4 ms·

Why is NYC so corrupt when large cities like London, Munich, and even Paris are much less so?

by rayiner 11mo ago

cyberax 11mo ago
They are just as corrupt and/or incompetent. Have you tried Deutsche Bahn recently?
mmooss 11mo ago
Why do people say NYC is more corrupt? I don't know of evidence or reports. To me, it doesn't seem more or less corrupt than other major cities in the US. It's hard to compare to other countries, where city government may have different roles. Certainly NY's government and budget are larger than other US cities, for obvious reasons.
- rangestransform 10mo ago
  NY pays sandhogs to stand in the tunnels with their thumbs up their asses https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...
  - mmooss 10mo ago
    Thanks for the link! I'm not sure the incident you name is meaningful, but here is some evidence at last (from 2017): > "the highest construction costs in the world" > "The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track — seven times the average elsewhere in the world. The recently completed Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 2015 extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards also cost far above average, at $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion per mile, respectively." > For years, The Times found, public officials have stood by as a small group of politically connected labor unions, construction companies and consulting firms have amassed large profits. > Trade unions, which have closely aligned themselves with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other politicians, have secured deals requiring underground construction work to be staffed by as many as four times more laborers than elsewhere in the world, documents show. > Construction companies, which have given millions of dollars in campaign donations in recent years, have increased their projected costs by up to 50 percent when bidding for work from the M.T.A., contractors say. > Public officials, mired in bureaucracy, have not acted to curb the costs. The M.T.A. has not adopted best practices nor worked to increase competition in contracting, and it almost never punishes vendors for spending too much or taking too long, according to inspector general reports. etc. Also, this is based on extensive research:' > The Times brought the list to more than 50 contractors, many of whom had worked in New York as well as in other cities. The Times also interviewed nearly 100 current and former M.T.A. employees, reviewed internal project records, consulted industry price indexes and built a database to compare spending on specific items. And The Times observed construction on site in Paris, which is building a project similar to the Second Avenue subway at one-sixth the cost.
woodruffw 11mo ago
It isn't. No evidence has been presented to that effect. Here are some actual numbers[1]. (The classic form of griping over NYC corruption is the MTA which is notable for not being administrated by the city.) [1]: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how-corrupt-is-new-york-anyway https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how-corrupt-is-new-yor...
- rayiner 10mo ago
  Your link shows that NYC is very corrupt! It ranks #3 in corruption prosecutions since 1976. On a population-adjusted basis, it’s probably #1. Your article tries to account for population, but does so incorrectly. It overlooks that NDIL includes the entire Chicago metro area (over 10 million people), not just the city of Chicago (2.7 million). CDCA includes the entire LA metro area, plus surrounding cities like Santa Barbara (total almost 19 million people). In contrast, SDNY includes just Manhattan and a few counties north of the city (Westchester, etc), totaling about 3 million people. And EDNY includes just Brooklyn and Long Island. The NYC metro area also is covered by DNJ (which is also very corrupt) and probably a bit of D. Conn as well. Focusing on SDNY, it's about 462 federal corruption convictions per million people (current population) since 1976. D. Mass is at about 107.
  - woodruffw 10mo ago
    The relevant part is the last three decades, as the article explains. The US as a whole has seen a decline in federal corruption prosecutions, but NYC leads that decline. Quote: > However, beginning in the 1990s, the number of corruption convictions there began to rapidly decline, so much so that by the beginning of the 2020s, Manhattan’s position relative to other areas had flipped. It now boasts the fewest corruption convictions of any major city area.
    - rayiner 10mo ago
      As noted above, the article uses the wrong numbers for each district’s population. Even just looking at the most recent two periods (2010-present) SDNY has got about double the per-capita rate of D. Mass. EDNY + SDNY together have about the same population as NDIL (about 10 million), but have a higher number of corruption convictions than NDIL during each period in the chart except 2020-21.
EdwardDiego 11mo ago
If you think Munich isn't corrupt, you should ask a Münchner - hell, their airport is named after a corrupt politician. [0] But as a few Germans have put it to me - sure, there's corruption here, but at least it still gets things built unlike _Italian_ corruption. Which is an... ...interesting point of view. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauss As for London, they built an entire industry around hiding money for oligarchs who stole it from their own countries. Maybe it's technically legal, but it's morally corrupt AF.
- Semaphor 11mo ago
  As a German I'll say that even acknowledging there is a corruption problem (while still being unwilling to change it and not voting for the parties that let corruption fester) puts them a good step ahead of all those thinking there's no real corruption. No studies, personal impressions, so I might well be wrong and maybe they all know but don't care. No majority that cares either way.
  - EdwardDiego 11mo ago
    Yeah, I agree with that sentiment.
  - mschild 11mo ago
    As another German, I think there is different kinds of corruption. There is low-level and high-level. Low-level is when you bribe individual cops, city clerks, etc so they let you go instead of writing a speeding ticket or approving your house building plan. High-level is when people like Merz receive a political donation from McDonalds, do some self-promotion in one, and then keep/lower the Mwst (VAT) for restaurants. Germany unfortunately has high-level corruption but as far as I know, very little low-level. I think thats partially why people don't care to vote to differently. Yes, it happens, but there is a large disconnect between what Merz does and how it impacts an individuals bottom line. If people would have to constantly hand out bribes to anyone then maybe its a different story.
    - 11mo ago

