Morning for Troglodytes?

The Gray Lady comes out with a long piece about a local pol named Fernando Ferrer, who's embarking on his third run for Mayor of New York.

Aside from running on his ethnicity, a hallowed New York custom, Ferrer is running on socialist atavism:

For months, Mr. Ferrer has been going around the city, reaching far beyond his Bronx roots and seeking to draw in the middle-class voters who have proven key to winning city elections. His message - given at a backyard fund-raiser in an affluent Staten Island neighborhood one swampy night, or at an African Methodist Episcopal church in southeast Queens on another - strikes traditional Democratic themes in a city that has turned its back on the party, at least in selecting its mayors: that government can solve city ills through building more subsidized housing, by hiring more employees, by taxing Wall Street to improve its schools.

At the core of his candidacy is his belief that many New Yorkers face huge challenges merely trying to get by in the city, given rising housing costs, public schools that often fail to provide an adequate education, and a lack of attractive jobs for all but the elite. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, he argues, does not even recognize these concerns and panders only to business concerns and wealthier New Yorkers.

Ferrer is half right. Bloomberg wanted to use taxes for a massive subsidy for a football stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan. He certainly qualifies as an advocate of welfare for the rich.

But Ferrer? He wants to revive all the nostrums of New York municipal socialism. Subsidized housing? Try Co-op City, the jerry-built disaster in the Bronx. More city employees? Can he really be serious? Tax Wall Street more? Financial services is the one area where New York City has held its own, job-wise. If he taxes Wall Street in an internet age, the back office jobs are moving to South Dakota, Nova Scotia, or Bangalore. Maybe the Rubins and Corzines of the world will stay in New York, but jobs will start to bleed.

The best way to help the housing situation in New York City:

1. Get rid of rent control.


2. Get rid of silly restrictions on the buildig industry.


3. Get the corrupt officials, unions and gansters out of the construction business.

It ain't going to happen. And as long as New York City is dominated by liberals (read, socialists), the best its citizens can hope for is that occasionally they will get lucky, and some of their people will remain truly professional in spite of everything.

Anointing a liberal cave-dweller like Ferrer would be a disaster. Fortunately, fiscal constraints (no money) will limit the damage he can do if he wins.