New York’s Mayor Lets His Inner Marxist Spread Its Wings
[guest post by JVW]
If you’ve been on any right-leaning blogs, Facebook pages, or Twitter feeds today, you have probably seen the latest from far-left New York Mayor Warren Bill Wilhelm de Blasio. Apparently coasting to a sure reelection in a couple of months, and emboldened by the obnoxious caterwauling since last November’s election, de Blasio abandoned caution and made perhaps his most explicit Marxist statement in a recent interview with New York Magazine. In answer to a question regarding the hardest obstacle for him to overcome during his first term, the mayor let loose with the following:
What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too. Unfortunately, what stands in the way of that is hundreds of years of history that have elevated property rights and wealth to the point that that’s the reality that calls the tune on a lot of development.
I’ll give you an example. I was down one day on Varick Street, somewhere close to Canal, and there was a big sign out front of a new condo saying, “Units start at $2 million.” And that just drives people stark raving mad in this city, because that kind of development is clearly not for everyday people. It’s almost like it’s being flaunted. Look, if I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed. And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents. That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level. They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.
The first paragraph is the one that is getting most of the media attention, but I find the second paragraph to be equally insightful into his wretched worldview. De Blasio both disdains private property and exalts the ability of central planners. In his reckoning, the government ought to decide where a building can be built, how large it can be, how many rooms it would be sub-divided into, how much in wages the builder would pay, how much the developer can charge for rent, and — should there miraculously be a profit born out of all of this hyper-regulated commerce — how much of the profit can be kept by the developer.
New York City is eight-and-one-half million people living on about 300 square miles of dry land, or an average of 27,000 people packed into each square mile of the city, twice the population density of London and 40% greater than that of San Francisco, two other cities where real estate is famously expensive. Gee, can anyone see why New Yorkers might take property rights kind of seriously and tend to guard them jealously? There is a great deal of truth to the idea that when you voluntarily choose to live in such tight quarters with your fellow man that you inevitably end up surrendering some rights to the collective good (try to have a charcoal grill on the fire escape of a Manhattan walk-up or find non-permit street parking in a trendy Brooklyn neighborhood), but if New Yorkers reelect Bill de Blasio mayor in 60 days then they frankly deserve to live as vassals of the state. Lots of luck to them.
– JVW
I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be.
I liked the way that was done in John Carpenter’s “Escape From New York”.
nk (9651fb) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:35 pmIf you can stand it, read the whole interview. De Blasio crows about the drop in crime and the improving economy, while still bemoaning the fact that the rich are getting richer. He thinks the Democrats need to go further left. Unfortunately the NY Mag interviewer apparently lacked either the courage or wit to challenge De Blasio on his rosy outlook (“Mr. Mayor, will millionaires leave New York if you are allowed to further raise their income taxes?”), so what you get is the mayor taking a victory lap while the reporter basks in the glow of the Bolivarian revolution.
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:36 pmIf some additional “urban renewal” is needed to get there, I recommend the final scene in Sidney Lumet’s “Fail Safe”.
nk (9651fb) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:37 pmshe came from greece she had a thirst for knowledge
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:43 pm“De Blasio both disdains private property and exalts the ability of central planners..”
I see the exaltation but that private property dersion…. Now if you like having real estate out of reach because…free market, then I see how you assumed he was expressing his Stalinistic subconscious, but just thinking don’t make it so.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:55 pmThe value of the property would not really change and you can guarantee the government would be dishing out the more favorable locations to its cronies and other supporters. The government would persecute their political opponents and drive them out of the more desirable locations. The high prices is the market saying, “We’re too crowded here. Try living someplace else.”
dlm (a4eb00) — 9/6/2017 @ 4:55 pmNow if you like having real estate out of reach because…free market, then I see how you assumed he was expressing his Stalinistic subconscious, but just thinking don’t make it so.
I can’t make heads or tails of this comment. Do you believe that everyone who wants to live in New York City has a right to a cheap rent there? In a similar manner, does everyone who wants to live in Malibu have a right to a rent-controlled apartment on the beach? Or are market forces actually a pretty straightforward method of figuring out who get to live where?
There are major cities that have quasi-socialist housing policies where the government dictates who gets to live where. Should it surprise any of us that the people who are dialed in to the government are the ones who end up with the best living arrangements in those cities? Do you really want your ability to reside where you want to be subject to the whims of a government bureaucrat or whichever political party happens to be in power? That’s even more cynical then letting the rich have their way.
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:13 pmHe is an actual Kim dynasty fan,Jww reacting to a sandalista, btw the times was trying to put your congressman amodeo on the griddle
narciso (d1f714) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:20 pmLook. I’m addressing your words ‘DeBlasio disdains private property..’ Sans evidence and then you go off again on your thesis without a howdy do.
I gave you wiggle room by suggesting you were assuming his personal communism as a reflexive act born of years of frustration. Was I wrong?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:20 pm– Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address as Governor of California, 1967 (emphasis added)
Dave (445e97) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:22 pm“Now if you dislike having real estate out of reach because…of consequences of free market…”
Better?
