Alas, you've succumbed to a common error: Both of LaGuardia's parents were Italian born: His father was a lapsed Catholic & his mother was from a distinguished Sephardi family. He was raised as an Episcopalian & had a pivotal ally/follower in East Harlem Congressman Vito Marcantonio. Also, you miss Lower East Side born Al Smith who was NYS Governor & as Democratic candidate for President faced the winds of the anti-Catholic outcry. His gubernatorial cabinet was an incubator for what would become the New Deal. Traitor-to-his-class FDR leaned on nominally liberal Republican LaGuardia. Fast forward throw your excellent compilation: Mamdani failed to attract East Asian voters: Folks in NE Queens & Sheepshead Bay went for Cuomo. So, at this stage, there's a limit. Also, let me express concern for the physical safety of the yet to be sworn in mayor & his family.
Democracy looked different back in that day. If I remember the 1960's correctly, the police force was an Irish fief; education was Jewish; transport and social work was Black, and sanitation Italian.
Alas, you've succumbed to a common error: Both of LaGuardia's parents were Italian born: His father was a lapsed Catholic & his mother was from a distinguished Sephardi family. He was raised as an Episcopalian & had a pivotal ally/follower in East Harlem Congressman Vito Marcantonio. Also, you miss Lower East Side born Al Smith who was NYS Governor & as Democratic candidate for President faced the winds of the anti-Catholic outcry. His gubernatorial cabinet was an incubator for what would become the New Deal. Traitor-to-his-class FDR leaned on nominally liberal Republican LaGuardia. Fast forward throw your excellent compilation: Mamdani failed to attract East Asian voters: Folks in NE Queens & Sheepshead Bay went for Cuomo. So, at this stage, there's a limit. Also, let me express concern for the physical safety of the yet to be sworn in mayor & his family.
Democracy looked different back in that day. If I remember the 1960's correctly, the police force was an Irish fief; education was Jewish; transport and social work was Black, and sanitation Italian.
great piece!