Clueless

Mayor Mike has reverted to his old arrogance. You might remember that when bodegas had protested the 1800% cigarette tax hike- a tax that costs them $250 million a year in lost revenue, Bloomberg described their worries as simply, "a minor economic issue."

Now, as the NY Post and the NY Daily News both are reporting, the mayor is back to his old patrician tricks in dismissing New Yorker' concerns with subway overcrowding as "a minor inconvenience." As one rider told the Post, the mayor must be "commuting from another planet." The News simply asks, "Hey Mike Bloomberg, what train are you riding?"

So, as we have come to expect, the mayor is clueless when it comes to the plight of the average New Yorker. But, as we see this morning, the mayor is not alone. The NY Daily News joins with the clueless mayor in its editorial on subway overcrowding-coming to exactly the wrong conclusions from TA president Roberts' report on the overcapacity in many of the city's most utilized lines.

Instead of arguing that the severe overcrowding should merit a delay in the implementation of a congestion tax that would add an additional 100,000 new riders to the system, the News says that the Roberts report, "...explains why the Legislature must enact congestion pricing." Really? The city does need a financial plan to devise the appropriate methods for the construction of the new infrastructure that the system needs. No one has bothered to evaluate just why the mayor's plan is the best one to accomplish these needed goals.

Instead, the mayor's big on trying to bogart everyone with his, "I'm rich and I know better mentality." All of this putative platform building for a run for national office will, however, flounder once people realize that Bloomberg's elitist worldview is out-of-touch with their real world concerns.