NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Art

[BloombergForLife]

As Suzannah B. Troy has pointed out, you cannot build on an antiquated infrastructure. So you need to gut the place, so you can rebuild the infrastructure from scratch, and build high rise condos.

I don't propose to do anything with the people living in Harlem. If they are renters, they would receive an eviction notice. They can relocate anywhere they can afford, obviously.

[BloombergForLife]

In South Korea, you do not pay rent for a rental unit. Rather, you hand over a huge deposit, say, US$100K. The deposit is put in an escrow account, and the landlord gets the interest on the money. I think that would be a good system to have in Manhattan with the option of rent-to-own.

We need people in Manhattan who are financially invested in the city. We do not need people who whine about rents and waste free heating. They should just leave. I'll pay for the Greyhound ticket.

[BloombergForLife]

I want to end poverty in NYC, not by redistributing wealth to the poor, but by having policies to encourage the poor to relocate to more affordable places where their limited funds will have more buying power.

Rent control is extremely bad, because it decreases the incentive to build more housing. It also creates a shortage of apartments.

[BloombergForLife]

I don't think there is anything scary about a nonartist saying, "Ick!" upon seeing certain works of art, like a cow rotting and being eaten by maggots inside a glass box.

I don't know why you feel the need to analyse Bloomberg's every comment, trying to find some fault in it. It's your interpretation and your projection.

I'm a bit concerned about Tony Avella's stand on multiculturalism, if every sign posted in Queens must have an English translation of equal size.

[astoria25]

Citizens, who care enough to listen and to analyse our leaders comments, are the ones who keep our democracy healthy. What's wrong with having a public debate ? Or do you believe once a mayor bends the rules to run for a third term, we can't question him at all ?

[BloombergForLife]

Suzannahartist is not interested in debate. I have tried to debate her. She just deletes my posts, blocks me, and slanders me.

If you read the comments on her channel and see her videos, they are totally one sided and biased, without allowing any rebuttal from an opposing point of view.

Bloomberg is willing to listen to and engage his detractors. He's a better mayor than Suzanna B. Troy.

[astoria25]

That's odd. Are you sure that Ms. Troy deletes comments ? I don't think YouTube makes it possible for people to delete comments.

[BloombergForLife]

Of course, she deletes comments, and of course you can! There is the word Delete next to Reply and Remove on the right of each comment on your video.

[astoria25]

I don't see delete. Me, I'd wish YouTube would do a better job of preventing all these haters from posting nasty comments. People on YouTube go through a lot of trouble of making videos and sharing them with the whole world. Why people want to come and post hateful, nasty messages is beyond my pay scale.

[BloombergForLife]

I thought that Bloomberg's comments were honest and humble, admitting that he's not an artistic genius and cannot imagine the artist's vision, but only appreciates it when he sees it. This is a man who is willing to admit his own limitations, not the megalomaniac some would claim.

To my knowledge, Mayor Bloomberg has not destroyed any listed buildings. If a building were a true historical landmark, it should be listed. New York City is a living, dynamic city, not frozen in the dank 1970s.

[astoria25]

Wasn't it Mayor Bloomberg who let NYU destroy the old Edgar Allen Poe House in the Village, so that NYU could build another sterile-looking building ?

[BloombergForLife]

Yes, Bloomberg helped you, by allowing NYU to house its students rather than having those students compete with you, artists, and others in the community for a limited amount of housing. So this will benefit anyone looking for affordable housing in NYC by increasing supply as students who were formerly housed elsewhere move into NYU dormatories.

[astoria25]

I think Bloomberg should knock down a few limestone coops on Park Avenue and let NYU build dorms there. If your reasoning holds true, taking that action would be good for the city, too.

[BloombergForLife]

I want to see every student and faculty member of NYU and Columbia have the opportunity to live in university housing in Manhattan within one or two blocks of the campus. Since their average IQ is close to 140, this will definitely raise the intellectual calibre of NYC, just as immigration from Europe's intelligencia did in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

I would like to end the commute for middle class New Yorkers, gut Harlem of any rentals and build massive condo skyscrapers.

[astoria25]

That's a wierd way to "end commuting" by gutting Harlem. What would you do with the people who live in Harlem now ? Make them move to CT ?

[dogperson]

What I find shocking is that Mayor Bloomberg, who here admits his inability to evaluate the merit of an artistic endeavor prior to its completion, would undertake a $27 Million (and growing) plan to totally redesign Washington Square Park after all the studies and surveys showed how successful the (now destroyed) design was before construction was ever given the green light.

[BloombergForLife]

I would like to give Bloomberg sweeping powers to develop NYC has he sees fit. That's what Napoleon III had, and that is how he made Paris one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.