General
Why the Obvious Can Be Game-Changing for Democrats
Democrats’ standing is at a record low nationally. To inch their way up from their nadir, Democrats must demonstrate the basics of governing. As New York City slouches toward the Democratic mayoral primary in June, a subway safety plan proposed by …
Democrats’ standing is at a record low nationally. To inch their way up from their nadir, Democrats must demonstrate the basics of governing.
As New York City slouches toward the Democratic mayoral primary in June, a subway safety plan proposed by the front-runner, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, raises the main question for the city’s ruling party: Why is it so hard to accomplish obvious things? Why have so many candidates and elected officials resisted common-sense ideas that not only could work, but have worked in the past?
Mr. Cuomo’s subway safety plan, being released Tuesday morning, is 20 pages of footnoted detail, a smorgasbord of ideas, some good, some not so good, some with a credible path to execution, some not.
But the plan illustrates why Mr. Cuomo, despite his known demerits, is ahead of his more progressive rivals. As the only major candidate running against Mayor Eric Adams as a moderate, Mr. Cuomo acknowledges three obvious facts and sets one clear and attainable standard that New York used to come closer to achieving: “The transit system exists for transit use only,” the plans says, not as a homeless shelter, not as a haven for the severely mentally ill.
As for the three obvious facts, first, the public is concerned about subway violence and disorder, and rightly so. Even though they have fallen from pandemic rates, violent subway felonies in 2024 were well above the lows that long persisted before 2020 — 14 percent above 2019 levels, even as post-pandemic ridership lags.
The nature of the crime has changed, too, rattling riders: Last year’s felony assaults, many of them committed by repeat violent offenders, without warning or provocation, were 55 percent above 2019 levels, higher than at any time since at least 1997. Last year’s 10 recorded murders, plus one apparently justified homicide during a violent robbery and one violent death after a fight, were also the highest in that time span. Through 2019, it took six years to rack up such a murder toll.
