Public pandemic lessons
COURIER L 24 IFE, MARCH 19-25, 2021
OPINION
The COVID-19 pandemic
is likely to be remembered
in ways similar to
9/11, Pearl Harbor, the JFK
assassination, and other historic
moments. I say “likely”
because there’s a lot of interesting
writing and research
on how previous pandemics
were scrubbed from our collective
memories. While there
may be some collective denial,
I don’t think this is something
— whenever it ends — we’ll
collectively forget.
None of us can insulate
ourselves from or ignore the
consequences of COVID-19.
Even if you’ve been “insulted”
by calls for masking or latch
on to some other psychotically
selfi sh behavior, it’s had an
impact. Were the “anti-mask”
people protesting Halloween
in years past? No, their opposition
is, regardless of its stupidity,
due to the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite that opposition,
vaccine rates are increasing,
and the CDC says that fully
vaccinated people can safely
gather maskless indoors, and
we are at least one step closer
to pre-pandemic normal. But
we shouldn’t lose sight of the
fact that plenty of aspects of
that pre-pandemic normal
weren’t that great to begin
with. Additionally, part of
the reason at least some lives
have been saved is our willingness
and ability to change
many behaviors and policies
— and some should outlast
the pandemic.
According to the National
League of Cities, there have
been over 3,000 policy changes
in cities across our country
due to the pandemic. Due to
limits of time, space, and attention
span, I can’t go into
all of them but will say that
our use, and understanding,
of public spaces, changed and
should keep evolving. I refer to
outdoor dining, open streets,
free buses, and general policies
that dissuade from using
street space as free private
car storage. People like open
space, and ironically, every
time someone opts not to have
a car, there is more space on
the roads for people that can
afford and choose to drive.
To be clear, a big part of
this equation is making public
transit efficient enough
that it encourages more
people to give up their cars.
Next year we’ll have a new
mayor who should make it
a priority. Who knows if,
or when, but one day, possibly
soon, we’ll have a new
governor, but when that day
comes, she should also make
it a priority.
Mike Racioppo is the District
Manager of Community
Board 6. Follow him on
Twitter @RacioppoMike.
MIKE DROP
Mike Racioppo
On ballot signatures: Democracy
shouldn’t be this hard
We are in the fi nal week
of petitioning in New
York politics. Last year,
I wrote a column about the petitioning
process, how petitioning
during a pandemic
is dangerous — but also that
New York’s ballot access laws
are terrible and pointless all
the time.
That column was written
maybe a month before it
started to become clear to me
that our state’s dumb petitioning
process would make me
the only politician to lose his
position (district leader) during
a pandemic without doing
anything wrong or facing the
voters.
This year’s petitioning is
going a lot like last year’s. One
candidate for mayor — a retired
brigadier general named
Loree Sutton who appeared
to be in about ninth or tenth
place out of the several dozen
running — dropped out rather
than face petitioning. At least
four other candidates — Lincoln
Restler and Amoy Barnes
for City Council, Jimmy Van
Bramer for Queens Borough
President, and Liz Crotty for
Manhattan District Attorney
— appear to have already
caught coronavirus from petitioning.
That number will almost
certainly climb as there
are literally hundreds of campaigns
petitioning, most of
whom are lower profi le than
those four.
Almost all of the major
campaigns for mayor — the
ones with the resources and
know-how to devote to the
sort of line-by-line research
required to knock opponents
off the ballot — have pledged
not to challenge their opponents
petitions this year. I believe
that Ray McGuire is the
only major candidate not to
have pledged so, but if anyone
big does ends up challenging
petitions, I will surely write
about it again in this space.
The petitioning process
was always grossly unfair.
I once could prove that
the campaign manager for
a member of Congress witnessed
an assembly member’s
partner forging his signature
on the congress member’s
petitions. For a normal person’s
campaign, this would
be called “permeating fraud”
and knock you off the ballot,
but it was clear that no one
was going to end a congress
member’s career over that.
May I remind you that my
career ended over less?
These ballot access hurdles
are good for incumbents
generally, because incumbents
have established patronage
networks and know
the insider information of
petitioning. But the hurdles
also paradoxically help hide
how absurd our electoral process
is.
Most of the people running
for mayor, most of the people
running for city council,
most of the people running
for borough president have
no chance of winning their
elections. It is necessary that
large hurdles be placed in
front of them before they are
given large fi ve and six fi gure
sums of public campaign
money. But these hurdles are
not necessary for ballot access,
because the cost to us is
not nearly so high.
Nevertheless, the small
campaigns will focus their efforts
on clearing these twin
hurdles, never seeing their
whole endeavor is pointless.
Or at least they won’t until
it’s too late.
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
For more hyper-local Brooklyn news on your computer, smartphone, or iPad, visit BrooklynPaper.com.
/BrooklynPaper.com
