Another one from the drafts queue:
Let‘s talk about double standards a little bit shall we?
Rudolph Giuliani was the man who preceded Bloomberg as mayor of New York City. At various times Giuliani was called Mussolini or a fascist by his detractors - him being Italian it was an easy ethnic slur for people to get away with.
The September 11th attacks happened on Primary Day in 2001. In the aftermath, there was talk about Giuliani possible running for a third term as mayor and rescinding that part of the city charter that limited the mayor to two terms. It was at this time the handy slurs came out but the truth was at the time Giuliani did act very much like a leader in the days and weeks after September 11th and he rose to the occasion as great leaders do.
Now the irony here is that Little Lord Fauntleroy as I like to think of Mike Bloomberg DID change the law and DID pursue a THIRD TERM BUT NO ONE CALLED HIM A FASCIST OR ANYTHING ELSE.
Funny, huh?
The new mayor who succeeded Bloomberg is a true clown. He is someone who wants to bring back the good old days in New York City not recognizing that those days were not all that good.
Bloomberg for all his accolades did very little for many parts of the city that needed attention. Bloomberg’s focus was very much on Manhattan on the other boroughs, not so much.
Yet, for all his faults trying to make Manhattan into some kind of rich person’s Disneyland I have to say he was way preferable to the idiot in office now.
Then again, New York is getting so wildly expensive in so many ways: toll increases, transit increase, rent increases but no salary increases to match, one wonders if it’s not time to ‘bug out’ and not spend as much time struggling paying so much for things that are so much cheaper elsewhere. I love New York but like any long term relationship as time goes on the fire cools a little.
Mayor Mike has made a lot of noise lately.That’s where I stopped.
First off, he advocated congestion pricing for motorists. Yeah, if you live in Manhattan you are probably all for that but, if you don’t live in Manhattan and it’s not as easy to get in all the time you see where that could be a problem. The other thing noticeably absent from the Mayor’s suggestion to implement congestion pricing is that it doesn’t apply to areas of the city that are given over to congestion each and every day, areas outside of midtown Manhattan.
What?
These areas aren’t subjected to the same negatives of heavy traffic that the citizens in Manhattan are? Places like the Bronx on the approach to the GW bridge, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the crossings between Queens and the Bronx, Flatbush Avenue, the Van Wyck merge, Northern Boulevard, Main Street in Flushing, I could go on and on and on.
No, when Mayor Mike talks about things like this, generally it applies to keeping exclusive parts of the city nicer at the expense of people who can little afford it.
Congestion pricing?
Hey Mayor Mike! How about slapping an exorbitant surcharge on the parking garages of luxury high-rises? How about mandating commercial deliveries in midtown during the early hours of the morning (1am to 5am)? Think those things might make a difference?
The reason I am slightly miffed about this whole thing is because of the Mayor’s latest folly.
Once again, the Mayor takes advantage of a segment of the population that provides one of the easiest targets and which is not organized enough to have a significant voice of dissent. What I am talking about is the announcement today by the Mayor of implementing a program whereby all the yellow taxis in the city will be ‘green’ in five years.
Sure, there are some people who say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ and to hear the mayor tell it...
Let‘s talk about double standards a little bit shall we?
Rudolph Giuliani was the man who preceded Bloomberg as mayor of New York City. At various times Giuliani was called Mussolini or a fascist by his detractors - him being Italian it was an easy ethnic slur for people to get away with.
The September 11th attacks happened on Primary Day in 2001. In the aftermath, there was talk about Giuliani possible running for a third term as mayor and rescinding that part of the city charter that limited the mayor to two terms. It was at this time the handy slurs came out but the truth was at the time Giuliani did act very much like a leader in the days and weeks after September 11th and he rose to the occasion as great leaders do.
Now the irony here is that Little Lord Fauntleroy as I like to think of Mike Bloomberg DID change the law and DID pursue a THIRD TERM BUT NO ONE CALLED HIM A FASCIST OR ANYTHING ELSE.
Funny, huh?
The new mayor who succeeded Bloomberg is a true clown. He is someone who wants to bring back the good old days in New York City not recognizing that those days were not all that good.
Bloomberg for all his accolades did very little for many parts of the city that needed attention. Bloomberg’s focus was very much on Manhattan on the other boroughs, not so much.
Yet, for all his faults trying to make Manhattan into some kind of rich person’s Disneyland I have to say he was way preferable to the idiot in office now.
Then again, New York is getting so wildly expensive in so many ways: toll increases, transit increase, rent increases but no salary increases to match, one wonders if it’s not time to ‘bug out’ and not spend as much time struggling paying so much for things that are so much cheaper elsewhere. I love New York but like any long term relationship as time goes on the fire cools a little.
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