I think it’s a similar dynamic that fed the R lineup in '16 - “somebody’s gonna replace him and it might as well be me.”
Gee, were they going down the wrong-way street?
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It’s pretty clear that most of the Democratic candidates are just doing this to raise their national recognition for future purposes of political career advancement. It does not, however, help the prospects for a Democratic victory in 2020 to have such a confusingly large number of candidates.
My level of respect for Michael Blumberg (who’s too republican for my tastes in any case) ROSE when he decided NOT to join the race. I wish some of these other candidates had been as thoughtful.
And … as long as I’m ranting … I really hate it when the only apparent reason that someone is running for president is that they want to BE president. Worst possible reason in my opinion.
I hadnt heard or thought of this. I was told that it was like a State version of the Hatch Act violation.
You haven’t heard because of the well-known Police Cover-up. Gee, wonder what happened to the insurance rates of the guy that de Blasio’s vehicle hit?
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I thought of this after first seeing your comment. Since almost immediately after swearing in as Mayor, the NYPD has treated DeBlasio as a pariah. He showed up at a police funeral and every single Police Officer in attendance turned their back on him. I am not saying the police didnt cover up for DeBlasio, I am just saying that they hate him pretty much universally.
Yeah, I remember those events. They hate de Blasio because he ended Stop-n-Frisk, which was a mistake IMHO.
From the newspaper report: "State law requires that any accident with more than $1,000 in damage be filed with the DMV. The agency has confirmed that it does not have a report regarding the accident. A source told the Daily News the vehicle was out of service for two weeks. Text messages showed members of the security detail were worried the press might see damage to the SUV.
The NYPD could not offer an explanation as to why no report was filed with the state."
My daughter and SIL moved to NYC pretty much at the start of de Blasio’s first term. They moved there are political moderates. They left as hard core right-wingers, even to the extent of surprising me at times. The thing that moves a sympathetic person from sympathetic to hostile is false accusations, statements of “racist” (like in “let me cut in line, you racist bitch”), and the like. de Blasio’s tenure has seen a coarsening of racial issues, and a hardening of race lines.
That may be. But well before that we had coarsening of racial issues and hardening of racial lines during the entire Koch Administration (1978-1989). Koch may have given Donald Trump lessons on exploiting fear and tension between the City’s ethnic groups. He was very repulsive and insulting whenever protests or claims were made by Black or Latino groups against his rhetoric and abuses by the NYPD.
And a further coarsening /hardening during David Dinkins’ only term. During this term, Rudolph Giuliani had a Trojan Horse in many of the representatives on the City Board of Education. Including the first Latina representative (Ninfa Segarra) whose appointment was the result of a long struggle by Latino and Latina activists.
Giuliani’s Board of Ed moles leaked to the NY Murdoch Post constantly, thwarted Dinkins’ Commissioners of the Board, and were spies for Rudy Giuliani who was a sort of shadow government while campaigning to be the next Mayor.
The NYPD played their disgraceful part by holding a sick out and mob rally for Giuliani on the steps of City Hall. Washington Post, Radley Balko Nov 2016, More on the Time Rudy Giuliani Helped Incite a Riot of Racist Cops I was out on Broadway very near City Hall when the mob left City Hall Park and rampaged up Broadway, overturning metal garbage receptacles as they ran like a herd of rhinos. They were chanting Bubba, the offensive nickname they gave to the Black NYPD Chief, Ben Ward.
Rudolph Giuliani was 2 terms of same as Ed Koch.
The tension with DeBlasio is totally because he is married to a Black woman and has a son who is biracial and about he has expressed fear, fear that his teenage son might be gunned down or strangled by trigger happy cops. The two ambushed police officers’ funerals were very early in the first DeBlasio term and they, the NYPD Blue Racist Wall of Silence, had their hackles up immediately.
Truth be told, I find it a lot less tense than during the Koch, Dinkins or Giuliani Administrations. The ugliness is coming from one side only, as well.
You sound like you have lived in NYC for a long time. For my kids, only 5 years. I guess your perspective is different.
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Since 1977. A year that will live in Infamy. Anyway, I felt like Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy for the first six months. Mostly hated the place and the people. The only person I knew for the first few months, our building superintendent, died and I didnt find out until 2 weeks afterwards. Blew me away, having grown up in a small, intimate, gossipy place.
Didn’t know anybody outside of school and it was law school so they were pretty much mostly assholes. My wife to be, who was still a junior in college, came to visit and loved it from the first visit. Anyway, I have become acclimated. Can not move back to where I grew up. Became the guy in the second part of the Callahan cartoon.
