(The contents of this section are adapted from the Mailer-Breslin campaign literature.) The planks of the Mailer-Breslin platform included: • Statehood – New York City would be split off from the rest of New York State, and achieve independent statehood as the 51st State of the U.S. The campaign sought to free the city from the control of "upstate legislators who don't care about the city but control our schools, police, housing, and money." For a new state to be carved out of one already in existence requires the approval of both the old state legislature and the U.S. Congress. New states have been created from the territory of older states before: in 1792, Kentucky was formed from part of Virginia, and
West Virginia broke away from Virginia and became a state in 1863. Mailer proposed that the first step, following his election, should be a citywide referendum on the question of statehood for the city. • Taxes – In 1969, New York City taxpayers paid the state and federal governments $14 billion ($ billion in dollars), and got only $3 billion back ($ billion in dollars). The creation of the 51st State would help correct this imbalance, and bring about $2 billion ($ billion in dollars) in additional revenue to the city. In addition, a casino would be built on either
Randall's Island,
Roosevelt Island, or
Coney Island, with tax revenues going directly to the City-State. • Transportation – All private cars would be banned from Manhattan Island. Buses and taxicabs would be permitted, with the number of cabs increased. Parking lots would be built outside Manhattan at strategic locations. A monorail, built around the circumference of Manhattan, would service these lots, stopping also at rail stations and water ferry terminals. A free bus and
jitney service would operate in
Midtown, the city's most congested area. Publicly owned bicycles would be available to all at no cost. • Pollution – The elimination of private cars from Manhattan Island would reduce pollution there by 60%. All vehicles and incinerators in the city would be required to have pollution control devices. Sweet Sundays (
q.v.) would give the city breathing room once a month. • Education – The neighborhoods would have complete control over their school systems, including which teachers to hire, what curricula to teach, and what grading and testing methods would be used. Autonomy could include, for example, "vest-pocket campuses built by students in abandoned buildings, restoring a sense of personal involvement that is lost in the large university campuses." • Housing – Neighborhoods would manage all rent-controlled housing. The City-State would fund programs of rehabilitation – not demolition – of existing buildings, along with programs to aid in eventual home ownership for tenants. On-the-job trainees would restore good buildings which would otherwise be razed. • Welfare – Since welfare is a national problem, every effort would be made to have the Federal government absorb 90% of the cost of welfare. All welfare programs would be administered by the neighborhoods, eliminating the 15% of welfare funds spent on welfare case investigations, the thinking being that neighbors know best which neighbors need/deserve public assistance. The City-State would fund the neighborhoods to employ residents in local daycare centers, housing rehabilitation, and recreational programs, thus keeping thousands off the welfare rolls. • Crime – Local neighborhoods would know best how to control crime in their communities by employing policemen who have the respect of the community because they live there. The City-State would fund neighborhoods to administer their own crime prevention programs, and would aid them only if they so desired. • Sweet Sundays – One Sunday per month would be designated "Sweet Sunday," when every form of mechanical transportation – including elevators – would be halted. Mailer's idea was to clear the air of pollution and provide a carefree day during which citizens could gather and decompress. As Sam Smith, editor of
The Progressive Review put it, Sweet Sundays "would allow human beings to rest and talk to each other and the air can purify itself. Mailer and Breslin understood that real politics is not just a matter of management but a collective expression of a community’s soul." ==Primary election results==