Bloomberg Unclear on Post-Mayoral Life

After the NY Times reported that Mayor Bloomberg had commissioned a poll which included questions about how voters felt about term limits, Bloomberg admitted he's interested in public service.

At City Hall, during a news conference, he said, "I plan to, I think, stay on in public service in some ways or other — I don’t know how. The Times noted he seemed reflective, stopping himself at one point and "looking off in the distance."

“My guess is that, like I’ve said before, I will wind up running the foundation along with Patti Harris and trying to make the world better,” he said, referring to his closest deputy, Patricia E. Harris.

“I have no idea whether it’s going to be enough for me or not,” he added. “You can make a big difference in this world and I don’t know what specifically I’m going to do any more than you know what specifically you’re going to do in a year and a half.”

Bloomberg has said he wants to give away $225 million a way through his Bloomberg Family Foundation, but all this talk of term limits and maybe overturning them has revived debate about effectiveness of officials who can only serve up to 8 years. Gotham Gazette looked at the issue in 2005 and City Councilman Eric Gioia told the Times, "There’s a strong argument to be made that 12 years are better than 8."