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Would You Boycott NYC?
New York City, USA – September 10, 2012: A Tractor-Trailer 18-Wheeler truck is seen as it makes a sharp turn from W.42nd Street onto 8th Avenue while pedestrians wait for it to pass as it heads northbound in West Midtown Manhattan. (JayLazarin/iStockphoto.com)
Longtime readers of my meanderings may remember that I spent some 14 years roaming across the country in an 18 wheeler following my retirement from the military. The idea was to see the country for awhile and experience as much as I could of the place I helped defend. I travelled through 47 of the lower 48 states and developed a working list of places I did and did not wish to re-visit in the future.
So when I heard about truckers planning to decline deliveries into the New York City area following the $355 million fine levied against Donald Trump for a crime which has produced neither victims nor proceeds, I have to ask myself what I would do?
Let’s first stipulate that the boycott effort will be easier for some professional drivers than others. Those who own their own trucks can as a rule decide which locations they will travel to, so they will have an easier time avoiding NYC. Company drivers have no such option, particularly as larger companies who can deliver freight at a reduced cost will fill in the void left by owner operators. An owner operator can point his truck in another direction and survive, while a company driver who refuses a dispatch will be out of a job. So the boycott will not be air-tight.
And to be fair, I should also point out that I never missed an opportunity to miss driving into NYC. It’s the place where good attitudes and good driving records go to die. It would be the greatest embellishment to say that local drivers habitually changed their minds as they swerved from one direction to another, because they hadn’t any.
One time, I had a delivery at some place or other on Park Avenue and I had to parallel park. The mental image of an 80,000 pound, 80 ft. long truck negotiating downtown traffic should be enough to have the reader reaching for a glass of bourbon. Now imagine having to back that beast and parallel park the truck and trailer curbside in the midst of all that traffic with an obstacle course of vehicles careening all around and you’ll want the whole bottle. I saw so many middle fingers during the tribulation that I wondered if there was a proctology convention in town.
To be honest, I did all I could to boycott NYC before it was fashionable. From bridge clearances that were inaccurately marked, to downtown truck route signs that were removed by local gangs so they could rob lost truckers, to incomprehensibly rude drivers who suffered from acute cranial rectal inversion, any trip assignment to the Big Apple was like playing Russian Roulette. To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, to avoid being persecuted in that place is to be, “…as happy as a martyr when the fire won’t burn.”
The question remains, if I were a professional driver, would I join with other truckers in an embargo of NYC? Would I abstain from a city where innocent people are routinely brutalized by roving gangs of moronic goons who are released from jail before the arresting officer’s shift is over? Would I refuse delivery to a city where the hard-earned money of taxpayers is diverted from services for New Yorkers and spent on those whose singular achievement in life was to break into the country illegally while the State Attorney General instead uses her resources to go after Donald Trump for utilizing a very common practice in real estate circles that, to date, hasn’t been prosecuted? As business investor Kevin O’Leary explained on CNN:
So in this case, what I’m trying to figure out — and I’m not pro or con and I don’t care about the politics — is who lost money? Nobody. The bank got paid back the construction finance loan and a new building was built. If you’re gonna sue this case and win, you’ve gotta sue every real estate developer everywhere because this is all they do. This is what they do all day long, every day! So I don’t think this thing will ever survive appeal regardless of what the fine is. This doesn’t even make sense! … If you’re a real estate developer and watching this, you’re saying, “What is this? This is ridiculous!”
So absolutely yes, I’d join in the current trucker boycott if I could (I came off the road in 2018). Would I advise other professional drivers to do the same? Yes. And if the boycott somehow imposes discomfort on the good people of that city, I would remind them that as Barack Obama famously observed, “Elections have consequences.” After all, we’ve been suffering the consequences of the 2020 election for nearly four years now.
Published in General
I had only one independent owner-operator as a client, but if he is any representative of the backbone of that hardy crowd, I’d bet on the boycott being effective.
What would be even more effective would be if the Teamsters took a stand in Solidarity. Company drivers are by and large Teamsters, I believe, so that would be YUGE.
It would tend towards Solidarity in Poland, Lech Walensa style, for the win.
(But the leadership might be a mite more timid than the members. ‘Twas ever thus.)
Most of my trips to NYC were cultural. They involved visiting Shea Stadium or the original Yankees Stadium. Both trips were by train from Connecticut. I haven’t been back since the Dinkins Administration.
I’ve never been a trucker. But my answer is, the Trump trial would not cause me to boycott NYC.
