Just last week I blogged about the difficulties that NYC Comptrollers face when they run for NYC mayor -- only one comptroller, Abe Beame, has gone to sleep in Gracie Mansion.
For more than half a century every subsequent comptroller has succumbed to the Curse of the Comptroller.
Doubtless when each of these comptrollers were first elected they must have felt, elated with the flush of a great victory, that the mayoralty was their's for the taking (only to find, years later, that it was out of reach).
Well, the current comptroller Brad Lander must feel the same way because he's just announced that he's running for mayor in 2025. This is going to get nasty really quick -- and as unpopular and vulnerable as Mayor Eric Adams is, it could wind up with both guys heading to their political doom.
But remember, when pundits start talking about the difficulties comptrollers runnings for mayor have, remember Mr NYC wrote about it first!
Recently the boys did a series of episodes exploring NYC's Dutch roots by actually going to Holland and visiting the towns and areas where so much of this city's history began. It's a fascinating look at how much of the city we know today, the mightiest city in the world, came from this small European country -- and how this town was once a colony of a mighty overseas non-English speaking empire.
America may have been born in the streets of NYC but, before NYC was NYC, it was a small Dutch town in the New World.
After all, New York City used to be New Amsterdam, neighborhoods like Harlem came from the Dutch town of Haarlam and the entire borough of Brooklyn came from a place called Breukelen.
And if you've ever read The Great Gatsby, it's famous last paragraphs, as Nick Carraway stares across Long Island Sound at the huge rich homes and the symbolic green light, he wonders about what it must have looked at, unmolested, for "Dutch sailors' eyes."
I haven't listened to the entire series yet but plan to finish it soon -- and encourage you to do so!
In the final season of The Crown, Prince Charles ruminates: "To be Prince of Wales is not a position -- it's a predicament."
The same is true of the American Vice-Presidency. Much like the Prince of Wales, the job is mainly just to exist, to be ... there ... until the top job opens up ... or not.
Right now the American Vice-Presidency is under a microscope -- as President Biden steps aside, his Vice-President, Kamala Harris, is being vaulted to become the 2024 Democratic nominee for President (and, God willing, will be elected President in November). And President Biden, of course, was Vice-President just a few years ago.
And, yes, two years ago Prince Charles in real life became King Charles.
Eventually the predicament of being #2, the understudy waiting in the wings, comes to an end, one way or another (for the previous Vice-President, Mike Pence, it almost ended when his President, Donald Trump, sent a violent mob to attack him).
As the 2024 presidential race gets hotter and wilder, the 2025 NYC Mayor's race is being quietly talked about. Mayor Eric Adams is not popular and several people are being spoken about challenging him next year. Amongst the rumored candidates are Scott Stringer and Brad Lander, the former and current Comptrollers of NYC.
Much like the Prince of Wales or Vice-President, the NYC Comptroller is also a predicament. Now, unlike those jobs, it does have some real substance to it -- the Comptroller is the Chief Fiscal Officer of the city, overseeing the city's accounts, running audits of city agencies, managing the pension system, issuing bonds, reviewing and approving city contracts, etc. It's a very important position, and it's overall job is to make sure NYC tax dollars are spent legally, ethically, and transparently.
However, what makes the job a predicament is that it simply doesn't have the powers or glamour of the mayoralty -- the Comptroller is the CFO, not the CEO of the city, doesn't get to sign or veto legislation, doesn't get to set government policy, doesn't appoint agency heads, and doesn't get to live rent-free in a mansion. It's a job that's so close and yet so far from the top job, existing across a chasm that's a foot wide and a million feet deep.
On paper, the Comptrollership should be the perfect launching pad for the mayoralty. It's a citywide elected position, it has real power, and the comptroller's name is often in the media. And yet the last NYC Comptroller to be elected mayor was Abe Beame back in 1973 -- since then, almost every single Comptroller has run for mayor and lost, often badly. For more than half a century the #2 job, the job that seems like the perfect political stepping-stone to #1, has instead proven to be a political banana peal.
Of course, in every election, there have been various, often forgotten reasons, why these Comptrollers have never become mayor. But it will very interesting to see if, next year, two Comptrollers run and if either of them can actually topple Adams and become mayor.
If so, then the "curse of the comptroller" will be lifted. If not, it will be doubled.
Politics makes history -- that is something that we are depressingly learning the hard ways these days.
But hard times make history, and people make history, and they have to make it somewhere.
Many New Yorkers, for better and (let's face it, more recently) for worse, have made history and made it in various spots around this city. This article lists the most historically imporant places in NYC -- some that are obvious and others that aren't.
In the wake of the 2008-2009 cultural phenomenon "Jersey Shore", guidos and guidettes become, very briefly, all the rage. Hence, more than 15 and a half years ago, yours truly paid tribute to this with this rather odd blog post about a Staten Island girl who had posted a video where she complained about not being married.
