Autumn slithered into New York with a cold, wet weekend, but
then came two days of crisp air, glorious sun and crystalline sky,
and you knew beyond any doubt: Summer was finally over, and the
best of all seasons in the city had come. Everything old was new
again, and the possibilities seemed infinite. Autumn in New York is
like spring everywhere else.
The city, of course, still has its problems. Homeless people,
for example, are once again an issue. Activists insist the number
of homeless is growing, although the police and city officials say
it is not. What has changed, they say, is that the homeless are now
more visible than before. As one of the security measures taken
after Sept. 11 the cops began rousting them from tunnels and other
underground passages where they had been sleeping. Consequently,
the city says, the homeless now turn up in more public places.
Most likely that’s true, and no one, not even the activists,
suggests that the homeless problem is what it was in the bad old
pre-Giuliani days. Actually hardly anyone seems to think it will
ever be that way again, although they may be reluctant to admit it.
One of Rudy Giuliani’s great accomplishments as mayor was that in
overcoming entrenched liberalism he gave vagrancy a bad name, and
made parks and playgrounds safe for families and not for junkies
and bums. Much of the so-called homeless problem then melted
away.
Meanwhile the weekend also saw the first debate between the
candidates for governor of New York State, and in its way it was a
hoot. In 1994, candidate George Pataki refused to debate Gov. Mario
Cuomo when Cuomo insisted that all minor-party candidates join in
the debate as well. But that was then, and now that he is governor,
Pataki has assumed the Cuomo position: He said he would not debate
Democrat H. Carl McCall unless all other candidates were in the
debate, too.
And so they were, not just Pataki and McCall, but also the
hopefuls from the Marijuana Reform, Right to Life, Libertarian,
Independence and Green Parties. They all had equal time in the
90-minute televised debate. No one, however, said anything
interesting except the Right to Life candidate, Gerard J. Cronin, a
parochial school teacher. “How are you, kids?” he said to his
students.
Other than that there was only the insistence by Pataki and
McCall that they both had a “plan” to deal with the state budget
crisis, even though the shortfall may exceed $10 billion. Neither,
however, offered any details about their plans, although both said
they would not raise taxes or cut state programs. You did not
believe either one, but you had to admire their chutzpah.
Both Pataki and McCall, in fact, are liberals, and there does
not appear to be much substantive difference between them.
Meanwhile Pataki is heavily favored to win re-election, although
McCall may pick up a sympathy vote. Credit the New York
Post for that. It did more investigative reporting, and once
again disgraced itself.
Recently the Post stationed a reporter and photographer
outside a city agency, and monitored employees’ smoke breaks. Then
it ran a story with names and pictures, ratting on workers who took
more than their two allotted 15-minute breaks. The Post,
supposedly a conservative paper, acted like an organ of the nanny
state.
Then, just after that, it decided it had the goods on McCall. It
found out that McCall, the New York State comptroller, had used
official stationery to recommend some family members and friends
for jobs. Many politicians use their stationery to do similar
things, of course, and so, for that matter, do many people in the
media.
Meanwhile, although the Post offered no evidence that
McCall had retaliated in any way if the jobs were not forthcoming,
it kept hammering away with front-page stories. None amounted to
much, but the Times, Daily News and
Newsday had to take notice. Presumably they knew the
charges were silly, but sanctimony won out, and they all ran
critical editorials. Whatever McCall’s malfeasances, he almost
certainly deserved better than that.
But maybe none of this really matters now. It is finally autumn
in New York, and that means things can get started all over
again.
