The City of Staten Island?

The thing about New York City is that it isn't a city -- it's several.

The City of New York is basically a holding company, an archipelago of cities, a stuffed box of a municipalities, a necklace wrapped around the throat of New York Harbor -- a true urban empire. 

Brooklyn was and, in many ways, remains its own city. Manhattan and the Bronx used to be the entirety of New York City before annexing Brooklyn and the county of Queens in 1898 -- a county that, by the way, had its own cities (Long Island City and Flushing) plus a bunch of towns and villages. The fifth wheel, the "Odd-Man In", was the county of Richmond, a lightly populated island of villages, that today is known as Staten Island.

And in any family, there are tensions.

While most of NYC is urban and racially diverse, Staten Island mostly suburban -- and white. While most of NYC is liberal and tolerant, Staten Island is conservative and angry. And while four of the five boroughs has a population of 1.5 to 2.5 million, Staten Island has around half-a-million. It's the black sheep of NYC.

Because it ill-fits the rest of the city, Staten Island has, over the last hundred years, made occasional noises about seceding from NYC and becoming the independent City of Staten Island. In 1993 there was a non-binding referendum about secession that passed -- and then went nowhere in the state legislature.

But now the seceders are making noise again -- they want to establish a commission to examine the legal, political, and economic feasibility of becoming its own city. This article gets into the dirty details of what this would entail.

Make no mistake -- at the heart of this secession "movement" is racism. It's about a bunch of white people who don't want to be governed by a majority-minority government. And it isn't really a movement -- no one's holding rallies or taking to the streets in support of secession -- it's mostly social media posts and the pontifications of politicians who know it'll go nowhere and don't want it to.

Like Brexit or Roe v. Wade or the Iraq War, people talk a lot of hot air about how great it would be if we just broke away/overturned/invaded this Big Bad Thing and then come to rue. Staten Island secession is just another such fever dream -- they would lose all city monies, their property taxes would explode, all the schools and police stations and firehouses and public services would vanish and have to be replaced overnight, they'd have to pay tolls to take the ferry into Manhattan -- it would be a mess. 

I've blogged about this before -- and it remains as true now as then.

Governor's Island

Staten Island Silliness

One of the things I've noticed about the Republican Party is that, whenever they lose elections, they want to re-write the rules or re-shape the contours of the electorate. It's not enough for them just to accept defeat and try to win next time -- oh no, they shout "VOTER FRAUD!", try to rig the game, unlevel the playing field (cheat, basically) to gain a seemingly permanent advantage.

Hence the GOP has given us things like voter suppression laws and outrageous campaign finance regulations and extreme gerrymandering of political districts. I remember back in the early 1990s when the Democrats controlled Congress and most state legislatures, Republicans yelled and screamed about the virtue of term limits until they got control of Congress and most state legislatures and suddenly shut up about term limits. 

What a coincidence!

Being a Republican means being a full-time hypocrite and liar as well as conveniently forgetting things when they stop being useful (i.e. a Democratic President having an affair is bad but a Republican President paying hush money to an adult film star to cover up an affair is good). 

Locally this GOP-inspired silliness has led the only Republican dominated borough in NYC, Staten Island, to consider actually seceding from the city. They don't like living in a city dominated by Democrats, they're sick of losing and being out of power, so they want to set up shop on their own. I remember (also back in the early 1990s) the secession movement was such a big thing in Staten Island that there was actually a referendum vote to make it happen -- until it ran in to the teeth of the law. Then Rudy became mayor and the Staten Island secession movement died.

Now it's back! 

Republican members of the state legislature and city council are initiating "studies" and drafting laws that would make it possible for Staten Island to seceded and, in some cases, join into a bizarre, illogical, never-tried-before political alliance with upstate New York. These proposals will obviously go nowhere soon in Democratically-controlled New York but the fact that Republicans here are even toying with dumb ideas like this shows how they can't help themselves -- when they can't win the game they try to mess with the referrees, damage the equipment, litter the field. 

