I’m my own man
Yang says he wouldn’t be beholden to unions
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang pitched himself Thursday as a “salesperson and cheerleader” for New York City who’d represent a “break from the past” — and almost immediately drew heat from his rivals as being out of touch.
Yang, who leads the field of candidates in most recent polls, has not won endorsements from the city’s most powerful unions, but suggested during a speech Thursday morning that’s an advantage New Yorkers can bank on.
“I will enter City Hall not owing anyone except the people of New York City,” he said during a Zoom call with the Association for a Better New York. “I’ll follow facts, not the priorities of special interests. I’ll fight for what is right, not what is going to avoid an unfavorable press cycle.”
Negative stories about Yang have done little to diminish his lead in polls so far. He’s been criticized for leaving the city for upstate New Paltz at the height of the COVID pandemic, speaking out against the teachers union for slow-rolling the reopening of schools and for his lack of clarity on how he’d roll out his signature basic income plan.
Yang, an entrepreneur who rose to fame during his failed presidential run last year, appeared to brush those criticisms off Thursday.
“I called for schools to reopen because it was the right thing to do. That was clear to me as a public school parent and a parent of a special needs son,” he said. “I called for city control of the subway because it was the right thing to do. This was clear to me as a subway rider and New Yorker. How can we champion and manage our city’s recovery if we don’t control the way New Yorkers get to work and school every day?”
Other contenders in the mayor’s race offered a different perspective, though, and seized on statements Yang made Thursday about giving incentives to big businesses.
“Far too many New Yorkers have been unable to pay rent and make ends meet for more than a year. Small business owners have been struggling to keep their doors open and stay afloat. Thousands of New Yorkers have lost their jobs,” said City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who lags in polls. “Meanwhile, Andrew Yang wants to give tax breaks to Fortune 500 companies that have made billions during the
pandemic. That’s wrong.”
Maya Wiley, who’s also running for mayor and served as Mayor de Blasio’s legal counsel, piled on as well, attacking Yang for suggesting earlier this week that the city hold off on spending 70% of federal stimulus money.
“His ‘say it now, figure it out later’ style of government would hurt New Yorkers and is eerily reminiscent of another New Yorker who craved power and attention and didn’t care about people,” Wiley spokeswoman Julia Savel said. “Our city deserves a serious leader, not a mini-Trump who thinks our city is a fun plaything in between podcasts.”
Yang was emphasizing the point that the city now needs to get workers back into their workplaces, which he tried to hammer home by speaking from a vacant office on Sixth Ave. during the Zoom call.
Zoom, he said, is the enemy, and pitched himself as the candidate best equipped to draw the city out of its COVID-induced shell.
Of all the candidates running for mayor, Yang has been the most visible by far and has emerged as savvy when it comes to positioning himself as a booster. When movie theaters opened, he was there with his wife to take in a film. On Thursday, as Major League Baseball was set to resume, Yang, a Mets fan, went to Yankee Stadium for opening day. He also released a hip hop video in which MC Jin reps hard for the Yang Gang.
And unlike de Blasio, who presided over Amazon ditching its plans to bring a headquarters to Queens, Yang touted himself as the candidate best suited to deal with business leaders who are looking to set up shop here or are contemplating leaving.