-Caveat Lector- Euphorian spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you should see it.
------- Note from Euphorian: Bloomberg's deficit was inherited ... so much for "leadership" ... AER ------- To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk King of New York loses his lustre The Big Apple is suffering from a $6bn debt and so is Mayor Bloomberg, whose popularity is plummeting Oliver Burkeman in New York Friday January 17 2003 The Guardian Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, is rarely the bearer of good news these days. So on Tuesday he jumped at the opportunity to drop in at Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx, to welcome the baseball team's latest international star, Hideki Matsui - a towering 28-year-old Japanese player nicknamed Godzilla, who will earn $21m over three years. Even then the beleaguered Mr Bloomberg was unable to avoid mentioning the subject that has come to define his mayoralty: New York's biggest financial crisis for more than 30 years. Welcoming Mr Matsui, he delivered only one rather plaintive piece of advice. "Spend a lot of money," he said. But even Godzilla can only do so much. Facing a potential budget shortfall of$6bn, the mayor awoke to more bad news yesterday: a New York Times poll showed his popularity plummeting in recent months, 53% of New Yorkers disapproving of his handling of the job. The media billionaire, elected by the numbed city in December 2001 as a safe pair of non-ideological hands and a man whose estimated $3bn fortune meant he would be beholden to no one, has failed to convince on the personal level, too. About 30% of those questioned reported a "generally unfavourable impression" - a rise from 13% in the middle of last year. The fiscal meltdown, attributable in large part to the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath, has forced Mr Bloomberg, 60, to introduce a harsh austerity plan. He has ordering 25-30% cuts in expenditure by all city agencies, closing daycare centres for the elderly, threatening a rise in subway fares, increasing property taxes by 25%, and raising the price of cigarettes to more than $7 (about £4.50). This has proved particularly unpopular in one of America's last nicotine-addicted big cities. Most politically dangerous of all, Mr Bloomberg has not spared firefighters and police officers from the axe, introducing recruitment freezes on the emergency services. Making things worse is the sense of aloofness conveyed by the man who is probably New York's least self-publicising mayor in living memory - in contrast to Rudolph Giuliani, or Ed Koch, who as mayor in the 1980s was fond of yelling "How'm I doing?" at almost any New Yorker he passed. Mr Bloomberg, by contrast, prefers to fly state politicians by private jet to his Bermuda holiday home for negotiations. He has been excoriated in the city's press for vanishing abroad at weekends, taking time off from a job traditionally done seven days a week. "He keeps his decision-making really close to his vest," said Bonnie Brower, executive director of City Project, a New York budgetary pressure group. "He relies on a very small circle of advisers, and he regards public participation as very messy and unnecessary. Bloomberg Corporation [the mayor's business media firm] wasn't a public company beholden to shareholders - it was Mike and his friends. I think that's the way he would like to rule. "For example, he said he didn't see any opposition to his budget proposals. Well, all he had to do was peek out the window of City Hall, because every day there were one or more protest rallies." The decline in the mayor's fortunes follows a honeymoon period in the first half of last year when it seemed that Mr Bloomberg, though nominally a Republican, might have truly brought non-ideological government to New York. After September 11 Mr Giuliani's act was so obviously impossible to follow that nobody expected anyone to do so. Mr Bloomberg set about running the city like a forward-thinking corporation. His office adopted a far less controlling approach to reporters than Mr Giuliani. He cut the mayor's salary to $1. Respect mingled with amusement greeted his decision to turn City Hall into a vast open-plan office. He avoided wrangles over tax and sponsorship by funding cultural institutions from his own pocket, giving out $10m in December 2001. But, said Steven Malanga of the right-leaning Manhattan Institute thinktank, "it was very naive of him to say he was going to govern without an ideological bias". "One of his favourite expressions is that there's no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage. But the truth of the matter is that sanitation costs differ from city to city, and some are making savings with privatisation." Curiously, news of Mr Bloomberg's dwindling popularity comes at a time when two of the old sores of New York life - crime and police conduct - seem to be healing remarkably. The murder rate fell last year to 19th-century levels, and most crimes continue to decline. The New York Times poll found that for the first time since it began to ask the question, a decade ago, the majority of black New Yorkers approve of the police's performance. Homelessness, on the other hand, is on the rise again: a record 37,000 fill the city's crowded shelters each night. Even as groups such as City Project condemn Mr Bloomberg for protecting the wealthy from the brunt of his tax cuts, Mr Malanga and others say the tax rises threaten to drive businesses from the city - an accusation also levelled at Mr Giuliani's lacklustre predecessor, David Dinkins. Mr Bloomberg's press secretary, Ed Skyler, said: "We think of these sorts of poll numbers as really referendums on the economy. "Unlike conventional politicians, Mayor Bloomberg has to face the city's problems head-on, and made the tough decisions, doing what was right and leaving the politics out of it." Mr Malanga says: "Many of Dinkins' budget people just said this over and over. In that sense Bloomberg's just going back to the politics and philosophies of the past." Big Apples Rudolph Giuliani · Approval rating of 50% to 60% in his first seven years, thanks largely to fight against crime and for quality of life · Popularity slumped in 2000 when he tried to tarnish the reputation of Patrick Dorismond, an unarmed man shot dead by an undercover officer on a drugs operation · Won sympathy for his fight against prostate cancer, then was condemned for choosing a press conference to tell his wife he would file for divorce · Praised around the world for stoic and reassuring public response to September 11 · Now profiting from speaking engagements, enjoying bestseller status with his book Leadership, and acting as a consultant for Mexico City in fighting crime Michael Bloomberg · Built his empire from scratch, introducing 'Bloomberg terminals' to Wall Street and employing journalists to provide business news in competition with Reuters and Dow Jones · Accused of trying to buy votes when he spent $73m on his election campaign - and of cynical careerism when he switched from the Democrats to the Republicans · Welcomed as a breath of fresh air, bringing corporate-style, non-ideological government to New York city · Persuaded Republicans to hold 2004 national convention in New York for the first time · New York Times poll has revealed declining support: 53% disapproving of the way he is handling the job Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
