FBI Field Day: What the heck is going on in NYC?

Mayor Adams under siege, Chinese spy, Police chief resigns, Fire Chief bribery?

I will soon be in The Big Apple for The New York Principled Business Summit (There are still a few spots available on the 18th and 19th) and I am very curious to see how the city is holding up post-Covid. It’s been too many years since I was in Manhattan and I am looking forward to the visit. Despite all of its problems I have love for the place. The smell of street meat in the air. Car horns honking. Greenwich Village. The Park.

How much has it changed? A few years ago there were people saying that the city was dead, that Covid killed it.

It is of course very far from dead these days, but it does seem more crazy than it was.

The first time I went into New York I was seven years old. My uncle worked for a guy with a limousine and this fellow allowed my uncle to take me around in it for my first communion. (It’s a very fond memory.) I remember leaving green Connecticut and working our way into the unbridled urbanness. Since it was 1982 (or 83?) there was plenty of “urbaness” to be seen. I don’t remember whether we drove through the Bronx or Harlem or what but I remember distinctly the random rubble filled open lots with weeds sprouting out of them. I remember boarded up townhouses that looked at one time to have been quite nice. I think I even saw someone shooting up on the steps of one of those townhouses. It was as apocalyptic a scene as my young eyes had ever seen. Of course later that day we’d eat Italian ices and go to FAO Schwartz, so it wasn’t all Beirut style New York City that day, but the earlier ride made an impression.

In the years to come however New York would be rebirthed. It got cleaner. The graffiti disappeared from the Subway (mostly). It got much safer. For a few years there the city darn near bordered on sane.

When I was a young kid New York was synonymous with decay. But when I got older this was no longer the case. It was vibrant and even two planes flying into the World Trade Center couldn’t change that.

Then things started to slip again. Bill “friend of the Sandinistas” DeBlasio became mayor. Then Covid hit the city hard. People left.

Right now, from the outside, New York looks a bit tired and corruption appears to be once again rampant.

The below is all from the past few weeks.

Two ex-fire chiefs in New York City arrested in corruption scandal

(From The AP)

Two former New York City Fire Department chiefs were in custody Monday on charges that they solicited tens of thousands of dollars in bribes before ensuring the department’s fire-safety division gave preferential treatment to some individuals and companies.

Anthony Saccavino and Brian Cordasco were arrested on bribery, corruption and false statements charges alleging that they solicited and accepted the bribe payments from at least 2021 through 2023, authorities said.

Man. that is old school (alleged) corruption stuff right there. You wouldn’t want your building to burn down would you?

New York City mayor's chief counsel resigns amid federal probes

(From The BBC)

"These are hard jobs and we don't expect anyone to stay in them forever," the mayor said in a statement.

(Mayor) Adams said the administration would name a replacement "in the coming days".