As if Buffalo doesn't have enough problems, Mayor Bloomberg bragged Wednesday about how much better his own city is than that cold and shrinking metropolis.
"There's an awful lot of free space up in Buffalo, New York, if you want to go there," Hizzoner said. "I don't think you do."
Bloomberg's poke in Buffalo's eye came as he spoke to a housing conference at New York University, where a camera from NY1 caught him touting how other cities wish they had New York's problems.
"Our city's problems are problems of success. We don't have enough classrooms. We don't have enough roads. We don't have enough housing," the mayor said. "Buffalo would love to have our problems."
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said the mayor was not insulting the home of the Bills, the Sabres and the chicken wings, merely noting to a group of housing builders the lack of opportunity there.
"He's not saying, do you want to go there?" Loeser said. "The 'you' is, do you developers want to go to Buffalo and build?"
A spokesman for Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown did not return a call for comment.
The gaffe came just hours after a new Quinnipiac University poll found Bloomberg with his lowest approval rating in eight years - just 39%.
I'll say one thing that Buffalo has over New York City - Bloomberg isn't mayor.
According to that poll released today, at least half of the city feels the same way I do.
Keep it up, Moneybags - you're getting close to Giuliani numbers.
After a decade in the public eye, why is Bloomberg suddenly acting all boorish like he's Donald Trump or Carl Paladino (ironically from Buffalo)?
ReplyDeleteIsn't now the time to be emulating smart, low-key billionaires like Warren Buffet who think before they say something? Go figure.
Incredible that Bloomberg can attribute lack of classroom space to success. He succeeded in underestimating space needed, and now speaks of worsening this "success" by firing teachers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Mayor should realize his open door get everyone on welfare in 2 weeks flat policy is what eats up 100% of the real estate tax revenue in Erie County.
ReplyDeleteNYC should do New York State a favor and become its own entity, lets see how they function with out the 90% of the tax dollars from the rest of the state. The Mayor states we wish we had his problems, his city is our problem.
Matthew, you have it 100% wrong. The five boroughs, Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk paid $14 billion more in state taxes than what they got back in state services and aid last year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pfnyc.org/reports/2011-Personal-Income-Tax.pdf (page 3)
There is no question that the state bailed out the city in the 70s, but since the mid-80s and the collapse of the upstate economy, the New York metro area has kept the state afloat.
I went to college in Buffalo so I know what it is like up there. There is LOTS of open space for people to develop more homes.
ReplyDeleteI will tell you 1 thing, the sanitation in Buffalo (as well as the nearby communities) know how to clear the roads and sidewalks during snowstorms. By the time they are finished, you can see the pavement (then again, I was in the lake effect zone of New York State. This is we people in Western, NY put up with from November- April).
Also, the mayors of Buffalo tend to be Republican. Carl Palladino is from Western NY...shudder.