Cranky Bloomberg Doesn't Think City Is "Repudiating" Him

The NY Times has a telling article about a press conference Mayor Bloomberg gave yesterday in which he was, uh, let's just say not in the happiest mood about the direction of the mayoral campaign.

Here we present the article, almost all in full, for your enjoyment:

At a news conference on Wednesday on the Lower East Side, Mr. Bloomberg snapped at several reporters who wanted to hear his thoughts about the end of the Bloomberg era and the start of New York City’s next chapter. 

When one reporter suggested that a mixed-use development he was announcing might be one of his last such initiatives as mayor, he looked at her as though she were a lobotomy patient. 

“I hope not,” he said. “We’ve got 104 days, and you can rest assured we’ll be working as hard as we can. Why do you assume that?” 

Before she could answer, he went on: “You probably wrote that after the second term we wouldn’t do anything. And I think we’ve done more in the third term than any administration’s ever done — certainly more than we did in the first and second term.” 

When the reporter asked him to reflect on his development legacy, he sniffed, “I’m not sure what the word even means.” 

In fairness, Mr. Bloomberg has plenty to be annoyed about these days. In the race to succeed him, the candidate who has been his sharpest critic, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is leading the Republican nominee, Joseph J. Lhota, by 43 points, according to the latest WNBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. 

Mr. Lhota is generally more positive about Mr. Bloomberg’s tenure, but even he is emphasizing his differences from the mayor on the campaign trail. 

Campaign rhetoric is not the only irritant for Mr. Bloomberg these days. 

On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected the city’s request to stay her order for changes to the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practice. 

When a reporter asked about Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s decision, saying that the judge had “ruled against you on the appeal,” the mayor interrupted. 

“No, no, she didn’t rule against me — she ruled against the people of the city,” he said. 

Saying that the ruling had been expected, Mr. Bloomberg continued, “I don’t know why it’s even newsworthy, and I don’t know that anybody even covered it other than a tiny bit.” 

Another reporter asked what the mayor thought of the many voters in the primary who said in exit polls that they wanted to see the city move in a new direction. 

Why did he think that was the case? 

“I don’t know, that’s up to your job to find out,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I really have no idea. All I can do is tell you what we’ve done. If you want to write that, or if you want to make up some stuff, that’s totally up to you. I have no idea.” 

Finally, a reporter asked whether a poll released on Tuesday evening, which showed Mr. de Blasio leading Mr. Lhota 65 to 22 among likely voters, amounted to a repudiation of his mayoralty.

“I haven’t read last night’s polls, I don’t know what they say,” he said brusquely. 

“Why would you repudiate — I don’t understand the question,” he went on. “We’re supposed to do the best job we can, and pretty hard to argue most people aren’t happy with the city and the way it goes.” Then, referring to his press secretary, Marc LaVorgna, he added, “Marc told me there’s even polls out that say I’m popular.” 

In a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted late last month, 44 percent of city voters approved of Mayor Bloomberg’s job performance, and the same percentage disapproved. Eleven percent had no opinion.   

He surrounds himself with yes men and women like Marc LaVorgna and Howard Wolfson and Dennis Walcott and they all tell him what a genius he is and how nobody has ever been a better mayor and how popular he is among the city plebeians and then, when faced with the reality that his approval/disapproval is 44%/44%, when faced with poll after poll that finds 2/3rds of the citizens of this city want the next mayor to go in a different direction with his policies (especially with his school policies), when faced with a Democratic mayoral nominee who won because he is the "anti-Bloomberg" and a GOP nominee who doesn't want his endorsement because it is the "kiss of death," Bloomberg seems to get awfully cranky.

That's what happens when you surround yourself with courtiers who only tell you how great you are - reality has a way of hitting you and pricking your bubble of awesomeness.

And right now, Bloomberg's bubble of awesomeness sure is being pricked.

The truth is, people don't despise Bloomberg the way they despised Giuliani pre-9/11.

But they are sick of him and they are ready for him to go away to Bermuda and have somebody come in and take the city in a new direction.

Mayoral Spokesman Marc LaVorgna Comes By To Try And Jive Us On The Layoff Argument

Mayor Bloomberg's deputy press secretary is a man named Marc LaVorgna.

Somebody named Marc LaVorgna came by Perdido Street School yesterday and left the following comment on this post:

Marc La Vorgna said...

City taxpayer funded spending -- the dollars controlled by the Mayor -- on schools this year: $11.6 billion

City spending on schools for the coming year -- the year with the layoffs: $13.6 billion.

A $2 billion increase from the Mayor.

State and Federal money for NYC schools drops.

So who is to blame for the shortfall again?

Notice the jive here?

No one's saying that the state and the feds didn't cut money from the city.

That absolutely happened.

See here for the state cuts.

So yes, the city has less money from the state and, with the stimulus money all gone, the city has less money from the feds as well.

But that STILL hasn't kept Bloomberg from spending a whopping $550 million on technology upgrades for school in the next fiscal year even as he says he has to cut 4,278 teachers to save $300 million.

Mr. LaVorgna never addressed that point in his comment and given the poker hand he's playing in this shill game, how could?

Because it is an incontrovertible truth that in this executive budget released yesterday, Bloomberg stated emphatically that he values computers and technology over teachers.

Otherwise why would he spend $550 million on computer technology upgrades while cutting $300 million from the DOE budget by laying off 4,278 teachers?

If the mayor really wanted to, he could delay $300 million of the technology upgrades for a year (or even two, since next year's budget is supposed to be as bad as this year's) and shift that money to teacher salaries, cancel ALL the layoffs he has been threatening all year and STILL spend $200 million on tech upgrades for schools.

Gee, that sounds like a common sense solution to the layoff and budget problems, doesn't it, Mr. LaVorgna?

Explain to me in plain language why it isn't being considered.

I already have an idea, of course - the NY Times reported that Bloomberg wants to have computers on every student's desk so that he/she can be given standardized tests every few weeks and all that data can be tracked and used to evaluate teachers.

Might that be the reason that your boss doesn't want to cut the tech spending and shift it to teacher costs?

Or might this still be about LIFO?

Might your boss simply want to cause as much chaos as he can in the school system with all the layoffs and teacher transfers, blame all that chaos on the UFT and LIFO, and then head back to Albany with another "END LIFO" bill ready to go?

Hard to know what the boss's thinking is on this, but it is pretty plain to see that he wants these layoffs, that they are being done for political reasons, not budgetary reasons, and that while the mayor is trying to blame the layoffs on D.C. and Albany, he is the one who deserves all the blame and all the scorn.

Thanks for stopping by Perdido Street School, though.

Here's hoping Ron Ziegler pops by next for an update on what hell is like.