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Bill de Blasio: A Progressive Mayor for All New Yorkers

Bill de Blasio: A Progressive Mayor for All New Yorkers

Jerry Krase (August 23, 2013)
anon
Four of seven Krase children (Marie, Teresa, Maryann and John) amid the summer crowd in Red Hook Houses circa 1940.

Bill De Blasio I believe has the best chance among real progressives to win the mayoralty and to take New York City in a different, more hopeful direction. It’s time for New Yorkers to take back THEIR city from those who have used it to enrich themselves at our expense. Bill de Blasio can help us put the Statue of Liberty back on its pedestal in New York politics. He also just happens to be Italian.

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Bill DeBlasio I believe has the best chance among real progressives to win the mayoralty and to take New York City in a different, more hopeful direction. He’s genuine, which makes him somewhat boring at times. He’s bright, and that might scare some people. He knows public policy without being a wonk. He knows how the system works but is not an insider.  I am sure he will use all his energy and skills to better the lives of all New Yorkers as opposed to only his friends, relatives, and country club members as has been the case for the past two decades. Finally, I think it’s time for New Yorkers to take back THEIR city from those who have used it to enrich themselves at our expense. Bill de Blasio can help us put the Statue of Liberty back on its pedestal in New York politics.
            Now that Bill De Blasio is almost a front runner in the first round of the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City which will take place September 10th, I am reluctant to urge people to vote for him, as for the past 20 years the front runner has been the worst thing to happen to ordinary New Yorkers like myself since Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. It has also been tough avoiding watching the incredibly uninspiring and uninformative alleged “debates” on one or another television station that obviously sees its role as enhancing the ignorance of potential voters. From left to right all of the media moguls seem to have conspired to make the Democratic Party contenders appear to be part of another reality show --- “The Great Primary Race,” “NYC Idol,” or perhaps “Prance with the Also Rans.”

Two of the Democratic Party mayoral candidates are Italian American and therefore the reason I start this here at I-Italy.org where I have long complained about my political half-co-ethnics. I am pleased to say that this pair (Sal Albanese and Bill De Blasio) demonstrate, compared to previous (and current New Jersey) ethnic iterations, that they have more to offer voters than tough exteriors and empty heads and hearts. Here I must note also note, and almost apologize, that I, and not a few other New Yorkers, had mistakenly believed that another, similarly progressive, candidate -- “Tony” Weiner -- was half-Italian like me. But that rumor has most recently been dispelled by close visual attention to his non-campaign text messaging, as well as the concern by some Jewish groups who, after his unflattering exposure, might have hoped that he wasn’t Jewish.

Please note that I am not urging an “ethnic” vote, as, for example, that would guarantee that, given the increasing allegiance of Italian Americans to the Republican Party, both Bill De Blasio and Sal Albanese would get trounced. Sal Albanese is a long-term (as opposed to “old”) friend, and one I will always be indebted to for both his personal help at a difficult time as well as his great progressive service when he served in the City Council (1982-98). His Quixotesque runs for U.S. Congress (1992) and N.Y.C. Mayor (1997) have demonstrated his willingness to endure defeat for good intentions. Both he, and my final choice for Mayor, Bill De Blasio, follow in the Progressive Italian American traditions of Fiorello LaGuardia.Vito Marcantonio and Mario (not Andy) Cuomo; as opposed to the Neanderthal traditions of Rudy Giuliani, Rick Santorum, and too many to mention others. I must reveal that Bill De Blasio is a neighbor with whom I’ve had the pleasure of dinner with his lovely, but misquotable, wife Chirlane McCray at the house of a good friend. I also met his son Dante twice whose "‘fro" makes me feel young again, but the personal is not why I hope Bill'l win the Democratic Party Primary on September 10th.

Having been more than disappointed with the rightward movement of the Democratic Party in recent years, I think David Sirota, writing in Salon best (better) expresses my reasons for supporting Bill de Blasio and “America’s new progressive revolution.” Sirota, and I believe De Blasio’s campaign has impact far beyond The Big Apple. So far he has been successful
"...by coupling criticism of inequality with specific public policy proposals to combat such inequality...by government-based populist initiatives that the Times notes have "alarmed many business leaders and Bloomberg aides...de Blasio proposes to raise income taxes on those making over $500,000, reduce the city's huge corporate subsidies and use the reclaimed resources to finance universal pre-kindergarten. He also backs using the city's financial leverage to force municipal contractors to pay living wages, and he proposes to rein in the stop-and-frisk program that in practice persecutes New Yorkers for the alleged crime of not being white and/or rich. In sum, he is not running on a gauzy rhetorical criticism of inequality, he is running on explicit proposals to use the power of government to combat that inequality."

