BloggeRhythms

Observing the actions of the POTUS leaves little doubt that, right or wrong, he’s a hands-on-executive, focused on solving the nation’s problems large and small. And that’s why one of the links on Drudge this morning was eye-catching, whereas the caption read “74% subway riders NOW late…“ That immediately brought NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio to mind, as well as the significant differences between Democrat and Republican ideologies on governance.

Erin Durkin writes @nydailynews.com: “More than 70% of New Yorkers said their trains are delayed at least half the time — 32% said it happens half the time, 25% said more than half the time, and 14% claimed their subway is “always” late. Only 1% said they never experience significant delays.

“A whopping 74% of working straphangers said they’ve been late to a work meeting in the past three months because of a subway delay, according to a survey of riders by city Controller Scott Stringer. And many suffered more serious consequences — 13% lost wages in the last three months, and 2% said they’d been fired.

Stringer said Sunday at a press conference outside the W. 72nd St. subway station: “Our subway system is in crisis. This shows the crisis is real and the impact is real on the people of New York City.”

Many examples of travel disruption are included, along with the fact that “some 22% of those who responded to the survey said they’d been late to a job interview, while 29% were late to a medical appointment and 65% of parents said they were late to pick up or drop off their children.

“Half of riders said they had to pay for a taxi to work because of subway delays. Another 42% walked to work and 10% drove.”

The impact of the statistics led to searching another article on the subject, this one by Rich Calder, Michael Gartland, Yoav Gonen, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding @nypost.com, saying: “Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday skipped an NYPD swearing-in ceremony made somber by this week’s assassination of a cop — then hours later revealed he was busy preparing to jet off on a surprise trip to join leftist protesters at the G-20 summit in Germany.

“Hizzoner’s overseas jaunt was kept under wraps until just 90 minutes before he took off from Newark Airport. A last-minute announcement said he “will attend several events surrounding the G-20 Summit, including Saturday’s Hamburg Zeigt Haltung rally.”

“De Blasio will be the keynote speaker, organizers of the demonstration — Hamburg Shows Attitude — tweeted.

“Presumptive Republican challenger Nicole Malliotakis accused de Blasio of abandoning pressing issues in the Big Apple to pursue his progressive agenda in Europe.

Malliotakis also "blasted him for blowing off" a NYPD ceremony at the Police Academy in Queens.

“The mayor should be embarrassed by the way he has treated the men and women of our police department,” she said.

“The head of the NYPD sergeants union also attacked de Blasio.

“As the city mourns, its leader flees,” Ed Mullins said. “And then he wonders why he has a problem with the police. A real leader stays with the city in this time of hardship.”

“Less than five hours before de Blasio’s flight to Berlin, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill offered reassurance to 524 new recruits in the wake of Wednesday’s slaying of Officer Miosotis Familia.”

Therefore, the mayor’s decision to politic in Europe provides a clear illustration of political theorizing differences as compared to far more conservative leader’s, such as Rudy Giuliani, who believed a "broken windows" approach would change city streets for the better. The theory suggests police can make cities safer by cracking down on minor crimes like vandalism, which it surely did in the 1990s under Giuliani.

economist.com explains: “The broken windows theory stems from the work of two criminologists, George Kelling and James Wilson, who suggested that minor disorder, like vandalism, acted as a gateway to more serious crime. By focusing on smaller offenses, often referred to as "quality of life" crimes, Kelling and Wilson thought violent crime and other undesirable activity would decrease.”

Where the pieces come together can be seen in an excerpt from Wikipedia saying: “Many claim that informal social controls can be an effective strategy to reduce unruly behavior. Garland 2001 expresses that “community policing measures in the realization that informal social control exercised through everyday relationships and institutions is more effective than legal sanctions”. Informal social control methods, has demonstrated a “get tough” attitude by proactive citizens, and expresses a sense that disorderly conduct is not tolerated.” 

Most importantly: “In an anonymous, urban environment, with few or no other people around, social norms and monitoring are not clearly known. Individuals thus look for signals within the environment as to the social norms in the setting and the risk of getting caught violating those norms; one of the signals is the area's general appearance.

“Under the broken windows theory, an ordered and clean environment, one that is maintained, sends the signal that the area is monitored and that criminal behavior is not tolerated. Conversely, a disordered environment, one that is not maintained (broken windows, graffiti, excessive litter), sends the signal that the area is not monitored and that criminal behavior has little risk of detection.

“The theory assumes that the landscape "communicates" to people. A broken window transmits to criminals the message that a community displays a lack of informal social control and so is unable or unwilling to defend itself against a criminal invasion. It is not so much the actual broken window that is important but the message the broken window sends to people. It symbolizes the community's defenselessness and vulnerability and represents the lack of cohesiveness of the people within. Neighborhoods with a strong sense of cohesion fix broken windows and assert social responsibility on themselves, effectively giving themselves control over their space.”

And that’s what’s critically important because it’s leaderships actions that deliver the message, far more definitively than speeches or words in general. 

Thus, by traveling to Europe rather than attending a police swearing-in ceremony, De Blasio is delivering a very strong message indeed. And that message is, he really doesn’t care about the launching of new police careers or the effect of his disinterest on his city’s citizens. Pushing a personal leftist agenda overseas is far more important to him and whatever his future political plans may be.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios