Happy Days Are Here Again in New York City

Happy Days Are Here Again in New York City Happy Days Are Here Again – The theme of FDR and the Democrats in 1932 Happy Days Are Here Again in New York City. The Progressives are back in charge of the Big Apple, after a 20 year drought. They suffered through 8 years of Rudy Giuliani and 12 years of Michael Bloomberg. Bill de Blasio was inaugurated one week ago on January 1 as Mayor of New York City, twice. He was sworn in at home at 12:01AM and then 12 hours later at City Hall by President Clinton on the FDR Bible. Happy Days Are Here Again. Bill de Blasio is a True Progressive. He is of the people. Indeed, he took the subway to City Hall. He rode the subway from his $1.1 million house in Park Slope, Brooklyn, near the $1.2 million rental house he owns. Yes, Bill de Blasio is of the people. Bill Loves New York, but his daughter attends Santa Clara University in California. He campaigned on A Tale of Two Cities – the 1% versus the normal people or the Occupy Wall Street Movement. His inauguration speech stressed his campaign rhetoric was not mere rhetoric, but the governing tenets of his administration: “When I said we would take dead aim at The Tale of Two Cities, I meant it. And we will do it.” His wife works for CitiBank. He reiterated his goal: “We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love.” He’s opposed to charter schools. Sitting in the VIP Section of the grandstand was Michael Mulgrew, the head of the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers. Happy Days Are Here Again for the union teachers, but not the parents, especially the inner city parents, who strive to win the “lottery” of getting their children into the charter schools. Other VIP dignitaries were the head of the local SEIU union, the Service Workers Union, the Central Labor Council, and the Communications Workers of America. Happy Days Are Here Again for the 200,000 public sector workers on New York City. Many of their contracts are up for renewal this year. Happy Days Are Here Again for the union workers, but not the taxpayers. He is asking the wealthy of New York City to “pay a little more,” that is to raise their taxes by an additional 1%. Why? To support universal pre-kindergarten and after school programs. In other words, to increase the public employee rolls for a program, which has not been shown to provide any long-term educational benefits. He supports a substantial increase in the minimum wage, that is, a living wage eventhough it may cost a large number of jobs for the low-income workers. He wants to expand paid sick leave, at least for the public employees, while saying nothing about the looming pension and healthcare costs that are destroying public budgets nationally. The retiree pension and healthcare costs already consume about a third of the City’s budget. Happy Days Are Here Again, but not for long. He’s opposed to the effective Stop and Frisk policy of the preceding administrations, seemingly forgetting that a breakdown in law and order in New York City convinced New Yorkers, Democratic New Yorkers, to elect Republican Rudy Giuliani Mayor 20 years ago. He’s opposed to the tourist attraction Central Park horse carriages. He say’s it’s inhumane. His real estate developer supporters covet the prime land under the horse stables for condos. Happy Days Are Here Again for back room deals in New York City. The new Tammany Hall calls itself “Progressive.” He wants to mandate big developers build affordable housing in New York City. Where? He wants to stop hospital closings in the City? Happy Days Are Here Again with ObamaCare. His policies are those of Mayors Lindsay, Beame, and Dinkins. He reminds me of President Hollande of France. There is nothing progressive in returning to the failed policies of the past. New York City will always be a Tale of Two Cities as long as it is constantly repopulated with immigrants seeking the American Dream with little in their pockets but drive in their hearts.