Quantcast

Bloomberg Gets the Gray's Papaya Vote

2007_07_runmike.jpg

There's nothing like an endorsement from Gray's Papaya to show that NYC generally likes Mike. But it seems that to hinge upon his subway straphanger credentials - will the hot dog eatery reconsider, given that he is chauffeured to a subway station 22 blocks away (when there's one four blocks away), only likes to take the express and that his spokesman thinks people who like riding the subway need a shrink (hello, universal health care with great mental health benefits for NYers)?

Earlier this year, Mayor Bloomberg was found to be enjoying his best approval ratings ever and, yes, his aides are investigating a possible presidential run for the billionaire. Which makes his favorite pastime rejecting the 2008 rumors.

Last week, he told Good Morning America it's "just an accident" that his speeches seem to be in "big states" with a little swing. For instance, he was in St. Louis for the National Urban League's annual conference. While Bloomberg demurs he's just getting the message about issues important to NYC out to national audiences, there were some other notable speakers at the conference: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. Even the Reverend Al Sharpton, upon hearing that Bloomberg was speaking at the NUL event, said a Bloomberg candidacy would give "black voters an option... I'm not saying that I would endorse him, but I am saying that he would be a credible national independent candidate for African Americans."

2007_07_bloombergcp.jpgCredible national independent candidate is one thing; candidate who can actually win is another. And Bloomberg doesn't want to consider a presidential run unless success seems likely. The AP, though, brought up his pre-mayoral past as an allegedly cruel boss over the weekend. Back in 1997, former Bloomberg LP employee Sekiko Sakai Garrison claimed that Bloomberg sexually harassed her and other female workers.

Bloomberg asked the woman who sued if she was giving her boyfriend "good" oral sex.

He said, "I'd like to do that," and "That's a great piece of ---" to describe women in the office.

When he found out the woman was pregnant, he told her "Kill it!" and said "Great! Number 16!" - an apparent reference to the number of women in the company who were pregnant or had maternity-related status.

The suit was settled by Bloomberg in 2000. If the accusations in the suit were true, he sounds a lot like Michael Scott.

Photograph of Gray's Papaya's Run Mike sign by Laren Spirer

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • guest

    That's why he can't be President of the United States of America.

  • guest

    Irony is people who support the Constitution yet also support Bloomberg. His executive authorizations of mass arrests and surveillance in 2004 was not exactly Constitutional. Read a newspaper once in a while.

  • guest

    funny after reading this post I got a call from the swartenegger sp? campaign, google shows the number for his 2006 campaign.

    I'm guessing it's a spoofed number from either a city marshal or a collection agency. or a skip tracer.

  • Reality Czech

    I statnd corrected. My bad. Mike Bloomberg/Ron Paul 2008!



    And the constitution needs changing, especially the 12th amendment since that is the amendment that talks about the electoral college, which is a bunch of bullshit and should be done away with ASAP! One person, one vote. If you are from NY, how does it feel that your vote for president/vice-president doesn't count?

  • Outter Burrougher

    Actually, Reality, as #18 at 2:10 pointed out, the 12th Amendment, as ratified in 1804, states: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."



    Thanks #18, I knew it was in there somewhere, but couldn't remember where!

  • Reality Czech

    Arnie would be the president of teh senate and that woudl be good, as for being president, since he could is not eligible, that would then go to the next pwerosn in line (speak of the house?) if Bloomberg were to die in office. Plus, Arnie would be good behind teh scenes and with the press. He is pretty progressive out there in CA, which is leaps and bounds more progressive than NY.

  • guest

    And don't forget the 12th Amendment: "...no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." So much for the Governator, I guess.

  • guest

    Damn, suddenly I'm finding Bloomberg to be this intoxicating cross between Anchorman Ron Burgundy and a Hip Hop king pin.



    Last night after reading the piece about him being driven to the subway, I was kind of disenchanted.



    But there's something so beautifully wrong with the phrase "That's a nice piece of A__. I'd like to do that."



    He's managed to own it, man. SUV motorcade taking him to the subway, hitting on chicks in the workplace....it's like he's suddenly my favorite member of the Beastie Boys or something!

  • guest

    Gotta love the US Constitution.

  • Outter Burrougher

    12:58: McCain was actually born in the Panama Canal Zone which was controlled (and possessed) by the US from 1903 through the 1970s, thus granting him citizenship. Even so, the Constitution does not say that the person has to be born within the borders of the United States, but that they are a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN, meaning someone who has citizenship as a birthright. This category includes anyone born in the US, anyone born anywhere to two US citizens (providing at least one of the parents has lived in the US), and anyone born anywhere to one US citizen parent (providing that citizen parent meets certain US residency requirements). McCain's parents were both US citizens, thus he would have been a citizen even if he had been born in Nazi Germany or on Mars.



    Also, 12:58, you say that to me as if I made up what I wrote, but in reality it was a direct quote from Article Two, Section One of the United States Constitution.

  • David McCaffredy

    Maybe if he's elected president, he'll have a fleet of suburbans take him from The White House to the American Airlines terminal at Dulles and then tell people to "Get real" if they miss their flight when the highways are shut down from his motorcade...

  • Alex

    It's hard to imagine nerdy ole bloomberg sayin those things, but I guess he does have the creepiness factor.

  • guest

    Hey Outter Burrougher



    McCain was born in Panama!

  • hrm10

    if he runs and splits votes with a democrat (really any democrat) so that a republican wins... i'll be fucking pissed.

  • Outter Burrougher

    Reality Czech: No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President...



    While you indicate your desire for Arnie to be VP, if the person is not eligible to be President, what pray tell is the point? The VP has two constitutional duties: to be President of the Senate and to stay alive in order to take over the presidency if necessary.

  • guest

    He's too short to be president. so far, I've haven't seen him pressing the flesh like the other candidates. maybe he has a phobia of touching regular people. I've never even seen him give an autograph, which candidates do a lot.

    He's a big fat phoney. the more he acts aloof, the more middle america will hate his guts.

  • JMH

    Michael Scott would be an excellent president.

  • guest

    Enough about the fuking bikes, we get it. You think everybody should be forced to rike bikes. Alright already.

  • Kevin Bracken

    The sign has a good point: whoever's running the country really ought to lead from a cities-oriented approach and leave the car behind.



    More federal funding to cities for public transit and bicycle infrastructure? Yes please.



    Whether Mike would actually ride the DC Metro is another story.

  • Reality Czech

    Actually make that Bloomberg/Schwartzenegger 2008! My bad.

  • Reality Czech

    Actuall make that Bloomberg/Schwartzenegger 2008!

  • Reality Czech

    I'm all for Bloomberg running for President, preferably on a tcket with Govenor Schwatzenegger. I think that would be unbeatable. I think America needs more than the two party system and a tcket like that could draw enough votes away from both other parties and possibly make the independent party viable in national politics.



    So Bloomberg/Schwartzenegger 2007!



    Better than Clinton/Obama or Guiliani/McCain anyday!

  • guest

    Bloomberg is a hypocrite who can't be trusted. In other words, he'd fit right in at the white house and in washington.

  • guest

    yeah, the major NYC vendor of cow lips and genital meat is our political signpost.



    God bless the soft fascists...

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com