I was born at one end of Ninth Street, Brooklyn in the low-income The Red Hook Houses and, metaphorically, was able to move “up the hill” to my current perch near Prospect Park in over-gentrified Park Slope. Like many New Yorkers of past (pre-Rudy/Mike) generations, the taxes paid by the much better off made the economic playing field a bit more level for me. It gave us a chance to succeed by doing our best, and helped us overcome class and ethnic hurdles. New York City at its best was an engine for creating a large middle-class out of poor and working class people. In partial payment of that great debt I owe, I’ve been doing pro bono consulting work and community service even before getting my first, and last, job at Brooklyn College. As to “Stop and Frisk,” when I was a tough looking, albeit light –skinned, teenager the cops also hassled and rousted my pale-faced friends and I, especially when we strayed outside our own neighborhoods. But, most often, we were actually up to no good as opposed to simply looking like no goodniks. Frankly speaking, I don’t want my black and brown friends and family members to have to stay out of the sun and use skin-lightening creams to keep from getting falsely arrested. Bill de Blasio can get us back on the track for a better New York for all New Yorkers.

DISCLAIMER: Posts published in i-Italy are intended to stimulate a debate in the Italian and Italian-American Community and sometimes deal with controversial issues. The Editors are not responsible for, nor necessarily in agreement with the views presented by individual contributors.
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deBlasio

I do not agree that deBlasio would do anything good for New York. Although I do think that the "stop and frisk" method should be modified, I don't think it should be eliminated. It is true that when teenagers dress in a certain manner, they get stopped. Even when I was young, they were stopped by the police. Actually, some of them in the Williamsburg/Ridgewood/Middle Village area were dealing drugs. Neighborhoods like Ft. Greene were gang hotbeds. Look at Ft. Greene now.

I think that Mayor Bloomberg has done more to make the City liveable for all citizens in all boroughs. deBlasio can do nothing about wage inequality, except to drive out the people who employ many New Yorkers. I agree with his policy of early childhood education, but he'll never win support for this in the legislature.

Besides seeking to divide the city, he has not said one positive thing about how he will keep order, create jobs, protect us from terrorist attacks, etc. He has capitalized on the frustration all of us feel about not being in the 1% or 10% of New Yorkers. This does nothing to create a city that functions. I can compare him to Grillo in Italy that did the same thing and is leading the Letta government down the tubes.

Stop and Frisk is not the best thing. I'd like to see more of the community policing that functioned under Giulliani. That said, this particular aspect is something that should not cloud the judgment of New Yorkers into voting for an incompetent.

Agreed that Bill de Blasio

Agreed that Bill de Blasio is probably the best candidate, but let's not exaggerate and call him an Italian American. He's just another white yuppie transplant. Nothing wrong with that: it's the wave of the future, an ethnic-free, monolingual New York. Yes, he has some Italian heritage, but I've never gotten any clear sense that his heritage is lived and informs him in any way. You can't talk about a person such as this in the same breath as Fiorello La Guardia or Vito Marcantonio, people from the immigrant, ethnic root. People who knew what it meant to be a minority in America. Sal Albanese, on the other hand, is an Italian American, an immigrant, speaks the language, knows the culture, etc. He represents a whole different ballgame and one I can relate to, but he's unfortunately been too long out of the game to gain any traction. Whoever wins, let's hope for a better future for the city, for economically diverse neighborhoods, a city for everyone, not just the filthy rich and trust fund kids with snot dripping from their noses.

deblasio record

Jerry Tony and I would like some help before the 10th of September. Can you tell us what Bill accomplished in his two previous roles in gov't: City Council and Public Advocate. what has been his voting record? Thanks

de blasio

although i think he is the best (most progressive) for the job i am not a shill for his campaign, and i think everyone should check his record on his own or the nyc council and advocate websites. while in the council (partly park slope) he favored legislation for improving local schools, health care, and other local services. as advocate and councilman he was a major proponent of things such as living wages and pay equity but the advocate's job has even less power than the council seats. it has been for him and others a place for mounting a campaign for mayor... he's also no radical... we haven't had one since marcantonio.

de blasio

although i think he is the best 9most progressive) for the job i am not a shill for his campaign, and i think everyone should check his record on his own or the nyc council and advocate websites. while in the council (partly park slope) he favored legislation for improving local schools, health care, and other local services. as advocate and councilman he was a major proponent of things such as living wages and pay equity but the advocate's job has even less power than the council seats. it has been for him and others a place for mounting a campaign for mayor... he's also no radical... we haven't had one since marcantonio.

de blasio

although i think he is the best 9most progressive) for the job i am not a shill for his campaign, and i think everyone should check his record on his own or the nyc council and advocate websites. while in the council (partly park slope) he favored legislation for improving local schools, health care, and other local services. as advocateand councilman he was a major proponent of things such as living wages and pay equity but the advocate's job has even less power than the council seats. it has been for him and others a place for mounting a campaign for mayor... he's also no radical... we ahve n;t had one since marcantonio.