Support for Bloomberg at 59%, down from 68%

There is a ton of coverage of the new Marist poll that puts Bloomberg's support at 59%, down from a recent level of 68%. Here's a selected list:

• AP/Newsday ~ Poll: Bloomberg approval at 3-year low
  
• SI Advance ~ Michael Bloomberg's approval rating down 9 percent: Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approval ratings have dropped by almost double digits in the last seven weeks, likely the result of a nose-diving economy and a controversial term limits bill he pushed through City Council, results of a Marist College poll released today indicate.
  
• CNN Political Ticker: Bloomberg approval rating takes a hit
  (currently one of the top national stories)
  
• NY Times: Bloomberg’s Approval Rating Slips in Poll (of the 46 comments as of this moment, 44 were critical of Bloomberg's term limits move)
  
• Yonkers Tribune: NYC Voters Disagree With Term Limit Extension
  
• NY1, Reuters, Crain's, NY Observer, et cetera, et cetera

Also, the Daily News analyzes the Working Family Party's claims of electoral victory, partially based their strong stance against Bloomberg's term extension. They also write about Anthony Weiner taking the high road.

Whew! Much more ink and many more pixels will be spilled on this, especially since there are national implications. The Guardian reports about one of Obama's new appointees, Patrick Gaspard:

Gaspard played a crucial role in SEIU's decision to come out against New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in his bid to overturn term-limits rules and run for re-election, according to the Daily News report.

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AtlanticYardsReport responds to the Voice

The Atlantic Yards Report casts an appreciative but critical eye to the Voice's coverage of Bloomberg:

Wayne Barrett's Village Voice cover story, The Transformation of Mike Bloomberg, demolishes the claims that Bloomberg's decision to seek a third term was driven by a duty to confront the financial crisis and dissects the editorial arguments made in favor of Bloomberg's effort
to extend term limits.

Here is the Atlantic Yards angle:

I think Barrett is a bit too generous about Bloomberg's first term. After all, there were already signs of the mayor's edifice complex and his unquestioning willingness to back a developer's plan....

As I pointed out, Bloomberg essentially said that the city and the developer were on the same team, nearly a year and a half before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority put the Vanderbilt Yard--some 40% of the proposed site--out for bid.

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This was also covered in NoLandGrab.

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Benevolent billionaire with no political debts ended up owning us all

The Village Voice published an article worth reading about the first and second terms of the Bloomberg administration. Here's a flavor:

The Bloomberg who came into office as the anti-politician, promising to transform city government, has been transformed himself. Some of us liked him precisely because his wealth insulated him from the kind of horsetrading that diminished his predecessors. But seven years later, Bloomberg has not only proved himself to be a master politician, as hungry for power as anyone we've ever seen, but he's also ended up putting nearly everyone who deals with the city deep into his political debt.

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The need for "consistent leaders"... and persistant bloggers

At Room 8, Oneshirt lays into the City Council and friends in "Was the Lie of 'Consistent Leadership' Old Media’s Last Stand." The post criticizes the argument made by the main New York papers and politicians that continuing the current leadership is somehow good and necessary. For Oneshirt, this is a prime example of why bloggers are becoming the new heroes of our fine city's democracy:

Only the city’s bloggers like Your Free Press, Pardon Me For Asking, The Brooklyn Optimist, The Daily Gotham, Queens Crap, and Washington Square Park reported to their readers during the term limits debate that the Council’s argument for continuity of leadership to save the city’s economy was nothing more than public relations spin to cover the Council’s blatant power grab for an additional term in office. At the same time these citizen journalists across the City were reporting the real facts, the Mayor was meeting with the publishers of the three major dailies to coordinate a cover story for his support of extending term limits.

One of these bloggers/journalists, Rafael Martinez-Alequin, is fighting to keep his press pass. He is being represented by Norman Siegel.


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Bloomberg and the 29 didn't listen to you...but the internets will

There's a new website dedicated to the Bloomberg 29—that is, the City Council Members that voted to give the mayor a third term. You can visit it at bloomberg29.webs.com and see snazzy graphics like this:

And what would any movement be without t-shirts? You can pick them up at cafepress.com/bloomberg29.

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First Term Limits Lawsuit Court Appearance

Here is a press release from the office of Council Member Bill de Blasio:

Tomorrow, plaintiffs and co-counsel Randy Mastro, Norman Siegel and Pieter Van Tol in the lawsuit against the newly enacted law extending term limits, filed last Monday in the Eastern District of New York, will make their first court appearance. The court appearance is scheduled for 2pm and will be a scheduling conference at which the attorneys filing the suit will ask Judge Charles P. Sifton to set a schedule for the resolution of the merits of the case.

What: First term limits lawsuit court appearance.

Who: Plaintiffs; Co-Counsel Randy Mastro, Norman Siegel and Pieter Van Tol.

When: Wednesday, November 19th, 2:00PM

Where: The Federal Courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Courtroom 6-A. The Courthouse is located in Downtown Brooklyn at 225 Cadman Plaza East.

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ChangeNYC.org on term limits

ChangeNYC.Org is a newly announced website working to "unify our City’s Democratic Party by welcoming all New Yorkers back into the political process." Here is what they have to say about term limits:

In New York City, there is only one political party with any real power: the Democratic Party. It controls almost every single elected office in the five boroughs and sets the City’s policies practically unopposed. As Democrats, you would think that would make for an ideal government. But, as we all know, New York City’s government is far from perfect.

The problem is that the comfort of one-party rule has let our City’s Democratic leaders settle into a pattern of indifference to the people’s concerns, dangerous inaction, and, all too often, corruption.

Our City’s elected officials and political bosses deliberately keep our government dysfunctional to preserve and advance their own interests. The clearest example of this self-serving agenda is the City Council’s recent vote to extend term limits. New Yorkers had voted twice in the past fifteen years to have term limits, and there was no reason to believe we had changed our minds. In fact, just two days before the Council voted to treat themselves to another four years in office, 89 percent of New Yorkers polled said that they opposed the Council’s power grab.

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