The short answer is No!Aside from the satisfaction that its more conservative residents would feel from a divorce from the leftist bleeding hearts who are the rest of New York who turn up their noses at the honest, patriotic, hard working, God fearing Staten Islanders, I cannot see any benefit from secession.As a separate municipality, Staten Island would have the problem of many suburban municipalities, a tax base reliant on residential real estate. To avoid steep increases in real estate taxes, the equivalent of the New York City income tax and sales tsd would have to be imposed.Once independent, Staten Islanders would probably be anxious to address the serious Infrastructure problemd they live with. After the opening of the Verrazano Bridge connecting it to the rest of the city by car, development mushroomed. As is inevitable, developers cut corners . Streets were poorly paved and drainage was inadequate. Heavy rains bring flooding issuesEstablished thoroughfare had to withstand the onslaught of traffic. Itu2019s about fifty years now and things donu2019t usually last that long without maintenance.Worse are the neighborhoods that have not yet recovered from Sandy and maybnever recover. Staten Islanders feel that the City has neglected them but the cost to deal with these issues would be daunting.Most outsiders think of Staten Islanders as working class or lower middle class whites, and deeply conservative living in one or two family houses in neighborhoods still separated by undeveloped areas. But this is not all of Staten Island. The northern end of the island has a large concentration of low income city housing orojects. There is a substantial Latino and Africsn American population. It has been the scene of notorious police brutality incidents. With secession, I feel that ethic tension would be exacerbated. Each group would want a voice and some say in matters and if the Trumpists control the municipal government, as they msy well do, there will be a constant controversy.