Tag: Bill de Blasio

Join Jim and Greg as they shake their heads at Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s inability to say whether gas prices are too high. They also groan as failed former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to run for Congress. And they react to news that many schools are not even spending funds from the COVID relief bill – which is one of the factors behind our inflation crisis.

 

Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss the state of the New York City mayoral election, the results of down-ballot races, and what the next mayor must do to be successful.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Seth Barron joins Brian Anderson to discuss the 2021 New York City mayoral election, the implications of down-ballot races, and the city’s recent history—as told in Seth’s just-released book, The Last Days of New York.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Rafael Mangual joins Brian Anderson to discuss rising disorder in New York City, the city council’s just-passed package of police reforms, the causes of the crime spike, and the future of public safety in U.S. cities.

City Journal’s special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available.

Steven Malanga joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York City’s massive expansion in government spending and hiring under Bill de Blasio, the potential long-term impact of Covid-19 on the city budget, and why the next mayor will face a fiscal nightmare.

City Journal’s special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available.

Join Jim and Greg as they applaud Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for refusing to spend “one red cent” of taxpayer money on Critical Race Theory on the Florida civics curriculum. They also hammer the naked hypocrisy and opportunism of Senate Democrats who constantly tried to filibuster the Trump agenda but now insist it’s an ugly impediment to democracy and equality. And they shred New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for wanting police to confront people who have committed no crimes but may have hurt someone else’s feelings.

Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York City’s plan to replace the correctional complex on Rikers Island, how the city’s transit system has fared amid the pandemic, the 2021 mayoral race, Governor Cuomo’s problems, and more.

City Journal’s latest special issue, New York City: Reborn, is now available on the website.

Seth Barron joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, Bill de Blasio’s time as mayor of New York City and the race to succeed him, and the condition of city politics today. Seth’s book, The Last Days of New York, is due out in May.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Nicole Gelinas joins Seth Barron to discuss the financial shape of the New York region’s transit system, the importance of midtown Manhattan to the city’s economy, the disturbing spike in violent crime on streets and subways, and more.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Join Jim and Greg as they get a kick out of New York Democrat Rep. Max Rose posting a six-second ad just to bash deeply unpopular Mayor Bill de Blasio and hope it means Rep. Rose is feeling nervous. They also wade into the supposedly explosive revelations about President Trump’s coronavirus approach in Bob Woodward’s new book. And they fume as our tax dollars help pay for an event calling for an end to capitalism and even the United States itself.

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For fun, I recently looked up Lori Lightfoot’s approval rating. The most recent publicly available poll, taken June 21-23, puts it at 78% among likely November voters, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She got 86% on handling the coronavirus, after pointlessly shutting down Chicago’s lakefront trail and parks, and personally driving through lower-income—disproportionately Black and […]

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Karol Markowicz joined Ben Domenech to discuss her view of America, including her thoughts on patriotism and her experience as a New Yorker, after having immigrated to the US from the USSR. Markowicz is a columnist at the New York Post and a contributer at The Spectator and the Washington Examiner. 

Markowicz argued Americans should prioritize their country and its needs above political victories. True patriots will want the best outcome for the whole of the nation despite any favor it may bring to their opposing political party. In many countries, she said, leaders have ultimate authority. In the United States, however, the president only has so much power and the power of individuals shouldn’t be underestimated.

Join Jim and Greg as they hammer Joe Biden for promising to force the Little Sisters of the Poor and others to include contraception coverage for employees, regardless of their personal beliefs. They also slam New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for shredding the first amendment by banning large gatherings except for Black Lives Matter protesting. And they wonder whether there will be football in September as the Big Ten kills its non-conference schedule and the NFL seems destined for a major labor fight.

Seth Barron and Nicole Gelinas discuss the latest developments in New York City’s fight against the coronavirus, the impact of the city’s lockdown on future growth, and the response of state and local leaders.

As New York continues under lockdown, the effects of the coronavirus outbreak are becoming evident: the city’s death toll has passed 1,000, with more than 40,000 confirmed cases. In addition to health-care professionals, essential public employees like the city’s transit workers and NYPD officers are falling ill at a troubling rate. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have responded to the crisis with varying degrees of effectiveness, but the outbreak has revealed a lack of preparedness for a public-health emergency of this scale.

Rafael A. Mangual joins Seth Barron to discuss New York City’s plan to replace the jail complex on Rikers Island with four borough-based jails and what it could mean for public order in the city.

New York City jails currently house a daily average of about 8,000 people, in a city of 8 million residents. Under the new plan, the borough-based jails (once constructed) will be able to house 3,300 people—less than half the city’s average daily jail population today. As Barron writes, the new target “will likely require a significant realignment of expectations about public safety.”

Join Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America as they serve up the final martinis of the week.  First, they welcome the whimpering conclusion of the pointless presidential campaign of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.  They also pop the popcorn as as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says no senators support Beto O’Rourke’s mandatory buyback program for AR-15’s and other weapons and O’Rourke fires back by saying that Schumer has accomplished nothing on guns.  And as the whistleblower story offers a few more details and now seems to feature Joe Biden, Jim expertly peels back the layers to discuss what Trump did, what Biden did and what it all means.

Corey Johnson, Speaker of the New York City Council, joins Seth Barron to discuss the state of New York City’s transit system and his plan to break up the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), allowing the city to take control of its buses, subways, bridges, and tunnels. According to Johnson, direct control of the MTA would enhance its responsiveness, accountability, and transparency.

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The Wall Street Journal has the story: Officials from the wildlife unit of New York City’s Parks Department will meet this week with the Battery Park City Authority to offer advice on how to deal with aggressive squirrels that have attacked adults and children at a popular playground. Preview Open

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America welcome new polling showing that even in our bitterly divided, a strong majority of New Yorkers have a strongly negative opinion of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.  They also slam Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro for publicizing the names of San Antonio residents who have given the maximum contribution to President Trump’s re-election campaign and declaring they are funding a campaign of hate against Hispanic immigrants.  And they roll their eyes as an MSNBC analyst insists President Trump is doing Neo-Nazis a huge favor by raising the American flag from half-staff on Thursday.

Bill De Blasio’s Bill

 

Bill de Blasio, the much-disliked mayor of New York City, has virtually no chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination for 2020. And it is a good thing, too, because his grandiose Workers’ Bill of Rights is a sure-fire recipe for economic disaster. His proposal tampers with every key feature of employment law.

Mayor de Blasio believes employment relationships are a zero-sum game, and he wants to strengthen the position of workers against their employers by kneecapping the latter. He insists that employers be required to provide paid family leave, pay higher wages, and to treat all temporary staff as “employees,” so that they too receive statutory protections. Additionally, his proposal mandates that employers may only terminate employees “for cause.” These recommendations, among other changes, would strengthen labor unions. To de Blasio, for workers to win, employers must lose. He wholly misses that by his proposal their fortunes are linked together in a lose-lose embrace.

Several flawed assumptions undergird his Workers’ Bill of Rights. First, he repeats the common claim that the position of ordinary workers has stagnated over the past four decades. But this claim is rife with difficulties. The quality of goods and services has significantly improved over time—computers have replaced typewriters, and smart devices have made rotary phones obsolete. No one alive wants to go back to the 1970s. Wage measures cannot adequately capture quality and lifestyle improvements. Also, wages are a smaller fraction of an employee’s total income due to the rise of fringe benefits.