Bill de Blasio is officially the 109th Mayor of New York City. I say officially because he is, in fact, the first mayor of New York.
The first mayor who does not care about the city.
Not all of his predecessors were above average, but the Blasio stands out for his indifference. Nothing makes him tick.
Gotham, the closest thing our nation has ever had to the gleaming city on a hill, lies in a sharp and obvious downward spiral. With dizzying speed, more than two decades of prosperity and public safety have come to a standstill.
Persistent warnings that the bad old days were coming back were accurate, but in vain. The bad old days are here.
Extreme crime is rampant, homeless people are everywhere, empty shopping fronts are proliferating and people are fleeing neighborhoods that were safe six months ago.
And the Blasio kicks up.
A toddler is killed by stray gunfire and he says it is “unacceptable.” For weeks, he blamed the rise in crime on the court system, and then denies saying what he said several times.
Now he blames the dramatic rise in murder and gunplay on the coronavirus and the weather, but says not to worry. He assured reporters that the situation was ‘reversed’ by the police and that ‘summer will soon be over.’
He gets the worst possible press, his staff demonstrates against him and employees leave with a blast at his sad work habits.
He rarely responds, apparently anesthetized to criticism. Even spotters do not wake him.
This could well be attributed to a belief that he marches with his own drummer. In truth it is because there is not there.
He is so bad that critics have gone out of his way to describe how bad he is. A fellow City Democrat, rep. Max Rose, fumbled during an interview about the mayor’s performance when he delivered an insult that will be hard to beat. The Blasio, Rose said, is the worst mayor “in the history of this great country.”
That is not to say that the mayor is dumb or unambitious. Bored with his job but loving the spotlight, he turns to a bread-and-circus approach.
Painting “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower is the kind of performance art that streams its juices. Recall that he once flew to the Mexican border to clarify the detention of illegal immigrants, but was last seen outside a gate, arguing with a security guard.
Or the time he went to Iowa to campaign for Hillary Clinton, who had nothing to do with him. A year ago, during his own quixotic presidential bid, he lured 15 people to an Iowa event.
He could see more people than that on every street corner of New York – except that the mayor did not walk around town and talk to New Yorkers. He also does not drive subways and buses. Businesses are dying by the thousands, but the mayor does not buy or publicly encourage others.
The other day, speaking of nothing, he said that “my advice to New Yorkers is not to buy a car, cars are the past, the future is mass transit, cycling, walking.”
Walking?
This is a man who, prior to COVID, had his police officers drive from his home in Manhattan to his gym in Brooklyn.
But now he has that anti-car religion and promises that “go ahead, I’ll never buy a car again.”
Of course, even that is misleading. The Blasio bought the cars he no longer advises in, as well as the public lawyer in his previous job, where he used a car in the city. That Detroit will not feel its personal boycott.
His latest play for attention is to set up checkpoints at bridges and tunnels to force travelers from most other states to follow a two-week quarantine. Governor Andrew Cuomo first set up the rule in June, but the Blasio has apparently just now decided to enforce it. Those who break the rules would have to pony up $ 10,000.
“The important thing is that the checkpoints will send a very important message that this quarantine law is serious,” he said, apparently seriously.
The move is extra strange, given that coronavirus deaths have fallen sharply since the worst days of April and May. In fact, De Blasio’s sudden interest probably only reflects his desire to emerge under the shadow of Cuomo on the COVID front.
His timing on taxes is as bad as his timing on checkpoints. Cuomo opposes tax increases for fear that it will give high-ranking officials another reason to leave the city and state permanently.
Net de Blasio. He wants tax increases and does not care if the rich never return. “There are many New Yorkers who are rich, who are true believers in New York City and will stand and fight with us, and some may be fair-weathered friends, but they will be replaced by others,” he said. said the mayor.
Reality does not agree, with middle-class chunks fleeing as well. There was nothing subtle about a headline from Friday’s New York Times. “Leaving New York: How Can I Choose the Right Suburb.”
The article accepted it as a given that a race to the exits is underway, and the Gray Lady offered help to those who decided to go.
The Post has graphically revealed what is behind the flight. “Terrified & Angry on UWS,” reads a Friday headline that spans two pages. The story and vivid images reveal that The Blasio’s team of vagrants, junkies and the mentally ill are moving to three Upper West Side hotels, and the new neighbors make themselves at home in parks and on the streets, much to the horror of inhabitants of areas.
“Our community is scared, angry and scared,” said Dr. Megan Martin, who helped organize a Facebook group of about 1,700 New Yorkers, told The Post.
Bess Fern, who is six months pregnant and the mother of a toddler daughter, told the paper in another report that she had just put her apartment on the market.
“I have definitely seen more crime, drugs and harassment in one week than in my entire experience growing up here,” she said.
And Bill de Blasio kicks up.
Old Joe is so stereotypical
First, Joe Biden tells a black radio host that “you are not black” if you can vote for President Trump. Then he tells a Latino interviewer that Latinos are different than African Americans.
The two remarks are consistent with a stereotypical view of blacks. Biden believes that in order to be authentically black, you must vote for Democrats. Then he misses that conformity.
The uprising convinces me that he will appoint a black woman as his running mate. Seeing the clutter he made, what choice does he have?
‘Fail-in’ mood woe
Reader Sue Goldstein, after experience seeing election workers, is afraid of universal post-in-votes. She writes: “The caliber of some people was questionable (addicts, alcoholics, young deadheads, elderly people with dementia). A universal steering system will need more volunteers to handle the workload and that is scary, very scary. “
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