A famous saying that New York City Mayor Fiorello la Guardia used to say is, "There's no Republican or Democratic way of picking up the trash." It is simple: To run a city government, elected officials must be pragmatic, provide services, and examine their ideologies at the door. This is a clever, but misleading quote. Although providing public services may technically not be a political issue, it is not an ideological one. These are not empirical questions but values-based.AdvertisementNew Yorkers have more immediate reasons to worry about garbage pickup lately: 1) It's hot and therefore Hot Trash Season; 2) Kathryn Garcia (the city's former sanitation commissioner) came within one percentage point of winning the Democratic primary as mayor. Garcia, a civil servant for most of her life, spoke to voters about her managerial skills and competence. She promised to get the job done. This was a humorous nod to her previous work in sanitation and sewage. Although her policy positions were moderate, her message was a reminder that the progressive left of the city can adapt to the new circumstances and become its own entity after a disappointing performance in the mayoral election. This kernel is the basis of the most successful electoral leftists in American history. They believed that delivery of basic services, building public work, and running a functioning local government were inseparable.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGarcia was so close to winning, despite having no political experience or being well-known before the race. This shows that her message resonated with voters. This is a lesson for all candidates. After serving as counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasios, Maya Wiley was the left-most prominent candidate in the race. She campaigned mostly on nonprofit-esque platitudes. Garcia presented New Yorkers with a clear value proposition: improving the services they depend on every day. Given his strong support from the city's largest voting blocs, his close ties with labor, real-estate, and the traditional Democratic machine, Eric Adams, the eventual winner of the primary, was always going be a formidable candidate. Adams is not without flaws. He said that the party hackers at New Yorks corrupt Board of Elections did an excellent job. (Narrator) They didn't. Adams shouldn't be promoting good governance. Instead, Adams should encourage the city's progressive left. Voters without strong ideologies but who simply want the city's public services to function well may be open to trying something new to avoid stagnation and dysfunction.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe progressive left is a shorthand for all the leftists that reject capitalism and oppose the Democratic Party. The majority of major U.S. cities have a version of this structure. New York's is led by the Working Families Party (who endorse only self-identified socialists and didn't endorse for mayor). Although these groups are not a cohesive unit, Garcia is still not part of a larger umbrella. She opposed reducing the budget of the New York Police Department, supported increasing the cap on charter schools and rejected calls for higher taxes on the rich. Garcia's attention to her managerial skills almost reminded me of Michael Bloomberg, the consummate Neoliberal politician. There is one key difference. While Bloomberg preferred business over government and declared his desire to make New York a luxurious product, Garcia is a creature that belongs in the public sector. Her staff loved her, which is rare as rank-and-file bureaucrats can be remarkably progressive and often resent elected agency managers and those who promote a culture of mediocrity. This is a personal opinion of an ex-bureaucrat. Her most progressive proposals, such as free childcare for low and middle-income families, and an extensive climate platform that includes a Green New Deal to public housing, would have required significant expansions of New York City's fiscal authority and government capacity.AdvertisementAdvertisementGood governance and public service can be a match for leftist ideology. In Milwaukee, for 38 years, the Democratic-Socialist Party ran the city under three mayors. In exchange for their city-granted monopoly, his successors established the first American municipal public housing project, built libraries, and pioneered adult vocational education. In the 1950s, racist urban renewal plans were taking root. Frank Zeidler, a socialist mayor refused to take part in slum clearing unless integrated public housing was constructed for those displaced.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Sewer Socialists' achievements in public health were well-known, as their nickname suggests. Daniel Hoan, second of their three mayors ran public vaccination campaigns. He also built water-treatment facilities around the city to stop the long-standing practice of mixing rawsewage with drinking water. Instead, they turned sewage sludge into fertilizer by using a city-operated plant. You can still tour the plant. Although the sewer moniker was originally created to be mocked by more theoretically-minded leftists, it became a badge for pride. Seidel recalled dismissing their critics as Eastern smarties, writing: We wanted every human being to have the opportunity to be strong and live a happy life. We wanted all that was needed to provide that opportunity: parks, lakes and beaches, swimming and wading pool facilities, social centers, reading areas, safe music, dancing, song, and joy for everyone.AdvertisementAlthough bureaucratic excellence, honest, and frugal government may seem small in comparison to the global socialist revolution, it is partly because U.S. cities have serious limitations to their legal, and political power. Richard Schragger explains in his book City Power that cities are created by their state governments and have few rights. They are restricted in their ability to spend and raise revenue, cannot balance their budget annually, and are limited by the U.S. absence of regional government structures. These difficulties led to the initial Sewer Socialists being almost obsessed with fiscal discipline. This attitude will be associated with conservative austerity-loving Americans in 2021. But there is another way to see it: Every dollar saved by eliminating corruption and inefficiency in municipal budgets can be used to improve public services.