With City Hall unable or unwilling to protect legitimate Canal Street businesses and the public from the scourge of unlicensed sidewalk merchants, somebody had to do the job or at least begin to.
The question is: Would Gov. Kathy Hochul have the guts to use her authority to protect the city, or would she sacrifice New Yorkers by pandering to the socialist flank of her party?
The party of big government lost the presidency and both houses of Congress, then demanded a federal shutdown to impose its welfare-state agenda on the nation -- and no one seemed to notice.
Strip away the lies about Obamacare subsidies set to expire this year, and a big part of the Democrats' excuse for shutting the government goes up in smoke.