Can the people save the day?
In 1970, New York City was having a fiscal crisis. The city was a mess. There were blackouts, unrest, strikes, graffiti-covered subways, neighborhoods were being left empty and crime was at an all-time high. It wasn’t pretty.
A group of influential New Yorkers got together and created the Association for the Betterment of New York. Lew Rudin led the charge and got 125 people behind him. They hatched a plan to get the city back on its feet. The real estate owners got their own janitorial staff to clean the streets and gutters in front of their buildings. They created the ILOVENY campaign deeming NYC the “big apple”. The city needed help and the people who cared about it, and had the means and power to fix it, did. Their efforts took the city on a new path.
I was talking with the demise of funding for organizations such as the NEA, Planned Parenthood, community development programs, National Wildlife and more. There are roughly 62 agencies that are having their funding cut. The cost is probably in line with his weekend jaunts to Florida but that is for another post.
I hope, because I am an eternal optimist, that the people can once again save the day.
Comments (Archived):
We simply must.
true true.
If you really wanted to save the day, you’d need to realize that the proposed cuts in the Trump budget are WAY TOO SMALL! It was only ~ $54B in cuts that were offset by an equivalent increase in DoD funding. If you want to save the day, you reform the entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.), b/c that is where the most money is being spent. Very few politicians (Trump included) have the courage to suggest such reforms as it wouldn’t be in their short-term political interest. Anytime someone from the GOP suggest reform of these programs, your party runs ads with Paul Ryan pushing granny in her wheelchair off a cliff. It was also your beloved party that gave us these programs. The problem with the government (both federal and NYC/NYS) is that it’s way too big and taxes way too much. Look how much you pay in taxes living in NYC while the streets are littered with dog feces. The schools and subway are awful; the money just goes to the public sector unions’ pockets.
You obviously have not been to NYC
We did it in the 60’s and 70’s. I was part of the Women’s March. As the Chamber Brother’s said, “Time Has Come Today”!
It took Rudy to change NYC.