Question for NYC'ers: just how bad is Giuliani ?

Don't worry, I would never vote for him, but I have read rumors that he would be just as bad as Bush, if not worse. From his record in NYC and current behavior, is that a valid conclusion ? If this rumor is true, I sure hope he doesn't get the R nod.

She said most everyone she knows can't stand him.

Fanned the flames of racial tension to get elected.

Turned the city into a police state, told anyone who wasn't white to fuck off and set race relations back years...terrible.

9/11 was the best thing that ever happened to him because it fooled a scary amount of people, even in NY, into forgetting all the horrible shit he did prior.

Here are a few memories:

1. He had jaywalkers and squeegee cleaners arrested, prosecuted, and fined. (Squeegee guys washed your windshields when you were stopped in traffic. They'd usually go away if you passed on their offer.)

2. Giuliani hired Jason Turner from Wisconsin to "reform" welfare in the City. Turner instituted a program that qualified the right of single mothers to receive welfare or housing benefits by compelling them to work for the City by picking up trash in the parks, etc. This saved money for the City but it also cost the jobs of civil workers who previously held those jobs (union pay) and the mothers faced a harder time getting off welfare as these jobs prevented them from getting job training and/or education or costing them child care fees as they had to show up for these jobs in order to get their benefits.

3. Giuliani was "offended" by an art exhibit in Brooklyn with a depiction of the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant dung and started a lawsuit (paid for by taxpayers) to close the exhibit.

4. Giuliani closed the public schools on the day of the City's Parade to honor the New York Yankees baseball team the year they won the World's Series. Equated that event with a national holiday. Wouldn't necessarily close the schools during a snow storm, but the Yankees are an obsession of Giuliani and he couldn't do enough to show his love for them.

I had more than a few down & out pals making their meal money that way and it was rough. He ALSO installed tall fences around City Hall Park, effectively removing it as a public park,

He is one scary, nasty dude.

...is that when walking around Manhattan, one has to cross the street when the light says "Don't Walk," because there are often cars making right-turns during the entire time the light says "Walk."

The Giuliani policy of arresting jaywalkers meant that people who want to be law-abiding were subject to random arrest while going about their way.

:thumbsup:

Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said it best when he said "If you want to work for the Mayor, you have to drink the Kool-Aid"

and we'll be longing for the good old days of Bush.

Whatever you've heard about him, he's worse, much worse.

And make the cops check ID to see if anyone was underage. It was quite chilling and intimidating the few times I witnessed this in person. Never ordered cops to raid straight bars/clubs.

He also claimed he cleaned-up crime in NYC, when it was Clinton's 100,000 Cops Initiative that facilitated the drop in crime.