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It’s the land of the freebies for NYC’s ‘entitled’ migrants

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Say this for the migrants demanding more free stuff from City Hall: they’re fast learners about the new American ethos of endless entitlement.

Schooled and led by far-left activists, they arrive here within days of illegally crossing the southern border and claiming asylum, then start agitating for better accommodations in pricey neighborhoods. 

Tents in The Bronx, barracks in Brooklyn or homeless shelters anywhere are not good enough. Only first-class Manhattan hotels, where the city pays upward of $500 a night per room, are acceptable.

The welcome wagon comes with free food, free cellphones, free transit passes, free school and free health care.

Unfortunately, the booty is not free for taxpayers, which brings us to the slow learners in the sad saga.

That would be the gang at City Hall that is hell-bent on proving once again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The open-ended promises are a prime example of how Eric Adams missed key lessons at mayoral school.

His predecessors learned that if you say come and get it, people will come and get it, especially when it’s free. Adams apparently believed his election had changed human ­nature. 

Many migrants have said that they refuse to move to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
REUTERS

Mixed messages

Recall that he loudly embraced New York’s status as a sanctuary city and urged the Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, to send 200 migrants a day to Gotham. In one of his many mixed messages, Adams opened that door even as he denounced Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for sending busloads of other migrants.

And he said nothing about the secret nighttime migrant flights to area airports arranged by the Biden White House. Are only migrants sent by Democrats welcome?

It was the exact wrong way to look at the problem. Abbott and other border state leaders, frustrated with being ignored by Biden as more than 5 million people have crossed the border, were legitimately trying to spread the pain in hopes of making Adams and other Dem mayors allies for securing the crossing points. 

Nonetheless, by October, some 17,000 migrants had arrived here, with most living in crowded city shelters that already housed nearly 60,000 homeless people. With a clear change in tone, Adams suddenly declared a state of emergency and said the city had no more room at the inn.

“New Yorkers are angry,” he said. “I am angry too. We have not asked for this.”

Actually, he had. But he was also banking on fellow Dems in Albany and Washington delivering financial aid. 

First he said the cost would be $1 billion, then he said $2 billion. 


Gov. Hochul snubbed the mayor’s request to send 500 migrants to upstate cities. 
Kristin Callahan/Shutterstock

No matter — the result was the same: zero. That’s how much help Adams has gotten from his friends even as the number of known migrants approaches 45,000. 

Gov. Hochul also snubbed his modest request to scatter 500 around to upstate cities. 

Meanwhile, Adams’ supposed allies on the City Council undercut him in a different way. They demanded he take down tent cities, put migrants in hotels and give them permanent housing. 

So here we are, and the soaring cost is only part of the problem. There is an immediate impact on the city’s already-declining quality of life.

Take the mess at Midtown hotels, which The Post’s Tuesday front page smartly labeled “Inn-Sane!” The three-star Watson Hotel on West 57th Street would normally be a mecca for big-spending tourists, but instead the scene is chaotic with some migrant refuseniks pitching tents on the sidewalk in a bid to stay at the hotel instead of being shipped to a cruise ship terminal in Red Hook.

Never mind that the city filled the cavernous Brooklyn space with cots, pillows and blankets and provided large communal toilets and showers.

“The cruise ship terminal is not as good as the hotel,” a 42-year-old Venezuelan man told The Post.

There you have it — more entitlement than gratitude. In a heartbeat, that migrant’s mindset has gone from dreaming of freedom in America to demanding luxury accommodations in Manhattan — for free, of course.

The chaos is not limited to the Watson. The Post, acting on information and photos provided by a whistleblower employee, reported three weeks ago about the unfolding disaster at another Midtown hotel leased by the city for migrants, the Row Hotel on Eighth Avenue near Times Square.

“Nearly a ton of taxpayer-provided food gets tossed in the trash every day,” the paper said, because the migrants would “rather secretly cook their own meals on dangerous hot plates.” 

The photos showed garbage bags full of unopened sandwiches and a room littered with empty beer cans.

The employee, Felipe Rodriguez, said there was a “dramatic” change when the city took over the hotel in October.

“There are some nice migrants in that hotel looking for that American dream, that second chance to make it in society,” he said. “But there are a lot of migrants there that are causing chaos. We have a lot of fights, a lot of drugs, a lot of sexual harassment abuse.”

He said there was no supervision for migrants who were supposed to be quarantined for COVID, chicken pox and other infectious diseases. An NYPD source confirmed to the paper that cops have responded to numerous incidents at the Row, formerly known as the Milford Plaza.


Migrants have been encouraged to camp in front of the Watson by liberal activists.
Gregory P. Mango

Obviously, the crime element is not something the city needed to import. It’s got more than enough of the home-grown variety and, while murder and shootings are down, too many streets and neighborhoods remain haunted by menace and violence. 

To be clear, the migrants didn’t invent the entitlement approach. They are taught to demand what they want by open-border activists who won’t be satisfied until New York looks and feels like Caracas. Nor do the leaders care that the lack of serious vetting provides an open door for drug smugglers, gangbangers and sex traffickers. 

Operating through lawyers and charities, and often with government funding, the activists denounce American society as racist, which is both outrageous and ironic. After all, the supposed racism doesn’t curb the desire of tens of millions of people from around the world to come here. 

That’s small comfort for taxpayers, nor is it helping Adams look like the mayor he promised to be. On election night, he vowed to be the new face of his party and show America how to run a city. 

If this is what he had in mind, heaven help New York.

RX for ‘docs’

Reader Dick Gardner makes a point about classified documents, writing: 

“Classified material is signed out like library books — only stricter, and each document has a serial number. There should be a list of everything that’s missing and both Trump and Biden should have been told years ago to turn them in.”

Stop zinging the ‘blues’ 

Ruth Cohen is repelled by events in Tennessee: “If they keeping making the police profession miserable, only scoundrels and felons will apply. Then we will all have to seek protection from sadists, as we saw in Memphis.”

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US

EXPLAINER: How blizzard stunned even winter-wise Buffalo

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The toll from the weekend blizzard that hit the Buffalo area was approaching 40 deaths Wednesday from the region’s deadliest storm in generations. Homes are only beginning to warm after days without heat. Drivers are still claiming cars they had abandoned.

In a region that prides itself on being able to handle frequent and heavy snowfall, the natural question is: Why was this storm so paralyzing?

Officials note that they declared emergencies, warned residents, and positioned crews and equipment well before the first storm winds blew in. But the ferocity of a blizzard packing near-hurricane-force winds and more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of snow severely limited what crews could do, even in responding to 911 calls.

