I don't like Michael Bloomberg. I did not like Rudy Giuliani either, but I really do not like Bloomberg. Frankly, the thought of him running for president in 2008 is scary to me. I believe that the little man has a huge complex. He seems to suffer from what the French call "folie de grandeur," the delusion of greatness or megalomania. For some reason, Bloomberg is hell-bent on leaving his mark on this city. And his heavy handprint is evident everywhere here in Brooklyn. He unleashed the biggest building boom in New York City history. And what has been going up makes me want to cry. Building after building is rising seemingly unchecked between rows of lovely brownstones. Huge tracks of open land are handed over to single developers for bargain basement prices, and if they need more, well there is always Eminent Domain.
Yes, Bloomberg will be remembered here in New York City long after he is gone. For decades, we will have to live with the consequence of his land grab, be it along the Atlantic Rail Yard, the beaches of Coney Island, Flatbush Avenue or the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Higher and higher those ugly buildings rise...because Bloomberg wants to make sure that his reign in this city is never forgotten. Of that he can be sure.
Below is a great article on Bloomberg
Excerpt from:
The Weekly Sandard
The Mystery Of Michael Bloomberg
WHY DOES A POPULAR BUT MEDIOCRE MAYOR THINK HE SHOULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT
It's safe to say Bloomberg will never be confused with Fiorello LaGuardia. When it comes to holding people accountable, Bloomberg seems to have taken lessons from George W. Bush.
At a time when Brooklyn is experiencing a private sector housing boom, the same businessman mayor who tried to give away valuable Manhattan property for a song has supported a half-billion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies for the Atlantic Yards apartment, office, and arena complex in Brooklyn being built by fellow fat cat and subsidy king Bruce Ratner. Homelessness is at record levels, but no one has been called on the carpet and, again, the public seems to give the mayor credit for trying, even if he fails. And then there are the civil liberties violations: During the GOP convention, hundreds of mostly nonviolent protesters were penned in by chain-link fences topped with barbed-wire for up to 44 hours.
Had homelessness reached unprecedented levels under Giuliani, the interest groups would have been marching in the streets. Had Rudy proposed a similar level of subsidy for a project like Atlantic Yards, the liberals would have howled with rage. Had Giuliani held protesters behind barbed wire, the Village Voice would have relentlessly argued that fascism had (once again) arrived in New York, and the New York Times would have run a 34-part series about the assault on civil liberties.
Why didn't this happen? It didn't occur for the same reason most Republicans have been remarkably quiet about Bloomberg's penchant for raising taxes and revenue by (1) ticketing store owners with fines for "illegal awnings" (too many letters) and (2) ticketing cars trapped in snow storms. The New York State Republican organization is more of a business, a local franchise, than it is a political party. In 2001, the year he ran for election to succeed Giuliani, Bloomberg donated $705,000 to the state GOP, the largest donation since the days of Nelson Rockefeller. In 2002, while George Pataki was running for reelection for his third and final term as governor, Bloomberg donated another half-million to the party, and he's continued to give. The money buys acquiescence if not adulation.
To read more of the article:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/602vjbrc.asp
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