Bloomberg’s Bounce

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

During the past two weeks, New York sailed through a rocky array of threats with our reputation not only intact, but enhanced. In the process, Mayor Bloomberg showed that his style of management works and thereby strengthened his bid for re-election next year.


Many feared the worst: The confluence of the Republican National Convention, the U.S. Open tennis, a threatened police and fire strike, more than a million protesters, and the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks all conspired to make us appear a very tempting target for Al Qaeda. Some New Yorkers headed for the hills while one Republican delegate admitted to a New York Times reporter that she’d written a last will and testament before leaving for the convention, explaining, “You have to do it in case you get nuked or gassed or whatever.”


There was reason to expect a political fallout for the mayor as well: a hostile New York reaction to the inconvenience and ideological incongruence of the visiting officials. Instead, the impact of the protests was kept to a minimum, New York was even safer than usual, and the focus was where it should be – on enjoying the city itself.


The planning had been going on for more than a year and judging from the tactics taken, Mr. Bloomberg had gained inspiration from fellow New York Republican Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition to “speak softly but carry a big stick.”


On the one hand, Mr. Bloomberg took the definitely un-Giuliani approach of welcoming the protesters with special tourist promotions – free wine or desert with a meal, discounts at selected stores and museums – all with a baby blue button than read “Welcome Peaceful Political Activists.” The mayor also dispatched city officials to sit down with the protesters, sharing plans and perspectives. This “kumbayah” approach ran the risk of seeming a little naive, but the mayor was able to defang the protesters’ fury a bit, killing them with kindness while looking to make a buck for the city in the process.


At the same time, he was fighting the protesters in court to keep them off the Great Lawn and adhere to their original agreement. Police were stepping up their presence as well. The operation led by Mr. Kelly was nearly flawless as it frustrated violent protesters and would-be terrorists alike. When arrested protestors complained about their accommodations, the mayor pointed out that it wasn’t supposed to be Club Med in the holding pen.


Professional protesters glory in the recollection of televised riots during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago and the 2000 WTO protests in Seattle. In both cases, the images of these conflicts were broadcast around the world, the measure of damage considered equivalent to its success by some. While the vast majority of the protesters came here to express their dissent in peace – and most elected Democrats were savvy enough to distance themselves from the spectacle – there were activists itching for an outburst of violence, oblivious to the fact that they would become the worst enemy of their own cause.


So what did New York do right? One way to measure the difference between Chicago and Seattle and New York is in terms of arrests. Amid brutality on both sides, the Chicago Police Department made 589 arrests during the disastrous Democratic convention of 1968,with more than 119 police officers and 100 demonstrators suffering injuries. In Seattle, more than $2.5 million in property was damaged but only 500 arrests were made. In New York City last week, there were 1,821 protest-related arrests, with just 56 for felonies. Crime across the city actually declined 6% and shooting incidents 14%. Our town successfully opted for a more pre-emptive approach that preserved blood and property, and it should become a model for others to follow.


Still many local partisans and protest aficionados are grousing that the police effort was too successful, echoing their Giuliani-era refrain “sure there is less crime, but at what cost?” But the mayor’s bend-over-backwards welcome of peaceful protesters – with discounted wine and desert – makes it tough to convincingly argue that this was a low-point for encouraging free speech. It is true, however, that those who hoped to benefit from citywide chaos have been disappointed.


In the political realm, mayoral hopefuls must also be reassessing their calculations. Far from igniting a logistical and political firestorm, Mr. Bloomberg walked a tough line well. He played the role of host to perfection, accommodating a diversity of opinions, without ever allowing things to get out of hand. And while his election-minded decision to not sit in President Bush’s VIP box during the acceptance address may have been a bit too much, the mayor followed his conscience and used his position to carry the flag for pro-choice and pro-gay-rights Republicans. He is stubbornly inclusive – unless you’re a smoker – and as a result, it will be hard for left-wing Democrats to convincingly portray him as a water-carrier for more socially conservative Republicans.


A new Marist Poll shows that Mr. Bloomberg’s approval numbers nudged 2% upward after the convention, to 42% – six points below where Mayor Giuliani was at this point in his term, but still solid and apparently rising. More importantly, 68% of city residents say the NYPD did a good job of maintaining law and order during the convention, 67% say they were not personally inconvenienced and 68% support the mayor’s bid for the Olympics. This is a far cry from the rumblings of civic discontent necessary to throw an incumbent out of office, especially one with an almost unlimited war-chest and an improving economy. While Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, currently edges the mayor in hypothetical races, it is Brooklyn/Queens Rep. Anthony Wiener who may end up having the congressional perspective and overlapping outer-borough base to best take advantage of a New York City backlash against a Bush victory.


Today’s primary elections provide an example of just the sort of issues Mr. Bloomberg will need to harness in the ride to re-election.


Virtually every democratic incumbent is likely to be re-elected in this traditionally low turnout election despite the corruption scandals that have afflicted the Brooklyn Democratic machine in particular. The local political establishment is rotting from the inside but still entrenched, and Mr. Bloomberg should make the cause of lasting reform the centerpiece of his re-election and second term. At the same time, an inter-party feud between wings of the Republican Party on Staten Island has caused two proxy candidates to be deployed against the independent-minded incumbent Assemblyman Robert Straniere. This daggers-out approach is self-defeating and could well serve as a cautionary tale to those conservative Republicans who would try to stage a coup against Mr. Bloomberg.


Mr. Bloomberg deserves credit for keeping the city safe and moving in the right direction during the potentially difficult past two weeks. He was welcoming but he did not waver, and his performance crystallized what many New Yorkers have grown to like about the mayor: he does not back down from conflict, but neither does he ratchet it up; his laconic style is honest and he gets the job done with a minimum of grandstanding in the process. With the pressure on and the stakes high, Mr. Bloomberg fully established ownership over the office of mayor, by achieving the difficult balance between order and openness.


The New York Sun

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