Some of the reasons Dave Carter gave would cause me to avoid NYC. I wouldn’t call it a boycott though. It would be more of a business decision.
Actually NYC, specifically Manhattan, has recently initiated congestion pricing for cars and trucks. So all deliveries, not using a bicycle or walking, will get more expensive. That’s going to affect every business in Manhattan.
I’ve driven in NYC, and it’s not so much dangerous as just plain slow (I think Miami is more dangerous than NYC, though I’m being subjective in saying that). I think that truck drivers are paid by the mile. That’s enough for me to make a business decision to avoid all five boroughs.
I’ll add that I think the verdict and award of that trial was politically motivated. The whole thing is outrageous.
But business is business and politics is politics. And anyway, the civil suit was brought by the New York state attorney general, who specifically said, when running for office she would “get Trump.” That in itself is disqualifying in my opinion.
But anyway, that would mean that truckers who do boycott based on the trial results shouldn’t limit that boycott to NYC, but should include all of New York state.
I guess my question would be, “What’s the difference between the guy who won’t move his truck through the streets of NYC for politics and the people who block the streets in NYC for politics?”
Additional questions might be, “Is this load dependent?” I mean would you refuse to deliver supplies to Memorial Sloan Kettering or just shoes to Macy’s? Are you delivering food to Harlem or letting it rot in New Jersey?
Since Letitia James is the State Attorney General are you boycotting Buffalo, Binghamton and Jamestown, too? Or does one check the voting record of every city and town in the state first? Or is it counties? Chautauqua gets Chiquita but Onondaga does not?
I was never a trucker but I spent the bulk of my career as an independent contractor. Never saw much good in angering my client base, especially for political reasons or for the cause of real estate moguls. But that could just be me.
What if it’s not just political or “about” real estate moguls? Can you not see anything else there?
Well, who are you putting the screws to? And for what reason?
Enlighten me on how this all plays out. I thought you didn’t want to live in a country where you’re punished for how you vote, but evidently I was wrong.
If the truckers were contractually obligated to deliver the merch, and declined to do so because they disagreed with an unconnected event in the courts, then no, we don’t want to encourage this. If they want to do a Just Stop Oil and tie everything up by driving into Manhattan and going 2 MPH to show their displeasure, I suppose that’s a protest, but it’s more of the same theatrical misery-inflicting that characterizes modern life.
Say they don’t like my mayor and decline to bring food and fuel into Minneapolis because he vetoed the city council’s Gaza ceasefire endorsement. That’s an “elections have consequences” thing too.
Remember, “elections have consequences.”
But the main thing is, should it be like open-season on real estate moguls just because you aren’t one? What happened to equal justice for all? Should we not care until WE get targeted for bogus fines etc?
The main thing is when do you abandon the American experiment? Before or after the process plays out? Or are we just to the point where we hurt each other as much as possible and just say, “Hey, you voted the wrong way and that has consequences?” Because in the long run that is going to have consequences, too. Or have you just not gotten around to thinking that far?
What about the idea that people deserve to get what they voted for, good and hard? Do we – or the truckers, for example – have some obligation to protect New Yorkers/New York City-ers from what they’ve told us they want because that’s what they voted for?
A boycott may anger the “client base”, but they’re out of options, unless they’re going to pay to airlift deliveries into their location.
Speaking of the client base, how many NY businesses do you think were thrilled with a punitive verdict with no perceivable injury? It’s like suing someone who didn’t hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
It’s funny how when the same people who are routinely ignored, but are absolutely critical to the livelihood of their country, suddenly decide to remind everyone how fragile and interconnected our lives are, and they become the bad guy. Not the perpetrator of the wrong.
See: Trudy. Note that the truckers aren’t going to be assaulting anyone, if you’re looking for a BLM difference.
To mangle a quote from my favorite movie, “If I gave New York City any thought, I probably would.”
Now if businesses leave, or cease to exist because of policy, that’s one thing. Targeted harassment from one segment of society upon another in the name of politics is another. This isn’t even a boycott such as Bud Light. With that you hurt the people who made the decisions. Here, you may be denying life critical goods to innocents. That’s why I asked the questions I did.
You raise good questions, EJ, and good food for thought.
“What’s the difference between the guy who won’t move his truck through the streets of NYC for politics and the people who block the streets in NYC for politics?” – In my case, I wouldn’t accept loads for NYC in the first place, so I wouldn’t be blocking the streets. I’ve no use for people who illegally detain drivers who are going about their business.