In a couple of days, over in the UK, there will be an election that will be about Brexit, the country's attempt to leave the European Union. This Brexit thing has been going on for three years, ever since the UK bumbled into this mess via a referendum with no plan, no vision, no idea of what Brexit would actually entail. It has convulsed the country and thrown the country into a complete nightmare -- worse, in many ways, than the nightmare of Trump in this country. Many people in the UK think this election will "Get Brexit Done", that it will resolve the crises they didn't realize would even be a crises to begin with -- but Brexit is such a massive legal and political divorce that it will never, ever end. It's yet another lie, another fantasy being sold by liars. 

And whether it's Trump or Brexit or the silliness of Staten Island secessionists, all of this reminds me of the scene you see in so many movies and TV shows where a married couple gets into a bad fight, one of the spouses quickly packs up a bag and storms out of the house --- only to discover he or she has nowhere to go. It's like the people who quit jobs out of frustration -- only to realize the financial and career abyss they've flung themselves into. It's all a lot of fashionable nihilism, a neat and totally false promise of "If we just leave, if we just quit, if we just overthrow the overlord happiness will ensue." 

It doesn't. It won't. It's all a lot of silliness, a totally false bill of goods.

Just like Staten Island secessionism.  

So What's the Deal with Staten Island?

When you look at a map of the five boroughs that create the archipelligo of NYC, it makes sense that four of them go together: the lower part of the Bronx and western coastlines of Brooklyn and Queens are hugged together around the island of Manhattan -- the borough that ties them all together.

But what about Staten Island?

This borough, the so-called "forgotten borough, lies well south of its NYC brethren. It doesn't "hug" any part of NYC -- instead, it hugs the Jersey Shore. So why isn't it part of New Jersey? Why does it belong to NYC?

Long story short: politics. In the early 19th century, both New Jersey and New York claimed ownership to Staten Island that, at the time, was known as Richmond County (it wasn't part of NYC since NYC at that time only consisted of Manhattan the Bronx). Basically, NY wanted the island and NJ wanted access to NY harbor so, under the guidance of President Martin van Buren, they worked out a deal. Then, when NYC consolidated in 1898, Staten Island became part of NYC because, well, it was already part of New York State and had nowhere else to go.

Apparently there are some urban legends about how Staten Island wound up in NYC including how it was part of a bet on a boat race -- but it's untrue. It's a more dreary story -- like so much else in life. And, some might joke, like Staten Island itself.

Why are NYC addresses so crazy?

In the cell-phone/e-mail/digital age, people don't send letters much anymore. But people still have to live someplace and therefore still have physical addresses. If you live in New York City then, you know that our addresses make absolutely no sense.

The typical address is "number, street name, apartment or unit (if any), city, state, zip code." In NYC, however, it's the "city" part that gets a little confusing.

Too whit: there are five boroughs that are all part of the City of New York. Therefore, logically, every address here should be "New York, NY" or "City of New York" or "New York City." But no! Only if you live in Manhattan do you get a "New York, NY" address. And that's not because you live in New York City -- it's because Manhattan is co-extensive with New York County. So the "New York" part actually has nothing to do with the city.

And there are no correct addresses that are "Manhattan, NY" or "New York City" or "City of New York." Why? I don't know!

And it gets odder. In the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, almost all city addresses are "Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island." I say almost because, in the Bronx, if you live Riverdale, then the city name is "Riverdale." But the rest of the Bronx is "Bronx, NY" or "The Bronx, NY" and Staten Island and Brooklyn are always "Staten Island" and "Brooklyn." And this has nothing to do with these boroughs' county names (like with Manhattan/New York County) because only The Bronx is Bronx County -- Staten Island is Richmond County and Brooklyn is Kings County.

