Women soliciting sex on Roosevelt Avenue, in Jackson Heights, Queens. Photo Gloria Medina

By Eric Mingott  — 

If the De Blasio administration was a disaster, is the Adams administration considered a disappointment?  Who do we blame for the bad policies that is hurting New Yorkers today?  Thomas Phillip O’Neil Jr (also known as Tip O’Neil) was the 47^th Speaker of the House from 1977 to 1987; and most famously said “All Politics is Local”.  The current local officials in New York will have you believe it was the COVID-19 Pandemic which put the city in its current state of Sex, Drugs, Crime, Homelessness and Migrants.  It was years of bad policies by both state and local/city officials that continued to hurt the average New Yorker both financially and physically.

Both Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul will continue to cry for the federal government’s help in easing the financial burden of the massive migrant population in New York City.  As a New Yorker I will continue to ask why it is the federal government’s job to bail out New York for its horrendous misinterpreted “Right to Shelter” policy.  If the migrant population is hurting the state financially shouldn’t Mayor Adams and the Governor suspend right to shelter and consider deportation of migrants or consider relocating all migrants out of New York; and closing New York’s ability to receive migrants.

There are hundreds of immigrants living within the United States and abroad currently waiting in-line for some sort of visa (to either work, or permanently reside).  Receiving migrants in the city hurts New York financially and decreases our quality of life.  New York City (all five boroughs) is one of the few cities in the state that imposes an income tax on its residents.  The purpose of this income tax (city tax) is to help finance the city’s programs, departments, schools, and first responders.  Along with property taxes, and business/corporate taxes it balances the city’s financial burden.

Now that the city is continuing to pay an average of $200 per individual a day for migrants, on an indefinite basis, we are stuck paying the bills.  The Mayor and Governor has attempted to force other counties to take on their mess but fail to realize other counties do not assess a personal income tax on its residents; and those counties will be driven to bankruptcy if the Governor forces them clean up Mayor Adam’s policy.  Providing these migrants visas to gain employment is also a dilemma that needs to be addressed.  I keep wondering what type of employment, and how will they contribute to our economy.

With most companies leaving New York due to high crime, vandalism and lack of policing where are the jobs the Mayor and Governor is promising.  Are we to expect an increase in delivery drivers, maintenance workers; or do these migrants come to New York with the expectation of setting up businesses in the city, paying the high rental cost, and hiring other New Yorkers to work. The investment is limited in allowing migrants to continue to work and stay in our city, and now that we have seen the decline of New York’s quality of life, I continue to ask for a solution to the problem from the Mayor and Governor.  Overall, there is no benefit for New Yorkers to keep accepting migrants, just a decrease in quality and the expectation of higher cost around the city (with less state services available for us – since Mayor Adams looks to cut city agencies by 5%).

For months now mothers in Jackson Heights and Corona have been protesting the sex industry and crime.  It has been months of frustration and inaction that has led the residents of the heavily Latino community to come out and express their voices.  Meanwhile Jessica Ramos, Jessica Gonzalez and Tiffany Caban continue to declare “sex work is real work” and push for decriminalization of prostitution.  If you contact their office, they will declare the issue of prostitution is a policing matter; but as legislators these politicians will not admit they are part of the sex industry solicitation.  The flow of prostitution has increased since the acceptance of sex work by local politicians.  Meanwhile, Francisco Moya continues to hide behind Major League Soccer, and has forgotten his council district is affected by sex, crime, drugs, and trash.

I took a trip to San Francisco earlier this month for an assignment in the Tenderloin district.  I made the mistake of walking to work from the hotel one early morning (about a mile walk).  I witnessed things I have not seen since the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  Lines of homeless men and women, living in tents or cardboard made sheltering.  I saw men smoking crack and preparing heroin for injection.  I witnessed a white man slouched with a needle in his arm, and prostitutes walking the street.  On my way to my assignment, I was told the increase in drug use and homelessness was because the mayor’s office in San Francisco declared drugs a mental health issue and not a crime (therefore the police were unable to arrest them or force them to seek medical help).  I think of the de Blasio administration, and all the safe injection sites in New York City.  The needle disposal bins in city parks, and the massive number of homeless men and women in the city subways.  I also think of all the money spent on closing hotels for commercial use and making them city shelters, without any supervision by the city government.  It is not unreasonable to say the quality of life in New York City has decreased because of bad legislative policies.  It is also not unreasonable to demand a reversal and termination of those bad policies (Mayor Adams please wake up).