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Bill de Blasio Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 08, 2014 45 Comments
I remember the dread of exiting the Queens-Midtown tunnel into Manhattan from Long Island before I left for Rhode Island in the early 1990s. Would we make the first traffic light, or get stuck at a red light and be subjected to the squeegee men? The squeegee men would either spray something on your windshield then demand payment to clean it off, or just start cleaning the windshield figuring you'd pay them rather than risk a confrontation. It set the tone for the city, along with graffiti and other petty hooliganism. It was one of the realities of life in NYC until Rudy Giuliani was elected Mayor and cleaned it all up. It was the broken window theory:
Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.
The squeegee men and similar public displays of lawlessness were held in check even after Rudy left office -- until now. The election of uber-liberal Bill DeBlasio ushered in a new era of the bad old days, as The NY Post reports: NY Post Squeegee Men
They were the ultimate symbol of the lawlessness and blight of the 1980s and early 1990s — and now they’re making a comeback. Squeegee men are menacing motorists across New York City, including spots near the Holland, Lincoln and Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Queensboro Bridge, The Post has learned.

Posted by Rusty Weiss on May 05, 2014 5 Comments
As the clock was winding down on 2013, pundits were openly wondering if the newly elected mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, would actually be worse in championing nanny-statism than his predecessor.  He's off to a pretty good start. De Blasio has partaken in a very public feud with actor Liam Neeson regarding a ban on horse-drawn carriages.  He has fought to classify e-cigarettes as a tobacco product, banning them in any area where regular cigarettes are already prohibited.  New wood fireplaces are not safe ... from being banned. And when it comes to Big Gulps in the city it seems, he will carry on Bloomberg's fight. Via Watchdog:
Hide your Big Gulps, again, New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week his administration will pick up where former mayor Michael Bloomberg left off and will continue the battle to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city will appeal a state court ruling that axed the ban last year. City lawyers will argue the case at the Court of Appeals on June 4, the New York Daily News reported this week. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got lots of headlines in 2012 when he declared war on Big Gulps and other large sugary drinks.
Bloomberg's administration was excitedly awaiting implementation of his ban on large sodas to take place last March.  A state judge intervened a day prior however, and "permanently restrained" the city "from implementing or enforcing the new regulations."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 03, 2014 52 Comments
New York City voters, what on Earth have you done? De Blasio Vows to Shape a Liberal New York:
Mayor Bill de Blasio was sworn in Wednesday, promising to usher in a sweeping agenda that would remake the nation's largest city as a foundry for liberal ideas. Among the Democrat's early priorities are higher taxes on city residents making more than $500,000 a year, universal prekindergarten, de-emphasizing standardized testing in public schools and reining in aggressive street stops by the police The new mayor, whose campaign theme was ending a "tale of two cities," has made clear that he would like to be a national leader in trying to combat income inequality. Scott Stringer, the city's new comptroller, said the 52-year-old Mr. de Blasio would tackle the income gap "in a way that hasn't been a priority since Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty." The city for the past 20 years has been ruled by mayors who won office as Republicans: Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. During those years, violent crime fell to record lows, mirroring national trends, while high-school graduation rates rose and development moved into neighborhoods once seen as dangerous. The agencies Mr. de Blasio says he wants to change—the New York Police Department and the Department of Education, to name two—were often held up as national models.
It gets worse:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 31, 2013 29 Comments
Fun times start at midnight in New York City, and I'm not talking just about the dropping of ball. Socialist at heart Mayor Bill DeBlasio's first act will be to ban the horse drawn carriages that are one of the symbols of the tourist experience at Central Park. https://twitter.com/JonahNRO/status/418140444824854528
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