To tell the truth
Even though we are in the post-truth era #121
This week we were all subjected, repeatedly, to a line declaring Mayor Eric Adams’s executive budget the “best budget ever,” without any evidence or analysis.
You’d think as a reporter covering government and politics I would have gotten used to persistent lying and exaggerations by now. It sadly still drives me up a wall.
That $115 billion budget includes $199 million in money for education programs previously funded through COVID stimulus money; $309 million more for the NYPD; and some more money for Parks.
Adams presented it at Bayside High School, his alma mater, in a quarter-filled auditorium, with human furniture of elementary and high school students behind him. Some held up signs saying “FOREVER,” which the mayor explained is what baselining funding means. This is not true, since budgets can be cut all the time; the mayor himself instituted savings programs to “BASELINE IS FOREVER” programs throughout his tenure. But why let that get in the way of a good sign?
And is this even really the “best budget ever”? I asked a few people at City Hall what analysis they did to make that claim — the 1989 budget didn’t seem too bad in spite of everything — but they had nothing substantive to share.
One press person did sheepishly cop to the phrase being “subjective,” but the rest sound like Mr. Milchik. “With elements like new supportive housing funding, afterschool for all, investments in reduced class sizes, etc — we’d content (sp) that it’s our Best Budget Ever!,” one press person said to me in a text. Blink twice if you need help! Cynically this improved budget comes as Adams is running for his job without matching-funds (more below) and historically bad poll numbers. If he keeps repeating it maybe voters will believe it’s true.
This week there was also this post on X by Melissa DeRosa, above a video of supporters of her boss, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
I responded stating the obvious, that SHE is an insider, but the thought that people publicly operate in an alternate reality like this makes me mad.
DeRosa is the daughter of one of the biggest lobbyists in the state and reportedly had an “emotional romantic relationship” with Cuomo. She is so insider that she literally wrote a whole book whose premise was to reveal the real truth about her role in government. The Cuomo campaign has also scooped up so many union and elected official endorsements, insiders, that I questioned who she meant. Why do people who’ve lived their whole lives as privileged insiders insist on pretending they’re not?
Interesting stories from THE CITY
↣ Tenants facing evictions increasingly don’t have lawyers despite New York City law
↣ The hosts of a podcast critical of NYPD leadership say they’ve been targeted by anonymous attacks
↣ The Campaign Finance Board escalates its fraud probe into Mayor Adams
↣ There are people still clinging to the Metrocard (I get it)
↣ More than 40% of Democratic presidential primary voters in some neighborhoods in the city cast blank ballots for Gaza
↣ Public sector unions sue City Hall over health savings impasse
↣ Our latest edition of Ranked Choices, focused on your ranked choices
Other interesting stories
The DOJ defied an order to unseal documents in Adams’s case, although we are now expecting them next Friday [NYPOST]
An update on the state budget [POLITICO]
Bicyclists face criminal summonses under new NYPD policy [amNY]
This was a good GSD (Grub Street Diet) [GRUBSTREET]
New York make weaken oversight over religious schools [NYT]
LISTEN
A few weeks ago I spoke about the upcoming primary election with the JFK Democratic Club in Jackson Heights. The speaker before me was Rudy Greco, a former judge now focusing on his podcast, “Uncommon Law: Lessons they don’t teach in law school.”
He has a trove of episodes of his stories from working as a lawyer and judge, but also a music manager and boxing promoter and teacher and steamfitter. They are short and interesting, and he has that old-school New York City accent I feel comforted around (like pronouncing “humor” as “yumor.”) Take a listen!
And if you haven’t caught up on the FAQ Democratic primary candidate interviews, we spoke to nearly everyone: Scott Stringer, Whitney Tilson, Michael Blake, Jessica Ramos, Zohran Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams.
Google Street view has photos of the Rockaway boardwalk from August 2012, before Hurricane Sandy, and I spotted friends AND of course Whalemina, now just a memory of a neighborhood rescuing municipal trash and making it beautiful again. Thanks for reading!