Opinion of Michael Bloomberg

[moderatevoter]

Former Mayor of New York City.

[Goldwater]

HP.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The most dangerous man in American politics, bar none. He is the king of (I'm not ripping on TNF or Snowstalker here either) bourgeois moderate heroism, the type of eastern establishment elitism Nixon despised.

[Mr. Illini]

Corporate-crony body-regulating HP

[free my dawg]

Anyone who makes Fitzy look like Rob Ford is an HP.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Didn't you know he and Woodrow Wilson are the least liked people on Atlas?

[Antonio the Sixth]

HP for being a wealthy neoliberal who doesn't give two sh*ts about the poor and for stop-and-frisk. That said, I fully approve of his policies regarding soda.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

Mega-HP.

[Simfan34]

FF (normal)

Get back to me when you live here. Sure, he might have had his moments of nanny-state silliness but he certainly was not bad by any objective standard.

Also, this derangement is frighteningly widespread. I am sincerely alarmed by how it apparently transcends partisan affiliation here.

[they don't love you like i love you]

The soda thing is really silly, I mean come on does anyone think just limiting the max size is going to cause a decrease in obesity in NYC? Imagine if Bushie was limited to the max soda size he could order and how much of an effect that'd have. Very pointless regulation.

However that is far from the main reason he's a HP.

[bedstuy]

One of the best mayors in NYC history.  I don't understand the hate for Bloomberg.  You must be overrating a few political issues, I don't think being a mayor is like being a governor or Senator.  It's mostly about being an executive who manages a bureaucracy, makes deals and markets your city to the rest of the world.  On the major issue, land use, Bloomberg was actually been great in rezoning the city and supporting a more bike-friendly-pedestrian friendly city.

The soda thing is really silly, I mean come on does anyone think just limiting the max size is going to cause a decrease in obesity in NYC? Imagine if Bushie was limited to the max soda size he could order and how much of an effect that'd have. Very pointless regulation.

However that is far from the main reason he's a HP.

It actually might make a difference though if people just tend to buy smaller sodas.  If you drink one soda per day, a 20 ounce coke is 234 calories vs. a 16 ounce coke is 187 calories.  Considering those are just empty calories, 47 Calories or 100 calories if you drink 2 sodas per day, that would make a difference over a long period of time.  The question is whether people would just find other ways to drink more soda. 

[SWE]

Awful.

[traininthedistance]

Agree with bedstuy, Nix, Simfan, of course- the man is clearly an FF on balance and the bipartisan frothing, immature hate for him on Atlas is mystifying and depressing.  

Seriously, if you're gonna think that this:

On the major issue, land use, Bloomberg was actually been great in rezoning the city and supporting a more bike-friendly-pedestrian friendly city.

is less important than MUH BIG GULPS, than you're just nuts.

[RR1997]

Lean FF, even though I disagree with his soda ban, he was overall a great, neoliberal mayor.

[Simfan34]

HP for being a wealthy neoliberal who doesn't give two sh*ts about the poor and for stop-and-frisk. That said, I fully approve of his policies regarding soda.

Let's break this down.

wealthy

This might have some currency if he had inherited his fortune. That is not the case.

neoliberal

What does this mean in the context of New York City politics?

doesn't give two sh*ts about the poor

Which is why he instituted the first conditional cash transfer in the country, supported mass transit, attempted to (and succeeded in) reduce violent gun crime, improved education performance, launched the largest affordable housing scheme in the country...

stop-and-frisk. That said, I fully approve of his policies regarding soda.

Stop-and-frisk rates closely matched violent crime rates. I suppose this makes the truth racist.

[Maxwell]

Someone who I could actually picture saying "Guards, seize him!"

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

One of the best mayors in NYC history.  I don't understand the hate for Bloomberg.  You must be overrating a few political issues, I don't think being a mayor is like being a governor or Senator.  It's mostly about being an executive who manages a bureaucracy, makes deals and markets your city to the rest of the world.  On the major issue, land use, Bloomberg was actually been great in rezoning the city and supporting a more bike-friendly-pedestrian friendly city.

Why is a more bike-friendly city a good thing?

[Simfan34]

Why wouldn't it be?

[Cobbler]

FF. He is arrogant, an elitist, plutocratic, etc, but he's done a fantastic job. He has been the best performing mayor of New York City, and has been very effective at running it well and making NYC much better off then it was before him.

The soda thing is dumb, but that is the extent of it. The fact that people would heavily weigh that policy in shaping their opinion of his overall administration is pretty laughable.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Why wouldn't it be?

They get in the way of people who actually have things to do, work to go to, and restaurants to eat at. Without bike lanes, cyclists tend to pretend like they're actually part of traffic and get in the way of those who don't pretend that the world was made for their exercise fetishes. I don't see any merit in rewarding them, especially when a perfectly good sidewalk is only a few feet away.

[Oakvale]

FF on balance. The nanny state stuff isn't great but is presumably a fairly minor part of his overall legacy and by all accounts he was a capable mayor of his city.

[Simfan34]

Why wouldn't it be?

They get in the way of people who actually have things to do, work to go to, and restaurants to eat at. Without bike lanes, cyclists tend to pretend like they're actually part of traffic and get in the way of those who don't pretend that the world was made for their exercise fetishes. I don't see any merit in rewarding them, especially when a perfectly good sidewalk is only a few feet away.

That might be the case out where you are, but it's not the case here. And we have increased the number of bike lanes.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Why wouldn't it be?

They get in the way of people who actually have things to do, work to go to, and restaurants to eat at. Without bike lanes, cyclists tend to pretend like they're actually part of traffic and get in the way of those who don't pretend that the world was made for their exercise fetishes. I don't see any merit in rewarding them, especially when a perfectly good sidewalk is only a few feet away.

That might be the case out where you are, but it's not the case here. And we have increased the number of bike lanes.

I can only hope that their horrible behavior here is not a widespread phenomenon. More than once I've had to deal with oncoming traffic on my left and cyclists on my right (though still on the road) so that driving at anything close to a normal speed would be impossible, and they have little inclination in this neck of the woods to give a darn about that.

[Simfan34]

Yeah, you'd very quickly stop cycling like that here- either because you've learnt otherwise or been run over.

[they don't love you like i love you]

The soda thing is really silly, I mean come on does anyone think just limiting the max size is going to cause a decrease in obesity in NYC? Imagine if Bushie was limited to the max soda size he could order and how much of an effect that'd have. Very pointless regulation.

However that is far from the main reason he's a HP.

It actually might make a difference though if people just tend to buy smaller sodas.  If you drink one soda per day, a 20 ounce coke is 234 calories vs. a 16 ounce coke is 187 calories.  Considering those are just empty calories, 47 Calories or 100 calories if you drink 2 sodas per day, that would make a difference over a long period of time.  The question is whether people would just find other ways to drink more soda. 

How many people drink one soda per day in the type affected by the regulation though? Even those that want more would just buy more in bottles unaffected by it. I myself never buy the max size of a fountain drink anyway because drinking all that at once gives me a stomachache. I can't see how it can make any actual difference in total consumption.