But where it gets REALLY confusing is in Queens (i.e. Queens county). There are no Queens' addresses that are "Queens, NY." Instead, the city part of any address in Queens is by neighborhood i.e. "Flushing, NY", "Forest Hills, NY", "Long Island City, NY", "Astoria, NY", "Woodside, NY", Fresh Meadows, NY" and on and on. So if you live in Queens, you better know what your specific neighborhood name is or else you'll have problems.

I know that NYC is a huge city and, since it extends over five boroughs, it's impossible to have a uniform city address. But why can't it be easy? You know "Manhattan, NY", "Bronx, NY", "Queens, NY", and "Staten Island, NY"? Why does it have to be so inconsistent and confusing?

I've done my best to answer this question, asked everyone I know who might know the answer, even scoured the web but have found no clear explanation. If you know the reason, please let Mr NYC know.

Review: "The King of Staten Island" (2020)

The "coming-of-age" story is an old one. A young man or woman, usually raised in a conservative, closed-knit family or community, goes out into the world and learns important Life Lessons. These include personal and professional triumphs and failures, romantic thrills and disapointments, and a transition from the innocence of childhood to the wisdom of adulthood. 

All of us come of age some way, somehow, and stories about it are great fodder for movies. 

Once upon a time childhood ended for most young people when they graduated from high school -- even in college, after the age of eighteen, people were considered adults. That's when they came of age! But in 21st century America, childhood and "coming of age" seems to last until people are thirty. More and more Americans in their twenties are living at home, delaying marriage and childhood (the marriage and birth rates have plunged in recent years), and treating adulthood as a disease to be avoided at all costs. 

That's a great way to say that this is exactly what the new movie The King of Staten Island is about -- a man of 24, living with his mother on Staten Island, unemployed and totally directionless, smoking tons of weed, hanging out with his posse of similar overgrown children, and hooking up with a girl who, despite her better judgement, loves this guy.

The guy in question is named Scott and he's played by Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live. Based on Davidson's own life (whose from Staten Island and whose father died on 9/11), Scott is living through the trauma of his father's untimely death many years earlier, his sister who has now left home for college, and his widowed mother who is coming out of her shell and starting to date again. Scott is feeling left behind, miserable, but a series of events change the direction of his life and family -- giving this otherwise hopeless young man some hope for the future.

That's it. That's the whole plot of the movie.

And it is executed quite well. Davidson is a very good leading man, the supporting cast is just as interesting as him (especially Marissa Tomei who plays his mother), and there are lots of funny scenes. There are few movies about working class life, so it's great to see one when it comes along. The movie is directed by Judd Apatow quite well, and he gives it the humane, loving touch that he has in so many of his previous films. And yet, like his previous films, Apatow makes the movie too damn long. He tells an hour-and-a-half long story in almost two-and-a-half hours, there are lots of scenes that, while entertaining, are totally pointless, and, just when you think the move is over ... it goes on ... and on ... and on.

And, as the title suggests, it's a big Staten Island movie. The borough is shot and presented in a loving way, making it seem like a forgotten jewel beyond Manhattan and the rest of the city, the most loving portrait of the forgotten borough since Working Girl. At one point one of the characters observes that, one day, Staten Island will become a hot place to live like Brooklyn.

Enjoy.

Staten Island Girl

Mr NYC tries to wrap its loving arms around the whole city -- and that includes Staten Island. I plugged in Staten Island on YouTube to see what might pop up and this rather bizarre video called "Staten Island Girl" topped the list.

This young "guidette" talks about her life, guys, her ambitions, guys, Staten Island, guys ... you get the idea. It's a hoot.

