The murder of two young police officers this month should poignantly remind New Yorkers that they've got much to be thankful for this New Year's Eve. But they're not giving their new mayor credit for a good year that's ending on a tragic note.
Take a moment to dwell on the positive, even as we grieve:
- Crimes are at record lows. Through Dec. 14, Gotham had 305 murders, 15 fewer than last year at that date. Maybe you or your child would have been one of those 15 averted victims. Robberies, too, are down 15 percent.
- Traffic deaths are down. This year, 238 people were killed in crashes through November, 23 fewer than last year. It may be your pre-teen who wasn't crushed crossing the street.
- The city has a record number of private-sector jobs — almost 4.1 million. The real-estate market is at a record high. If the world is afraid that New York is sinking fast, it is not voting with its money.
The killing of Police Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu was a horror, but New York has withstood terrorist attacks by outsiders before, and will again.
And, the officers killed were examples of the NYPD's diversity. The growing memorial at the killing site shows how most New Yorkers have come together, not apart.
Why, then, is the mayor ending 2014 with New Yorkers less satisfied with his performance than when he came in?
The latest Quinnipiac University poll, out before the killings, showed the mayor's approval rating at 47 percent — lower than the 53 percent he had in mid-January.
De Blasio's rating is lower than former mayor Bloomberg's 48 percent before last year's election — and all three-term mayors wear out their welcomes.
Ominously, de Blasio's disapproval rating is up, from 13 percent in January to 38 percent. People who were keeping an open mind aren't anymore.
The first answer is that de Blasio bizarrely picks fights when he doesn't have to.
New Yorkers are shocked by the mayor's poor relations with the police.
That's when they might otherwise be sympathetic. Police union head Patrick Lynch has gone way too far in holding de Blasio culpable for a deranged nihilist's actions.
But the mayor alienated too many people with his gratuitous remark — as the Eric Garner protests were heating up — that he had counseled his teenaged son to fear the police.
The police need support and reforms, not their boss criticizing them publicly at a difficult time.
Anyone surprised, though, at the poisonous relationship should look at how de Blasio went out of his way to pick an earlier fight — with the 300 families who depend on the city's horse-carriage trade for their livelihoods.
In that case, there are no subtleties — the horses are fine and dandy, and there's no need to ban them. But de Blasio is going ahead with his legislation to outlaw the trade — partly out of sheer stubbornness.
He's also fought needlessly with charter schools — which have shown promise compared to traditional public schools and which are popular with poorer parents.
The second answer to de Blasio's poor standing is that a year into his term, de Blasio still seems to have a thin grasp of easy facts.
He honestly seems to believe it when activists tell him that carriages are already banned in London and Paris — even though it's a bald lie.
Similarly, he doesn't seem to understand that police shootings of unarmed civilians — and indeed all police shootings — are also at their low points, and that New York scores much better than the rest of the country.
He can't make a strong case even if he wants to, because he doesn't know what it is.
The third answer is that de Blasio is uneasily tangled up in special interests.
He wants to ban horse carriages partly because he owes anti-horse folk for all the money they poured into his campaign last year.
He can't make his own way on police reforms because he's looking over his shoulder at what Al Sharpton thinks.
He attacks charters because of his allegiance with the teachers union.
Some stumbling here is forgivable. New York is coming off 12 years of a mayor who could mute — although not eliminate — criticism with his own money.
And New York can take a lot of stumbling. We've survived bad mayors before.
But if de Blasio doesn't want to cement his place in history as one of those bad mayors, he should take 2015 as a fresh start — as, indeed, we all should.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.
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