'People will die!'

As a prediction of the natural course of events, Elon Musk's observation is astute.  But his view that Lillian Bonsignore,  the newly appointed FDNY commissioner, will flame out and become the angel of death, is a freakish panic.

Musk insists she should have been disqualified because of inexperience as a firefighter.  His unstated reason can be reliably hypothesized. An odious message can be inferred from it. 

The traditional resume belongs to the genre of fiction where literary license is most deceitfully unleashed. 

Many FDNY commissioners in recent decades were never firefighters either. Neither was their worthiness impugned on that account. They were given a chance to prove themselves and did.

Among them were Edward Cavanaugh Jr., whose prior service was with the Department of Marine and Aviation; Joseph Bruno, a judge in Civil and Supreme Courts; Charles Hynes, a District Attorney in Brooklyn; Nicholas Scoppetta, from the Administration for Children's Services; and Joseph Spinnato, whose most  impeccable credential was as Hotel Association of NYC President.

Our current NYPD commissioner, who is held in high regard, was never a cop, nor had she any experience in sanitation, where she served honorably as commissioner as well.

And let us not forget Joel Klein, the antitrust lawyer, who was never an educator but was made chancellor of our public schools by former Mayor Bloomberg, who wrongly believed in the existence and applicability of a single managerial skillset that is universally valid. He has since advanced himself by joining the board of JUUL, a tobacco company.

Musk makes Bonsignore sound like a categorical fraud and downright imposter who, being a gay woman, was picked as a promotion of Mayor Mamdani's progressive agenda.  

The truth is that she is above the fray of gender politics and is defined by what she has done. On that score, she's just as fit to be FDNY commissioner as Tchaikovsky was to compose music or Tennessee Williams to write plays.

She was a four-star chief in the FDNY, serving the Department in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) division, which she headed during the COVID pandemic. She was also a first responder during the World Trade Center murders.  She served with the extraordinary distinction, and her appointment to Commissioner of the FDNY was applauded by the rank and file. 

She is, by any fair reckoning, the "real deal."

Mamdani's appointments, though consistent with his democratic socialist philosophy and therefore automatically objectionable to its opponents on that basis alone, have track records that are quite mainstream. A few have raised eyebrows, which is an appropriate form of exercise for an informed electorate.

The Corporation Counsel of the city's Law Department, Steven Banks, is by his own proud admission, a "social justice attorney."  Nothing wrong with that, unless it's code for the kind of undercover agenda that sometimes accompanies that phrase. That's true also of the position of "deputy mayor for economic justice," held by Julie Su. 

What, exactly, is economic justice, and what is its relationship to current practices and legal mandates?

The appointment of Ramzi Kassem as chief counsel to the mayor is disquieting  because of the peculiarities of his history of ideologic advocacy, critics say.  As a professor at the CUNY School of Law, he founded Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), which has reportedly given free legal advice to a group that calls for the destruction of Israel. He also counseled allegedly pro-terrorist  protesters not to answer questions from the police.

Objectionable as this may be, it is within the purview of lawful counsel.

A civil rights attorney, Ali Najmi, will chair the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, which appoints local judges. Is it hoping against hope that he will select judge who are as sympathetic to victims as to their tormenters?

Tascha Van Auken, a veteran "grassroots organizer" has been appointed Commissioner of the Office of Mass Engagement (OME), a brand new agency, where she will "create and maintain accessible, inspiring channels and events for residents to share feedback with government" and  "achieve functioning transformative governance."

Sounds palatable, but what's the plan?  

The Office to Protect Tenants will be headed by Cea Weaver, who the New York Post said, "pushed tenant strikes and championed an eviction ban."  The limitless mercenary cruelty of landlords certainly needs to be stifled. 

But what if a person, possessing abundant assets, ability to pay, healthy, young, not handicapped, without extenuating circumstances or otherwise incapable, is being provided rental amenities as contracted, and simply refuses to pay rent?

The "City of Yes," an actually somewhat negative, annoyingly quaint sounding initiative of the Adams administration, is charged with making affordable housing more readily and widely available. 

But will the new deputy mayor for housing and planning, Leila Bozorg, entertain inquiries from apprehensive homeowners about how this may adversely impact the safety and quality of life of their communities?

Mayor Mamdani envisaging City Hall as a global pulpit, took bold action, almost nanoseconds after taking his oath of office, by revoking former Mayor Adams' executive orders that were issued in the prior 15 months. 

It was a departure from the norm.  

Mamdani breathed new life into his favored movement to economically strangle Israel, which he regards, apparently alone among the sovereign nations crammed into the world atlas, as an apartheid and genocidal state. 

He also annulled the City's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Almost a pattern?

New Yorkers should  be uneasy but not alarmed.  Hysteria is pointless.  It is asymmetrical. 

Mayor Mamdani made the affirmative decision to keep the Office to Combat Antisemitism, saying  “That is an issue that we take very seriously. That is part of the commitment that we’ve made to Jewish New Yorkers to not only protect them but to celebrate and cherish them."

His inaugural speech was full of rhetorical flourishes, grand designs, populist appeals, and collective passion. It's connective tissue with future reality is tenuous.

 But Americans like that sort of display.  We hear President Kennedy's "Ask not..." speech repeated almost as often as certain advertised snake oil products.

I am quite sure that Mamdani will not govern as a demagogue.  

And regards to his deputies, it's ridiculous to fear that he has a vetting kennel with hounds to sniff out clandestine Zionists. That's more sick than sic.

And I'm confident the city will keep its municipal mitts off the synagogues, and not hold it against them as a violation of international law when the Old Testament  cites the link between faith and a certain disputed city.

New Yorkers know the meaning of ecumenical embrace.  We wish Mayor Mamdani well.