On Wednesday, tensions surfaced between the region’s two top elected officials, with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz swiping at snow-removal efforts in the county seat of Buffalo, where a driving ban remained in place and National Guard troops helped to enforce it.

“The city, unfortunately, is always the last one to open,” Poloncarz said. “It’s embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”

In the aftermath of the storm, many of the dead were found outside, and others were in snow-covered vehicles and unheated homes. Some were stricken after clearing snow. Others died while awaiting help during a medical crisis.

A look at the response and aftermath:

THE FORECAST

Meteorologists saw it coming. Four days before the arrival of bad weather, the National Weather Service on Dec. 19 warned of a powerful storm and repeated the warning with increasing detail each day. An urgent advisory on Dec. 20 warned of blizzard conditions and heavy snow. By Dec. 21, forecasters termed it a “once-in-a-generation” storm. On Thursday, a blizzard warning was posted to take effect at 7 a.m. Friday, describing heavy snow, high winds, windchills of minus 10 to 25 degrees (minus 23 to 32 below Celsius) and “difficult to impossible travel” through Christmas weekend.

PREPARATIONS AND RESPONSE

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, saying “a potentially life-threatening storm” was coming, announced Thursday that the city would be under a state of emergency once the storm arrived the next morning. Closures of schools, churches and offices, including government offices in Erie and neighboring Niagara and Chautauqua counties, poured in.

Gov. Kathy Hochul expanded the state of emergency to the entire state Thursday and said state equipment and personnel were standing by, and the state Thruway Authority — which oversees the interstate highways linking Buffalo to other major cities statewide — announced commercial vehicles would be banned for a stretch in the area at 6 a.m. Friday.

“We highly recommend private businesses to close on Friday and Saturday,” Erie County Executive Poloncarz said at a public briefing, using a slideshow to illustrate the forecast, blizzard conditions, and dangers of frostbite and hypothermia.

By Friday, the county upgraded a travel advisory to a ban — too late, critics said, for employees who were instructed to go into work. Poloncarz said later the intent was to allow third-shift workers to get home, that conditions deteriorated more quickly than expected.

Some people ventured out anyway. Among them was Sean Reisch, a 41-year-old salesman from the suburb of Cheektowaga, who came to regret the decision to pick up milk and bread Friday afternoon.

“As I pulled on one of our main streets, it was like incredibly whiteout conditions to the point where you literally couldn’t see anything.,” he said.

The store was closing when he arrived, and when he got stuck in the parking lot someone lent him a shovel to dig out his Nissan Sentra, loaded with presents for his young children.

He barely made it home, sticking his head out the window in a cold wind that “took your breath away” to dodge drifts. At last he stumbled into his house, stunned.

“I kept saying to my wife all night long, ’I don’t think you understand how lucky I am to be here.′ How lucky? I can’t believe I made it home through all that.”

STORM VETERANS

It’s no surprise that getting people to heed warnings is a challenge. But with climate change intensifying all kinds of global weather events, according to experts, the stakes are higher.

“People tend to normalize … ‘Well, I’ve lived here all my life. I went through the worst blizzard. I know what I’m doing,’” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Obama administration. “This is something I think we’re going to really wrestle with with extreme weather … We’re seeing events that are exceeding our past experiences, and they’re exceeding our understanding.”

Fugate pointed to Hurricane Ian’s death toll in Lee County, Florida, in the fall, and the criticism the county faced for issuing a mandatory evacuation order just one day before the storm hit, choosing to wait while surrounding counties posted theirs.

With the blizzard arriving on the last shopping day before Christmas Eve, many employees, some citing the lack of a driving ban, said they felt pressured to go to work.

“If there’s criticism that it wasn’t done right, I’ll take it,” Poloncarz responded Wednesday.

THE HOLIDAY

Erie County Emergency Services Commissioner Dan Neaverth Jr. said he had to put his foot down to keep his own family members from running last-minute holiday errands in the storm, something many of those stranded were likely doing.

“How this fell, exactly where it did, heading into a holiday weekend,” he said, “I think that that had a tremendous impact on people wanting and feeling that need. … but not everybody had the benefit of a father who said, ‘Absolutely not, under no circumstances should you go out.’”

THE CRITICISM

Some residents of Buffalo, about 27% of whom live in poverty, bristled at instructions to “stock up” on food and medicine before the storm, calling it unrealistic.

Others questioned whether the region has enough specialized equipment to handle increasingly common extreme weather after volunteer snowmobile operators and emergency responders from outside agencies sent people and equipment. Poloncarz suggested Wednesday that the county, with more money and other resources, should take over the city’s future storm operations.

As National Guard members knocked on doors Wednesday conducting wellness checks, guard spokesperson Eric Durr addressed complaints members did not respond to the sometimes desperate pleas filling social media from people trapped in cars, freezing in homes without power or suffering medical emergencies.

Hochul had said Friday that 54 members of the National Guard and five vehicles would be deployed in Erie County to help.

At one point Saturday, almost every fire truck in Buffalo was stranded, along with numerous police vehicles, and residents of Buffalo and several suburbs were told emergency services were unavailable. Even plows were pulled from roads.

“If the fire department isn’t there, chances are the National Guard can’t get there,” Durr said.

On Saturday, Hochul announced additional troops. By Tuesday, more than 500 National Guard members were in western New York, her office said.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Responding to Poloncarz’s critique of the city’s response, Brown said that the city bore the brunt of the storm and that its narrow residential streets posed challenges. He suggested Poloncarz, a fellow Democrat, was “crumbling” under stress.

“Some keep working, some keep trying to helping the residents of our community,” Brown said, “and some break down and lash out.”

“I don’t have any feud,” he said.

THE FUTURE

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia was among those looking for ways to improve after first responders were prevented from answering calls, saying “better equipment, more equipment” would help.

“We never thought that it was going to be as bad as it was,” he said. “So do we have to get better? Absolutely.”

Fugate said FEMA has benefited from talking with survivors of hurricanes to ask why they made the decisions they did.

“We can’t ask that of those who lost their lives, but we can people who were stranded,” he said. “We can ask the questions: What more information did you need to make a better decision?”

___

Associated Press reporter Heather Hollingsworth contributed from Mission, Kansas.

