Bloomberg Has Done More (Damage) Than He's Given Credit For

Today's edition of AM New York has a mostly glowing piece on how Michael Bloomberg has transformed our city for the better despite high publicity losses such as the West Side Stadium and the congestion pricing initiative that just fell last week. The real win for Bloomberg according to AMNY was the series of rezoning laws that has spurred a tremendous amount of growth all over the city (except for the Bronx of course).

The article's major focus is that thanks to the Mayor, new neighborhoods have sprung up almost overnight, businesses are staying in Manhattan after threatening to leave the city post 9/11 and areas thought to be no-man lands are the hippest new thing.

Of course, that is all true. Yet there is only one paragraph in the middle and three at the end that show the other side of things. New York has been changing alright, but at what cost to New Yorkers? Prices have gone sky high due to all the luxury building. Many long time residents are being priced out of the city, giving their newly more expensive space in order to gentrify the city and purge it of the character it is world-famous for. The Big Apple, Gotham and the hundreds of other names were not pulled off of a Starbucks menu. Of course Bloomberg doesn't care as long as big business is making big money here in Manhattan.

I know, New York is always changing. Yet what it is changing into now is only palatable for the very rich....and not for the rest of us.