The changes needed in this country are straightforward enough, but there are always partisan reasons to take an easy way out. There are always special interests that will fight against any challenge to the status quo. And there are always those who will worry more about their next election than the health of our country.
These forces that prevent meaningful progress are powerful, and they exist in both parties. I believe that the candidate who recognizes that the party is over — and begins enlisting all of us to clean up the mess — will be the winner this November, and will lead our country to a great and boundless future.
One of my favorite parts of this years Financial Follies: a tour of the Bloomberg, Inc. newsroom. Actually, most of the video is pretty hokey, but I do like the part towards the end when they say the modernist helix-like string of lights is a representation of Mike Bloomberg’s DNA.
The Follies are put on annually in November by the New York Financial Writers’ Association. This year, I was tasked with writing a lot of the songs for the live numbers, but (unfortunately) had no hand in the video production, which turned out to be a great addition to the show. That honor went to Myron Kandel, a founder of CNN, and to funnyman Peter Phelan, in association with various news organizations, such as Bloomberg.
So it has come to my attention that Mayor Mike has switched from the Republican party to the Independents. First off, WAY TO GO MIKE!
Next I would like to respond to every single newspaper and television newscasters claim that Bloomberg is going to now make a run for president.
Bloomberg is a very savvy billionaire mayor. I think we can all agree he did not get there by being stupid or making poor choices. In his run for New York City mayor, although he ran as a Republican, he had been a democrat prior to that. He knew he had the money and could appeal to Republicans. Then, as the republicans started to make asses of themselves left and right (and continue to do so) he decided to switch to an Independent.
He has spent the last few years working on long term plans for NYC, to leave now for the upcoming elections would just make him look weak and a prime target.
I hope Mike Bloomberg does run for President, because then we’ll get a full accounting of his progress as Mayor. It really just holds academic interest for me, but I don’t think Mike can lay claim to very much in the end. It took a true authoritarian like Rudy Giuliani to turn Times Square into Disney World. Bloomberg has been more adept at polishing the edges.
He’s stopped smoking in restaurants and bars, raised taxes on housing, raised the cost of riding in a cab, tried to foist an unwanted stadium on us, and presided over an extremely benign set of circumstances: a glut of cheap credit powering Wall Street and bringing in mammoth tax revenues, a residential real estate boom arising from said credit, and the emergence of hedge funds as a major force (helping to bump up midtown office prices as the largest aggregation of hedge fund assets are in midtown Manhattan).
I’m probably leaving out some other beneficial factors that were outside Mike’s control.
In the world of hedge funds, about which I write (and should be writing about now instead of posting this!), a good money manager is one who beats the return of the market and does so while taking on less risk than the market. In a regatta, you sail with the wind, and the boat that runs faster than the other boats, and also rocks less, is one to be emulated.
I’m not certain what Mike’s accomplishments have been outside of those we might have witnessed under any decent administrator. But maybe that’s Mike’s claim to fame: that he was decent. I just have trouble feeling a swell of pride over the competence of a billionaire who came to office with practically unlimited resources. Seems like the least he could do…
So, the Green Movement thing- Today, no rant, instead I pay kudos to NYC and specifically to Bloomberg.
Everyone’s favorite Straphanger Mayor has presented a plan to have all of NYC’s taxis be Hybrids by 2012. That means phasing out all traditional vehicles and introducing almost an entire new fleet of cabs to the city (currently there are about 400 out of 13,000 that are).
I really like that instead of going ahead and raising cab prices to cover the higher cost of purchasing a hybrid, he suggests that cabbies will be saving money on gas costs by having more fuel efficient vehicles.
This is all part of his plan to get NYC on track to reduce its carbon emission by 30% in the next 23 years (ok, so, it is a bit long term, but it also means that no drastic lifestyle changes will be necessary). These are the types of steps we should see governments, even local governments, enacting to help 1- break our dependency on fossil fuels, and also 2- to lower our carbon emissions.
Way to go Bloomberg, keep up the good work.
For more details on Mayor Mike’s plans check out PLANYC 2030
This is what the New York government should be working on, instead of BS policy about banning Transfats (don’t get me started on that one)
The changes needed in this country are straightforward enough, but there are always partisan reasons to take an easy way out. There are always special interests that will fight against any challenge to the status quo. And there are always those who will worry more about their next election than the health of our country.
So it has come to my attention that Mayor Mike has switched from the Republican party to the Independents. First off, WAY TO GO MIKE!
I hope Mike Bloomberg does run for President, because then we’ll get a full accounting of his progress as Mayor. It really just holds academic interest for me, but I don’t think Mike can lay claim to very much in the end. It took a true authoritarian like Rudy Giuliani to turn Times Square into Disney World. Bloomberg has been more adept at polishing the edges. 
So, the Green Movement thing- Today, no rant, instead I pay kudos to NYC and specifically to Bloomberg.