New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Bill de Blasio need to communicate better if the city is going to get back in shape, former New York Governor George Pataki told Newsmax TV.
"You just have to understand that in a crisis, you cannot have the city going one way and the state going another way," Pataki told Wednesday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "The afternoon of September 11, Rudy [Guiliani] and I set up a joint command center in lower Manhattan and my key people and I were on one side of the table. Rudy's key people were on the other side of the table."
He added: "So we didn't have any concerns about the state is supposed to do this and the city is supposed to do that. We had a seamless response."
Pataki said during the attacks on September 11, the city was experiencing similar problems as during today's pandemic.
"In New York after 9/11, the economy completely collapsed. The hotels were empty, the restaurants were empty, the theaters were dark, the streets didn't have people in them, and we had an enormous economic fallout in addition to almost 3,000 deaths."
To get New York City back on the right path, Pataki said de Blasio and Cuomo need to put aside any differences they might have and learn to cooperate.
"Now it looks like the mayor and the governor don't even talk to each other. The mayor says the schools going to stay shut. The governor says not so quickly," Pataki said. "I'd like to see communication not just between the governors and the president, but the governors and key local constituencies, like New York City."
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