The Decline Of New York

(6 of 8)

Part of the mayor's problem is style. Unlike the prickly Koch, Dinkins rarely raises his voice and disdains the finger-in-your-chest aggressiveness that has characterized New York politicians since the days of Tammany Hall. He is far more comfortable in quiet back-room negotiations than in public confrontations with unhappy constituents. His finest hour may have been the lavish hero's welcome the city provided in June for South African leader Nelson Mandela, for whom New York's warring ethnic groups seemed to put aside their differences during a three-day celebration of racial harmony.

A more serious drawback is Dinkins' reluctance to attack problems in a direct and forceful way. Since January, for example, the Flatbush section of Brooklyn has been roiled by a black boycott of two Korean grocery stores that began after a Haitian woman accused the Koreans of assaulting her in an argument over a dollar's worth of fruit. The shopowners obtained a civil court injunction ordering the protesters to remain at least 50 ft. away from the shops' entrances, but Dinkins has not ordered the police to enforce it. Instead, he appointed a commission to review his handling of the affair. Not surprisingly, the report it issued two weeks ago praised the mayor's conduct and lambasted Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes for not vigorously pushing the investigation and prosecution of the Haitian woman's original complaint.

Despite the mounting unease about his leadership, Dinkins remains unfazed. His response last week to demands that he publicly condemn the Watkins murder was characteristically orotund. Quoth the mayor: "I say that if two nations are in dispute and one diplomat says to the representative of another government, 'Her Majesty's government is exceedingly distressed,' everybody knows that means we're mad as hell. Now, however, I'm prepared to say I'm mad as hell, not simply 'We're exceedingly distressed.' "

Even so, Dinkins' remark was a significant shift from his earlier pronouncements. At times the mayor has attempted to downplay the crime wave as a public relations problem: "This administration is doing all it can to win back our streets. Some of it has been to address the image of the city. People need to feel secure, and ((a bad image)) adversely impacts business and tourism." He has also portrayed the outbreak as a local manifestation of a national crisis beyond his control: "If the problems of drugs and crime were only in New York, then you could ask, What is it that you folks are doing wrong? But all of our urban centers are afflicted similarly. The fact that it's happening somewhere else doesn't mean that I don't have a problem to address. But the fact that the problem is regional or nationwide does say that the Federal Government should assist in addressing it." Says Dinkins: "You have to have credibility. People have to have faith in you."