I’m sick of Bloomberg’s gloom and doom about Hurricane Irene, both before and after its aftermath. For example, this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned New York City commuters that:
“It’s fair to say you’re going to have a tough commute in the morning. There’s taxis, and some people can walk.”
I polled my coworkers at work today; NJ transit into Manhattan was running fine. Everybody to work OK, except anyone using the metronorth. Essentially, the information provided by the MTA (which lines were specifically running) proved accurate, and in general, transit was smooth and easy. But, I thought Doomberg said the class 20 hurricane battered NYC into oblivion?
Reason, in an inflammatory article Hurricane Irene and the Financial Crisis: Two disasters, partially of the government’s own making, highlights my problem with heavy-handed Mayor Bloomberg:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York order[ed] businesses to close and citizens to evacuate their homes in advance of Tropical Storm Irene.
[G]overnment actions taken were exceptional and involved depriving people of private property without the due process required under the Fifth Amendment.In Irene, the mayor and the governor took away not a company that belonged to shareholders, but rather the use of apartments and houses and commercial properties that had been owned or rented by individuals.
First the snowstorm last year, now this year’s rain storm; in either case, Bloomberg has proven himself to be a wiffle-waffler and popularist, making the wrong decisions in both cases, swaying from inaction to action in the face of criticism. Under-reaction, overreaction: when a real disaster hits NYC next, you can be sure that Bloomberg will be back to inaction.