Ben Shapiro

By 1990, the murder rate hit an unprecedented 2,200 dead in one year alone.

Dinkins promised to heal the city through multiculturalism, but only ushered in the Crown Heights riots, sparked by racial agitators like Al Sharpton.

Finally, in 1994, a desperate New York City elected Rudy Giuliani.

He implemented broken windows policing, empowered the NYPD, cleared out the drug markets, and built up Times Square.

Murder fell by nearly 70%.

Welfare was slashed with work requirements, ushering in an era of growth and prosperity.

He led the city with heroism before making way for Mike Bloomberg, who ran the city like a pragmatist, keeping crime low.

But progressives cannot stand prosperity.

Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams were no strangers to this idea.

De Blasio ended stop and frisk as crime surged under a cashless bail policy.

He dumped billions into making New York City a right to shelter city.

Eric Adams oversaw harm reduction centers where heroin was actually injected under city government supervision.

City budgets were shifted from libraries and police to ballooning welfare obligations.

New York City was prime for Zoran Mamdani's run.

He didn't win the mayorship by selling socialism as a word.

He won by selling affordability as a crisis.

Homelessness in New York City is at a Great Depression-level high, with over 100,000 people sleeping in shelters nightly, up 175% since the year 2000.

Less than 34% of New Yorkers rate their quality of life as excellent or good, down from 51% in 2017.

The city faces a projected budget gap of $10 billion.

The median one-bed Manhattan rent is over $4,000 a month with an affordable apartment vacancy rate of under 1%.