Seven Years Of Mayoral Control
This is one in a series, to run between now and Election Day, examining Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s record in key areas. For more on the mayor’s eight years see:
Patron of the Arts: Even in the face of the faltering economy Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken steps to insure New York’s cultural institutions survive and thrive.
An Increase in Homelessness: Despite the mayor’s pledges and new programs, the number of families in city shelters continues to climb.
Steps Toward Sustainability: The announcement of PlanNYC 2030 in 2007 heralded a new emphasis by the Bloomberg administration on reducing pollution and confronting climate change.
The MetroCard Mayor?: Michael Bloomberg has made major steps to improve transportation in the city — except when it comes to the subway system.
Confronting the Challenges of Boom and Bust: James Parrott looks at the last eight years and finds that, despite the mayor’s huge success as an innovative businessman, his management of New York City’s economic fortunes has been pretty conventional.
Governing a City of Newcomers: Always a supporter of immigrants, Michael Bloomberg during the election season, has announced more initiatives to aid the foreign born — and advocates will be watching to make sure these go beyond campaign promises.
Redefining Poverty — Then What?: Michael Bloomberg won widespread praise for his push to change the way governments measure poverty. Reactions to what he has done after are less effusive.
Was Michael Bloomberg New York Citys Greatest Mayor
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THE MANY LIVES OF MICHAEL BLOOMBERGBy Eleanor Randolph
No one is more closely associated with New York Citys 21st-century renaissance than Michael Bloomberg. A self-made multibillionaire , the Boston-born technocrat transformed the city in his 12 years as mayor. Crime plummeted, schools improved, racial tensions eased, the arts flourished, tourism boomed and city coffers swelled. Despite some personal flaws , policy fiascoes and his antidemocratic procedural end run to secure himself a third term, Bloomberg ranks by any fair reckoning as one of Gothams all-time greatest leaders. I say this having voted against him three times.
For all his accomplishments, though, Bloomberg seems to belong to a bygone era. Since he left office in 2014, Americans appear to have forgotten why he became a figure of historic importance in the first place.
The veteran political journalist Eleanor Randolph, who until 2016 wrote about the mayor as a member of the New York Times editorial board, has come to remind us. Her new biography, The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg, is an excellent introduction not only to the mans tenure as mayor but also to his rise as a Wall Street trader, technology innovator and media magnate . Had he run for president this year, the book would have found a place on every political junkies shelf.
Lifting New York City
In 2001, just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York City. He and his team rallied New Yorkers and led the citys resurgence, writing one of the great comeback stories in American history. He turned around a broken public school system by raising standards and making new investments in schools. He spurred economic growth and record levels of job creation by revitalizing old industrial areas, helping small businesses open and expand, and connecting New Yorkers to new skills and jobs. Thanks to policies he put in place, the city recovered from the global recession far faster and stronger than the country overall.
Mayor Bloombergs passion for public health led to ambitious new strategies that became national models, including a ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, as well as at parks and beaches. Life expectancy grew by three years during his time in office. He also launched cutting-edge anti-poverty efforts, including the Young Mens Initiative and the Center for Economic Opportunity, whose ground-breaking programs have been replicated across the country. As a result, New York Citys welfare rolls fell 25 percent, and New York was the only big city in the country not to experience an increase in poverty between 2000 and 2012.
Mayor Bloomberg also created innovative plans to fight climate change and promote sustainable development, which helped cut the citys carbon footprint by 13 percent.
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How Hes Upending How To Run For President
When he got into the race, Bloomberg made a risky bet that arguably only someone with access to a ton of money could afford to make: He decided to skip the first four states to hold nominating contests Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina given that they only provide about 5 percent of the delegates. He also had limited time to build support there.
Instead, he has spent his time campaigning mostly in the 16 states and territories that will hold primaries March 3, known as Super Tuesday, because combined, they offer up about a third of the total delegates.
As part of that strategy, he has spent nearly $350 million on ads focused on Super Tuesday states an astronomical amount. He even had a 60-second ad in the Super Bowl, which cost him $10 million, to counter President Trumps.
Hes used his money to kind of reverse-engineer a campaign, running ads first and then setting up infrastructure in a number of states so people can knock on doors and make phone calls for him.
His primary opponents have sharply criticized him as a billionaire buying his way into contention for the nomination.
But Bloomberg and his supporters see his wealth as a strength he can spend basically an endless amount of money, without asking other people for it, to go toe-to-toe with Trump.
Bloomberg Alumni Are Back In Action And Turning On Their Own
Bloombergs former aides are now back in the mix, shaping the race to choose de Blasios successor.
04/01/2021 07:55 PM EDT
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NEW YORK Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a knack for attracting top-tier staff and commanding loyalty in the City Hall he ran for more than a decade as well as the campaigns he waged to get there.
But as those staffers take up positions in opposing camps for this years Democratic mayoral primary, the Bloomberg alumni are lobbing grenades at each other, on the trail and online, as the candidates grow more restive by the day referring to their former trenchmates as tone-deaf, disingenuous and one candidates supporters as a clown car.
For 12 years, Bloomberg dominated city politics a billionaire three-term mayor who first ran as a Republican but launched a public health push against tobacco and sugary drinks, and was a prominent gun control and environmental advocate. Since 2014, though, Mayor Bill de Blasio has largely repudiated his legacy and exiled most of his loyalists from City Hall. Bloombergs former aides are now back in the mix, shaping the race to choose de Blasios successor.
Chris Coffey, who spent twelve years in Bloombergs City Hall and mayoral campaigns, is the co-campaign manager for frontrunner Andrew Yang. The firm he works for, Tusk Strategies, is headed by Bradley Tusk, Bloombergs 2009 campaign manager.
Coffey said his fellow operatives are piling on Yang because of his frontrunner status.
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Later Activities And Presidential Run
After leaving office, Bloomberg returned to managing his namesake financial data and media company, Bloomberg LP. He continued to be involved in environmental causes, and in 2017 he published Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet . In 2018 Bloomberg launched the American Cities Climate Challenge, a $70 million program to help 20 cities fight climate change. The initiative came a year after Republican Pres. Donald Trump announced that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. A vocal opponent of Trump, Bloomberg pledged to spend at least $80 million to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. That year he reregistered as a Democrat, raising speculation that he would run for president in 2020. Although Bloomberg announced in March 2019 that he would not seek the presidency, in November he officially entered the race. Despite spending more than $500 million, he struggled to gain support, especially after poor performances in two debates. In March 2020 he ended his campaign and announced his support for Joe Biden.
Bloomberg was the recipient of numerous honours, including the 2009 Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service. In 2014 he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire .
Michael Bloomberg Is Trying To Hide His Republican New York City Mayoral Record
Wherever youre reading this, theres probably a Bloomberg ad running alongside it.
These ads have amplified, across the country, a Bloomberg who was an ally of teachers and education equity, was dedicated to expanding affordable housing, was a champion of the working class and will build on those successes to rebuild America.
Bloomberg, the Great and Powerful.
Take it from someone who lived under Bloomberg, who served with him, who fought against him if you look behind the curtain, as I hope millions will in tonight’s debate, that image begins to melt away.
His advertisements hide his failures on housing the termination of Section 8, the capitulation to a real estate industry that led to rents rising and neighborhoods falling, the drastic increase in homelessness that was met with an oblivious response. Mayor Bloombergs policies created an affordable housing and homelessness crisis in New York City that has extended and exacerbated far beyond his tenure, creating a city that is the most expensive it has ever been.
His money obscures the reality that through his tenure and beyond, 75,000 public school teachers in our city were left without a contract without job or salary security. When his ads boast of a balanced budget, they neglect to mention that balance came on the backs of suffering city employees. Those ads do not discuss his long history of denying benefits to working people, even those working for his own government he cut costs, then passed the buck.
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How Much Is The Company Bloomberg Worth
With the price of $22, it would cost approximately 23. Five billion dollars is the worlds largest investment. Bloomberg L. is the executive vice president and chief investment officer for Wells Fargo. Bloomberg has remained in private hands since it was founded most of its shares are owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
How Hes Gaining Traction In The Primary
Two national polls out this week show him in third or fourth place sometimes higher than Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the Iowa Caucus first-place finisher, former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg.
There are a couple reasons Bloomberg is doing well right now, said Jim Kessler, a Democratic consultant with ties to the moderate section of the party. The big one is out of his control: a muddied Democratic field with voters still undecided about who is the best to take on Trump.
A lot of things needed to go right for the Bloomberg candidacy to take off, Kessler wrote in an email to The Fix. The field needed to be muddled, and it is. Biden had to underperform, and he has. And multiple candidates needed to be viable going into Super Tuesday, and that will likely be the case.
Bloomberg also escaped the kind of scrutiny that comes from leading in the polls. That could change if he meets the polling requirements to be on the debate stage in Nevada on Feb. 19.
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Other Educational And Research Philanthropy
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg established the American Talent Initiative in 2016 which is committed to increasing the number of lower-income high-achieving students attending elite colleges. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports CollegePoint which has provided advising to lower- and moderate-income high school students since 2014.
In 2016, the Museum of Science, Boston announced a $50 million gift from Bloomberg. The donation marks Bloomberg’s fourth gift to the museum, which he credits with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts. The endowment supported the museum’s education division, named the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center in honor of Bloomberg’s parents. It is the largest donation in the museum’s 186-year history.
In 2015, Bloomberg donated $100 million to Cornell Tech, the applied sciences graduate school of Cornell University, to construct the first academic building, “The Bloomberg Center”, on the school’s Roosevelt Island campus.
