During Covid, many Americans came to harbor the same doubts that many New Yorkers had about the acumen and competence of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. He left office in early 2022, easily the most unpopular chief executive in the city’s history.
De Blasio, who traveled to Nicaragua as a young man to support the Sandinista dictatorship, has since drifted from liberal forum to far-leftist forum trying to repair his reputation.
It isn’t working. He recently showed up to an Open to Debate podcast (the episode airs this Friday) to engage with Reihan Salam of the Manhattan Institute on whether Florida or New York is a more livable state. The show was entitled: “Is Florida Eating New York’s Lunch?”
Salam had all the facts at his fingertips.
That an astounding 1.6 million Floridians, or 8 percent of the state’s population, were born in New York shows the scale of the brain and income drain that has occurred. More than 10,000 New Yorkers have moved to Florida since the beginning of 2023.
“We’re really losing strivers,” Salam said. The city is only “‘tolerable’ for the rich and otherwise unlivable for the poor and middle class.”
Faced with such painful facts, de Blasio decided to go full culture warrior and denigrate Florida as a hellhole of “MAGA extremism,” “gas-guzzling SUVs,” and “suburban sprawl.”
He predicted ultimate doom for Florida, based on climate change. “We see the horrible destruction of the hurricanes, we see the flooding — this is just the beginning,” he proclaimed while doing his best Al Gore imitation. “The future, unfortunately, is not bright for Florida.”
Salam remained polite in the face of such insanity. “Florida is stealing our thunder,” he concluded. “We should fight to reestablish New York as the opportunity state, but the first step is realizing that we have a problem.”
Of course, that would require the state’s political leadership, led by Governor Kathy Hochul and Senator Chuck Schumer, to recognize reality. Don’t bet on that.