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:25 pm“Facebook has confirmed a Washington Post report indicating that its ad sales team had sold advertising to a “shadowy Russian company” ahead of the 2016 Presidential election. These sponsored FB posts, in turn, were used to “target” American voters, either by directly naming presidential candidates or by focusing on “politically divisive issues.”
This information was disclosed to congressional investigators, according to “several people familiar with the company’s findings,” after an internal Facebook investigation this spring linked $100,000 of ad buys to a Russian company known as the Internet Research Agency. The WP’s sources described the company as a pro-Kremlin “troll farm.” Facebook’s investigation confirmed, via “digital footprints,” that 3,300 ads from 470 “suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages” were all linked to the same Russian company.
Those ads were targeted, according to an unnamed Facebook official, at users who’d “expressed interest” in politically charged topics such as African-American social issues, the Second Amendment, immigration, and the LGBT community. Facebook declined to show congressional investigators the exact content of these ads, citing both the company’s data policy and federal law about disclosing user data and content.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/report-facebook-sold-2016-election-related-ads-to-shadowy-russian-company/
I’m sure Mueller will be all over this.
harkin (90be6e) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:31 pmI gave you wiggle room by suggesting you were assuming his personal communism as a reflexive act born of years of frustration. Was I wrong?
Indeed you are. De Blasio’s personal communism is, by all appearances, deeply ingrained and has been a part of who he is since (at the very least) he was cheerleading for the Sandinistas. He gives every indication of being someone who actually doesn’t like the idea that people might be able to own land, in his city at the very least and perhaps anywhere else for that matter. In looking at de Blasio’s history, I don’t see where he has ever worked a non-government job, apart from a couple of stints at left-wing nonprofit advocacy organizations, so I don’t have much trouble concluding that this guy has no concept of private enterprise and no respect for work outside of the public trough. I’m actually kind of rooting for the smug wealthy Manhattan liberals to get screwed hard by this guy, much in the same way that the old lady was eventually bitten by the snake in the parable.
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:32 pmWell that certainly is an opinion. 🙂
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:35 pmOnly someone who has never heard of de Blasio would not know that he is a capital “C” Communist, and only a troll (like Ben burn) would reflexively contradict the host knowing nothing about the subject.
nk (9651fb) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:39 pmI hear a lot of opinions.
Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:43 pmDe Blasio talks like he’s completely unaware that his stated preferences are anathema to the principles our Founders risked their lives and sacred fortunes to bring about a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Equality before the law and individual liberty are the bedrocks on which our diverse nation depends upon to promote unity, loyalty, service, and cooperation.
De Blasio would divide us into those few who have influence in the bureaucracies of government and the mass of citizens yearning for freedom and begging their betters for permission to petition for a redress of grievances.
ropelight (db9e35) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:44 pm@11. No, this is better. And too easy. Watch it all the way through.
http://crooksandliars.com/heather/lewis-black-responds-rick-perrys-pro-texas
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:46 pm‘I don’t see where he has ever worked a non-government job… so I don’t have much trouble concluding that this guy has no concept of private enterprise and no respect for work outside of the public trough.’
^Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:58 pmLewis black was also a sandalista but he did have a deep knot of neurotic anxiety that was amusing in the 90s
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/28/salman-rushdie-the-golden-house-observer-review
narciso (d1f714) — 9/6/2017 @ 5:58 pmShe saved his best barbs for the iron lady, who came to his rescue six years later
narciso (d1f714) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:01 pmLadies and gentlemen, meet Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
Yep, though McCain also prizes Senate comity ahead of getting anything positive done for the country. I voted for him in 2008, but he’s still the walking poster boy for term limits.
And at least McCain has no illusions about communists, having been tortured by them for seven years.
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:06 pmI wasn’t aware DeBlabbio also flew 23 missions in the Vietnam war, was wounded, shot down, held prisoner and tortured by his “friends” the communists. I must have misread his valiant service to America. You see DISCO, there are government jobs and then there are “government jobs”.
Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:07 pmtortured like a hero!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:08 pmDCSCA: Betty Crocker and Marie Antoinette are one and the same.
nk (9651fb) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:11 pmSane person: Huh?
DCSCA: They both like cake.
Notice too that DCSCA relies on TV comedians to make the points he wants to make. But that’s the story of the left for the past 15 years, isn’t it?
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:14 pmThere actually is a primary election next Tuesday, and Mayor de Blasio was actually in a debate tonight, between 7 and 8 pm, with Sal Albanese, his closest, or most mainstream, competitor.
Albanese was endorsed by the Jewish Press in the issue which came out today, although they said there is little doubt he will be successful in the primary. But they said a vote for Albanese “a seasoned public official with moderate views” would be a step in the right direction.
We’ll see what the New York Daily News, New York Post and New York Times will do, all of them charging corruption or something close to it.
