Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today is an old friend, Seth Barron. Not so long ago, Seth was an

associate editor of City Journal. He was a frequent guest host of this podcast. These days, he's

the managing editor of the American Mind, which is a publication of the Claremont Institute,

and he's the author of a brand new book called The Last Days of New York, a reporter's True Tale, released just this week.

So, Seth, good to talk with you.

Thanks very much for coming on the 10 Blocks podcast.

Oh, thank you so much, Brian. It's a pleasure to be here on the other side of the microphone.

So let's, you know, let's start with the situation in New York, 2021, right now, before we move on to your book,

which provides an explanation of how we reach this point.

So the mayor's race is now really entering its final weeks with the Democratic primary weeks away,

and the winner of the Democratic primary will almost inevitably be the next mayor.

So what has happened over the past month, I would say, is that a clear top three candidates

have emerged. And in one order or another, you have Andrew Yang, you know, the outsider here, Eric Adams,

and Catherine Garcia. They're generally the top three in the polls. We had done a poll at the

Manhattan Institute that had Adams winning very narrowly over Yang after respondents were asked to simulate the ranked choice voting system, which will be in use in the primary this year. So then you had Garcia, who is the former sanitation commissioner, received the endorsement of the New York Times,

and one poll, I believe, that has appeared since that,

suggests that she might be the head.

But it is a very close race among those top three.

So, you know, you could look at those top three, and I said this to you the other day.

These are probably three of the sanest candidates in the race. They're not promising to defund the

police. They're, you know, somewhat friendly to school choice, and they do seem to

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