With homeless New Yorkers freezing to death on the streets after Mayor Mamdani foolishly told police and social workers not to break up their encampments and move them to shelters, a friend offers an idea that is consistent with the mayor’s obligations and his dedication to socialism.
Although Mamdani and his wife lament that Gracie Mansion has no bidets, my tipster notes that the large, city-owned mayoral residence does have lots of unused rooms and spaces.
Thus, she calls on the city’s first couple to open their hearts — and their doors, so that 10 or even 20 homeless people could safely ride out the brutal winter weather with them.
Hey comrade, practice what you preach!
The idea reminds me of a scene from “Doctor Zhivago,” the great 1965 flick starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.
Set during World War I and the Russian Revolution, the scene involves Sharif’s character coming home to Moscow during the upheaval.
His hopes of a happy family reunion are shattered when he learns the Reds have declared that he and his family must share their large home with 30 or 40 other people, some of whom are menacing.
Ignoring good policy
Even if he doesn’t open Gracie’s doors, the horrifying homeless deaths, 13 at last count, are just part of Mamdani’s baptism by tragedy and circumstance.
Enough so that his first month in office can fairly be called the 34-year-old nepo baby’s introduction to the real world.
His political honeymoon was over before it started.
A look in the mirror would reveal the culprit.
The homeless deaths are especially revealing of his arrogance.
Every mayor in the last 40 years has wisely adopted some version of Ed Koch’s policy that the city require people to take shelter, or move them indoors, when they refused or were incapable of making the decision for themselves.
As one of those mayors, Rudy Giuliani, writes on X, “The policy of NYC before, during, and after I was Mayor was to remove homeless from the streets when it approached freezing. The incumbent Mayor has changed that policy.”
Another sign that life comes at you fast when you’re the Big Cheese involves Mamdani’s grandiose promises of free this and free that.
They are drowning in red ink even before he formally proposes them.
City Comptroller Mark Levine and others seemed to have surprised him by stressing that reports of a $12 billion budget gap for the next 17 months are real.
Mamdani’s initial response was to throw himself a pity party and look for scapegoats instead of solutions.
“I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis,” he said during a press conference, then added: “Former Mayor Eric Adams handed the next administration a poisoned chalice.”
What, now he’s Macbeth?
He accused Adams of under-budgeting “services that New Yorkers rely on every single day . . . while quietly leaving behind enormous gaps for the future.”
In fact, the gaps were no secret, nor was a major cause.
More than 200,000 foreign migrants Joe Biden waved across the border ended up in New York.
Far from hiding the cost, which reached $7 billion, Adams warned about it repeatedly and demanded the feds and state share the burden.
He even warned that the nonstop parade of arrivals and the requirements for City Hall to provide food, shelter and medical care could destroy Gotham.
Blame game
All that was long before Mamdani declared his candidacy, meaning he ran to be mayor knowing the winner would inherit serious financial problems.
Although budget gaps are a challenge for every new mayor, Mamdani seems to believe he should be exempt.
Beyond blaming Adams, he also faults the state, saying city taxpayers send more money to Albany than they get back in the form of aid and subsidies.
He said the city generates roughly 54.5% of state revenue but receives about 40% of state spending, which leaves City Hall with an annual gap of about $8 billion.
But there’s no law saying every city and town should get back the same amount it sends to Albany.
If there were, how would state government function?
Although he labeled the situation a “fiscal emergency,” Mamdani refuses to say what he will do about it, even though he is legally required to present a balanced preliminary budget in about two weeks.
Finally, late last week, he issued an order requiring every agency to designate a “chief savings officer” to identify possible spending cuts.
But he immediately raised doubts about how serious he is by returning to his campaign theme of hiking taxes on high income families and corporations.
Both moves would require state approval, and while the loony-left Legislature would be happy to go along, Gov. Hochul is sounding like a roadblock.
She’s usually a big supporter of government grabs, as the city congestion tax demonstrates.
But facing re-election, Hochul is posing as an anti-taxer, saying last week that “I’m not raising taxes for the sake of raising taxes.”
Her non sequitur is far from persuasive, given her record and her endorsement of Mamdani and his agenda.
Three weeks ago, she announced a partnership with him to provide free child care for 2-year-olds in the five boroughs, with the state covering the full cost for two years.
Yet now she realizes that supporting Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes to pay for his other promises, such as free buses and city-owned grocery stores, would hand a powerful argument to her GOP opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
He claims Hochul already has “raised taxes by more than $8 billion and expanded state spending by over $61 billion” since taking office in 2021.
Council counterweight
Thankfully, Mamdani is also facing pushback on another front, with council Speaker Julie Menin forming a bipartisan task force on antisemitism that could be a counterweight to the mayor’s obvious anti-Israel bias.
“Jewish New Yorkers make up roughly 10% of the city’s population, yet last year, they were the victims of more than half of all reported hate crimes,” Menin, the first Jewish speaker, wrote in a Post op-ed.
She also introduced “Safe Access” bills to have the NYPD set up security perimeters for protests near schools, houses of worship and elsewhere. The zones could require protestors to stay as much as 100 feet away from entrances.
She emphasized that there is no aim to block protests, merely to create safe zones so people can enter and leave without being blocked or harassed.
The fact that there is a need for the measures speaks to Mamdani’s antipathy toward Israel.
His refusal to support it as a Jewish homeland and accusing it of genocide in Gaza, along with his backing for the odious BDS movement, should have been disqualifying.
But now that he is mayor, it is essential that the council become a counterweight.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
