NEW YORK – “Being mayor of New York is perhaps the worst political assignment you can face. Anything you do displeases someone. Bill de Blasio leaves the scene with a very low rating: 37 percent. But it happened to others before him. New York mayors in office are always judged harshly. Of course, De Blasio made mistakes, even serious ones. But it has profoundly improved the quality of life of the poorer classes. It will be judged by history better than it seems today. But only when there is distance between his acts and his character “. Adam Gopnik, 64, is the celebrated columnist of the NewYorker, author of numerous essays. The last one, The rhino poster, dedicated to the crisis of liberalism, is published in Italy by Guanda. A profound connoisseur of the Big Apple, he dedicated the collection of memories to the city where he lives Me, you, Manhattan.
To posterity, therefore, the sentence. But how do you judge the 8 years of the outgoing mayor?
“De Blasio is the fruit of a particular historical moment. He was elected in 2013, when the dem were moving left across America, but particularly in New York, in the wake of Occupy Wall Street. But then he got trapped by the contradictions of that progressivism by the Elected as opposed to the policies of the predecessor Michael Bloomberg, which according to the perception of the moment had favored the interests of the upper middle class too much, de Blasio has in fact fulfilled his electoral promises, paying particular attention to the most disadvantaged areas and populations. Then he was overwhelmed by the backlash: accused of having done too much for the poor. But many of his mistakes are derived above all from his ideological rigidity and from his profound self-critical incapacity “.
A concrete example?
“Indiscriminately supporting Black Lives Matter was perhaps the most serious mistake. He did not condemn the violence and looting on the sidelines of the movement, believing them to be the work of outside gangs. And that was a major political mistake. Even taking the homeless to hotels. of the wealthy Upper West Side did not pay. Perhaps in the height of the pandemic it was the right thing to do, but it was an extreme situation and had to be coordinated and communicated differently. On the other hand, it also managed the first wave of Covid poorly. ‘then governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t help. But this is attributable to him up to a certain point: no one did really well in the first months of the epidemic in the world “.
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How aware are you of it? Because now he talks about running for governor’s chair …
“Like other politicians in love with his own image, de Blasio is not particularly self-reflective. Just think of how he threw himself headlong into the dem primaries for the US presidency even though everyone advised against him. Another serious political oversight, which has paid off enormously. Evidently not. he has yet to learn his lesson. But on the other hand, his is a sin of presumption that unites him with many other dem leaders in New York. I think of a popular mayor like Ed Koch, at the helm of the city between 1978 and 1989, very difficult years: he too attempted the challenge for the seat of governor and was defeated by Mario Cuomo leaving it politically destroyed. What dazzles them, probably, is the fact that leading New York is like being president of a mini nation. Manage a territory with 8 million inhabitants, 1 million students and a mini army of 36 thousand policemen … ”
Progressives were bitterly defeated in the last municipal elections …
“Yeah. Nobody thought he could do it Eric Adams, the most conservative of the dem. But it is easy to understand what happened: in times of profound instability, the propaganda of insecurity, what we here in America call Law and Order, is more popular than social politics. It is part of the populist dynamics: people vote for those who guarantee that the safety of their neighborhood is the priority. ”
What are you waiting for from Eric Adams, who will soon be sworn in at dawn on January 1st?
“My personal judgment is suspended. But I have talked about it with many friends. There are those who are positively impressed by the choice of men and women who will form their council. Honest people and excellent connoisseurs of the problems of the city. And those who fear it. his fickleness: considering him, in short, a political weather vane that sniffs the air he pulls and behaves accordingly. He certainly has great responsibilities. He inherits a New York besieged by Omicron, which was just beginning to re-emerge from the darkness of the pandemic. immediately not easy and potentially unpopular choices “.
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