His Power Grab and the Myth of Mayor Mike

Put aside his hypocritical rhetoric and the effort to override twice-voted term limits is nothing more than a cutthroat power grab. How dare he say that New York can’t survive this crisis unless this one man can override the voice of the voters.

He says we need to override the voice of the voters because only can save New York the fiscal crisis. And he calls that democracy.

Putting aside how undemocratic that is, let’s look at Mike’s record on development and speculation. Every large scale “economic development” project he has backed has failed, is failing or is mired in controversy. Here are the big ones:

Atlantic Yards
The Olympics
Jets West Side Stadium
Willets Point redevelopment
Downtown Brooklyn rezoning
Greenpoint/Williamsburg rezoning
Columbia expansion
Javits Center
Moynihan Station
NASCAR in Staten Island

All speculative, all top down, all failures or mired in the stench of failure. His laser beam focus on the megaproject has wasted time and taxpayer dollars, and has been an opportunity cost of mammoth proportions.

That record of failed economic development policy is reason enough not to re-elect him, let alone allow his power grab to overturn the people’s vote.

How is he going to lead us out of the financial problems facing the city and nation with that track record? Is he going to overdevelop us out of this mess?

We don’t think so.

The power grab is based on a myth of Mayor Mike as a shrewd businessman, a steady hand on the city’s economy.

Myths shouldn’t be allowed to override the will of the people. His disingenuous rhetoric about democracy and choice doesn’t make his power grab right.