Opinion: Candidate Bloomberg and the delayed apology
/
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing a run for president. AP Photo/John Locher, File.
By Marcia Moxam Comrie
Special to the Eagle
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has flirted with running for president for years, and this might finally be the year he does it.
You don’t go as far as to dispatch campaign workers to distant states to get you on the ballot to run in the primary election if you don’t plan to run. But Bloomberg is no ordinary candidate. He is financially equipped to take his time. Right now he has the five toes of one foot in the water; but by early December he might be fully wading in.
The question is, do enough voters care about candidate Bloomberg to switch loyalties from anyone they may be currently supporting? He’s not exciting. He’s a bit of an elitist and definitely not warm and fuzzy if that’s your thing. But sitting on the sidelines watching “Mayor Pete” thriving in the polls, Mayor Mike must be feeling he’s the more qualified mayor of the two. And one cannot argue with that. Say what you will about him, but Bloomberg did some good things in New York that can be sold nationally.
Bloomberg, like Tom Stayer, would be the “green” president. He would get us right back into the Paris Agreement, which Trump took us out of shortly after taking office. One of his biggest accomplishments as mayor was the greening of New York, both literally with the planting of more than 1 million new trees across the five boroughs; and figuratively by working with corporations and public institutions to narrow their carbon footprints.
He also proved his leadership upon taking office in January 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The mayor and an almost entirely new City Council body led by Speakers Gifford Miller and Christine Quinn, respectively, brought the city back from the brink of financial disaster setting the wheels in motion to rebuild lower Manhattan and lure tourists back to a safe New York City. Mayor Bloomberg was also a great public health mayor.
His policy in this area was often met with scorn, but in the end we are a healthier city for it. He outlawed smoking in public spaces, including public transportation, restaurants, and even some sidewalks. This was, and continues to be a great thing for people with respiratory maladies — and everyone else for that matter.
Other health policies included the banning of trans fat in restaurants as well as calorie count so diners can make informed food choices. If some of these policies sound dictatorial, they were, but for many, it was good public policy. He was a mayor concerned about the health of the city and its residents. He would also fight the good fight for sensible gun laws, just as he has been doing for years in and out of office. On this front, he has poured tens of millions of his own money into the fight against the NRA and other such interests.
But here’s where Bloomberg caused a lot of damage: Stop and Frisk. Young Black men in particular were singled out for the controversial stop and frisk practice by the NYPD. African-American and darker hued Latino men felt they couldn’t catch a break. Bill de Blasio ran on a promise to “end the Blomberg stop and frisk era,” and he won and kept his promise.
Today, according to Mayor de Blasio, crime is at its lowest in decades. And Mayor Bloomberg has embarked on what sounds like an apology tour. I like Mike and think he definitely has something to add to the 2020 conversation. However, it seems disingenuous to have waited until he’s on the verge of a national campaign to start apologizing. He should have realized the harm that policy was doing to our community and at least monitored it more closely to ensure it wasn’t being abused.
He also could have made his apologies at any time during the six years he’s been out of office. The optics of waiting until he’s considering a run for president just reeks of insincerity. Going to a mega church in Brooklyn or a conversation with Rev. Al Sharpton cannot undo the time people spent in jail on petty or trumped up charges. It rings hollow. Sharpton says he accepts the apology and good for him! But he does not speak for the rest of us.
Of course our hurt over stop and frisk shouldn’t make us vote for Trump if Mike is the nominee next year. Bloomberg would be an honorable president with good ideas. He is a statesman. He would never sell out our country to further enrich himself nor win an election. He would not be tweeting insults nor encouraging ethnic divides. In fact, on paper he’s almost perfect. I would never dismiss his candidacy because he’s messed up badly in one area.
A wise retired politician once told me that sometimes you hold your nose and vote. He probably meant this more in the legislative sense, but it’s workable for elections too. In the ‘90s the Clintons caused a lot of damage with the crime bill, but we still voted for them in large numbers. Kamala Harris brought up Joe Biden’s record on busing, but we have not turned away from him either. Just as no person is perfect, no presidential candidate is perfect. We just have to weigh the totality of their record.
Bloomberg, and just about everyone else on the Democratic side, would bring back respectability, if nothing else to the Office of the President. We would regain respectability on the world stage, respect the value of every human life and dignity – including at the Southern border. So let’s see what Bloomberg has to say if he really joins the race.
Marcia Moxam Comrie is a freelance writer from St. Albans, Queens. She is a former columnist and founding editor of the Southeast Queens PRESS. She has a special affinity for political commentary.