We visited her and SIL on several occasions. Of course, visiting is always special. We love the Met (pre-mandatory out-of-town high prices), the photo stores (Adorama, B&H), the walking around, the pizza. But the pushiness, and the bicyclists, drove me nuts. My daughter and SIL now live in DC, which is to them much nicer and more friendly.
Well, I’m glad you enjoy it. I probably at this point will not ever go back, because there are plenty of places I haven’t been. 42 years in the same place is a long time. I have lived in 6 places in that same time.
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It is a long time. And growing up we were an Army family so I used to hate moving every 2 years after acclimating and making friends and liking the place. When my wife was alive and doing her PhD at NYU we lived near Washington Square Park on a street that was a moving tableau of walking humanity 24/7 if you had the time to look out the window or sit on the stoop. That was a great place and at one time was the place I had lived longest (13 years). Now have lived almost 30 years in one place.
Big secret, NYC pizza generally sucks. Not to be an asshole. But it does. I have found some places that make excellent pizza (one an Argentinean restaurant that only makes individual pizzas) but there is lots of terrible pizza in NYC. I know because where we went to college even the generic places made really great pizza. And then when we got to NYC we were like WTF…people wait outside in line in February for this? Anyway, sorry for the strong overbearing opinions.
I have been to DC 3-4 times. Have no sense what it is like now. Glad your daughter and SIL like it more.
Well, everyone has an opinion. In 2016, we were staying in an AirBnB on the Far Rockaways for a month (daughter rented thinking they had to move but they didn’t and the rental was non-refundable, so we took the rental - fun). We stopped in some little storefront place and had 4 pieces. Really good. But possibly we have no standards.
Is it true that NYC has put a ban on cured meat products like hot dogs? Is that possible? What about pastrami? The world is ending.
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Finding really good little local places like you found is what is wonderful about NYC. Good pizza tastes good. No issue with standards, really. Not talking about that. It’s just we were surprised when we arrived in NYC that a small NE college town had better pizza across the board. Even the non Italian places (they were mostly owned by Greek families) right close to the Campus, the pizza and grinders were just really effing good. Then after a few months in NYC we were like, OK, someone really has to tell us where the really good pizza joints are. And when John’s opened on Bleecker St and people were waiting out in line in the middle of February (pre Global Warming) we were pretty outraged. .
I don’t know about any pending or declared ban on cured meats. When my son was in elementary school and junior high and would take his sweet time commuting home every afternoon to hang out with his friends, they turned me on to the Papaya King up on the East 86th St, which had a really good cheap special, 2 hot dogs and a papaya shake for under 3 bucks I think. There is one on West 14th St I used to stop at every few months when I felt in the mood. But the two Spanish bookstores that were on West 14th closed long ago (Macondo and Lectorum) so I really have no reason to go over there. Btw, when we arrived in 1977, 14th St had a whole host of Spanish bookstores, the Portuguese-Spanish book distributor Eliseo Torres, and The French Spanish Bookstore to boot. Spiraling real estate prices killed off the independent and even chain bookstores in Manhattan (remember Brentano’s anyone?).
Every once in awhile I will eat a hot dog from a street stand. I like the onions. But I will ask about any cured meat ban. When I worked in Manhattan my boss and I would go eat at Pastrami Queen when it was on 3rd Ave right below 86th St. My PR Dad loved a good Corned Beef Sandwich from a Jewish Deli when he was alive, so I would always get that. I also learned to make chopped chicken liver with bacon in it. Which probably makes it non Kosher if my non Kosher pots and pans dont already make it non Kosher. And my plates!!! I would think if they ban pastrami in NYC, DeBlasio would have a huge upheaval on his hands. Is Pastrami cured? I know. I am effing ignorant…
That must have been cool, staying in Far Rockaway. An old friend of mine from our early days in NYC lived in Far Rockaway for about 10 years, pre 1977. He loved it. He only moved to the City because he and his wife split up.
Yeah, it was fun. We were 1/2 block from some kind of water - Jamaica Bay I think. We went over there, and the horseshoe crabs were doing some kind of mating swarming thing where all the males pile up on the female. #metoo in horseshoe crabs would have a buncha male crabs in hot water.
We also stopped in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Very interesting place - osprey nests, opuntia cacti, lots of birds.
Here’s a link to the ban on links:
Without hot dogs, at Nathan’s? What the heck?
We did enjoy visiting. We are not rich, but wanted to treat our grown kids. So in 2014 when we did Xmas we went to a lot of inexpensive restaurants. Every single one had the featured appetiser of some kind of hummus, which we are fond of - most Syrian, Israeli, Lebanese.
That issue of rents driving out the local shops - I have heard of that. That’s really terrible. There are a lot of places in NYC where it seems like all the storefronts are empty. There is something wrong with economics if it is better to not have a tenant than to lower rents to allow the place to function.