In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard University with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, “throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community.”
Michael Bloomberg’s Business Career
Bloomberg began his career in financial services in 1966 at the now-defunct Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers, where his first job was counting bonds and stock certificates in the banks vault. He moved up to bond trading, becoming a partner in 1972 and a general partner in 1976.
In 1979, Salomon Brothers moved him from his position of head of equity trading and sales to run Information Systems. This was apparently a demotion, but it put Bloomberg in charge of the department that implemented computer technology. When the company was acquired by the commodity trading firm Phibro in 1981, Bloomberg received a $10 million severance package.
Bloomberg used the windfall to found a company called Innovative Market Solutions that used the latest information systems technology to provide traders with data on U.S. Treasury bond prices. Merrill Lynch became a major client and investor in 1982. This company grew into what is today Bloomberg LP, a financial data and media company headquartered in New York City with offices in 100 cities around the world.
Bloomberg LP recorded $10.5 billion in revenue in 2019. The company operates data terminals used throughout the financial services industry. It also includes the business news cable channel Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, and a monthly magazine, Bloomberg Markets. BusinessWeek magazine was purchased by the company in 2009 and was renamed Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
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Michael Bloomberg To Run For Third Term As New York City Mayor Despite Term Limit Laws
Mayor Bloomberg wants another bite of the Big Apple.
The billionaire businessman ended months of speculation about his future Tuesday, when sources revealed he will work to rewrite city rules and seek a third term.
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Bloomberg will announce his bold move Thursday, but the plan is facing fierce opposition from government advocacy groups and pols who hope to succeed him in 2009.
GONZALEZ: THIRD TERM? THAT’S RICH!
“People are assuming no one else can lead this city. I don’t believe that,” said city Controller William Thompson, who vowed to still run for mayor next year.
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Bloomberg is expected to seek and win a change in city legislation that would extend the term limit ceiling to three terms from from two, a source who was briefed on his plans told the Daily News.
Twenty-six of 51 City Council members have agreed to support the bill, ensuring its passage, one Council member said.
The legislation – which would allow the controller, public advocate and 35 term-limited Council members to run again – would sidestep a ballot referendum.
The mayor has eyed a third term for months but made his decision last weekend, with the sinking economy swaying him, the source said.
Bloomberg also cleared a major hurdle this week when billionaire Ronald Lauder, whose fortune bankrolled the original term limits initiative, agreed to back him for four more years.
A Life Of Influence And Impact
Upon leaving City Hall, Bloomberg returned to the company he founded while also devoting more time to philanthropy, which has been a top priority for him throughout his career. Today, Bloomberg Philanthropies employs a unique data-driven approach to global change that grows out of his experiences as an entrepreneur and mayor. Bloomberg has pledged to give away nearly all his money during his lifetime and has so far donated $11.1 billion to a wide variety of causes and organizations.
In addition to Bloomberg Philanthropies five areas of focus public health, arts and culture, the environment, education, and government innovation Bloomberg continues to support projects of great importance to him, including his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University. He served as chairman of the board of trustees from 1996 to 2001, and the universitys School of Hygiene and Public Health is named the Bloomberg School of Public Health in recognition of his commitment and support. In 2018, he gave $1.8 billion to allow Johns Hopkins to permanently accept and enroll students without regard to their ability to pay the largest gift in the history of American higher education.
Mike gave $1.8 billion to his alma mater Johns Hopkins to forever guarantee need-blind admissions for all students.
Mike gave $1.8 billion to his alma mater Johns Hopkins to forever guarantee need-blind admissions for all students.
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Take Care Of Your Kids
On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, as bagpipers played and New York paused to reflect, Bloomberg presided over the opening of the 9/11 Memorial, a milestone that drew President Barack Obama and more than 10,000 relatives of the dead.
Soaring over the ceremony was the rising symbol of New Yorks recovery 82 of the 104 stories that would become the new World Trade Center.
We can never un-see what happened here, Bloomberg told the crowd assembled alongside two memorial pools tracing the footprints of the fallen towers. Etched in bronze parapets were the nearly 3,000 names of the dead, including that of Peter Alderman.
Over the years, Bloomberg had prodded the city to move past its collective grief. Giuliani had envisioned Ground Zero as a 16-acre memorial. Bloomberg wanted a smaller memorial and pushed for new offices and schools. He warned of turning downtown into a cemetery.
When he spoke to relatives of the dead still in the throes of grief, Bloomberg felt the urge to say, Suck it up, as his parents had taught him.
I thought to myself, Its tragic, but youve got to take care of your kids, he said. You dont want to be crying. You want to be talking about the future What can I do to help your kids?’ ‘What can I do to help you? rather than look back. Looking back isnt going to help.
On another wall, behind glass, was a campaign flier with the date in white letters Tuesday, Sept. 11 reminding voters to support a Republican on that days ballot.