The new New York magazine unleashes a whole lotta Bloomy this week. (Find the package of stories here.) I'm still wrapping my head around it all... Here's an excerpt from Justin Davidson's essay titled "Shiny, Alluring, Ugly, Visionary, Inspiring, Incomplete."
The present, however, hasn’t always gone so smoothly. For an irresistible city, New York can be awfully ugly. Ghastly glass towers have laid waste to entire neighborhoods, and sharklike chain stores have swallowed small businesses. The once-derelict industrial zone along the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront metamorphosed into a new, high-density neighborhood, which would’ve been great, except that the change resulted in a phalanx of big ungainly buildings with a paltry, broken strip of greenery out front. The permissive rezoning of Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, too, produced buildings of such slipshod “luxury” that the Wall Street Journal columnist Robbie Whelan called it a “canyon of mediocrity.”
Why did so much terrible stuff get built? The answer is that bad, overpriced buildings are the price of civic ambition. In lean times, most architecture is crap because only what is cheap gets built; in better times, most architecture is crap because developers can’t wait to start cashing in. Bloomberg made New York safe for high-quality design — and at the same time triggered a plague of prosperous awfulness. As long as the city remains attractive, there will always be money in ruining it.
[Bloomy photo via]
22 comments:
Margarita Lopez proclaimed him an "honorary lesbian" when he was running for office and got a high paying job at HPD as payback. She sold out the " East Village" for the job Bloomberg gave her. Someone should ask Rosie about her thoughts on this and Bloomberg as well. I will remember Bloombucks for the unprecedented level of police brutality he unleashed on journalists and protesters at Occupy Wall Street. I am proud that protests I organized shut his block down twice. Screw him and his money he will be remembered as the racist mayor for the rich !
Nice fucking sweater.
Years from now,some will certainly recall what a terrible politician and person he was but I'm sure the history books won't. His many corrupt scandals, embarassing missteps, and personal meanness will be swept under the rug in favor of his enduring image as the mayor who "remade" New York, "bringing the City into the 21st century". Just wait and see.
How much you wanna bet this smirking little troll will run for President some day? Although I can see how he'd want to chill out and enjoy his wealth and avoid the headache.
Please forgive my confusing comment above. I just wanted an excuse to call him a smirky troll. :)
I cant wait to Jan 1st to see how the emperor is going to conquer the taxi industry...
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/mike-bloomberg-wants-to-fucking-destroy-the-taxi-industry-heres-how-he-could-do-it/276238/
Good riddance! He's been exploiting this city far too long. We need someone who's going to make New York City for New Yorkers again and stop treating us like second class citizens compared to the tourists and transients.
I remember the Lindsay years the prelude to Beame and NYC taking a massive dump. Years went by righting the mess. Looks like De Blasio and his fifteen year old son will be running the city come Jan..looking forward to buying the reissue of Big MAC bonds missed out last time. Mooch class will be out in force "where are my gifts" the city as a money tree to the loudest voice wanting..
He's a vicious little Beantown thug, a petty satrap free of compassion, understanding, decency and interest in anything but letting NYC be raped by his rich developer buddies and chain corporations. I keep hoping his helicopter or private plane will go down, with him as the only fatality. Maybe someday.
Lol, Gojira!
"I am proud that protests I organized shut his block down twice."
yes, and see how much good it did? not. soooo outdated. but hey, at least you're full of yourself.
ROFL!!!! Only if they stop and frisk him as he plummets!
@Anon. 11:08 - can't stop laughing, thanks!
love the so thinly-veiled racism towards bill deblasio's son that i keep seeing from otherwise "progressive" new yorkers. saw the same thing once obama pulled ahead of hillary in 2008. what class.
Okay I'm not a fan of Bloomberg's NYC makeover either but wishing his helicopter crashes someday sound a little Al Qaeda don't you think? Today we can use the only power we have against the big land developers, the last 12 years of coddling of the very richest by voting. If any of you bitching here have no plans to vote today than shame on you!
you'll see how good bloomberg actually was when you have quinn or that idiot deblasio running things. sure he was dictatorial and overbroad in his policies but NY needs a pro business pro police mayor to flourish or else we become a big Newark.
Bow Ho Boy,,,,,Where do you live Punk ? I'll shut your block down too !!! I ain't full of anything but history is history. Bite Me !!!
@Anon 3:53 - If I wanted to live in a fascist police state I would go to North Korea. I prefer a less divisive, more equable city. Pro business? Why, so they can wipe out any last traces of the middle class that might have managed to hang on after 12 years of ceaseless attempts to buffet them right out of the city? Pro police? Why, so they can continue to target people because of the way they dress? Sounds to me like you would like an entire police force made up of George Zimmermans, and I am guessing you yourself would never be a target for stop and frisk.
Thought of Nannyberg tonight as I watched a kid steal a ShittyBike from TSP. Apparently they are harder to lock in than pull out.
Nice one Skipper @ 4;23 - beat me to it. And bow boy - learn just who Mr J Penley is before you open yer yap... Respect. Not full of himself - he just talks the talk and walks the walk. 'Nuff said.
On the larger issues (education policy, stop-and-frisk, zoning, others) I didn't like Bloomberg. But on issues like bikes, tobacco, the soda cap, he was great. He paved the way for a lot of progressive legislation in the future, and not just in NYC.
JP, you're using spears and arrows to fight the military-style assault weapons of today's political scene. You are so old school that change doesn't even happen your way anymore. I respect what you're done, but if you don't bring your game into the 21st century, you are of little help to this community. This isn't a rebuke, but a challenge.
the though of a deblasio administration scraes the shit out of me. Anyone who remembers Dinkinsian New York knows what I mean.
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