Any New Yorkers here? I’m interested in your perspective on Giuliani. I only have a cursory knowledge of him. He first came to my attention when he made headlines busting some crime family as a DA way back when. Then he was in the news a lot as the mayor of NYC during 9/11. He seemed pretty respected at the time? I dunno. And next thing you know, he resurfaces as an enforcer for the Trump administration, winding up getting disbarred and generally shunned by society. I guess I’m curious as to whether he was always a scumbag or grew into the role?
NY metro here at the time. He was close to being shunned by 2001. He wasn’t performing well, he wasn’t that smart, he wasn’t effective. Then 9/11/01 we suddenly all had to band together. Nothing saves a term in office like massive tragedy in which everyone is emotionally charged and any act of rebuilding is “doing their best”. His platform prior to that was that he was tough on crime and took credit for a drop, but you can see the trend started prior to his terms and there was a national drop as well, so it’s not his sole doing. The 80s were a terrible time in NYC, way more dangerous than whatever fears the right enstills in their following today. Plus, statewide/nation wide impression of him won’t match the city’s impression, since he was still conservative. I will say, he wasn’t as far into conservatism in his policies as he and his cohorts are now. So while he may not have been as favorable across the board, he wasn’t so polarizing.
Just a friendly quiet older guy who chokes on pretzels like the rest of us at best, puppet for war profiteers at worst. Certainly not really responsible for any of the travesties related to him. He was just reading a book to children.
I don’t believe he was dumb enough to fall for all that shit. He was just as complicit as the rest of them. And since he’s the one at the top, he bears ultimate responsibility. Ergo, he is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. I wish that pretzel was a little bigger.
That’s very interesting. Thanks for the write-up. Reminds me a bit of the premier of Ontario where I am. Started life as a petty drug dealer before getting into right-wing politics, and quickly fell out of popularity cutting services and tearing down wind turbines across the province. But with his career on the rocks, the pandemic suddenly hit. That was basically his 9/11 and people rallied behind him. Never mind that his previous cuts to healthcare had exacerbated the crisis. But he’s back to his douchebag ways now.
It’s probably a split decade of 75-85. The 80s are probably worse by raw volume, the 70s are probably worse per capita. It all depends on which stats you look at. It also depends on what’s reported. Supposedly, part of Giuliani’s improvement comes from recategorizing crimes into untracked categories. Losing money would also have a delayed effect as the missing funds trickle down
Was there any chance for being against the war on terror or the government? Sincerely for like 10 years I felt you could easily get suckerpunched for just seeming hesitant about Iraq’s invasion or saying something negative about America’s Mayor.
I had to look up who was mayor during the pandemic. Bill de Blasio. I just remember seeing an overhead view on CNN and thinking “Is that an honest to god mass grave in NYC?!?” That’s a hell of a legacy.
The graves on Hart Island are over a century old. NYC is huge and lots of people die without anyone to handle their body. It’s unfortunate framing of the island’s use when people suddenly wanted to pay attention. The morgue trucks were real to isolate covid bodies, I will add. But the island didn’t exactly do anything differently than be a graveyard like it was since the Civil War
Never liked him, but I acknowledge that he had some effective economic policies during his time as mayor. He was at least competent and sane. He went completely off the rails a long time ago, though.
He’s often credited with cleaning up Times Square, which was known for prostitution back in the 80s. But honestly, he reaped what his predecessors sowed to a large degree.
He used 9/11 like his personal sword and shield. He was lucky to be in a prominent position related the biggest and least controversial issue in America. I don’t imagine he ever would have been on the national stage otherwise. He was pretty much at the natural end of his career before then.
NYC has a history of conservative mayors, which seems a bit odd since we’re so solidly liberal in federal elections. It sure doesn’t help when we get a Democrat as infantile and corrupt as our current mayor, Eric Adams. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_prosecution_of_Eric_Adams
Any New Yorkers here? I’m interested in your perspective on Giuliani. I only have a cursory knowledge of him. He first came to my attention when he made headlines busting some crime family as a DA way back when. Then he was in the news a lot as the mayor of NYC during 9/11. He seemed pretty respected at the time? I dunno. And next thing you know, he resurfaces as an enforcer for the Trump administration, winding up getting disbarred and generally shunned by society. I guess I’m curious as to whether he was always a scumbag or grew into the role?
