Comments on: BRT and a third Bloomberg term http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/10/09/brt-and-a-third-bloomberg-term/ A New York City Subway Blog Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:09:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Alon Levy http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/10/09/brt-and-a-third-bloomberg-term/#comment-53897 Alon Levy Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:35:12 +0000 http://secondavenuesagas.com/?p=1473#comment-53897 Even if Bloomberg were the ultimate transit geek, it wouldn't help the city to give him undue power. There haven't been too many cities in the world where the Moses-style dictators were pro-transit, but there is one very high-profile case: Curitiba, under Jaime Lerner. In some sense, Lerner's BRT craze, knack for getting things done cheaply and quickly, and opposition to cars and industrial pollution worked: Curitiba proper is a very clean city, and its BRT system is efficient and cheap, albeit extremely slow. At the same time, car ownership there is the highest in Brazil and approaching American levels, and the toxic waste and polluting industries just moved from the city to the suburbs, from which they belch smoke onto the entire metro area. At the end, he was waging war on his city no less than Moses did. And Bloomberg isn't even Jaime Lerner. He's just a CEO who thinks he has a God-given right to run a big city. Even if Bloomberg were the ultimate transit geek, it wouldn’t help the city to give him undue power. There haven’t been too many cities in the world where the Moses-style dictators were pro-transit, but there is one very high-profile case: Curitiba, under Jaime Lerner.

In some sense, Lerner’s BRT craze, knack for getting things done cheaply and quickly, and opposition to cars and industrial pollution worked: Curitiba proper is a very clean city, and its BRT system is efficient and cheap, albeit extremely slow. At the same time, car ownership there is the highest in Brazil and approaching American levels, and the toxic waste and polluting industries just moved from the city to the suburbs, from which they belch smoke onto the entire metro area. At the end, he was waging war on his city no less than Moses did.

And Bloomberg isn’t even Jaime Lerner. He’s just a CEO who thinks he has a God-given right to run a big city.

]]> By: Gary http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/10/09/brt-and-a-third-bloomberg-term/#comment-53884 Gary Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:20:42 +0000 http://secondavenuesagas.com/?p=1473#comment-53884 Ben, No guarantee that JSK will stick around if we throw term limits out and re-elect Emperor Bloomberg. There's a strong possibility that she could be tapped for a Fed position in the Obama administration. And the country would benefit form that, for sure. I follow your logic in the last paragraph, but I oppose this move. To me this is all in the service of Bloomberg's ego, and despite the things he has accomplished, I don't think he deserves half the good press he gets. That $1 billion discretionary tax rebate last year should put the lie to any claims that Bloomberg is (a) truly fiscally responsible or (b) committed to transit. Ben,

No guarantee that JSK will stick around if we throw term limits out and re-elect Emperor Bloomberg. There’s a strong possibility that she could be tapped for a Fed position in the Obama administration. And the country would benefit form that, for sure.

I follow your logic in the last paragraph, but I oppose this move. To me this is all in the service of Bloomberg’s ego, and despite the things he has accomplished, I don’t think he deserves half the good press he gets.

That $1 billion discretionary tax rebate last year should put the lie to any claims that Bloomberg is (a) truly fiscally responsible or (b) committed to transit.

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