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My two biggest complaints against Bloomberg are the fact the encouraged the destruction of tenement housing and former industrial buildings, to be replaced by luxury housing. This soured the city on him, along with his third term. Not particularly a fan of Stop and Frisk, which was defeated in city court and which city council passed laws making it easier to sue to cops.
But what about the good things he did?
Bloomberg did encourage investment in the city from other sectors besides Wall Street. Google bought the Port Authority Building, under Bloomberg. Facebook and Yahoo have operations here (particularly now that Yahoo! purchased Tumblr). Bloomberg had Cornell create a new tech grad school of applied science and engineering research. Bloomberg consolidated the numbers of city agencies together as 311, making it much easier to call the city when you need to make a complaint or when you need info.
I do think the commercial developments on the far West Side of Manhattan/Hudson Yards were a good idea, as well as Barclay's stadium. This happened under Bloomberg's watch. As well as Fresh Direct moving to the South Bronx (that area needs the investment).
As for the price increases due to gentrification, they've gone too far as it now hurts working class people big time. On the other hand, it did help push some people off welfare, as welfare became increasingly unsustainable for some people. But this is in an era of rapidly rising homelessness.
So I'm going to say his record was mixed. I do think that Bloomberg is a highly intelligent man, but I think he is insensitive to the needs of working class people because he doesn't have anything to do with them. He really didn't acknowledge their existence. A number of working class people I know feel the city has become a place where you need to either be on welfare or filthy rich to sustain living here. So while I do think he modernized the city in many ways, its time for the city to move on away from Bloomberg's era, and thank god his puppet Quinn lost. Go de Blazio, its time for the city to get a new direction and a new attitude. And I'll give de Blasio that, no matter what happens in his administration in his campaign he acknowledged the majority of people who live in NYC are actually working class and he campaigned to people of all races. Its why he did well in the primaries, and its why he's slaughtering Lhota in the polls.
Bloomberg rode Giuliani's coattails to power, and that was a coalition of old school Jewish, Irish, and Italian voters (many of who are no longer in the city if they are even still alive). Only now Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians make a majority of the electorate and many of the white voters who now live in the city are the maligned hipsters. So no one will be winning on Bloomberg's platform again.
As a writer dude, I admire you for being more eloquent that I ever could be. Anything that I like about Bloomberg has little to do with his policies. For instance, I like that he rides the subway. BUt I can't think of much that I approve of. Let's be honest - it's not as if business would have shunned NYC if Mark Green would have won.
I agree that he's a smart guy, but he's capable of being surprisingly oblivious to a whole range of problems. The stop-and-frisk is all of a piece with his cracking down on free speech, the OWS movement, the protesters at the time of the Republican convention. And 311, while a good idea in theory, is a joke in practice. The real fall-out of 311 is that it has set up a barrier between the citizens with real problems and the city departments that are supposed to be responsive to them.
My two biggest complaints against Bloomberg are the fact the encouraged the destruction of tenement housing and former industrial buildings, to be replaced by luxury housing. This soured the city on him, along with his third term. Not particularly a fan of Stop and Frisk, which was defeated in city court and which city council passed laws making it easier to sue to cops.
But what about the good things he did?
Bloomberg did encourage investment in the city from other sectors besides Wall Street. Google bought the Port Authority Building, under Bloomberg. Facebook and Yahoo have operations here (particularly now that Yahoo! purchased Tumblr). Bloomberg had Cornell create a new tech grad school of applied science and engineering research. Bloomberg consolidated the numbers of city agencies together as 311, making it much easier to call the city when you need to make a complaint or when you need info.
I do think the commercial developments on the far West Side of Manhattan/Hudson Yards were a good idea, as well as Barclay's stadium. This happened under Bloomberg's watch. As well as Fresh Direct moving to the South Bronx (that area needs the investment).
As for the price increases due to gentrification, they've gone too far as it now hurts working class people big time. On the other hand, it did help push some people off welfare, as welfare became increasingly unsustainable for some people. But this is in an era of rapidly rising homelessness.
So I'm going to say his record was mixed. I do think that Bloomberg is a highly intelligent man, but I think he is insensitive to the needs of working class people because he doesn't have anything to do with them. He really didn't acknowledge their existence. A number of working class people I know feel the city has become a place where you need to either be on welfare or filthy rich to sustain living here. So while I do think he modernized the city in many ways, its time for the city to move on away from Bloomberg's era, and thank god his puppet Quinn lost. Go de Blazio, its time for the city to get a new direction and a new attitude. And I'll give de Blasio that, no matter what happens in his administration in his campaign he acknowledged the majority of people who live in NYC are actually working class and he campaigned to people of all races. Its why he did well in the primaries, and its why he's slaughtering Lhota in the polls.
Bloomberg rode Giuliani's coattails to power, and that was a coalition of old school Jewish, Irish, and Italian voters (many of who are no longer in the city if they are even still alive). Only now Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians make a majority of the electorate and many of the white voters who now live in the city are the maligned hipsters. So no one will be winning on Bloomberg's platform again.
In my opinon Bloomberg does have a mix record some good some bad, some positive and some negative. But for me the cons out weights the positive of NYC 12 under Mayor Bloomberg. Let me talk about the positive, What I like about Bloomberg is that he help set up a tech scene in NYC. As an avid fan and user of different types of technology, I'd say that the Cornell/Israeli Technion is a good deal, however it still a far way off for NYC to catch up with Silicon Valley, Amazon/Microsoft/Nintendo Seattle and health tech in Boston area plus health Triangle in NC. Plenty of these NYC startups become aborbed by bigger entities from other parts of the country and world who end up buying these tech startups. But if applied in the mobile space since New Yorkers, especially the young and tech savvy, mobile tech can be very beneficial for people on the go and I applaud Bloomberg for pushing a tech scene in NYC. Not a supporter of Bloomberg health intiatives but I have to say that he is kind of right about talking about health and banning smoking, but the soda ban has gone to far.
What I dislike about Bloomberg? His greatest failure is that he was out of touch with your average New Yorker and he was solely for the rich and the wealthy which he admitted time and time again. I find it sickening that he goes off to Stanford university for a commencement and not to a commencement at a local CUNY school. Told viewers during the snowstorm to go to a Broadway play. He was really out of touch with reality, he even called De Blasio campaign racist which is not, but really classists via his rhetoric. Another big failure for Bloomberg's mayorality is education. Bloomberg mishandled NYC public education since he took control of the entire sytem. Me personally allowing Bloomberg to take over the education system was a big mistake and will have long lasting effects on New Yorkers for years to come. For one he closed down schools, schools became more over crowded, parents would have to shuttle their kids from one school from one neighborhood to another just so that their kids can have a good education. In poor neighborhoods like the South Bronx, Harlem and parts of Brooklyn, low income parents would wait online for charter school applictions which stretched from schools to Timbuktu in hopes of getting their kids into a charter school which supposed to be slightly better than public funded schools. Then he hires Cathy Black who worked for a media firm prior being selected as a school Chancellor but she too was out of touch with students and parents with her classists remarks. I hope that the next NYC mayor can put or install a road map to fix NYC public schools along with the CUNY system. Last what I disliked about Bloomberg was that he was able to persuade and endow city hall with money to overturn term limits. Bloomberg 3rd term was a huge mistake in my book. Too much gentrification occuored during Bloomberg tenure, the only thing I benefited from Bloomberg NYC was the Transplant women who are more engaging and extroverted vs the shallow and insular native NY women. Overall Bloomberg is going to be controversial NYC mayor in the coming years when people look back at the history of this great city. Bloomberg is a polar opposite of a progressive John Lindsay.
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 10-05-2013 at 08:11 PM..
