Thoughts on the past week
COURIER L 14 IFE, JANUARY 15-21, 2021
OPINION
The last week has made
folks focus, understandably,
on a failed
insurrection that may be a
dress rehearsal for a coup
attempt on a larger scale in
the coming days. However,
I don’t have a column based
on my insight or experience
with national news, so I’ll
stay on the local track and
talk about the New York
City subway.
The subway is at least as
responsible as anything else
in making New York the
greatest city in the world. I
haven’t been to every city in
the world, but that doesn’t
stop me from smugly asserting
that as objective truth.
I guarantee New York City
wouldn’t even be running
for the greatest city without
the subway system. When
the city has been in crisis,
the subway has always been
part of the solution. The
COVID-19 pandemic should
be no exception.
Since 1904, the subway
has been the constant in a
city defined by change. But
this May, for the first time in
115 years, during the deadly
COVID-19’s first wave, the
MTA’s New York City subway
system was not open
24/7, and it remains closed
every day from 1 am until
5 am. The rationale for this
closure was to allow more
time for trains, stations, and
equipment to be thoroughly
cleaned and disinfected.
From 1 am until 5 am,
subways continue to run on
their usual routes because
there isn’t enough space in
the system to store all trains
and clean them simultaneously.
Although they are not
available to the public, they
aren’t running empty either.
Transit workers, police,
and emergency personnel
are permitted to ride while
workers must find alternatives.
Steve Winwood really
would have trouble finding
his way home these days.
While hardly ideal, I’d
accept this policy if the subway
was a significant vector
of COVID-19 and extra cleaning
time was needed, but it
isn’t. Not only is it not a vector,
but our quickest way out
of this awful new normal is
also through vaccinating as
many people as possible as
quickly as possible. The city
has rightly opened up 24/7
vaccination sites with the
intent of opening more. However,
with the subways offlimits
to the public for four
hours, the number of people
and pace — our journey to
safely getting to herd immunity
— will be slowed. This
is especially true at mass
24/7 vaccination sites such
as Citi Field, where the 7
train stops.
However, I’m not a “Monday
Morning Quarterback,”
and I’ll give the MTA a pass
for 2020 since hindsight is
20/20. However, it’s essential
the Gubernatorial-controlled
MTA and the mayor
get it right in 2021.
When the subway was being
built in the 19th century,
the city’s then-mayor, William
Gaynor, said that the
“effect it is to have on New
York is something larger
than any mind can realize.”
I agree. A 24/7 subway system
allows us to proclaim
that New York is the city
that never sleeps. Without
it, we aren’t New York, New
York. The trains are already
running; let people hop on
board, and take them to get
vaccinated and let’s start the
revival.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on
Twitter @RacioppoMike.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
Once again, everything is different
For almost 20 years, the
politics of New York City
and this country have
been shaped by the events
of September 11th, 2001. It is
likely the events of January
6th, 2021 could shape us similarly.
Both dates represent dividing
lines in the 21st century:
the start of America’s global
war on terror and the true
start of America’s new war
with its own worst elements.
Both events felt like shocks
to the body politic, but were anticipated
by certain analysts
years in advance. Both days
were composed of symbolic
and actual violence layered together,
broadcast to the world.
Like this pandemic, or
global climate change, the
chaos of the present follows
years of ignored alarms.
We now recognize some
of those alarms in our current
struggle with extremism:
places like Charlottesville or
events like the plotted kidnapping
of Michigan governor
Gretchen Whitmer.
For 20 years the United
States has fought the Global
War on Terror. Hopefully those
foolish days are almost at an
end. And yet we need to focus
on the homegrown, far-rightwing
“domestic” terror threat
that has plagued our country
for decades.
It’s now clear that for decades,
law enforcement has
focused on monitoring, infi ltrating,
and containing the
wrong groups of Americans.
Black Lives Matter and other
left-wing groups, including the
loosely-organized brand of Antifa,
are not threats to American
democracy. What happened
last week was.
9/11 ushered in an era
where the actions of the police
were nigh-uncriticizable and
their budgets were free from
threat of being cut. Rudy Giuliani
claimed to be “America’s
Mayor.” It’s clear those days are
over.
Nowadays, we are suspicious
of our police forces in our
big cities, and we have evidence
and reasoning to back up our
concerns.
It is much, much harder to
keep the events of 9/11 sacred
this year, to hold Ground Zero
as hallowed ground, when the
United States loses more than
a 9/11’s worth of people to coronavirus
every day so far this
winter.
It is harder now that we
know what a liar and a bungler
and a wannabe tyrant Rudolph
W. L. Giuliani is.
So where do we go from here,
with some old idols hopefully
smashed for good? Where will
Chuck Schumer lead the senate?
Will Brooklyn’s fi rst-ever
Senate Majority Leader try to
herd the Democrats in the direction
of Hakeem Jeffries or
AOC?
What does this mean going
forward? To have a prayer
against climate change and
our other major woes, the president’s
party must not lose any
seats in the midterm elections.
The natural pendulum of politics
suggests this is an uphill
task, that has only been accomplished
once before this century:
the election after 9/11.
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
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