BARKING BACK - MY FRIEND DON, A RESPECTED WELFARE POLICY EXPERT AND ADVOCATE, RESPONDS WITH ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON THE INAUGURATION

I appreciate your thoughts on the inauguration and mostly see things the same way... I don't totally agree with everything. I not convinced that what happens in NYC is as critical factor in the future of liberal policies. I realize now that maybe I'm even more pessimistic, glass-half-empty than you. I think there's very little chance that a NYC mayor can take major strides in ending income inequality without significant help from the state (where we have a governor who Dean Skelos rightly calls a good moderate Republican) and the feds. So I'm cautiously pessimistic about some of his more dramatic proposals. I would also urge you not to be quite so discouraged about first day speeches, which will largely be forgotten in the very near future. What I am really nervous about - something that you allude to - is that conservative, corporate forces will band together to defeat important parts of the Mayor's agenda, and they have extortionate power, the threat to leave, the threat to - thanks to Citizens United - offer a bottomless well of cash to opponents of progressive change. But I'd like to think there's room to hope for incremental, but significant change. The city council looks like it may be a progressive force, the Gov. actually might help (for example, though he clearly won't support a tax increase to fund Universal pre-K, it's certainly no coincidence that UPK featured prominently in his state of the state address).

Lastly, I had some dealings with Tish James when she was an Assembly staffer. She's really smart and I think her heart's in the right place. The Public Advocate has limited power and almost no staff, but I think/hope she'll be something of a force in the right direction. And about her holding hands with the young homeless girl, what's so terrible about highlighting, though in a somewhat cheesy way, the plight of the homeless.

There's more talk around the country about poverty right now, owing, I believe, in no small part to DeBlasio. What will come out of it? It would be silly to be too exuberant, but it would be a real shame not to get on board for as far as we can go...