NYC Magazine » Mike Bloomberg

This Week in Review: Jan. 9

Igor Derysh — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:00:28 +0000

Here are some stories you might have missed this week.

Rudy Giuliani claims there was no terrorist attack under George Bush.

How does that guy who mentions 9/11 in every sentence forget about the terrorist attack that happened under Bush? The guys’ whole post-2000 career is based on that one terrorist attack!

New Jersey State Senate Voted Down Gay Marriage Bill

Not surprisingly, the New Jersey State Senate voted down gay marriage in the state, a bill that would have been vetoed by incoming Republican Governor Chris Christie anyway. The final vote was 20-14 against the measure.

Christine Quinn Re-Elected As Council Speaker

Quinn was re-elected by a landslide of 48-1 over Councilman Charles Barron, the only person to vote against Quinn.

Long Island Tragedy in Kenya

A Long Island woman and her one-year-old daughter were trampled to death by an elephant while on a trip to Kenya this week. The woman’s husband and three others survived the surprise elephant attack.

Security For Terror Trials Means Big Expenses

The Bloomberg Administration released an estimate for what they expect security for the upcoming terror trials in New York City will cost. The price? A mere $200 million per year!

Democrats’ Woes Continue

As if the Democrats weren’t in enough trouble, the party saw four of its members announce that they would not be seeking re-election. The four members are long time Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.

NYC Murder Rate at Record Low

Igor Derysh — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:30:51 +0000

NYC's Army

Say what you will about New York City turning into a police state (and I’ve said plenty) but it does work. According to the New York Times, New York City is on pace to have its lowest murder rate on record.

The Times reports that by December 27, the city had 461 murders, 35 less than the city had in 2007 when the city had less than 500 murders for the first time.

Pretty good considering as recently as 1990 the city saw more than 2,200 murders in one year.

At the same time, the city’s current deficit will undoubtedly lead to thousands of the NYPD’s massive police force getting laid off which could lead to a slight increase in the rate.

On the other hand, murder rates have fallen greatly all over the country. The FBI is reporting that the murder rate around the country has fallen by 10% (New York City’s has fallen by 19%).

Other cities where crime has fallen greatly include Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. The biggest drop was seen in Los Angeles whose murder rate fell by nearly 30% in the first half of this year.

The Mayor’s office has linked the fall in murders to tighter gun control policies, a link that is hard to deny.

Here is a look at how New York City’s murder rates have looked over the last two decades:

1990: 2,245 (record high)

1995: 1,200+

2000: 700

2005: 539

2006: 596

2007: 496

2008: 522

2009: 461+

NYPD Pushing Ridiculous “Feet-on-Seat” Tickets in Subway

Igor Derysh — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:00:01 +0000

Just as the NYPD tried to tackle jaywalking a few years ago, cops are not stringently ticketing commuters (who are already being screwed by the MTA) for putting their feet up on train seats…even when train cars are nearly empty.

The Gothamist details how two people have received $50 fines for putting their feet up on seats nearby despite the fact that they did so on nearly empty cars after midnight.

One such case included a Fashion Institute of Technology student who received two fines on two consecutive days even though he did so at around 2:30 AM.

According to the Gothamist, here is what happened after the student was ticketed for the second time: “’After the second time, I asked the officer, ‘Really, what’s going on? Why is this happening?’” the Harlem resident and Cincinnati native said. “And he told me, ‘Recently we’ve been told to write tickets instead of give warnings for this type of thing.’ He said they need to hit quotas.” Stevens admitted to stretching out the first time, but in the second case he insists he merely had his legs crossed. “The officer said it was a danger because people can get robbed on the subway if they fall asleep, which I didn’t. Give me a break.’”

In another case, a 58-year-old man received the same ticket at almost the same time of night when he wouldn’t be bothering anyone.

Since the MTA instituted the law that prohibits taking up more than one seat the city has been fining nearly 1,000 commuters for the violation in a cheap attempt to raise money for the city by collecting from taxpayers who haven’t done anything wrong.

NYC Wastes Tens of Millions on Pot Arrests, 12% of All Arrests Are Marijuana Charges

Igor Derysh — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:00:43 +0000

Mayor Bloomberg...

For all the talk about crime statistics in New York City, the irony of all ironies is that the taxpayer is charged tens of millions of dollars every year so that cops can arrest people for harmlessly smoking a pot.

According to a recent study, around 12% of all arrests in New York City are on marijuana charges, something that was rarely done until Rudy Giuliani and, even more so, Michael Bloomberg installed policies to make their crime statistics look good by going after pot smokers.

Of course the crime stats improved under Giuliani and Bloomberg, the two mayors saw marijuana arrests surge from under 1,000 marijuana arrests per year under Mayor David Dinkins to a whopping 40,000+ last year!

Bloomberg, who has himself admitted to enjoying marijuana in his younger years, has boasted about improving the city’s crime statistics on top of what happened under Giuliani but that is because under Mayor Mike, the city has been arresting 12,000 more people every year for pot than under Rudy.

A recent study featured in the New York Times showed some interesting statistics resulting the city’s war on pot.

For one, while Giuliani did not go that overboard with pot arrests, the very lowest-level pot arrests jumped by more than 50% under Bloomberg!

Even more interesting is the racial divide in these cases. Of the 40,000+ arrested for marijuana charges last year, nearly 90% were black or hispanic.

Just to show how ridiculous Mayor Mike’s policy has been on marijuana, in 2008 alone, the city arrested more people for marijuana charges than in in 12 years of Mayor Ed Koch, four years of Dinkins, and the first two years of Giuliani COMBINED!

Poll Numbers Look Good For Bill Thompson

Igor Derysh — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:00:15 +0000

Comptroller Bill Thompson

Losing to New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg seems to be the best thing that has ever happened to New York Comptroller Bill Thompson. The man who was once the only guy stupid enough to run against Bloomberg and his bottomless wallet has now become a very serious contender for the Senate and Lieutenant Governor thanks to how close he made the election.

Having become a household name after nearly upsetting Bloomberg’s third-term bid despite being outspent 12-1, Thompson is now eyeing a future after his term as Comptroller ends and poll numbers are showing that the Senate race could be just the thing for him to drop his hat into.

A new Quinnipac poll has Bill Thompson leading incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (one of the weakest Democrats in the Senate after being picked by Governor Paterson to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) 41 percent to 28 percent.

Still, the bland Thompson might be better suited to run on Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial ticket where he would not have to carry a campaign on his own, something he had to do in the mayoral race.

With Rudy Giuliani seemingly out of the Senate race after taking a job with the 2016 Olympics, Thompson might actually have a shot whereas Gillibrand might not, especially since she isn’t as well known.

Meanwhile, Governor David Paterson’s poll numbers have improved somewhat since he began to advertise his campaign and took a very strong stand on the budget but would still, and in all likelihood will, lose to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary.

Neither Paterson nor Gillibrand were ever elected to their office. Paterson was Eliot Spitzer’s second-in-command and took over when he resigned. Later, he picked Gillibrand to take over Clinton’s seat.

State Anti-Smoking Budget Slashed

Igor Derysh — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:00:59 +0000

NY Gov. David Paterson

As Albany begins to nitpick what parts of the budget will be cut, Governor David Paterson is on the verge of cutting funding for a program that he has pioneered more than any other governor in the country, New York’s anti-smoking campaign.

Ever since Paterson came into office, he and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg have gone after smokers with a vengeance, both through taxes and through advertising.

Ironically, while the Governor’s campaign has been somewhat controversial, the $10 million cut in funding will affect the widely supported state program that provides free nicotine patches and helps people receiving Medicaid quit smoking.

While the cut isn’t much in comparison to the billions that will be slashed from the budget, it does weaken a favorite pet project of Paterson’s.

Over the past few years, the governor and Bloomberg have directly attacked the wallets of smokers in New York, raising pack prices in New York City to more than $10 a pop. That’s $20 a day for a heavy smoker!

While some have claimed that it was the informational campaign that has pushed people away from cigarettes, the fact that smoking rates have gone up everywhere except New York during the recession just goes to show that people haven’t quit smoking because they wanted to but because they simply couldn’t afford it anymore.

While anti-smoking activists are happy with the results, critics attack the program that is expected to push other local, state, and even federal governments to simply tax the hell out of anything that they don’t like.

NYPD Won’t Stop Stop-and-Frisk Program

Igor Derysh — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:00:50 +0000

When Michael Bloomberg campaigned for re-election, one of his biggest claims was his work to lower crime in the city. While crime did indeed go down under the Bloomberg but so did the level of civil liberties that New Yorkers have.

Now, it appears that the controversial and seemingly unconstitutional NYPD Stop-and-Frisk program will continue despite countless calls from civil liberties and beleaguered New Yorkers to stop the searches of innocent New Yorkers.

The NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk program has been going on for years. Each and every year the NYPD stops more than half of a million New Yorkers, mostly minorities and people in their teens and twenties, and frisks them, despite their being no evidence that the person did anything wrong.

Of the New Yorkers stopped, only six percent are given a summons and seven percent are arrested.

Essentially, the program makes simply walking down the street cause to be stopped by an officer and searched as passers-by watch and assume the worst.

The NYCLU has been protesting this program since its inception, arguing that statistically the program overwhelmingly targets minorities, especially African-Americans.

It is this program that has made New York City the marijuana arrest capital of the country. Nearly 40,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in New York in 2008 while other states and cities around the country have decriminalized marijuana arguing that controlling pot is a massive waste of city resources.

For more on the NYPD Stop-and-Frisk program, click here.