Flak for hopeful Yang
Mayoral candidate hit for COVID retreat as he launches run
With a picturesque view of an upper Manhattan park as his background, Andrew Yang kicked off his mayoral run on Thursday, throwing a wild card into a contest that is very much up for grabs.
“I launched a presidential campaign that not too many people were calling for before it happened, but turned into a movement with millions of Americans rallying around universal basic income and a new economy that works for us, the people,” he said just outside Morningside Park.
“Now that we are facing this historic crisis, I am aiming to unleash and channel that energy for a human-centered economy right here in New York, my home,” Yang added.
Yang’s quirky demeanor and signature proposal to give all Americans a monthly paycheck made for a stronger-than-expected showing during the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.
But he faced tough questions about his level of commitment to New York right out of the gate.
Days before the campaign launch, he told The New York Times he had spent much of the pandemic in upstate New Paltz, saying, “can you imagine trying to have two kids on virtual school in a two-bedroom apartment, and then trying to do work yourself?” He was widely panned for the remarks.
He went on the defensive Thursday, insisting, “I feel very deeply and painfully what every family in New York City has been going through over these past number of months.”
Asked about his feeble voting record in which he has skipped recent mayoral elections, he said, “Like some others, I may have taken our local government for granted.
“But that was something that was happening during good times in the city, and now we’re in the midst of a crisis ... It’s a crisis situation and we all need to step up,” he added.
Yang announced a pareddown version of universal basic income, in which the poorest 500,000 New Yorkers would get $2,000 to $5,000 per year — at an annual cost of at least $1 billion to the city.
He said Thursday details on how to pay for the undertaking as the city grapples with service cuts and massive tax revenue shortfalls would be forthcoming.
“There are going to be some difficult decisions ahead,” Yang said. “But we also need to try and grow our revenue. And I have some really exciting ways that I think that we can actually get some more money coming into the city’s coffers that I’m going to be pumped to share with you all in a little bit.”
Yang’s entry shakes up a Democratic primary, set for June, in which Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and city Comptroller Scott Stringer have been seen as tentative frontrunners.
Yang’s national profile and loyal social media following make him a serious candidate right off the bat, noted political scientist Doug Muzzio of Baruch College.
“He can raise money and he can organize a campaign through digital media,” said Muzzio, though he added that “most New Yorkers would probably bridle at the proposal” of universal basic income for only part of the population.
Fresh from Washington, D.C., following his vote to impeach President Trump for inciting the U.S. Capitol riot, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) endorsed Yang at Thursday’s campaign launch.
The freshman congressman called the mayoral candidate “a leader who represents a break from the failed politics of the past, from the political establishment that has largely failed the people of New York in our moment of greatest crisis.”