New York City’s Bloomberg Years

By Renard Teipelke

It actually blew my mind. Ford Fessenden and his colleagues summarized the main urban development changes during the ten-year tenure of New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a couple of animated info graphics. But the result is astonishing: One can click through the themes and learn the most important aspects of Bloomberg’s ‘legacy’ in just a few minutes. The whole presentation nicely includes some judgments about Bloomberg’s work without putting them too much to the fore as various readers will have very different opinions on the corresponding policy issues.

What becomes clear is that Bloomberg’s approach to governing and developing New York City is an interesting mixture of green, liberal, business-oriented projects that – in my eyes – made this Über-City better off, but leaves not everyone satisfied, as New York City remains trapped in ‘Global City’ agendas that are highly insufficient to address matters of social justice. The focus is still strongly placed on global competitiveness to the detriment of neighborhood development challenges. Nevertheless, Bloomberg has been the right mayor for this city, particularly if the legacies of his predecessors are scrutinized. Check out the interactive feature here.