Economy

NYC Mayor De Blasio Bans Nonessential Permitted Events Through May

Published

3 years ago

April 17, 2020

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at his press briefing Friday that all nonessential permitted events throughout the city in the month of May will officially be canceled, including parades, concerts and large gatherings, even the Brooklyn Half Marathon.

“We love those events, but what do we know about those events? It inherently means large numbers of people crowded together in a pretty small space,” said Democratic Mayor de Blasio. “That’s New York City. That’s who we are, but, guess what? That goes against everything that we need to do to fight back the coronavirus.”

“Hizzoner” continued by saying that these events will return in the future.

“We have to be smart. We love those things. We’ll miss them when we don’t have them, but they will be back. They will be back, and by knowing when it’s time to temporarily let them go so we can get to a greater goal, we’re going to actually look back and say that was the smart thing to do,” the mayor told reporters.

Mayor de Blasio said essential permitted locations, which include medical sites, hygiene stations, food stores and meal services, will remain open.

While de Blasio is keeping most of the city shuttered, he has also complained about the financial despair that this crisis has invited.

“Right now I’ve accounted for, and I’m very sorry to say this, $7.5 billion in lost revenue that we now know is going to hit this city,” de Blasio told host Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Thursday. “We are one of the capitals of this country in terms of economic power and economic impact, and you know all that we do to help the American economy be strong, but we are not going to be able provide basic services in this city because we’ve got nowhere else to turn to get that kind of money.”

De Blasio also told Fox News that July and August are the months where “we have to begin to get back to normal.”

In the meantime, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) has extended the state’s coronavirus shutdown of nonessential businesses until May 15.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1251181566740619265

President Donald Trump, a New York native, slammed the Governor in a tweet Friday afternoon.

“We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state, by far & these great men & women who did the job never hear you say thanks,” the President wrote. “Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!”

Since the coronavirus epidemic began in the United States, Gov. Cuomo has been a fixture on cable television, particularly CNN where his brother is one of the network’s primary anchors.

As of Friday morning, there are over 222,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York state with at least 12,192 deaths.

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Economy

San Francisco gas-furnace ban will gouge residents and strain vulnerable electric grid

Published

4 days ago

March 22, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Progressive California is digging itself deeper and deeper into a literal energy crisis. Last week, twenty members of the Air Quality Management District “approved the plan to phase out and ban gas-powered systems that emit nitrogen oxide, or NOx, and that contribute to air pollution. Three board members were absent, and one member abstained” writes National Review.

The ban will phase out the sale of new gas furnaces and water heaters in Northern California. As a result, it will “be costly for residents, will further burden an already stretched electric grid, and will have minimal environmental impact” energy experts and economists told National Review.

“The move is emblematic of California’s approach to energy, which involves ramping up the demand for electricity while gutting the state’s ability to meet its electricity needs,” they said.

Specifically, it is “a regressive policy that’s going to increase costs in a state that is already unaffordable, it’s going to do minimal in terms of reducing [greenhouse-gas] emissions, and it’s going to stress a problem that we already have no plan of addressing, which is [that] our grid is going to be unable to provide reliable electricity,” said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the California-based Pacific Research Institute who is studying the state’s electricity shortfall.

Winegarden said California already has a major housing-affordability problem. “And now we’re going to make it even less affordable,” he said. While there are state and federal incentives and subsidies for people to purchase and install electric heating systems, Winegarden, an economist, called it a “shell game.”

“Subsidies don’t get rid of the costs,” he said. “They just redistribute the costs.”

The board’s vote did not address natural-gas stoves because it doesn’t regulate indoor air pollution, notes National Review. However, earlier this year, the Biden administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission was considering restrictions, and possibly a ban, on natural-gas stoves.