Manage New York City

Manage New York City

Being the mayor of New York City is often called the second most difficult job in the United States—only the presidency is even more difficult. I think this is correct, because New York City is the largest local government in our country. In our political system, most of the government’s work is done locally. Although we are still a few months away from our mayoral election, Brooklyn President Eric Adams is the Democratic candidate for mayor. Given New York’s political party registration advantages, Republican Curtis Sliwa won. The chance is small. Everything is possible in this place, but the media has regarded Adams as the presumed mayor, and Curtis will need a group of sacred guardian angels to overcome these difficulties. Adams seems to have got the job, so what does he need to do?

First, he must rebuild public confidence in the city government. In eight years of mediocre government, Bill de Blasio provided the city with universal Pre-K and everything else. The potential is there, but the performance is not. Political self-interest and self-promotion have always been the culture of the city hall. Adams must create a culture of citizenship. He needs to bring people who love this city and are willing to serve it to the government. Like Adams himself, people who work tirelessly focus on the public good. He needs to end the skirmish with Governor Cuomo, even if Cuomo sees Adams’ popularity as a lifeguard to his own declining political outlook.

Next, he needs to rebuild the security of the mayors. Dingkins To Giuliani to Bloomberg tirelessly recover, while De Blasio manages to erode. According to statistics, New York is much safer today than it used to be, even in the Bloomberg era, but psychologically, when we hear gunshots, out-of-control off-road riders, and unscrupulous shootings in Times Square and other places , We will feel scared. For some of us, this is like a rebirth nightmare. Adams is both a policeman and a victim of racial profiling, probably because he promised to restore police morale while reducing police misconduct.

After the pandemic and eight years of political priority management, the city is in a terrible condition. The police stopped policing, homeless people were sleeping in more and more vacant stores, parks and health departments were severely under-resourced, public transportation was still terrible, and the school system continued to keep too many children in the city out of school. The challenge is huge, and the city government cannot solve this mess on its own. The mayor needs a partner. The federal government, state governments, labor unions, many non-profit organizations in the city, and most importantly the private for-profit sector must all be challenged and mobilized to contribute to the city’s revival.

Adams has made a good start in articulating his priorities and rebuilding confidence.As Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Dana Rubinstein and Jeffery C. Mays in New York Times last week:

“In the afterglow of winning the Democratic nomination for the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams set out to formulate his mission to be elected in November. “Safe, safe, safe,” Mr. Adams said in an interview. “Keep our city safe,” he said in another article. On Thursday, a heavy rain flooded New York City’s subway stations, and Mr. Adams raised another priority: to speed up the city’s congestion charging plan, which will prevent entry Motorists in Manhattan’s core area charge a fee to use the money to make major improvements to the aging system. These two initiatives recapitulate Mr. Adams’ self-description as a blue-collar candidate: Make streets and subways safe for New York’s working-class residents reliable.”

These reporters then summarized the many political challenges Adams will face, and we should assume that they will be daunting. I feel that Adams understands this and has asked DeBlasio to immediately let him and Curtis Sliwa obtain information to ensure an effective transition on January 1.

Encouragingly, Adams believes that it is necessary to start as soon as possible, because there is no real way to prepare for a job like the Mayor of New York City. Even competent mayors like Ed Koch and Mike Bloomberg had a difficult start because they received the cruelest on-the-job training imaginable: trying to make the New York City government work. Koch has political expertise but no administrative experience. Bloomberg has administrative expertise but no political experience. Both eventually performed well because they listened and learned. Of course, the two also ran into problems in their third term, because they stayed at the exhibition for too long. Political leaders should learn from the entertainment industry: make them want more. The mayor’s term limit is now hardwired into our system, so Adams will not risk staying for too long. During the campaign, he also showed a willingness to listen and learn. We can only hope that this habit will continue after he is sworn in.

As most New Yorkers know, New York is not a single place, but a series of highly valued and cherished communities. We are clearly associated with symbols such as our public safety, subway and school systems, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, July 4th fireworks, and our often disappointing sports team. We are also connected through key but less obvious water, sewage and sanitation systems. We paid a high price for living here. It’s expensive and sometimes maddening, but we like it anyway.Governing New York City is more difficult than the governance challenges of other jurisdictions because the city is full of New Yorker. We have a controversial and outspoken political culture here. Adams seems to have mastered the essence of this culture, but as a surfer on tricky waves, getting on a boat safely ashore is no easy task.

He can learn from past mayors. Part of the mayor’s job is acting skills: during the newspaper strike, LaGuardia read comics to children on the radio. During the traffic strike, Koch greeted commuters walking on the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1990, just five months after Mandela was released from prison, Dingkins organized a ticker parade and the hero welcomed Nelson Mandela. Before he got lost, Rudy Giuliani appeared on Saturday Night with a score of 9-11.

I think our presumption mayor understands: Last week, Adams fulfilled his campaign promise and pierced his ears. This is not just entertainment; however, New York City has strong institutions and talents, and they are all stakeholders in the city’s success. Although Adams sees himself as a blue-collar mayor, he needs to consult and listen to the voices of conflicts of interest, and then determine the policy that best suits the public interest. Adams There is a history of political manipulation, self-promotion, and occasionally compelling, outrageous remarks. The role of the mayor requires more subtlety and caution than he has sometimes shown in the past. One of the problems with some elected leaders who have won unlikely victories is that they suddenly believe that they are political geniuses. We see this in Trump and De Blasio; it will be interesting to see if Adams can maintain his views and be open to the views of others.As Errol Lewis has caught attention in his recent Daily news Column article, Adams is a self-aware product mobile And “be happy and surprised where fate made him fall. He is a generation who climbed the peak and now sees the gleaming top of the mountain.”

Once he reaches that peak, success is no easy task. Successfully managing New York City requires the mayor to grow at work. Koch, Dingkins, and Bloomberg all improved from their mistakes and learned their lessons. In a city like New York with many moving parts, governance can never be perfect. Some initiatives have failed, others have succeeded. The key is to learn from success and failure.Adams will listen wisely Franklin Roosevelt Roosevelt said in the famous Oglethorpe University Commencement Speech on May 22, 1932:

“The country needs it. Unless I misunderstand its temper, the country needs to experiment boldly and persistently. It is common sense to take one method and try it: if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But most importantly, try. something.”

In this era of endless cable news and social media rotation, the spirit of experimentation and willingness to admit failure seems to be beyond our ability to be elected leaders. If our next mayor can admit failure and learn from it, it will be refreshing and impressive. The New Yorker has a built-in BS detector. It would be great if the next mayor aligns with us and recruits all New Yorkers to participate in the real effort of community building. Maybe we will finally respond to this story about the two cities and lift all the children in this city out of poverty.