26 United States The Economist February 26th 2022
The success of Ms Hochul’s rebrand
should perhaps be no surprise. Ms Hochul
was an aide to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a
legendary senator, and won a congressio
nal seat in one of the state’s more Republi
can districts. She is backing several big
ticket infrastructure projects, including a
new link (using a freight line) between
Queens and Brooklyn that would provide
transport to 1m underserved New Yorkers.
She has a good relationship with Eric Ad
ams, New York City’s new mayor. Mr Cuo
mo and the previous mayor could not
stand each other.
Ms Hochul is also benefiting from the
state being in the best fiscal health in 200
years—astonishingly, given that not long
ago New York was bracing itself for budget
cuts of 20% because of covidrelated rev
enue losses. Instead, the coffers are over
flowing, thanks to federal help and an
“emergency” incometax increase on New
York’s top earners last year. Ms Hochul’s
budget is full of goodies for important vot
ers, such as tax giveaways to homeowners.
She has proposed increasing spending on
education and health, which should please
the unions. Peter Warren of the Empire
Centre, a thinktank, worries that “the state
keeps increasing its reliance on the
wealthy and at the same time, it’s sort of
pushing them to leave” for places, like
Florida, with no personal income tax.
Mr Kaehny is concerned that billions in
discretionary funds (far more than usual)
are not subject to review by the state comp
troller. New York’s governor has a strong
role in setting the budget. Mr Cuomo often
pushed back against the legislature. Ms
Hochul may be a less effective check on lar
gesse, especially in an election year.
Ms Hochul has been under little pres
sure since Letitia James, the state’s attor
neygeneral and erstwhile frontrunner for
governor, dropped out of the race. But
tricky choices loom. Mr Adams has called
on the state to tighten the law eliminating
cash bail for some criminal defendants. If
she takes his side, however, she could up
set progressive voters. Yet she cannot ig
nore swing voters worried about crime.
In November she revamped a plan to re
develop Penn Station and the area around
it, including ten new office towers. “We
don’t need more heavily subsidised office
space,” says Nicole Gelinas of the Manhat
tan Institute, a thinktank. Ms Hochul
must soon decide whether to lift the mask
mandate for schools, one of the more con
tentious issues on her docket.
Still, with a campaign chest of $20m
she looks set to win her primary in June
and the general election in November. She
would be the first woman to be elected go
vernor of New York and also the first per
son from Buffalo to be electedtothejob
since Grover Cleveland in 1882.Cleveland
then went on to become president.nY
osemitenationalparkisalmost
always brimming with visitors. For
two weeks each February, however, the
crowd intensifies. For just a few minutes
each day, the setting sun lines up with
Horsetail Fall, lighting the waterfall so
that it appears to be lava. “Firefall” has
become a tourist spectacle: it drew over
2,000 visitors on a single day. Big crowds
have big drawbacks, though, risking
environmental degradation, unsafe
conditions and wildlife disruption.
The National Park Service (nps) in
troduced a permit for the spectacle in
2021 because of covid19, but lifted re
strictions this year. “It’s a disaster,” says
one of a pair of photographers frustrated
with the number of visitors and lack of
restrictions this year. Surrounding their
painstaking setup was a long queue of
cars and large groups shouting to one
another while they waited for the sunset.
The pair preferred the permit system,
which limited the crowds.
But are permits the solution to over
crowding? America’s parks have many
permitting methods, from digital sign
ups to bingo balls in community centres.
The aim is to keep visits sustainable and
access fair. The results are mixed.
Some permits are effective. The del
icate sandstone feature known as “The
Wave” near Kanab, Utah, can cope with
only a trickle of visitors without suf
fering rapid erosion. The odds of getting
one of the four group permits issued in
person each day are low, but Utah’s “only
legal lottery” has succeeded in preserv
ing one of the country’s most unusual
natural structures while creating a gloriouslyuncrowdedhikingexperience.
Permits typically carry a fee. Although
parks try to avoid discouraging the poor,
that can be tricky. The cost of the passes
and permits can mount up.
Several areas have permits for reasons
of safety. Take Half Dome, a short drive
from Horsetail Fall, a challenging hike
which attracts tens of thousands of
people each year. Cables have been in
stalled on the steepest stretches, to en
able those without rockclimbing skills
to reach the summit. From 2005 to 2009
there were 85 searchandrescue in
cidents and eight deaths. In 2010 the nps
limited access to those with permits. The
number of visitors dropped sharply, and
fatal accidents fell by half—but serious
incidents per person actually rose. The
scarcity of permits may have unhelpfully
increased the pressure to complete the
hike, leading to more accidents.
And some permits are doubly useless:
neither preventing crowds nor enhanc
ing safety. The Enchantments, an alpine
area in Washington state, requires per
mits for camping, but not for day use.
Many attempt to hike it in a single day,
even though it is long and strenuous. On
a recent visit, your correspondent only
got out a few hours after dark despite
starting before sunrise. Many people
without proper gear were still hours
behind. Several stragglers confessed that
they had no idea about the difficulty.
What may sound like a simple sol
ution, in other words, turns out in prac
tice to be anything but. Permit systems
require a fine balance—much like the
nature they seek to protect.ParkpermitsFirefall and footfall
H ORSETAIL FALL, YOSEMITE VALLEY
Many parks are overcrowded. Permits are not necessarily helping