It’s a tradition in NYC. La Guardia was an FDR supporting New Dealer. John Lindsey was one of the last liberal Republicans and later made an official switch to Democrat.
Lindsay never switched parties like Bloomberg. He was what we used to call a Rockefeller Republican. Your comment is off base.
La Guardia was a VERY good mayor, was NEVER a DEM, and he knew how to "play" FDR or any president, to get what was needed in NYD...it's the way this "game" is played.
And John V. Lindsay ( learn how to spell his last name correctly! ) actually hid his crazy side from even his closest and oldest "friends"...until he was elected and on the job for a while! Yes, he was never a died in the wool/rabid conservative; however, he was NEVER a crazed lefty before! And then, all of a sudden...BOOM! he went completely and utterly off the lefty cliff, siding with the Black Panthers and worse. It was all rather something right out of a Tom Wolfe book!
I don't know how old you are, if you ever lived in Manhattan, but I doubt you knew John V.; but I did!