I’m beginning to think somebody spiked Saratoga Springs’ famed mineral springs. What else explains the dysfunction that has consumed city government?
Saratoga Springs seems like a city run by children, elected officials without the self-discipline to control their words and emotions. Case in point: The profanity-laced tirade recently directed by Mayor Ron Kim toward Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Jason Tetu.
“You f—— lazy piece of sh–,” Kim yelled in City Hall as shocked workers scurried by. “Go f— yourself.”
In a video of the confrontation released by the police department, Kim sent five f-bombs echoing through the building’s hallways. The Democrat later apologized but the moment was nevertheless telling. It was another unfortunate example of what the government in Saratoga Springs has become.
To those of us who live elsewhere, it’s confusing. Saratoga Springs, after all, is a regional success story, arguably the most vibrant city in all of upstate New York. What’s with all the bickering and fighting?
The city has retail and restaurant sectors, along with ample downtown housing, that are the envy of much larger cities. It has low poverty rates and high median incomes, proof that the city remains attractive to those with the means to live anywhere. It has pedestrians — people walking around on their own two feet! — crowding downtown sidewalks.
That success didn’t happen by accident, and it wasn’t inevitable. Yes, the city has tremendous assets, including a horse track that draws tourists to the city by the thousands, but Broadway in the 1980s was a moribund place. Saratoga Springs looked to be another upstate city in decline.
It rebounded in no small part because its city government was effective. I don’t mean to suggest everything was always hugs and rainbows, but, despite…
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