Squeegee Guys Return to New York Streets
In the authors’ own words:
Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.
In 1993, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioner Howard Safir adopted the “Broken Windows” strategy and sold it to the pubic under the “zero tolerance” and “quality of life” initiatives.
Loud noises met with fines, adult book stores were strictly zoned, traffic tickets were increased for “blocking the box,” and the squeegee man became persona non grata on the streets.
The Republican mayor Giuliani was widely smeared as a “dictator” in a city where donkeys outnumber elephants six to one, but after a failed Dinkins administration — a mayor who was progressively heralded as the first black mayor of New York — the public complaints of a tougher Giuliani administration did not match the private voting practices of the majority of New Yorkers. In the 1997 election, the right-wing Giuliani beat his far-left opponent, Ruth Messinger, by 17 points.
The swash of the bedraggled squeegee man gave way to the swish of a pristine Disney Broadway, a squeakier-clean version of the city.
Recently I watched a squeegee man clean a couple of windshields at a stoplight on 44th Street and 9th Avenue, where a few drivers reluctantly handed over some money after the man wiped the windshield. The taxi drivers, who typically carry their cash in hand, aggressively shooed the squeegee man away. During the bad years, taxi drivers were the ambulant version of an ATM, so cabbies making an all-cash living were targeted for muggings and, sometimes, even murder.
Is the return of the squeegee men a sign of a relaxing of law enforcement under the Bloomberg administration or just the harbinger of economic hardship as the city sheds jobs in both the public and private sector? The mayor’s office announced the reduction of the police force by 1,000 uniformed officers, while Citigroup recently gave pink slips to 50,000 workers.
From the decade of the kinder and gentler 90s to the millennial shift toward hope and change, the crackdown on petty crime as a gateway activity to bigger and broader opportunities has largely taken a back seat to the focus on hand-to-mouth bailouts. On the streets of New York, the squeegee men have largely gone unchallenged by both authorities and drivers. Will we see more squeegee workers and an increase in crime throughout the nation? As New Yorkers like to say, “Everything happens in New York first before anywhere else in the country.”
Despite being called right-wing, I should point out that Giuliani never received the CPNYS (Conservative Party of New York State) endorsement, and instead ran on the Republican and Liberal Party tickets.
It’s strange hearing an opinion that Bloomberg is soft, after he’s banned transfats, and I believe even taking pictures in many public places? It superficially sounds like a further crackdown, but I guess it must be like San Fransisco, where so much is outlawed with lax enforcement.
I cringed when I first heard about the reduction in police officers… now I see another indicator with the return of the squeegee men… the next sign to look for is the return of graffiti on the subways and with it… the increase crime rate. Regarding the removal of graffiti on subways, everyone (including me) said “it couldn’t be done”, and Rudi proved us all wrong. Rudi may not be the perfect conservative, but he’s the “Mayor” of NYC because he had his priorities right on what it took to clean up the city and make it a safe place to do business, and he stuck to them without trying to please all the special interests… that’s where Bloomberg and Rudi part ways. Bloomberg is a politician who wants to be loved, and he spends OPM to do it, without the priorities of a Rudi.
Losing 1,000 police in New York is bad news no matter how you look at it. And the return of the grift on drivers is a perfect symbol of that result. Like any group, when there are massive layoffs, the incentives are reduced by the rank and file.
Wonder if they will allow this to fester.
I think this should be our warning sign about prompting Bloomberg to run for President in the future. If NYC is returning back to it’s former crime-ridden self, why would we encourage Bloomberg to take on the country?
Someone ought to poll the squeegee guys about their education and former careers. It would be sweet if respondents frequently use the terms “J-school” and “MSM hack”.
Bloomberg will replace Hillie in the Senate. The money has already been paid to the governors’ family and friends (one of whom will replace Bloomberg); it is a done deal!
Bloomberg may or may not be a good Mayor. Rudi’s record shows he was a great Mayor. While “Squeegee Guys may not be a harbinger of bad times or worse times to come, most remember the times before the crackdown & they were NOT good times.
