L.A.’s devastating lesson for blue cities everywhere

New Yorkers, Chicagoans, Denverites and other blue-city residents should feel scared as they watch Los Angeles neighborhoods obliterated by fire. These other cities could be next, victims of the same dysfunctional one-party government that puts woke priorities ahead of disaster prevention and readiness.

It doesn’t have to be a fire. Imagine floodwaters rising inside Gotham’s Queens-Midtown Tunnel. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a warning on Jan. 2 that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Bridges and Tunnels division has failed to carry out the inspections and maintenance of the flood doors installed after Hurricane Sandy to allow the tunnels to be sealed off.

Auditors found broken gasket seals, which would allow water to seep into the Queens-Midtown and the Brooklyn-Battery tunnels.

“It’s not (a) matter of if but of when,” said DiNapoli about another massive storm like Sandy, which caused the deaths of 44 city residents and damaged or destroyed 69,000 homes. DiNapoli warned in a 2022 report that “the city needs to be ready,” but so far there is “inadequate coordination.”

That’s the job of New York City Emergency Management, but its poor performance, says DiNapoli, is “very concerning.”

For example, NYCEM creates and maintains four evacuation plans, but they were last updated in 2013, and there has been no formal assessment of their adequacy.

For many disasters, including terrorism, the first line of defense is the New York Police Department. But the department’s headcount is the lowest it’s been in more than three decades. Mayor Eric Adams pledged in November to bring on 1,600 cops in 2025, but it’s proving impossible to recruit them. Blame what retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone calls the “stupid laws” passed by the ultra-left city council and left-wing state legislature that tie the hands of cops and coddle criminals.

There’s no telling what kind of disaster could strike New York City – an earthquake causing injuries from falling bricks, a storm trapping people in floodwaters, or an epidemic causing widespread sickness. In these cases, New York Fire Department Bureau of Emergency Medical Services – the department’s ambulance service – will be essential.

Yet FDNY EMS has fewer ambulances in service than in 2021, making anyone needing help with a heart attack or injury wait an estimated 1 minute, 9 seconds longer than the average wait time two years ago.

Oren Barzilay, union president at FDNY EMS, complains that Adams is more concerned with diversity, equity and inclusion than adequate staffing at FDNY EMS.

The FDNY launched a public relations campaign in June 2024 called “We are FDNY.” Was the message competence? No. Diversity.

Woke politics are taking precedence over preparedness in both New York City and Los Angeles. Janisse Quinones, the new CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, was hired for a staggering $750,000 salary because, according to Mayor Karen Bass, she had the “skill set” to move the department to “100% clean energy by 2035.” Too bad Quinones didn’t pay attention to the more practical, immediate goal of keeping the hydrants operating.

There are plenty of warning signs that New York’s Democratic leaders couldn’t care less about disaster prevention. They’ve earned poor marks in the small tests they’ve faced.

On June 8, 2023, upstate forest fires caused air quality in the city to plunge to a historic low, sending people with respiratory issues to emergency rooms. An acrid smoke darkened the sky and made breathing difficult. Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had been warned it was about to occur but did nothing to prepare the public.

NYCEM Commissioner Zach Iscol said the city didn’t have an “off-the-shelf plan” for a smoke emergency.

Adams and Hochul flunked again on a Friday morning in September 2023, when the city was deluged with rainfall so severe that half the subway system had to be closed. Yet the previous night, Adams was attending a birthday fundraiser for himself rather than delivering public warnings.

Sounds like Bass, who sneaked out of the country to attend a political event in Ghana despite being informed her city was at severe risk of fires.

Los Angeles voters literally have been burned by Democratic one-party rule. They must demand immediate political changes.

But so should New Yorkers. The evidence is damning that the Democratic establishment has left this city vulnerable. When New Yorkers go to the polls next November to choose a mayor and city council, they should vote as if their lives and homes depend on it.

And beyond New York, take a look at Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s efforts to shift resources out of the police department to other, more woke priorities. Voters in blue cities have to watch the conflagration in Los Angeles and realize that they get what they vote for.