William Neuman, transit beat writer for The Times, profiled Mayor Bloomberg and his utter lack of visibility on the MTA budget issue. The reason of course is political. Bloomberg, an independent in 2005, is now running for re-election with the support of the Republicans, and as we all know far too well, Republicans do not support the Richard Ravitch tax-and-toll plan. Bloomberg, however, does, but to curry favor with his once and future G.O.P. supporters, Bloomberg can’t be a vocal proponent of the MTA funding plan. Straphangers lose a powerful ally, but Bloomberg gains some backroom political clout. It’s hardly worth the trade-off.
Have you seen this man?
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Bloomberg left the Republican party in 2007. He is now running as an independent but has the endorsement of the Republican Party (which he doesn’t want to lose). He also has the endorsement of the Independence Party.
Thanks, Kai. I’ve updated the post to better reflect that reality.
You cannot hold Bloomberg accountable. The MTA is Albany’s responsibility and Bloomberg is rightly leaving it to them to resolve the issue. If he’s willing to take time out to help the MTA, great. But as you can imagine, as Mayor of NYC during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, he probably already has a lot of responsibilities to take care of. I think it is best for him to let Albany do their job.
You cannot hold Bloomberg accountable.
Sure I can. He has appointed for MTA board members. He has political power, and he should use it. It’s not like he has no say on MTA actions. After all, it’s his administration that’s funding the 7 line extension to nowhere. If he started pushing for an MTA funding package, he could make waves.
Maybe he saw how well things went with congestion pricing and figured he’d get better results by keeping his mouth shut.
[…] afternoon, I discussed how Mayor Bloomberg had been notably and intentionally missing from the MTA funding debate. The Mayor apparently didn’t like the article in The Times and […]