That Other NYC: City Island & Roosevelt Island

If you know New York, you can probably reel off its boroughs and most famous neighborhoods no problem: Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Soho, Harlem, the Upper East and West Sides, Park Slope, Astoria, the South Bronx, Riverdale, even Flushing and Flatbush. But what about City Island and Roosevelt Island? Eh, not so much. That's because they belong to the other New York, the parts of the city you rarely see on TV or in the movies. These little chunks of land are part of this town but they really aren't integrated into it and they don't belong to any borough. They're like little enclaves, small towns within the big city. However, today, here at Mr NYC, we will give them their due:

• City Island: This is what one might call a "nautical community." It's like the Nantucket of NYC, a little island floating off the coast - in this case, the coast of the Bronx. But this isn't the tough Bronx of the popular imagination. No, this small island, about a mile long, consists of charming little houses and seafood restaurants. It also has several docks for boats and you have to constantly remind yourself that you're in New York City and not in a New England fishing town. I was there last year and we had a pleasant walk along City Island Avenue, the main street that cuts across the length of the island. We looked at the charming little stores and had a lobster lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view of the water. Getting there is a bit of a hassle (you gotta drive), but if it's a nice day and you're inclined to see a very different part of this town, it's worth checking out.
  
  
• Roosevelt Island: okay, I'll be blunt, it's nowhere near as charming as City Island but it's a lot easier to get to. You can just get off on the F train or take the Roosevelt Island tram on East 59th street (it's running again after a most unfortunate snafu last year). The island - used to be called Welfare Island - consists mostly of small apartment buildings that look like socialist worker housing. There's also a hospital here. While there's not much of interest on Roosevelt Island, there are two very cool things to see: 1) the stunning view of Manhattan 2) the Ruin! Yes, like Rome or Athens, this city has a ruin - in this case, the Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It's at the very southern most tip of the island and while it's not the world's most attractive ruin, it's makes you think of Old New York, the city that was.
  
  
• For more info of these parts of "that other New York", go to:
  
  City Island.com
  
  Welcome to Roosevelt Island
  
  
  
  

NYC Ferry Routes

My previous blog post about the repurposing of an old Staten Island Ferry boat turning into a party boat, reminded yours truly that NYC actually has LOTS of ferries darting around the city's waterways.

As a city of island, how could we not have a full fleet of ferries? 

The Staten Island Ferry is just one of the oldest, and best known, ferry routes but there are others that serve each borough of the city: the East River Route, the Rockaway Route, the South Brooklyn Route, the Astoria Route, the Soundview Route, the St. George Route (i.e. the other Staten Island Ferry), the soon-to-be Coney Island Route, and the Governor's Island Route.

Here's all the info you need to find your closest ferry route and where it will take you. Also, there's a great map that shows you all these routes and their various ports of call, presented here:

Staten Island Stubborn

When the history of COVID-19 finally appears in the history books, the summer of 2021 will be seen as the time when the pandemic, which could already be 100% over, got stuck in the mud.

Nearly 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated but now -- with the nasty Delta variant out there and huge swaths of the population refusing to get a shot -- we are backsliding. The infection rate is rising and, in some places, restrictions are being reimposed. We were making great progress but it's being put at risk, again, by stupid people, by the COVID deniers and vaccine refuseniks.

In NYC nearly 60% of the population is either fully vaccinated or has had at least one dose. But here, like everywhere else, there are pockets of recalcitrants who won't get vaccinated -- and it's spreading to the rest of the city.

And the biggest pocket is Staten Island.

The "forgotten borough" is making its presence known this summer by having vastly higher rates of unvaccinated and new COVID cases than the rest of the city. The politically conservative borough, our very own Alabama, has an arrogant "Don't Tread On Me!" stubborness and meanspiritedness that's keeping the pandemic going. These folks on Staten Island would rather die in order to "own the libs" than stay healthy and end this nightmare. They like making everyone else as miserable as they are.

It's cruelty personified -- and for, these stubborn people on Staten Island, that's the whole point.

So when the history of COVID-19 in NYC is written, and people wonder why NYC fell off the vaccine wagon, the finger can and should be firmly pointed to the city's smallest and most stubborn borough. 

