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Bloomberg: Fearmonger Or Fastidious Functionary?
By
Garth Johnston
Published Aug 29, 2011
Modified Aug 29, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Aug 29, 2011
Modified Aug 29, 2011
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Announcing the mandatory evacuation of Zone A on Friday, Mayor Bloomberg said "We can joke about this on Monday morning. But until then this is a matter of life and death." It is Monday morning—are we laughing? Our poll yesterday asking if the city overreacted to the storm found our readers pretty split, but as far as the media goes the consensus today is that Bloomberg—clearly working to make up for Blizzageddon—did what he had to do and did a good job. But what do you think?
Your mileage may vary regarding the city's preparation for the storm (the MTA's flood porn or no, people will forever question the logic of shutting down the entire system so early) but it is worth noting that many people who live in the evacuated areas seemed grateful in the end for all those "sky is falling" press conferences. As one Coney Islander succinctly put it to the Times, "He did the right thing to warn everybody to leave. We didn’t know how bad the storm was going to be."
The issue with much of the grumbling about Bloomberg overreacting is that the line your mother always told you is true: Better safe than sorry. If Bloomberg, who occasionally appeared to be running for the Mayor of Irene-ville over the weekend, hadn't made such a fuss things could have gone very bad, very quickly. A crazy tropical storm did, after all, touch down on our shores! And if you think of this crazy weekend—which came on the heels of a freaking earthquake!—as a fire drill for a natural disaster in New York (which it essentially was) it is pretty hard to argue that the city passed with anything less than a solid A. Which is something we can all be proud of...
Tagged
fearmongering
hurricane irene
mayor bloomberg
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Garth Johnston
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