The "biggest threat to New York," according to business leader Don Peebles, is the migrant crisis that has "paralyzed" city and state leaders to address other issues.
New York City is being swept by a wave of political events this week — but there’s one "out of control" issue in particular that a real estate industry leader is warning has "paralyzed" both the city and the Empire State.
"New York has a very challenging situation," Peebles Corporation founder and CEO Don Peebles said Thursday on "Mornings with Maria."
"The biggest threat to New York is its out of control migrant situation that has really paralyzed the city in many ways," he continued, "and cost the city billions of dollars, and distracted the mayor and the city from dealing with some of the other issues."
Despite former President Donald Trump’s public and courtroom appearances and increasingly tense pro-Palestine protests on multiple college campuses, New York City residents are still seeing their taxpayer dollars go towards immigrant care.
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According to Mayor Eric Adams, the Big Apple has spent $1.45 billion on assisting migrants in the 2023 fiscal year.
New York City has rented out entire hotels to house some of the tens of thousands of migrants who arrived last year. Other migrant housing arrangements have included cots in schools and temporary placements in tents, a cruise ship terminal and a former police academy building.
Over 140,000 migrants have reportedly arrived in NYC since last year, which has overwhelmed the sanctuary city’s social services, prompting officials to demand more help from the federal government.
Peebles did applaud recent collaboration between state and city officials to move forward with tax incentives for more affordable housing and the conversion of offices into residential buildings, calling it a "pro-business approach."
"It's the first time that New York, in a long time, since [former Mayor] Mike Bloomberg, has actually approached this with incentives as opposed to penalties," Peebles said.
"Thank God for Eric Adams," he added. "We have a mayor who is much more moderate, more focused on business and public safety, but not getting help from the city council."
In January, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told host Maria Bartiromo that more collaboration is needed between private and public sectors, and that New York is currently in better shape than San Francisco.
"This is what you need: government and business collaborating. Government has got to listen to business," Dimon previously said. "If governments and business, in collaboration, work together like we did in Detroit across affordable housing, education, job creation, outreach to communities, you can build a great society. And so New York is doing that."
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But Peebles warned the Big Apple isn’t so shiny as residents battle the "three elements of inflation" on top of migrant costs.
"Housing, health care and transportation are draining consumers’ buying power," he said.
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
