The New York Connection

Tuesday, October 18, 2005


Bloomberg Sings My Way

There's an interesting article in the Times about Bloomberg's management style. I've heard a lot about this from various people. This article does a nice job of giving you a bit of insight into who this guy is and what he thinks about politics. While he is considered a 'liberal' by his friends, he's more just a rich guy who is personally generous and trusts his instincts unerringly.

Like a lot of billionaires, Bloomberg basically thinks that politics is dirty, and it frustrates him that there are so many conflicting interests. As an officeholder, he shows that this irritation dictates his management style. His money gives him freedom, true, but it also deprives him of essential pressure that allows a Mayor to do a good job.

One city councilman, Charles Barron, learned that when he tried to negotiate with the mayor over the 2003 budget and argued that the mayor should reverse plans to reduce the number of city firehouses.

Mr. Bloomberg, frustrated by the haggling, shouted angrily that he did not care, using colorful language, "if you vote for my budget or not," Mr. Barron recalled in an interview. "I think he has a real thin veil once you push his button. Remember, he's a C.E.O. used to having his way."

Mr. Bloomberg said that he remembered the conversation differently but that he had found the negotiation process in politics much different from that of the business world. "In business, not with everybody but generally, the objective is to get something done that you're talking about," he said. "Here it's more horse trading. The issues tend to be, 'I'll vote for this if you give me something that's totally unrelated.' The discussion is not about the merits of the particular subject."

"It disappointed me," he said.


I can just hear it now - we should run government like a business. The thing is, government is not a business. Businesses are supposed to make money, governments are to supposed to protect and promote the public. That means dealing with the public, with all its guts and glory, and not sticking to only what's on your mind.

Yet the mayor has been forced to adapt. During the battle over the stadium, the administration offered Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, a huge array of goodies for his district - a new school, new parks, new tax incentives for businesses in his area - in a failed bid to get support for the plan.

And his critics tend to object to his claims of being apolitical, noting, for instance, his new, election-year opposition to a freight tunnel that is woefully unpopular in a politically important area of Maspeth, Queens. He had previously called its financing "a priority."


Let me just say that I agree with the mayor's critics. It's not apolitical. It is however incompetent politics.

Still, even now the mayor sees himself as something of a stranger to the political scene.

"Keep in mind, I'm not the average officeholder at the mayoral level or any other level," Mr. Bloomberg said during the interview. "I'm not beholden to anybody; I didn't take any money. I had a freedom, I think, to go and to do things my way."


Thank God Bloomberg doesn't have to listen to the people and can do whatever he wants. Ok, that last bit is a little nasty, but really, the point is that absolute freedom for an elected official is only good for people who have perfect instincts and don't need to listen to other people. And no one has perfect instincts.

Thursday, October 13, 2005


M-Lo Schizo

Craziest day. I found these little pieces of paper that somehow didn't go down the memory hole.

Curious.

NY1 Reporter (Juan Manuel Benítez): And has it ever occurred to you to cross party lines, perhaps to back Mayor Bloomberg politically, a person with whom you have a good relationship?

Margarita López: I have an excellent relationship with Mayor Bloomberg, but I am a Democrat and a progressive. I cannot support a Republican with positions that stand against the interests of the people that I represent, the minority communities, the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Bisexual community. The Republican agenda stands against the issues that I understand must be represented in this city, which is the reason that I am a Democrat and I am a progressive.
[NY1 Noticias/Pura Política, Broadcast on 6.17.05]
***

...ever since, gay marriage supporters have blasted Bloomberg's actions from City Hall to the Internet as politically expedient... The same Bloomberg who had won office by convincing voters he was an independent-minded entrepreneur was suddenly attempting to save his hide with a blatant campaign maneuver. "The mayor has sent a message to the city that he is a political person--not just a businessperson--and can take positions with double meaning," says City Councilmember Margarita Lopez, a lesbian from Manhattan.
[Village Voice, 2/22/05]
***

Gay and lesbian advocates have been pushing Bloomberg to back gay marriage. Councilwoman Margarita Lopez (D-Manhattan), who is gay, said she plans to ask Bloomberg to perform a marriage ceremony for her and her long-time partner. "That would be a good test for him, to come out of the closet on gay marriages," she said.
[Newsday, 7/2/03]
***

Twenty black and Latino legislators yesterday denounced Mayor Bloomberg's plan for nonpartisan elections, saying it will hurt minority voters."Let's get clear and let's get real here. Nonpartisan elections is simply about destroying the democratic process of this city," said Councilwoman Margarita Lopez (D-Manhattan).
[NYP, 10/29/03]
***

Mayor Bloomberg fired three members of his Panel for Educational Policy last night - ramming through his plan to hold back failing third-graders this year. The power play caused a firestorm of complaint that Bloomberg ... had orchestrated a coup worthy of a Third World nation…The firings were announced by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein... as Klein started to announce what he called the "resignations," City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez stood and shouted, "They did not resign - they were removed!"
[Daily News, 3/16/04]
***

Just hours after United States and British forces began military strikes in Afghanistan, several thousand people attended a peace rally yesterday in Union Square Park and marched to Times Square, singing antiwar protest songs and carrying candles and banners announcing their opposition to military action….Margarita Lopez, a city councilwoman from the Lower East Side, shouted into the microphone: "Not in my name, not in the name of New York City, not in the name of my district, you're not going to kill anyone in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or anyone in the Middle East."
[New York Times, 10/8/01]

***

Bloomberg Told Bush All New Yorkers Were Behind The President on Iraq War. According to an article published in Newsday, “Bloomberg said he told President George W. Bush that ‘all New Yorkers are behind the president’ in his decision to go to war with Iraq.” [Newsday, 3/20/03]
***

Her capacity for double-think is Bloombergian.

Margarita Lopez endorses Mike Bloomberg’s refusal to perform her own marriage ceremony. Awesome. She throws her "progressive" political career away to endorse an oligarch's effort to “destroy the democratic process of this city.” Sweet.

Maybe she had a change of heart on the Iraq war. Big fan now.

Whatever the reason, she's dead to me. Dead to Democrats. Done.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005


Bloomberg's Lie to Me Finally Gets Noticed

It shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that a George W. Bush sycophant like Mike Bloomberg would lie. It only took three months of prodding to get noticed by the Democrats.

Freddy's Public School/Private School flap last week apparently spurred the Ferrer camp to not just factcheck their own site and fire the staffer who had been writing Freddy's diary, but also got them to do a little Oppo at Mike's place.

Where they found Mike's lie to me.

  • Fred from Manhattan: How do you plan to get the homeless of this City permanent and secure places to live?

  • Mike Answers: We're already bringing down the overall number of homeless New Yorker [sic]; that's why we were able to close the biggest family shelter in New York...
Gifford Miller shot back...today: “When Bloomberg can’t confuse New Yorkers with millions in television ads, he’s willing to downright lie about his record. In the ‘Ask Mike’ section of his website, which Bloomberg said he personally oversees and approves, he writes that he is already bringing down the overall number of homeless New Yorkers."

Fact: Under his four years as mayor, homelessness has skyrocketed a staggering 26%! And he knows it.

The man closed the largest homeless shelter in the city during a spike in homelessness. Ouch. Perhaps when he says he's "finally addressing homelessness at its roots," he's saying - homelessness is a reality, and to change homelessness, we need to change reality.

Typical Republican problem solving.