Second-Term Terrain

When Mike Bloomberg is sworn in as mayor for the second time, he will stand on the steps of City Hall and see the same problem his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, saw: a city with not many problems.

Crime rates are at historic lows. The Board of Ed has been killed. Drinkers can stumble home without the stench of smoke on their clothes. And Gotham has something like concierge service, courtesy of 311.

When Rudy turned to face the city he tamed in 1997, he squinted his eyes and saw renegade pedestrians in need of direction; outlaw street vendors in need of more scrutiny; offensive art in need of a Decency Commission; a police department that could do no wrong; and a budget he could not reduce. The uncontrolled city expenditures the tax-cutting mayor saw in his first year ballooned in his final year into a $2 billion deficit he plugged with surpluses from 1999.

"He has virtually no support among blacks," noted Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac College Polling Institute in April 1999. Giuliani, who trounced Ruth Messinger, was now facing a city he'd conquered, no real agenda and a 37% approval rating, his lowest ever.

Before 9/11, there was little to be said for his second term, other than that Rudy wasn't Ruth.

Inside the Giuliani archives, Bloomberg may find notes on Bernie Kerik's dalliances, but he won't find out how to avoid the second-term landmines.

Bloomberg doesn't want to go to Albany. He's too much of a manager to join the Senate. And he ain't gonna be president. This means that he can basically do whatever the fuck he wants. And he wants to help the city, I hope.

Remember, Bloomberg said he wants to spend his post-mayoral years giving away his money. (I'm in the phonebook, Mike!) So what does success mean for a politician who ruled out running for future office? It means performing long-delayed surgery on a city that's settled for band-aids.

Gotham's financial problems aren't coming out of the blue. They're structural, seemingly built into the fabric weaving it together. Pension costs, member items and money-wasting inefficiency have all been left untouched for years by politicians eyeing their next run for office. That is something Bloomberg never has to worry about. He's ruled out running for office and is therefore free to do the necessary, ugly and unpopular work of unstitching that fabric, making enemies out of the old guard and finally fixing what every career politician has postponed until they have left office.

Here is a list of what Bloomberg could do to have a successful second term, instead of merely another four years.

Watch the City Council.

At least 37 Councilmanics are going to be forced out in four years and are seriously considering extending term limits a little longer. There are enough votes to override a mayoral veto on this issue, but he can aggressively block the maneuver with a lawsuit.

But even if most folks inside the 51 Chambers of Debt are turned out in four years, it means the mayor has to negotiate four budgets-all with projected multibillion-dollar deficits-with lame-duck Councilmanics whom voters can no longer punish for their free-spending ways. Legislators spending regardless of voter outrage could turn Gotham into Albany, and we all know how well money flows up there.

Pinch the city's pension costs.

These grew like a mushroom cloud from $972 million to $4 billion between 2000 and 2004, according to the Manhattan Institute. After blowing some early smoke about controlling spending and the size of the city payroll, Bloomberg never really got serious about this in the tidal wave of red ink and goodwill flowing from 9/11.

Four years later, the mood of shared sacrifice has passed, without anybody having given up much of anything. Bloomberg could finally put that sacred cow on the negotiating table. (If not for current members, then for new hires, of which there seem to be plenty every year.) Remember, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was just fine with screwing rookies by accepting a deal in which new cops make barely $25,000 in their first year on the job so long as veterans got healthy raises.

Reroute the MTA.

Publicly shame the MTA. Invite Peter Kalikow and the gang onto the 6 train during rush hour. This should get the unelected, unaccountable MTAssholes to do something about overcrowding and delayed trains. Take the money saved from reducing pension costs and more prudent budgets and use it to stave off fare hikes, which are due as soon as next year.

A fare hike months after homeowners get another $400 rebate to half-make up for Mike's "temporary" property tax hike would undoubtedly reignite the "out of touch" criticism Fernando Ferrer is pathetically unable to articulate.

And shame the Port Authority while he's it. See if there's any way to get out of the long-term, well-below market value leases Bloomberg let them sign to run Kennedy and JFK with all the efficiency of OTB, still the world's only money-losing bookie.

Do something at Ground Zero.

Send Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff down there to do something. Anything. The hole in the ground that launched Bloomberg into office is now, four years later, a black eye on New York. Doctoroff is pretty comfortable taking money from industry leaders (thanks for the 2012 donations) and talking big development (remember the stadium that got away). George Pataki's time to get something done has come and gone, and appointing John Cahill to oversee things almost four years after the Towers fell is too little too late.

Build a party, don't just throw one.

Free snacks in the bullpen are nice, but the party is gonna end when Bloomberg leaves on his jet plane. And we know he won't be back again. Grooming a successor or two would help lessen the impotency of Bloomberg's last year or two in office.

Look how Giuliani and Pataki left the parties that funneled them to office richer but less populated. They devoured anyone who might succeed them. Bloomberg could be that rare executive not afraid of the next generation, one who gives the Republican party a future in what's heretofore been a one-party town, with all the troubles that always entails.

He says he wanted to be mayor in order to give back to a city that gave him so much (four billion dollars to be exact).

Why not make sure that Bloomberg's achievements don't disappear when he exits City Hall?