Hochul finally acknowledges NYC subway crime in State of the State speech but proposals slammed as largely symbolic

ALBANY, NY — She finally saw the light.Gov.Kathy Hochul was forced to significantly acknowledge subway crime and mental illness in her policy-setting “State of the State” annual address Tuesday — but critics panned her proposals as largely “symbolic.”The politically flailing Hochul also played to the political center by pushing a middle-class tax cut and one-time cash giveaways — which many detractors said the Empire State can’t actually afford — as she tried to address economic issues that hurt Democrats in 2024’s election.The governor’s 57-minute speech largely kept her proposals substance-free, such as a bright idea to make the city’s subways safer with a pledge to fund LED lights for all stations.But Hochul did announce one major plan to address subway safety — a pledge to post NYPD officers inside every overnight train.“I want to see uniformed police on the platforms, but more importantly, we will put an officer on every single train, overnight – 9 p.m.

to 5 a.m – over the next six months and the state will support these efforts financially,” she said, although she didn’t provide details on cost.“The chaos must end.”NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, in a subsequent statement, clarified that two officers will be posted in every train.Hochul’s forceful vow to end subway chaos came amid weeks of high-profile random attacks, including a homeless woman who was burned to death.The governor, even though she controversially deployed the National Guard into the subway system, had posted a tweet within hours of that horrific arson attack celebrating that subway crime is “going down.”The arguably tone-deafness Hochul displayed then was seldom in evidence during her State of the State address, in which she seemed to try to rebuild her out-of-touch public image.Only 33% of New York voters surveyed in a recent poll said they’d vote for Hochul.The entire speech inside the Albany landmark “The Egg,” the Empire State Plaza�...