Fascinating: NYC mayor denies White House ambitions for 2012

NYC

But the billionaire Republican-turned-independent appeared to enjoy the speculation when asked about the political implications of Howard Wolfson joining his administration as an adviser.

Wolfson's broad political experience will likely renew national interest in Bloomberg, just as it did in the lead-up to the 2008 race, when it thrust him into the spotlight instead of letting him fade away as a second-term mayor.

Bloomberg smiled and told a reporter, "I can't believe you're even asking" about presidential plans, then went on to say he's thrilled to have someone like Wolfson leave a lucrative consulting business to join city government.

"There's no other political reason for him, whatsoever," Bloomberg said.

The former Clinton strategist has worked for both New York senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with many other New York officials.

Wolfson said he was returning to a government job after 10 years of campaigns and strategy because he believes working for Bloomberg is a unique opportunity.

"It's obviously very important to help people you believe in get elected, but it's also important to follow through," he said.

The Democrat is known for his tough style and is an expert at the art of political jujitsu - forcing the opposition onto the defensive while making it look like the offensive.

That skill will also serve Bloomberg this term as he faces a new class of emboldened and outspoken elected officials in city government who have said they're not afraid to criticize the blunt-spoken mayor.

Wolfson's official title will be a newly created job of "counselor to the mayor," although Bloomberg said he replaces outgoing communications director James Anderson, who is leaving to work at Bloomberg's philanthropic foundation.

Wolfson will earn a $200,096 salary and advise Bloomberg on communications, policy and political strategy.

His addition to the team and Bloomberg's recent promise to focus more on national issues this term will no doubt keep alive the presidential buzz. Bloomberg would be 70 in 2012.

For two years before the last presidential election, Bloomberg denied having any White House aspirations while his associates worked behind the scenes to explore the potential of mounting a third-party bid.

He traveled the country testing his appeal and paid for polling and research on how he could get on the ballot.

He ultimately decided not to run, but the story line served to make Bloomberg relevant in what was supposed to be his last term.

When the presidential possibilities died, though, he set about getting the city's term limits law changed so that he could run again for mayor. Wolfson joined the re-election campaign early on and was one of three senior staffers who earned $400,000 bonuses on top of their salaries.

Howard Wolfson joins Mayor Bloomberg's administration - get ready to feel enraged

New York City

Howard Wolfson joins Mayor Bloomberg's administrationComment

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today appointed Howard Wolfson "counselor to the mayor." Wolfson, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's communications director during the 2008 Democratic primary, will be involved in "a wide range of policy and strategic communication issues," the mayor's press release says.

Wolfson, a one-time critic of the mayor's, worked on Bloomberg's re-election campaign last year.

Predictably, the appointment triggered speculation in the New York media about whether Bloomberg is gearing up for a 2012 presidential campaign.

Predictably, Bloomberg said no.

The New York Daily News quotes Bloomberg as saying: "I have no plans to run for president of the United States in 2012 or 2016 or 20-anything."

The Daily News -- which has a blog post here on "The Meaning of Wolfson" -- says the former Clinton campaign aide will be paid $209,000 a year.

(Posted by Eugene Kiely)

NYC is being observed closer then ever - NYC may lay off 19000 workers if state cuts aid

NYC

(Adds details)

Bonds

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - New York City will have to lay off more than 10,000 public workers, in addition to 8,500 teachers, if the state legislature approves the $1.3 billion of cuts the governor proposed in his deficit-closing budget, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday.

The mayor, in a speech to the legislature, estimated 3,150 police officers would be cut, reducing the force's "operational strength" to 1985 levels.

About 1,050 firefighters would have to be let go, along with 900 correctional officers, and the city would have to cut its daily inmate population by 1,900, he said. The number of at-risk children that service workers monitor would fall to 2,700 from 9,000, Bloomberg said.

The mayor, an independent, said Governor David Paterson's budget "utterly fails the test of fairness." He told lawmakers: "You can't lose control of the streets in terms of safety or cleanliness. You can't lose control of the streets in terms of an ambulance or a firefighter showing up."

Both the economies of New York City and the state depend on Wall Street for much of their tax revenues, and big banks' brush with near-death last year has severely dented public budgets.

Bloomberg is scheduled on Thursday to unveil his own budget plan aimed at closing a municipal deficit of at least a $3 billion. He declined to say how much he would raise revenue estimates for a number of banks and brokerages that have swiftly resumed earning handsome profits.

