Tells You Somethin', Don't It?
A QUALITY-OF-LIFE survey released last week by Baruch College and a group called Citizens for NYC revealed the following:
Loud nightclubs, vandalism, lousy transportation, youth gangs, homelessness, violent crime and abandoned buildings were cited as problems, but not as immediately pressing as those others.
As we read through the lists, which were broken down by borough, we noticed something. Of all the issues cited-and there were dozens of them-none of them were things the mayor had focused on. Certainly not in the way he's gone after smokers, sex shops and bicyclists during his term in office.
Likewise, none of those people surveyed mentioned any of the things that seem to really stick in the mayor's craw.
So while we're out there every day dealing with noise and insane traffic and vermin, he's obsessing about smoky bars and boobs. Moreover, he turns rabid about shoving through projects like the West Side stadium and the Olympic Games, which are only going to exacerbate all these real quality-of-life issues New Yorkers are worried about.
The 311 line was a great idea, and it's working better all the time-but doesn't he pay any attention at all to what people are complaining about? Obviously not. So why is it that his poll numbers keep going up?