July 21, 2004
The Mayor Accounts For His Promises
Mayor Bloomberg has released his second Campaign Accountability Statement, which shows the various promises/initiatives he and his administration have proposed and what their status is. For example, "Abolish the Board of Education" is an initiative, and the update (same for 2003 and 2004) was "The school governance agreement led to mayoral control," so its status for 2003 and 2004 is "Done." It's kind of awesome, because it lays out the hundreds of things the Mayor has considered, but it's also overwhelming at 47 pages. Here's one example we thought was interesting:
Initiative: "Wire the subway tunnels for cellular phone service"Gothamist was also amused by the pithy initiative, "Do not raise taxes," which has been "Reconsidered" in both 2003 and 2004.
Update 2003: "The MTA has organized an internal working group to identify potential providers, but this is a long way from happening."
Update 2004: "An internal MTA/NYCT working group was established to begin identifying potentially interested cellular service providers, as well as organizational and technical issues and requirements to develop an RFP to address this proposal."
Status 2003: "Not Done"
Status 2004: "Launched"
The mayor's press conference about the accountability report occured at 79th Street and New Utrecht Avenue Subway Station, where the Mayor met a Brooklyn man, Anthony Santa Maria during his 2001 campaigning; Santa Maria questioned any elected officials ability to keep their promises and thus served as "inspiration for the report" and as a great device for the press conference yesterday (pictured, right). The NY Times says that while the announcement of the report with Santa Maria was "political theater," the report is "rigorously apolitical, since rather than trumpet the biggest accomplishments first, it lists everything alphabetically by city agency." The Daily News' Michael Goodwin says in an editorial that "Mike is growing on us" in a good way - not a scary mold way.
Read the Campaign Accountability Statement. And below is a chart of the Mayor's progress with his campaign promises.
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People don't give Bloomberg enough credit for things like this. This is why I love him -- because he's HONEST. He lists what he promised, and he says if he delivered. Imagine Bush doing this. Imagine Kerry doing this. You can't!
And this is why he got so much bad press for his first couple of years -- because he didn't play the political game. It's unfortunate that he's learned the hard way that just because he doesn't play doesn't mean that his opponents aren't going to play anyway. Those bastards.
I'd like to end with "Mike Bloomberg for President!" but I can't, because you have to be a corrupt smarmy liar to be president. Bloomberg couldn't do that.
Oh please, don't wire the subways for cell phone service! Such a bad idea. The last thing I want on the subway is to hear people yammering on about something stupid.
For his serious lack of "personality" [sheesh -- that first year of cardboard Bloomberg TV appearances was painful to watch!], I think he's actually done pretty OK for the city, considering our post-9/11 handicaps, which any mayor would have been hobbled by. I don't know much about the people considering challenging him in the next election, but unless Bloomie makes a serious mis-step like overtly and repeatedly endorsing Bush for re-election, I'll probably vote for him again. I'm really relieved that we don't have that smarmy Mark Green in office right now...
I am pretty torn about Bloomie. His management style has got a lot done in this city in the past years, but his governing style is really distasteful and unamerican. Even more so than guiliani, Bloomie has the attitude that there should only be one branch of government--the executive branch, with no real checks or balances on it's powers. He thinks that we should just trust him and his appointees to do the right thing and that's that. I could never vote for him for pres in that case, as for voting for him for mayor-- i don't think i could either, but i don't think there are any decen alternatives right now- gif miller is a loser.
Bloomberg's good qualities:
1. Bloomberg managed NYC out of a fiscal crisis by doing what any good businessman would do with a corporation.
2. Bloomberg tends to speak the cold, harsh truth
3. Bloomberg is very good at micro-managing (keeping track of small things)
Essentially, Bloomberg can pay the bills, and tells you what's what and is very good at writing parking tickets.
Despite these good things, Bloomberg is bad because his political platform exploits the worst qualities of the two major parties: more regulation and higher taxes (typical Democratic negatives), with stripped social freedoms and bad public education policy (typical Republican negatives).
Yes, Bloomberg kept a good number of his campaign promises, however you are forgetting that many people hate him for all the things he conveniently forgot to mention during his campaign.
And let's not forget that he's called a fair amount of the population of NYC, at some point in time, "stupid" or told us to stop whining about a particular issue (police labor picketing, a recent example). Remember when he fired the education officlals hours before the social promotion vote, simply because he didn't agree with their proposed vote? What is this madness? You're willing to support a man who blatantly snubs democracy just because he's good with managing money? How shallow are you guys? This guy is borderline fascist, and I'm not exaggerating.
Big deal, man. Bloomberg kept his promises. No one is saying whether the promises were _good_ or _bad_.
--What if I promised to let my dog pee on your living room rug? Would you rather have me be like Bloomberg and have a perfect record on my promises? That would surely be an example of a "bad promise".
And at the end of the day, I would have a 100% promise-fulfillment rate, yet you would be stuck with a soiled rug that used to really pull the room together, man.
I know, Bike. What is this lovefest?
How about upgrading basic infrastructure before letting everyone natter away on their cellphones underground? Or rehiring some toolbooth workers, since this downsizing has seriously compromised convenience and safety?
And what about MB's eagerness to jump in bed with all the Robert Moses wannabes--methodically undoing what took community activists decades to achieve?
This man is a disaster for the city!