NY metro here at the time. He was close to being shunned by 2001. He wasn’t performing well, he wasn’t that smart, he wasn’t effective. Then 9/11/01 we suddenly all had to band together. Nothing saves a term in office like massive tragedy in which everyone is emotionally charged and any act of rebuilding is “doing their best”. His platform prior to that was that he was tough on crime and took credit for a drop, but you can see the trend started prior to his terms and there was a national drop as well, so it’s not his sole doing. The 80s were a terrible time in NYC, way more dangerous than whatever fears the right enstills in their following today. Plus, statewide/nation wide impression of him won’t match the city’s impression, since he was still conservative. I will say, he wasn’t as far into conservatism in his policies as he and his cohorts are now. So while he may not have been as favorable across the board, he wasn’t so polarizing.
See: Bush, George W.
Just a friendly quiet older guy who chokes on pretzels like the rest of us at best, puppet for war profiteers at worst. Certainly not really responsible for any of the travesties related to him. He was just reading a book to children.
I don’t believe he was dumb enough to fall for all that shit. He was just as complicit as the rest of them. And since he’s the one at the top, he bears ultimate responsibility. Ergo, he is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. I wish that pretzel was a little bigger.
Meant as sarcasm, but I get it
That’s very interesting. Thanks for the write-up. Reminds me a bit of the premier of Ontario where I am. Started life as a petty drug dealer before getting into right-wing politics, and quickly fell out of popularity cutting services and tearing down wind turbines across the province. But with his career on the rocks, the pandemic suddenly hit. That was basically his 9/11 and people rallied behind him. Never mind that his previous cuts to healthcare had exacerbated the crisis. But he’s back to his douchebag ways now.
Weren’t the 70s worse than the 80s? I mean around 1975 when the city ran out of money.
It’s probably a split decade of 75-85. The 80s are probably worse by raw volume, the 70s are probably worse per capita. It all depends on which stats you look at. It also depends on what’s reported. Supposedly, part of Giuliani’s improvement comes from recategorizing crimes into untracked categories. Losing money would also have a delayed effect as the missing funds trickle down
He was always a scum bag, but 911 made him seem like a golden boy for a little while.
Was there any chance for being against the war on terror or the government? Sincerely for like 10 years I felt you could easily get suckerpunched for just seeming hesitant about Iraq’s invasion or saying something negative about America’s Mayor.
Yep, this.
Giuliani, Cuomo, Bloomberg, Adams…
Somewhere along the line, I’m sure NYC has had a decent mayor, but the recent history has been pretty fucked up.
I had to look up who was mayor during the pandemic. Bill de Blasio. I just remember seeing an overhead view on CNN and thinking “Is that an honest to god mass grave in NYC?!?” That’s a hell of a legacy.
The graves on Hart Island are over a century old. NYC is huge and lots of people die without anyone to handle their body. It’s unfortunate framing of the island’s use when people suddenly wanted to pay attention. The morgue trucks were real to isolate covid bodies, I will add. But the island didn’t exactly do anything differently than be a graveyard like it was since the Civil War
A ok. Thanks for the clarification.
Never liked him, but I acknowledge that he had some effective economic policies during his time as mayor. He was at least competent and sane. He went completely off the rails a long time ago, though.
He’s often credited with cleaning up Times Square, which was known for prostitution back in the 80s. But honestly, he reaped what his predecessors sowed to a large degree.
He used 9/11 like his personal sword and shield. He was lucky to be in a prominent position related the biggest and least controversial issue in America. I don’t imagine he ever would have been on the national stage otherwise. He was pretty much at the natural end of his career before then.
NYC has a history of conservative mayors, which seems a bit odd since we’re so solidly liberal in federal elections. It sure doesn’t help when we get a Democrat as infantile and corrupt as our current mayor, Eric Adams. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_prosecution_of_Eric_Adams