Zohran Mamdani will take the oath office at midnight and become New York’s next mayor, after the drift of the Bill de Blasio years and the scandals of Eric Adams.
It will also mark 12 years since Mike Bloomberg was mayor. Bloomberg has been out of City Hall for as long as he was in it — and his accomplishments should be clearer to any unbiased eye.
When Mayor Mike left office, New York was strong, safe, growing and prosperous. But his data-driven centrist leadership and personal fortune made him a pariah to many progressive activists — and many citizens took the gains of his years for granted. The failures of the last two administrations ought to make hearts grow fonder — and create a baseline to judge the great expectations that surround Mamdani.
Bloomberg took office less than four months after the 9/11 terror attacks that seared our city’s soul. Rudy Giuliani — then known as America’s Mayor — loomed large and had succeeded in cutting crime and welfare in half over his eight years. Bloomberg built on that foundation and helped NYC rebound from tragedy, transforming NYC in the process.
His economic record is enviable: nearly half a million new private sector jobs were generated during his time in office, while Lower Manhattan was rebuilt bigger and better than before, with families and businesses returning. New neighborhoods were developed through rezoning, from Long Island City in Queens to Greenport and the Brooklyn Waterfront. The population and tax-base of New York grew and the city prospered.
Bloomberg created pioneering new employment programs, moved nearly 900,000 people from welfare to work and created an earned income tax credit which brought $860 million dollars to working families. He also financed more than 160,000 units of affordable housing — both new construction and preservation.
Yes, crime continued to fall from its more than 2,000 murders a year average in the early 1990s under David Dinkins and the concurrent crack epidemic. But after the spike in crimes and declining quality of life around COVID, New Yorkers may have renewed appreciation for the fact that under Bloomberg murder declined 42% while major felony crime fell 36%. In addition, he took a national leadership role against illegal guns, which led to firearm deaths decreasing 30%. But contrary to partisan perceptions, incarceration rates fell by nearly 40% while crime was decreasing — while subsequent bail reform excesses strained common sense led to increased crime, especially lower-level thefts.
Also during the Bloomberg years, NYC led on public health by taking positions that were controversial at the time. Bloomberg’s smoking ban was enacted in 2003 — leading to a 50% decrease in teen smoking and helping boost overall life expectancy in the city by three years — higher than the national average.
Perhaps the greatest record came in the always contentious realm of education. After taking control of the public school system from the Board of Education, Bloomberg more than doubled funding for schools from under $6 billion to $13.6 billion. The on-time high school graduation rate increased by more than 40% to a record-high of 66%. Chronically failing schools were closed and more than 650 new schools were opened, including charter schools and smaller district high schools. Higher education flourished as well, with CUNY doubling its associate degree completion rate and a 99-year lease for the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island.
In contrast to the current administration, Bloomberg’s three terms in City Hall were not marred by corruption scandals. He hired excellent managers free from partisan cronyism, gave them freedom to act as the forward-looking CEOs of their agencies and his performance-based loyalty was rewarded by high retention rates.
New York did not become some kind of utopia under Bloomberg. Perfect is never on the menu. But the stubborn myth of New York as an “ungovernable city” where decline could just be managed was discarded by anyone paying attention.
Public policy successes on this scale should be built upon, not dismantled. But many of the Bloomberg gains were reversed by de Blasio, often for ideological reasons. New York’s experiment in backing off quality of life policing proved so counterproductive, that it was restored by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Many of Mamdani’s campaign policy commitments — such as ending mayoral control of public schools — threaten to derail hard won gains.
Bloomberg showed that the most effective mayors are non-ideological problem solvers. As we begin this new era and wish Mamdani success, a look back at the Bloomberg record should remind us all that New Yorkers have a right to expect a city that is run efficiently and effectively, where crime is falling, quality of life is rising and the economy is growing.
Avlon is the chairman of Citizens Union, fighting for reform in New York for more than a century.
