NYC Mayor/2021 Megathread

[brucejoel99]

I'd support Yang in a heartbeat: he seems extremely capable & can obviously inspire people, but who knows if he actually ends up pulling the trigger on a run? If he doesn't run, though, I'd probably be for Shaun Donovan, though I wish he'd start putting himself out there more & making himself more visible. Other than them, Corey Johnson or Scott Stringer seem like good bets too. Anybody but Eric Adams.

In any event, I expect RCV to massively impact who ultimately wins, whereas the plurality voting of the past made it much easier for somebody with less-than-majoritarian support to make it through the Democratic primary.

[brucejoel99]

Kathryn Garcia seems like the type of person NYC could benefit from electing right now.

Why?

Not who you were asking but she's been de Blasio's go-to problem solver/crisis manager in City Hall & so she's earned a reputation there as an effective manager, which is obviously the complete opposite of de Blasio's status as NYC's current mayor-clown.

(Alternatively, perhaps Sev's intention was some sorta 'NYC is trash' joke since she's the Sanitation Commissioner?)

[brucejoel99]

Is it really "withdrawing" if he never even officially ran?

[brucejoel99]

Ironically enough, his congressional ad-blitz may actually provide a mayoral candidacy with a potential COVID-era advantage:

https://twitter.com/hunterw/status/1329148700883640323

[brucejoel99]

Rose in:

https://twitter.com/MaxRose4NY/status/1338137010150764547

Don't know why he's not gearing up for a post-redistricting House rematch in 2 years instead.

[brucejoel99]

Rose in:

https://twitter.com/MaxRose4NY/status/1338137010150764547

Don't know why he's not gearing up for a post-redistricting House rematch in 2 years instead.

To be fair, not a guarantee he'd clear a primary with all the libs from Brooklyn that district is about to get.

Which is an even better argument for hitting the ground now & trying to further build something of a rapport with liberal groups & the like (at least enough of one to hypothetically get him a winning percentage in the primary), but what do I know? Maybe we're all wrong & Mayor Max Rose is about to rise from the ashes that are a contested NYC mayoral campaign

[brucejoel99]

Jacobin gives their take on Andrew Yang
The important part:

...

However, the central proposal of Yang’s presidential campaign was actually a surprisingly right-wing variant of a Universal Basic Income. A 2019 Hill article noted that many longtime UBI advocates were actually against Yang’s “Freedom Dividend” plan, arguing that “Yang’s version could do more harm than good because some Americans would need to choose between accepting $1,000 a month and receiving certain public assistance benefits.” In other words, the “Freedom Dividend” plan was far from a redistribution of wealth. It was just a reshuffling of social programs — undermining existing entitlements like Medicare in order to provide $1,000 a month instead.

...

Yang has done nothing to prove that he’s actually different than Bloomberg. In fact, he’s done quite the opposite: according to Politico, Yang is “in talks with Tusk Strategies, the consulting firm that worked on Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral campaign.” CEO Bradley Tusk was Bloomberg’s campaign manager, has been a political adviser for Uber, and is a former consultant for the Police Benevolent Association, the largest NYPD union. In a mayoral race where the debate about policing will undoubtedly loom large, it’s alarming that even before announcing, Yang is unabashedly teasing an association with a pro-cop power player...

[snip]

Any thoughts?

My thoughts are that this article is a bizarre f**king read.

It's literally just a take-down piece based on nothing more than baselessly attaching Yang to policies which he's never stated that he supports. The attempted comparison to Bloomberg is downright laughable. (Does it not make sense that he'd talk to some consultants who actually know what running for Mayor requires, even if they've worked for somebody whom nobody likes?) The author clearly knows very little about Yang if their biggest arguments & takeaways are that Yang is pro-police/anti-BLM, wants to get rid of welfare, & thinks NYC should be expensive high-rises. Yang stated repeatedly that his Freedom Dividend would've been opt-in. If somebody makes more than $1000/month through assistance, then they'd still receive that same amount. If they'd rather have the $1000 in cash, then that's their decision to make too. And when those assistance programs help in getting that person in-need onto a better footing, that $1000/month will still be there as an option for them as an incentive to continue improving their lives. And down the line, when their employer doesn't value their work appropriately, & that person wants to organize & contend for better working conditions, pay, etc., those monthly payments become a potentially crucial safety net that empowers workers to fight for better labor rights, which sounds to me like something a magazine with Jacobin's ideological inclinations should actually approve of.