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US

Winter storm leaves at least 37 dead nationwide as residents in western New York remain trapped under feet of snow

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CNN
 — 

As a massive winter storm continues to blast much of the US with brutal winter weather – leading to at least 37 deaths nationwide – parts of western New York have been buried by up to 43 inches of snow, leaving vehicles stuck and power out for thousands during the Christmas weekend.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told CNN the storm is the “most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long storied history.” The heavy snowfall and blizzard conditions made roads impassable with zero visibility, froze power substations and left at least 17 people across the state dead as of Sunday night.

Western New York is drowning in thick “lake effect” snow – which forms when cold air moves over the warm waters of the Great Lakes – just one month after the region was slammed with a historic snowstorm.

As rescue crews and hundreds of plow drivers fanned out on Christmas Day, even emergency and recovery vehicles sent out to help have gotten stuck in the snow. Eleven abandoned ambulances were dug out on Sunday, officials said.

“The rescue team was rescuing rescuers … it was so horrible,” Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, which includes Buffalo, said during a news conference Sunday. Many of New York’s weather-related fatalities were in Erie County, where some people were found dead in cars and on the street in snowbanks, he said.

Deaths reported in Buffalo “are people found outside and in cars,” a Buffalo Police statement read.

Hundreds of National Guard troops have been deployed to help with rescue efforts in New York. State police had been involved in over 500 rescues by Sunday, including delivering a baby and helping a man with 4% left on his mechanical heart, the governor said.

“We’re still in the throes of this very dangerous life-threatening situation,” Hochul said, urging residents to stay off the roads as a driving ban remains in place in Erie County through Monday.

“Our state and county plows have been out there, nonstop, giving up time and putting themselves in danger, driving through blinding snowstorms to clear the roads,” Hochul said.

As blistering blizzard conditions swept the region, about 500 motorists found themselves stranded in their vehicles Friday night into Saturday morning, according to Poloncarz, who described frightening conditions on the road.

“Think about looking just a few feet in front of you at a sheet of white for more than 24 hours in a row. That’s what it was like outside in the worst conditions,” he said. “It was continual blizzard and whiteouts such that no one could see where they were going. Nobody had any idea what was happening.”

While abandoned vehicles pepper the snow-covered roadways – with hundreds of cars still along the streets of Buffalo – conditions are also difficult inside homes.

Some residents have remained in their homes for the last 56 hours, some without power in the freezing cold, Hochul said during the news conference. This is not due to a lack of resources, the governor said, but rather a mobility and access challenge faced by utility companies.

As of Sunday evening, 94.5% of Erie County residents and 87% of Buffalo residents have had their power restored, Hochul said.

Still, there were 12,000 homes and businesses in Erie County without power Sunday evening, and many won’t have lights and heating back until Tuesday, Poloncarz said.

Buffalo will continue to see snowfall and frigid cold temperatures Monday, with a high of 23 degrees expected in the daytime and a low of 21 at night, according to the National Weather Service.

In pictures: Winter storm impacts the US


Over the past week, the prolonged winter storm has enveloped a large swath of the US with dangerously low temperatures and wind chills, also bringing with it widespread power outages and thousands of canceled flights.

More than 10 million people remained under freeze alerts across the South Monday, including residents in Orlando, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham.

Subfreezing temperatures are expected across the affected areas, where temperatures will be in the teens and low 20s, potentially killing crops and damaging plumbing. The majority of these alerts are set to expire Monday morning as temperatures finally begin to recover from the polar air.

Nationwide, around 65,000 customers were without power early Monday, according to PowerOutage.US. Since the start of the storm, the number of outages has at times exceeded a million customers.

Electricity was not the sole utility impacted: Jackson, Mississippi, issued a boil water notice Sunday after its water system lost pressure due to line breaks “likely caused by the weather,” officials said on Facebook. The city – which just two months ago overcame a separate lengthy water crisis – distributed water to residents throughout Christmas Day.

The storm also snarled travel in the US during the busy holiday weekend, with more than 5,000 flights canceled Friday, more than 3,400 flights canceled Saturday and more than 3,100 canceled for Christmas Day. More than 1,500 flights within, into or out of the US have already been canceled before 8:30 a.m. ET Monday, according to tracking site FlightAware.

Since the brutal weather’s arrival, multiple storm-related deaths have been reported across several states. In addition to the deaths in New York, the fatalities include:

• Colorado: Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, reported two deaths related to the cold since Thursday, with one man found near a power transformer of a building possibly looking for warmth, and another in a camp in an alleyway.

• Kansas: Three people have died in weather-related traffic accidents, the Kansas Highway Patrol said Friday.

• Kentucky: Three people have died in the state, officials have said, including one involving a vehicle crash in Montgomery County.

• Missouri: One person died after a caravan slid off an icy road and into a frozen creek, Kansas City police said.

• Ohio: Nine people have died as a result of weather-related auto crashes, including four in a Saturday morning crash on Interstate 75, when a semi tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with an SUV and a pickup, authorities said.

• Tennessee: The Tennessee Department of Health on Friday confirmed one storm-related fatality.

• Wisconsin: Wisconsin State Patrol on Thursday reported one fatal crash due to winter weather.

The powerful system continues to move away from the Northeast, yet many cities and towns remain covered with thick snow. Over a 24-hour span, Baraga, Michigan, received 42.8 inches of snow while Watertown, New York, got 34.2 inches.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, had its snowiest Christmas Eve ever, receiving a record 10.5 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

Winter storm warnings remain in effect in New York for Buffalo, Jamestown and Watertown and will expire throughout the following couple of days. Forecasts show Jamestown could see another 8 inches of snow, Buffalo could see another 14 inches and Watertown could see another 3 feet. Winds could also gust up to 40 mph.

Lake effect snow warnings remain north of Jamestown until 10 a.m. EST Tuesday, an area where up to 18 inches are possible.

Lingering lake-effect snows blowing downwind from the Great Lakes will slowly become less intense, but the Arctic air enveloping much of the eastern half of the nation will be slow to moderate, according to the National Weather Service.

Lake-effect snows will continue to make for hazardous travel conditions for the next couple of days and conditions are expected to slowly improve over the week.

The low-pressure system is forecast to move farther away into Canada, while another system quickly across the northern US into Monday, bringing snow from the northern Plains through the Midwest.

Much of the rest of the eastern part of the country will still be in a deep freeze through Monday before a moderating trend sets in on Tuesday, forecasters said.

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World

Winter storm causes power outages, hits Americans with snow and freezing temperatures before Christmas

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A frigid winter storm has swept across the country, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses and leaving millions of people on edge about the possibility of blackouts over the Christmas holiday weekend.

The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo, New York, with hurricane-force winds causing whiteout conditions. Emergency response efforts were paralyzed, and the city’s international airport was shut down.

CBS News has confirmed at least 20 weather-related deaths from the storm nationwide. At least three people died in the Buffalo area, including two who suffered medical emergencies in their homes and couldn’t be saved because emergency crews were unable to reach them amid historic blizzard conditions.

As millions of Americans were traveling ahead of Christmas, more than 3,400 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Saturday, and another 1,300 as of 7 a.m. ET Sunday, according to the tracking site FlightAware. Airlines were playing catch-up with crew shortages and de-icing slowing the return to normal, CBS News correspondent Naomi Ruchim reported. In Seattle, an ice storm shut down multiple runways.    

A bobcat makes its way to help dig out abandoned vehicles along the Lake Erie shoreline on Dec. 24, 2022 in Hamburg, New York, during a powerful winter storm. 

John Normile / Getty Images


As of Saturday night, at least 345,000 customers were without power nationwide, according to the outage tracking site PowerOutage.us. Of those, more than 170,000 were in the New England region. 

Deep snow, single-digit temperatures and day-old power outages sent Buffalo residents scrambling Saturday to get out of their houses to anywhere that had heat. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the Buffalo Niagara International Airport would be closed through Monday morning and almost every fire truck in the city was stranded in the snow.

“No matter how many emergency vehicles we have, they cannot get through the conditions as we speak,” Hochul said.

Forecasters said 28 inches of snow had already accumulated as of Saturday in Buffalo — part of an area that saw 6 feet fall just over a month ago, resulting in three deaths. More is expected overnight.  

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the blizzard may be “the worst storm in our community’s history.” He said it was taking ambulances over three hours to do one trip to a hospital. Plows were on the roads, but large snow drifts, abandoned cars and downed power lines were slowing progress.    

Ice covers Hoak’s restaurant along the Lake Erie shoreline on December 24, 2022, in Hamburg, New York.

John Normile/Getty Images


Blinding blizzards, freezing rain and frigid cold also knocked out power in places from Maine to Seattle, while a major electricity grid operator warned the 65 million people it serves across the eastern U.S. that rolling blackouts might be required.

Pennsylvania-based PJM Interconnection said power plants are having difficulty operating in the frigid weather and has asked residents in 13 states to conserve electricity through at least Christmas morning. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity to 10 million people in the state and parts of six surrounding ones, directed local power companies to implement planned interruptions but ended the measure by Saturday afternoon. The start of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans’ game in Nashville was delayed an hour by a planned power outage.

PJM Interconnection, which covers all or parts of 13 states and and Washington, D.C., also warned rolling blackouts might be required.


Powerful storm blankets much of the U.S.

01:04

In North Carolina, 169,000 customers were without power Saturday afternoon, down from a peak of more than 485,000, but utility officials said rolling blackouts would continue for “the next few days.”

Those without power included James Reynolds of Greensboro, who said his housemate, a 70-year-old with diabetes and severe arthritis, spent the morning bundled beside a kerosene heater with indoor temperatures “hovering in the 50s.”

In Jackson, Mississippi, officials Saturday said the city’s water system – which partially collapsed in late August – was experiencing “fluctuating” pressure on Saturday afternoon amid frigid temperatures.

Some residents in Mississippi’s capital city may temporarily experience low water pressure, officials warned. Leading up to the “arctic blast” that brought dangerously cold air to Jackson, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba warned that the city’s the water distribution system remained a “huge vulnerability.”

Ticket prices at Soldier Field in Chicago Saturday plummeted faster than the temperature, with some seats going for $10 on third-party sites to see the Bears take on the Buffalo Bills. The temperature at kickoff was 9 degrees, with a minus-12 wind chill. It was Buffalo’s coldest road game by temperature since at least 1967.      

In Montana, it’s been minus 40 degrees or worse for much of the week, with ranchers attempting to keep their cattle safe. 

On the Ohio Turnpike, four died in a massive pileup Friday involving some 50 vehicles. A Kansas City, Missouri, driver was killed Thursday after skidding into a creek, and three others died Wednesday in separate crashes on icy northern Kansas roads.

A utility worker in Ohio was also killed Friday while trying to restore power, a company said. Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative said the 22-year-old died in “an electrical contact incident” near Pedro in Lawrence County.

A woman in Vermont died in a hospital Friday after a tree broke in the high winds and fell on her. Police in Colorado Springs said they found the dead body of a person who appeared to be homeless as subzero temperatures and snow descended upon the region. In Madison, Wisconsin, a 57-year-old woman died Friday after falling through the ice on a river, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office announced.

In Lansing, Michigan, an 82-year-old woman died after being found Friday morning curled up in the snow outside of her assisted living community, Bath Township police reported. A snowplow driver found the woman as temperatures hovered around 10 degrees.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said one person died in a traffic accident attributed to the weather in western Kentucky and a homeless person died in Louisville.

Along Interstate 71 in Kentucky, Terry Henderson and her husband, Rick, were stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by several accidents for 34 hours. The truck drivers weathered the wait in a rig outfitted with a diesel heater, a toilet and a refrigerator but nonetheless regretted trying to drive from Alabama to their home near Akron, Ohio, for Christmas.

“I wish we should have stayed,” said Terry Henderson, after they got moving again Saturday. “We should have sat.”

The storm was nearly unprecedented in its scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60% of the U.S. population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

In Mexico, migrants camped near the U.S. border in unusually cold temperatures as they awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision on pandemic-era restrictions that prevent many from seeking asylum. Dozens of migrants were also living and sleeping on streets of the Texas border city of El Paso in subfreezing temperatures waiting for shelters to open. Most were donning donated winter clothing they received from empathetic local residents and volunteers, 

Forecasters said a bomb cyclone — when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm — had developed near the Great Lakes, stirring up blizzard conditions, including heavy winds and snow.

Western New York often sees dramatic lake-effect snow, which is caused by cool air picking up moisture from the warm water, then dumping it on the land. But even area residents found conditions to be dire on Christmas Eve.

Latricia Stroud said she and her two daughters, 1 and 12, were stranded without heat or power in their Buffalo house since Friday afternoon, with the snow too deep to leave.

“I have to go over a snowbank to get out,” Stroud told the AP. “There’s a warming center, I just need a ride to get there.”



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US

Four things to know about the massive winter storm hitting this Christmas

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A massive winter storm pummeled much of the U.S. on Saturday with freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall on Christmas Eve, resulting in nearly two dozen deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. 

Here’s what to know about the powerful Arctic front:

At least 23 deaths have been attributed to the storm

At least 23 people have died in the storm as of Saturday evening, due to dangerous driving conditions, delayed emergency services and exposure to the freezing weather, according to NBC News.

Four people were killed in a 46-car pileup in Ohio on Friday, in addition to five others who died in separate crashes in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri earlier in the week.

Three people have also died in Erie County, N.Y., where blizzard conditions prevented emergency services from reaching two of the individuals in time to provide medical care. 

Two more people died from environmental exposure in Denver, while a man in Colorado Springs, Colo., reportedly died while trying to escape the sub-zero temperatures.

Hundreds of thousands in North Carolina lose power

Nearly 340,000 people in the Carolinas lost power on Saturday amid rolling blackouts, The Washington Post reported.

“Due to the extreme cold temperatures and subsequent demand for power around much of the nation, electricity supplies are very tight,” Duke Energy, which serves customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, said in a press release.

As of Saturday night, the energy company had restored power to most North Carolinians, with only about 14,000 remaining without power.

Hochul deploys National Guard to hard-hit Buffalo

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) deployed the National Guard to Erie County on Friday night, as the Buffalo region continued to face blizzard conditions.

“This may turn out to be the worst storm in our community’s history,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Saturday, per The New York Times.

Buffalo remained under a blizzard warning as of Saturday night, with emergency workers still working to rescue stranded motorists, the Times reported.

Flight cancellations strand travelers on Christmas Eve

More than 3,300 flights were cancelled on Christmas Eve, according to the commercial flight tracker FlightAware.

While the cancellations left thousands more travelers stranded on the holiday weekend, Saturday represented an improvement over the day before. On Friday, more than 20 percent of flights — nearly 6,000 — were cancelled, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Impacts continue today but FAA expects that the most extreme disruptions are behind us as airline and airport operations gradually recover,” Buttigieg said on Twitter.

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US

Hochul declares state of emergency in New York ahead of Winter Storm Elliott

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Most of New York is going to have a dreary Christmas weekend.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday declared a state of emergency for the entirety of New York in preparation for the massive storm that’s forecast to wallop the northeast over the holiday weekend.

The measure will go into effect at 6 a.m. Friday when Winter Storm Elliott — dubbed a “once-in-a-generation” weather event by the National Weather Service — is expected to bear down on the area.

“With Mother Nature throwing everything she has at us this weekend, I encourage New Yorkers who are considering traveling for the holidays to do so before Friday or after Sunday to stay safe,” Hochul said in a statement.

A so-called bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure drops very quickly in a strong storm, was predicted to develop late Thursday night into Friday near the Great Lakes.

Blizzard warnings, coastal flood warnings, high wind warnings, wind chill warnings and winter storm warnings are all in effect throughout New York.

A pedestrian waits at a street corner as a bomb cyclone develops late Thursday night into Friday near the Great Lakes.
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A 41-year-old homeless man stands next to a donated tent near the expressway where he is living on Dec. 22, 2022 in Chicago.
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Pedestrians navigate snow-covered streets on Dec. 22, 2022 in Chicago.
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Blizzard warnings, coastal flood warnings and high wind warnings are all in effect throughout New York.
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The state is placing a full commercial vehicle ban on I-90 from Rochester to the Pennsylvania Border, a roughly 135-mile stretch. Several roads in Erie County, which expects to get hit with 3 feet of snow Monday, will also be closed.

More than 5,000 flights have already been canceled ahead of the winter storm expected to bring blizzard conditions and record-setting temperature drops.

Parts of upstate New York will be slammed with snow while areas closer to the coast, including New York City, will face a drenching rain for most of Friday, forecasters said.

More than 5,000 flights have already been canceled ahead of the winter storm.
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From Friday to Saturday, winds will likely reach up to 60 miles per hour as temperatures quickly plummet by up to 35 degrees in some regions, causing freezing, below-zero wind chills and icy road conditions.

“This is not like a snow day when you were a kid,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “This is serious stuff.”

Other states have already felt the effects of the moving storm.

In Wyoming, highway patrol troopers responded to over 100 wrecks within 12 hours during a massive whiteout that the agency compared to Antarctic conditions.

One person died in Kansas City, Missouri after their car overturned into an icy creek, police said.

Denver hit its lowest temperatures in 32 years on Thursday, morning when the temperature dropped to minus 24.

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New York snow: A potentially historic storm is bearing down on western New York state, bringing treacherous snowfall that could damage infrastructure

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CNN
 — 

Heavy snowfall that has pounded parts of western New York state will persist into Friday, when the worst of the potentially historic storm may cause trees to topple and damage property.

“The snowfall will produce near zero visibility, difficult to impossible travel, damage to infrastructure, and paralyze the hardest-hit communities,” the National Weather Service said Thursday. “Very cold air will accompany this event, with temperatures 20 degrees below normal forecast by the weekend.”

“Historic snowfall exceeding 4 feet is likely around Buffalo,” it added Friday.

About 6 million people in five Great Lakes states – from Wisconsin to New York – are under snow alerts Friday, CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink said. Snow produced through lake effect will continue through Sunday in areas downwind of the Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service.

In New York, places east of Lakes Erie and Ontario may see snowfall at a rate of more than 3 inches per hour, occasionally joined by lightning and gusty winds, the weather service warned.

“That level of snow coming down with that intensity is what creates the dangerousness the lack of ability to see on the roads,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday as she declared a state of emergency for 11 counties.

“When its coming down at that rate, it is almost impossible to clear the road to make it safe to travel,” Hochul said. “It will not be safe for a considerable amount of time for motorists to go back on the roads.”

Commercial traffic has been banned since Thursday afternoon on about 130 miles of the New York State Thruway (Interstate 90) in the Rochester and Buffalo area to the Pennsylvania border, Hochul’s office said. Other parts of major interstates – including 90, 290 and 990 – also have also been shut down,

Imploring residents to take caution this weekend, Hochul described the storm as a “major, major” snowfall event that could be as life-threatening as the November 2014 snowstorm that claimed the lives of 20 people in the Buffalo region.

Further, officials in New York’s Erie County – which includes Buffalo – also declared a state of emergency and banned driving beginning Thursday night.

“The lake effect snow from (the storm) is very heavy and may cause tree branches to fall and damage vehicles, property or powerlines. Watch where you park, and be aware of your surroundings if going outside,” Erie County officials wrote online.

The storm’s most intense snow is expected to lash the Buffalo area, where more than 4 feet could pile, making for a forecast not seen in more than 20 years. The city’s highest three-day snowfall is 56.1 inches, which occurred in December 2001, CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said.

Indeed, given the rate of snowfall, Buffalo may see a month’s worth of snow in only a few hours. That could make this month the snowiest November since 2000, when 45.6 inches in total fell in the city during the entire month, Miller added.

Already, residents of Williamstown in Oswego County near Lake Ontario saw 24 inches of snow as of Thursday evening, according to the weather service. In neighboring Oneida County, some spots were blanketed with 14 inches of snow in the 24 hours before Thursday evening, per the weather service.

Friday alone could bring more than 2 feet of snow, which would make it one of the top three snowiest days on record in Buffalo, according to Miller.

“Heavy lake effect snow off Lake Erie with 2-3” per hour snowfall rates will continue to result in extremely difficult travel this evening for the Buffalo Metro area east to Batavia, and also in Oswego County off Lake Ontario,” the National Weather Service in Buffalo said Thursday night.

“Additional accumulations of 2-3 feet of snow are expected downwind of lakes Erie and Ontario while 8-12” are likely downwind of the other 3 lakes by Sunday morning,” it added Friday.

Lake effect snow happens when very cold, windy conditions form over a relatively warm lake – meaning the lake might be 40 degrees while the air is zero degrees, Miller explained. The temperature clash creates instability, which allows for the most extreme winter weather to occur.

Due to the weather emergency, Sunday’s NFL game in Orchard Park, New York, between the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns has been moved to Detroit, the league announced Thursday.

Other areas affected by the storm include parts of the Upper Peninsula and the western Lower Peninsula of Michigan, where gusty winds and heavy snow will also cause near zero visibility and unsafe travel conditions.



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Support from black voters lifted Hochul over Zeldin for gov

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Democrat Kathy Hochul has black voters to thank for saving her job as governor against hard-charging Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, an election results analysis shows.

While Zeldin’s law and order campaign made inroads with once blue-leaning Asian, Jewish and Latino voters, black voters were Hochul’s firewall in southeast Queens, central Brooklyn, Harlem and parts of the Bronx, the analysis found.

Hochul garnered a staggering 90% or more votes in many of the city’s predominantly Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean districts — the same working and middle class voters who propelled Mayor Eric Adams last year.

“Oh, absolutely. Oh, definitely the black community elected Kathy Hochul governor,” said state Assemblywoman Inez Dickens. In Dickens’ 70th Assembly District, residents delivered 27,968 votes for Hochul, and just 2,287 for Zeldin.

According to Dickens, Zeldin is too closely associated with former President Donald Trump for black voters — and isn’t seen as a moderate in the mold of former three-term GOP Gov. George Pataki. Trump endorsed Zeldin just weeks before the Nov. 8 election.

“If Zeldin was a Pataki Republican, he would have done better,” the Harlem political veteran said. “He was considered a Trumper by black voters. That was a very, very big part of it.”

Black voters reportedly were more familiar with Hochul, as she visited many black neighborhoods.
AFP via Getty Images

Here’s a revealing breakdown of results in predominantly black districts:

  • In Queens Assembly District 29, covering Laurelton, Rosedale, St. Albans, and Springfield Gardens, Hochul racked up 22,280 votes to 2,538 for Zeldin.
  • In AD 32 (South Jamaica, Richmond Hill), Hochul got 18,312 votes to 2,176 for Zeldin.
  • In AD 33 (Cambria Heights, Hollis, Queens Village, Bellerose) Hochul got 21,773 votes compared with Zeldin’s 3,691.
  • In Brooklyn’s AD 56 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, voters showered Hochul with 25,289 votes to 1,590 for Zeldin.
  • In AD 55 covering Ocean Hill/Brownsville, Hochul racked up 15,774 votes compared with 1,044 for Zeldin.
  • In AD 57 in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights, residents delivered 34,642 votes for Hochul and 2,940 for Zeldin.
  • In AD 60 in East NY/Starrett City, Hochul got 17,588 votes compared with 1,774 for Zeldin.
Zeldin carried some districts with large Orthodox Jewish and Asian populations.
Ron Adar / M10s / SplashNews.com

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said like other New Yorkers, black voters are concerned about crime — but focusing on locking people up is perceived as “fear mongering” and “dog whistling” without discussions about opportunities and youth programs to discourage law-breaking.

“You can have justice and safety at the same time,” Richards said. “We can’t police and incarcerate out of crime. There’s a question of access to good jobs, housing and education.”

“Zeldin’s campaign reminded black voters of Trump,” he added.

Both Richards and Dickens pointed out Hochul is well-known in their communities, having visited regularly for years when she was lieutenant governor under ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned last year amid sexual harassment and misconduct accusations.

“Gov. Hochul doesn’t need a GPS to know where south Queens is. She’s been a  consistent presence and attentive,” Richards said.

In Pataki’s view, it’s a cruel irony the party of emancipation that freed black people from slavery is now rejected by black voters, He saud winning a statewide race will remain out of reach unless Republicans make at least some inroads with black voters.

“We have to do far better outreach,” Pataki said. “We have to make the case on the streets in the African-American (communities) every day — not just during an election — that our policies are better for them,” Pataki said.

Lee Zeldin was viewed as a “Trumper” by many black voters.
John Lamparski/Sipa USA

Blacks are disproportionately victims of crime so the GOP push to toughen the cashless bail law should resonate as well as the party’s support for charter schools as an alternative to failing public schools, Pataki said.

Zeldin, just before and after the election, told The Post he’s proud of making inroads into minority communities, but said becoming more competitive with black voters in a “longer term issue” the GOP has to address.

“We were witnessing some shifting trends amongst some of the minority communities, so it’s possible that two years or four years down the road, any of these groups might be leaning more to the right, especially if one-party rule up in Albany continues to alienate these voters,” Zeldin said. “If the issues that we’re talking about during this campaign only become even more prevalent and more desperately in need of action, that just further pushes more votes away from the Democrats.”

“So I would seek to build upon the number that we got, just over 30,” he said. “But part of that has to do with direct outreach and relationship building. I would always encourage an earlier start to be able to build those relationships. And one of the other big factors is that there are certainly some trends that we witnessed, where some groups may just naturally be voting more Republican in the future if they continue to get pushed in that direction by certain democratic policies.”

Hochul carried New York City with 70% of the vote to 30% for Zeldin, a margin he couldn’t overcome despite winning nearly all other counties in the state, including his home turf of Long Island.

Zeldin did carry some city Assembly districts with large Orthodox Jewish and Asian populations, and fared better in heavily Hispanic districts.

