Text Size

Email Post

Print Post

Comments (23)

Save Article

New York is only beginning to weather the damaging effects of the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression. Severe aftershocks of lost jobs and shrinking tax revenue will present the occupant of City Hall with huge and unprecedented challenges.

New Yorkers deserve to select the person they feel is best qualified to pull the city through the crisis from among a full field of candidates.

Bloomberg must be in the pack.

To enable that, the law limiting mayors to two consecutive terms must be amended to give voters the choice to extend Bloomberg's leadership for four more years, should they so desire.

But, of course, Bloomberg must first declare his intentions. His coyness must end. He must show the courage to support rewriting a law that was approved twice by the voters - not to expunge term limits, but to move the line from eight to 12 years.

Bloomberg and the city have both benefited handsomely from his service. For his part, the mayoralty transformed a once little-known businessman-billionaire into an internationally prominent public figure, one who was seriously and deservedly discussed for the presidency.

And he must forge on.

The decisions that await New York, home of Wall Street, epicenter of the financial meltdown, will be extraordinarily tough, far tougher than anyone imagined just a few weeks ago.

With the city's main economic engine headed for a sustained period of weakness, this mayor and his successor will face the task of maintaining the quality of life with a whole lot less money than anticipated.

And he or she must have the know-how to draw businesses in rising new sectors that can pick up the slack in the coming decades.

Bloomberg has gotten that job done in good times and in bad times. Crime has fallen. Reading scores have risen. Taxpayers and the municipal workforce have gotten fair deals. And the budget has held - even as tax collections have plummeted and unemployment has begun to climb.

Put simply, Bloomberg knows what he's doing. And there's every indication that he's as fresh as the day he was inaugurated. It would be folly under these daunting circumstances to deny voters the chance to consider his vast experience and remarkable record when choosing a chief executive next November.

Term limits were a good government reform. They were aimed at opening a political system stacked in favor of incumbents - a City Council and borough presidents who hung on forever. But mayors were never part of a permanent government.

More of today's headlines

“New York City - VIN News has learned Influential New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, himself an Orthodox Jew, met this past Friday with outspoken Assemblyman...” New York - Assembly Speaker Silver To Dov Hikind: Whatever You Need To Fight Abuse, I Will Help. “Baltimore, MD - Monday, 9 Elul marked the Sheloshim of Chananya Backer Z”l a 16 year old who was seriously injured [reported by VIN News] in a car accident and was...” Baltimore, MD - Community Unite To Remember 16yr Old Chananya Backer Z'l Killed In Tragic Accident