'Last Days of New York' author blames de Blasio, liberal policies for city's decline: 'It's a grim picture'

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NYC reporter blames de Blasio for the city's downfall by pushing the narrative of class, racial division

Seth Barron, a reporter and editor in New York City, who has covered the area for more than a decade, outlines what he says is the city's decline under Mayor Bill de Blasio in his new book.

Seth Barron, a reporter and editor in New York City, who has covered the area for more than a decade, outlined what he said is the city's decline under Mayor Bill de Blasio in his new book. 

Speaking on "Fox & Friends" on Monday he blamed de Blasio for the city's downfall by pushing the narrative of class and racial division. 

"He’s been in charge and he pushed the narrative of the tale of two cities and class division and racial division," Barron told host Brian Kilmeade. 

"So in a sense, yeah, it is his fault though he has had a lot of help. … There is a lot of socialists and progressives who have had his back and have been completely behind his terrible policies," he continued. 

Barron's book, "The Last Days of New York: A Reporter's True Tale," "is a history of New York City from its recovery from the recession of 2008-2009 through the triple disaster of the pandemic, civil unrest, and collapse in revenue of 2020," according to its description, which also noted that de Blasio "is presented as the instrument of decline." 

"He [de Blasio] has been very lucky because New York City never really suffered under the recession," Barron said on Monday. "We were bailed out by the federal government, the financial industry was and all along he’s had plenty of tax revenue." 

"He’s never had to budget. He could just spend every time he wanted to," he continued. "Then he got very lucky because he skirted all of his corruption cases and now with Biden in he’s gotten a huge windfall, a big federal bailout so he doesn't even have to fire anyone." 

 "Really tells you something when one of Mr. Barron’s critiques is that the Mayor didn’t fire enough working people. Okay Seth," Bill Neidhardt, press secretary for Mayor de Blasio, told Fox News on Monday. "He is correct through, Mayor de Blasio has overseen consistent economic growth before the pandemic and now in the recovery, likely because he didn’t take advice of failed big business think tanks like Mr. Barron’s so-called Manhattan Institute." 

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Speaking with "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Friday Barron elaborated, explaining that the book depicts "a grim story" for New York City. 

"De Blasio and his progressive ascendancy have essentially hollowed out what was a prosperous and safe city," he told host Tucker Carlson, calling it a "grim picture."

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 "They did this by spreading an ideology of division, class hatred, racial hatred, racial resentment and frankly they neutered the police and handcuffed them, in addition to a lot of other things, like fiscal irresponsibility, trying to ruin the school system, political corruption." 

Carlson asked Barron if the city at a point where there is no coming back. 

"A lot of people are very excited about electing a new mayor, who might change things," he responded. 

"But the problem is that a lot of these issues have been now baked in, laws have been changed that make it really difficult for police to do their jobs, bail reform, criminal justice reform, just the discovery process in trials has made it very hard." 

Barron then warned that whoever becomes the next mayor of New York City will face a "difficult situation." 

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The number of shootings in May increased by nearly 75% compared to the same month last year, while overall crime in the city rose by 22% in May 2021, as compared to May 2020, FOX 5 New York reported this weekend.

De Blasio has insisted skyrocketing crime numbers will fall once criminal courts are fully back open at the end of May – even with bail reforms that critics say make it far easier to send criminals back onto the streets.