More Staten Island Stuff

Right now there's a "humdinger" of a Republican Congressional primary going on in Staten Island. Current Representative Dan Donovan is being strongly challenged by his predecessor, Michael Grimm, who held the seat from 2011-2014 until he went to jail for tax fraud.

In normal times, in a normal place, in a normal political party, a disgraced former elected official -- a convicted felon! -- trying to get his old job back would be laughed out of politics. 

Democrats Elliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner tried it 2013 and lost badly. But in today's Republican party, in a wacky place like Staten Island, Grimm has a real shot. He's allied himself strongly with Trump and Donovan is running scared. There's a very good chance that he'll lose to Grimm on June 26th. If he does, it'll tell you everything you about the moral rot in the GOP and, if Grimm, wins the general election and returns to Congress, on Staten Island. 

Let's hope neither comes to pass. 

God Bless Staten Island!

What if you held a protest and nobody showed up?

Even, it appears, the organizers of the protest?

As you're doubtless aware, around the country, a small bunch of morons are holding pathetic rallies where they protest the social distancing effots and lockdowns, etc., that are necessary to stop this pandemic in its tracks. However, that isn't stopping some Republicans from demanding -- SHOUTING! -- that the economy must be "reopened" ASAP so that they can back to their normal lives, making money, and hanging out with people. These idots don't seem to realize or care that, by "reopening", more and more people would get sick, meaning this pandemic would continue even longer, and the economy will only continue to suffer. 

Logic has never been a Republican strong suit. 

While it's an extremely tiny, fringe number of people who are engaging in these dumb rallies, the media is treating it like it's some kind of mass uprising akin to the French Revolution. It's not. It's a freak show. The vast, vast majority of Americans approve the lockdowns and social distancing and don't want to do the stupid and dangerous things these "protesters" are demanding.

Out in the most Republican part of NYC, Staten Island, one of these protests was planned for last Sunday -- only nobody came to it! The cops did, in order to monitor and hopefully break it up, but this turned out to be totally unnecessary. No one showed. 

Call it the protest that never was -- and thank you Staten Island for having some sense.

Proves that, in NYC, even our Republicans are better!

Stay well, Staten Island.

Candy's Music Club - Staten Island Public Access

Long before websites and blogs, New York City public access TV was probably the best place to find what we now call "user generated content." So often the weird and funny shows on public access were vastly more entertaining than those on regular TV.

Thus, in keeping up with the Staten Island theme for today, here's a clip from a cute show on Staten Island Public Access called Candy's Music Club. Enjoy!

Working Girl @ 20

It's hard to believe that Working Girl is twenty years but so it is. Along with The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and a few others, this was one of those flicks that defined the 1980s. It has now become something of a quasi-feminist classic, with an empowering message to all women: girlfriend, you can have the great man and the great job! As Tess says, any smart, driven woman can have a "head for business and a bod for sin." Uh-HUH!

This is also a different sort of New York movie, one that actually takes place (or largely takes place) in one of the outer boroughs. This is easily the best movie ever made about Staten Island and the Staten Island ferry has been forever immortalized in it. Just take one trip on the Staten Island ferry and doubtless you'll hear someone say "This is just like Working Girl!"

Here's the original theatrical trailer. You might recognize the song that plays in it, "Let The River Run" by Carly Simon that won the Best Song Oscar for 1988.

P.S. It's also one of the first movies that shows a character using something that would become e-mail. Now it looks quaint but I'm sure in 1988 it was cutting edge.

Showbusiness Gets the City Government it Deserves

New York City is so famous that people all over the world think they know everything -- or, at least, a lot -- about the city even if they know very little. This ignorance might even include New Yorkers themselves.

This lack of knowledge extends to the city government.   

I'm sure everyone knows NYC has a mayor -- but I'm also sure precious few know when or how the mayor is elected, if mayors are or aren't term-limited, etc. And besides mayors, how many people know anything else about city government and its elected leaders?

