COURIER L 28 IFE, MAY 15-21, 2020
OPINION
It’s time to reopen the Big Apple
The government has failed at the
state, local, and federal level
The very worst part of the
pandemic in New York
state appears to be past,
and parts of upstate are beginning
to slowly reopen.
New York has recorded more
than 20,000 deaths from coronavirus,
the most of any subnational
region on the planet.
We appear to have had nearly
as many deaths as Italy or
Spain, the previous epicenters
which each have substantially
more than double
our population.
Over 80,000 Americans
have died and that number
will keep marching skyward.
With 4.2 percent of the world’s
population, we have reported
28.2 percent of global deaths.
It is not clear how bad it will
get across the country, but it
is already clear that different
places — due to luck and policy
— will have substantially
different mortality outcomes.
We don’t know exactly
which countries will get
through the coronavirus pandemic
all right, but we do
know that some nations will
emerge from lockdown okay
and that we are not one of
them. South Korea and New
Zealand, for example, have
each reduced the number of
community spread cases to
zero for several weeks running
now.
Fundamentally, New York
had it worst in the whole world
(so far) because, whether
there are a half-dozen or four
dozen global hub cities, ours
has the worst combination of
local, regional, and national
governance. Moscow, for example,
appears to have handled
coronavirus badly and
covered up their death numbers,
but still has had thousands
of fewer deaths than
we have with a larger city
population. More than 5 percent
of all New York nursing
home residents have already
died just in the last three
months.
This is a governance failure.
We have relied mostly on
the federal government for
protection from new diseases;
the federal government failed
New York almost completely.
We were probably 95 percent
on our own. On a state level,
hospitals have been closing
for years, and for even longer
our nursing home industry
has generally been a lightlyregulated,
politically-connected,
for-profi t cash cow.
Finally, Mayor Bill de Blasio
only started to shut the city
down after more people were
already infected here than
on any city on the planet. He
has also been slower than any
remotely-comparable mayor
to create open space for the
trapped where there used to
be cars, and to recognize that
the bicycle is the urban vehicle
of this pandemic and the
future.
New York has joined with
six other northeastern states
to establish a multi-state council
that strikes me as our best
level of governance for the future.
Due to the vagaries of
the electoral college, the vast
majority of that region has
never had a real say in who is
President of the United States
in our entire lifetimes. Just
New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania together have
a larger population and economy
than California.
Is that region still too large
to govern? I’ll discuss more
next week.
Nick Rizzo is a Democratic
District Leader representing
the 50th Assembly
District and a political consultant
who lives in Greenpoint.
Follow him on Twitter
@NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
It’s time to open the Big
Apple, and the country
again.
Of course, many of my
Democratic friends will demonize
this as prioritizing
the economy over public
health. However, these two
are related, and there is a
middle ground.
The current U.S. unemployment
is 14.7 percent, a
number not seen since the
Great Depression. Economic
experts say this can surge to
over 20 percent over the next
several weeks or months if we
keep the country closed for
business. These are not just
statistics, these are people’s
lives. For every business that
is closed during this timel,
there are countless New
Yorkers and Americans that
are not getting paychecks.
The anxiety of not being
able to put food on the table
affects one’s mental and physical
health. People are scared
and becoming more desperate
with each locked down
day. Any reasonable person
would agree that this leads to
more suicides, and makes a
bad situation worse for those
with drug and alcohol addictions,
and is creating more
addicts.
Of course, we can keep everything
shut until there are
zero coronavirus cases, or
until there is a vaccine. However,
the cost would be too
much. The facts clearly show
that it is seniors and those
with pre-existing conditions
that are the most adversely
affected by the virus. Therefore,
these groups should continue
to follow the current
precautions and all should
be done to protect them. In
addition, there should be robust
testing, especially for
our vulnerable populations,
by states. This is the middle
ground.
However, the vast majority
of New Yorkers and Americans,
who face minimal risk,
must have the chance to get
back to their lives and making
money.
Our free market system
and individual liberty has
made us the greatest nation
on earth. We should let
it guide us out of this shut
down. Let businesses open
today and they will implement
protocols that work for
them and their customers.
Obviously, their goal will be
to bring back business and
their entrepreneurship will
lead the way.
Taking care of one’s
health, which includes social
distancing and the wearing of
face masks, is a personal responsibility
and choice, just
as it is for engaging in other
risky behaviors. Government
can threaten a summons but
people make the fi nal decision.
For example, in Castle
Rock, Colorado this past
Mother’s Day, C&C Coffee
and Kitchen opened their
doors against the governor’s
orders. There was no social
distancing. The result was
a packed restaurant with a
line around the corner. For
these patrons, the benefi ts of
celebrating Mother’s Day out
and interacting with others
outweighed the risk of being
adversely affected by the coronavirus.
We must trust the American
people to make the best
choices for their families,
and not limit their choices by
telling them they can’t work
or go out.
Those who are not “essential”
workers have a right
to provide for their families
also.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected officials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for
over 15 years. Follow him on
twitter @bobcapano.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano