Mayor Michael Bloomberg thought it would be easy to unravel citizen initiative rights in New York City.
He wants to stand for a third term, when New Yorkers have twice voted in support of a referendum limiting the mayor and city council members to two terms. Bloomberg’s second term ends November 2009.
Solution? Exploit a loophole that lets the city council revise the term limits law unilaterally. Council members had mumbled about doing this before, but Bloomberg always said he would veto any such attempt. We must, he said, respect the decision of the voters.
Once the mayor changed his mind, his task was simple. Just persuade a willing council to lengthen terms from two to three. Which they did. Problem solved.
Except … the uproar greeting Bloomberg’s betrayal of the voters has become enormous. And continues. Many voters showed up at the signing ceremony to berate him in person. So he had to squirm for a couple hours before scribbling his soiled John Hancock. There’s also a lawsuit under way to try to undo this undoing of lawful democracy.
And now a Brooklyn resident, Andre Calvert, has set up a Facebook page dedicated to the goal of defeating Bloomberg and the 29 city council members who voted to undermine the voters. Live in New York? Check it out. Maybe even if you don’t. The name of the profile is King Bloomberg III.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “New Yorkers Won’t Take It Any More”
I strongly support the opposition to Bloomberg. His end run around the will of NYC voters is only part of his arrogant dishonesty. The false claims of success in growth of student achievement during the Bloomberg/Klein tenure are another egregious slap in the face to those who are knowledgeable about data in this area.
The data shows the following:
Compared with 2007, NYC student averages fell three points in reading and two points in maths, while writing scores stayed flat. The results were among the worst in the US and in sharp contrast with much-improved maths and reading scores in state-administered tests announced by Klein in June. Klein was also hurt by the results of the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (known as the nation’s report card), that showed NYC fourth and eighth graders had made no statistically significant improvement in reading since 2003.
Independent analysis of the results concluded that in the period 2003-07 the achievement gap between black and white students in reading — the motor for all learning — had not been reduced at all in New York, despite assurances from Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the contrary.
In testimony to Congress this year, Bloomberg said he and Klein had “done everything possible to narrow the achievement gap” and in some cases had reduced it by half.
For Klein, the only education chief in the US with a special office dedicated to closing the achievement gap, it was a huge disappointment, though he publicly decried the methodology used and insisted that “our black kids in the fourth grade are outperforming all black kids in America
Bloomberg and Klein’s dishonesty and misinformation to the press must be exposed. Please read the website of NYC Parents with an analysis of test results for NYC over the Bloomberg/Klein administration http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2008/07/comparative-naep-results-help-cut.html
Once again, by use of political games or by use of activist courts, those who talk about democracy & rights, seek to undermine the will of the “mere” people.
Bloomberg & his ilk are convinced it is they & they alone who know best what is best for the “mere” people, who they feel must be led along like idiots, even if against their will & in defiance of the law.
Just as in California where voters spoke & radical activists demand courts overturn such votes, Bloomberg uses a City Council to do his bidding in a measure passed to defy the will of the people.
Its time all stand up to politicians & their plans for power & to accumulate wealth at the expense of the people.
Perhaps the lawsuits should be to demand the criminal prosecution of those politicians who defy the will of the people once the people have voted!?!