NYC wasn't mostly Italian, Irish, Jewish in 2001, or even in the early 1990s. The city was still mostly black & Hispanic back then, I'm surprised so many people don't know this.
In my opinon Bloomberg does have a mix record some good some bad, some positive and some negative. But for me the cons out weights the positive of NYC 12 under Mayor Bloomberg. Let me talk about the positive, What I like about Bloomberg is that he help set up a tech scene in NYC. As an avid fan and user of different types of technology, I'd say that the Cornell/Israeli Technion is a good deal, however it still a far way off for NYC to catch up with Silicon Valley, Amazon/Microsoft/Nintendo Seattle and health tech in Boston area plus health Triangle in NC. Plenty of these NYC startups become aborbed by bigger entities from other parts of the country and world who end up buying these tech startups. But if applied in the mobile space since New Yorkers, especially the young and tech savvy, mobile tech can be very beneficial for people on the go and I applaud Bloomberg for pushing a tech scene in NYC. Not a supporter of Bloomberg health intiatives but I have to say that he is kind of right about talking about health and banning smoking, but the soda ban has gone to far.
What I dislike about Bloomberg? His greatest failure is that he was out of touch with your average New Yorker and he was solely for the rich and the wealthy which he admitted time and time again. I find it sickening that he goes off to Stanford university for a commencement and not to a commencement at a local CUNY school. Told viewers during the snowstorm to go to a Broadway play. He was really out of touch with reality, he even called De Blasio campaign racist which is not, but really classists via his rhetoric. Another big failure for Bloomberg's mayorality is education. Bloomberg mishandled NYC public education since he took control of the entire sytem. Me personally allowing Bloomberg to take over the education system was a big mistake and will have long lasting effects on New Yorkers for years to come. For one he closed down schools, schools became more over crowded, parents would have to shuttle their kids from one school from one neighborhood to another just so that their kids can have a good education. In poor neighborhoods like the South Bronx, Harlem and parts of Brooklyn, low income parents would wait online for charter school applictions which stretched from schools to Timbuktu in hopes of getting their kids into a charter school which supposed to be slightly better than public funded schools. Then he hires Cathy Black who worked for a media firm prior being selected as a school Chancellor but she too was out of touch with students and parents with her classists remarks. I hope that the next NYC mayor can put or install a road map to fix NYC public schools along with the CUNY system. Last what I disliked about Bloomberg was that he was able to persuade and endow city hall with money to overturn term limits. Bloomberg 3rd term was a huge mistake in my book. Too much gentrification occuored during Bloomberg tenure, the only thing I benefited from Bloomberg NYC was the Transplant women who are more engaging and extroverted vs the shallow and insular native NY women. Overall Bloomberg is going to be controversial NYC mayor in the coming years when people look back at the history of this great city. Bloomberg is a polar opposite of a progressive John Lindsay.
Who could forget Cathie Black?? LOL She spent more time trying to get Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy to endorse her new role as chancellor of education, than actually meeting with the NYC dept of education teachers and parents. Also, she only had a B.A. and never worked in any educational role prior to her appointment. And to top it off, all of her children attended elite preparatory schools, so she had absolutely no dealings with the NYC school system or minority students and parents. Despite her limited background, Bloomberg felt that she was qualified to lead one of the largest dept.'s of education in the country.
but I think he is insensitive to the needs of working class people because he doesn't have anything to do with them. He really didn't acknowledge their existence.
/thread
__________________
"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
What he did with education is truly disgusting. Sadly, many people don't even know what he has done or how he has manipulated the game so much. (BTW-Charter Schools have lotteries amongst people who really care/bust their butts for their kids, have a lot of extra classes for prep and will kick kids out if they don't behave, which many public schools cannot do so they're not that comparable in my eyes.)
