The Staten Island Problem - Part 3: The Tuvalu Effect
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Pushkin. Ben, Natif Hafri here. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that you can hear all episodes of Revisionist History, The Staten Island Problem, ad-free right now by signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and other binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Plus, your support helps independent shows like us continue making the stories you love. Sign up and save on the Revisionist History show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm slash plus. Use the code RH25 for 25% off an annual subscription. All right, let's get into the series. Every morning, a Staten Island attorney named David Goldfarb used to walk by Borough Hall on his way to the ferry.
Some days, he'd see a short, white-haired man with big glasses waving him down. Borough President Guy Molinari. Molinari, you might remember from episode one, was Staten Island's rabble-rouser-in-chief. He was constantly feuding with the Dinkins administration.
He would stop and see me and ask me to come into his office. He liked to talk to anybody and everybody. He would just call you in their office and would sit down and just have this, and I would say, you know, I have to go to work to get a ferry. But he loved to talk about it.
The it here is secession. Molinari loved to talk about it because everyone was talking about it. And David Goldfarb was worried. He liked being part of New York City. He and his wife lived on the North Shore, the most diverse part of the island, closest to Manhattan, in a house with a pool and, depending on the season, two pink lawn flamingos. He worked in a law firm in Manhattan. He did not want to secede from New York. And from their conversations, it seemed like Molinari was maybe on his side. He had not yet endorsed secession.
He told me in the beginning, point blank, that this is never going to be allowed by the assembly. He said, you know, he'd say, don't worry about it. It's not going to happen.
That may have been what Molinari was saying, but something was clearly brewing. The movement was everywhere.
Welcome to our special Cable in the Classroom feature on the history of secession, produced exclusively by Staten Island Cable.
The local cable station had even made tapes for classrooms to teach kids about secession.
The people know why they feel the way they do, because they know the facts through learning and education.
They were not exactly unbiased.
The future of Staten Island is being decided now. History is being made. Be a part of it.
David Goldfarb did not want to be part of it. What is your nightmare situation here?
I mean, would the North Shore end up like Northern Ireland? Would some of the communities on the North Shore that voted against it would not be included? It would be the same situation you have now where Staten Island felt alienated from the city of New York. Parts of the North Shore would have felt alienated from the rest of Staten Island.
the secessionists had to be stopped. You're listening to Revisionist History. I'm Ben Nadeff-Haffery, and this is the Staten Island Problem, our series about the Staten Island secession movement of the 1990s, and more broadly, about what we do when a democracy fractures. Last episode was about the psychology of secession.
Who is David Goldfarb and why did he organize against Staten Island secession?
Who wants to leave and why? This episode is about the people who don't want to leave and the fight that ensued between them in the battle for Staten Island. This is episode three, The Tuvalu Effect.
As the secessionists marauded around the island and the cable news station went to work brainwashing the children, the people on Staten Island who actually liked being part of New York City realized they had to get organized. So Goldfarb joined a group of like-minded individuals, Staten Islanders for Unified New York, SIFUNI. The message of which was, what are you doing? This is going to ruin Staten Island.
It'll be fairly, it'll be a free-floating debate. The debaters will feel free to interrupt each other.
One spring evening in 1993, Saifuni and the pro-secessionists gathered at the College of Staten Island for a debate.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–3:55
2
Who is David Goldfarb and why did he organize against Staten Island secession?
3:55–23:33
3
What arguments did pro‑secession debaters like Dan Singletary use at college forums?
23:33–29:06
4
How did David Goldfarb counter claims about creating a new city’s services and costs?
29:06–31:23