The city’s ‘right to shelter’ provides a basic safety net not seen anywhere else in the country, allowing anyone who wants a shelter bed to get one (at least temporarily). But that right appears to be under siege as the city struggles to meet shelter demand amid a surge in homelessness.
Hours after a White House aide told Congress that Rudy Giuliani sought a presidential pardon for trying to topple American democracy, the ex-mayor—who denied that accusation—greeted a coterie of well-wishers inside a Manhattan Republican club. Some even touched his wounded back.
Why has the number of homeless New Yorkers grown so much, even as the city spends billions on housing and homeless services? One part of the answer is that over four decades there has been an ongoing and fundamental disconnect between the city’s policies on homelessness and housing.
“Wayne was an absolutist—moral, faithful, tea totaling, tenacious—a believer in redemption, with reportorial standards beyond reproach. No short cuts, no cheap rumors—only shocking facts; never going with a piece unless certain of its accuracy; smiling rather than taking umbrage when reporters chased his work without citing him.”
A look at how New York’s failed efforts to host the world’s biggest sporting event succeeded in reshaping huge swaths of the city, from Hunters Point to Citi Field. ‘New York never needed the Games, but we did need the infrastructure,’ one expert said.
‘The parallels between Trump and Giuliani’s personalities are stark, the marriage of two men impervious to self-control, shame and disgrace. No amount of revisionism, contortion or myopic soul-searching by Frydman removes the stain.’
Most cities do not sell their tax liens to a private trust. Many have programs which help homeowners pay off their debt and repair their neglected rental properties. Other cities also allow nonprofits to buy back the lien and then work out a payment plan with the property owner.
Nothing swirling around Rudolph Giuliani now is out of step with the person depicted 26 years ago in a 464-page vulnerability study he commissioned for his second run for mayor.
The Max & Murphy Show spoke with the former mayor and the veteran journalist about the race, Dinkins’ mayoralty and the legacy of New York’s first (and so far only) chief executive of color.
The controversy involving a pioneering pedestrian plaza in a neighborhood famously transformed by quality-of-life policing is a clash between two dominant ideas in modern New York: One, that sanitized spaces represent the public square. The other, that policing can eradicate all annoyances.
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