AA's "Fat Flier" Got Whole Row
Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Rihanna's Random Airport Search
With Mayor Bloomberg up in Albany deriding Gov. Spitzer for bilking the city out of $500 million in promised funding, it's no wonder that the perennial call for secession has arisen.
Every time NY State politics gets heated, we get to rehash the economics of NYC declaring itself independent from the state. During his NYC budget speech last week, Bloomberg pointed out (again) how NYC pays more than $11 billion in state taxes it doesn't get back. Almost on cue, after Governor Spitzer revealed a budget with less NYC funding, proponents of NYC independence piped up. Notably, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone:
"I think secession's time has definitely come again," Mr. Vallone, who spearheaded a similar push in 2003, told The New York Sun yesterday. "If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies. Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?"Vallone also said in 2005 that secession "may be our only viable option."
While this is an evergreen issue in New York politics, in our opinion, NYC has a lesser chance of becoming a 51st State than the five boroughs becoming unconsolidated. It's fun to talk about, but the last time an area of the U.S. tried seceding, it ended finally, but unhappily.
And before Vallone or anyone else blows a gasket talking about secession, let's try to remember that it was the Erie Canal in upstate NY, that enabled NYC to become the economic powerhouse in the United State that it is today. Before that, the city was an also-ran to cities like Philly and Boston.
Also, it was upstaters who guaranteed the issuance of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution, while downstate merchants were clamoring for untrammeled federal consolidation of the colonies. We're all in this big crazy state together; let's try to keep it together.
Elsewhere, WCBS880 is soliciting ideas for an alternate name for NYC if we secede from the Empire State, and notes that Peter Vallone says that without the five boroughs, the rest of the state is economically Arkansas.
Image of Woody Allen on a york from New York magazine
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
bilking, untrammeled:
dave, nice vocabulary; i didn't expect gothamist to be keeping me on my toes like that.
We should drop Ny State and annex North Jersey. That would make the most sense.
Why annex New Jersey? Can't enslave them, that's been outlawed.
Mailer-Breslin lives!!!
http://frumin.net/ation/2007/11/mailer_for_mayor_in_memorium.html
NYC State: State flower: common sidewalk weeds
State animal: rat
State bird: pidgeon
State quarter: cabbie flipping you off
State motto: No eye contact with strangers.
Well what is left of the former New York State would be called by the name we already call it, Upstate. That makes thing easier.
I'd suggest taking Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Rockland along for the ride too.
Why secede from NYS? why not conquer it instead? we need their water.
Here's an idea. Vote people into office who will actually do what needs to be done. That means no Republicans and no Democrats. Vote for a party who actually stands for something, like the Libertarians.
I'm walking up the Thruway with my musket as we speak. Burn Syracuse to the ground!
JOIN OR DIE!
Secede from the nation...
Emilydickinson: That's my home town your talking about!
Having said that -- I don't think honoring the past is a good reason to keep two entirely dissimilar things together. Most Upstaters (who definitely are NOT thinking about their economy) would be very happy to be separated from this liberal sin city.
And Dave, NY would be seceding from the STATE not the country, unless I misread something horribly.
The last time some seceded, it was from the nation, not a state. Fail.
And, in theory, you join together as a state when it serves your interests, and you leave amicably when it does not. If NYS has a huge interest in keeping NYC in possession, they need to pony up more incentives.
Like by threatening to take away the Catskills Mountain watershed (I dunno if NYC has bought that yet).
The last time some seceded, it was from the nation, not a state. Fail.
And, in theory, you join together as a state when it serves your interests, and you leave amicably when it does not. If NYS has a huge interest in keeping NYC in possession, they need to pony up more incentives.
Like by threatening to take away the Catskills Mountain watershed (I dunno if NYC has bought that yet).
"Before that, the city was an also-ran to cities like Philly and Boston."
kind of like philly and boston still are!
Where would NYC get all of its "localvore" produce if not for upstate?
Nothing new. I'm for seceding from the Union.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_secession
If NYC Secedes from NY State, Where Does That Leave Roosevelt Island? The Island while owned by NYC was leased to NYS for 99 years.
If NYC secedes can we count on the NYPD to retake the Island, from the British, I mean NYS, and reunite us with our City brethren?
http://rooseveltisland360.blogspot.com/2008/01/if-nyc-secedes-from-ny-state-where-does.html
If NYS has a huge interest in keeping NYC in possession, they need to pony up more incentives.
Upstate stores your criminals until they are ready to be put back into society. They also have land, water, and most of downstate's vacation homes. I'm sure they would very happily continue to provide all three as a separate state... especially with a lot of extra taxes to offset what they lost.
You can make a very solid argument that it would be better for upstate to leave. They would have their own senators and congressmen (from Upstate) who could deal with upstate problems and issues, like trying to breathe life into the barren wastelands of cities in Western New York. There are 40 something "downstate" state senators vs 20-something "upstate" senators... which means the entire state is pretty much run from Manhattan... which means Upstate pretty much gets screwed.
So, yeah... they're not exactly desperate to keep the 40 senators that are not going to vote for an economic revitalization plan for Buffalo or Rochester.
In my initial draft, there was a sentence about "Secession is fun to talk about every few years, but it never goes anywhere." I'm glad it's still fun, b/c it really is!
Blame belongs squarely to inept NYC politicians serving in State legislature. With 11B in overpayment, NYC clearly subsidises NY state & they
seem oblivious to it/unwilling to do anything.
Elected officials ought to care after the people who have elected them to office & it's obvious that upstaters do much better job providing to their constituents.
If West Virginia could split from Virginia, why not NYC? Besides, the idea of America's first city-state is pretty intriguing (unless you consider DC, which doesn't have the power of a state). Berlin is its own state in Germany and that seems to be working. We would have to annex Croton in order to secure the water supply though.
Actually West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863, but that was during the American Civil War.
Blame belongs squarely to inept NYC politicians serving in State legislature. With 11B in overpayment, NYC clearly subsidises NY state & they seem oblivious to it/unwilling to do anything.
I don't understand why so many people don't get the fact that it takes a shit-ton more money to maintain a system of roads and bridges spread over the other 90% of the state that isn't the New York Metro Area.
The city subsidizes the rest of the state because it can afford to. You know, the whole "tax the rich" thing that y'all seem to love so much? And the money is from the "Disneyfication" that y'all hate so much.
Love the plan except that I like to drink water and, you know, shower. So I'm gonna need some water folks.
http://nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/maplevels_wide.shtml
Perhaps an alternative is to have coup? Maybe have Ray Kelly install Bloomberg as a Monarch over all of NYS. I Mean our police force is bigger than most armies and armed well enough to get it done...
All the surrounding counties would have to be taken as well. All of the Island. Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Rockland. Bergen, Hudson and pretty much all of the north Jersey rim for Container port access.
Without arable land and access to a major port facility that the city-state would control, not even NYC could exist. Well..yeah, it could..but the residents would be paying probably 5-10 times as much for just about every modern comfort through punishment tariffs by the surrounding states for seceeding in the first place.
Wait, all of a second the NYPD is a well-trained force of competents happy to shoot at people who aren't minorities? Fickle crew around here.