"It is substantial, but I think here in Albany you have to be careful and not think that you will get the benefit of that," Bloomberg told legislators, noting that the city and state have different tax regimes.

"There's not an expectation that the city's tax revenues will get back to where they were, say, in 2007, very quickly," Bloomberg said. However, he noted that positive economic signs include a rise in tourism-related employment to a record.

Bloomberg, a former Wall Street trader whose news and data company made him a billionaire, said the federal and state governments should avoid tax hikes and financial regulations that could drive banks and brokers overseas.

"We cannot raise taxes anymore; at this point raising income or property taxes will drive more people out of the state than the revenue they bring in," he said. (Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Dan Grebler)

Daley and Bloomberg heap praise on each other (duh)

New York City

Posted by Hal Dardick at 8:07 p.m.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had nothing but praise this afternoon at a South Side school for his Chicago counterpart, Richard Daley, as Bloomberg announced a grant to help the Daley administration promote volunteerism.

“Chicago is a role model,” Bloomberg said, singling out Daley’s efforts to reform education. “I’ve always thought if you called central casting and said send me a great mayor, Richie Daley would be the person that they would send.”

Daley, in turn, praised "my good friend Mike Bloomberg" and called his East Coast colleague someone who “brings mayors together.” He praised Bloomberg for championing tougher gun-control laws.

It's just so sickening - New York City Reigns as Number One Tourist Destination

NYC

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — It looks like New York City just showed Mickey Mouse who's boss.

The city that never sleeps overtook Orlando, the house of mouse, as the most popular city destination in the United States for 2009.

A total of 45 million visitors boosted the local economy in 2009, bringing in close to $28 billion to the city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday.

"Last year, while tourism declined significantly in cities across the country, we fared better than most," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Travel to the city dropped by just 3.9 percent from 2008, a smaller percentage than expected.

New York City also knocked out Los Angeles as the most popular city favored by international visitors. The Big Apple attracted 8.6 million visitors from abroad, more than double the amount that visited Los Angeles.

While New Yorkers may complain about the tourists, visitors from abroad spent five times as much money in the city as their American counterparts.

Apart from the cash boon to the city in the middle of the recession, the visitor influx has brought employment numbers in the hospitality industry to pre-recession levels, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber credited an aggressive tourism marketing campaign for the visitor numbers.

Plans to stretch the welcome mat into 2010 include weekend promotions, hotel specials and a new round of restaurant week highlighting the city's cuisine.

New York City is being observed closer then ever: Mayor Bloomberg Sworn In for Third Term

New York City

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Vowing to avoid any signs of complacency, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pledged in his third inaugural address Friday to shake up his administration, ordering that the top deputy in every agency spend time running another department.

The mayor made his comments on a day of historic magnitude. He became only the fourth man to lay claim to a third term in New York City history, and the first since Edward I. Koch, who attended the ceremony at City Hall. And he shared the stage with the city’s new comptroller, John C. Liu, the first Asian-American to win citywide office, and the new public advocate, Bill de Blasio.

But the mayor, who is hardly regarded as having an introspective personality, was clearly trying to address concerns about a stagnant administration more than eight years after first taking office as a billionaire businessman and novice politician.

And Mr. Bloomberg, in uncharacteristic fashion, struck a more humble chord, saying that having been granted another four years was a “special opportunity.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s tone suggested a tacit appreciation for the resentment from many New Yorkers over the way that Mr. Bloomberg, an independent who ran as a Republican, spent more than $102 million — a record-shattering amount — to win by a surprisingly small margin in November. So Mr. Bloomberg promised to “reach out to every community” in tackling difficult issues, during difficult economic times.

“I realize, too, that the building behind me is yours — and the job in front of me is to listen and to lead,” he said, referring to City Hall.

He offered only one concrete new idea, saying he wanted to keep his deputy commissioners on their toes by moving them around different agencies for three weeks, and then asking them to report directly to him “to break down the bureaucratic barriers that all too often impede innovation, compromise customer service and cost taxpayers money.”

“Commissioners: This is not someone looking over your shoulder, but a member of our team — your team — who can be an invaluable resource in finding new ways to do the job better,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “And Deputy Commissioners out there: this is not a game of musical chairs, This is a management challenge, and a unique opportunity for collaboration and innovation.”

He added, “And as I tell everyone I hire: don’t screw it up.”

