The City of New York has seen its population decline by about 80,000 people over the last two years according to the Census Bureau. That's a major decline for the nation's largest city. It's also the reversal of a trend that has seen New York grow over the previous 25 years. What has caused this?
One thing of moment that has changed is that Bill DeBlasio became mayor and the whole of city government has been taken over by the far left wing of the Democrats. This actually lines right up with the historical numbers. New York's population grew from the founding of the nation until 1970. At that point, the city started running out of money. After decades of rule by the far left, things got so bad that by 1975, New York faced a financial crisis. This crisis required the state to come in to bail out the city. It also required major cut backs in city government spending. It was something, but it wasn't enough. New York lost over 10% of its people until the city hit bottom in the early 1990's. City leadership continued to be of the far left variety until, at the start of the 90's, an earthquake happened. Republican Rudy Giuliani actually won the mayoral contest. He came into office and reorganized the way the city dealt with all sorts of problems. The police force was reorganized and new methods of policing were adopted. The crime rate fell quickly and New York became the safest big city in the country. Economic development also came back to the much safer city. Transportation was also moved to a high priority and it greatly improved. As a result, people started to move back to the city.
After Giuliani's two terms were over, Mike Bloomberg came into office for three terms. Bloomberg won as a Republican and as an independent. The key was that in office Bloomberg kept improving the police and pushing economic development. The crazy social justice policies that are more virtue signaling that anything else were left to languish. New York grew to a point where the city hit a high point of over 8.6 million people.
After Bloomberg, DeBlasio got elected. Things changed quickly. The police were restricted from measures that had helped stop crime in the past. Crimes that previously had been stopped were now not even to be prosecuted. For example, people who jumped the turnstiles on the subway were prosecuted under Giuliani and Bloomberg. DeBlasio ended that. People who peed or defecated on the street were prosecuted under Giuliani and Bloomberg. When DeBlasio took office, he stopped that. Petty theft was treated the same way. In other words, DeBlasio ended law enforcement for minor offenses. That also ended having the police use those offenses to find people who had committed major crimes.
DeBlasio also stopped worrying about efficiency in city government. For example, DeBlasio put his wife in charge of a program that was funded with almost a billion dollars of city money. After three years, the program was a total failure with nothing to show for the money. It still goes on, however.
The efforts to promote economic growth, better performance by the Transit Authority and many other city projects also basically stopped under DeBlasio.
So what is the end result after five years of DeBlasio and government by virtue signaling? New York is now losing about 40,000 people per year. The numbers are actually worse than that if you look closely. New York is gaining immigrants from abroad, many of the illegals. For the most part, these are poor unskilled workers and their families. The people moving out of the city are mostly middle and upper middle income families. In other words, people who pay taxes are moving out while the poor who use up government resources are moving in. And then there's the few ultra-wealthy who are moving away. Each one takes with him or her a major source of tax revenue for the city.
Look, maybe there's something else at work that is driving down the New York population. Just because that drop in population comes with the return of far left government doesn't mean that there is a causal relationship between the two. Still, it's one hell of a coincidence. What do you think?
One thing of moment that has changed is that Bill DeBlasio became mayor and the whole of city government has been taken over by the far left wing of the Democrats. This actually lines right up with the historical numbers. New York's population grew from the founding of the nation until 1970. At that point, the city started running out of money. After decades of rule by the far left, things got so bad that by 1975, New York faced a financial crisis. This crisis required the state to come in to bail out the city. It also required major cut backs in city government spending. It was something, but it wasn't enough. New York lost over 10% of its people until the city hit bottom in the early 1990's. City leadership continued to be of the far left variety until, at the start of the 90's, an earthquake happened. Republican Rudy Giuliani actually won the mayoral contest. He came into office and reorganized the way the city dealt with all sorts of problems. The police force was reorganized and new methods of policing were adopted. The crime rate fell quickly and New York became the safest big city in the country. Economic development also came back to the much safer city. Transportation was also moved to a high priority and it greatly improved. As a result, people started to move back to the city.
After Giuliani's two terms were over, Mike Bloomberg came into office for three terms. Bloomberg won as a Republican and as an independent. The key was that in office Bloomberg kept improving the police and pushing economic development. The crazy social justice policies that are more virtue signaling that anything else were left to languish. New York grew to a point where the city hit a high point of over 8.6 million people.
After Bloomberg, DeBlasio got elected. Things changed quickly. The police were restricted from measures that had helped stop crime in the past. Crimes that previously had been stopped were now not even to be prosecuted. For example, people who jumped the turnstiles on the subway were prosecuted under Giuliani and Bloomberg. DeBlasio ended that. People who peed or defecated on the street were prosecuted under Giuliani and Bloomberg. When DeBlasio took office, he stopped that. Petty theft was treated the same way. In other words, DeBlasio ended law enforcement for minor offenses. That also ended having the police use those offenses to find people who had committed major crimes.
DeBlasio also stopped worrying about efficiency in city government. For example, DeBlasio put his wife in charge of a program that was funded with almost a billion dollars of city money. After three years, the program was a total failure with nothing to show for the money. It still goes on, however.
The efforts to promote economic growth, better performance by the Transit Authority and many other city projects also basically stopped under DeBlasio.
So what is the end result after five years of DeBlasio and government by virtue signaling? New York is now losing about 40,000 people per year. The numbers are actually worse than that if you look closely. New York is gaining immigrants from abroad, many of the illegals. For the most part, these are poor unskilled workers and their families. The people moving out of the city are mostly middle and upper middle income families. In other words, people who pay taxes are moving out while the poor who use up government resources are moving in. And then there's the few ultra-wealthy who are moving away. Each one takes with him or her a major source of tax revenue for the city.
Look, maybe there's something else at work that is driving down the New York population. Just because that drop in population comes with the return of far left government doesn't mean that there is a causal relationship between the two. Still, it's one hell of a coincidence. What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment