Is This Gay, Sober, Poem-Writing City Council Leader the Mayor New Yorkers Want?

He's slightly better than the inept diBlasio. But Johnson is about the best we are going to get from now on.

Well so far THIS gay would happily have THAT gay as mayor! The guy has some good ideas and presents them convincingly. What an improvement he’d be over the disaster Mayor “Do-Nothing” DeBlasio.

Corey Johnson is a political hack posing as a visionary. His priorities are mind boggling as he is the Speaker of a Council during a time when the city infrastructure is falling apart and the best he can come up with is he elimination of furs and bike lanes which are crippling businesses.

NYC and NYS show the danger of one party rule. Corey Johnson and his colleagues on the City Council are demonstrating that active and engaged legislators doesn't necessarily lead to well thought out and effective legislation. The NYS Legislature is going down the same road now that there is no moderating check of a Republican led Senate. What we're seeing is our city and state is our elected leaders going down the path of business crushing laws, rules and regulations that is then partnered with pandering and misguided social engineering. Such an approach to governance may make aggrieved constituents happy for now. Yet, none of it is addressing the many ills we're contending with - failing mass transit, crumbling infrastructure, expensive yet ineffective education, bloated bureaucracy, etc, etc. And, as a gay man, I find it eye-rolling that there is a presumption of support for a socialist-fascist like Johnson because he's also gay.

I think we've proven that New York Republicans (not evangelical fundamentalists) are the only capable stewards of our fair city. I'd like a time machine and bring back 1994 Giuliani. I miss that guy...

Corey Johnson needs to learn how to manage his staff and just manage. He's got a legislator director/chief of staff who is a political hack who has done nothing to address all the empty store fronts in NYC. Silence from his office regarding the mismanagement of city agencies who continue to have "acting" commissioners. From the dysfunction daily at HPD, DDC and NYC SBS the speaker is silent. Corey, instead of this shallow article how about you address why you have not signed on to the NY Small Business Jobs Survival Act? http://takebacknyc.nyc/sbjsa

Too much grandstanding

Does Johnson know anything about the fashion business in NYC? His fur ban will be the death of it. Jobs will disappear. Sales revenues will shrink. Tourism will suffer. If he is trying to clear out the west 30s at the behest of developers so there will be more skyscrapers for foreign oligarchs, then he’s making all the right moves. Johnson only seems to care about fashion when it means selfies with celebrities at the MET gala. Is there another person the democrats could give us? Maybe one who knows anything about business or has a college degree?

Why is it that the first thing the Times says about Mr Johnson that he is gay? Should the emphasis be on his qualifications? For instance, how do his policies differ with Mr. deBlasio?

I’ve heard him speak several times on channel 5 morning show with Rosanna. I completely disagree with his viewpoints. He doesn’t represent my interests. I think Corey would be worse than DeBlasio.

I am in his council district and am familiar with his approach to government. He is an able, sincere, dedicated man. I do, however, think he needs to expand the circle of people with whom he identifies, has empathy towards.

I've heard him as a guest on WNYC radio many times. Every time he speaks on an issue, I feel he gets it. He's critical of various problem spots, but also has strong opinions about how to address them. If he makes it to the Final Run... I'll vote for him.

Corey Johnson definitely isn’t the visionary leader we need. He’s too Manhattan-centric. Even worse, he’s part of the pro-criminal anti-business Chavistas that have surged in both city and state government. They don’t understand what goes up eventually comes down. DiBlasio has already done near irreparable damage to the City’s long term finances. All the patronage jobs, city worker pensions, and new entitlement programs are going to sink the budget within a decade. All we seem to be getting is new homeless shelters and higher taxes. There’s no restraint in City government tax and spending. It’s becoming near impossible for the middle class to remain. Higher income earners are starting to flee the City’s extortionate taxes. Even the billionaire condo bubble is beginning to deflate. The city is reaching an inflection point like it did in the 1960’s - before everything collapsed.

So he's a friend of Bill W., eh? Talking in that recovery double-speak and all the code words. Sober. Powerless. Sorry, but membership in a 12 step organization is not a qualification for public office.

An alcoholic, undereducated celebrity sycophant who cares more about cheap PR (fur ban) than what his constituents want and need (working subways, excellent schools, poverty solutions, etc.) If this is the best Democrats have to offer I’ll wait to see what the Republicans can give us.

Any politician who wants to do away with thousands of jobs of workers in the fur trade and forego tens of millions of dollars in sales taxes on furs, lacks the good sense to be mayor.

To answer your headline: no. Johnson is, like so many NYC pols before him, an opportunist, who follows the wishes of the city's sundry vote-bringing interest groups, frequently at the expense of sound urban policy. He has simply followed the classic machine playbook, but he dresses it up with smiles and fun tweets. Johnson has wanted to be mayor forever, and he has spent years cutting deals to appease the bosses who will turn out their voters to make it happen. See, e.g., unions. Johnson did his best to chase Amazon out of the city, saying (seriously) that 25,000 jobs wouldn't impact the local economy that much. "I think Amazon themselves made a tremendous mistake, whoever was advising them, which is coming to this city," he said. "It's going to be an issue for them." Union bosses appeased. There are many more examples of this sort of thing. Johnson will likely be mayor. But New Yorkers should know what they're getting: a vote for Johnson is a vote for a usual NYC machine politician. Expect high taxes, more demonization of corporations (which create jobs), more demonization of the city's wealthy (who pay the vast majority of all those high taxes), and more government-backed giveaways to interest groups. Alas, a city that elected de Blasio is probably a city that will elect Johnson, too.

Corey will get my vote if he runs. I cannot wait till DeBlasio goes away. Voting for DeBlasio was one of the worst votes I have ever made, and at 64 yrs old I have made a lot of them.

Absolutely not. Too frivolous and self-serving. Not looking to City Council foer my fun.

Please, no more mayors from Massachusetts. Twenty years is quite enough.

Corey's smart, well informed, knows how the city works, is hands-on and works hard -- all of which contrast favorably to our present "mayor" (ironic quotes). His biggest negative is that he's had his eye on the prize since he got out of college (I've known him for a long time). Not that there's anything wrong with that!

After grinding through Bill de Blasio's often sluggish and uninspiring terms as Mayor, it would be quite a refreshing change to have someone who actually wants the job -- and is fun to boot!