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Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

J

joecct

Well-known member
Growiing up in Northern NJ, you can't help but follow NYC politics. The first mayor I remember is Robert Wagner, then John Lindsay (Mayor Linseed to the Batman fans) and on.

Anyway, here's the list. Surprisingly, it's a lot shorter than the # of Presidents we've had since 1955.

Robert Wagner 1954 - 1965
John Lindsay 1965 - 1973
Abe Beame 1974 - 1977
Ed Koch 1978 - 1989
David Dinkins 1990- 1993
Rudy Guiliani 1994 - 2001
Michael Bloomberg 2002 - now

Who's your favorite? I liked Ed Koch. He was colorful and did not seem like a stuffed shirt. Rudy cleaned up the city.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

joecct said:
Growiing up in Northern NJ, you can't help but follow NYC politics. The first mayor I remember is Robert Wagner, then John Lindsay (Mayor Linseed to the Batman fans) and on.

Anyway, here's the list. Surprisingly, it's a lot shorter than the # of Presidents we've had since 1955.

Robert Wagner 1954 - 1965
John Lindsay 1965 - 1973
Abe Beame 1974 - 1977
Ed Koch 1978 - 1989
David Dinkins 1990- 1993
Rudy Guiliani 1994 - 2001
Michael Bloomberg 2002 - now

Who's your favorite? I liked Ed Koch. He was colorful and did not seem like a stuffed shirt. Rudy cleaned up the city.
Click to expand...

I am a few years older than you. I vaguely remember Vincent Impellitteri (had to look up the spelling), and know that William O'Dwyer was before him (mainly because his brother Paul was later President of the City Council), and before him was Fiorello LaGuardia. OTOH, I have been in DC since 1974 and have not paid that much attention to NYC politics. I would also go with Koch also among thoae I remember, but from what I have read, LaGuardia was the most liked of this bunch.

Now if you asked me about DC Mayors, I would probably throw up. :D I would probably take Anthony Williams as the least bad of truly sorry lot.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

I'd have to put Giuliani at the top of the list by far. Some of his anti-crime innovations, which were hugely controversial at the time, are now widely hailed and emulated around the country.

I remember stopping at Port Authority Bus Terminal in 1976 or 1977 on my way from Chicago to Boston, and I thought it would be interesting to go out and look around a little. Wow! :eek: i was about the only person of pallor in sight (young and naive and inexperienced, I wandered around the entire building, gaping and gawking. I had never seen anything like it in person, ever, before or since). I started into a few bars, stopped in the doorway each time, decided against going in. A nice young woman came up to me and asked me if I'd like to have a good time. A man with a diamond pinkie ring with a woman on either arm, each wearing a fur stole, asked me if I had a light, and when I offered him one, he lit up a joint. No one bothered me at all, but it was just like what you'd imagine Pottersville would be in a big city in the 2nd half of the 20th century!

Rudy really transformed the city more than anyone today realizes or remembers.

For the rest, I'm too young to remember Wagner or Lindsay, Koch was okay I guess, colorful and entertaining as a celebrity, mediocre as an administrator, which makes him way better than Beame or Dinkins! Bloomberg, eh...he didn't follow through on his promise, I expected better than what we got. I think he made a really big mistake by going back on term limits the way he did; he'd be remembered much better today if he hadn't reneged on his promise by running for a third term.
 
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Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

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dinkins
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

Who was the last (possibly only?) black mayor? My daughter's roommate was his granddaughter and she mentioned it offhand, though I did not recognize the name. (Western bias)

OK. I see it's Dinkins
 
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Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

burd said:
Who was the last (possibly only?) black mayor? My daughter's roommate was his granddaughter and she mentioned it offhand, though I did not recognize the name. (Western bias)

OK. I see it's Dinkins
Click to expand...

He was the only one. OTOH, all of DC's modern mayors have been African American.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

Would have to say Giuliani at the top - controversial at times but he cleaned up the city. Koch is a close second. Bloomberg gets third almost by default, the rest of that list are a bunch of sad sacks.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

Well, Fiorello La Guardia came back from the dead and talked to the current mayor in Ghostbusters. That's a pretty good trick.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

As much as everyone credits Bloomberg, he's been horrible. He's mismanaged the school system so bad, and has really catered to the rich. Giuliani gets some credit, I'll say, but there's something to be said for the fact that the worst period in NY coincided with the crack epidemic, and the best part coincided with the rise of Wall Street.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

Terrier520 said:
As much as everyone credits Bloomberg, he's been horrible. He's mismanaged the school system so bad, and has really catered to the rich. Giuliani gets some credit, I'll say, but there's something to be said for the fact that the worst period in NY coincided with the crack epidemic, and the best part coincided with the rise of Wall Street.
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If "the best part coincided with the rise of Wall Street" then why is it bad that Bloomberg has catered to the rich?

(Which I don't actually believe to be the case, but if we were to accept for the sake of argument that he has.)
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

jmh said:
If "the best part coincided with the rise of Wall Street" then why is it bad that Bloomberg has catered to the rich?

(Which I don't actually believe to be the case, but if we were to accept for the sake of argument that he has.)
Click to expand...
He knows that the taxes earned from Wall Street finance the rest of the city.
 
Re: Last 60 years - rate your NYC Mayors

joecct said:
He knows that the taxes earned from Wall Street finance the rest of the city.
Click to expand...
This doesn't answer my question. If "the best part coincided with the rise of Wall Street" and "the taxes earned from Wall Street finance the rest of the city," then why is "[Bloomberg] has really catered to the rich" cited to support the assertion that he's been a horrible mayor? If those are the case, then isn't it good that he's catered to the rich?
 
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