The Long Island congressman won conservative Staten Island 2-1, and carried six Assembly districts in southern Brooklyn and four in Queens — including Assemblyman Ron Kim’s 40th AD in the heart of heavily Asian-populated Flushing.

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Polls close in New York and New Jersey; Returns come in across Tri-State

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Maloney faces Lawler in NY’s newly drawn 17th Congressional District

01:27

New York has an unusually high number of competitive congressional races this year.

In the 17th District, Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney is facing off against Republican Mike Lawler. As CBS2’s Tony Aiello reports, it’s a key race as Republicans nationwide hope to win control of the House.

The breeze was brisk and turnout has been steady as voters across the newly drawn 17th Congressional District make their choice.

Maloney and his husband, Randy Florke, voted near their home in Putnam County. The congressman said he planned a quiet Election Day.

“I like to go for a hike sometimes in the woods, clear my head, and again, I think that Election Day is a day to respect the voters. We’ve had our chance to make our case; now, it’s up to them,” Maloney said.

He added he planned to spend time thanking campaign volunteers.


Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney in fight of political life

01:24

Maloney hasn’t been in a close race since 2014, when he won by 3,000 votes. Redistricting means his district now includes many Rockland County residents he has never represented.

His campaign will be keeping a close eye on returns from Peekskill, a Democratic stronghold in northern Westchester, and from Hasidic communities in Rockland, where Maloney won the endorsement of influential rabbis.

Democratic insiders are cautiously optimistic but realistic — this race is rated a tossup.

Because Maloney runs the Democrats’ effort to keep Congress, Republicans would take great delight in knocking him out.

Maloney emphasized election integrity, abortion rights and gun control during the campaign while also arguing Democratic efforts to ease inflation are beginning to work.

It’s not just redistricting that’s made this a tight race. House Republicans have helped funnel in more than $8 million into the district, money largely spent on political ads.


Lawler trying to unseat Maloney in NY’s 17th Congressional District

01:20

As CBS2’s Kevin Rincon reports, Lawler voted in Pearl River with his wife, Doina, and planned a day of last-minute campaigning.

“I’ll be driving around the district. We have a truck with signs and just barnstorm the district and try to turn people out to vote,” he said.

Throughout his campaign, he’s been focused on economic issues — things like inflation and taxes — and he’s campaigned on crime, calling for a change to bail reform laws in the state.

He says his team has seen some high turnout numbers, which he hopes will help, and if he does come out on top, it would be the first time in 42 years that a Republican beats the sitting chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Voters are no doubt anxious for the race to conclude after both sides spent almost $20 million on a barrage of attack ads.

Because a judge gave the OK to count most absentee ballots Tuesday night, instead of waiting until Wednesday, both campaigns expect to know the winner before the night is out.

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Mayor Eric Adams could be New York Democrats’ fall guy for potential big midterm losses

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CNN
 — 

Democratic officials and strategists in New York tell CNN they are bracing for what could be stunning losses in the governor’s race and in contests for as many as four US House seats largely in the suburbs.

With crime dominating the headlines and the airwaves, multiple Democrats watching these races closely are pointing to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, accusing him of overhyping the issue and playing into right-wing narratives in ways that may have helped set the party up for disaster on Tuesday.

“He was an essential validator in the city to make their attacks seem more legit and less partisan,” said one Democratic operative working on campaigns in New York, who asked not to be named so as not to compromise current clients.

Other Democrats argue this has it backwards. While they accuse Republicans of political ploys they call cynical, racist and taking advantage of a situation fostered by the pandemic, they insist candidates would be in better shape if they had followed Adams’ lead in speaking to the fear and frustration voters feel.

But going into Election Day, New York Democrats worry about a double whammy from how they’ve struggled to address crime: Swing voters turned off by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and suburban House Democrats go vote Republican, while base Democrats in the city, dejected by talk of how awful things are, don’t turn out at all.

“Crime today has been compared to the ’80s and the ‘90s, and the fact of the matter is that crime is lower now than it was then,” said Crystal Hudson, a Democratic New York City councilwoman from Brooklyn. “That’s emboldened the right to use crime as their narrative and put Democrats in a bad spot for these midterm elections.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin, Hochul’s GOP opponent, has taken to regularly invoking Adams on the campaign trail, to the point that some Democratic operatives have grimly joked that Zeldin could just run clips of Adams talking about crime as his closing ads.

There are national ripples: Democratic groups like the Democratic Governors Association are moving in millions of dollars to prop up Hochul in a deep-blue state instead of spending that on tight races elsewhere, with Vice President Kamala Harris flying in on Thursday in one of her own last campaign stops and President Joe Biden heading to Westchester County, north of New York City, on Sunday to rally with the governor. Republicans, meanwhile, are seizing opportunities to pad a potential House majority by targeting seats that Democrats had been counting on as backstops.

Adams was elected mayor last year on a tough-talking, tough-on-crime message, then embraced as such a hero among many Democratic leaders that rumors circulated he might be eyeing a 2024 presidential run himself. In office, he’s often talked about the bad shape the city is in, including citing statistics he says demonstrate connections between the rise in crime and a 2019 progressive-led state law change that barred judges from setting cash bail for all but the most serious offenses.

Multiple top Democrats argue that Adams could have used his credibility to buttress Hochul – whom allies point out is in a tricky political spot talking about crime in New York City as a 64-year-old White woman from Western New York – instead of loudly pushing the governor to call a special session of the legislature to roll back more of the new bail laws. Hochul also seemed to be caught surprised by the attacks and unsure of how to defend her record, with several elected officials and operatives saying she appeared to be balancing between different factions of the party rather than setting a firm agenda of her own.

That’s fed an increasingly tense relationship in the campaign’s final weeks, though Adams recently appeared with Hochul at both an official government event announcing she’d allocate state money to pay for overtime for police patrolling the subways and at a campaign stop in Queens as she seeks to prove to voters that she’s taking crime seriously. Adams has also shifted to blaming the media for sensationalizing the crime problem.

Appearing on “CNN This Morning” on Friday, Hochul said there’s never been a governor and mayor in New York with as strong a relationship as the one she has with Adams. While she acknowledged that violent crime is up and that the issue was rooted in voters’ sincere fears, she said Republicans were “not having a conversation about real solutions.”

She cited her record of getting more cops and cameras on the street and help for the mentally ill, and Zeldin’s opposition to gun control.

“Crime has been a problem,” she said. “I understand that. Let’s talk about real answers and not just give everybody all these platitudes.”