(Albanese, by the way, will be on the ballot in the general election – he has the nomination of the Reform Party, which has been taken over by Curtis Sliwa, although there at be one or two lawsuits in the way)
Albanese was the only opponent in the debate – he qualified by not only RAISING, but SPENDING, $175,000 and apparently he was very anxious to get the money out the door. He basically wasted it and now he has very little money.
Sammy Finkelman (e961d0) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:16 pm26… Bingo! They’ve looked to comedians – whether professional or unintentional – for their political strategies, morals and ethics for going on a half century now.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:37 pmPerhaps this article should have been illustrated with the wonderful architecture of Pyongyang, where Mayor de Blasio’s preferred form of economic and property use planning is most fully in use.
The American Dana (f1c5f8) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:45 pmThe fools. Reality TV game-show hosts are the only true prophets.
Dave (445e97) — 9/6/2017 @ 6:46 pmDid somebody say “New York values”?
Jerryskids (3308c1) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:03 pmCharge Trump rent, Dave. You’ve unwittingly become a landlord.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:06 pmlets be real, any American killed by a daca freak in the next 6 months- Trump owns it.
mg (31009b) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:09 pmrepublicans say press1 for spanish press 2 to have a muslim kill your wife press 3 to pay more in taxes
mg (31009b) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:15 pmthanks republicans your party is over.
De Blasio has no power. He’s just a sop to the have-nots and a totem for virtue-signalers. Everyone knows who really runs things.
Lenny (5ea732) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:43 pm@26. Comedy is serious business:
“There you go again.” – Ronald Reagan, actor, U.S. President, 1/20/81-1/20/89.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:45 pmWould that be the mob or Wall Street?
urbanleftbehind (7a3a40) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:45 pm@28.=Haiki!= Gesundheit!
You tried it with a thespian for eight — and loved it.
“Mommie!” – Ronald Reagan, actor, U.S. President, ‘pet’ name for second wife ‘Nancy.’
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:50 pm@37- Which is too big to fail when they have a gun to your head: Citibank or Tony Soprano? 😉
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 7:53 pm@30. Somethin’ to sing about, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7CIgWZTdgw
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:02 pmSpeaking of comedy, is anyone watching American Horror Story?
Pinandpuller (9c445e) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:02 pmGood gravy that jumped the sharknado, first episode, of course the irony that kai’s cult most resembles antifa is not remarked upon.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:07 pm@41. Watching?! We’ve been living it for 250-plus days or so, PeePee.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:07 pmLets see attacks at Berkeley, Portland Alexandria what dies that sound like.
narciso (d1f714) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:30 pmThere’s nothing wrong with having an entertainer as a major player in your political movement, but here is by and large the intellectual heft of the left since the Bush Era:
and probably a whole bunch of other C-listers that I am overlooking.
JVW (42615e) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:37 pm@37 . “Would that be the mob or Wall Street?”
What’s the difference?
Lenny (5ea732) — 9/6/2017 @ 8:54 pm@43 DCMSG
How many 72 hour holds does that make for you?
Pinandpuller (1f8b5c) — 9/7/2017 @ 12:03 amPeople get the government they deserve. And should.
Bang Gunley (5a4596) — 9/7/2017 @ 6:38 amWhy don’t we invite Mr. De Blasio to move to some socialist paradise for a couple of years before he foists his views on the country. How about Venezuela. He is sure to enjoy it there. Just bring a supply of toilet paper and other necessities, cause they ain’t got none there.
“Socialism only works in heaven, where they don’t need it, and in hell, where they already have it.” — Ronald Reagan
Bored Lawyer (998177) — 9/7/2017 @ 8:07 amGreetings:
Me, I’m thinking “This private property of which you speak may not mean what you think.”
11B40 (6abb5c) — 9/7/2017 @ 8:14 amvs
Protesters Block Part of Lake Shore Drive After Police Remove Homeless People’s Tents
happyfeet (28a91b) — 9/7/2017 @ 11:23 amThe New York Times endorsed de Blasio last tuesday, Sept. 5, the day after Labor Day. The New York Daily news did not endorse anyone on Sunday Sept 10 but seemed to indicate if it had endorsed anyone it would have been de Blasio but they just didn’t want to do it.
Well the newspaper could avoid voting but do they want people to do that, or in certain circumstances to vote for the second best candidate?
The Daily News considered Sal Albanese to be second best, I don’t. That’s the way to read their editorial. but what kind of experience does de blasio have anyway? Yes, he can discuss issues better (which is probably why he looks more capable) because he’s been involved in city matters. Doesn’t mean he discusses it correctly, or that someone else wwith better instincts and integrity would not settle down to better decisions and appointments))
The Jewish Press endorsed Albanese in ts last issue out Wednesday saying they did that although he didn’t stand a chance or words to that effect. I think in many cases races are not close yet endorsements are made.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 9/11/2017 @ 9:15 amNew York Daily News non-endoorsement endorsement:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/de-blasio-article-1.3481393
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 9/11/2017 @ 10:11 am