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhat would the 2021 version of Sewer Socialism look? Let's start with sanitation.What would the 2021 version of Sewer Socialism look? Let's start with sanitation. New York's residential garbage collection falls under the jurisdiction of the Sanitation Department, which was previously run by Garcia. Commercial collection is handled by dangerous and unaccountable private companies who overwork their drivers and underpay them. Let us let them do it. We know that a unionized public agency is better than the unregulated private sector at doing the job. New Yorkers are known for their notorious habit of leaving garbage bags on the sidewalk because there are no alleys in the city. The obvious solution is to replace some of the parking spaces on each block with rat-proof garbage cans. However, this pilot program requires applicants to go through neighborhood groups and business improvement districts. The Sewer Socialist response: To get trash cans that are usable, you don't need to go through an intermediary.AdvertisementParking spaces are the worst. The highest number of road fatalities since 2014 has been caused by increased car ownership in COVID. The platform could be run by sewer socialists, who would manage the streets in every corner of the city with separate bus and bike bus lanes for the rich and the poor. To prevent double-parked delivery trucks from blocking curb parking, they could implement a parking permit system to increase revenue and to stop car-registration fraud. This would create safer streets for the non-driving majority of the city's residents and show that chaos and dystopian public spaces do not have to exist.AdvertisementAny Sewer Socialist movement in New York will eventually have to deal with the financial and political might of the police. Bill de Blasio's inept response to NYPD's brutal treatment of antiracist protestors last summer proved that the agency is now outside civilian control. Even though the Defund slogan may not be a popular choice for the new mayor, there is another argument. The police do too many jobs that they aren't qualified to perform. A new city pilot program to replace police with social workers for mental-health-related 911 calls has shown promising early results. Many elected officials propose that the NYPD be removed from routine traffic stops. This would be a win for street safety and racial equity. This is a popular idea, particularly since the police are known for breaking traffic laws without any consequences. The way the question is asked will determine how public attitudes are formed about defunding and reforming police. The worldview of the Sewer Socialists, which is based in competence, anticorruption and democratic public life, can be used to help understand why power and money should be removed from the NYPD.AdvertisementNew York City is a wealthy, large city that has a strong progressive movement. This means there are more resources available to make Sewer Socialism successful. Similar to Milwaukee, which was 12th in U.S. cities when it was run by socialists, it frequently annexed its suburbs. While the task may be more difficult elsewhere, the tradition inspires. DSA-backed candidates in Somerville, Massachusetts are running as sidewalk socialists for City Council. They promise to provide jobs and invest in municipal plows during the snowy Boston winters. Buffalo, N.Y. elected socialist India Walton as its Democratic mayoral candidate on the same day Eric Adams won in New York City. Walton was criticized for his hard work in the field and his support of incumbent Mayor Byron Brown's big-ticket economic development schemes rather than basic public services. The 38-year-old Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba started his first term in 2017 and promised to deliver high-quality services as well as pursue racial justice. Lumumba won re-election this spring in a stunning victory as a result of his efforts to raise the tax base and fulfill his promises in Jackson, a predominantly Black city.AdvertisementAdvertisementThese struggles are part of a long history in which Americans have taken cities apart, hoarded the wealth in suburbs and claimed that urbanites cannot govern themselves. This trend has been accelerated by the U.S. cities that have adopted private sector-driven solutions to problems we would normally consider in the realms of the state or public resource, Kim Phillips-Fein explains. New York is at the forefront, starting with its 1975 fiscal crisis emergency financial controls. These controls are still in place. While progressive candidates' recent victories in the primary are partially a reaction to this neoliberal turn it is notable that they also defeated allies within the citys Democratic machine. Eric Adams will be a machine candidate for mayor. He has strong working-class support as well as deep roots in city's governing bodies. A better vision will require electing progressives from their community who care about urban policy. It will also mean stacking city bureaucracy full of committed leftists and progressives who feel inspired by public life and are not afraid to speak up when their values align with ours.AdvertisementAdvertisementBecause of the political system's rules, progressive left won't be able to get every item on their urban-governance wishlist. Cities are weak and underrepresented. Public-benefit programs at all levels in the United States are difficult to access for citizens and costly for civil servants to implement. The left must work long-term to change all this. Cea Weaver is the lefty housing organizer who helped to pass the New York State historic tenants-rights program in 2019. Cea tweeted in May: Cea, you need to work together with the spreadsheet nerds and organizers on the streets.
