Well, let’s see if crime goes up as a result of the changes advocated by New York Democrats. I’ll also be interested in seeing if they blow up the budget.
after 20 years of functional city government, it can be helpful for New Yorkers to be reminded of how things used to be.
You’ll definitely get the chance. 
Yep, and I now leave you to return to your conversations on this gripping, competitive, down to the wire mayoral campaign.
I’m always so moved by adaher’s concern…
Hey, it’s a great city that was not too long ago a hellhole. Much as Republicans have a record at the national level, Democrats have a record in NYC.
What we’re going to see over the next four years is as clear an experiment as you’ll ever see. If New York takes steps back toward where it used to be, there can no longer be any doubt about NYC Democrats fitness to govern.
Ask a Native New Yorker: Will Mayor De Blasio Turn NYC Into A Crime-Ridden Terrordome?
We already did this on the last page. Your version of history has not gotten any more convincing.
Fair enough. We can disagree on history, but the results of the next four years will be indisputable. Experiments like this don’t come around very often.
Not true, of course. It’s politics, so people will disagree about what happens and why and what it all means. And some people will decide that no matter what happens in the future, if things go bad it’s the Democrats’ fault.
If they do, considering how well things have been going under 20 years of non-Dem governance, there will be good reason to blame Democratic governance. Unless it’s the whole country going down the crapper and New York just goes with it.
I’m sure Marley will blame other factors, but I doubt NYC voters will make the same mistake. I get why they want a Democrat, it’s been awhile and the natural ideology of the city is liberal. But that doesn’t mean they’ll throw away all the progress made to restore the city.
I’ve seen no evidence of that.
Well, I assume it’s not because people like crime and municipal bankruptcy.
The city was never bankrupt. You can go on mangling history if you like, but I’ll continue to point out the mistakes (time consuming though that is).
New York did default on its debts. Pretty shameful. Then they got a bailout. Ford should have stood firm. I’m glad that the political environment has turned viciously against municipal bailouts.
For you to say that New York didn’t go bankrupt is technically accurate, but the impression your statement gives is actually an incredible mangling of history. New York was utterly screwed in 1975.
Then maybe you shouldn’t have said the city went bankrupt. Things were very bad in the '70s and '80s, but not just because of Democrats - and they didn’t just get better because of Republicans. I’ll also point out that since it looks like de Blasio is going to get 65% to 70% of the vote, your concerns about Balkanized politics have turned out to be unfounded. I’m shocked.
Meh. I visited NYC once in 1985 – Times Square was such a sleazy dump! It was wonderful! Druther live in that Big Apple than the post-Giuliani version!
Sleazy is overrated. It’s entertaining up to a point, but that point stops somewhere short of ‘a crackhead stabbed me and stole my wallet and I’m bleeding out in the entryway to this peepshow.’ I hate Times Square now, and I expect that if I’d lived in the area 30 or 40 years ago I’d have hated it then, too. Of all the places a lot of people choose to go in the city, it has to be the worst. It’s just that these days it’s bright and covered in LED screens and corporate stores instead of the stuff that used to be there. Although the guys in the character suits are probably about disgusting as an old-time prostitute was.
Adaher, your mistake is in thinking that “Democrat” and “Republican” mean something close to the same thing in NYC as they do in the rest of the country.
I’ll tell you what…if you STFU about my local politics and I won’t bloviate about the local races in whatever Podunk backwater you currently reside in.
Feel free to move here though…you’ll never cast another relevant vote in your life.
How is it that when we’re talking about soda bans and other “nanny state” behavior, Bloomberg is deemed a Democrat, but when it comes to crime, he’s not? It’s all the same impulse, the same character traits.
(Also, the natural ideology of the city being liberal, whatever that means, helps Republicans.)
I don’t like Times Square now. From what I’ve heard, I wouldn’t have liked the Times Square of the '80s. Now, the '50s …
But no one is promising to bring that back.
[QUOTE=adaher]
But that doesn’t mean they’ll throw away all the progress made to restore the city.
[/QUOTE]
Yet some sound like they’re concerned that the new leadership is going to do exactly that and that the people may let them.
Love it. Someone should make it a signature line.
(And BTW: I say let Times Square BE for the tourists. Just let them have it so they’re safely contained there. It was once surrendered to the pervs, pimps and pushers, why not rather entrust it to well intentioned if clueless Heartlanders who just want to tweet their pic taken with the Naked Cowboy.)