For Bill de Blasio and other ultra-liberal politicians, I am evil – because I am successful. The Public Advocate of New York, who came from nowhere to win the New York City Democratic primary and is now the frontrunner to be the mayor of the city, ran his campaign focused on vowing to address the issue which he deems “The Tale of Two Cities.” As someone born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, who now lives on the vaunted Upper West Side, I am indeed very familiar with the different neighborhoods, and the DNA of New York.
I was raised in the Bronx in a single-mother household, attended public school and worked in a local pizzeria many hours from the age of 12 until after I graduated college. I remember returning bottles for the 5 cent deposits (well before the days when anyone thought about the need to be “green” friendly) and the constant struggle for my mother to pay the bills so she could do everything in the world possible for my sister and I to get ahead. And indeed, my holy mother never failed, and we got ahead thanks to her love, sweat and tears.
I very clearly remember the dangerous streets filled with three-card monte games, hustlers, pickpockets, drug dealers and slimeballs. I remember the fear of riding the subway and of walking on the streets after dark. And indeed, while de Blasio, the Cambridge, Massachusetts transplant (who was then known as Warren Wilhelm) was getting his B.A. from New York University and then his masters in the Ivy League school of Columbia University, the great city of New York was suffering tremendously. I am a proud graduate of the New York City public school system – although I remember cutting school often, and doing plenty of other things I don’t want my kids knowing about.
Today, when de Blasio speaks of “The Tale of Two Cities,” I understand the other side. I live in a uber-luxury condominium building in Lincoln Center, and my children attend private school. Thanks to working very hard, at the age of 39, I own one of the largest PR agencies in the city and employ over 110 people.
De Blasio, the uber-liberal believes I need to be penalized for my success. He claims “We don’t have to continue to live the Tale of Two Cities that confronts us today.” And indeed, in the great country of America, we don’t. People in New York can work hard, take risks and get ahead – and all have opportunity. Does everyone’s American dream mean they have to be wealthy? Or does it simply mean they have equal opportunity? Shouldn’t the 1st African American President in the White House tell all Americans that indeed anyone can do anything?
Why is it that New Yorkers should be taxed and penalized more because they are successful? De Blasio – like liberals throughout the US – is proposing a tax on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten and other radical ways to “address the city’s growing income inequality.” De Blasio is an old-school liberal who will harm business interests throughout this city.
Ads that the NY state government is running say, “In New York State, a business can grow as big as anyone can possibly imagine.” Why don’t the ads explain that one will pay more than 50% in taxes if they are successful in New York City? And clearly with extreme liberals in office that number will only go up. New York imposes high taxes on personal income, individual capital gains, corporate income, and corporate capital gains. Everything here is expensive, and indeed for liberals, when you make it then you are to blame.
Too many liberal politicians fail to remember that the successful (wealthy) create jobs. They aren’t bad. They are good – and it’s the essence of capitalism. Stop demonizing the wealthy via class warfare – encourage kids and people to be successful.
Class warfare is something that turns this boy from the Bronx off – and should turn everyone off. Demonizing the people who employ people, the people most likely to pay large taxes, the hard-working folks of this city – how does that make New York better? Shame on any politician who engages in class warfare.
P.S.: Mr. de Blasio – During the campaign you spoke regularly of “$1,000 caviar pizza, and – for the same price – a ‘Golden Opulence’ sundae for dessert.” Would love to find out if I can have it delivered for lunch tomorrow to 5WPR. Where from?
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