An Abundance Agenda For NY

It's time to fix NY, RIP Forward Health, turning labor into owners

Nov 15, 2024

In the Venn diagram of what democrats need to do and what I can do myself, I keep coming back to the need to make our greatest cities beacons of hope and exemplars of competence.

If the states are the laboratories of democracy then blue cities need to be case studies of effective, winning liberalism.

An Abundance Agenda for NYC

Housing housing housing. We have to solve NY’s housing crisis. The failure to alleviate it confirms everyone’s worst suspicions about democrats: red tape, process over outcomes, inaction, and elite capture. We need a housing boom to make the city affordable and improve lives, show we can do great things, and retain population/EC votes. Build or die.
Good government. Democrats can’t be the party of big government, we have to be the party of effective government in contrast to Trumpism. That has to start with zero tolerance on incompetence and corruption in our own ranks. Beyond that we have to be brave enough to hold government accountable or risk appearing crazy when we insist “no this is good, actually” as others see our institutions crumble. We need to celebrate and take credit for outcomes and impacts (value created), not efforts (dollars spent).
Transit. Our transit system is the backbone of the city. It makes NYC livable and paints a way forward on climate change. But only if it works. We have to fund and fix the subway, make the MTA feel safe for every rider, and dramatically improve bus performance (extremely high ROI on low capex). The alternative is a death spiral that emiserates the city and proves there’s no way but cars and suburbs. We have to show we win on infrastructure.
Public safety. Democrats get punished for dismissing and being mealy mouthed on crime. Liberals need to engage productively on crime and public safety. The alternative is that Republicans will keep owning the talking stick and with that the criminal justice system gets more draconian, cruel, and inefficient. It can’t be verboten or untoward to want to feel safe - that attitude looks like more elite indifference (my neighborhood is safe, after all.)

Obviously there are barriers to all of this at the federal level and in Albany. But we need more ambition and determination to accomplish a local agenda. To start, Adams (corrupt and incompetent) and Hochul (weapons grade moron) have to go.

There is an immediate window to elect better leaders and start on the path with the mayoral and city council elections (with 10 term limited council members!) this June, and gubernatorial primary in summer ’26. But tossing out the worst NY has to offer can’t be the end of it.

As New Yorkers who believe that government can be a force for good in the world, we have to hold ourselves and our leaders to a higher standard of true excellence. I believe this will be a more winning message and is actually a winnable fight while Trump holds the keys to national politics.

The fight for NY starts now.

After publishing this on Twitter two things happened.

First, Kathy Hochul has announced that she will go forward with congestion pricing at the bottom of the range for revenue/fees allowed under the law. This is great news but it may be too little too late if it’s not fully implemented before the Trump admin takes over the DOT. Kathy is quite literally doing the least and doing it as slowly as possible.

Second, I got hooked up with Abundance NY, a new group in NY focused on exactly these issues. I’m still getting to know them but I like what I’ve seen thus far on both the issues and approach: coalition building, community engagement, strategic campaign donations in important races. Excited to see what comes of it and get more involved. You can follow them at abundanceny.substack.com.