The Difference Between Quinn and de Blasio, and Why the New York Times Is Out of Touch

Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn appeared at another campaign event in Brooklyn yesterday, where she endorsed the idea of more math and science schools for middle-school girls.

Quinn for NY

Quinn sounds sincere about her plan for math and science studies for girls -- but candidate Bill de Blasio sends his kids to public schools and has a plan to send all NYC kids who want it to full-day pre-K, which education experts say is the most important thing you can do to lift a child out of poverty.

Photo: MK Metz

De Blasio also has an ambitious plan for saving NYC hospitals. Quinn tried to jump on this bandwagon when she saw how much Brooklyn voters admired de Blasio's vision, but her plan was pretty much a copy of his, and then we never heard about it again. Anyway, Quinn has already demonstrated with St. Vincents how she feels about hospitals: not her concern (until an intern passes out and she can't get an ambulance).

De Blasio not only walks the walk, he marches, negotiates, files lawsuits, gets arrested and serves as a beacon for people to follow. And amazingly, he seems to be helping to slow down the hospital closing juggernaut in Brooklyn.

In their endorsement for Quinn (tellingly accompanied by their simultaneous endorsement of Republican, Joe Lhota) the NY Times said there's no room for big ideas or visionary thinking anymore, so might as well settle. Here's what they said about de Blasio:

"Mr. de Blasio’s most ambitious plans — like a powerful new state-city partnership to make forever-failing city hospitals financially viable, or to pay for universal prekindergarten and after-school programs through a new tax on the richest New Yorkers — need support in the State Capitol, and look like legislative long shots. Once a Mayor de Blasio saw his boldest ideas smashed on the rocks of Albany, then what?"

Yeah, why bother? Quinn may not have much of a vision for the city or plans to improve the lot of the ever-expanding poor or the real middle class (not that $400,000-a-year-middle-class the Times aims at), "but neither has she made a long list of unrealistic promises," the Times says. She may be in the pocket of real estate interests, and may support Ray Kelly's scorched-earth policing policies, but what do we expect in a diminished city?

According to the NY Times, the era of getting things done that benefit all New Yorkers is over. Because it's just too hard.

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