Hi bloggers. I just caught a cameo of Michael Bloomberg on 30 Rock, and it set me wondering about this chameleon of a politician. Frankly, I don't hear a whole lot about him aside from vague fawning and musings over his political aspirations. Oh, and I hear he's started a pretty successful media company. I'm wondering what the New Yorkers among us think of this fellow. Good for the city? A candidate for higher office? Or over-hyped?
3 comments:
he's a saint compared to Giuliani
Last week, a new Bloomberg reform passed in New York City: putting the calorie count of food on menus at restaurants. Chain restaurants like Starbucks and Chipotle have already done so.
To me, this is a characteristic Bloomberg reform. Obviously good, and worthy but also obscuring all the other -- more pressing? -- reforms that aren't happening.
The NYC real estate market is out of control and the city is becoming unaffordable. Bloomberg has encouraged this boom in private development.
On the other hand, he is great on the environment and on immigration, and on the arts, and he cultivates a down to earth style that is appealing. But congestion pricing failed and he does deserve SOME of the blame for this (I think...hard to tell). Also, he was unspoken and annoying in his anti-labor stance during the transit strike.
He's not ideal, but he's pretty good. I wonder how he might make himself more effective on important issues (not food-related), and how he might (within the realm of realistic expectations) stop all of the public housing (especially in Brooklyn) becoming private.
More than anything else, Bloomberg just re-proves that if you're a billionaire in America, you can aspire to anything. But I don't think he'll run for president...this time.
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