Date: 2024-05-08 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021636
NEW YORK CITY
PRESIDENT BIDEN VISITS NYC
Important visit by the President and Attorney General in support of the Mayor's agenda
PRESIDENT BIDEN VISITS NYC
Important visit by the President and Attorney General in support of the Mayor's agenda
Burgess COMMENTARY
I have lived in Manhattan for a long time since the late 1970s. There have been many changes since then.
Mayor Dinken was New York's first black Mayor, and in my view was a very good solid mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams is the second black Mayor, and I have become quite optimistic that he will be an excellent mayor. I do not have much of an inside track on his past experience and his thinking about the priorities needed to improve quality of life for the people who live in New York.
In his first few weeks he seems to be on the right track. Getting the Attorney General and the President to visit this past week is not an inconsequential accomplishment ...and I am hopeful. The city was in a bad place in the late 1960s and through the '70s and has come back strongly in the past 40 years, but there is a lot of work still to be done. There is a massive gap between the rich and powerful at the top, and most everyone else in New York City. While wages are way better in NYC than in most of America, the cost of living especially housing is high. For a lot of people this simply does not work and will have to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Mayor Adams will not be able to do a lot without Federal help ... hopefully this help will be forthcoming, and perhaps. the recent visit by the President is a start.
Peter Burgess
