When Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third term ended in 2013, his 12 years of service seemed sufficient.
He had sparked a renaissance of success on many fronts, but New York was ready for a new face.
Countless city hall scandals later, can we get him back?
Nearly half of New Yorkers say they want Bloomberg to run again if Mayor Adams is ousted.
It’s easy to understand why when you look at the alternatives.
Anyone who thinks Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams were bad should brace for catastrophe when radical Jumaane Williams takes over.
Ditto for the other wannabes, like former and current city comptroller Scott Stringer and Brad Lander.
New York needs a true hero to run and restore the greatness of America’s City.
Unfortunately, Bloomberg doesn’t seem interested in the job.
Who can blame him?
The good news: We can replicate his success by electing another City Hall outsider — someone who isn’t a hack, didn’t rise through the city’s corrupt Democratic Party, and isn’t interested in milking the mayoralty for personal gain or crazy ideological change.
Please note that you do not have to be a current resident of Gotham to become mayor. State law only requires that you live in New York City on election day.
The ultimate outsider, with an outsider’s perspective, might be an executive with experience in New York, but who is not “of” New York – someone who can look at the city’s problems with fresh eyes.
Bloomberg has taught us several things to look for in a mayor, and the importance of leadership experience is the first.
Bloomberg was a serious CEO who had already made a fortune.
He was not on the run to promote or enrich himself.
Second, like his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, he learned that the most important duty of any mayor is to provide a safe environment in which residents and businesses can thrive.
If you do that right, the private sector will do the rest.
The city hasn’t quite gotten it right under Adams, despite his history with the police department.
The number of crimes is still a third above the level of five years ago, while the number of murders is still rising by more than 10%.
Murders in the metro are up 60% this year alone, and migrants are flooding the justice system, making up as much as 75% of arrests in Midtown alone.
The way to ensure safety is to bring in a truly aggressive police chief, as Bloomberg did with Raymond Kelly, and give him or her and the department the power to enforce the law.
I saw this firsthand as mayor of Miami Beach—also known as New York’s sixth borough—when I hired Dan Oates as police chief, a so-called “Brattonite” who trained under legendary New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
I reaped the same benefits as Bloomberg: a drop in crime, an increase in resident satisfaction, and an influx of new economic activity into the city – all things New York could use.
Third, Bloomberg has taught us that New York needs to find a mayor who will create a pro-business, pro-capitalist tax and regulatory environment that deserves the business of the best companies in the world.
In case anyone has forgotten, corporations are entities that create jobs and bring people to town on weekdays.
Unless New York can find a way to ban Zoom and Teams, it will need to attract more companies to offset pandemic-era losses.
New York City needs these Bloomberg-like qualities in its next leader: an outsider with leadership experience who will keep the city safe and restore its status as the business capital of the world.
This way you can stop the rapid drain of talent and money from New York to other states.
In 2022, New York experienced a net population loss among every generation except Gen Z.
The state and city lost 91,000 residents to Florida alone.
About a third of her buyers now come from New York City, according to one Miami real estate agent.
As someone who spends a lot of time in both Miami and New York, I can tell you that these trends are accelerating.
The ‘sixth district’ has been more successful, attracting more wealth and having safer and cleaner streets than the other five.
New Yorkers can disappoint Floridians by sending a common-sense leader to City Hall who will stop this transfer of talent and wealth.
Of course, for that to happen, we need someone to get up and run.
In that spirit, my fellow business leaders must remember: We are all New Yorkers.
It’s America’s City, and anyone can run to lead it.
Philip Levine, a cruise industry entrepreneur, is a former mayor of Miami Beach and a onetime Democratic candidate for governor of Florida.