Mr. Bloomberg’s speech lasted just under 14 minutes _ the shortest of his three. And under gray skies but in relatively warm weather compared to past mayoral inaugurations, Mr. Bloomberg touched on a few other issues too: promising to cobble together a national bi-partisan coalition to push for comprehensive immigration reform; promising to help put together a comprehensive service for small businesses in a manner similar to 311; and promising to do more on housing and jobs.

Success of NYC Mayor Bloomberg's 2nd term questionable as he heads into next 4 ...

NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg wraps up his second term this week, a sophomore effort that will be known for fewer splashy successes and more failures than his first four years as a politically untested businessman.

After the billionaire former CEO first entered office in 2002, he banned smoking in bars and restaurants, won control of the troubled city school system and reversed the post-9/11 fiscal slump. He was re-elected in 2005 by a landslide, even while running as a Republican in this Democratic town.

But Bloomberg's next four years were not as easy, and some New Yorkers became resentful of his missteps and priorities, including his presidential aspirations that smoldered for more than half his term before burning out in 2008.

On Friday, the 67-year-old mayor will be sworn in for another four years, and he will face a new class of Democratic leaders in citywide posts, which could make his next term even more difficult.

"The goodwill has, in many ways, evaporated," said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College. "If you make decisions, you make enemies, and after eight years of making decisions, there are a lot of disgruntled stakeholders."

To be fair, Bloomberg had plenty of second-term achievements.

He rezoned dozens of neighborhoods covering thousands of city blocks — a reinvention of the city not seen since the 1960s. He outlawed trans-fats in restaurant food and forced chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus.

In schools, crime is down, the graduation rate slightly improved and students made some gains on state tests. Bloomberg also persuaded the state Legislature to give him control of the 1.1-million student school system rather than hand it back to a Board of Education model.

The decline in city crime that began in the 1990s continued, despite predictions of a recession-related surge. This year, the city is on track to have its fewest murders since comparable record-keeping began in the 1960s.

Bloomberg also managed to retain control of the office by first orchestrating a change to the two-term limit so that he could run again.

But the mayor has had many second-term setbacks.

The founder of financial information company Bloomberg LP garnered a whopping re-election victory. But shortly after his inauguration, the death of a 7-year-old girl brought close scrutiny of him and the child services agency.

Nixzmary Brown was tortured and beaten to death by her stepfather. Officials said she might not have died if the child welfare caseworkers involved in her case had acted more quickly in investigating suspected abuse when concerns were raised months earlier.

In winter 2006, the mayor vehemently denied an interest in running for president while his associates whispered otherwise. By spring, the mayor's operatives had begun to plant the seeds for a campaign.

He spoke out on national issues and found reasons to travel to presidential swing states. He changed his party registration from Republican to independent, while he had a team of people examine how he could get on the ballot as a third-party candidate.

"The fact that they were concentrating so much on this sideshow presidential campaign — it had to take away attention from day-to-day operations," said Doug Muzzio, public affairs professor at Baruch College.

By summer 2006, his reputation for handling crises smoothly during his first term — including a transit strike, a citywide blackout and the shooting of a councilman inside City Hall — risked being hurt by his response to a weeklong blackout in Queens.

Critics said the mayor should have come to the neighborhoods sooner than he did. But Bloomberg's aides said he was focused on preventing wider outages and had misinformation about the size of the blackout.

Throughout his second term, the mayor was embarrassed by problems among some city agencies.

In 2007, two firefighters died in a blaze at a condemned asbestos-filled building being dismantled at the World Trade Center site. It revealed the Fire Department was failing to inspect many construction sites and uncovered communications lapses between many agencies.

After two fatal crane accidents and several other construction deaths in 2008, Bloomberg admitted he was not satisfied with the agency, and his buildings commissioner resigned.

The mayor also had a number of policy disappointments.

While he set a goal of reducing the city's homeless population by two-thirds by 2009, the number of those in shelters reached an all-time high of more than 39,000, some 3,000 more than when he took office.

He failed to persuade the state Legislature to sign onto his plan to raise money for mass transit by making Manhattan's most congested streets essentially toll roads.

In addition, his administration gave up a plan to force the city's taxi fleet to go entirely hybrid by 2012, after taxi drivers and advocates sued in federal court.

The jet-setting mayor, who has homes in Colorado, Florida, Bermuda, London and upstate New York, has also had to contend with questions about how his own energy use isn't environmentally friendly.

He ordered his drivers to stop leaving the engines running in his SUVs after The Associated Press found them idling all over the city, sometimes for more than an hour.

Bloomberg insisted last week that he has learned from experience and that his second term was better than his first. He predicted his third term "will be even easier."