Movies and TV shows loves to have mayors and other city officials are characters -- think City Hall, Spin City, Ghostbusters II, lots more. Yet recently some new shows and movies have gone down the chain of city government and revealed this profound ignorance of NYC government in embarrassing ways.

A show called What We Do in the Shadow takes place on Staten Island and refers to the Staten Island City Council. It must therefore come as news to people on Staten Island who watch this show that their borough has finally achieved independence after all.

The Marvel movies seem to confuse the PATH trains for the subway.

A new show called Sunnyside has a New York City "Councilor" getting elected in 2004 and serving for 15 years -- something that is impossible since there are no city elections in 2004 and councilmen/women are limited to two four year terms.

And so much more.

Seriously, this is Mr NYC message to Hollywood: if you're gonna portray city government, GET IT RIGHT! Do a Google search! Or consult with me! It's embarrassing to see movies and TV shows get this town so wrong!

We've Been Here Before -- and We'll Meet Again

Man I love The Bowery Boys! The only good thing about this COVID-19 situation is that they have been dropping lots of great episodes of their podcast lately, including their newest one -- The Staten Island Quarantine War. It is a must listen and a must read (their web page for this episode includes lots of great pictures and info behind this big "war").

Who would have thought that something that happened more than 160 years ago on Staten Island of all places would be so relevant today?

Long story short: there used to be a big quarantine hospital on the northern St. George's tip of Staten Island that the residents hated, petitioned against, rioted against, and eventually burned down, in 1858. When you see all these people protesting against quarantine orders today, it's both depressing but also somehow historically satisfying to know that we've been here before, this is actually nothing new.

People hate quarantines -- whether it's something they are forced to live in or with. Being quarantined is barbaric. It's like being in jail or dealing with kids confined to their rooms -- it totally goes against the human spirit that years for freedom. But sometimes, both for the people being quarantined and for the greater good, it's necessary. 

But learning about this moment in NYC history, you learn that pandemics and quarantines -- like wars, depressions, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, etc. -- or any great events that traumatize an entire populace, are not a new experience in human history. 

To paraphrase the end of the first chapter of Brideshead Revisited, we've been here before, we know all about it -- and some day it will end. To quote Queen Elizabeth II's recent remarks about COVID-19, reminding us more than 80 years after she comforted her fellow children during World War II, "we'll meet again."

Pete Davidson talks Staten Island and Mental Illness on WTF

If you watch Saturday Night Live (and I don't, really), then you know who Pete Davidson is. He's the young -- very young -- cast member dubbed the show's Resident Young Guy. 

He's 23, talented, works on SNL, and dates Larry David's daughter. Needless to say, most people are probably insanely jealous of him.

However ... his dad died on 9/11 and he has Borderline Personality Disorder. Worst of all, according to him, is that he's also from Staten Island. (Okay, okay, I kid ... sort of.)

Anyway, you really need to listen to this interview with Pete Davidson on Marc Maron's WTF podcast. Pete talks a lot about Staten Island and coming to grips with his dad's untimely death. It's amazing, heart rendering interview of tragedy, resilience, and triumph. 

The NYC Seats of Power

One of the most interesting parts of traveling to any city, especially capital cities, is to see the various government buildings it contains -- specifically the seats of power like city or town halls, legislative buildings, palaces or executive mansions, etc. to get a literal look at the places where these cities, states, and countries are ruled or governed from. 

Think of the White House and US Capitol in Washington DC, think of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament in London, think of Versailles (near) Paris or the Forbidden City in Beijing, think of the Vatican in Rome, think of the Kremlin in Moscow!

These great, grand structures are built to say "Here the power resides, ready to strike. Don't question it."

New York City doesn't rule a country or even a state but, as the largest municipality in the country, it certainly has its own important seats of power. City Hall where the council meets and the mayor works is the best known along with Gracie Mansion where the mayor lives and entertains VIPs. 

