New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who took office in January 2021, has made a number of rhetorical appeals to New York City residents who are working from home to return to the office. I emphasize rhetorical because I am not sure that the Mayor has done much on his end to make returning to the office appealing to those who have the choice. But that aside, in trying to appeal to someone to do something that he or she (A) does not have to do and (B) does not want to do, one should make some effort to meet the people who he or she is trying to persuade half-way. Mr. Adams, as quoted by the New York Post, is making no such effort:
If I’m an attorney and I can work from home, what do I say to that bus driver that can’t or that school service worker that can’t?
Rest assured, an attorney who has the option of working from home and is otherwise not inclined to commute to and from work every day is not going to change his or her mind for the purpose of spending more of his or her money on city amenties that are becoming more expensive. No one will be guilt-tripped into commuting through an increasingly smelly city. I dare ask what Mr. Adams has said to the many people who lost their jobs and livelihoods over the last couple of years on account of municipal policies – separate and apart from the extent to which particular policies were justified.