Panetta Advocated for NYC Statehood in 1970

Norman Mailer’s gone, and Jimmy Breslin is writing books rather than columns. But in 1969, they ran for New York City mayor and council on a radical platform. Leon Panetta was involved in city government shortly thereafter, and took up the Mailer-Breslin platform…

In a memo to the mayor dated May 19, 1971 [pdf], Panetta concluded that New York City “can no longer depend on a body of upstate legislators, who are out of touch with urban problems, to respond to the city’s crucial needs. The tragic question is how long can the city survive this desperate annual crisis? … It seems ludicrous that the largest city in the nation … is totally dependent for its fiscal and administrative survival on an annual begging session that results in little sympathy, much less actual relief.”

Panetta embraced a radical regime change solution that had been advanced by Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin during their whimsical 1969 mayoral race.

“Statehood — while initiated somewhat facetiously during the last campaign — is not an unrealistic possibility,” Panetta wrote. “Indeed, it may well be the only sensible approach to governing New York City.”

Now, the shoe is on the other foot. The city has effectively taken over state government. The superwealthy urban and suburban are now out of touch with the rural and rusty, who are totally dependent for their fiscal and administrative survival on an annual begging session that results in some lip service, but less actual relief.

HT email from MJ in Buffalo