He fought the Italian mob because he was in the pocket of the Russian mob.
He shut down a lot of clubs and nightlife in NYC, basically ruined the underground scene there and left “clubs” to be bottle service for rich assholes.
He’s a fucking fascist piece of shit and he deserves to lose everything.
He used Cabernet laws to target gay clubs because he’s a homophobic prick.
…who also cross dressed for Trump in the 90s lmao
Those guys cross dress not because they’re closeted homosexuals, but because they’re like the friend showing up at the airport baggage claim with the big sign, the friend’s name, and something like “welcome back from your 10 year prison sentence for being an asshole” or some shit.
It’s not about them possibly being gay, it’s about them making a statement of derision about trans/gay people and the discomfort of the public display making it funny to like minds.
It was so bad 😵💫
New York is incapable of hiring a mayor who doesn’t suck ass. That’s just what they do. It’s like asking why Louisiana or New Jersey elects corrupt politicians. It’s just a way of life.
Jokes aside, though, crime was way higher back in the 90’s and he was a prosecutor who was “tough on crime” even though he was friendly with the Russian mob. The police union (which is unusually political in NYC) was behind him. No one knew that one day, he would beclown himself every day for the rest of his natural life
he was a prosecutor who was “tough on crime” even though he was friendly with the Russian mob.
Yeah, but he has some great success against the Italian mob. Of course, that just swapped pasta for vodka, but it’s something you can publicize.
He was elected as part of a white grievance reaction to having a black mayor.
Better than as a presidential candidate and now Trump acolyte.
He got credit for navigating the city post-9/11. Which, ok, I think just about any semi-talented politician with a PR team would come out of that wrapped in a patriotic halo effect.
He discouraged going after undocumented immigrant students in schools, but pushed broken window policing tactics that disproportionally affected the same undocumented immigrants and people of color.
He seemed ok with protections and benefits for domestic partnerships (this was before gay marriage was legal) but also pushed for a school voucher system that would build up private and religious schools that were very clear and open about discriminating against LGBT people.
He was undoubtedly corrupt. But no more corrupt than any predecessor. So mixed bag compared to his peers and bad compared to the sort of politician I wish could be elected in a place like NYC.
Nah bro, him and Ed Koch were very deep into the mafia’s patronage system, which is important because it’s also how he so effectively sued the mafia out of control.
Terrible, lackluster mayor, but he slam dunked the mafiosos pretty good. Too handily, in my opinion, like he knew of key people at different points in the system he used to personally navigate.
Did bugging and tracking techniques just get that much better? Possibly. But what if a guy who used the system decided to get a halo for destruction of that system?
If you look at NYC’s mayoral timeline, you’ll see David Dinkins ahead of him for just one term, 90-94.
In my opinion, he was the real solver of our crime issues, as besides the overall economy starting to escape the republican shitstorm of Reaganomics, we started the PAL program (Police Athletic League) and used some anti-crime money to keep schools open later.
This is a key point here, most crime was being committed by bored young men of school age, so instead of letting them out at 3 till their parent(s) got off work, PAL and other after-school programs let them hang out with friends, shoot basketball or take fun classes, etc. People had the ability to stay out of trouble a lot more easily, and for free.
First year of Dinkins, homicide peaks. Then it starts trending sharply down, statistics backed by the first ever computerized crime ledger, compstat. That first year made everyone think Dinkins was ineffective, so Giuliani got his shot. But all Giuliani did was coast on Dinkins work, besides posting cops in visible places like MTA turnstiles.
I really want to write a long screed about how shitty of a mayor who couldn’t win a single lawsuit Giuliani was, but I think airing out how much better his precessor was would hurt his image even more.
But I’ll say this: that whole nightclub scene NYC used to be famous for? Killed by Giuliani. There were nightclubs where you were in shoulder-high bubbles, dancing or more if you wanted. Famous places too, that one spot in the east village that was a bankrupt church, converted into a goth nightclub… just memories because of a sensitive bitch fuckhead named Giuliani.
Piece of shit fascist. Fucking barricades on sidewalks. Anti everything. Hate that pathetic jackass. Always have. Never a hero. Just a decent attorney that did to the mob what nobody before him could. Then buildings fell on and killed all his friends and he went off the deep end.
Fuck yeah, you remember when he lost the fight against the Brooklyn museum of art for a painting of the virgin Mary made of elephant dung?
In other cultures, that dung symbolizes the potential for life, but it offended that sensitive fascist bitch to where he tried to cut 1/3 of our tax money to the museum until they took it down. Courts denied that loser for violating the first amendment. And that kept happening, repeatedly, he’d violate the first amendment, lose the associated lawsuit and cost the City millions in the process… Repeatedly. What a loser.
Holy shit (no pun intended) I forgot about that. Wasn’t there also vaginal blood virgin Mary or was that something else?
