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Michael Goodwin
Michael Goodwin
Mayor Adams' New York is a
blunderful life – and it's only getting
Opinion worse

Mayor Adams’ New York is a blunderful Kirsten Fleming

life – and it’s only getting worse Kate Middleton conspiracies are just a
By Michael Goodwin harbinger of a future we should all fear
Published March 19, 2024 Updated March 19, 2024, 11:08 p.m. ET

Abraham Wyner
To judge from the happy talk coming from City Hall and
More From: Albany, these are Gotham’s golden days. The pols point to
Hamas is almost certainly lying about
Michael Goodwin sky-high budgets — investments, they call them — as proof the number of deaths in Gaza
they are fighting to make New York better than ever.
Donald Trump vows to 'save
America' this November from See All Columnists
'Biden disasters' in sit-down To which the public responds: Liars, liars, pants on fire!
interview with The Post New Yorkers, it turns out, see life in the five boroughs as bad
and getting worse. Much worse.
The probes of Donald Trump
and Joe Biden show the
Covers
emboldened bias among the left That’s the resounding message from a huge survey of city
residents conducted by the private Citizens Budget Today's Cover
Joe Biden only cares about his Commission. Front Cover
re-election chances, not helping
Gaza Flip for back cover
The findings amount to a thumbs-down response to our
government overlords by painting a dismal view of the quality
The left serves as apologists for of life.
Hamas rapists' heinous crimes
on Oct. 7

Nikki Haley's complete

ignorance of her own party is
why Trump is the last candidate
standing

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83,897
Hamas is almost The only bloodbath in Bill Maher scolds
certainly lying about the America right now is the Americans struggling
number of deaths in bowels of liberal with inflation as he
Gaza hypocrisy splattered all praises Biden from his
over social media private jet

Even allowing for the fact that New Yorkers are renowned world-class complainers, the survey offers
almost nothing for elected officials to cheer. Parents allegedly passed out drunk
on beach vacation while their young
kids wandered away
No matter how you slice it, it’s not a pretty picture.

58,458
‘Good’ grief
A few highlights, er, lowlights:

Only 30% of respondents rate the quality of life as excellent or good, down from 51% in 2017 and
2008.
Only 24% rate the quality of government services good or excellent, down from 44% in 2017;
Only 11% believe the government is spending tax dollars wisely, down from 21% in 2017. Attorney who blew whistle on Fani
Willis affair blasts DA over speech
claiming 'Jesus' told her to prosecute
How low must it go before the political establishment wakes up? Trump

The conclusions are bad enough in the absolute sense, but are even worse in reflecting a sense of
57,543
continuing decline over time.

A telling example is the response showing New Yorkers feel only marginally safer riding the subway
during the day now than they felt on the subway at night in 2017.

Yikes.

The commission sent detailed questionnaires to a random sample of 125,000 households late last year to
Fed-up homeowner arrested after
get meaningful participation from every borough, neighborhood, income level and racial and ethnic group. tense standoff with squatters
'stealing' $1M house she inherited
from parents
Itsaid the questions were consistent with a survey it conducted in 2017 and one the city conducted in
2008.

Only 30% of respondents rate the quality of life as excellent or good, only 24% rate the
quality of government services good or excellent and only 11% believe the government is
spending tax dollars wisely.

Although only about 6,600 households responded, organizers say the results are statistically valid, with
some margins of error calculated at plus or minus 1 percentage point.

The commission, a private nonprofit founded in 1932, is widely respected for its budget and economic
analyses of both city and state government. Although it carefully steers clear of partisanship, there is no
way to ignore the political reality driving its findings.

Itconfirms a fact, repeatedly confirmed over time, that big, expensive government policies in deep blue
cities and states hobble the economy and make public safety a dicey proposition.

One-party fiefdom
New York reflects that truth in spades, having been a one-party fiefdom since Republicans George Pataki
left the governor’s chair in 2006 and Michael Bloomberg left City Hall in 2013.

And so savvy readers will digest the explosive CBC findings with the knowledge that Democrats hold all
city- and statewide positions as well as veto-proof majorities in the City Council and state Legislature,
reducing the GOP and other dissenters to sideline hecklers.

Yet there is also another dimension to consider, with New York’s continuing decline corresponding to the
rise of the progressive left here.

Although there was always a radical fringe in New York politics, it dramatically grew in power largely as a
reaction to Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016.

