If you’re looking for one sign of Mayor Bloomberg’s determination to get the city through though economic times, it’s this: at his first inauguration, star trumpeter Wynton Marsalis played “America The Beautiful.” At his third inauguration today, a subway musician stepped up.
Bloomberg began his third term in office with an emphasis on service over celebration, belt tightening over the days of wine and roses, and so he began the day helping to prepare meals for the needy with a Park Slope service group.
In keeping with the tough times, the man who spent $102 million to get elected is doing the inauguration on the cheap. He even had workers start setting up the inauguration staging before December 25 to avoid having to pay overtime.
The mayor entered the record books as the city’s fourth third term mayor yesterday when he forked over $9 to the city clerk and signed the official city ledgers.
Also coming into office were public advocate Bill De Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, the first Asian-American to hold citywide office.
But for the mayor, the third term challenge is to get the city through hard times. “It’s going to be very difficult. We all know that. Taxpayers have suffered and in the city when the economy suffers and tax revenues go down, the demand for services go up and we’ll find ways to get through this,” he said.
The mayor vowed to make his ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth years in office be full of fresh and creative ideas. To get those ideas he’s going to start a unique exercise no other government has tried. For three weeks every first deputy commissioner will become a deputy at another agency, tasked with coming up with ideas to increase performance.
They mayor’s message to them is “Don’t mess it up.”
He was also confident the city could emerge from the downturn stronger than ever. “I believe we have every reason to be optimistic.”
The mayor also made sure that Friday’today’s festivities were environmentally-friendly, so the mugs of apple cider given out were made of a biodegradeable, plastic-like material that disintegrates in a dish washer.
{Marcia Kramer-CBS/Matzav.com Newscenter}
