Here are the latest strange happenings within New York’s body politic.
A new Siena College public opinion poll indicates 52% of New Yorkers believe the state is going in the wrong direction.
As for New York’s major problems, 83% say it’s the high cost of living, 73% cite crime, and 62% view the influx of migrants as a top issue.
The most interesting finding: 62% of Democrats named crime as a top concern. Yes, the lax law enforcement policies imposed by Progressive Democrats are now infuriating their base. Will radical leftist adherents in Albany take note and rescind the so-called bail reform laws? I doubt it.
While most cities throughout the nation have regained their pre-COVID retail job levels, New York City has not. There are presently 60,000 fewer retail jobs than in 2019.
Steve Malanga, of the Manhattan Institute, has reported that New York City “has lost approximately 675 outlets operated by national chains…the total includes over 100 drugstore close-ups.”
These declines “can be attributed to the triple whammy of COVID shutdown, residents leaving the city and rising social disorder in the wake of Black Lives Matter….”
Another reason for the retail shop crisis: “theft spurred by bail reform and reduced charges for shoplifting.”
Meanwhile, it appears many of New York’s financial giants are taking seriously Gov. Kathy Hochul’s advice to those who disagree with Progressive policies: “…jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong.”
More than 150 investment firms that manage over $1 trillion in assets have left since 2019. Most of them have relocated in Florida.
What will be the impact of this exodus? Financial sector income taxes that provide the biggest chunk of the state’s revenue, 22%, will continue to decline and will eventually wreck New York’s tax base.
The Far Left’s Service Employees International Local Union 1199, which represents 304,000 healthcare workers and calls for “equality, justice and democracy,” is being accused of hypocrisy.
According to a report in the New York Post, the SEIU, which has over $450 million in assets, has refused “to invest in diverse businesses” and is “selling out underpaid workers.”
The CEO of the National Association of Investment Companies told the paper, “They have very little invested with minority-run investment funds.” Instead, their money is with big-time Wall Street firms.
The Post quoted one activist, Vicky Niu, as saying, “The union has deeper political ties with insurance companies and healthcare agencies and is completely uninterested in representing workers.”
I’m not in the least surprised. The president of the union, George Gresham, is so taken with himself that he recently told Gov. Hochul, “We don’t work for you—you work for us.”
The average cost per student in New York will top $35,000 this academic year. (The national average is $12,000.)
What is the return on this huge investment? Very little.
The New York Times recently reported that New York reading scores are behind the rest of the nation.
“In large districts like Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, as many as eight in 10 kids fail reading tests; in Gotham, less than half passed,” the newspaper said.
Another major public school problem is “chronic absenteeism,” which is defined as missing a minimum of 10% of the school year, according to the Post.
In New York City the absentee number hit 36% in 2023.
In other words, at least 86,000 students missed 18 or more school days.
While excessive no-shows, according to Department of Education regulations, cannot affect student grades, it most certainly helps explain why the results of standard math and reading tests are dismal.
Here’s another beaut: New York City’s Math and Science Exploratory School, once a center for high achievers, has changed its name to “The Exploratory.”
Why? Because the lower standard for admission, ordered by Mayor Bill de Blasio, has resulted in a major drop in math scores. “While 95% of MS 7th graders scored a passing math grade on end-of-year tests in 2018, only 69% did last year,” the New York Post has reported.
So, instead of restoring standards, the school changed its name to cover up the failure.
And get this: In rationalizing the new name, the principal said “the old name scared off girls.”
Strange but true folks, strange but true.