Notwithstanding Mayor Michael Bloomberg having spent eight years as mayor, an alleged first-hand knowledge of finances and spent close to $100 million on a re-election campaign as compared to city Comptroller Bill Thompson’s less than $10 million, the best Bloomberg could do was beat Thompson by only 50,000 votes and even less if we take into account the close to 40,000 votes garnered by other candidates (“Voters return Marshall, mayor as Liu swept in as comptroller,” TimesLedger Newspapers, Nov. 5).
The message to Bloomberg’s arrogant ears is that his election was no mandate and the poor turnout makes it clear Bloomberg does not enjoy the confidence of a majority of New Yorkers. In governing for the next four years, Bloomberg must recognize the public did not accept his claim of job creation when we have an unemployment rate in this city of close to 10 percent.
Rampant re-zoning of middle-class and poor neighborhoods for the benefit of wealthy real estate interests must stop. His dubious claim was that a vote for him was a vote against politics as usual, but his cabal with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and 21 term-limited Council members to turn over twice-supported term limits was politics as usual.
Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing
