Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Bloomberg Obsessed With His "Legacy"

The NY Post reports that the city has fast tracked some real estate development projects that it wants completed before Bloomberg leaves office and is ignoring every other project or putting them on hold.

The Post says the fast tracking is called a "legacy list" and has been developed by former deputy mayor, now current Bloomberg LP employee, Dan Doctoroff.

Here is the rationale behind the so-called "legacy list":

As top aides work on shaping Bloomberg’s legacy, one description they want is a pro-development mayor who drastically altered the landscape in each borough to expand gleaming office space, boost the high-tech industry here and ratchet up tourism numbers.

Some critics of the projects say the mayor needs to slow down and make sure these things are workable:

The controversial Midtown East rezoning plan would allow the construction of large office buildings near Grand Central.

City Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan), whose district includes the proposed expansion, wrote a letter asking the administration to slow down the project in order to review potential problems.

“I understand that the mayor’s term has only 502 days remaining, but that should not be the prime factor for such an important proposal,” Garodnick wrote in August to City Planning Chairwoman Amanda Burden. “There is no reason to move at this pace.”

The plan was unveiled in July before Community Board 5’s Land Use and Zoning Committee and would alter zoning regulations to allow for more skyscrapers from around East 39th to East 57th streets between Second and Fifth avenues.

Everywhere you look, this mayor has sold out city neighborhoods to real estate developers.

I used to live in Long Island City but moved 8 years ago.

The LIC I knew is gone, replaced by Bloomberg's "gleaming" steel condos (actually given how they're built, better described as paper mache and spit condos.)

The 7 train, which back in my day was an absolute nightmare during the rush hour, is a lot worse these days.

You see, the one thing our pro-development mayor didn't develop is new ways of getting in to the city even as he was developing new residential neighborhoods as part of his legacy.

Bloomberg is not the only politician to do this, of course.

The same thing is happening in Jersey City and other areas of Hudson County - lots of new real estate development, but little to no new infrastructure to support that development.

But Bloomberg is the most proud of his "legacy," the most obsessed with it, and just as the Bloomberg Blizzard of 2010 is part of his legacy, and the ho-hum response to Superstorm Sandy is part of it, and CityTime and the failed 911 system, so is the real estate development that has happened without the infrastructure support following it.

Bloomberg really is a pathetic little man, with his need to emblazon his name on everything he owns and garner as much attention as he possibly can.

One wonders just what damage was done to him as a child that he needs all this attention and is so obsessed with his "legacy".

Perhaps it would soothe his eventual journey into the other world if, on the day our Little Mayor is on his deathbed, city residents applaud him for his "legacy" and change the name of New York City to BlOOMBURG.

It seems only then will Bloomberg be truly happy and know that his "legacy" is forever.

6 comments:

  1. Let's not forger the legacy of grossly overcrowded schools- real estate Bloomberg builds green lights the condos downtown and forget to build any new schools (That would take up valuable real estate for the developer pals).

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    1. You're right, of course. There is a big shortage of seats in schools. But that doesn't stop the building from our "legacy-minded" mayor.

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  2. The little man certainly does have an inflated Edifice Complex, which is nothing new in a politician/oligarch.

    However, for me there's a special place deep in the Fiery Lake for Bloomberg and his political concubine Christine Quinn, for their standing by and allowing St. Vincent's Hospital - an employer of 3,000 people that provided medical care to Greenwich Village and lower Manhattan for 160 years - to close. The site is now being re-developed as luxury condominiums by the politically-juiced Rudin family.

    Add in his attacks on the public schools, and there is the Bloomberg Legacy: despoiling public resources relied upon by the many, crony capitalism for the privileged few.

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    1. I walked by St. Vincent's on Saturday. It was creepy - the hospital is empty NYU and Bellevue had to be evacuated during the hurricane, Downtown Medical closed before the hurricane. Hard to be believe, but NYC was down four hospitals that week.

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  3. Of course,what NYC really needs is affordable housing, but I guess that doesn't have Legacy potential.

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    1. Some parts still need electricity and running water, but that doesn't have Legacy potential either.

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