With Bloomberg on Stage, Harsher Light on Giuliani
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post
NEW YORK -- Madison Square Garden was taken over by New York police and their families, all there for the graduation ceremony of 1,097 new officers. A rousing video flashed images of police responding to the Sept. 11 attacks. It was a scene tailor-made for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor who has made the reduction of crime in New York and the city's response to Sept. 11 the underpinnings of his presidential campaign.
But sitting in the prime spot on the dais last week was Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Giuliani's successor and the man who, many New Yorkers say, threatens to undermine Giuliani's bid for the White House with his own flirtation with a presidential run. The 5-foot-7 billionaire businessman with a Boston accent does not exude the law enforcement authority that the ex-prosecutor Giuliani did, yet the crowd cheered as Bloomberg trumpeted New York's continued drop in crime.
"I didn't really notice crime was going down in my neighborhood until Mayor Bloomberg," said JoJo Shaffer, an actress from Canarsie, Brooklyn, whose partner was graduating. "Before, you didn't see many patrolmen. Now there are more cops, and they tend to be more personable. They talk to people instead of just busting them."
As the political world waits to see whether Bloomberg's switch last month from Republican to independent means that he and his vast fortune will enter the 2008 presidential race, one result of his dalliance with running is already becoming clear: Simply having him in the picture calls into question some of the assumptions underlying Giuliani's appeal.
Giuliani is selling himself as a strong leader who achieved the impossible in bringing an ungovernable New York under control, even if it required some bruising confrontations along the way. But Bloomberg, his admirers say, has shown that the city of 8 million can be run successfully in a far more understated fashion -- that a mayor can reduce crime without cultivating a sheriff's swagger and antagonizing minorities, protect against terrorism without overly fixating on security, and tackle deeply rooted urban problems without getting into public spats with top appointees.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post
NEW YORK -- Madison Square Garden was taken over by New York police and their families, all there for the graduation ceremony of 1,097 new officers. A rousing video flashed images of police responding to the Sept. 11 attacks. It was a scene tailor-made for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor who has made the reduction of crime in New York and the city's response to Sept. 11 the underpinnings of his presidential campaign.
But sitting in the prime spot on the dais last week was Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Giuliani's successor and the man who, many New Yorkers say, threatens to undermine Giuliani's bid for the White House with his own flirtation with a presidential run. The 5-foot-7 billionaire businessman with a Boston accent does not exude the law enforcement authority that the ex-prosecutor Giuliani did, yet the crowd cheered as Bloomberg trumpeted New York's continued drop in crime.
"I didn't really notice crime was going down in my neighborhood until Mayor Bloomberg," said JoJo Shaffer, an actress from Canarsie, Brooklyn, whose partner was graduating. "Before, you didn't see many patrolmen. Now there are more cops, and they tend to be more personable. They talk to people instead of just busting them."
As the political world waits to see whether Bloomberg's switch last month from Republican to independent means that he and his vast fortune will enter the 2008 presidential race, one result of his dalliance with running is already becoming clear: Simply having him in the picture calls into question some of the assumptions underlying Giuliani's appeal.
Giuliani is selling himself as a strong leader who achieved the impossible in bringing an ungovernable New York under control, even if it required some bruising confrontations along the way. But Bloomberg, his admirers say, has shown that the city of 8 million can be run successfully in a far more understated fashion -- that a mayor can reduce crime without cultivating a sheriff's swagger and antagonizing minorities, protect against terrorism without overly fixating on security, and tackle deeply rooted urban problems without getting into public spats with top appointees.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
I think Mayor Nanny Bloomie is a very arrogant man. I also highly doubt he rides the subway that much. He's the mayor, I want someone driving him around so he can work and make calls and stuff. New Yorkers shouldn't want him wasting all that time on the subway.
We all have to wonder what Bloomberg is really thinking of with this congestion pricing tax scheme. Maybe he mostly just wants a new tax. Just wrap it up in ‘concern for the environment’, and then people can just demonize those who oppose it.
If he cares so much about traffic jams, congestion and air pollution, why does he let Park Avenue be blocked off? Why doesn’t he do anything about that?
It's true, Pershing Square Restaurant blocks Park Avenue going South at 42nd St. for about 12 hours a day/5 months of the year! This Causes Massive Congestion and Air Pollution!
But apparently it does not bother NYC’s Nanny-in-Chief Mike “Congestion Pricing Tax” Bloomberg?
It certainly supports his claim that the city is hugely congested.
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Thanks,
Little Blue PD
:)
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