Chris Edwards
Chris Edwards
Many American cities have corruption problems—from Chicago and New York to Scranton and Harrisburg. In these cities, politicians and bureaucrats abuse their discretionary powers over licensing, permitting, zoning, contracting, and other activities. They shake down individuals and businesses to gain bribes, campaign aid, and other personal benefits in return for providing special approvals, exemptions, and handouts.
Big government subsidy and regulatory schemes fuel corruption, as we see, for example, with housing tax credits, alcohol licensing, and marijuana licensing. It also appears that political structures make some cities more scandal-prone than others. Chicago’s system of “alderman privilege,” for example, has been a driver of corruption for decades.
New York City has long suffered from corruption in building permitting, inspections, gun permitting, and many other things. Recently, the city has been rocked by scandal at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Last year, prosecutors charged 70 current and former NYCHA employees with bribery and extortion. It was the “Largest Number of Federal Bribery Charges on a Single Day in Department of Justice History.”
A new article in The City discusses the aftermath of the shocking scandal. A year later, the city is continuing to contract with the same corrupt companies that have been bribing NYCHA officials for years.
One year after a sweeping corruption takedown at the New York City Housing Authority, law enforcement’s scorecard reads like this: 64 convictions out of the 70 housing authority employees arrested on charges of taking cash bribes to hand out contracts to vendors performing public housing repairs.
… Since the big sweep on Feb. 6, 2024, billed as the biggest one-day takedown in Department of Justice history, NYCHA has awarded hundreds of contracts worth a total of $7.8 million to eight companies whose operators have publicly confessed to participating in the decade-long bribery conspiracy. » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/new-york-city-corruption