Rep. Kathleen Rice, a retiring moderate Democrat from just outside New York City and a former Nassau County district attorney, said at first she was encouraged by Adams. As a former police officer, he understands the problem, she said, but “the general consensus is that he hasn’t shown he has focused on the issue enough for it to have made a difference.”

Rice said she’s heard from constituents from just outside the city who are turned off by reports of Adams spending late nights at pricey private restaurants juxtaposed with stories about murders on the subways and other horrific incidents.

“People want to feel safe first before they go to a club,” Rice said.

Rice’s seat is one of two Democratic-held seats on Long Island now seen at risk. Democrats are also in danger of losing two seats north of New York City – one held by Rep. Pat Ryan and the Lower Hudson Valley district of Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“It is an issue for voters, but it is not because they have personally experienced crime in the Hudson Valley or their neighbors are talking about crimes committed in the Hudson Valley as much as it is the narrative pushed by the industrial fear machine at Fox and the New York Post describing New York City as a lawless hellscape,” Maloney said in an interview. “That, understandably, is raising concerns among suburbanites.”

Months ago, Maloney warned other House Democrats, in conversations and in a March memo sent around by the DCCC and obtained by CNN, to be ready to respond and rebut attacks for being weak on crime. The guidance started with telling candidates to be firmly against calls to “defund the police” but also to talk about the more than $8 billion Democratic lawmakers had secured for law enforcement in bills such as the American Rescue Plan.

Maloney pointed to his votes for legislation to fund programs for body cameras and plate reading technology for local police departments in his district, as well as for the gun control measures enacted over the summer.

He also stood by a remark he made last July – catching several Democratic operatives’ attention at the time – when he stood with Adams on the steps of the Democratic National Committee headquarters and called him “a rock on which I can build a church.”

“What I meant is that I like his combination of respecting good policing and understanding the need for public safety with a genuine passion for justice and fairness in our system,” Maloney said in an interview. “He may not get everything right, and it may not be everything I would do. But he recognizes that we’re not where we should be. And I support his efforts to clean it up.”

Others have not been convinced.

“The concern over crime is real. It is acute,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones, a progressive Democrat who lost a primary to represent parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn after Maloney opted to run for a redrawn suburban seat that also included parts of Jones’ district. “But once this election is over, I hope people have an honest conversation about how Democrats like Eric Adams have validated a hysteria over crime that is uninformed and that has been debunked.”

Conversations about crime in New York are bound up in the debate over reforming the bail laws, and in well-worn internal political power struggles among officials. In phone calls and meetings at the beginning of the year, Adams urged top officials in Albany to change the laws, warning them that crime would likely be a major political liability in the fall, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Legislative leaders have already passed two partial rollbacks, including one supported by Hochul earlier this year. But they have resisted doing more, despite warnings from suburban members.

Adams has charged that the “insane broken system” of bail laws now puts criminals back on the street who then tend to get back to committing crimes. According to figures from the New York Police Department, in the first half of the year, 211 people were arrested at least three times for burglary and 899 people were arrested at least three times for shoplifting, increases of 142.5 percent and 88.9 percent, respectively, over the same period in 2017. The mayor’s office also pointed to statistics that show double-digit jumps in recidivism for felony, grand larceny and auto theft.

Still, crime statistics don’t tell as simple a story as what shows up in political ads. Suburban counties are reporting safer streets and communities – a report in February by the Westchester County executive from just north of New York City, for example, showed a 26.5 percent drop in its crime index.

Murders and shootings are down in the city from last year, but rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft are all up, by over 30 percent from 2021 in several categories, according to New York Police Department data.

But those are the stories which play on the same local news – and campaign ads during the breaks – that reach into the homes of suburban voters who may not have been crime victims themselves, or even spent much time in the city for years. And that’s left Hochul and Democratic House and state legislative nominees leaching support in Long Island, Westchester and the northern New York City suburbs.

“A lot of the story that’s being told is of New York City crime,” said Democrat Bridget Fleming, a former prosecutor who’s been endorsed by police unions in the House race for much of the area Zeldin currently represents on Long Island. “We’re making sure law enforcement is supported – and other than gun crime, we’re keeping crime down here.”

Evan Roth Smith, a pollster working on several local races, said Adams “may be a drag on Democratic trustworthiness on crime.”

But Adams spokesman Maxwell Young said the mayor’s job isn’t to put a rosy spin on things in a way that could benefit Hochul’s or any of the other candidates’ campaigns.

“We can’t, and won’t, ignore the reality,” Young said. “Those who claim we aren’t making progress or, conversely, that we’ve been crying wolf aren’t paying attention and have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Evan Thies, a top Adams political adviser, said he wished other Democrats had taken lessons from the mayor’s win last year.

“You have to convince people you’re worthy to lead by following their lead on issues and meeting their urgency, not by disagreeing with them,” Thies said. “The mayor became mayor by listening to and advocating for people in high-crime communities – he’s not going to abandon them now.”

Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, whose district covers Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, points to how many systemic, as well as larger societal and economic issues, are involved in making a real impact on crime – and that Adams has only been on the job for 10 months.

“He’s really trying hard. This is not easy,” Espaillat said. “It’s going to take some time.”

Biden had his own bromance with Adams, from hosting him in the White House weeks after he won his mayoral primary to offering him half of his peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich as they rode together in the limo in February during a presidential visit to New York to talk about gun violence. White House chief of staff Ron Klain praised Adams for tapping into the same coalition of pragmatic, working-class and African American voters, which won Biden the 2020 Democratic nomination.

Through an aide, Klain did not respond to questions about how he and the president view Adams these days.

But what many Democrats are left with as they approach the end of campaigning in New York is a potentially devastating example of failing again to break a decades-long paradigm of Republicans capitalizing on calling them soft on crime.

“The paradox here is: Crime is high in some of the reddest parts of the country where they have the weakest gun safety laws. We needed to tell that story and done so loudly to neutralize the issue. You can’t sit idly by and wish it away,” said Charlie Kelly, a political adviser to former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s gun safety group Everytown and former executive director for the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC.

In New York and beyond, some Democrats are already hoping for a post-election recognition and realignment that pushes their party both toward a tougher attack on Republicans and a more forceful deflection of their own left flank.

“We can’t dismiss people’s concerns,” said Justin Brannan, a New York City councilman from a moderate district in Brooklyn. “It’s another thing to be a Republican, to say, ‘If you go outside, you’re going to die.’”

“It’s both true that crime is down from the 1990s and that it has been increasing and that people feel uncomfortable,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. “Democrats have to be able to talk about that and offer real solutions.”

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