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> I've been saying for a while that NYC should cecede from New York State. We send more money Upstate than they send down, Much as I'd love for key NYC infrast

> I've been saying for a while that NYC should cecede from New York State. We send more money Upstate than they send down, Much as I'd love for key NYC infrastructure (namely the MTA) to be free from the grips of Albany, this would never work. New York City is so intrinsically dependent on infrastructure from the surrounding areas that it would be a nightmare to try and negotiate that across state lines. Negotiating water rights alone would be an absolute mess. > we still aren't allowed to run the socialist utopia most city residents actually want Uh, no, "most" residents of New York City don't want a socialist utopia. Just because four of the five boroughs voted for Obama in 2008 doesn't mean NYC is some bastion of radical left-wing thought. Let's not forget that the city voted Bloomberg in three times. (If you really want a deeper analysis, you might want to note that New York City politics is also influenced by people of color to a degree that no other major city in the US is. While they tend to vote reliably for Democratic candidates, black and Latino voters are empirically far less liberal[0] than their white counterparts in the Democratic party). [0] Ignore the op-ed itself; the graph halfway down the page illustrates the data very well: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/upshot/what-the-hispanic-vote-says-about-bernie-sanderss-chances.html?rref=upshot http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/upshot/what-the-hispanic-v...

rquantz 11y ago
Sorry, "socialist utopia" in this case is reclaimed from the Republican insanity of the last 8 years, where any government program is "socialism" and ergo synonymous with evil. I'm not suggesting the majority of New Yorkers want a dictatorship of the proletariat, I just mean most of us want to have the public infrastructure necessary to live in the city, and would probably be ok with better social programs. And would you deny that the city is more "liberal" than Upstate?
jdminhbg 11y ago
> New York City politics is also influenced by people of color to a degree that no other major city in the US is Washington, DC?
- chimeracoder 11y ago
  > Washington, DC? Okay, though I guess it depends on your definition of 'major city'. D.C. proper doesn't even have 1/10th the population of NYC; it's smaller than even El Paso, TX and Charlotte, NC. It doesn't even break the top 20 largest cities in the country. Though more importantly, D.C. is unique politically because it's not awarded the rights of a state, and therefore not protected from the federal government the way literally every other city in the US is. (Even San Juan, Puerto Rico, has more autonomy from the federal government in some ways than D.C. does)
  - mikeash 11y ago
    That last part is key for this particular tidbit. "People of color" influence DC politics only to the extent that the old white men in the Capitol tolerate it. Case in point, recent efforts to legalize marijuana locally have run into a lot of trouble because certain Congressmen make it their mission to oppose such things.
    - chimeracoder 11y ago
      > "People of color" influence DC politics only to the extent that the old white men in the Capitol tolerate it. Exactly. D.C is the only city whose local politics are directly subject to the whims of Congress. > Case in point, recent efforts to legalize marijuana locally have run into a lot of trouble Yes, and not just recent efforts - D.C. legalized medical marijuana in 1998 by popular vote, but the Barr amendment overruled it. (Yes, Bob Barr, who later ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, blocked D.C. from being able to legalize medical marijuana)

rquantz 11y ago

Sorry, "socialist utopia" in this case is reclaimed from the Republican insanity of the last 8 years, where any government program is "socialism" and ergo synonymous with evil. I'm not suggesting the majority of New Yorkers want a dictatorship of the proletariat, I just mean most of us want to have the public infrastructure necessary to live in the city, and would probably be ok with better social programs. And would you deny that the city is more "liberal" than Upstate?

jdminhbg 11y ago

> New York City politics is also influenced by people of color to a degree that no other major city in the US is Washington, DC?

chimeracoder 11y ago
> Washington, DC? Okay, though I guess it depends on your definition of 'major city'. D.C. proper doesn't even have 1/10th the population of NYC; it's smaller than even El Paso, TX and Charlotte, NC. It doesn't even break the top 20 largest cities in the country. Though more importantly, D.C. is unique politically because it's not awarded the rights of a state, and therefore not protected from the federal government the way literally every other city in the US is. (Even San Juan, Puerto Rico, has more autonomy from the federal government in some ways than D.C. does)
- mikeash 11y ago
  That last part is key for this particular tidbit. "People of color" influence DC politics only to the extent that the old white men in the Capitol tolerate it. Case in point, recent efforts to legalize marijuana locally have run into a lot of trouble because certain Congressmen make it their mission to oppose such things.
  - chimeracoder 11y ago
    > "People of color" influence DC politics only to the extent that the old white men in the Capitol tolerate it. Exactly. D.C is the only city whose local politics are directly subject to the whims of Congress. > Case in point, recent efforts to legalize marijuana locally have run into a lot of trouble Yes, and not just recent efforts - D.C. legalized medical marijuana in 1998 by popular vote, but the Barr amendment overruled it. (Yes, Bob Barr, who later ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, blocked D.C. from being able to legalize medical marijuana)