One might think New York City Mayor Eric Adams would have bigger things to ponder.
After all, crime is rampant in the streets, and in the Big Apple, where Adams once wore the NYPD blue, 101 cops have been shot so far this year, up 43 percent from a year ago.
Last month, Bloomberg News wondered why the city’s unemployment rate was so high, clocking in at 7.6 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that New York’s jobless rate is only 5.5 percent, but that’s because it’s included with the much more robust economies in Newark and Jersey City. Still, at 5.5 percent, that’s 25 percent above the national rate.
Meanwhile, the New York Post reported last month that New York City “accounted for four of the top US counties with population losses” for the year ending in July 2021. Manhattan alone lost 111,000 people in that year, while Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx plunged almost 193,000 people combined.
Yet amid all those problems, Adams on Monday tweeted about Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.
“We have a message for Florida’s LGBTQ+ community: come to a city where you can be you,” the mayor tweeted.
The mayor’s office’s official account then tweeted “@NYCMayor announces a new digital billboard campaign in five Florida markets denouncing the hateful #DontSayGay law and inviting Floridians to move to New York.”
The tweet included a graphic that repeated the word “gay” in a 1960s style font with multiple colors.
Among the first to spot this self-inflicted fail was Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Good to see Mayor Adams has solved all of NYC’s problems in such a short period of time. Surging violent crime, drugs, gangs, homelessness, extremely high cost of living, covid & covid restrictions like masking toddlers… all fixed, I guess!” she tweeted.
“Anyone who would move to New York because they’re upset over Florida’s commitment to parental rights or child protection is someone we are better off without,” Pushaw added.
“If anyone is so opposed to @GovRonDeSantis defending parental rights that they leave for a crime-ridden dystopia, Florida will be better off without them. Countless NYers have moved here since the pandemic. I doubt many will leave due to our lack of K-3 gender theory instruction.”
“The Mayor of NYC is doing us a huge favor!” Pushaw said.
Others soon joined her.
Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District in New York, added, “What a waste of NY taxpayer dollars to start an advertising war with another State. Will Florida now run NYC subway ads that say, *Come to the Sunshine State to avoid State income tax, unmask your toddler, & get an age-appropriate public education for your kindergarten child*?”
Another Twitter user mocked Adams: “I can see the billboard now: come to a state with higher rent, more traffic, higher gas prices, higher energy costs, higher taxes, and higher crime if you are gay! It practically sells itself.”
“I LOVE THIS!” another added. “Get the lefties out of FL!”
Still, another offered, “I live in NYC and only a fool or a gangbanger would choose to leave FL to move to NY right now. Wasting taxpayer’s money on this dishonest nonsense is exactly why that is.”
Some, of course, did point out the major flaw in Adams’ tweet and his supposed PR coup: Florida’s law doesn’t actually use the word “gay” and no one in Florida schools is prohibited from saying it.
The law simply bans school districts and classroom teachers from implementing woke lessons about sexual identity and gender orientation in grades K-3.
That, by the way, according to recent polls, is supported by 55 percent of Democrats nationally, and 52 percent of Democratic primary voters in Florida.
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