Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bloomberg and the Naked Cowboy

They're both running for mayor. And this week's New Yorker has interesting profiles of them.

First, the Bloomberg profile is a very long, very insightful expose of how this odd-ball billionaire wields power in NYC. On the one hand the profile is glowing; on the other hand, it's quite damning.

In short: Bloomberg's money and connections have benefited New York City's schools, health, parks, and quality of life immensely. He obviously can't be bought and that has kept our city government relatively scandal-free. Considering everything that's going down in New Jersey at the moment, this is something of a miracle.

The problems: Bloomberg's policies have helped the wealthy and developers more than the middle class. He's detached from the problems of ordinary New Yorkers and doesn't seem to care. And even though he can't be bought, his money means he can buy (and buy-off) other people, including his political competition. This has made him a virtual dictator, an inverse of the corrupting influence of money in politics, and basically making Bloomberg, as the richest and most powerful man in town, a modern day Medici. Ouch.

Second, the Naked Cowboy. It's actually a short, as-told-to piece by the father of the Naked Cowboy who lives in Ohio. He tells the story of how his weird, wayward son came to NYC and became the city's third most popular tourist attraction! WTF?

As Cindy Adams would say: Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

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