You can say this about Mayor de Blasio’s “detailed plan” for closing Rikers Island: It’s just dreamy.
As in a pipedream.
The “roadmap” is pretty enough, with its vision of a smaller jail population in
To tell the truth, we don’t think the lime-green chairs in the photos illustrating de Blasio’s vision are so much soothing as nauseating. But that’s a minor quibble.
The bigger problem is that he left any heavy lifting by him out of the plan to make the dream come true.
Take his suggested steps toward a problem that, he notes, “to date has been intractable nationwide.” It’s straightforward: The city “will need to develop strategies to further reduce violence beyond currently historic lows and develop solutions for issues like chronic offending.”
Develop strategies and solutions, of course. How did no one ever think of that before?
And, if the “developing” gets tough, just apply a little unicorn dust.
On top of that blather, the mayor is still refusing to suggest any ideas for where to put the new jails that must replace Rikers. Instead, he’s leaving that little job up to the City Council.
Bottom line: De Blasio isn’t willing to anger all his progressive allies by admitting that Rikers is staying open for the foreseeable future, nor to outrage the rest of the public by embracing the extreme steps needed to shut it down.
Why upset anyone when you can just close your eyes and dream?
