This News Will Make Bloomberg Very, Very Sad

Bloomberg henchman Deputy Dan Doctoroff is still leading the charge to bring the Olympics to NYC and rectify one of Mayor Bloomberg's biggest setbacks - his failure to turn NYC into an Olympic Village.

Mayor de Blasio says he's not interested, however:

Mayor Bill de Blasio has ruled out any possibility that New York City will submit a bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, a top member of his staff said Tuesday.

The administration decided not to pursue the Games after looking at the pros and cons of bidding for and hosting the event, said Alicia Glen, deputy mayor for housing and economic development.

 Mr. de Blasio said he would consider the Olympics when news broke earlier this month that Dan Doctoroff, the driving force of the city's unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Games and a top official under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had broached the possibility of pursuing the 2024 Games with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration. At that time, however, Mr. de Blasio warned that the bar would be high.

...

 

Ms. Glen said Mr. de Blasio, with other top officials at City Hall, recently reviewed the possibility of a bid for 2024 and decided it "doesn't make sense."

Ms. Glen said many cities pursue the Games because it brings recognition, but "very few people would say that New York City is not quote on the map and is not a major global city."

Cities also have sought the Games to boost tourism. But Ms Glen said the city already was experiencing record-high tourism numbers, with more than 54 million visitors last year.

"Our feeling is that you could actually deter tourism to some extent by hosting an Olympic Games," she said.

Ms. Glen said top officials also feared an Olympic bid would distract from the mayor's economic-development agenda. If the city focused on particular sporting venues, or particular neighborhoods where events would be held, other parts of the city could be neglected, she said.

Cuomo may still push for the Olympics, given that Bloomberg still seems to want them and Bloomberg's got lots of cash to hand over to Sheriff Andy for future political runs.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Cuomo pulls a "Moskowitz" here and forces the city to submit a bid for the Olympics even though the mayor says he doesn't want to?

I mean, if the governor can force the city to pony up millions of dollars for Eva Moskowitz's rent, I suppose it's also conceivable that he can force the city to submit a bid for an Olympics games it doesn't really want.

I'm kidding, of course.

Sort of.

Is Cuomo Allying With Bloomberg To Bring Olympics To New York?

Because the dreams of the Little Billionaire are never really crushed, no matter how many times Shelly Silver sticks a shiv in them:

One of the biggest disappointments of Michael Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor was his failure to lure the Olympic flame to New York. Now, one of his closest lieutenants and the architect of the 2012 bid is pitching a fresh case for bringing the 2024 summer games to the city.

Daniel Doctoroff, a deputy mayor under Mr Bloomberg and now chief executive of Bloomberg LP, the financial data and news service, has submitted plans to New York state governor Andrew Cuomo that trumpet the transformative effect the Olympics could have on the city.


Focused on Mr Cuomo’s home borough of Queens, the proposal being promoted by Mr Doctoroff hopes to win backing from politicians for an Olympic bid by arguing that it would kick-start development, similar to the burst of construction seen in east London in 2012 after it won the games.

“The Olympics could be a catalyst for economic development,” said a spokesperson for Mr Doctoroff, who is acting in a personal capacity. He hopes to transform 167 acres of rail yard, move the city’s only convention centre from Manhattan to Queens and build tens of thousands of housing units, the spokesman added.

Mr Cuomo is “seriously assessing the viability of an Olympic bid for New York City”, according to a person familiar with the situation. Talks between representatives of the governor and Bill de Blasio, Mr Bloomberg’s successor as mayor, are taking place and it is likely that an advisory committee will be formed soon, this person said.

“The governor’s office is open to reviewing a proposal once it receives one,” said a state administration official in response to the Doctoroff initiative.

Mr Doctoroff, in charge of economic development under Mr Bloomberg, led the city’s $3bn bid for the 2012 games, which was lost after the state refused to fund a centrepiece stadium planned on Manhattan’s west side.

However, this time Mr Doctoroff may not be able to count on mayoral support. Mr de Blasio has been cool on the idea of hosting the Olympics, which would incur a hefty price tag. Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mr de Blasio, said an Olympic bid “is not something the administration is considering”.

When I heard yesterday that Cuomo was considering trying to bring the Olympics here in 2024, Deputy Dan Doctoroff's name immediately popped into my head along with Bloomberg's.

These were the two prime pushers of the Olympics last time around, I thought they might be making a second go-round on the plan again, this time adding Cuomo to the push (and perhaps offering Cuomo some dollars or political help in return for his aid.)

I dunno, the older I get, the more I start seeing conspiracies like that everywhere.

And lo and behold, here's Deputy Dan Doctoroff's name linked to Cuomo and the Olympics bid.

As Arsenio Hall used to say back in the 80's, "Things that make you go 'Hmmm...'"

Why The Bloomberg LP/Bloomberg News Data Breach Matters

From the NY Times:

A shudder went through Wall Street on Friday after the revelation that Bloomberg News reporters had extracted subscribers’ private information through the company’s ubiquitous data terminals to break news. 

The company confirmed that reporters at Bloomberg News, the journalism arm of Bloomberg L.P., had for years used the company’s terminals to monitor when subscribers had logged onto the service and to find out what functions, like the news wire, corporate bond trades or an equities index, they had looked at. Bloomberg terminals, which cost an average of more than $20,000 a year, are found in nearly every banking and trading company. 

Bloomberg said the functions that allowed journalists to monitor subscribers were promptly disabled after Goldman Sachs complained that a Bloomberg reporter had, while inquiring about a partner’s employment status, pointed out that the partner had not logged onto his Bloomberg terminal lately.

The incident led to broader concerns about the line at Bloomberg between its lucrative terminal business and the hypercompetitive newsroom, threatening to undermine the credibility of both. In a secretive world that thrives on opacity, traders and financial firms jealously guard every speck of information about their activity to avoid tipping their hand on their trades and investments. 

...

Jonathan Corpina, a managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, said the incident was a reminder that nothing — not even the seemingly secure Bloomberg terminal — was private. “It concerns people that what they are doing is being watched and monitored by people who shouldn’t be watching and monitoring it,” Mr. Corpina said.

Indeed it does concern people that what they're doing is being watched and monitored by people who shouldn't be watching and monitoring it.

Which is why people don't want the state collecting all that data on their kids and handing it over to Murdoch and Gates.

It's that simple.

Imagine Bloomberg Had Gotten His Way On The 2012 NYC Olympics

Would have been a total, total nightmare.