Comments on: Mike Bloomberg's Crushing Loss

By: prusso

prusso — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:13:35 +0000

New York unemployment is on the rise, but conditions vary throughout the state according to this heat map:
http://www.localetrends.com/st/ny_new_york_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue

By: suns_out_guns_out

suns_out_guns_out — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:10:43 +0000

I wish you would have taken us with you. Just me and my husband. And our two cats.

By: askryan

askryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:43:52 +0000

Great post. I'm glad I got out of that hellhole of a city when I did.

By: formerly it takes a lot etc.

formerly it takes a lot etc. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:28:23 +0000

And it is kind of true about third terms, and I'll make this prediction now: NYC will break you before you leave office, Mike.

By: formerly it takes a lot etc.

formerly it takes a lot etc. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:27:17 +0000

The $250M in charity in at least part was in support of his political career, as it bought different interests groups off. He escalated his charitable giving dramatically when he first started thinking about running for office.

By: kneetoe

kneetoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:43:35 +0000

No way he's running in 4 years. And his day-to-day political operation in the city is quite good.

By: kneetoe

kneetoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:40:06 +0000

He did put aside $2.5 billion of that money to pay for future retirement benefits, no small thing.

By: Rumors on the Internets

Rumors on the Internets — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Great coverage, Awl.

I can't help but think that Bloomberg really hurt himself with that extended presidential flirtation a couple of years back. Remember? When guys like Steve Rattner were calling him "the greatest mayor of New York since Fiorello La Guardia"?

If Bloomberg wants to be a Daley-esque Mayor for Life, he's really going to need to focus on the city itself — solving its problems, yes, but also creating a political machine that works to entrench his interests every day. Calling up hired guns like Howard Wolfson every three years won't cut it when he actually faces a formidable opponent, as I think he will in 2012.

http://rumorsontheinternets.org/2009/11/04/a-tale-of-two-mayors/

By: petejayhawk

petejayhawk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:57:30 +0000

Counterpoint: Todd Stroger.

By: Kataphraktos

Kataphraktos — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:22:58 +0000

Excellent post, but you missed the most important point: city debt and budget. Forgivable, as most Wall Street types, including Bloomberg, miss that every day…

The Bloomberg terms have seen a string of years with record tax revenue. With decades of finance experience and rich-man wisdom, any prudent mayor would have used those years to build up a bad-times war chest and reduce debt. While there would still be pain from the depression, we could weather the tax shortfall, because we would already have been used to spending only 70-75% of tax revenues, and our interest expense on debt would be down A LOT.

This is Bloomberg's legacy. While I did vote for Thompson, and I'm glad to see the results weren't completely "White Men Can't Jump", deep down, I'm glad Bloomberg forced his way into the next 4 years in office. He will now reap what he has sown, as opposed to passing the buck.

Thompson will thank his lucky stars he didn't win this one, even more so because he was so close. He has all but guaranteed the Democratic nomination next time around. He has four years to learn how to be an alpha (his concession speech showed the first traces of this), and then he can swoop down on the ashes of what remains of NYC in four years and be the savior as opposed to the patsy.

By: HiredGoons

HiredGoons — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:39:27 +0000

Mike Bloomberg is his own biggest charity case.

By: kneetoe

kneetoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:36:30 +0000

One=won, obvs

By: kneetoe

kneetoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:35:42 +0000

So you're saying the city of the future was left behind, and the city of yesterday seized the future. Wow.

Also, Economy and Jobs (40%) and Education (16%) came in way above Housing (9%), and Bloomberg one both categories handily.

By: PinkPundit

PinkPundit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:35:10 +0000

Everything you say is true, Choire, but do you think that Thompson would have done a damn thing about any of it? The Wall Street-real estate elite have controlled economic policy in the city for at least a century, and the broad outlines of it barely change from mayor to mayor. Deindustrialization has been city policy since at least the first zoning plan of 1913. The master plans of 1929, 1969, and 1987 were about subsidizing finance and other fancy service industries and clearing the way for the real estate development that enables them. Even if he had an imagination or a will, Thompson would have neither the popular base nor the institutional power to change it. In fact, there's almost no one in political life in NYC that's even talking about these issues.

By: johnpseudonym

johnpseudonym — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:14:59 +0000

Maggie Daley has given us average working people a bunch of flower beds next to the streets. That helps!

By: TooTallJeff

TooTallJeff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:07:19 +0000

And what exactly would Thompson have done for working families? Maybe if you are in the Transit Workers Union, Thompson would have been a good choice.

By: NicFit

NicFit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:44:44 +0000

Just not things that help average working people.

Have fun being a lame duck third-termer Bloomberg! The history of New York City mayoral third terms is not a happy one!

By: formerly it takes a lot etc.

formerly it takes a lot etc. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:40:17 +0000

A newspaper reporter doing a roundtable on NY1 years ago noted that Bloomberg ran after campaign finance limits were imposed in NYC races. She opined that because real estate interests could no longer buy politicians, they just decided to run one of their own for office.

By: johnpseudonym

johnpseudonym — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:26:31 +0000

Three terms? New kid on the block. Try a Daley or two sometime. Long-term benevolent despotism gets things done.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:25:07 +0000

Me too. A friend of mine has it hanging on his wall.

By: Bucko

Bucko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:20:39 +0000

Love that Napoleon chart. Did you see this?
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/11/02/xkcd-charts-characters-from-lotr-star-wars-jurassic-park-more-i-waste-my-morning/