That huge lot on the east side of Manhattan

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday, the first Sunday after the New Year. What are we facing in New York? What are we facing in our country? We have a good friend, a big businessman in New York, in actually the whole country. His name is Michael Hirshman, and his you, and he’s running the Solo Group. But they changed the name the Solo Ev Group.

0:28 Michael Hirshman. Why did they change the name?

0:32 Speaker 2 Oh, it goes back to the son of Children’s Solo, who was the founder of realty and development, who wanted to honor his grandfather, And that’s Soloviev is his grandfather’s name when his grandfather emigrated to the United States from the Ukraine. And I like that, John, Happy New Year to you.

0:55 Speaker 1 Happy New Year. I mean, my name is Kats with tits And in high school they called me cats. And when I ran from Maia, they called me cats. So what the heck? I could understand? That tells.

1:07 Speaker 3 Let me ask you a question.

1:08 Speaker 2 In the beginning God created the universe.

1:12 Speaker 3 Did he make a mistake, John, No.

1:16 Speaker 1 He didn’t make a mistake. It’s a beautiful The Earth is a beautiful planet, and it’s a beautiful place that we must maintain civilization and right now in the United States of America. You know, I had an expression immigration, yes, invasion No. We were being invaded for the last few years and we didn’t even know who’s coming and going.

1:46 Speaker 2 You know, the country is is it’s upside down. We need to we really need to go back and think about the blessings we received from our founding fathers when they started this experiment in democracy and start to be thankful for the things we have despite the problems.

2:09 Speaker 3 And we’ve got severe problems list.

2:12 Speaker 2 You know, just the last few days have been awful with the terrible incident in New Orleans, the explosion in Las Vegas in front of the Trump Casino. We have a lot of folks in this country that are have a feeling of hopelessness that they don’t know where to turn, and so they’re turning to violence.

2:39 Speaker 3 New York City is I find.

2:40 Speaker 1 I still find it hard to believe why violence.

2:45 Speaker 2 Well, when you when you have nowhere else to turn and you think you have nothing else to lose, then your thoughts turned to suicide.

2:55 Speaker 3 But suicide used to be a.

2:56 Speaker 2 Very lonely occasion. Nowadays, folks want to leave a legacy behind. They want to kill themselves and take others with them.

3:06 Speaker 1 Well, I’m New York. I am worried about New York. All our politicians are telling us it’s getting better. There’s less murders, there’s less robberies. How come I feel the way I feel.

3:21 Speaker 3 That’s a good question.

3:22 Speaker 2 Okay, let’s talk about statistics versus reality. Crime went up across the country, including New York City, dramatically over the pandemic. It’s been coming down slowly but surely. However, New York City, even though it’s had a decline in certain crime rates, has been less successful in bringing it down than the rest of the country and New York it’s been slow

3:49 recovery in New York City. Now, Yeah, good news, Murders are down, bad news.

3:56 Speaker 3 Rapes are up.

3:57 Speaker 2 Good news, robberies are down, bad news. Felonious results are up. A misdemeanor salsa up. Hate crimes are up. So these are the type crimes that are written about and spoken about in the media, and these are the crimes that really affect people’s sense of security. And that’s what’s happening in New York City.

4:21 Speaker 1 Some of these.

4:22 Speaker 2 Heinious crimes that are being committed, burning a woman alive on the subway, stamming people on the subway, throwing folks in front of subway cars, the incidents I just referred to a course the country now. Having said that our crime rate is better than what you find in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, but does that.

4:46 Speaker 3 Really give us much comfort?

4:48 Speaker 2 Not when you’re picking up the newspaper and reading about one one violent crime after another occurring in your neighborhoods and in your city.

4:58 Speaker 1 I don’t want my kids in the subway.

5:01 Speaker 3 I don’t blame you.

5:02 Speaker 2 You know, we got to take a step back, John, We got to figure out what’s worked in the past that helped bring the crime rates down after the nineteen nineties. And let’s get back to basics. It’s about releasing, it’s about enforcement. Now. Look, you could make an argument that because of this feeling of helplessness among certain people in

5:25 this country, that it’s a mental health crisis, and I can’t argue with that.

5:32 Speaker 3 But the fact still.

5:33 Speaker 2 Remains a lot of these crimes that are committed are being done by recidifus folks that have been in jail before have been released. These are the folks, particularly those that are involved in violent crimes.

5:45 Speaker 3 They got to stay in prison. And I know it.

5:49 Speaker 2 Costs us money to keep people in prison, but look at the damage they do to society. Look at the damage they do to our psych in not wanting to go out at night and like you not wanting your kids to ride on the subways.

6:05 Speaker 1 And it’s well. I mean, President Trump is taking over on September twentieth or two pm, and I hope he puts his foot down with the local states, the New York State, California, Illinois, Arizona that want to stay woke.

6:26 And because enough is enough.

6:31 Speaker 2 Realistically, the president can only do so much. This really falls on the shoulders of our leaders in New York at.

6:39 Speaker 3 The state level and the city level.

6:43 Speaker 4 We’ve got to begin to reverse some of the policies we’ve been in place in recent years that have led people to believe that the risk of committing a crime is lower now than it ever has been.

6:59 Speaker 1 And on top of that, these bicycles in the city, they’re going up and down the wrong way. They have motorcycles that are going up, up and down the wrong way on streets. And when you get out of a taxi, you get out of uber, you gotta worry more about them than you have to worry about trucks running you over.

7:22 Speaker 2 These electric bicycles have become a real danger. More and more accidents and even deaths have occurred. So that’s another issue we need to take That’s something we do need to take a look at how to better control the use of these electric bicycles in the city.

7:41 Speaker 1 Michael Hirshman, Let’s pray for better New York. Let’s pray to get better leadership and for the leaders. You know, you got to remember something the leaders. Some of the leaders are good, but they don’t have the courage to fight the world culture.

7:58 Speaker 2 Well it may not be excuse me, John, I’m losing my voice here. Not a good thing to do with the new year. But if sometimes it’s not the courage of the leaders.

8:09 Speaker 3 It’s sometimes the lack of power.

8:12 Speaker 2 Let’s take a look at the mayor of New York. He has limited power. The real power falls to the city council. So he finds himself without the tools.

8:22 Speaker 3 He’s a former cop.

8:24 Speaker 2 If anyone wants to know how to better confront crime, he should, But he finds himself lacking the tools because he doesn’t have the authority in some cases.

8:35 Speaker 1 Well, Michael, on a closing note, I’m going to say something, you know, term limits, term limits, term limits. Instead of having the people with the gray hair that know how to run our city, we end up with the assistance of the assistance of the assistance, so that tuws out.

8:54 Speaker 2 We need to do away with professional politicians and get back to the folks who really do represent the people, and so term limits is indeed.

9:04 Speaker 3 The way to go. I agree with you one hundred percent.

9:09 Speaker 1 Michael Hirshman, Thank you so much. Happy New Year. Look forward to getting together real soon and let’s pray for the best and let’s hope January twenty it comes faster than fast.

9:21 Speaker 3 All right, my friend, have a healthy and safe New Year.