Feuding Politicians: Cuomo and de Blasio

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/opinion/deblasio-cuomo-new-york.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Cuomo vs. de Blasio: One of the Country’s Ugliest Political Feuds” (front page, April 23):

No need for New Yorkers to look to the White House to find a selfish, megalomaniacal, petty, childish leader who is concerned only about himself, his image and his political viability. We have two such men much closer to home.

Is there any wonder that our streets are dirtier, our subways are falling apart, our infrastructure is crumbling, the number of homeless on the streets is climbing and our children are not being well educated? All of these concerns apparently are not as important as the fragile egos of the men elected to address them.

I have only two words for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio: Grow up!

CAROL NADELL, NEW YORK

To the Editor:

The bitterness of feuds between governors and mayors over the years points to an institutional source for these conflicts. That source is the state’s control over many city functions and undue influence over others. The framework is dysfunctional: Governors can interfere when it is convenient for their personal political agendas and neglect legitimate city needs when it suits them.

Forty-three percent of the state’s population lives in New York City, and millions more in the near suburbs depend on city services for work or well-being. Yet the governor has no meaningful obligation to partner in the development and execution of effective policies for the city. If called to account for city problems, the governor can always blame the mayor.

Somewhere, Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin — who when running for mayor and City Council president in 1969 called for New York City to become the 51st state — are saying, “I told you so.”

PHILIP SILLER, NEW YORK

To the Editor:

The citizens of New York City must demand that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio appear at a public forum to explain to the residents of the city — as well as to tourists and to commuters who work in the city — why the transit system is utterly dysfunctional and why they are not able to come to an agreement about how and when to fix it.

Millions of us depend on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority every day, yet none of us can reliably predict whether or not we will be able to arrive at our workplaces, meetings, job interviews, court appointments, doctor appointments or children’s schools on time. For many of us, the unreliability of the subways and buses results in docked wages, extra child care costs, lost jobs, evictions and other grave consequences.

Neither of them will take responsibility for a situation that, if not fixed, will cripple the city and eventually the state economy.

AMY WILKINS, BROOKLYN