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Joyce Purnick, New York Times columnist and author of the recently published Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, is answering questions from readers about the Man.
You can still send in your questions at the link to the article.
A recent New York Times article discusses Bloomberg’s eating habits and how they do not always align with his own policies. Despite his war on trans fats and his war on salt, where he urged food manufacturers and restaurants in the city to cut salt by 20%, he loves his junk food and is so addicted to salt that he even puts it on saltine crackers.
The New York Times endorsed Democratic mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson the morning after the last televised democratic Primary debate.
Above left: Democratic Mayoral hopeful Tony Avella.
The New York Times published an article today about Democratic Mayoral candidate Tony Avella. He is considered an insurgent and the underdog in the Democratic Primary, Bill Thompson being considered the frontrunner.
Avella is running for mayor as a champion of small businesses and neighborhoods and opponent of developers. The New York Times reports:
He is steadfastly anti-elitist, and views Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg as a defender of the
rich. He believes that the city has been sold
off to developers, neighborhood by
neighborhood. And he believes in animal
rights, coming out against everything from
foie gras to horse-drawn carriages in Central
Park.
[…]
He says Mr. Bloomberg’s rezoning projects are
destroying the city, and he advocates
commercial rent control to protect small
businesses. Four priorities are highlighted in
his campaign literature: “Protect our
neighborhoods. Restore integrity. Save Main
Street. Take back our schools.”
He sounds like a moderate version of 2005 mayoral candidate Christopher X. Brodeur when he calls Bill Thompson a “machine candidate”—Brodeur called his Democratic opponents “zombie robots.”
He is quoted as saying:
“The moment that you don’t do what the
ordinary person does in their daily lives, and
you start acting like you’re above it, then you
become a politician, and I hate politics.”
Michael Bloomberg wants state troopers to kick some ass on his behalf.
The New York Times reports that, on his radio show yesterday, a furious Michael Bloomberg called on New York Governor Paterson to get state troopers to hunt down state senators and get their asses back to Albany, by force if necessary, should they leave for their summer vacation without giving him back control of the city’s schools.
The law that gave Michael Bloomberg mayoral control of the schools—and that inspired Seth Blum, the teacher in The Promise of New York, to run for mayor—expired on June 30th and the Board of Education, which Bloomberg dissolved shortly after taking office, has been newly reconstituted since.
Meanwhile, the mayor has continued to push hard for the state legislature to renew his control but without any room for compromises. As I wrote elsewhere in this blog, it seems that a majority of constituents agree that mayoral control of the schools was better than having a Board of Education overseeing them. However, a considerable number of consituents would like to weaken the mayor’s control to allow more parental and community involvement in decisions affecting the schools. Michael Bloomberg has shown absolutely no willingness to budge and give up any of his power over the schools to the parents or community members that want to get involved.
Turned off by this inflexible “my-way-or-the-highway” approach, state lawmakers have refused to give the mayor a free pass on renewing his mayoral control of the schools. Senator Bill Perkins, a Harlem Democrat, was quoted as saying:
The mayor’s people are telling us they will not
budge, they will not accept anything that isn’t
their version of the bill.
We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship.
Simply, the state senate believes the bill to renew his control of the schools gives Michael Bloomberg too much power. A compromising bill addressing this failed to pass yesterday as well, however. Now, it seems the state senate will leave for the summer without granting Bloomberg’s wishes.
Not to worry, though, because, as Bloomberg also said in his radio show, he can just fill the Board of Education with appointees that will continue his policies.
So, in the end, it is still kind of like a dictatorship?
READ THE FULL ARTICLES HERE:
Mayor Assails Senate Inaction on School Control The New York Times
In Albany, No Action On School Control For Bloomberg The New York Times
Joey Chestnut (above center), the competitive eating champion that just this past July 4th downed a whopping 68 hot dogs down his throat in 10 minutes, set the pizza eating record last year at 45 slices of pizza in 10 minutes.
This record, however, was surpassed a few weeks later when Patrick Bertoletti (above right) devoured a beastly 47 slices in 10 minutes.
I don’t know if either Chestnut or Bertoletti have joined Michael Bloomberg’s campaign team, but yesterday the New York Times published an article detailing some of the incumbent’s campaign expenses so far reported, which include $7000 worth of pizza.
At roughly $15 a pie, that is about 466 (!) pizzas, which, at 8 slices per pizza, is about 3728 slices, which, at a world record pace of 47 slices per 10 minutes, you could probably down in about 14 hours straight.
Damn, that is a lot of fucking pizza.
And almost double what it cost to get The Promise of New York in the can!
Well, I’m the first to admit you have to do what you have to do to get elected in this town!
