The attention-economy mayor
This electronic age we have
all been increasingly living
in for many decades
now is the era of the attention
economy. Your attention is a fi -
nite resource, that people and
organizations and — God help
you — brands are fi ghting for.
You must be mindful about
where you spend your attention.
The center of the attention
economy in electoral politics is
surely the executive position,
be it president, governor, or
mayor. These are the most powerful
positions, of course, but
also we’re currently trapped in
a feedback loop that keeps our
attention locked on the races for
those positions to the detriment
of our politics.
Journalists are as enmeshed
in the attention economy as
anyone: they need eyeballs for
their stories, or ears I suppose if
they are in radio or podcasting.
Blame, Control, Transportation, Taxation:
The future of New York City
COURIER L 18 IFE, APR. 30-MAY 6, 2021
It’s much easier to persuade
journalists to cover a story they
believe their readers/viewers/
listeners are already familiar
with. The incentives for getting
more attention rather than less
in journalism are quite strong,
so journalists cover not only the
top race on the ballot to the exclusion
of the others, but focus
on the most attention-getting
candidate in that fi eld.
A man ran for president
who was in no way qualifi ed
to be president, but he’d been
covered by New York journalists
for forty years and had appeared
on television for twenty.
He received far more news coverage
than all of his opponents,
and the coverage of him got better
ratings. His supporters had
a relationship to him mostly
through media platforms, as
is true for any national politician,
but they especially loved
him for the ridiculous things
he would say and his ability
to dominate media coverage,
which were one and the same.
The American attention
economy completely revolved
around this man for over four
years. They were good years to
own a cable news network, but
our country will be paying the
price for decades to come.
A man who wasn’t famous
started rolling up his own fame
ball by running for president,
appearing on television many
times as a candidate and later
commentator. He didn’t get
many votes, but the national
media attention somehow has
now made him the frontrunner
for mayor of New York, a position
he is no more qualifi ed for
than our former president was
for the White House.
He never voted for mayor
but now he gets more coverage
than those candidates who have
decades of relevant professional
experience: that’s journalists’
incentive now. His supporters
love him for his well-knownness,
his sunny lack of details.
You can help correct this situation
before it is too late. Urge
reporters not to spend so much
time on Andrew Yang. Ideally,
tell them to cover the campaigns
for the fi fty offi ces in the
city that are up for election and
not mayor. For example, here
in Brooklyn the race for Surrogates’
Court is important but
more or less unknown. That’s
what I’ll write about next week.
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
OPINION
Last year I wrote that the
2021 primary elections
should be moved to September,
where they have
always been. There were
many reasons, not the least
of all, the number of people
who know about, let alone
understand, ranked-choice
voting. However, there’s no
turning back now, and we’ve
got eight weeks until we
know who will be occupying
the most important, misunderstood,
and dead-end municipal
job on the planet.
I say dead-end because,
regardless of party or circumstances,
Mayors of New
York always seem to think
that they can move on to
higher office but don’t get
far. I say most misunderstood
because unless you’re
meticulously referring to
the city charter and state
constitution, it’s easy not to
understand what the mayor
has control of. This misperception
is heightened by the
city’s population larger than
all but 12 states and accounts
for nearly half of the people
in New York State. The
namesake of this publication
(Brooklyn) has more people
than many states. However,
these facts don’t change the
fact that cities are creations
of states and do not have constitutional
agency.
This divide creates an
inevitable tension between
New York City and New York
State that did not begin,
nor will it end, with Mayor
Bill deBlasio and Gov. Andrew
Cuomo. At least in my
dreams, the Mailer/Breslin
ticket would have succeeded,
and New York City would be
its own state. But I digress to
reality.
A reality that the Biden
Administration and the
state have made the budgetary
picture less bleak for
the city. However, we are
still likely to face deficits,
and other problems and our
next mayor needs tools to fix
those problems accordingly.
For a litany of reasons,
not just the limited space of
a column, the next occupant
of Gracie Mansion should
be given, in the most boiled
down sense, control of the
city’s taxes and transportation.
The state should allow
the city to control our subways
and buses since many,
including Gov. Cuomo, want
to blame the city for subway
problems; they should give
them the tools to fix it. The
same goes for taxes. We’ve
got a backward property tax
system, a city income tax
we can’t adjust in any way,
record billionaires, and record
homelessness. Many of
these problems get blamed
on the city without having
the tools to fix them.
This would require action,
and I don’t if the votes
are there, but the city’s next
mayor will have to do a really
important and hard job.
If they can wrangle such
power from the state, it may
not even be a dead-end job
anymore.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on
Twitter @RacioppoMike.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
For more hyper-local Brooklyn news on your computer, smartphone, or iPad, visit BrooklynPaper.com.
/BrooklynPaper.com
