(Guest Blog by Ryan Scott Karben). It's never surprising
when city folk dis the suburbs. Ed Koch called suburban life “sterile.” The Times' recently
reported on "scruffy bohemians"
from Brooklyn "colonizing" Rockland’s Nyack-- in the Fashion section.
But voters in the burbs have strong opinions
about city life too. According to the Rudin Center, 25% of all
workers in Manhattan live in the suburbs.
40% of the NYPD lives
outside the city. And while
non-Gothamites can’t vote on who will take over Mike Bloomberg’s bullpen in City Hall, they do care.
When New York City gets a new Mayor, we do
too.
As a political kid in the 80s, I thought Koch
already ruled every inch of New York (Democrats voting in the 1982
gubernatorial primary thought otherwise; he lost). The regional dominance of
Manhattan-based media leads many suburban voters to know far more about the
city’s mayor than they
know about their own
mayors and county executives.
And the truth is that the city’s Mayor has a
dramatic impact on suburban life. From funding for the Long Island Railroad to
development in the Westchester watershed, New York City’s government reaches
into the subdivisions of Suffolk and Sleepy Hollow. In the upstate vs.
downstate political tug of war, suburbanites cheer for the Mayor. When the
heavily Democratic city is at odds with the suburbs—and their trove of swing
votes in statewide elections--it gets downright ugly. Remember congestion pricing?
Already, the suburbs are emerging as a
whipping boy in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary. John Liu, the city comptroller, is proposing tolls on the East River
bridges—for non-city
residents only. Chris Quinn, the
front runner for the Democratic nomination who serves as Speaker of the City
Council, is pressing for the return
of the commuter tax-- a bête noire for
suburbanites. Only Quinn and Liu among the Democrats back a city residency
requirement for city police
officers.
Don't tell the Speaker's summer
neighbors on the Jersey Shore.
Bill Thompson, who also backs a commuter tax restoration,
won the endorsement of the heavily suburban members of the city's
firefighter's union in his tight battle with Bloomberg four years ago. Bill DeBlasio, the current public advocate, got flak
from transportation advocates when he voted against congestion pricing as a New York City
councilmember. But his first council campaign leaned heavily on adequate
funding for the city's public schools, which DeBlasio said were being shortchanged
in state aid, to the benefit of
the suburbs.
Among the Republicans, grocery magnate John
Catsimatidis has suburban business ties; his Gristedes supermarket has a store (with a pharmacy!) in Westchester's Scarsdale. Before Rob Astorino's tax revolt, Westchester's Democratic County
Executive was Catsimatidis'
pal, Andy Spano.
Joe Lhota, as head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had to balance the needs of the city's
subway riders with suburban commuting options. State legislators grapple with
similar tradeoffs between the city's mass transit needs and suburban road and
bridge funds.
It's the MTA, which is comprised of appointees
of the city's Mayor, the governor and county executives from Nassau, Suffolk,
Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and Putnam, is generally the most
prominent arena for urban/suburban jousting. But there are often environmental
tensions too. The city's Department of Environmental Protection provides water
to one
million residents in Westchester,
Putnam, Orange and Ulster Counties. Officials in Westchester's Yonkers, have
blasted New York City for raising their water rates 170%
over ten years.
City leaders (in a familiar lament for
suburban homeowners) blame Westchester's high
property taxes.
Bloomberg worked with Long Island's county
executives, Republican Ed Mangano of Nassau and Democrat Steve Bellone of Suffolk,
on public
pension reform.
And, like his
predecessor Rudy Giuliani, Bloomberg forays comfortably into suburban politics.
At a breakfast meeting of the Long Island Association, the Mayor made sure to compliment the
familiar scenery, telling the business group "usually if I’m on Long
Island at 8:30 in the morning, I’m already three holes in and five over par."
The current Mayor cut an ad for GOP Westchester state Senate candidate
Bob Cohen last year. He also provided significant financial
support to Rockland Senator
David Carlucci, an independent
Democrat. His generous support
of the Republicans in the state Senate has helped guarantee the outsize political influence of Nassau
County. And, remember that Bloomberg for Governor moment?
None of Bloomberg's successors, save
Catsimatidis, have the financial largess to become a major donor to suburban
politicians. And the value of an endorsement by Mayor deBlasio or Mayor Quinn
or Mayor Lhota beyond the city's borders would of course depend on the politics
of the moment (an endorsement by Mayor Albanese? Priceless!).
Because there is no
African-American in statewide office, Bill Thompson would carry that community's clout in the
suburbs and elsewhere. Asian voters are a growing
suburban voting bloc; a Liu victory would
animate them regardless of address.
But merely having a Democrat in charge of City
Hall for the first time in 20 years, which remains the likely outcome, will be
the most pronounced shift of all. New York City is the Bigfoot of municipal
governance in downstate New York. Its Mayor has a bully pulpit that often
exceeds the Governor's. Everyone talks about what Gotham's leader says--whether
they live in Hunts Point or the Hamptons.
A new Democratic mayor who commits to
significant policing reform, less hostility to unionized teachers or more
liberal social policy will inevitably impact simultaneous debates in the
suburban communities on the other ends of the city's bridges and tunnels. It
rarely works the other way around. No city resident wants to see their mayor
play second fiddle to Westchester's County Executive.
But if Chris Quinn or her colleagues ever want
to head from Gracie Mansion to Albany's Eagle Street, they will learn, as
Bloomberg did, from Ed Koch's error:
Say nice things about the suburbs, even if
it’s just about the golf.
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