And some of his initiatives were just totally wrong---maybe not wrong but gone about completely the wrong way. Not to beat a dead horse on this board but any person who took introduction to community health at the local community college could have told you that the "soda ban" wouldn't fly because that's not how health promotion works. Same idea with calorie counts---yeah, sure it looks pretty on paper, but that's not health promotion and studies show that they are often useless/largely ignored. Health education/promotion needs to start in school, where there is practically NONE of it, because it's all about test scores. You need to do that stuff when they're young not when they're forty year old morbidly obese diabetics.
I actually liked him at the beginning, but as time went on, he really sort of detached from the people and just focused on doing his own thing, regardless of what might be best for the majority. He reminds me of Chris Christie---calls everyone "stupid" and gets all angry when someone says something to him/calls him out but hey it's okay to yell at everyone else and call everything/everyone they don't agree with "stupid."
So then, let's just name a bridge or tunnel after him and move on. Perhaps Water Tunnel #3 could become the "Bloomberg Pipe."
Or perhaps the 92nd Street recycling center could could be the "Bloomberg Memorial Dump?"
And there are all those new parks that could be renamed in his honor's honor. Oh wait, there WERE no new parks.
Only two words will be needed on his tombstone: MONEY TALKS
My two biggest complaints against Bloomberg are the fact the encouraged the destruction of tenement housing and former industrial buildings, to be replaced by luxury housing. This soured the city on him, along with his third term. Not particularly a fan of Stop and Frisk, which was defeated in city court and which city council passed laws making it easier to sue to cops.
But what about the good things he did?
Bloomberg did encourage investment in the city from other sectors besides Wall Street. Google bought the Port Authority Building, under Bloomberg. Facebook and Yahoo have operations here (particularly now that Yahoo! purchased Tumblr). Bloomberg had Cornell create a new tech grad school of applied science and engineering research. Bloomberg consolidated the numbers of city agencies together as 311, making it much easier to call the city when you need to make a complaint or when you need info.
I do think the commercial developments on the far West Side of Manhattan/Hudson Yards were a good idea, as well as Barclay's stadium. This happened under Bloomberg's watch. As well as Fresh Direct moving to the South Bronx (that area needs the investment).
As for the price increases due to gentrification, they've gone too far as it now hurts working class people big time. On the other hand, it did help push some people off welfare, as welfare became increasingly unsustainable for some people. But this is in an era of rapidly rising homelessness.
So I'm going to say his record was mixed. I do think that Bloomberg is a highly intelligent man, but I think he is insensitive to the needs of working class people because he doesn't have anything to do with them. He really didn't acknowledge their existence. A number of working class people I know feel the city has become a place where you need to either be on welfare or filthy rich to sustain living here. So while I do think he modernized the city in many ways, its time for the city to move on away from Bloomberg's era, and thank god his puppet Quinn lost. Go de Blazio, its time for the city to get a new direction and a new attitude. And I'll give de Blasio that, no matter what happens in his administration in his campaign he acknowledged the majority of people who live in NYC are actually working class and he campaigned to people of all races. Its why he did well in the primaries, and its why he's slaughtering Lhota in the polls.
Bloomberg rode Giuliani's coattails to power, and that was a coalition of old school Jewish, Irish, and Italian voters (many of who are no longer in the city if they are even still alive). Only now Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians make a majority of the electorate and many of the white voters who now live in the city are the maligned hipsters. So no one will be winning on Bloomberg's platform again.
Interesting post. Considering all that transpired concerning gentrification, where was the city at financially, before Bloomberg? I assume a lot of it had to do with raking in more in property taxes. I have heard that a lot of those neighborhoods have improved, crime wise. The fallout may have been that many of the Blacks and Latinos that could afford to live in the city back then have been replaced by other Blacks and Latinos that are more affluent, from outside of the metro, that do not know much about the culture of NYC. I've also heard that overall, the percentages of Backs and Latinos have went down.
Originally Posted by NyWriterdude but I think he is insensitive to the needs of working class people because he doesn't have anything to do with them. He really didn't acknowledge their existence.
But he rode the subway everyday from his penthouse to city hall.
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