31 Comments

She’ll be accused of being a shill for the billionaire class, but optimistically I’d like to read some individuality in her consistent public service roll vs family business.

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In a way it is admirable; she could be funding a super PAC or counting the family coins but is doing something more interesting and impactful

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Her parents were also public service oriented and philanthropic. Fun fact. My grandfather was a contemporary of Larry Tisch and traveled in the same Israel fundraising circles in NY. And my uncle worked for his nephew Jonathan at the Lowes Hotels.

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LARRY WAS A COOL DUDE.

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Except he ended Bill Paley's practice of treating the news division as a public service and turned it into a profit center, thereby degrading the quality of the journalism.

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Fundraising for Israel is about as far as one can get from doing public or any other kind of good.

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I have been pro Palestinian since 2006 when I joined LA Jews for Peace and learned the real history. Back in 1947, my grandfather donated $50,000 to the UJA to resettle Jews from the Holocaust to Palestine. Over the next five decades, he and my father donated and raised millions for Israel and other Jewish causes. They gave to museums, hospitals, universities, old age homes, but not directly to the Israeli government. When I speak at pro Palestine marches, I tell that story and end with the statement that they'd both be turning in their graves if they could see the genocide Israel is committing. The David has become the Goliath. The oppressed have become the oppressor. However, in my comment, the word philanthropic referred to Jessica Tisch's parents.

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Fair enough. Sorry for any misrepresentation on my part.

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oy--- wrong. Am Yisrael Chai!!!

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Noblesse oblige. Seems almost old fashioned.

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Rockefelleresque. I meant to write a paragraph on that and did not.

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I worked on the Hill one summer in the '80s for Manhattan congressman Bill Green (Sedgwick William Green)...one of the last of the breed. His family owned Grand Union. Quite a decent fellow--at least to me.

Rich guys (it was all men) with a sense of duty and propriety pretty much ran the Party in Manhattan for a very long time, even after Rockefeller. Roy Goodman (grandfather founded Ex Lax) was a big macher and helped those with similar inclinations get on the City Council (Charles Millard Eristoff).

I guess you could argue that a very vulgar remnant (somewhat co-opted by Trump) still exists through John Catsimatidis whose daughter is Chairman of Manhattan Party and married Christopher Nixon Cox, Richard Nixon's grandson, but NY (Manhattan) Young Republican Club is through and through MAGA... Bill Green must be turning in his grave.

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And it’s not like the path to where she is now was guaranteed or glamorous. Easy to see it as written in stone now that she’s arrived, but there are plenty of people in similar situations who don’t thread the needle

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Right.. are you promoting a book you’re writing. Give me a break.

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another oligarch to lord over us. how wonderful.

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She’s removing the scoundrels. That’s a start.

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Are you speaking of going after rats, literally. WOW Another person of privilege who went to school in a place for people of privilege that has certainly lost its one time glory and imagined credibility. Buying her way in one step at a time, which she can afford to buy. Serve the people, right. What people?

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No mention of her being fined by the COIB or her responsibility for the multimillion dollar NYPD smartphone boondoggle?

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That’s what America needs; another major city with incomps in all the wrong chairs.

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Seems like a bit of a nepo-baby, which I don't love.

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Nelson Rockefeller was a nepo baby but effective governor. They come in all shapes ... I don't know what Tisch has in store

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Very effective at murdering prisoners.

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Ross, this is an insightful column, but Rockefeller's legacy was mixed. He made deals with legislators of all stripes and origins to implement significant changes in the State's laws and governing structure. In that sense, he was effective.

But he failed in at least two key areas. He was monstrously ineffective in managing the prison system, which resulted in unnecessary deaths at Attica (for those of you not of a certain age, this is what Mr. Schaffer is referring to). He also bears significant responsibility for the New York City fiscal crisis of 1973, which led to NYC bondholders (I.e., the major banks) having budgetary veto power over NYC elected officials well into the 1980s. For those reasons, to call his legacy "effective" gives him too much credit.

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Given that Governor Hochul can dismiss Mayor Adams at the drop of a hat, Adams almost certainly made city government’s most important commissioner appointment in consultation with her. And I’m sure she has let the Tisch family know about her role here, to help ensure their 2026 support.

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Fascinating piece. Thanks for this one Ross and Happy New Year!

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We'll see quickly if this billionaire from the Harvard Incubator wants to manage those hopeless and thoughtless Proles, or if she's a real person who wants to do more than just move up the political ladder. Interesting choice on Adams' part.

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obviously going to run for mayor at some point

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"There is no law enforcement role, outside of perhaps FBI director, more coveted in the United States than NYPD commissioner." I think being chief of the Scotland Yard would be pretty posh, but that's in the UK, lol.

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And Meryl, former chancellor of the Board of Regents and current leader of SUNY, is steering her daughter to Mayor, or beyond, and keeps an extremely low profile … and, is rarely in the media

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Meryl is powerful too.

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As Jessica Tisch could be positioning herself for a mayoral run, a reminder that in 2004, Merryl (note spelling) did consider a 2005 run for a City Council seat on the Upper East Side. In 2012, she was floated/mentioned as a mayoral candidate by those who wanted to continue a Bloomberg-type mayoralty.

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