S/O who was the worst mayor in NYC history?

happy chick

Tue, Jun 09 2020, 7:55 pm

Reality wrote:

I think the real question to ask is who has been a competent mayor? Unfortunately, we've had more than our fair share of grossly incompetent mayors. The good ones have been few and far between.

Giuliani was very good. Maybe better ones before my times.

amother

Azure

Tue, Jun 09 2020, 10:57 pm

Youre looking at him right now, dinkins in the running too. Guilianni cleaned up the crime & led unity and emotional spirit back to nyc. Bloomberg got the city out of deep debt and cleaned up city streets to a very beautiful high level, like a high class european feel. And de blasio has destroyed all 5 consecutive terms of building in his time as mayor in one fell swoop. And its not his liberal views at play that caused this mass failure, just his lack of ability to be a successful mayor. I know no liberals who approve of his job ratings, they all say he stinks.

groisamomma

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 1:26 am

Even Dinkin supporters look back with disgust today. Even as a little kid I knew he sucked. Who remembers the Crown Heights riots?
I believe even the staunchest deBlasio supporters will one day look back with the same disgust. Hindsight is 20/20.

Reality

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 6:45 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

Guiliani was the best thing NYC ever had.

I agree 100%.

But saying Dinkins was the worst is forgetting about all the horrible things that happened in NYC in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

SixOfWands

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 6:58 pm

happy chick wrote:

Giuliani was very good. Maybe better ones before my times.

He was awful. His policies regarding homeless were terrible. His record on civil liberties was awful. His relationship with the schools was considered inept. He was accused of racial profiling, and his schools's chancellor said, "I find his policies to be so racist and class-biased. I don't even know how I lasted three years. ... He was barren, completely emotionally barren, on the issue of race." He did cross dress in a film with Donald Trump, but I don't think that outweighs the bad.

Bloomberg was staunchly mediocre.

I only grew to appreciate Bloomberg when DiBlasio took over. He's pretty much an unmitigated disaster. Someone mentioned his supporters -- who are they? I've never met one.

Reality

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 7:11 pm

Wow! That's really strong criticism. Plenty of people didn't like him but that's a bit much.

Giuliani took the reins of a broken crime ridden city and rebuilt it into safe city which has blossomed economically.

SixOfWands

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 7:43 pm

Reality wrote:

He deserves some credit for reducing crime. But it was already falling under Dinkins, and the reduction in crime rate followed a national trend.

ra_mom

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:18 pm

Giuliani cleaned up NYC and brought back its glory. He was wonderful during his time as mayor. Best mayor in a long time. We were really lucky to have him and need someone like that today. I don't recognize him these days though. He seems very different than back then.

Reality

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:27 pm

ra_mom wrote:

He's old now. That's what has changed.

Boy was he strong in his hey day! Remember when he threw out Arafat? Nobody has that kind of back bone anymore!

Reality

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:29 pm

SixOfWands wrote:

He deserves some credit for reducing crime. But it was already falling under Dinkins, and the reduction in crime rate followed a national trend.

Please explain how crime was already falling under Dinkins. Dinkins allowed a riot to continue unchecked for days!!

nylon

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:46 pm

Dinkins was not a good mayor--he didn't know how to show leadership, which is critical in NYC--but the national crime rate had already begun falling in the early 1990s. There were structural changes involving the burnout of the crack epidemic and economic improvement. Giuliani took all the credit, but the stage was set before he was in. His relationship with the school system was poor--Bloomberg learned a lesson before getting into office.

Abe Beame was handed an impossible situation. The feds refused to help. He could not stop the city from running out of money, and the state took over finances.

Koch is overrated. His administration had significant corruption issues. Crime skyrocketed through the 80s, fed by the crack epidemic. Garbage was everywhere. He mishandled homelessness catastrophically with his welfare hotels and SRO shutdowns. You couldn't go into parks after dark.

Bloomberg was not all good--he gave away too much to real estate developers for too little in return. But he was a competent administrator.

I'd have to go with Lindsay, who looked good, but left a disaster.

SixOfWands

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:51 pm

Reality wrote:

Please explain how crime was already falling under Dinkins. Dinkins allowed a riot to continue unchecked for days!!

It was only one day.

https://www.washingtonpost.com.....cops/

Oh, sorry. You mean Crown Heights. That's why Dinkins lost. And he should have. It was horrific.
But 3 days does not a mayoral term make. At least not in terms of crime statistics.

Reality

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:57 pm

I really don't agree with taking away credit from Giuliani for his success in crime reduction.

So I checked the amounts of murders a year in NYC. At it's high in the early 90's there were over 2,200 murders a year. The next couple of years there were about 100 murders less. Which is better but not significant change.

When Giuliani took over those murder rates plummeted!! 300-400 fewer murders EVERY year. That was a huge change!

That's a lot of saved lives. And primarily people of color! That is an amazing achievement!

pause

Wed, Jun 10 2020, 8:57 pm

Here you have the murder rates of NYC by year since 1928

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....._year
1990 saw the worst crime of all time.

(Altering charts to reflect only parts of the complete picture is a common technique of misinformation and bias reporting.)

Last edited by pause on Wed, Jun 10 2020, 10:23 pm; edited 1 time in total