On the Sidewalks of New York is a weekly feature at Human Events wherein Jacqueline Toboroff, a native New Yorker, will share her observations and candid commentary on the goings-on in our nation’s largest city. Wherever you live, and whatever you feel, there is no escaping the fact that New York City matters.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is the worst Mayor New York City has ever had. Period, full stop. Nothing, nothing comes close to allowing thousands, and rapidly mounting by the day, of illegals to come in and make burning New York City taxpayers foot the bill.
There is no move in our city’s history as game changing and radical as this. That’s saying a lot. We’ve lived through former Mayor de Blasio approve defunding the NYPD by $1 billion dollars, take a wrecking ball to education, “shelter dump”, march and vandalize with BLM amidst his constituents fight for survival, collude with former sexual predator Governor Cuomo to institute lockdowns and deadly COVID mandates. Their combined created destruction is lightweight compared to the irreversible changes implemented by Mayor Adams. By welcoming in with concierge service at the bus stop unmasked and probably unvaccinated illegals, he is reaping the reward of being a declared sanctuary city. For him to feign outrage towards Abbott, Governor of Texas and a non sanctuary state, for bussing the illegal migrants in, not only proves Adams is a hypocrite but has made the problem his and has set a dangerous precedent.
Let this serve as a cautionary tale; once precedent is set, it is nearly impossible to undo.
No greater example hits home to Manhattan residents than the takedown of Chinatown, Tribeca, Soho, the Upper West Side and “Billionaire’s Row” with the hotel-cum-shelter “project” started in earnest by de Blasio and ratcheted up under Adams. Motivated to make areas less white and less rich, de Blasio said his goal was to “create more diverse, mixed-income neighborhood[s]..., to bring to an area that has been upper income a greater mix of New Yorkers…. Equity must be at the forefront.” The city refused to release the list of the 139 hotels where the homeless were being housed. Under the Adams’ administration, there’s been zero transparency as to what the new number of hotels-cum-shelters are, their names, and locations and how many illegals have been infused into the mix. Neighboring residents remain in an uproar due to the degraded quality of life concerns, rampant drug use and panhandling, and spike in crime.
On May 10, 2021, The New York Post editorial board endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams for mayor. To be clear, this publication owned by Murdoch's News Corp. is hailed as Conservative and ranked 4th in the United States for distribution. The point; its endorsement carries weight and can’t be overstated or overlooked.
It didn’t take a clairvoyant to know Adams would be the worst choice. A modicum of research on Adams when he was just a mayoral candidate and Brooklyn Borough President yielded hazardous facts. He supported BLM, praised Farrakhan, was in a viral video bragging “Every day in the police department, I kicked those crackers' ass”, and looked for de Blasio’s endorsement prior to endorsement handouts. But the most egregious statement Adams made while campaigning was his support for allowing non-citizens to vote. Let this sink in; Adams is likely not upset with Abbott for sending the illegals, he is likely upset that his utter dereliction has become so public and his inability to manage the situation abundantly clear.
The problem was and is, few voters do the research. They rely on credible outlets, like the NY Post to do the work for them. It’s possible those reading the paper felt that the NY Post’s endorsement would sway already disenfranchised voters and hopeless Republicans that turn to the paper as a sounding board thought going to the polls was a lost cause.
Based on August 23rd, 2022 New York congressional primaries, once again voter turnout was pathetic, cited as a new low. Too many living in New York don’t care about the city and state in which they live. It’s tragic.
Here’s what you need to know. Adams’ welcoming of illegals and flooding Manhattan with them is in line with his utterances while on the campaign trail. This is part of his social justice initiative to transform the wealthiest areas under his jurisdiction. New York taxpayers alone are on the hook for footing the bill for illegals; Federal Law prohibits federal taxpayer money to be used. As it stands now, just housing the illegals is estimated to cost over $300 million dollars. Keep in mind, this is for the projections of the ones already welcomed but we know, more are coming and this number knows no end in sight. Then, taxpayers pay for the illegals’ food, clothes, supplies and cellphones. Hochul has also allocated $220 million dollars for Medicaid for illegals. There’s also the cost of absorbing them into schools. This goes beyond the price tag but the creation of a new scholastic landscape, to which the administration has offered zero insight.
If precedent has taught us anything since 2020, it’s this; our vote matters. The success and failure are ours. Not voting, or voting Left, ensures outmigration from New York City by the people we need making up the taxbase. 330,000 have already fled the Left’s policies. Schools will continue to decline. Crime will continue to rise. We don’t even know how many of these unvetted illegal migrants will join criminal gangs or form their own and deal Fentanyl and other drugs, let alone stay on public assistance. Quality of life will continue to plummet. This is not hyperbole, this is quantifiable and statistically provable.
As de Blasio now teaches at Harvard, Cuomo received $5 million dollars for a book, Mayor Adams promises us he is not running for New York City Mayor again. Don’t sighin relief too quickly. He’s looking to become president of the United States. What can be done to break the precedent of rewarding abject failures? Well, the Governor of New York alone has the power to remove elected officials from office. Lee Zeldin, why don’t you make an announcement; in addition to promising to fire DA Bragg, promise to fire Adams!