The world's two greatest cities, New York and London are both currently run by wackos - men of great intelligence and ability but with a definite crazy streak. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone is a juvenile anti-American on foreign policy issues. He absorbs the most hysterical and paranoid lines about George Bush, for example, and parrots them like some silly troubled adolescent... Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York is... a different kind of nut. MORE
The world's two greatest cities, New York and London are both currently run by wackos - men of great intelligence and ability but with a definite crazy streak. This was my conclusion after a recent visit to the country of my birth. London's Mayor Ken Livingstone is a juvenile anti-American on foreign policy issues. He absorbs the most hysterical and paranoid lines about George Bush, for example, and parrots them like some silly troubled adolescent. His recent explanation of the Iraq war: "George ain't very bright and perhaps he feared Mexico was about to invade." You might think this was just his attempt at a joke, except that he goes on and on in this vein. Livingstone is an obsessive anti-American.
Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York is as dull of speech and as calm in demeanor as the London mayor is extravagant of speech and passionate in manner. They are total opposities in personality.
Bloomberg is a different kind of nut. In the wake of a post-9/11 economic and fiscal crisis in New York City Bloomberg has quietly adopted the most destructive economic policies imaginable: (1) pursuing a Jihad against the city's entertainment industry with a ban on smoking in bars (2) denying there is any scope for reduced city government spending and imposing massive tax increases on a reeling local economy.
Both guys are political suicide bombers. It was one thing to beat up on Bush before the war when the naysayers were on a roll, and we were being told that Baghdad could be "another Stalingrad" of protracted block by block street fighting. Instead of course the Iraqi army was a comedy show - a Dad's army. But Livingstone won't shut his loose and dirty undergraduate mouth even at a time when political tide has turned and a majority of Britons take pride in the success of the liberation of Iraq under the leadership of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. His crude anti-Americanism doesn't go down well in the electorate.
You have to guess people don't care when Livingstone mouths off on matters so completely beyond his sphere of influence. Interestingly so far he has been quite cautious in policy matters. Despite his leftist gutter talk against America, he's rather pro-business in his policies, supporting contracting out of services, austere city government, and so forth. Though London is suffering from the recession like New York, Livingstone's policies have far more support from business than Bloomberg's on the other side of the Atlantic. Bloomberg is the one proposing radically increased taxes, backing municipal labor unions, and who says there is no inefficiency in the 295k city workforce. The editor of the WALL STREET JOURNAL has called Bloomberg "the mayor of Ben Tre" the Vietnamese village which made famous the line that "It was necessary to destroy the town in order to save it." No one has needed to say anything as harsh about Livingstone's policies.
Both of these odd politicians favor tolling of course. Livingstone is riding high on the success of the central London congestion charging scheme, which was boldly implemented and seems to have almost everyone happy with the result. Bloomberg last March foreshadowed tolls on the East River bridges. Not much has been heard publicly of the idea since but city officials have been working on it. At least it is less controversial than the tax increases and smoking bans Bloomberg has pushed.
But hey, maybe we need a wacko sometimes to lead. More conventional people carefully weighing up costs and benefits, or considering soberly the odds of success, won't make the bold move that is sometimes needed to change the world. TRnews 2003-05-15
