NYC plutocrat's charisma dims

[Nathan Newman]

I actually like Bloomberg, since he's actually been pretty good on using tax
hikes to deal with the budget crisis.  I actually bet that Mark Green would
have faced a much harder time increasing property taxes by 25% as Bloomberg
did with little initial controversy.    And I have to admit, almost
everything Bloomberg has said about reconstruction at Ground Zero has been
good by me-- emphasizing building residential housing over redundant
commercial space, emphasizing infrastruture.  And he made some great remarks
recently about how New York would be idiotic to go for low-cost services
competition with other cities, since it can only win out economically by
providing better services and thus being more efficient because of that
fact.

He's not a lefty, but he's a smart capitalist advocate for the city at this
point in time.  A welcome relief from Rudy if nothing else.

-- Nathan Newman

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2003 11:41 AM
Subject: NYC plutocrat's charisma dims

[From the NY Times]

January 17, 2003

Public Approval of Bloomberg Job Takes Sharp Drop

By JANNY SCOTT and MARJORIE CONNELLY

[New York City] Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's job approval rating dropped
sharply in recent months as he moved to address the city's looming fiscal
crisis, according to a New York Times Poll that found that for the first
time since Mr. Bloomberg took office more than half of New Yorkers now
disapprove of his handling of the job.

Beyond their assessment of his job performance, the percentage of New
Yorkers with a generally unfavorable impression of Mr. Bloomberg has leaped
to 30 percent from 13 percent last June. That may be a problem that any
mayor grappling with bad economic times would face. But follow-up interviews
with people surveyed indicated the unfavorable impression might also be a
product of Mr. Bloomberg's personal style and his wealth.

"It's his standoffish attitude about everything," said Dorothy Arena, a
retired homeowner in Richmondtown, Staten Island, who voted for Mr.
Bloomberg. "The city is in a crisis, yes. But there's no feeling coming from
him as to how things have to be imposed on the public, especially the
working public. He's in a different financial category than the rest of us.
He cannot know what it is for us who are struggling."

According to the poll, 53 percent of New Yorkers disapprove of Mr.
Bloomberg's handling of his job - up from 41 percent in October and 26
percent in June. His approval rating dropped to 31 percent, from 47 percent.

Seventeen percent of those who disapproved of his job performance cited his
handling of the budget. Sixteen percent cited taxes and 25 percent said they
generally thought he was doing a bad job and they just did not like him. ...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/nyregion/17POLL.html>

Carl

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