Let's Face It, Bloomberg's Legacy Is Terrible

Let's Face It, Bloomberg's Legacy Is Terrible:
by Steven Wishnia TPM Cafe

Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio has emerged victorious in New York City's mayoral election, and the Michael Bloomberg era will come to an end. In Bloomberg's 12 years in office, his personal fortune increased sevenfold, from $4.5 to $32 billion, while 46 percent of the city's residents now live in or near poverty. If Manhattan were an independent nation, its income inequality would rank with South Africa's and Namibia's.Bloomberg has a reputation as a "moderate" or even in some circles "liberal," but it would be far more accurate to describe his politics as Mitt Romney with a sex life.Last winter, when he broke a strike by city school-bus drivers and aides -- they'd walked out after he abrogated a contract provision that said when the city hires new bus companies, they have to employ the same workers at the same wages -- he crowed that "in the city's entire history, the special interests have never had less power than they do today." Yes, women who get up at 4:30 in the morning to help autistic and disabled kids get to school, who give their cell-phone numbers to parents, are a pernicious "special interest" when they want to make $14 an hour instead of minimum wage with no security or benefits.A record 50,000 people now pack city homeless shelters, the most since the Depression. Bloomberg claimed that was because he made the shelters "much more pleasurable."

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