Vote Bloomberg for the Third Time

My first job out of college was an internship at Bloomberg. The interview took place in October 2001, when the election was still up in the air. If he won, "Mike's Group" (the Corporate Communications department) at Bloomberg LLC was going to need extra support, at least temporarily, because so much of the staff was asking to go with him to City Hall.

From what I knew of Bloomberg, he seemed like he would make an adequate mayor, but the reason I pulled the lever for him on Election Day was because I thought it would bring me one step closer to a job. And it did. My first day of work I was told to be there at 8am, which hurt after a college schedule that started at noon. But when I got there, I wasn't alone with the tanks of tropical fish. The office was bustling and it stayed that way well into evening. Everyone got there early and left late, but I noticed fairly soon that the person who consistently got there the earliest and left the latest was Mike Bloomberg.

By the end of my first week, I was exhausted. I tried to calculate how much more time I had to serve in the work force before I could retire. And here was this billionaire punching in and out every day like his existence depended on it. I thought the same thing every time I saw him: You could be anywhere, why are you here? On mornings in the dead of winter I fantasized about what I would do if I had his money. Hotels, beaches, yachts on sparkling bodies of water. The last thing I would do if I were him was push my way through the slush into a brightly lit office in Midtown. He didn't even have a swanky corner suite. He sat in a cubicle like everyone else, with no views, no exotic flower arrangements and no privacy.

For him, the point was not to do so well that he could retire, the point was to do so well that he was empowered to do more. Observing him was the first time I saw work as something beyond a means to a paycheck. He had a greater goal, and the people around him knew it. His team was so devoted to him that when he got to City Hall they took voluntary pay cuts to join him. His own salary as mayor is $1 a year.

I later learned that not every boss inspires his team the way Mike did, and not every team feels loyal to their boss the way his did. When I switched career tracks to advertising, my new company didn't provide messenger bags, or tissue boxes, or an entire room of snacks to their employees the way Bloomberg did. And after working at a place without titles, the corporate hierarchy seemed frivolous.

But my biggest takeaway remains that the true power of success is the power to do something great with that success. And that is why, even though Mike Bloomberg could be anywhere in the world, he wants to keep solving the problems of New York. I say let him. He's doing us a favor and we should thank him for it.

Comments

[Citizen54]

He's doing us "a favor"???
How about convincing his real-estate development buddies to build some affordable housing? That's the kind of favor we need in this city. Bloomberg's idea of affordable housing is a $3million dollar apartment in a building full of $10million apartments. He has indeed kept the city running pretty smoothly, and he deserves credit for that, but to fear that he's the only person who could do that is naive, I think.
And working in cahoots with the City Council to overturn a valid vote by the people is pretty monarchical.
Let's hope Bloomberg and the Council don't decide to cancel the next mayoral election.

[roesmoker]

The only person I was ever tempted to wish we could change term limits for is Bill Clinton, but that way madness lies. Term limits are there to protect us against dictatorships and for that reason alone, no matter how much we like the candidate, we must respect the law and not allow anyone to change it ("one more term" turns into "mayor for life" - or someone else becomes mayor whom we don't like and then s/he gets three terms).

That said, I don't even like Bloomberg that much. He's done some good but he's in the pocket of big business. I don't really trust him.

[UrbanInterloper]

Bloomberg has done some good things for the city, such as establishing the 311 info line and generally making the city run better. He sees the value of efficient mass transit, which is good. He also sees the value of a paramilitary police force--which is bad. In short, he has been a superb bureaucrat--but a bad mayor. Despite his politically expedient "independence," his mind is 100% pure Republican, most especially on the economy. Quick: name one thing Bloomberg has done to address poverty, income inequality, or the #1 issue for every single New Yorker: housing. He's done nothing. New York City has had a crushing housing shortage for decades that has only gotten worse while he's been in office--Bloomberg's response? The biggest luxury housing boom since the last Gilded Age. Your choice of a wide variety of $800,000 one-room studios. Citizens with six-figure salaries cannot afford a down-payment for a home. This is scandalous! This is immoral! Bloomberg's silence and inaction on poverty and housing are a huge, bleeding black stain on his record.

The overturning of referendum-approved term limits is also scandalous and reveals a deep disrespect for the people of New York and for the democratic process. The City Council and Bloomberg ought to be ashamed. Voters were given no new referendum--despite 89% saying they wanted one.

Also unforgivable: bringing the RNC to NYC in 2004, campaigning for Bush's reelection, and falsely arresting 1,000 innocent citizens during all of it.

[Nommo]

Is Bloomberg above the law? The will of the people. We said no. It is particularly poignant as this seems to have caught Bloomberg as well as any of the others who claim to be caught off guard. Did Bloomberg not make his fortune dispensing information? How then did he miss the hurricane? The very least that he could have done for NYC is let us know that trouble was brewing and prepare the city for the blow.

He has done very well for developers. Yet he has come up with some absolutely outlandish notions
and has been appropriately sent packing. It is time now for him to move on. No more west side stadiums, no more than the baths we are taking for two new baseball stadiums when we need new school buildings, no more property tax raises, no more, no more.

We have been betrayed by the City Council. Democracy is on its deathbed in New York City.

[allonfla]

I Like Mike! if voters want him out then they can decide that at the polls.

[cam]

I disagree. Doubtless Bloomberg has a lot to offer NYC, but it would be best for all if he did it from somewhere other than the mayoral office. Term limits are a healthy way of limiting corruption and infusing new blood.

[KTM]

Sorry, beg to differ. As a NYer, I have no qualms with Mike Bloomberg; I think he's done a pretty good job. But, a power grab like this, voted for by people who have everything to gain, politically and professionally? No thanks. Bloomberg, I like ya and all, but you're not getting my vote. If the citizens of NYC actually had a say, I'd have said yes and voted for you a third time. But you didn't and this just isn't right, no matter how you try to rationalize it. Become an advisor to the next administration if you think you are so indispensible. Not cool.

[emilywsussman]

I voted for Mike in '01 too, laughing all the way to the polls at the thought of Giuliani having not-so-humbly offered to extend his services to New Yorkers, post-9/11.

It was an offer we somehow managed to refuse.