In the next election, the 2018 midterms, progressives ousted six moderate Dems in the state Senate who
had caucused with Republicans and shared leadership positions. The center-right mix had been a good
balance with left-leaning Dems controlling the state Assembly.

But in a relative heartbeat, the far left used its Senate power to push an extreme agenda in both houses.
One result was that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ostensibly at odds with the left, nonetheless signed
destructive criminal-justice initiatives that tied judges’ hands and led to the release of dangerous criminal
suspects.

The riots and demonstrations following the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis
police launched another wave of radicalism.

The “defund the police” movement spawned some of the most destructive social policies America has
ever seen.

The city’s mayor at the time, Bill de Blasio, an actual red diaper baby, proved true to the cause by slashing
the NYPD budget by about 15%.

His infuriating tolerance for crime, mayhem and anti-business programs, in conjunction with an
increasingly left-wing council, created yet another layer of expensive dysfunction.

The death knell was the election of the likes of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, one of a group of
prosecutors who talks and acts more like defense attorneys. They never met a criminal they don’t feel
sorry for.

In the prosecutors’ warped views, victims, most nonwhite, are just the collateral damage of fixing what
they see as a racist criminal-justice system.

This modern history explains how so many of the hard-won gains in public safety and the booming
economy that Rudy Giuliani started and Bloomberg finished were squandered. In their place, government
costs soared even as the streets grew more dangerous and public disorder drove middle-class families
and even the wealthy out of town.

Sunshine State lesson

Decline is not inevitable, a fact I saw clearly on a recent trip to Florida. While in the booming West Palm
Beach area to interview Trump at Mar-a-Lago, I had numerous conversations with New Yorkers who have
fled part time, and others who have abandoned the city altogether.

The sentiment is consistent — the city doesn’t work any more. They say the advantages, and there are
many, are not worth the hassle, the fear and the price. Public schools are another problem, and the cost
of private institutions is prohibitive for most.

Exorbitant taxes are a common gripe, and the invasion of perhaps 200,000 migrants has added fuel to the
get-out-of-Dodge instinct.

The cost of government in New York is impossible to defend. The city, with a population of 8.5 million, has
a budget of $110 billion. The entire state of Florida, home to nearly 22 million people, has a budget of
$116 billion.

Another example: In New York state, with 19 million people, Gov. Hochul has proposed a budget of $233
billion — and the Legislature wants to raise it to at least $246 billion.

That means, on a state level, New York spends more than twice as much per capita as Florida.

And for what? As an obvious contrast, many highways in Florida are nearly spotless, while the Major
Deegan and others around the city double as garbage dumps.

The cost issues throw an especially harsh light on the CBC findings about the public’s fear of riding the
subways. Despite the MTA’s vastly inflated budget, the state wants to impose congestion pricing on cars
and trucks entering Midtown Manhattan, with the goal of raising another $1 billion a year for mass transit.

But get this — the system admits it has lost up to $750 million a year from fare beaters, with one in three
bus passengers refusing to pay. Rather than solve that problem, the agency demands more cash — and
the government is ready to slap another $15 daily tax on anything that moves.

Mad as hell
Given their gripes, it would be understandable if fed-up New Yorkers imitated actor Peter Finch. His
Oscar-winning performance as Howard Beale in the 1976 film “Network” featured his nightly shouting out
his Manhattan window: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Unfortunately, that’s not the New Yorkers we have. Most don’t bother to vote and those who do
automatically support any and all Democrats.

Unless enough people come to their senses, a dead raccoon on the “D” ballot line might someday be
elected mayor.

Then again, would it matter?

Filed under andrew cuomo bill de blasio city hall crime donald trump eric adams
george pataki kathy hochul michael bloomberg new york new york city nypd
rudy giuliani subways 3/19/24

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Zen Liberator
57 minutes ago
NYers got what the city voted for. I can't wait until I can retire in less than 3 years, and get out
good. No more high taxes, brutal winters, and soft-on-crime policies where I'm going!
Reply 16 Share
2 replies

Billy Kidd
1 hour ago
Did anyone expect Mayor McCheese to right this ship? No.

Never forget it was Bill de Blasio who started this mess and set it out to sea.
Reply 24 Share

Truthhurts
23 minutes ago
did anyone ever get that $860 million back from De Blasio's wife?
Reply 8 Share
1 reply
Show 1 more reply

MB
49 minutes ago
Can’t believe people voted for this empty suit and will again. To vote for your own family, city
country’s destruction.
Reply 9 Share

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