When I came of age on LI in the late 70s, NYC was a mess. My Dad's company was there, and he loathed having to travel in -- it was dirty and crime was soaring. We DID visit -- my sister lived in the late 60s on the UWS, and we had many fun family days, and my favorite childhood memories were visiting Greenwich Village -- my Dad's favorite part of the City.
But by the mid 70s, NYC was on the brink of bankruptcy, and though the Yankees were getting good again with Reggie Jackson, it was the time of "The Bronx is Burning" and Son of Sam picking off lovers in parked cars in the outer boroughs. The city leaders appealed to the Feds for help, and the Daily News famously captured the response from then President Ford. "Ford to NY: Drop Dead!" Billy Joel was inspired to write his "Miami 2017" about the exodus from his homeland to South Florida as NY descended into a dystopia. I also recall the movie "Escape From NY" about Manhattan becoming a feral penal colony as maybe not too far off.
Well, things got better -- a lot. Grown ups took over government, and the cops started their "broken windows" policy -- zero tolerance for even petty crimes, as these contributed to an overall feeling of lawlessness. Later to lose his mind Giuliani was an awesome mayor, followed by also effective Bloomberg. When D2 and Jonathan moved to the City in 2015, I was happy. It seemed safe. Wifey and I visited every few months, and I saw stuff like never before: literary pub crawls in Greenwich Village, Chelsea Market, way cool restaurants -- "Book of Mormon!" I maintain that is the finest Broadway musical since the likes of Rogers and Hammerstein...
But alas, things shifted. Maybe the cops were a bit heavy handed. Economic losers wanted free stuff. So they elected Bill DiBlasio, who I called the fake Italian on account of he really wasn't, and the guy was a disaster -- single handedly wrecking stuff that had been fixed. COVID hurt, too, but there was a major exodus of the economic winners -- Miami benefitted greatly.
Our hood, for years a landing spot for rich South Americans, started getting finance and tech bros from NYC and LA and Chicago. Recently, a house on 1.5 acres sold for a record $5.7M -- the buyer was a trust from Nevada, but next to it neighbor Walter tells me it was bought by a tech bro from LA -- moving his family and business here, to escape LA's dystopian government -- I just read their mayor Karen Bass was indeed a big fan of Fidel back in the day. Enough said.
Anyway, you would have thought NY voters would reject any candidate who promised, in effect, to "Make NY 1977 Again." They didn't -- yesterday the primary was a shocker -- a 33 year old with zero real life experience other than being the rich son of successful Muslims won. The Dude is openly anti-Israel. He promises free busses. Free stuff for everyone. Yeah -- this will work out just fine.
The opponent was Cuomo -- a warmed over former governor who campaigned with hubris like our local Donna Shalala had -- just assumed folks would vote for him. They didn't -- and it appears like the radical Muslim will be large and in charge come November.
The only benefit will be for South Florida -- plenty of rich folks will now REALLY escape from NY.
I truly fear for friends and kids of friends in the City. Sunday night we had our neighbor Gloria over. She owns a studio on the UES, which she uses to visit her son and his husband. She said the last time she was there, some mentally ill creep harassed her right on 5th Avenue -- in front of cops who did nothing!
As she said -- she's not young anymore, and able to run away. In our mid to late 60s -- we're true marks! She plans to limit her visits there -- the son and son in law can come here.
HL Mencken said it best years ago: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." Or maybe he was just paraphrased. But either way -- Leftys have shown their just as stupid as MAGA voters.
Until there is a "middle way," we're in for tough times. But I WOULD bet luxury house prices in Miami are poised to go up again.
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