But there are other seats of power scattered around the city as well, other points from where the city is governed: the offices of the borough presidents.

Five boroughs means five borough presidents and five borough president offices. What's interesting is that borough president offices exist in different kinds of buildings, each tethered to the history of their particular boroughs. 

In Manhattan, the BP works out of the huge Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan on Centre Street along with the NYC Public Advocate, Comptroller and various city agencies like Finance, Landmarks, Veterans Services, Technology, Environmental Protection, and others. An enormous building, it's the very heart of the original, post-1898 consolidation of NYC power of which the BP was, and is, just another part. 

In Staten Island, the BP is located in Staten Island Borough Hall right across from the St. George ferry terminal; it also contains city agencies like Buildings and Transportation and is right next to the county courthouse. Similarly, in Queens, the BP works out of Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens which also houses the county courthouse as does the Bronx County Courthouse where that BP works from too. What separates these three borough presidents' borough halls from Manhattan is that, prior to consolidation, these boroughs were something else entirely -- Queens and Staten Island where simply counties without a central authority or any links to the city, and the Bronx was part of New York County i.e. Manhattan before becoming a separate county -- and finally a borough of NYC. 

Which is what makes Brooklyn Borough Hall so unique. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, it's the only borough hall that used to be a city hall -- for the City of Brooklyn until 1898. It's really the only borough hall that's only that -- it doesn't share space with any other government agencies nor is it part of a courthouse. It's the only legacy left of the former City of Brooklyn, a concession to the past.

So those are the NYC seats of power, the places where a city of nearly 9 million have their futures decided.  

Queens: The Ohio of NYC

When people ask why New York City has elected Republican mayors for the past twenty years, the answer is to be found in Queens. In their tight victories in 1993 and 2001/2009, Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg owed their wins to getting a large chunk of votes in the borough. According to the last Census, Queens has a population almost 2.5 million, a close second to Brooklyn. 

If Staten Island is the Alabama of NYC and the Bronx is the Massachusetts, Queens is the city's Ohio -- the swing borough, the place where mayors are made. Unlike the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, which are highly urban and Democratic, or Staten Island, which is nearly highly suburban and Republican, Queens is a mixture of urban and suburban, Democrat and Republican. In a diverse city, Queens is its most diverse borough -- ethnically, racially, economically, and politically.

Most of our city's mayors have been Manhattanites or were living there when elected. After all, Manhattan was home to Tammany Hall, the political machine that controlled the city's government for close to two centuries. But Tammany Hall is long gone; Manhattan is no longer "the center of it all." These days, if you believe the hype, New York City is experiencing a Brooklyn Moment. From Girls to food co-ops, Brooklyn is on the rise -- heck, it's become a brand. If Brooklyn-resident Bill De Blasio is elected our 109th mayor on November 5th, the Brooklyn Moment will be complete. 

But his margin of victory and the depth of his support will be determined in Queens.

Assuming he wins, De Blasio will rack up huge margins in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Joe Lhota will probably win Staten Island and still lose the election overwhelmingly (much as Fernando Ferrer won the Bronx in 2005 and still lost the mayoralty by twenty points). Wealthy Manhattan may be more friendly to Lhota, as it was to Bloomberg and Giuliani, but De Blasio should still do well there. But if the middle-class white ethnic vote in Queens turns out for Lhota, and the minority voters in borough don't do the same for De Blasio, De Blasio's margin of victory might not be as huge as most polls predict. While De Blasio will certainly do better in Queens than previous (losing) Democratic candidates, he won't necessarily sweep the borough this year.