It's a hoot. Anyway, enjoy. And if you want even more Staten Island girls, including another one from the girl in the original 2009 video, see below:
You must read this article from The New Yorker where the legendary writer Ian Frazier chronicles his many walks around the only NYC borough attached to the mainland -- and intertwines it with the fascinating history of the Bronx stretching back 300 years.
Much like Staten Island, one might argue that the Bronx is a "forgotten borough", perched to the north of its four sister boroughs, and more often driven through (or just visited for Yankee games) than really lived in or appreciated. But it has a great history, starting with the discovery and birth of America, the Revolutionary War, and the evolution of NYC.
Of course, the Bronx also has a sad history -- what was once a working class "paradise", a city unto itself of middle class homes, has brutally cut up by the various highways in the 20th century that literally destroyed neighborhoods and decimated communities, creating big pockets of crime and poverty that it's never really recovered from.
That said, as Frazier makes clear in his article, the Bronx is no longer "burning" -- like the rest of the city, it has been revived, many of the destroyed neighborhoods rebuilt, and yet an air of mystery and haunting still hangs over the only borough that attaches itself to the rest of the Lower 48 -- and that will always be its distinction.
A Holocaust survivor, an immigrant, a pioneering and influential sex expert, Dr Ruth was an inspiration and an American original. She has passed away at the age of 96 -- but her humor, her brillance, and her openhearted nature will live forever.
And she was a total New Yorker, a resident of Washington Heights, and beloved character of the city. She was one of us -- and always will be.
I wrote a few years ago about the time Dr. Ruth came to my college and brought the house down with a hilarious story involving a couple rekindling their intimacy with onion rings. I'll never forget it!
"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives ..."
Thus spake Saint Augustine. Or an old soap opera. Either way time has been passing quickly lately because life has been quite hectic lately and blogging has gotten away from me lately -- until now!
But as I compose my first real post in over a month, the passage of time is very much on my mind -- and a couple recent events and remembrances have focused my mind on how people and things come and go, and either leave a lasting impression ... or don't.
First, a passing: the brilliant screenwriter and movie director Robert Towne recently died at the age of 89. He wrote and directed several films but the movie that catapulted him to cinematic greatness was his script for the 1974 classic Chinatown (which I've blogged about here several times). Besides being the most perfect screenplay ever written, Chinatown is also probably the best American movie ever made about the dark soul of a city and the forces that shape it. While it's about LA and not NYC, the movie has echoes of the real-life works of Robert Moses in NYC and how, to quote Chinatown, "he made this city." Towne understood the giant, secretive, menacing forces that surround and suffocate us, how cities are largely the products of deeply corrupt and powerful men, and how all of us are subject to their will and live within their warped creations. Hence the movie's iconic final line "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." But we'll never forget Robert Towne, his great legacy, and what "makes" our city.
Second, another passing but one nowhere near as sad. As I've also blogged about several times, one of my favorite shows ever is the early 1990s sci-fic drama Quantum Leap -- about a brilliant scientist who travels back in time, "leaping" into the life of various people and "putting right where once went wrong," changing history "for the better." It had many great episodes, including several in NYC. A couple years ago it had a reboot that I had high hopes for -- only to see them dashed. The show was a mess. Instead of focusing on the humanity of the characters who were to be saved, it chose to be some kind of weird thriller with numerous and confusing storylines, too many poorly developed characters, and no real chemistry between the actors. It failed completely. Now it's been cancelled, put out of its misery, and hopefully it will be forgotten -- while the great original show will hopefully be remembered and rewatched for decades to come.
Third, it's hard to believe but it's been over a quarter of a century since Sex and the City first hit our airwaves. It's now become a part of NYC's culture and identity but, back in 1998, it was just a little show struggling to find an audience. The pilot was directed by Susan Seidelman who also made the funky 1982 NYC movie Smithereens which I reviewed back in 2017. In this recent big interview, Seidelman remembers the making of Smithereens, the S&TC pilot as well as her classic 1985 movie Desperately Seeking Susan. In many ways these movies and TV shows define late 20th-century NYC -- and Susan Seidelman's vision made them happen.
Fourth, an anniversary, a big one: WNYC radio is 100 years old! Yes, broadcasting in this town has existed for more than a century. Probably the most powerful public radio station in the country, WNYC has had a tremendous legacy -- and present day relevance -- to the life of this city. Besides going back and reading my numerous posts about WNYC, you can also listen to a history of the station here and also a recreation of the station's first July 8th, 1924 broadcast here.
All things and people pass, come and go -- but so much else lasts (like this blog!). And, for that, yours truly is truly grateful.
