breath.
“I agree with many of President Trump’s policies, but his tweets and his enmities often result in the success of those policies being ignored,” he finally said.
Pataki was most forthcoming during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he submitted his own short offer for the Republican nomination. After Trump launched into the race in August 2015, Pataki denounced him for his remarks calling Mexican illegal immigrants “rapists” and “drug dealers” in an open letter to his would-be Republican candidates, who have since You have disconnected.
In tweets of the time, he criticized Trump as a “divisor” who was unfit for office, attacked plans for a Muslim registry as “rebellious” and “non-American” and promised not to vote for him.
Trump, of course, responded with tweets of his own, calling the former governor “TACKY PATAKI” and claiming that “he couldn’t be chosen as a dog hunter” today, among other insults.
They also disagreed during Pataki’s time in Albany, particularly over plans to bring Indian casinos to Catskills. Worried that it could affect his gambling interests in Atlantic City, Trump spent years fighting the idea.
Despite his baggage with Trump, Pataki predicted that Joe Biden could still lose the election by leaning too far to the left or if “it became clear to the American people that they are not willing to do the job.” He called questions about the 77-year-old former veteran’s state of mind “a legitimate concern.”
“I have been disappointed in the ability of left-wing activists in the party such as Bernie Sanders and [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez will apparently influence him in a real and significant way, “Pataki said, noting that the moderate Biden of past decades was long gone.” The Biden who was the long-time moderate Democrat serving in Congress might not be the Biden whom we would see as president. “
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