A Trifecta for the Fiftieth
How We Got into This Mess,
Why Are Car Rentals Expensive,
They Just Don't Understand

By Henry J. Stern
June 9, 2003

    This is the fiftieth column I have written since New York Civic began.   In the last fifteen months, I have primarily discussed New York City government, with financial problems as the most important issue.  These problems are, of course, nowhere near being solved, and the city still maintains a level of services it cannot afford.   The mayor has chosen a somewhat left of center course in borrowing money in 2002 and raising taxes in 2003, yet he is reviled by the unions who have refused to make any real concessions that would result in painsharing, and criticized by city councilmembers who insist on spending even more money that we do not have.
 
    The situation is largely not the mayor's fault, as Harvey Robins explains.  He is a former city official whose column in Wednesday's Newsday is well worth reading.  It would be unfair to rewrite it, and immoral to plagiarize it, but Harvey's column is important, sensible and brave.  Very few of you saw the original—it was on page A34.  The article was sent to me by Julius Edelstein, senior vice chancellor emeritus of the City University of New York and a most valuable citizen.  Print it out and take it home.
 
    A column in today's Post by Walter Olson also deserves special attention.   It deals with New York State's refusal to eliminate vicarious liability, a theory under which auto rental companies are held liable for any injuries resulting from accidents involving drivers who rent cars.  48 other states have abolished the practice, and the New York State Senate has passed a bill to do it.  But it has been pigeonholed in the State Assembly.   I wonder why.   Mr. Olson discusses the problem with striking clarity.  Read it and weep, or scream.
 
    Should the mayor have acted more quickly to cut costs in the face of impending fiscal disaster?  I believe he was slow to react, in part because of solicitude for Governor Pataki's political fortunes.  He thought the governor would rescue the city.  Pataki helped in some ways, but took a dive on the tax increases, and we still haven't received the $690 million in airport rentals the Port Authority owes us.  Two maxims are relevant here:  For Bloomberg, "Place not your trust in princes" – Machiavelli.   For Pataki, "Goor nicht helfen" (Yiddish for 'it won't help').   Your regression to conservatism will not get you a place in the Bush cabinet.
 
    Nonetheless it is interesting that the governor was cheered and the mayor booed Sunday at the Puerto Rican Day parade, as described by Michael Cooper in the Times. (The mayor was also booed Saturday at the Belmont Stakes.)  Cooper offers political reasons for this dissonance; I think part of it is watching the tall governor wave to the crowd.  How could such a nice looking man do anything bad?  And, of course, Pataki and Al Sharpton freed Vieques during the governor's Dennis Rivera days.  It may also be that the governor's frame and visage suggest athletics while the mayor's persona evokes accounting.  Sometimes, New Yorkers blame their mayors for every cloud in the sky.  On the other hand, they didn't boo Koch or Giuliani until much later in their terms.  And now those two are cheered.

    Meanwhile, we welcome the sun. We have had more than our share of clouds and rain.

Henry J. Stern is the director of NYCivic.