So, Bloomberg has shown he would not be a good President, & if a Senator he will continue his liberal babble where he can do great damage to the rest of us.
TexEd….I’ve been hearing that it’s going to be a Kennedy of one sort or another who will replace Hillary in the NY Senate.
When you discuss the loss of police officers, remember the very large number who are tied up protecting us from terrorists, including those in the NYPD’s own Intelligence departments. When you consider the cost of tracking the terrorists down and exterminating them, consider the cost we bear when we do not do so.
It’s all about the money. While allowing the police dept to shrink, Mayor Mike is hiring more meter maids. You can’t ticket squegee men. Bloomberg has been enforcing laws that make money in this way from day one. There’s a coffee shop on Carmine St that allowed people to bring in dogs while Rudy the Nazi was mayor. Nanny Mike fined them into submission. Examples abound.
Rudy the Nazi? You brought up Nazis first grimhamundarson, so you lose.
Maybe he was strict, but the people kept voting for him. Personally, I can’t see why anyone would willingly live in NYC, but then I’m a flyover country hick in Asia. I don’t have to lock my door in either place.
Bloomberg is a bad major and does not know how to run a city.
On my list of people I loathe, (Schumer, Biden), Bloomberg is right up there. I can’t stand a nanny in the first place, but his arrogance is beyond the pale. I thought people voted for term limits for a reason.
Thank God that Bloomberg is fighting the good fight against trans-fats and smoking. I guess all the real problems have been solved.
Why do liberals like to live like pigs? I don’t get it.
Unfortunately Bloomberg pukes the prejudices on a certain group of people, maybe unintentionally, but the result is the same. Poor New York.
grimhamundarson, by referring to Rudy as a “Nazi” you completely undo any argument which you may have had
With everything important going on in the world at this moment, I’m glad PJ’s decided perform some real, substantial journalism. Squeegee Guys!!!!! Keep it up!
Bloomberg was an entrepreuner who built a good business.
That does not mean he is a good public policy maker. He has packed the mayor’s office with staff never seen before and cuts police force ranks instead.
As a businessman, you would have expected him to at least get the economic stuff right. Not! He is too preoccupied with banning transfats and leading the nanny state into New York City.
Now the city is falling apart all over from the MTA to a growing budget deficit. The squeegee man is another symptom of the rot allowed to accumulate under Bloomberg’s administration.
What does the statue of Che really say?
When will people learn that the government is not their friend and is never benevolent? The citizens of America are in the process of being screwed on the national, state and local levels like never seen before.
New York was never a good place to live,even in the “good days” Just read Garcia Lorca, Henry Miller, and Celine 3 diverse people who all stared into the life-killing abyss that is NYC, and were revolted..At present it’s a Liberal welfare dysneyland,run by spendthrift liberal scum voted in,by a vicious, economically ignorant electorate.It is a locus for stress,criminality(Wall Street’s)as well as more common street crime,dirt, heavy taxes,poor services,crowding, and crime. NYC’s subway “system” could only have been conceived by a sadist,its inept public schools are run by charlatans: it deserves to die.About the only service NYC renders to the Republic is as a magnet for the
many village idiots,who can avoid public ridicule in their home towns, and successfully pose as “artistes” in a city, whose culture is fascinated with dysfunctional freaks.NYC is a meatgrinder for the naive who think it offers opportunity;it does, in the same way that working in a Pennsylvania coal mine offerered opportunity, to desperate and starving european immigrants in the 19th century.Now,with, its last racket Wall st, gone, it will go into terminal decline. May it rest in hell!
Someone ought to poll the squeegee guys about their education and former careers. It would be sweet if respondents frequently use the terms “J-school” and “MSM hack”.
is bloomberg still major? i’ve been to new york a while ago, and i have to agree to this blogwriter.
if you take a look at the newspaper and read the things he messed up its pretty stupid to let him still be in that position.
Bloomberg is not the best major and does not know how to run a city well.
Great article, very interesting. Thanks
wow, amazing stuff!