Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his State of the City speech in Staten Island yesterday to paint a portrait of a positive, growing New York.
Speaking to a city still grumbling about a botched blizzard response, the mayor promised not to raise taxes while conceding the city’s poor financial health.
“There is no rabbit to pull out of the hat,” he said. “There is only us.”
He catered to outer-borough residents with promises of a ferry service to Long Island City and a new carousel at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
But the upbeat tone didn’t appease everyone.
“Clearly he doesn’t understand the tremendous challenges that ordinary New Yorkers are facing,” said John Petro at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, lamenting the lack of city jobs.
True test coming?
Fordham political science professor Christina Greer said Bloomberg’s true tests will come later, like working with the new governor, Andrew Cuomo.
She thinks Wednesday’s words weren’t enough. “It fell flat,” she said, adding, “This whole speech just had the shadow of snow.”
