Mayor, Anyone?

If you live in a large city and desire to run for mayor, on what platform, pray, will you run? What has John Lindsay of New York decided to run on? One metropolitan newspaper has carefully and enthusiastically recorded his attributes, the most significant of which, some observers have noted, is the brilliance of his teeth. (Yes, that was a qualification solemnly remarked by one major newspaper.) When the press mulcted from Candidate Lindsay the specific ideas he had for New York, he temporarily deserted his Spenglerian observations about the decline and fall of the City and said that a) he feared the desertion of New York by private industry; b) he thought something ought to be done about the flourishing narcotics trade here; and c) he did not believe that sufficient effort had been made to save the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Back to the teeth.

There is, however, the phenomenon, well remarked by shrewd observers, that goes under the name of the “crisis of the American city.” Such a crisis does exist. New York—and other major cities—become, increasingly, unpleasant places to live in. Unpleasant and costly. It is unpleasant to have to pay a high cost for unpleasantness. So what might one do?

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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If you live in a large city and desire to run for mayor, on what platform, pray, will you run? What has John Lindsay of New York decided to run on? One metropolitan newspaper has carefully and enthusiastically recorded his attributes, the most significant of which, some observers have noted, is the brilliance of his teeth. (Yes, that was a qualification solemnly remarked by one major newspaper.) When the press mulcted from Candidate Lindsay the specific ideas he had for New York, he temporarily deserted his Spenglerian observations about the decline and fall of the City and said that a) he feared the desertion of New York by private industry; b) he thought something ought to be done about the flourishing narcotics trade here; and c) he did not believe that sufficient effort had been made to save the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Back to the teeth.

There is, however, the phenomenon, well remarked by shrewd observers, that goes under the name of the “crisis of the American city.” Such a crisis does exist. New York—and other major cities—become, increasingly, unpleasant places to live in. Unpleasant and costly. It is unpleasant to have to pay a high cost for unpleasantness. So what might one do?