Welcome back from your summer escape. Did the sight of the skyline thrill you? Then let this scare you: an all-too-plausible, worst-case scenario for the election.
Meet the City Hall from hell: Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Eliot Spitzer, City Council Speaker Inez Dickens — and NYPD “Commissioner” Shira Scheindlin.
Many who are wary of a return to the crime-ridden, crumbling and alienated metropolis of the past fear one possibility or another — Spitzer in charge of the treasury! Cops afraid to do their jobs!
But what if we get them all?
Twenty years of epic growth and crime reduction under Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg made the town so alluring, those moving here outnumber those leaving for the first time in eons.
Now, we’re threatened with a new “Gang of Four” hell-bent on repudiating that legacy.
De Blasio’s far ahead in primary polls in a town where registered Dems outnumber Republicans 6-1. Spitzer drew even with Scott Stringer in two surveys last week (albeit other polls have given him a big lead), and Dickens has a good shot to succeed Christine Quinn in the powerful council speaker role (chosen by the council membership).
Socialist-minded de Blasio wants to close the gap between New York’s “two cities” by soaking the “rich” with more taxes (see Nicole Gelinas’ column below) and dismantling as much of the Giuliani- Bloomberg legacy as he can.
Prostitute-patronizing, real-estate scion Spitzer carries a chip on his shoulder for Wall Street, the driver of the city’s economy. He’s signaled he intends to “punish” it by going far beyond the comptroller’s office’s statutory powers.
Ethically challenged Dickens plays footsie with old-guard Harlem power brokers who long stifled investment by “interlopers.” The Post recently revealed she’s a tax-deadbeat slumlord at violations-prone buildings she owns.
With no countervailing influence, the unholy trio would have free reign to roll back Bloomberg’s educational gains, give the store away to unions and further diminish the NYPD’s effectiveness.
The best hope is for the new regime to be more paralyzed than “progressive.” Albany can nix de Blasio’s tax hikes, and he’ll have his hands full with “Steamroller” Spitzer acting like he’s mayor.
As for the NYPD: Judge Scheindlin will hold the real clout. A federal jurist wields immense power; recall how Judge Leonard B. Sand took control of Yonkers housing policy, and Judge Nicholas J. Garaufis “all but put himself in charge of the FDNY,” as a Post editorial put it, until his irrational ruling on hiring was overturned.
Remember, too, the fun era of the 1970s to early ’90s. There were 2,200 murders in one year and squeegee men in control of prime corners. Pervasive fear chased families out of town and made those who stayed avoid whole neighborhoods — even Rockefeller Center on sunlit Sundays.
How did it come to this — that we appear poised to elect ideologues itching to re-impose a discredited agenda that most New Yorkers regard as repugnant?
But the more trenchant question concerns the extreme motivation it took to banish the grim old ways. New York’s electorate has been genetically leftist-coded since the days when the agenda was set by unionized factory workers and their socialist fellow travelers.
Yet, by the early 1990s, they were scared enough to vote for Republican Giuliani, whom they grudgingly reckoned was serious about taking back the streets.
Eight years later, fear saved us from ourselves again: In the wake of 9/11, Democrat Mark Green was perceived as so unsuited to running a war-time city, voters chose a multibillionaire with no government experience over him.
Today, streets teem with families, new industries proliferate, tourists clog Times Square and the High Line. Movies like “Taxi Driver” can seem ancient history.
Pax Bloombergana might be less fragile than thugs wish for and conservatives fear. The social fabric is far more widely woven. Middle-class migration revived dead neighborhoods. Crowds can be as effective a crime deterrent as the NYPD — at least in the short run.
If the fabric starts to unravel even a little, voters will throw the bums out. But expect the next four years to make us miss the battles over bikes and sugary drinks.