NYC: Days of Future Past

Last night's NYC primaries made history -- two members of Congress were defeated as were several members of the state legislature, and the Democratic Socialists of America saw several of its candidates win (including the Brooklyn Borough President who was running for Congress losing).

Even though Tammny Hall is long gone, it's spirit remained in NYC politics for decades -- static, perenially status quo, incumbents getting reelected over and over and over again. Rarely, very rarely, did incumbents lose -- until the last few years. That's now accelerated, and incumbents are starting to drop like flies.

Only time will tell but it appears that NYC's political future will be much more dynamic.

And while NYC's political future is being forged, its past is being memoralized -- although somewhere far from NYC: a new presidential library for Theodore Roosevelt, only one of two presidents born in the city, is opening ... in North Dakota. It might seem like an odd place but TR spent a lot of time in the state during his youth and had many formative experiences. Also, city-boy that he was, TR founded the national parks, preserving so much of the nation's wilderness. So it's appropriate his library would be out there -- cementing his legacy in the place where he forged it.

When it comes to NYC politics, these days we're truly living in the past and future at the same time.