It's Bloomberg time: Let's see...First, Mayor Bloomberg told the City Council to mind its own beeswax and stop "picking-and-choosing" which big chain stores come the town. This refers to scaring Wal-Mart out of Queens (at least for now), saying that Wal-Mart had a right to be in NYC, just as people have the right to unionize or not unionize. This comes as former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Reich wrote a NY Times editorial, "Don't Blame Wal-Mart," and NYU urban planning professors think NYers will want Wal-Mart eventually. Well, of course New Yorkers want good deals and that the face of the city changes all the time, but there's something about fighting a mega-corporation like Wal-Mart that turns some people on.
Then the Mayor said he wants to drive taxes down for New Yorkers (good), but he might have to raise them (bad), because no one knows what the future holds (true). Hmm. The Mayor also spoke at a Crain's NY business forum. You can read his speech here, but Gothamist has summarizeed the top bullets:
- An opening about Peter Stuyvesant, turkeys, and New York
- Crime is down (especially murders); there's a commited counter-terrorism team
- Fire safety
- Streets are clean
- The Gates brought in lots of people