“Is this load dependent?” I mean would you refuse to deliver supplies to Memorial Sloan Kettering or just shoes to Macy’s? Are you delivering food to Harlem or letting it rot in New Jersey? – As I mentioned above, I wouldn’t accept the loads in the first place. Sidenote: After Hurricane Sandy, I volunteered to bring loads to NYC and New Jersey. Got loaded up in classified location with all manner of emergency relief supplies. The good people of that region nearly ran me off the road repeatedly, as they loathe trucks but love the good which the trucks deliver. If I could have figured out how to drop the supplies at the state line and leave, I would have done so and never gone back.
Since Letitia James is the State Attorney General are you boycotting Buffalo, Binghamton and Jamestown, too? Or does one check the voting record of every city and town in the state first? Or is it counties? Chautauqua gets Chiquita but Onondaga does not? – Very good question! I think I’d go ahead and accept the loads to other areas in the state. With respect to NYC, it’s just the final straw in what was already a horrific hellhole for truckers. I note that Kevin O’Leary said in another interview yesterday that businesses should get out of NYC anyway since whether one’s likelihood of running prosecution now depends on how well one’s politics line up with the local government.
I was never a trucker but I spent the bulk of my career as an independent contractor. Never saw much good in angering my client base, especially for political reasons or for the cause of real estate moguls. But that could just be me. – My understanding of Independent truckers is that their client base is nationwide and there’s no shortage of business in places outside NYC.
This wasn’t directed at me so forgive me for chiming in, but I’d like to address it just the same. Elsewhere you write that, “I thought you didn’t want to live in a country where you’re punished for how you vote, but evidently I was wrong.”
A few points: We didn’t want to live in a country where you’re punished for how you vote, but progressives have been incredibly successful at politicizing nearly everything, so that there’s very little that one can do without running afoul of their political agenda. This was part of their assault on the American experiment, which I’d say we abandoned around the time that we elected, and then re-elected, a guy who promised to “fundamentally transform” the country. He largely succeeded in both of his terms in office and is doing a bang-up job as the puppeteer in what is essentially his third term. We’ve seen the IRS weaponized against conservative non-profits, we’ve seen careers “cancelled” for running afoul of “woke” orthodoxy and so much more. We actually had people ostensibly on the right helping elect a cognitive dumpster fire as as President who has taken us from zero wars, energy independence and general prosperity to an America in rapid decline, bringing us to the bring of a world war, a national crime wave made even worse with millions of unvetted illegal aliens that even our FBI says will unleash terrorist attacks on American soil, and an economy that is drowning our citizens in high prices. I’d say that the trajectory on the American experiment is locked in. Now we’re just haggling on how long it takes to bottom out.
Folks, I appreciate the comments here and I’ll address more of them later. I’m not driving an 18 wheeler these days, but I do transport patients to and from their doctor’s appointments throughout northwest Florida, and I have to do precisely that at the moment. More to come….
This is the cry of the decorum right. Let the left weaponize the IRS, the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA and the courts against us. Let the left use protests to cower the rest of us and get what they want. We, we are better than that!
The left never pays a price and keeps upping their violence to the American Experiment. When, for the decorum right, does the line ever get crossed? It looks like the answer is never.
There appears to be no violation of norms, no weaponization of the government against citizens, where the decorum right is willing to stand up and say “Here I stand, I can do no other!”. Instead it is always, “Well, we will yield here, because we are better than that.”
Thus far, that strategy has not worked very well, if ever. Maybe I should use the name the impotent right.
I’d like a win, once in a while. I cannot remember the last time the right had a win on anything. Sure was not Dobbs, because while that could have been a win, the right was not ready to capitalize on it. That has turned into a loss. Same with Bruin in the courts. The left is ignoring it across the nation. Doubling down, in fact. Our gun rights are even less secure even with those “wins”.
Heaven forfend some independent truckers decide to refuse to transport goods and services into a city who’s leadership hates the very type of people they are. Oh my goodness! They are going to destroy America!
That’s why I asked above:
“Well, who are you putting the screws to? And for what reason?” and begged, “Enlighten me on how this all plays out.”
If a kid in the Bronx can’t get a box of cereal, how is that going to impact someone in the RFK or Hoover Building in Washington, DC and in what way? Do you think the Biden Administration will change course over this? Or will they simply spin it as “The Republicans are behind your shortage of goods and, with your help, we’re going to make them pay for that.”
