The Bloomberg administration has a longstanding policy of not disclosing the mayor's whereabouts when he has no public events scheduled, but many suspected the billionaire was in Bermuda this weekend when he failed to surface after a Metro-North train derailment in the Bronx killed four people and injured more than 60 others. Now a Wall Street Journal source confirms what we all presumed: Bloomberg was spending the weekend with Bermuda, and kept playing golf after being informed of the tragedy. From the Journal:
Mr. Bloomberg, who steps down on Dec. 31 after 12 years at City Hall, was playing golf Sunday at Bermuda’s majestic Mid Ocean golf club, a person who spotted the mayor said. The Metro-North Railroad train derailment — killing four people and injuring more than 60 others — occurred at roughly 7:20 a.m. New York time.Mr. Bloomberg was golfing in the early morning and did not leave the course until roughly 1 p.m, the person said. Bermuda is one hour ahead of New York time.When Bloomberg finally appeared in NYC at St. Barnabas Hospital last night, it was almost 8 p.m. Asked about his conspicuous absence, Bloomberg in turn asked reporters, "What can I do? I’m not a professional firefighter or police officer. Nothing I can do. All I can do is make sure that the right people from New York City, our police commissioner, our fire commissioner and emergency management commissioner are there." In other words, watch this drive!
What could he have done?
He could have stopped playing golf out of respect for the injured and the dead - that's one thing.
But not our Bloomberg - he finished off his golf game before taking a leisurely flight back to NYC and making a public appearance at a hospital more than 12 and a half hours after the train derailment occurred.
Classic Bloomberg - emblematic of his disdain for the people of this city.
As I wrote yesterday, had this been four dead in a high profile gun shooting, he would have flown back immediately and held a press conference on the JFK tarmac to talk up his gun control efforts.
But a Metro North train derailment in the Bronx that kills four and injures more than 60?
Sorry, gotta finish my golf game.
You hold him up to an impossible standard....even President Bush kept reading that story to those little boys and girls after being told about the Trade Center. A man pays a lot of money to belong to these magnificent golf clubs and, hell, he's done in 29 days, what do you expect?
ReplyDeleteSomeone commented on the Gothamist story that when you vote for a sociopath as mayor, it's hard to get him to stop being a sociopath. Someone else wrote he cares more about things than people. And someone else said he was under par, so why leave?
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