It's been a busy past few days for Mayor Bloomberg. First, he hires away an operative from possible Mayoral foe, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. Then there are NYC streets to be plowed. Finally, there are fires across the city. The NY Times looks at how snow and fire are huge in terms of perception:
It is a test that previous mayors sometimes failed. When a snowstorm crippled the city and left streets impassable during Mayor John V. Lindsay's administration, the public turned on him.
"It's a classic story in New York, the city's inability, under Lindsay, to get the snow off the streets," said William B. Eimicke, a professor of public administration at Columbia University. "It led to the reputation that he couldn't get the trains to run on time."
That is true, Gothamist does love us some public services working well, but we have found that walking on the snowy, car-less streets makes us feel ALL-POWERFUL. Anyway, Mayor Bloomberg isn't announcing his formal reelection bid until June; he probably wants to be able to take the high road and say "My opponents are criticizing me...I'm not going to deign to comment on that because I'm actually running the city." In the meantime, Miller is bringing his "Bloomberg sucks" show to Albany.
Related: How the Jets Stadium may be Mayor Bloomberg's reelection monkey-on-his-back and the Observer has a new politics blog, The Politicker.
