The Incredible Shrinking Mayor

Well we have to say that it's about time that the local press caught up with our less than stellar view of Hizzoner the mayor. His actions around the development of Willets Point-and particularly the employment of illegal lobbying tactics-have earned Mr. Bloomberg failing grades with WPU. He has exhibited nothing but arrogance and dishonesty when it comes to our basic Constitutional rights.

Now as the mayor slogs through his illegal third term-bought and paid for by a whole host of underhanded methods and bribes of good government groups-his true colors are shining through; and the vertically challenged Bloomberg is actually getting smaller before our very eyes. This fact was amply demonstrated by his actions surrounding the dismissal of Deputy Mayor Goldsmith-as far from a profile in courage by Mikey the Mayor as possible.

Back in August, you see, Goldsmith got into a heated argument with his wife in Washington DC and the police were called-Goldsmith was arrested for domestic violence and spent 36 hours in jail before being let go when the wife wouldn't press charges (Not so lucky was Hiram Monseratte). After a conversation with the mayor, Goldsmith was sent packing.

So, what did Bloomberg tell New Yorkers about the goldsmith exit? Certainly not the truth-as the prevaricating little wilted flower prattled on about "seeking opportunities in the private sector." It took the mayor a month to come clean and when he did, he actually had the temerity to defend his actions-prompting an outcry from a formerly obedient press ensemble. Clyde Haberman captured the insouciance of the arrogant leader:

"With his smooth handling of Tropical Storm Irene, Mr. Bloomberg seemed to be getting his groove back. But now he has gone back to foot-shooting. Worse, he has lost a large measure of credibility with his unapologetic half-truths about why Stephen Goldsmith left as deputy mayor for operations.

It took a month for New Yorkers to learn the real reason, by way of The New York Post: Mr. Goldsmith had been arrested in Washington and jailed for the better part of two days on a domestic violence complaint."

The NY Post's Michael Goodwin also chastised Bloomberg:

"Face it, New York. Our mayor is just not that into us anymore. Bloomy Dearest has checked out and moved on. The job of mayor is beneath him, and it's no longer worthy of his full attention. Besides, there's no point being a billionaire if you have to follow the same rules as everybody else.

No man who cares about his job or reputation would behave as Bloomberg did. By claiming the right to deceive the public, he recalls the attitude of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who famously grabbed some beers, opened the emergency chute and told the world to "f*&% off."

Not to be left out we have words of wisdom from Michael Powell of the Grey Lady herself:

"Now 10 years into his mayoralty, Michael R. Bloomberg still tends to view the office of the mayor as akin to a hallway at Bloomberg L.P. Rules apply as the boss prefers. He wants a deputy mayor to run his foundation, which in turn ladles out dough to constituents’ nonprofits? Done. With precious little input, he wants to pick a Park Avenue friend as schools chancellor? Done. You want to take undisclosed vacations to undisclosed mansions on undisclosed islands? That too.

So it’s not surprising to find the mayor at it again on Sunday, this time defending something less defensible: His refusal to disclose that Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith resigned under duress, after police had arrested and jailed him on a domestic violence charge in Washington."

In summary we are saddled with a chief executive who doesn't believe that the rules apply to him-and therefore it isn't surprising when he resorts to extra-legal tactics as he has done at Willets Point. We have been assaulted by His Arrogance for three years now and he and his minions have pulled every trick in the land use book-from illegal lobbying and doctored data, to bribed environmental groups and an illegal new development phase never before vetted by the city council.

Enough is enough. We have seen as much of this little Caesar as we care to see-and it is high time that clearer thinking folks pull the plug on his vanity development over at the Iron Triangle. If they don't Willets Point will be turned into a garbage dump just as Suzette Kelo's neighborhood has been in New London. We'll give Gideon's Trumpet the last word:

"As regular readers of this blog know, the redevelopment project that gave rise to the wretched U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, never came about. In spite of the city’s boasting about the quality of its plans, nothing was ever built on the Fort Trumbull site from which the city displaced an entire unoffending, well maintained lower middle-class neighborhood. Though the formal taking took place in 2000 and the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to it in 2005, the city’s project has been a failure, with 91 acres of waterfront property sitting there empty and overgrown by weeds.

Now, we learn from the local newspaper, The Day, that following the hurricane Irene, the city has designated the Fort Trumbull redevelopment site as a place to dump vegetation debris. For a video of locals dumping that stuff on the site, click here.

Connecticut taxpayers have thus been soaked tens of millions of dollars, not just for nothing, but for making things worse — for transforming a nice local neighborhood into a dump."