September 22, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
WNYC Chats With a Bloomberg Biographer and Listeners Respond
WNYC’s Brian Lehrer has a chat with The New Yorker’s Joyce Purnick, the author of the new Bloomberg biography, Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics.
Lehrer also asks listeners to post their top two and bottom two Bloomberg moments. Listeners listed term limits, the mayor’s behavior during the 2004 Republican National Convention and exaggerated progress in education as some of Bloomberg’s bottom two moments.
Here’s a comment from fellow Fed Up New Yorker, Michael D. D. White:
A good thing about Bloomberg? He gave the go ahead for 311.
An over promoted phantom benefit from Bloomberg? The quantifiable measurements used to argue that there has been significant improvement in the quality of the education children receive in schools is suspect.
Bad things about Bloomberg? Since Bloomberg started pursuing politics his reported net worth has gone up 10 times. He has gone from a moderately wealthy man to the richest New Yorker while ignoring proscriptions from the City Conflict of Interest Board about how he should not be involved with his business and its client companies, nearly all of whom also do business with the city. Bloomberg has also, since he started pursuing politics in 1977, has been using his own charities and those run under the auspices of the city for political purposes which has skewed honest debate.
The worst thing about Bloomberg: Development policies is that in addition to selling off the public realm for overdevelopment they are putting huge holes in the urban fabric and city economy. The best example of the worst? Atlantic Yards, but the list is SO long.
And yes there was the term limits override.
Michael D. D. White
Noticing New York
Filed under A Good Manager?, Education, News, Reading List, term limits Permalink















