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Crotchety Old Bloomberg Reaches Peak Grumpiness
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 19, 2013
Modified Sep 19, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 19, 2013
Modified Sep 19, 2013
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Considering the fact that almost every mayoral candidate has run on an anti-Bloomberg platform—even the ones who aren't are distancing themselves from his administration—it's no wonder that Mayor Bloomberg has been even more ornery than usual lately. The cracks were showing in his "class warfare"-invoking New York Magazine interview—he seemed like a crotchety time bomb waiting to explode. And yesterday while announcing the $1.1 billion Essex Crossing development on the LES, Bloomberg may have reached peak irritability with the press and public office.
As the Times reports, Bloomberg jumped down the throat of one reporter who dared to ask him about his legacy:
When one reporter suggested that a mixed-use development he was announcing might be one of his last such initiatives as mayor, he looked at her as though she were a lobotomy patient.
“I hope not,” he said. “We’ve got 104 days, and you can rest assured we’ll be working as hard as we can. Why do you assume that?”
Before she could answer, he went on: “You probably wrote that after the second term we wouldn’t do anything. And I think we’ve done more in the third term than any administration’s ever done — certainly more than we did in the first and second term.”
When the reporter asked him to reflect on his development legacy, he sniffed, “I’m not sure what the word even means.”
Then a reporter who brought up the latest stop-and-frisk news—Judge Shira Scheindlin denied the city's request for a stay during the review process earlier this week—made the mistake of saying the judge “ruled against you on the appeal." “No, no, she didn’t rule against me — she ruled against the people of the city,” he snapped like a turtle. Noting the ruling had been expected, he said, “I don’t know why it’s even newsworthy, and I don’t know that anybody even covered it other than a tiny bit.”
When asked why he thought voters wanted the city to move in a new direction, Bloomberg retorted, “I don’t know, that’s up to your job to find out...I really have no idea. All I can do is tell you what we’ve done. If you want to write that, or if you want to make up some stuff, that’s totally up to you. I have no idea.” We shudder to imagine what would have happened if someone brought up his controversial bathroom stance.
Tagged
bloomberg
crotchety
grouchy
grumpy
mayor bloomberg
pissy
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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