Mayor Bloomberg, Marty Markowitz, and various other city officials were in DUMBO this afternoon to introduce the “Made in NY” Media Center, a centralized hub for content creators and entrepreneurs to flourish and collaborate together. But as these press conferences often go, the most interesting parts came during the Q&A session afterwards, when Bloomberg was forced to interact with his least favorite people: reporters.
The mayor was particularly ticked off at questions about the 2013 mayoral race, giving a stern warning to reporters: "I am not going to spend the next year answering 'what do you think of every potential candidate's ideas'... And if that's not acceptable to any members of the press, I would suggest you just don't bother to come to the press conferences, because I'm not going to call on you. And you may think it's funny, but I don't happen to think it's funny." Watch the whole chastisement below—unfortunately our camera battery died before Bloomberg made everyone put their heads down on their desks for the rest of the class:
This came in the middle of Bloomberg answering questions about job growth, whether he would ever move out of the city, potential Select Bus Service at LaGuardia, keeping the city economy vibrant, and yesterday's heated stop and frisk hearing. Bloomberg first became testy when he was asked why he hadn't publicly shared his choice for president: "I haven't chosen to, that's the explanation for that...you asked for an explanation, I just gave you one."
He further explained that he was withholding his choice because of concerns over his working relationship with whoever wins (despite only being in office for one more year): "The mayor has to work with whomever is elected, a senator or president. I know exactly who I'm going to vote for, but we'll have to decide as we get closer whether I would give an endorsement. I did not the last time, but I'm going to think long and hard about it."
Then came the questions about billionaires tax in the video above. He responded in full:
I should just say this to the press generally. We'll have a presidential election in 3-4 weeks, and then I'm sure there's going to be a lot of focus on the election a year from then for local offices. I am not going to spend the next year answering what you think of every potential candidate's ideas, whether they're good, bad, whether I agree with them or not, I'm going to spend my time being mayor and I'm just not going to take questions on some person's idea, whether they were made seriously or made for political reasons. I would suggest you address those questions to the other candidates. And we're gonna focus here.
And if that's not acceptable to any members of the press, I would suggest you just dont bother to come to the press conferences, because I'm not going to call on you. And you may think it's funny, but I don't happen to think it's funny. This city has too many things to do and too many people that need help in this city to play silly games.
So, it is a "silly game" to answer questions about his potential successors policies—including the one who he likely will be endorsing-—and it's a waste of his time, and he doesn't want to have to repeat himself at every press conference for the next year. After he got all that straightened out, it's a good thing no one immediately asked him what he thought about Rudy Giuliani, and whether he would support him if he ran for a third term in 2013...oh, oops. You couldn't have asked for better timing. For his part, Bloomberg at least seemed slightly amused this time:
Look, I think Rudy left the city better than he found it by a lot. We've tried to build on everything he did. Knowing Rudy at this point in his life, I'd be shocked if he wanted to come back. You can go and ask him. He was a mayor that made a very big positive contribution to the city, and I've always said the more candidates the better. So if four years from now he wants to run, fine, I think it's probably too late for him to enter this thing.
I just said I don't want to waste my time over the next year on this contest, I don't want to waste the next five years on that one. But you'll never get me to say anything bad about Rudy Giuliani. He did things his way, he left it better, and we've built on that. And he's been very supportive of me, and I'll be very supportive of anyone who gets elected to succeed me. That's my obligation, that's what's best for the city. I plan to be here the rest of my life, and I think my kids will as well.
