Progressive Democrat Issue 46: NYC FOCUS

I feel like I am drowning in a sea of mailings and TV ads from Michael Bloomberg. The man who wants to buy the election is using his ample wealth to saturate the city with his ads. Should the richest candidate have so much advantage? I personally find this saturation offensive and I consider his trying to buy the election offensive. What has Bloomberg done for me? The schools don’t seem much better than they did when he took office. Classes are as crowded as ever. We still need more schools to be built. Some of our schools in NYC are so short of money that kids have to bring their own toilet paper to school! Bloomberg says we don’t have the money to build new schools…but he also says we have the money for a new stadium and a new arena. Are these his priorities? Bloomberg puts developers over our children. Bloomberg says we don’t have money to keep firehouses open. But we have money to help developers tear down entire neighborhoods to put up office buildings and luxury housing? Bloomberg puts developers over our firefighters. He is has been stingy giving contracts and raises to our firefighters, teachers, nurses and cops. But he gives developers everything they want in secret backroom deals, even setting aside city laws to ease their path. Bloomberg puts developers over the law. And let’s not forget the Republican Convention. Our tax money was spent keeping us away from the convention site. Our tax money was spent preventing us from protesting. Many New Yorkers were denied their First Amendment rights while the Republican Delegates were given freebies at our expense. Later, Bloomberg became Bush’s most generous individual donor. Bloomberg puts Republicans over NYC.

Bloomberg is all about real estate, isn’t he? That seems to be what his term as mayor is all about. Development, development and more development. But not development that preserves, nurtures and restores neighborhoods. It is development that destroys neighborhoods, replacing them with skyscrapers, shopping malls, Wal-Marts and sports arenas. Our schools, firehouses, cops and nurses can go to hell, but let’s give developers exemption from our laws and our taxes. That is the Bloomberg policy.


And now Bloomberg further shows his disdain for New York voters by opting out of the first debate with Freddy Ferrer. What is Bloomberg scared of?

People tell me he isn’t beholden to anyone so they like him. Bull! Bloomberg is beholden to developers and to the Republican Party! And he is trying to get my vote by using his personal wealth to buy the election. I am not falling for it. My vote is my own and his endless mailings and TV ads just irritate me.

We need to get word out about Ferrer. Check out Freddy’s website:

http://www.ferrer2005.com/

Check out Mike Bloomberg's Record: http://www.mikebloombergsrecord.com/

and check out Boot Bloomberg out of Town: http://www.bootbloomberg.com/

And, of course, write letters to the editor saying why you don’t want Bloomberg and why you do like Ferrer. Hell, tell the media you’d rather have a beer with Ferrer than sip cocktails with Bloomberg and his rich developer friends. Help counter Bloomberg’s money with your own opinions. Tell the media YOUR viewpoint on the mayoral election:

May I suggest the following papers:

New York Daily News: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com

NY Times: gailc@nytimes.com

Staten Island Advance: hanley@siadvance.com