It\u2019s that time again, time for Staten Islanders to start agitating about leaving the City of New York and standing on their own. <\/p>\n
The reason this time: the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor. <\/p>\n
No argument: we\u2019ve got plenty to be concerned about when it comes to the new administration. <\/p>\n
Mamdani wants to raise taxes. He\u2019s been anti-NYPD and anti-Israel. He\u2019s an industrial-scale communist\/statist to the bone, promising everything from Soviet-style, city-run supermarkets to pie-in-the-sky free transit. <\/p>\n
Never mind that top-down policies like that have never actually worked anywhere they\u2019ve been tried, including Soviet Russia, Cuba and U.S. cities like Chicago and San Francisco. <\/p>\n
And Mamdani aside, Staten Islanders already have plenty to be aggrieved about when it comes to the other four more-populous and more-powerful boroughs. <\/p>\n
We\u2019re still waiting on that subway line that was promised to us more than a century ago as an inducement for us to join in and form the great metropolis in the first place.<\/p>\n
It was just the first in a long line of lies told to us by the powers that be, including the whopper that the Fresh Kills landfill would only be open for a few years. <\/p>\n
Anyway, with Mamdani on his way in, GOP Mid-Island Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo wants to re-start the secession movement. GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza has long carried a secession bill as well. <\/p>\n
Sure, it sounds like a great idea. But is it really? <\/p>\n
And even if it is, is it even do-able? <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look. <\/p>\n
The good<\/p>\n
Yay! Staten Island would be its own city! We\u2019d be able to make our own decisions. No more one-size-fits-all policies foisted on us by City Hall.<\/p>\n
We could tear down all the speed cameras and paint over all the bike lanes. We\u2019d be able to make our own transportation policies. <\/p>\n
No more BESS sites next door. No more crazy building rules under City of Yes leading to massive overdevelopment. We\u2019d be able to preserve our quality of life as we see fit. <\/p>\n
We\u2019d no longer be the red smear in overwhelmingly blue New York City. <\/p>\n
Freedom! Just like in \u201cBraveheart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bad<\/p>\n
Yeah, and how do we pay for it all? <\/p>\n
You may think your property taxes are outrageous, but check out what our family members and friends in New Jersey and Long Island pay. <\/p>\n
Huge property taxes are how they pay for police, fire, schools and emergency services. <\/p>\n
We might have to do that too because we\u2019d longer have tax revenue from Wall Street, massive apartment buildings and the tourism and entertainment industries to cushion the blow. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big way that being part of New York City helps us. <\/p>\n
So our houses might have to be our biggest tax generators. Plus that Amazon warehouse and other businesses on the West Shore. Will they want to be the City of Staten Island\u2019s cash cow? <\/p>\n
Will New York City continue to run the ferry out here? If so, you better believe they\u2019ll make us pay for it.<\/p>\n
What about all the police stationhouses, firehouses and the city water infrastructure? Is the city just going to give it all to us?<\/p>\n
How do we get rid of all our garbage? With Fresh Kills now a park, we\u2019d have to ship the trash somewhere else. That gets pretty expensive. <\/p>\n
And we\u2019d still be part of overwhelmingly Democratic New York State. <\/p>\n
All this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a million other problems we\u2019d have to contend with.<\/p>\n
The really, really ugly<\/p>\n
The state under Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver easily killed the secession movement of the 1990s, even though Islanders had voted in favor of studying to leave the city. The city or state could connive to short-circuit a secession movement again. <\/p>\n
And then what? Do Staten Islanders quietly retreat from secession? Or will some suggest we resist and carry on the fight?<\/p>\n
Once we start down the road, none of it is going to be easy. <\/p>\n
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