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Bloomberg: You're "Sick" If You Complain About Tourists
By
John Del Signore
Published May 21, 2010
Modified May 21, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 21, 2010
Modified May 21, 2010
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Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg finally weighed in on "the talk of the Internet"—the line chalked onto a Fifth Avenue sidewalk that tries to keep tourists out of the way of busy, important New Yorkers as they go about their big shot, world-turning business. The mayor's sunshine-and-daffodils spin on the tourist lane would have made Pollyanna roll her eyes:
It certainly says something about our feeling for tourists. They’re willing to give up some space to the people that come here and support our industries. ... This is why you have a job and I have a job is because (of) tourists that come here and I thought it was very cute. I don’t think you’re going to keep people in those lanes but the more tourists that come here... When I saw it I said, "Oh, that’s a nice thing to do." But you can’t do that every place for tourists and we’re not about to go to say to tourists, "Well, we’re going to clear off some streets just for you."
According to the Daily News, WCBS-AM's Rich Lamb tried to get Hizzoner to acknowledge the obvious: that the dividing line represents an abiding frustration with waddling tourists getting underfoot. But if you are one of those New Yorkers who walks around with a cattle prod zapping any slow-walker with a fanny-pack, the mayor wants you to know that you're basically a disgrace.
"I'd be happy to introduce you to a lot of people who feed their families based on tourists, and if you want to talk to them I think you’ll find exactly the reverse," Bloomberg told Lamb. "I don’t remember hearing anybody really complain about tourists. They complain about noise on the tourist buses. We’ve done something about that. But you’ve got to be a pretty sick person to take it that way, I think."
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mayor bloomberg
new yorkers
sidewalk
tourist
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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