Bloomberg’s plan was to display New York City as a single product to attract businesses to settle in New York. Branding New York City as the “Luxurious City” would ensure that only the elite companies, which were not concerned with the high expenses, would come to New York, and bring in more revenue. Doing so would avoid the government from giving money to those companies threatening to leave (why would a company desire to leave if they were attracted to New York in the first place). In addition, the general perception of New York City would become more attractive to tourists, which is another major asset. However, there are a multitude of additional factors that make up New York City besides big businesses and major corporations. Some New Yorkers may want these businesses to come to New York and make it more luxurious, but this is not the general consensus for all New Yorkers. Bloomberg’s fallacy is that he perceives New York City as a single entity, where in fact New York is a city that has multiple views. Bloomberg’s Way seems to give way too much power to ideals of businesses elites due to all the emphasis on drawing them to the city. This leaves no room for lower classes to have their say or even survive in this so-called “Luxurious City,” or so it seemed. Fortunately, the voices of the people of New York were heard when it came to the Hudson Yards plan and the attempt to bring the Olympics to New York. Vast amounts of New Yorkers were against the building of a stadium in the west side and having the Olympics in New York altogether. Bloomberg had lost this battle, which, I hope, made him realize how diverse New York City is and that his plans for the city are not the same as the rest of New Yorkers.
Contrasting to Bloomberg’s idea of neoliberalism, Mike Wallace would like to look back to the times of the Great Depression for answers on how to get New York out of this recession, and I say why not? I’ve always been wondering why the government doesn’t try to make public work projects similar to the WPA in order to provide jobs for the unemployed. It worked during the 1930’s and I don’t understand why people don’t think it will work now. Granted, New York City has become a city hugely dependent on financial marketing so I can understand why arduous labor may not be appealing to numerous individuals, but desperate times, calls for desperate measures. Wallace is obviously not a believer in neoliberalism; he bluntly states, “that the federal government (that is, us) should deploy its resources (that is, our tax dollars) to alleviating suffering and revitalizing the economy.” Basically, take the money out of the private sector, and give it back to the people who need it. Honestly, I don’t blame him for saying so because unemployment is still a huge problem and something needs to be done about it. Wallace even suggests bringing shipping back to Brooklyn in order to gain more revenue. In the eyes of Wallace, as long as people have jobs, regardless of what they entail, New York City will be able to get back on its feet.
