John Lindsay

John Vliet Lindsay (November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician who served as a Congressman (1959-1965) and mayor of New York City (1966-1973).

Assessment

Lindsay left office in 1973 an unpopular mayor, choosing not to seek re-election. His critics have argued that mistakes he made played a large part in causing the City's fiscal problems in the 1970s; Lindsay had allowed one in seven New Yorkers to work for the city, almost as high a percentage to be on welfare, had been overgenerous with the unions, and had borrowed for operating expenses. In his The Ungovernable City, Vincent J. Cannato bluntly says Lindsay was the wrong man for the job of mayor. Lindsay was more concerned with solving the enormous social problems of NYC's poor, instead of delivering basic services. By the early 1970s over 70 percent of NYC's budget went to non-common functions. Lindsay would have been a fine senator, but he was too aloof and stubborn to make it as an executive.

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Years after Lindsay was out of office, Lindsay budget aide Peter Goldmark would admit that his administration's basic problem was this: "We all failed to come to grips with what a neighborhood is. We never realized that crime is something that happens to, and in, a community." Assistant Nancy Seifer said "There was a whole world out there that nobody in City Hall knew anything about ... If you didn't live on Central Park West you were some kind of lesser being." (Cannato, 391).

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Lindsay retired to practice law. His 1980 comeback bid for the Senate was not successful, as he lost the Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman.

Related Topics:
Senate - Elizabeth Holtzman

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He died of complications from pneumonia and Parkinson's disease, in Hilton Head, South Carolina at the age of 79. Like many Americans, Lindsay was without health insurance. The decision of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to hire him as a part-time legal counsel, at a rate of $10,000 per year plus health insurance, aroused little controversy, but there are no city landmarks dedicated to his memory.

Related Topics:
Hilton Head, South Carolina - Rudolph Giuliani

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His daughter Anne Lindsay found inspiration in his political career and actively participated in the campaign of Howard Dean for President. After the Dean campaign ended, she led the Rapid Response Network, a volunteer organization which encouraged its members to actively advocate in the news media for the Presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry and against the administration of President George W. Bush.

Related Topics:
Howard Dean - John Kerry - George W. Bush

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A conservatively biased, but well-written, biography is Vincent J. Cannato's The Ungovernable City (hardcover ISBN 0465008437, paperback ISBN 0465008445). An in-depth discussion of Lindsay's fiscal policies is contained in Mayors and Money by Ester Ruth Fuchs. Two pro-labor treatments of New York City public sector unions are In Transit and Working-Class New York by Joshua Freeman. Lindsay's 1967 autobiography is titled Journey Into Politics.

Related Topics:
1967 - Autobiography

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