The city of New York considered the economic and cultural capital of the world, lived in 2021 with the hangover of the covid-19 pandemic, which monopolized a large part of the news, although the vast and diverse nature of the city also brought numerous news.
DIMISSION OF CUOMO
The governor of the State of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who became the most popular politician in the country for his tenure during the outbreak of the covid epidemic and his optimistic messages, was falling from grace due to the accumulation of complaints of sexual harassment from several women who had worked with him and from various political scandals.
And although he denied it in every possible way, Cuomo was left alone: one after another, different leaders of the Democratic Party were denying him their support, and when President Joe Biden himself did so, he finally resigned last August. . As one political analyst put it then, “everyone knows that this (the stalker accusation) will be the first line to be read about him in the history books.”
ELECTION OF ERIC ADAMS
Without surprise, the November municipal elections in this Democratic Party fiefdom that is New York gave the victory to candidate Eric Adams, who will become the second black mayor in the history of the city and will replace Bill de Blasio.
Adams, who is always happy to remember her police past, represents the most right-wing of her party but has already taken some symbolic steps, such as appointing Keechant Sewell head of the huge Police Department, thus becoming the first woman in occupying that position in history.
DEADLY TORRENTIAL RAINS
Hurricane Ida passed in September by the northeastern United States and its aftershocks left New York a trail of torrential rains that paralyzed the subway and slipped into numerous basements of houses where most unequal of thousands live illegally families in one of the cities the world.
These floods cost the lives of 16 people in Queens County and revealed what was an open secret: that numerous landlords illegally sublet basements without a certificate of occupancy and are occupied by immigrant families recently arrived in the city.
VOTE TO THE RESIDENTS
In December, the New York City Council adopted a historic resolution, such as to authorize the vote of residents (holders of a “green card”) in the elections of all elected positions, and that will allow adding to the census. of voters to almost 900,000 people.
In the future, the measure will largely benefit the Latino community, Mexicans and Dominicans first, and with it, New York is at the forefront of the country at a time when the immigration debate is at the center of the board.
MANDATORY VACCINES AND FOR EVERYONE
The New York City Hall was once again a pioneer in the administration of vaccines: it decreed the compulsory nature of vaccinations for all public employees, and later private ones, and imposed the “health passport” to access closed places such as restaurants, theaters, and museums, much before the rest of the country.
But in addition, it provided the vaccine free of charge to all tourists who visited the city without having any type of connection or residence, which generated a “health tourism” that served to revitalize a sector that was hit hard by the pandemic.
20 ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11
One of the most anticipated moments of the year was the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, whose central act took place in the so-called Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers were located, an act that served above all to pay tribute to the fallen and the rescuers who intervened in relief efforts.
But one of its protagonists was due to his absence in those acts: former President Donald Trump refused to attend the ceremonies and dedicated himself that day to criticize the new government of Joe Biden, attacking it from its weakest flank: the hasty departure of US troops from Afghanistan.
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
In March, the state of New York legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, and although fourteen states in the country had preceded it in this measure, the approval was news for the symbolism of New York, a city where the herb was also consumed despite its illegality.
The measure responded to a clear popular demand to lift the illegalization but also responded to the state’s need to collect taxes since the law provides for the creation of a state fund to manage the income obtained from the sale of this plant.
RETURN FROM THE OPERA, MUSICALS, AND FASHION
The return of cultural activity to New York was a shouted demand in a city that lives in large part of the image that it radiates, and that had lost much shine with the closure of all the temples of culture.
While in 2020 the museums began to reopen, in 2021 it was the turn of the Opera, musical theaters, festivals and movie theaters, art auctions, concert halls, or fashion shows, yes. , with a mandatory presentation of vaccination passport and mask for all; In some cases, the detection of positive cases forced the cancellation of some functions for days or weeks, without thereby closing the door.
GUTERRES, SECOND TERM
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was re-elected in June for a second five-year term, which came as no surprise since no other country had officially nominated another candidate, and in keeping with the UN tradition of that each general secretary repeat mandate, only once rotated.
As head of the UN, Guterres has become a fervent defender of the poorest countries and has criticized in any case the growing inequality that the pandemic has caused in health terms (with Africa being the continent with the lowest vaccination rate) and purely economic, since only rich countries will be able to inject into their economies the necessary stimuli to get out of the crisis.
PULSE TO THE STOCK EXCHANGE OF SMALL INVESTORS
The New York Stock Exchange suffered a small earthquake in January when hundreds of thousands of small investors coordinated from a forum called Reddit to attack together with the large investment funds, which lost up to 5,000 million dollars in a few days.
This unusual attack on the financial establishment started mainly from young people who tried to destabilize the economic system from its very heart, the stock market, in protest that governments always end up saving big companies while the middle and lower classes become impoverished.