Stephen Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis, has been named New York's new deputy mayor for operations, which makes him the fellow who, figuratively speaking, is supposed to make the trains run on time. Mr. Goldsmith is said to be good at that.
But this city is terra incognita for him. "I don't know nearly enough" about it, he acknowledged. And so we asked dozens of New Yorkers -- all certifiably smart, none holding public office -- to suggest one or two things he really needed to understand. This was a random sampling, thoroughly unscientific and lacking any pretense of being encyclopedic.
For starters, many advised Mr. Goldsmith to be out and about, and not make himself a City Hall shut-in. He should appreciate that the city is a network of "self-defined, self-configured, often tiny neighborhoods that bear little relationship to official boundaries," said Julia Vitullo-Martin, director of the Regional Plan Association's Center for Urban Innovation.
Quite a few people shared the opinion of Fred Siegel, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and no fan of the Bloomberg administration, that Mr. Goldsmith is joining what is "rightly seen as a Manhattan-based government." He needs to recognize, they said, that the other four boroughs beg to be explored and heeded.
"This might seem unnecessary to explain to a chief deputy mayor," said Mort Sheinman, a former managing editor of Women's Wear Daily, "but like chicken soup, it couldn't hurt."
Khary Lazarre-White, executive director of a Harlem program for young people called the Brotherhood/Sister Sol, urged a grand tour of neighborhoods, including a full day at a public housing project. The food writer Mimi Sheraton said "an adventurous palate" would help Mr. Goldsmith grasp the city's diversity, which she said was "displayed in its many levels of food service, from street vendors and trucks to fancy restaurants to various ethnic food markets."
John Tauranac, a mapmaker, recommended a subway ride "at all times of day and night to understand the diurnal rhythms of today's city." George Gibson, the publishing director of Bloomsbury U.S.A., suggested a Circle Line cruise, because "you understand the city much better after you see it from the water."
Not surprisingly, some wanted Mr. Goldsmith to focus on their own specific interests.
He ought to be more bicycle-friendly than he perhaps was in Indianapolis, said Charles Komanoff, a cycling advocate. Paul J. Q. Lee, a Chinatown civic figure, said his neighborhood had long suffered from municipal neglect and might need Mr. Goldsmith "to save us." Erica González, the opinion page editor of El Diario La Prensa, said the deputy mayor had to ensure that his hirings "significantly reflect" the city's growing Latino population.
THERE was plenty of political advice, much of it discouraging.
Albany is an eternal pitfall that determines the city's fate, some said. Jay Weiser, who teaches law at Baruch College, cautioned Mr. Goldsmith that "our politics is dynastic when not plutocratic or kleptocratic." Michael Meyers, president of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, called the city ungovernable because "elected officials and unions exempt themselves from accountability to the public by any means at their disposal."
Ken Sunshine, a politically connected public relations consultant, told the new deputy that whatever politicians and lobbyists tell him, he should "do the opposite." A recommendation from George Arzt, a political consultant, was this: "Always ask yourself, 'If it looks so easy, then why hasn't it been done yet?' " Jerry Skurnik, also a political consultant, urged Mr. Goldsmith not to take New Yorkers' high opinion of themselves too seriously; our issues are not unique, the way we think, he said.
The New York self-regard is a trap, warned B. Jeffrey Madoff, a producer of commercials and documentaries (and no relation to you know who). "The number of New Yorkers who think they are the smartest person in the room makes it a tremendous challenge to actually do the smartest thing," he said.
But why be glum? The author Thomas Cahill cited the New York imperative to avoid eye contact on the street or in the subway. "If you judge by visage alone, you will think us all miserable, uncaring solipsists," Mr. Cahill said. The good news, he said for Mr. Goldsmith's benefit, is "we're not as bad as we look."
