Mayor Adams is no novice, so he should be thoroughly familiar with Hole’s Law. It’s a simple concept, which advises those who find themselves in an unwanted hole to immediately drop the shovel, climb out and find a new strategy.
Assuming the mayor is aware of the law, refusing to follow its common logic shows something other than ignorance. Stupid arrogance? Misjudgment?
The subject is the city’s migrant crisis. Despite inviting thousands of illegal border crossers to come here and spending $4.6 million in taxpayer dollars every day to house, care, feed and educate some of them, Adams still won’t admit he made a mistake. .
Instead, he’s mixing it up by using a large shovel to widen the hole. There’s no other way to describe his latest idea, which takes the city’s efforts on an emergency basis and institutionalizes them.
No help from Joe
On Tuesday, he created a new agency to deal with the crisis. Dubbed the Office of Asylum Seeking Operations, it will open a 24-hour processing center for new arrivals and move existing services out of Midtown’s Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Part of the plan aims to move some of the estimated 50,000 immigrants already in New York to other cities. The mayor should hope for as much success with that effort as he has had in Washington and Albany helping the city pay for housing in municipal facilities, including 31,000 expensive midtown hotels.
That is to say, next to zero.
His budget director waved a white flag Monday, saying Adams did not expect significant help from President Biden despite an estimated immigrant price tag of $4.2 billion over two fiscal years.
So even though Adams did the president a favor by not insisting on closing the border, he gets booed in return. With friends like Biden, who needs enemies?
Meanwhile, the government is giving money with one hand and taking it with the other hand. She is offering to pay 29% of the immigrant costs, while requiring the city to pay $500 million more for mass transit and the school’s former home because of a state mandate requiring smaller class sizes. There is also a huge increase in spending.
With all that uncertainty, plus a costly new labor deal and warnings from fiscal monitors about the deficit, the mayor moved forward with what he called the “road forward” as far as the eye could see.
Soft on law breakers
His press release was full of sympathy for immigrants who broke US law to enter the country without permission.
Most, the activists, coached by open-borders advocates, claimed asylum when arrested, knowing they were not eligible because they had not faced religious, ethnic or political persecution, but also That they can stay for years waiting for their cases to be decided.
They came for a better life, and while it would be understandable and commendable if they obeyed the law and waited their turn as millions of others did before them, it is a mystery that their Why should be admired and encouraged.
Yet there was Adams, who blurred the line between legal and illegal immigrants by declaring that “New Yorkers know that today’s asylum seeker is tomorrow’s citizen, leader, and tomorrow’s innovator, and I am proud that New York The City is leading the way, thus turning a crisis into an opportunity for progress for the entire country.
A deputy mayor was quoted as saying that “the city has worked to focus our services on dignity, respect and care for every individual, family and child.”
to touch But there breathes a taxpaying citizen who believes the city treats him with “dignity, respect and care”? The answer to the question itself.
Compassion, time and dollars are limited, and, intentionally or not, City Hall has set up a competition for resources between residents and newcomers.
For example, Midtown police are often called to hotels where immigrants are housed to monitor disputes, some violent, and demonstrations. The time spent there is not found anywhere else.
This is not a minor, temporary problem. Adams is putting his mayoralty on the line by adding a new, unlimited demand on services. He has yet to solve any of the major problems he inherited, some of which are worsening.
He was elected to save the city from the scourge of crime, and has made real progress, especially in reducing murders and shootings. But he has a long way to go before most people feel safe enough to walk the streets and ride the subway.
Drain on the city
Bodega owners and others are on their side about robberies and organized shoplifting. Stores are closing and many merchants are hiring private security guards because they cannot trust the police to protect them and their customers.
Public dollars spent on immigrant care could have been spent on hiring more police officers and stepping up crackdowns on lawbreakers and getting more illegal guns off the streets faster.
Or consider the public school system, which seems to be collapsing. Total enrollment has shrunk dramatically and more than 40% of those signed up for classes are absent for a month or more, meaning they are learning nothing.
And what about the roughly 60,000 homeless people already living in city shelters, some of whom complain that immigrants are treated better than they are? Who gets first dibs when more permanent housing becomes available?
Here’s a new idea: The mayor could take a big chunk of that $4.2 billion in immigrant money and give huge tax cuts to people who live and work and pay taxes here.
Any or all of those ideas could help stem the tide of those fleeing the city, an exodus that threatens Gotham’s future. But anyone thinking of leaving because of the crime, bad schools, high cost of living and low standard of living may not be persuaded to stay because the mayor is turning the city into a haven for the rest of the world.
Quite the opposite. Adams is giving them another reason to go out.
Pro-Biz Texas, Fla. won the chase
Bloomberg News Jamie Dimon interviewed About JPMorgan Chase’s expansion into Florida and Texas.
“We love Florida, we’re growing left and right in Florida,” said Dimon, the bank’s chief executive officer.
Bloomberg notes that Morgan, Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions are relocating operations to Florida as employees and clients “gravitate to its low taxes, warm weather and the perceived pro-business stance of its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.”
Texas and Florida “Like businesses, they want you to come,” Dimon said. “We now have more employees in Texas than New York State. It wasn’t meant to be but Texas loves you there. “
For Pete’s sake
Reader Jim Rowbotham suggests a new gig for Pete Buttigieg, one that heavily resembles transportation. He writes: “President Biden should create a Department of Identity and appoint Mayor Pete secretary. Structure and Responsibilities TBD.”
