Calling 911

Just when we think that we have exhausted the reasons why giving Mike Bloomberg a third term was a bad idea-and we use "giving" in a jocular sense-another fiasco rears its ugly head. This time it is the emerg3ency response system adding to the debacle that was CityTime. The NY Post looks under the hood and finds a defective engine:

"New York City’s $2 billion new 911 emergency system seems to work great — except, maybe, in emergencies.In emergencies like Sandy, to be specific.The Post’s Josh Margolin reported yesterday that the city redundantly dispatched first responders during the storm — sowing confusion and diverting resources needed for other emergencies.That, to put it mildly, is not how a 911 system is supposed to work. Speed matters in emergencies, after all."

Once again the managerial genius of the Bloomberg administration made manifest-and that, along with the city's chronically high unemployment-are the badges of honor we have to pin to the mayor's third term chest. Of course, this leaves out his incessant annoying meddling in how we lire our lives and his sojourns into trying to become some kind of global warming icon or gun control czar.

What gets us chuckling-ruefully, of course-is how all of these sophisticated New Yorkers allowed themselves to be bought off by this posturing phony. Look closely and you will find very little to show by way of accomplishments for the mayor's 11 years of subjecting us to his whining, droning voice. Except for one major accomplishment: mega real estate development for his billionaire buddies.

Mike Bloomberg has managed to treat development much like the Tweed Ring did back in the 19th Century-giving away land and development rights to cronies. The difference? The mayor never personally benefited-but his friends sure did. So much so that a new word was coined by Newsday's Dan Janison-patricianage.

So as we anticipate the growing campaign opposing the tax giveaways to FreshDirect and the land scheme involving Sterling Equities and EDC we continue to hope that a more engaged public begins to see the Wizard of Oz like resemblance that Mike Bloomberg projects as he uses his money to camouflage how the neighborhoods and small businesses of NYC have suffered under his benign neglect.