Eric Adams is Borough president of Brooklyn. He aspires to\nbe mayor of New York City. But he wants to serve only the folks he considers\nreal New Yorkers. And real New Yorkers, in Adams\u2019 estimation do not include\ntransplants from places like Iowa and Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adams used an event commemorating Martin Luther King to make it clear that Americans from elsewhere in the country are not exactly welcome in the Big Apple. \u201cGo back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio!\u201d he told migrants from the Midwest<\/a>. \u201cNew York City belongs to the people that was (sic) here and made New York City what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alleged sin of those flyover state transplants is that\nthey have the unmitigated chutzpah<\/em> to\nwant a voice in how the city is run and what government priorities ought to be.\nIowans and Ohioans are \u201cfolks who [are]not only hijacking your apartments and\ndisplacing your living arrangements, they displace your conversation and say\nthe things that are important to you are no longer important. And they decide\nwhat\u2019s important and what is not important,\u201d railed Adams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving aside the fact that Adams\u2019 sentiments are the exact antithesis of what Dr. King preached, imagine the ruckus that would have ensued if he had demanded that the 40 percent of New York City residents who were born<\/a>, not in other states, but in other countries, get the hell out. It would have generated front page stories, indignant editorials, street protests, and demands for Adams\u2019 resignation \u2013 and properly so. Instead, the New York Post<\/em> and a couple of local TV stations were the only news outlets to even take notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say, citizens have an unassailable right to\nsettle anywhere in the U.S., including the five boroughs of New York. Ironically,\nhowever, Adams touched on some of the very reasons why settling in the United\nStates is a privilege, not a right for noncitizen. Immigration laws (at least\nin this country) do not exist because of animus toward foreigners. Rather they\nexist because large-scale immigration, legal and illegal, has a profound impact\non the lives of people in the receiving society. It affects every aspect of\ntheir lives, both positively and negatively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Properly regulated, immigration can complement what \u201cwas\nhere,\u201d bringing new energy, and new vibrancy to the receiving society.\nUnregulated and unlawful, it can impose enormous burdens on the receiving\nsociety, affecting everything from the cost of housing, to jobs and wages,\nquality of education, and public safety, to name just a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that New York actually encourages the settlement of people who move there illegally from other countries, and who often have more of say in setting priorities than citizens do, may be a prime reason why the people who \u201cmade New York City what it is\u201d are fleeing the city in droves.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n If Adams does wind up as New York City\u2019s next mayor, Frank\nSinatra\u2019s New York, New York, <\/em>may\nhave to be dropped as the city\u2019s unofficial theme song. After all, Sinatra was\na migrant from New Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eric Adams is Borough president of Brooklyn. He aspires to be mayor of New York City. But he wants to serve only the folks he considers real New Yorkers. And real New Yorkers, in Adams\u2019 estimation do not include transplants from places like Iowa and Ohio. Adams used an event commemorating Martin Luther King to<\/p>\n