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Yes, we have a lot of left-wing nuts here in New York City. There's no doubt the overwhelming majority of city residents will vote for John Kerry (especially on Manhattan).

But we also have elected law-and-order Republican mayors (Guliani and Bloomberg) for the past 3 elections and New York State has a Republican governor. Granted, both the mayors and the governor are moderates on social issues, but they have run on platforms to be tough on crime and improve the business climate (they've raised taxes recently, though, which has annoyed most conservatives).

Most New Yorkers, even the liberals, won't put up with leftists rioting in our streets. Nor will our police department. We remember all too well the disorder in the city when the last Democrat, David Dinkins, was mayor.

As for the graffiti, it was caused by a combination of factors, including poor maintenance of subway cars, gangs and general lawlessness in the city. Our subways don't have much graffiti any more (although some folks try to use sharp objects to etch scratches into subway windows). The cars themselves are actually graffiti-proof, which they weren't in the 70s.

It seems to me leftism is a feature everywhere among the inner city people in the Western world. The only major exception seems to be Sydney Australia, where moderates tend to dominate. I have no doubt Kerry will scoop up votes over here - if any US Democrat candidates happen to lose out votes to conservatives in Manhattan the sun would have risen from the West first! ;-)

But back to NYC. I had a chance to visit your city back in 1999 and the business districts and the PATH train reminded me a lot of my original hometown Hong Kong (heck, even the rudeness is a lot like HK, except New York usually English is spoken of course). All in all I quite enjoyed it because I knew New York had turned around from the really sorry state back in the 1970s/early 1980s - although I confess Hong Kong has really new infrastructure. Of course 9/11 is...sigh. Probably won't go back for another visit until every rebuilding has finished.

I'm still amazed how Guiliani got elected - from my impression New Yorkers back then would rather die than abandon the then-fashionable soft appeasement of crimes. Maybe New York has now entered the post-liberal (or at least moderate) era and we will see a lot of ridiculous socialist policies repealed day by day. We can only pray. (I always found America is a bit like two extremes - yes the conservatives are really good, but when you get to bureaucrats or socialism implemented, they could get monstrous in big cities - an interesting phenomenon)

Thanks for the comments on subway - I think the state it was in when I visited NYC (1999) was quite good. And I said this after I grew up with Hong Kong's MTR ( http://www.mtr.com.hk ) and trains ( http:www.kcr.com.hk )! Although I think stations could be cleaner, but then it is light years ahead of the suburban rail here in Auckland.