Green New Deal policy will accelerate New York City’s demise: Giuliani
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday said Mayor Bill de Blasio’s progressive policies are accelerating the decline of the world’s financial capital.
“One of the way I test cities, and have been for years going around the world, is how clean are they, how orderly are they, how nice do they look,” he said during an interview with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “I prided myself that I got New York City like that.”
Critics of de Blasio have blamed the mayor for the rapid reversal of the city’s economic revival signaled by the rise of homelessness and dirtier streets.
“The reality is the city is losing jobs, losing businesses,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani said the mayor should shift his focus toward cleaning up the city instead of cracking down on the iconic buildings as part of New York’s “Green New Deal” advocated by Democrats.
“Coming into the airport the other day with an out of towner and they said, ‘My goodness, I don’t remember all this garbage on the side of the road,’” he said on “Mornings with Maria.”
De Blasio is following the lead taken by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with the city’s Green New Deal initiative that would ban steel and glass skyscrapers to reduce building emissions.
During his term as a Republican mayor, Giuliani was credited for cleaning up the city’s homeless problem, reducing crime, and creating a safe haven for businesses. Now the former mayor says he has received calls about New York’s homeless problems and the influx of residents choosing to relocate to lower-tax rated cities.
“I have friends calculating how to make their moves to Florida,” he said.
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Mayor de Blasio is currently serving his second term after being reelected in November 2017.