Bloomberg's Revenge, Bloomberg's Political Suicide - Editorials - AllMediaNY

Bloomberg's Revenge, Bloomberg's Political Suicide - Editorials - AllMediaNY

Good piece.

Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born in 1942, too young to personally remember the Great Depression. He was born to two second-generation immigrants, and worked as a parking lot attendant to pay for his tuition at Johns Hopkins University. His background, his ease in crowds, and his joking manner almost makes you feel like he’s one of us. He even tells New Yorkers he rides the subway. Don’t be fooled though, Bloomberg is not one of us. He in no way can relate to a straphanger, to a parking lot attendant or to immigrants or their children. A motorcade of SUVs drives him to his subway stop—five blocks away from his home. He relinquished Gracie Mansion for his Upper East Side residence, 17 East 79th Street, a home Zillow estimates at nearly $6 million. While residents struggle to pay rent prices increasing even in a recession, with the average studio going for $2,417 per month, Bloomberg’s multi-million dollar New York home is just one of his many residences. In a city where multi-million dollar apartments, and multi-millionaires, are a dime a dozen, Bloomberg stands out. By the billions. With an estimated net worth of almost $20 billion in 2011, our 69-year-old mayor is, according to Forbes, one of the top 20 richest people in the United States, and one of the top 20 most powerful people in the world. The rules don’t apply to people like Bloomberg; even though he’s followed them thus far, it’s more because of noblesse oblige than fear of consequences.