This has not been a good month for Mayor Bloomberg. His
congestion traffic tax plan has been stalled by the Assembly, and
more mayors are defecting from his anti-gun group. Although he
has denied any 2008 presidential ambitions, his potential
candidacy is not causing much excitement around the country. I've
seen unflattering comments on numerous Internet forums ranging
from, "Who's Michael Bloomberg?" to "5-feet-7, my
eye." My suggestion to the mayor: "You need a new
attitude."
Had the mayor managed to subdue his natural eau de arrogance and
exhibited a tad more humility, perhaps these decisions could be
considered less of a personal disappointment. Unfortunately,
recent statements by the mayor show an individual who is quite
removed from the common man. He may ride the subway in the early
morn, but when regular riders were trapped for 48 minutes in late
afternoon in sweltering heat due to an electrical outage, the
mayor called it a "minor inconvenience." When the news
of a thwarted terrorist attack near JFK airport hit the airwaves,
he told us all to stop worrying and "Get a life." When
his congestion tax met resistance in Albany, he blasted the
legislators for their lack of guts and leadership. Oh my: How not
to win friends and influence people. The truth about the
congestion traffic tax plan is that it made absolutely no sense.
It's not the drivers who are causing the gridlock; it's the
enormous amount of construction in Midtown and downtown
Manhattan. A lane of traffic is always closed to allow
construction equipment in and out of the sites, and this creates
bottlenecks everywhere. This is especially apparent near Battery
Park, where the new transportation hub is being built. Which
decade it will be completed in is anybody's guess, but congestion
in that area has become routine.
My son, who's a FedEx courier based in Midtown, says such
construction sites are all over the city, creating monstrous
traffic jams during the daytime. Has the idea of staggering the
work hours so they don't coincide with normal city traffic
occurred to anyone? Of course not. Taxation's always the solution
to bureaucrats; however, a tax on individual cars will not
generate the revenue that Bloomberg anticipates and would
certainly hurt service workers traveling to their jobs.
As for Mr. Bloomberg's anti-gun campaign, the latest defector -
the mayor of Oldmans Township, N.J., Harry Moore - explains the
reason that it's crashing in a July 7 letter: "I joined your
coalition because of its purported purpose to combat the criminal
acquisition and misuse of guns, which is a goal shared by all
Americans. Regrettably, it has become abundantly clear to me that
you are using this coalition of mayors to advance a hidden agenda
of bringing lawsuits against members of the firearms industry and
spreading antigun propaganda."
In March, The New York Sun reported that another disenchanted
mayor, Mary Wolf of Williamsport, Pa., had withdrawn from Mayors
Against Illegal Guns because she thought it was attempting to
erode all gun ownership, not just illegal guns. The owner of a
Williamsport firing range and gun dealership, Frank Tripoli,
said, "We live in a community that is a hunting, fishing,
and shooting sports-focused group of people. I think a lot of
people wrote to the mayor."
As more mayors hear from their constituents and respond to their
needs, it is highly likely that there will be more withdrawals.
It's heartening to know that there are some community leaders who
listen to the people who elected them. New Yorkers aren't so
lucky, as our wishes never seem to be heeded. Still, there are
some hardy souls who are geared to do battle with this
administration.
Under Mr. Bloomberg, the Department of Education has established
two public schools - one Greek and one Arabic - that challenge
the divide between church and state. For the past five years, the
Bronx Household of Faith, has conducted Sunday morning services
out of Public School 291, but now has been banned from doing so.
A co-leader of the inner city congregational church, Robert Hall,
has vowed to appeal the ruling. In an interview with the New York
Daily News, Hall pointed to the Khalil Gibran International
Academy as an example of how the DOE is inconsistent in its
rulings on who may use its space. He said his church was being
singled out and added, "You cannot separate Arabic culture
from Islam. Here we are in the fall, ready to have a
publicly-funded religious school." An education department
spokeswoman denied this, but Mr. Hall promised to pursue the
matter through the courts.
As I said - not a good month for the mayor.