How to bring New York City's refugees back home - New York Post

Will people ever return to New York City? Should they?

Walk around Gotham right now, any random day, and you will find an empty, hurting city. Boarded up windows still dot the streets of ghost-town neighborhoods such as SoHo. Greenwich Village is a deserted wasteland of garbage and disarray. Graffiti is rampant. Emotionally disturbed people are prevalent. The homeless problem, which had been growing steadily for the past few years, has now exploded. Crime is up. Way up. Including and especially shootings.

Our politicians are completely absent. Mayor Bill de Blasio is musing on the Marxist canon. Gov. Andrew Cuomo spends his time celebrating himself on late-night television.

In May, The New York Times reported that 5 percent of New Yorkers, or about 420,000 people, had left Gotham. Many more have left in the months since. What does our city offer to induce those people to return?

We have all read the stories of the ultra-rich who decamped for their Hamptons homes, the merely rich who left for Cape Cod or the somewhat rich who headed for their upstate cabins. But many of us also know friends or co-workers who went to stay with family in less fancy locales, too. This isn’t merely a problem of getting the rich to return; plenty of middle-class people need to be lured back as well.

It’s tempting to say good riddance. A lifelong New Yorker like me usually doesn’t shed tears for anyone who left. But it’s different now. People want to come back, but they don’t know what they will be returning to. For the first time ever, I understand people not wanting to live in New York.

In our bad, old days, when crime was rampant, graffiti was everywhere and the city exuded menace, New Yorkers could point to culture as why they put up with it. But now there are no museums, concerts, clubs. There’s no rhythm to the city; gone is the sense of possibility that comes with a city forever on the move.

The minimum that needs to be offered to New Yorkers hoping to return is security and stability. Instead, we have a hapless mayor, a preening governor and no path forward. Workers can live anywhere right now. Why would they choose the Big Apple?

As I see it, three things need to happen for New York to walk away from this abyss.

First, we must reopen schools full-time. So many New Yorkers are waiting to hear guidance on what schools will look like in September before planning their ­return. But last week, the mayor said it might be September before a decision is made. That’s far too late. New Yorkers see their governor on TV hawking a poster proclaiming victory over the coronavirus, yet schools, previously in Phase Four, have moved off the chart completely.

Schools bring stability to a city, and New York needs to be stable right now. If parents don’t have full-time schooling for their kids, and need to keep their kids at home, they will opt for more space outside the city, and it won’t be a difficult decision.

Second, the protests have turned into riots. They must be put down. This is no longer about free speech. The “protesters” wreak havoc. There hasn’t been a sign with George Floyd’s name on it in weeks. A violent, radical fringe has consumed the well-meaning movement. The Commie tent city next to City Hall can’t be allowed to return.

Last, Cuomo needs to stop harassing already-struggling businesses. Business owners tell me how the rules keep changing, whether about how they can open or, if they’re open already, how they can stay that way. Two weeks ago, Cuomo demanded that bars serve food with drinks; then, last week, he added that the food needed to be “substantial.”

If you want to have wings and some beers, that isn’t enough. This kind of thing will drive owners to madness and impel them to flee our state. People need to ­return to a functioning, confident city. Lay off, Cuomo.

We need to give our elected officials two choices: Bring back New York City — or get out of the way.

Twitter: @Karol

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