Would I ever expect Jacobin to endorse Yang? No, because they're a full-on socialist magazine & Yang doesn't even identify as a socialist. But him not being a "socialist" who literally thinks that workers should seize the means of production doesn't mean that they need to have a bug up their ass about him & unfairly smear him by painting him in the worst possible light, either. Like Donerail, I don't know how Yang will fare as Mayor. It's an extremely difficult position that comes with a horde of issues & different groups to cater to, perhaps now moreso than ever. But I do know that Yang isn't the evil Bloomberg-like, free-market capitalist businessman that Jacobin wants the left to believe he is.

[brucejoel99]

Yang should get in the ring.

He's very obviously going to.

[brucejoel99]

YANG IN

Andrew Yang Files Paperwork to Run for New York City Mayor

^{https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/andrew-yang-files-paperwork-to-run-for-new-york-city-mayor/2797754/}

LET'S GOOOOOO

YANG GANG, RISE UP!!!

[brucejoel99]

Can you dig it?

[brucejoel99]

Very odd of him to jump in and jump out.

Well, changes nothing

Maybe he thinks redistricting gives him a route back to congress?

Isn't it basically a guarantee at this point, with the state losing 1 or 2 seats (likely the latter)? Won't it have to expand into Brooklyn?

[brucejoel99]

Also, apparently went unnoticed on here but he responded to the criticism from his comment the other day:

https://twitter.com/katieglueck/status/1348735511419092993

[brucejoel99]

Seems like the other candidates are (rightly) afraid of Yang but holy hell, if he's not doing their job for them:

https://twitter.com/katieglueck/status/1349821876525215748
https://twitter.com/bobhardt/status/1349844783943077888
https://twitter.com/TweetBenMax/status/1349848880305868802
https://twitter.com/katieglueck/status/1349868674526687232

[brucejoel99]

Yang in.

https://twitter.com/andrewyang/status/1349522020615278593?s=21

Best of luck for Yang! I'm sure he'll be a great improvement over de Blasio.

You don't live here, so you wouldn't know, but De Blasio has actually been decent. New Yorkers love to bitch about the current Mayor, especially if the media tells them to hate him, and then they elect a train wreck like Giuliani.

Eh, you really don't have to live in NYC (or be a media shill) to understand the objective truth of de Blasio's sh*ttiness:

What about on healthcare? The Long Island College Hospital was a huge issue during his first campaign; he even got arrested for protesting in front of a SUNY building about the sale of the hospital. There were multiple bids put in by developers, with 2 of them promising to keep a full-service hospital & renovating the satellite buildings as housing. de Blasio pushed for these proposals to move to the forefront to save jobs & keep health services for the community. Once he was sworn in, all of his public support went out the window, & the hospital heard f**k all from him. Backdoor dealings went through, & the hospital was sold to a real-estate developer who chose to tear everything down & barely maintain a glorified clinic.

That's not good from any perspective, let alone a left-wing one.

Yeah that's bad. I'd like to hear more and on more structural issues, but that's definitely a fair reason to vote HP.

Let's start with ineffectiveness. De Blasio regularly gets owned by Cuomo. Part of this is because that's how it's supposed to work, & also because de Blasio is just bad at PR. Universal Pre-K was a big deal & something that de Blasio was out in front of, but Cuomo batted him aside like a kid & passed the project, taking all the credit. Instead of just saying "we won, let's go," de Blasio whined about how it wasn't the best version, but people didn't care; they had Pre-K for their kids.

Vision 0 is his program to reduce pedestrian fatalities, & it hasn't exactly worked. In fact, pedestrian deaths in 2019 were up over 2018. The program has a few really unpopular features too: speed cameras, a 25 mph speed limit (especially unpopular in the more conservative fringes of the outer boroughs), & bike lanes in places were many locals don't want them.

His relationship with the NYPD also constantly causes him problems. At points, he wants to be able to distance himself from the actions of individual cops (i.e. Eric Garner's death) but wants to take credit for crime statistics. This pisses off both cops & people who have high opinions of the NYPD.

And his record on homelessness has been abysmal. The homeless are perceived to be everywhere & he has increased funding to seemingly no effect. His administration also allowed hotels to be converted into homeless shelters, & the city just pays $50 million/yr for homeless people to be warehoused in hotels without access to the basic services they actually need to stay off the streets. The sites of these hotel-shelters is also very controversial, & de Blasio has done next to nothing to meet with leaders in affected communities.