Also, Queens is the only borough to feature competitive city council races between Democrats and Republicans -- in areas like Bayside, Howard Beach, and Middle Village. Currently, two of these seats are held by Republicans. The Bayside seat is held by indicted Republican Dan Halloran (who is not running for reelection) and the race to replace him, between Democrat Paul Vallone and Republican Dennis Saffran, is fierce. In Howard Beach, Councilman Erich Ulrich is running for reelection against Democrat Lew Simon, who lost a close special election to Ulrich in 2009. The Middle Village race has Democrat Elizabeth Crowley running for reelection in a seat previously held by Republicans. If either Saffran or Ulrich wins, or if Crowley loses, in the face of a De Blasio landslide, it will show that even in a deeply Democratic city, these conservative pockets in Queens remain strong -- now and in the future.

However, if De Blasio triumphs in the borough and the Republicans lose these council seats, not only will De Blasio's margin of victory be enormous but it will show that the city has most definitively swung in a Democratic direction. His unapologetic progressive agenda will have the people's blessing. Like Ohio in presidential election, Queens will have the final word. 

So if De Blasio wins big, this Brooklyn Moment will have been brought to you courtesy of Queens.

General Election Endorsements

Next Tuesday we New Yorkers head to the polls for the final time this year to elect the officials who will run our city for the next four years.

It's almost pointless to care, and even more pointless to vote, since the results of this election season have been in the bag for months. Bloomberg will be re-elected to a shamefully acquired third term, John Liu and Bill De Blasio will be elected Comptroller and Public Advocate respectively, and almost all the Democratic nominees for City Council and Borough President will be either be elected or re-elected (to equally shameful third terms) -- except in Staten Island and parts of Queens where some Republicans are locks to win.

How depressing. This is the greatest city in the world and yet our elections have become dull exercises in pseudo-democracy where money and the political machines determine everything -- and not the people. All "we the people" do is re-affirm the power of money and the machine by voting for the same laughing-stocks again and again.

Dammit gimme Jimmy Walker! Now there was a cool Mayor.

But he's dead. We're not. We have to dance with them that's been brung us. So, even though it won't do a lick of a good or make any difference whatsoever, here are the first Mr NYC general election endorsements:

Mayor: Bill Thompson. This is a very reluctant endorsement since his campaign has been totally amateurish and his program for saving middle class New Yorkers is as clear as mud. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence about how good a mayor he'd be. But Bloomberg has become a monster, the Man Who's Bought New York, and he's drowning the city with his money while killing the middle class. How ridiculous has it gotten? In case you hadn't noticed, HE'S ADVERTISING ON MY BLOG EVEN THOUGH I'VE BEEN CONSISTENTLY BASHING HIM FOR THE LAST YEAR! He has spent so much money, he's even advertising on a blog that don't like him! Wuzzup wid dat? So vote for Thompson and, even though it won't feel great, when Bloomberg wins you can feel good that at least you didn't contribute to the bastardization of democracy.

Public Advocate: Bill De Blasio. I have almost no idea what the PA does, who Bill De Blasio is, and what he wants to accomplish. But Betsy Gotbaum has done nothing to hold Big Mike accountable over the last 8 years. Think a Republican in this job will? Hardly. So vote for Bill.

Comptroller: This is the only race that I'm even semi-excited about. John Liu has to be the hardest working man in NYC. He's been a great City Councilman, got cars out of Central Park during the summer, and has shown an aggressiveness to take on Bloomberg that we need in a good Comptroller. So vote for him -- and you actually will feel good about electing the first Asian to city-wide office.

I'm not getting into the Borough President or City Councilperson races, just sticking with the city-wide offices. However, if you live in Queens, please don't vote for BP Helen Marshall -- she's gunning for a third term and you know how I feel about that. And in Brooklyn, I'd even vote for a Republican over BP Marty Markowitz who is a blithering, annoying fool. He's also trying for a third term and seriously thinks he might be Mayor in 2013. PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS MORON. PLEASE!!!!! In Manhattan, I guess voting for Scott Stringer makes sense -- don't know who's running against him. And in Staten Island, the BP is a guy named James Molinaro. I think he's a Republican or a Conservative or both but, whatever, does it really matter who the BP of Staten Island is?