Jack Kemp

Monica Showalter wrote a piece at Amer.Thinker today about the problems of the NY City subway system, its overcrowding, lack of repairs and people fleeing for other transportation. Someone took her to task about her complaint of "manspreading" on the subways:

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I did not look to see who wrote this but, as soon as I saw "manspreaders" I knew it had to be a woman. Men have to spread their legs a little to be comfortable, at least those of us with balls do. Only men who take up the space our anatomy demands are persecuted with $100 fines for taking up "too much space." Women put their purses and packages on the seats next to them and no one writes them a ticket or complains about that. I wonder how many of the people who abandoned the system are men who have finally had enough.
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Not to be outdone in Showalter's New York bashing, Thomas Lifson added to Showalter's piece, saying that New York's subway finance problems are directly connected to rent control keeping rents down and distorting the housing picture in the city. In reply to Lifson, I posted this comment:

JackKemp â€Â¢ a few seconds ago
Thomas Lifson leaves out one significant factor involved in New York City's Rent Stabilization (a type of rent control). New York is full of foreign nationals who come to town literally with a suitcase full of money (Newsweek once reported this decades ago) to buy an apartment. Whole apartment houses that have gone condo are full of Chinese nationals where I live in the outer boroughs. And, as an anecdote, I can tell you I had a chance conversation with a real estate agent who works and lives in the Bronx this week who complained about the European nationals who contact her and demand all kinds of constant free service from her, expecting her to be available day and night to handle their phone calls - all while not closing any real estate purchases. She now tells them to only email her.

New Yorkers, who grew up paying taxes and going to both public and private schools in NY, now have to compete with much richer foreign nationals coming in who drive up both rents and apartment purchase prices. Without some form of rent control, half or more of NY City residents would have had to flee the only communities they have known their entire lives. Any solution to New York's woes needs to take into account that hordes of invaders with suitcases full of cash instead of guns and tanks are causing havoc with the locals.
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