January 11, 2022

How Socialism Kills: A Big Building Fire In New York

January 11, 2022/ Francis Menton

The big front page story in the New York newspapers the past couple of days has been the fire on Sunday in an apartment building in The Bronx that has killed some 19 people so far — with as many as 30 more in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. This loss of life in a fire is the greatest in New York since a 1990 fire at a nightclub in The Bronx (which killed more than 80).
So what kind of apartment building was this? Is there anything we should know about it? Look up the coverage in the New York Times, and you will learn, unhelpfully, that the building in question was “a 19-story Bronx apartment building” at 333 East 181st St., that went by the name of “Twin Parks North West.” Nothing about how this building came to be built, or by whom.
But if you know anything about The Bronx, you will realize that, outside of the small Riverdale district, there are almost no apartment buildings there that are as tall as 19 stories other than those built with extensive government subsidies.

January 09, 2022

End Stage Covid Craziness in New York

January 09, 2022/ Francis Menton

I thought the whole idea behind getting vaccinated for Covid-19 was to put the societal disruption behind us.
Yes, the vaccines may not be perfect; but then, nothing in this miserable world is perfect. Still, with the vaccines we should surely be able to go back to work, go back to school, hold sporting events and theater and concerts and political rallies and everything else where people gather. And for God’s sake get rid of the masks. Right?
That’s the way it works in Florida. But this is New York. Here, we are engaged in end-stage Covid craziness. Most office work is still suspended, and theater and concerts are 50/50, with endless protocols.
But my favorite is the masking.

January 05, 2022

January 05, 2022/ Francis Menton

About a year ago I had a series of posts covering some of the more audacious deplatformings and cancelations then occurring in the realms of progressive orthodoxy enforcement.
Examples of prominent victims of such conduct cited in my posts of February 22, 2021 and March 4, 2021 included: The Epoch Times (“demonetized” by Google, apparently as a result of relentless criticism of the Chinese Communist Party), Project Veritas (a constant irritant to the Left, shut out by Twitter), Catholic World Report (locked out by Twitter after calling President Biden’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of HHS “a biological man identifying as a transgender woman”), Ryan Anderson (politically incorrect book on transgender issues, “When Harry Became Sally,” suddenly removed from sale at Amazon without explanation), and multiple others.
The takeaway was that the Big Tech censors had lost all sense of constraint, and had decided to see how far they could push the envelope to remove mainstream conservative thought from the public square.
Lack of further posts from myself on this subject should not be taken as an indication that the situation has improved.

January 02, 2022

January 02, 2022/ Francis Menton

At this writing on January 2, de Blasio is finally gone from office. Whether the new guy (Eric Adams) proves to be any better remains to be seen.
Before leaving the topic of de Blasio’s legacy to New York, I would be remiss not to include a post on the subject of crime.
The bottom line for crime, as for every other major issue of public policy, was that the progressive de Blasio ruined everything he touched. Outcomes worsened across the board, and the decline was the clear result of the progressive policies that de Blasio either implemented or advocated.

December 31, 2021

December 31, 2021/ Francis Menton

It’s almost time for the ball to drop in Times Square, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remaining time in office is reduced to minutes.
Let me wish all Manhattan Contrarian readers a Happy New Year!
But before de Blasio finally goes, we ought to take a quick look at how his progressive policies have succeeded in solving another one of his signature issues, namely homelessness.

December 29, 2021

December 29, 2021/ Francis Menton

Sometimes, it seems like the world is just flailing away in its concerted efforts to achieve zero carbon emissions.
In the U.S. the President can’t get his grand “green” plans through a Congress controlled by his own party. In Europe, a countryside blanketed with wind turbines can’t counteract a wind drought in 2021, and emissions rise even while natural gas prices spike to nearly 10 times the U.S. level.
New York may be a late-comer to Net Zero plans, but by God, our politicians and bureaucrats are so much smarter than those clowns across the country or the pond.