Why is NYC so corrupt when large cities like London, Munich, and even Paris are much less so?

by rayiner 11mo ago

Why is NYC so corrupt when large cities like London, Munich, and even Paris are much less so?

cyberax 11mo ago

They are just as corrupt and/or incompetent. Have you tried Deutsche Bahn recently?

mmooss 11mo ago

Why do people say NYC is more corrupt? I don't know of evidence or reports. To me, it doesn't seem more or less corrupt than other major cities in the US. It's hard to compare to other countries, where city government may have different roles. Certainly NY's government and budget are larger than other US cities, for obvious reasons.

rangestransform 10mo ago
NY pays sandhogs to stand in the tunnels with their thumbs up their asses https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...
- mmooss 10mo ago
  Thanks for the link! I'm not sure the incident you name is meaningful, but here is some evidence at last (from 2017): > "the highest construction costs in the world" > "The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track — seven times the average elsewhere in the world. The recently completed Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 2015 extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards also cost far above average, at $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion per mile, respectively." > For years, The Times found, public officials have stood by as a small group of politically connected labor unions, construction companies and consulting firms have amassed large profits. > Trade unions, which have closely aligned themselves with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other politicians, have secured deals requiring underground construction work to be staffed by as many as four times more laborers than elsewhere in the world, documents show. > Construction companies, which have given millions of dollars in campaign donations in recent years, have increased their projected costs by up to 50 percent when bidding for work from the M.T.A., contractors say. > Public officials, mired in bureaucracy, have not acted to curb the costs. The M.T.A. has not adopted best practices nor worked to increase competition in contracting, and it almost never punishes vendors for spending too much or taking too long, according to inspector general reports. etc. Also, this is based on extensive research:' > The Times brought the list to more than 50 contractors, many of whom had worked in New York as well as in other cities. The Times also interviewed nearly 100 current and former M.T.A. employees, reviewed internal project records, consulted industry price indexes and built a database to compare spending on specific items. And The Times observed construction on site in Paris, which is building a project similar to the Second Avenue subway at one-sixth the cost.

woodruffw 11mo ago

It isn't. No evidence has been presented to that effect. Here are some actual numbers[1]. (The classic form of griping over NYC corruption is the MTA which is notable for not being administrated by the city.) [1]: https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how-corrupt-is-new-york-anyway https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how-corrupt-is-new-yor...

rayiner 10mo ago
Your link shows that NYC is very corrupt! It ranks #3 in corruption prosecutions since 1976. On a population-adjusted basis, it’s probably #1. Your article tries to account for population, but does so incorrectly. It overlooks that NDIL includes the entire Chicago metro area (over 10 million people), not just the city of Chicago (2.7 million). CDCA includes the entire LA metro area, plus surrounding cities like Santa Barbara (total almost 19 million people). In contrast, SDNY includes just Manhattan and a few counties north of the city (Westchester, etc), totaling about 3 million people. And EDNY includes just Brooklyn and Long Island. The NYC metro area also is covered by DNJ (which is also very corrupt) and probably a bit of D. Conn as well. Focusing on SDNY, it's about 462 federal corruption convictions per million people (current population) since 1976. D. Mass is at about 107.
- woodruffw 10mo ago
  The relevant part is the last three decades, as the article explains. The US as a whole has seen a decline in federal corruption prosecutions, but NYC leads that decline. Quote: > However, beginning in the 1990s, the number of corruption convictions there began to rapidly decline, so much so that by the beginning of the 2020s, Manhattan’s position relative to other areas had flipped. It now boasts the fewest corruption convictions of any major city area.
  - rayiner 10mo ago
    As noted above, the article uses the wrong numbers for each district’s population. Even just looking at the most recent two periods (2010-present) SDNY has got about double the per-capita rate of D. Mass. EDNY + SDNY together have about the same population as NDIL (about 10 million), but have a higher number of corruption convictions than NDIL during each period in the chart except 2020-21.

EdwardDiego 11mo ago

If you think Munich isn't corrupt, you should ask a Münchner - hell, their airport is named after a corrupt politician. [0] But as a few Germans have put it to me - sure, there's corruption here, but at least it still gets things built unlike _Italian_ corruption. Which is an... ...interesting point of view. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauss As for London, they built an entire industry around hiding money for oligarchs who stole it from their own countries. Maybe it's technically legal, but it's morally corrupt AF.

Semaphor 11mo ago
As a German I'll say that even acknowledging there is a corruption problem (while still being unwilling to change it and not voting for the parties that let corruption fester) puts them a good step ahead of all those thinking there's no real corruption. No studies, personal impressions, so I might well be wrong and maybe they all know but don't care. No majority that cares either way.
- EdwardDiego 11mo ago
  Yeah, I agree with that sentiment.
- mschild 11mo ago
  As another German, I think there is different kinds of corruption. There is low-level and high-level. Low-level is when you bribe individual cops, city clerks, etc so they let you go instead of writing a speeding ticket or approving your house building plan. High-level is when people like Merz receive a political donation from McDonalds, do some self-promotion in one, and then keep/lower the Mwst (VAT) for restaurants. Germany unfortunately has high-level corruption but as far as I know, very little low-level. I think thats partially why people don't care to vote to differently. Yes, it happens, but there is a large disconnect between what Merz does and how it impacts an individuals bottom line. If people would have to constantly hand out bribes to anyone then maybe its a different story.
  - 11mo ago