Bloomberg Says He's Cleaned Up NY's Air Like Nobody Else

From the Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Thursday that his administration’s efforts at reducing air pollution had resulted in New York City’s having the best air quality in more than 50 years.

Sulfur dioxide levels have dropped by 69 percent since 2008, and the level of soot pollution has dropped by more than 23 percent since 2007, according to a new city survey. 

The mayor said the reduction was largely the result of the city’s effort to get buildings that used the most polluting kinds of heating oil to convert to cleaner fuels. 

Since pollution exacerbates lung and cardiovascular disease, the mayor said, the city estimates that the reduction in pollution is preventing 800 deaths and 2,000 emergency room visits and hospitalizations each year. 

“The continued health benefits of this conversion to cleaner heating fuels will make it the single biggest step to save lives since we began our comprehensive smoking control program,” Mr. Bloomberg said, at a news conference at Chelsea Piers. 

“City government’s number one responsibility, I’ve always thought, is protecting the health and safety of our people,” he added. “And when you look at the results like that, at the lives being saved and the illnesses being prevented, it tells you that we’re definitely doing something right.”

As usual with Bloomberg, everything he does is the "best ever".

But it's all lies.

As I noted in a previous post:

Highest test scores under Bloomberg - until they were exposed as inflated.

Sky-rocketing graduation rates - except the numbers are inflated by credit recovery programs that give semester credits for tasks like watching movies.

Best crime stats ever - except there is ample evidence the police are manipulating the stats.

Quickest emergency response time ever - except they don't count the time callers spend on the line with 911 operators, thus making the stats look better than they are.

News stories abound of NYPD cops shooting lots of people in the last calendar year - but Wolfson says the approximately 70 police shootings will be "the lowest since records were kept."

So many of the statistics and so much of the data that Bloomberg and his minions hawk to prove Bloomberg is the bestest thing ever are phonied up.

The tortured ego this man has, the need to constantly be the center of attention, to tell everybody that everything he does is the "best ever," the need to put his name on everything he owns - he's a little child who never grew up.

That many other New Yorkers don't see through his tired act has always surprised me.

Perhaps because the press dutifully reports what Bloomberg and his fellow plutocrat-owning media buddies want reported and only that keeps people from seeing the "real Bloomberg."

You can bet de Blasio, if elected, won't be given a similar pass from the media plutocrats.

Ever flaw will be magnified and focused upon.

But Bloomberg?

Given a pass.