Results tagged “mayorbling”

Sometimes we refer to Mayor Bloomberg as Mayor Bling because with a net worth with $5.5 billion (according to Forbes), why not? And what's frequently mentioned is how his staff is looking into the possibility of Bloomberg running for president - though he denies it all the time - because he would have about $1 billion to spend on a third-party campaign. Former president Bill Clinton mentioned Bloomberg's wealth with respect to needing to reign in campaign finance rules while stumping for his wife in Iowa.

Government and World Trade Center Memorial Foundation officials tell the media that Mayor Bloomberg will become the head of the troubled foundation. Earlier this year, after the foundation stopped its fundraising efforts when estimated costs for the project spiraled out of control, Mayor Bloomberg wasn't very happy. And whadya know, he "secretly" donated $10 million to the foundation this summer - ain't that a coincidence, though at least the Mayor is putting his money where his mouth is. The appointment isn't official and already has some opposition, but Pataki said yesterday that if the Mayor did become the head, raising the millions and millions for the memorial might just be easier since he has "a proven success record at philanthropy." Yes, because Mayor Bling's got big pockets! But Mayor Bloomberg's Rolodex is pretty extensive, so it does make some sense.

- And Mayor Bloomberg is giving the convocation speech at the University of Chicago on June 10; we point this out because while Mayor Bloomberg claims he doesn't want to run for president, it's unusual for UChicago to have a non-faculty speaker (there was Bill Clinton, but he was President, and Kay Graham, but she was the publisher of the Washington Post and a big donor)... maybe Mayor Bling is donating some money or looking to take advantage of midwest media affiliates

. Anyway, this can only mean good things for text messaging, web-enabled phones and the "vibrate setting."

Keeping in the electoral mood, Gothamist wants to point out the Museum of the City of New York's exhibit on former Mayor Ed Koch, who is the first mayor we remember (sorry, Abe Beame). The exhibit is called "New York Comes Back: The Mayoralty of Edward I. Koch," which coincides with the book with the same name by Daily News writer Michael Goodwin, and it promises to reveal "the accomplishments and the controversies of the Koch era, shedding new light on one of the great comebacks in urban history." Expect a lot of photographs from his term, 1978-1989. When we looked up Koch's bio on the city website, there's this quote from his inauguration:

These have been hard times. We have been drawn across the knife-edge of poverty. We have been shaken by troubles that would have destroyed any other city. But we are not any other city. We are the city of New York and New York in adversity towers above any other city in the world.

Well, would you look at that: When the four Democratic mayoral candidates bands together and supports Fernando Ferrer, the Bloomberg campaign gets worried. Ferrer was joined by C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller, and the runner-up in the primary, Anthony Weiner, in what Newsday called a "unity ritual" at City Hall, to show that the city's Democratic party could hold hands and that only they could fight the billionaire Mayor. The Mayor's team scrambled to paint him as being in touch with the common man by having Mayor Bling hold a press conference with Reverend Calvin Butts, the influential preacher in the African American community, who praised the Mayor and said the city shouldn't change its path. Fun fact: They met at the Harlem IHOP.

In a re-election year stumping opportunity, the Mayor visited Conan O'Brien's talk show last night and asked him to bring the Tonight Show back to NYC. And Gothamist says, "Please, do!" The AP says that Mayor Bling "jokingly tried to make a deal," offering to give O'Brien a park permit for the Late Night softball team if he stayed in NYC. Conan said, "It's not up to me, I work for the man. If he says 'yeah,' we're fine. So we'll talk." Is the man Lorne Michaels in this case? Or Jeff Zucker, which sounds like "hooker," not "f***er," as we learned when watching Fat Actress? When O'Brien was announced (finally) as Jay Leno's successor, the NY Times' Bill Carter suspected Conan and the gang would move to LA. Gothamist hopes that in the meantime, CBS develops another LA talk show, in the post-Letterman era, and The Tonight Show will have to stay in NY. For starters, Conan will need LOTS of sunblock if he's living in LA.

Gothamist wonders if the televisions in the Mayor's office have access to all the tiny cameras that the Mayor's team must have installed over all the city.

The Jets have started an aggressive campaign to attack Cablevision, the NY Post reports. Basically, the Jets are saying that Cablevision and its prize, Madison Square Garden, act like a monopoly, they are trying to be only game in town, there needs to be more competition...you name it, it's there. Gothamist the two parties to fight and fight, fight and fight, with more chatter from the politicians and communities groups until March 21 when the bidding for the West Side railyardscomes to an end. Of course, this comes as the feud between Cablevision's chairman, Charles F. Dolan, and his son, the CEO, James L. Dolan, has gotten more press, especially with Dolan replacing board directors with his friends.

As for our fine city's support of the Olympics, it's generally positive, with 59%, but it turns out that's tepid compared to other cities. NYC 2012 estimated public support to be 64-79% (wishful thinking!), the IOC poll found only 59% support. In other candidate cities, the IOC found 68% in London, 91% in Madrid (even higher than what Madrid's 2012 committee found), 85% in Paris (8% higher than Paris 2012 found), and 76-77% in Moscow. This is so going to Madrid or Paris. And the city's support of the Mayor seems to be faulting because of West Side Stadium, making Gothamist realize if you want to flame out, you might as well flame out big.

Here's a little Mayoral Race 2005 action to tie us over: Congressman and mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner held a protest against the West Side Stadium yesterday, but he was heckled by trade union guys. According to Newsday, the trade unionists were more "amused" than menacing, and called Weiner a "loser." But Gothamist could feel sorry for Weiner, because those union guys could probably take him, it turns out that Weiner heckled back.

And Mayor Bling issued his preliminary Mayor's Management Report. The NY Times says it's pretty positive (311 calls are up, crime dropped, fire fatalities are down), but there are definitely areas to improve (number of people on foodstamps is up, fire response time in Staten Island increased). If only the Mayor could pin his reelection on public art (this MMR icon at left is from the city website). He's totally psyched - and so is most of the city, for that matter - about The Gates; at his press conference, he proclaimed:

"The Gates - the largest artwork in our City's history - will draw thousands of tourists from around the globe and add immeasurably to New York City's rich history of public art. Innovative works of art provoke debate, spark our imaginations, and help us re-define the space we live in, and The Gates will bring that experience to those who come to see it. I would like to thank Christo and Jeanne-Claude for bringing this magnificent project to our City. I invite all New Yorkers and visitors from around the world to come to Central Park over the next sixteen days to experience this once-in-a-lifetime work of art."