Another problem is one of corruption. de Blasio has been under investigation for his fundraising practices. He established a PAC/fund after his first election that his campaign fundraiser managed & solicited donations for. The people that gave to this fund were major lobbyists & their clients, particularly from the real-estate industry, & those donors have been rewarded. Rivington House was turned from a medical facility into luxury condos by a big donor & de Blasio's office gave the permission necessary for it to happen, & that's not even the first medical site to be converted (remember: the Long Island College Hospital) & even though he was arrested protesting planned conversions during the campaign, he just hasn't governed the same way. The Brooklyn-Queens connector is a tram that nobody asked for, wouldn't relieve much congestion, & would only benefit luxury condo developers along the Queens & Brooklyn waterfront. Those same developers that are backing the project are also hefty campaign donors to de Blasio. A corrupt restaurant owner who was a big political donor also got a controversial lease on a city-owned property in Queens after having given $54,000 to the mayor. He also allegedly helped his donors to sidestep election laws when giving to State Senate candidates he liked during the 2014 elections, which triggered an investigation.

And then there's the horse thing: horse stables (for the horses which are a part of the Central Park carriage rides) sit on very valuable land on the West Side, & developers wanna buy that land, but the stable owners won't sell. So developers funded NYCLASS, a group that went all out against Christine Quinn in the 2013 primary, & their consultants went on to get in trouble for breaking election laws because of data sharing & expenditures between campaigns. de Blasio said that he wants to ban the horses, but his motives have been questioned &, thus far, he hasn't been able to get it done. He has raised rates for horserides though.

So yeah. Seriously, it's some very structural issues that de Blasio has been bad at.

[brucejoel99]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

[brucejoel99]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

[brucejoel99]

I- I just... Andrew, Andy, buddy: stop shooting yourself in the foot!

My words of advice have evidently not been taken:

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1349900608992632832

This isn’t that bad
The NYPD has appointed officers as commissioner before

5000th-dimensional shogi argument: this is all good for Yang

https://twitter.com/Lis_Smith/status/1350160350335938575

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1350486277959856131
One underrated positive of Yang is that he'll stumble into good policy just because he rides a bike to work.

Well, if nothing else, the parallels with another famous bike-riding, gaffe-prone mayor that keep popping up like this point to Yang being the 49th President of the United States

[brucejoel99]

Like KaiserDave, I really wish that Shaun Donovan could be taken more seriously. If that's not in the cards, though, then I'm all in on YangGang2021.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/nydailynews/status/1353161641173671936?s=21

So, NYC's version of San Francisco's Leno/Kim pact back in 2018.

[brucejoel99]

Hold up, an Amy Schumer endorsement? Given who the cousin of hers whom she's closely & very publicly coordinated with on multiple political issues in the past, could that be read as an implicit endorsement of said certain cousin for Yang? Or is that too much of a stretch here?

[brucejoel99]

A new poll is in for this race's democratic primary.

Core Decision Analytics/Fontas Advisors
January 20-25
842 likely voters
MoE: 3.38%

Andrew Yang 28%
Eric Adams 17%
Scott Stringer 13%
Shaun Donovan 8%
Maya Wiley 8%
Kathryn Garcia 2%
Ray McGuire 2%
Dianne Morales 2%
Zach Iscol 1%
Undecided/don't know 19%

88% of voters have not heard a lot about RCV, including 34% who said they've heard "nothing at all." With that in mind, here's who voters say they might, probably, or would definitely consider voting for:

Yang 90%
Adams 89%
Stringer 89%
Donovan 87%
Wiley 85%
Garcia 81%
Morales 73%
Iscol 70%
McGuire 67%

New Yang City.

[brucejoel99]

Is nobody in New York concerned that Yang has no relevant experience? Being Mayor of NYC is a difficult job and I really don't think Yang is up to the task.

To be fair, I just don't think that's a big concern for many people because it's obvious he's not being willfully ignorant about what the job will entail like a certain somebody was for the last 4 years when it came to the presidency. That is, he knows it'd be a hard job but he still has a vision that he wants to implement, & it's not like he wouldn't be willing to surround himself with advisers who'd know how to run & navigate their local bureaucracy in order to help implement his agenda.

[brucejoel99]

"I said MATH, not read!" In all seriousness, though, this is pretty bad:

https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1362489804257124362

[brucejoel99]

"I said MATH, not read!" In all seriousness, though, this is pretty bad:

https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1362489804257124362

All of the candidates are currently trying to schmooze to the Hasidic community right now since they vote as a bloc.

Ok, but still:

https://twitter.com/elizashapiro/status/1362491097625337859