Listen to neighborhood stories
Reducing something as massive, sprawling, and diverse as New York City to fit into the smallness of a political campaign diminishes the depth and character of our neighborhoods. Insisting that New York City is the sum of its problems, as so many of the candidates to be our next mayor are doing, is insulting. Worse yet, the tone-deaf and desperate appeals some candidates are being spoon-fed by their handlers ignore the history and richness and varied experiences of the block-by-block tapestry of our five boroughs.
Cops know about stories because every interaction we have is a story that speaks to the complexity of the job and the city. Consider the enduring popularity of the famous closing of each episode of Naked City —“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them,” and the iconic opening of Law & Order — “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”
What police do resonates because people understand how important our work is and they are honest about their own stories. When politicians and candidates vilify police in order to fit in with protestors much younger than them or go after cops in an attempt to ride a wave of social media activism, actual voters understand that they’re being talked down to.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.