Define the “win.” Is it a protest for protest’s sake – or is it something that you can turn into electoral victories? Look at the pro-Hamas protestors shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge and ask yourself if angering people is helping their cause. Is this helping your cause?
Flash for you: Letitia James was elected state-wide. How is this “win” targeting NYC going to change this:
I agree that I wouldn’t support either of the hypotheticals that you raise — a trucker breaching a contract by refusing delivery, or a trucker deliberately blocking traffic.
I might support a trucker declining to do business in NYC at all, which wouldn’t be a breach of contract. I’m not sure what I’d do myself. I don’t boycott much, and don’t have occasion to boycott with respect to travel.
I haven’t looked into the latest judgment in any detail. I assume that it arose out of some sort of business misrepresentation case, perhaps the one about fudging the valuation of a property in a net worth statement.
I’m not fond of the laws allowing state authorities, often the state AG, to bring civil enforcement actions. This goes for securities fraud enforcement cases. These violations generally give rise to damages claims by any private parties involved, if they have any damages, and I think that such matters are better handled by private litigation.
It is true that some private litigants don’t have the resources to bring a case, though plenty of lawyers will take cases on contingency. The most useful area for allowing government enforcement are small violations, where the damages are sufficiently small that no private party has much incentive to sue. Things like sharp business practices or advertising misrepresentations on small items — maybe a bait-and-switch offer of a good meal for $5, but it doesn’t include silverware.
Using AG or SEC enforcement authority in larger cases risks politicization and selective enforcement. Obviously.
@EJhill:I’m not clear. And I think it’s because you are“simply asking questions”.
Are you claiming the truckers not going into NYC won’t have any effect, therefore it’s meaningless?
Or that it will have an effect and NYC businesses and residents will suffer? And some of them don’t deserve to?
and/or, the Ds will just blame the Rs, therefore it’s not possible to have a win?
As for me, the truckers should do whatever they want. We are not slaves.
Were it me, were I still a business owner, I’d refuse to transact in NYC. There’s a few retail businesses where I don’t transact. I’m sure they haven’t noticed, but I have.
And were I a resident and/or business owner, I’d get the hell out.
Read the law for which DJT was convicted, then read your latest mortgage loan agreement. There’s not a borrower in the States (and beyond. See Tommy Robinson in the UK) who is not vulnerable to getting convicted and fined.
A consumer protection law was used to punish a borrower where the lenders all testified that they did due diligence, did not rely on any representations, were paid back with the interest they sought, and benefitted in other ways by their association with the borrower. The judge used a property tax appraisal to determine that the current market value included in a loan application was disingenuous. And the lenders conducted their own appraisal.
But are they really innocent if they voted for Letitia James, and Kathy Hochul, etc?
Considering actual election results, it may very well be that large swaths of New York didn’t vote for Kathy Hochul or Letitia James. After all, Lee Zeldin ALMOST won. But NYC did. And that’s also where the judge is. Whether he was elected or not, I don’t know. But I know where he IS, and who appointed him if he wasn’t elected…
I question both because it looks like a lose-lose situation. If it doesn’t have the desired effect then one comes off looking more impotent than ever and if it does have the desired effect the people that would be hurt the most are not the people in power abusing the system. And if those people getting hurt are angry there’s no telling which way their anger will be channeled.
Bud Light is a perfect example of a well-directed economic punishment. That had a direct bearing on the people who made idiotic decisions. Something tells me neither the Judge or the State AG cares about a scattershot trucker strike. And no one has to take goods into the city, so saying you’re not going to do what you were already not going to do in the first place isn’t applying much pressure.
Always easier said than done. Asking someone to walk away from a lifetime’s work or the effort of multiple generations of one’s family is going to have a more spectacular reason than the fortunes of Donald J. Trump. (And before you say it is bigger than Trump you still have to convince people it is.) And some people in the city simply have no place to go. These aren’t Oakie farmers that are going to load the family belongings on the truck and head west to greener pastures.
If you pay taxes you’re vulnerable. Everyone is vulnerable. I saw one trucker on Twitter claim he was untouchable because his skill would always allow him to work. And then he listed his special skills as being three DOT certifications and 2 Federal security clearances. Come again? Who awarded those certificates and clearances? You think that those cannot be revoked?
NY Courts are screwy. But yes, he won election to a 14-year term in 2015 but he is almost to the mandatory retirement age.
But it had much more effect on the people who make the beer in the factories, the drivers who deliver it, the distributors who sell it…
By what appears to be your own logic, you should have opposed that boycott too.
Meanwhile, I doubt he just recently became a nut-case.