Was he also mayor when they found the Indian burial grounds under the civic center predating five points, and then did nothing about it?
I think it was the black family burial grounds under that federal building on court st(?), but you might also be right. There was a lot going on in this big city.
E: this is what I’m talking about, same thing?
Yes! That was the burial ground! I went to high school downtown but for some reason we never went northeast of city hall to that side of the plaza. I remember seeing it in person after reading that and feeling like a tourist. Meanwhile I was like 3 blocks from J&R where we used to buy tapes with our lunch money after starving all week
It was said the only really dangerous place in NYC whole Giuliani was mayor was in between him and a camera, but that’s because he’s a narcissistic piece of shit, not because he improved NY.
When was Times Square rejuvenated? Was it during his watch?
I had read at some point after WW2 Times Sqaure slipped into seedy and run down with building owners on the brink of bankruptcy before efforts were made to reclaim the area from the places that were not desirable.
I wonder if he had any role in that?
I believe you’re thinking of Ed Koch.
No way! That place was a shit hole until after 9/11 when tourists started coming exponentially more, right ahead of the mass gentrification. In the 90s my mom would whoop my ass if she found out I was hanging out up there after school. Bloomberg capitalized on things and really Disneyfied midtown.
Meh… It was already planned to Disney stylings by the tail end of Dinkins. Giuliani actually followed the plans though.
I get where you’re coming from. I’d just say that, not being abducted murder or robbed, is not the same as removing the peep shows. I’ll give you the change started earlier, but the actual conversion of tenants wasn’t until later.
Lol you don’t have to “give me” anything, both our eyes probably work just fine.
The peep shows weren’t the thing that I’m bummed about, it was the wholesale destruction of anything underground. What’s NYC without the weird, interesting stores and people? Once the area gets washed out, why go?
E: here’s a cool article on what these gentrifiers and other assclowns have in mind for places like NYC: https://www.honest-broker.com/p/14-warning-signs-that-you-are-living
Speak for yourself, I’m wearing trifocals lmao
Yeah, I think about moving back as a middle aged fulltime single parent… besides friends and family (which are major), there isn’t really a NYC around for me anymore.
All the weird shit is just branded hipster bullshit now. And I’m too old to linger over nyu students at legit art galleries.
I’m in SF (many years now) and coming up for air after the last few years looking for that kind of weird authenticity and it’s not here the same way either.
Checking your link now
Well… Don’t worry too much. Money moves so that rich cities no longer are, the creatives move around so that centers of creativity aren’t (see Haight Ashbury), etc etc etc.
Look for a spot with friends that calls to you. I miss Washington heights, now that I live a little south of LA. Gonna try Seattle out next, just following where the work is and where the people are.
That said, I bet you’ll find something in NYC if you looked.
Ugh that article hurt my soul. It encapsulates so much of what I’ve been thinking about lately. Have you heard Trent Reznor latest comments on making music?
It feels like everything authentic is… over.
I don’t remember the exact timing, but I think it was either well under way or completely done by the time he took office.
I’d say it’s irrelevant. So NYC had an area that looked a little scuzzy and rundown. It added to the flavor of the city, where people could go for scuzzy entertainment. 🤷
My understanding – and I’m not a New Yorker – was that he has been often credited with reducing crime in NYC. Part of that was, as I recall, by cracking down on minor crimes, things like aggressive panhandling, with the idea that that was kind of a gateway drug to more-severe crime.
I don’t know whether that approach or him in particular was responsible for it, or whether it was other phenomena at the time – my gut is that changes like that usually aren’t just driven by one person – but my understanding was that crime did considerably fall off around the time, and crime was something that a lot of New Yorkers had been really upset about.
It was mostly due to work by Giuliani’s predecessor, David Dinkins. I wrote a longer comment about it.
The ‘broken windows’ theory was really an excuse to put black and brown people in jail for minor crimes. People still hop the turnstiles, but that’s not the real source of crime.
Look at the overall economics of the period, once Reagan was gone and the people in NYC could start getting jobs again… What’s attractive about being a criminal? It’s hard, and there’s always the chance someone’s got a dagger or pistol on them.
I remember after 9-11-2001 he was hailed & praised & celebrated as a hero for the way he handled stuff and that was the first time I’d ever heard of him, so I figured he must obviously be a great guy but lately his name keeps popping up everywhere like he’s a horrible person and I never have any idea what’s going on . Politics is a bunch of blah-blah-blah.
So you have literally no idea how he was as a mayor but you answered the question anyway.
Well, he was trump’s lawyer, so…
You’re asking this on an extraordinarily left-wing site.
Surely you know what the answers are going to be. 😂
Reality has a left leaning bias so it’s not like they won’t get the correct answers.
Do you respect Rudy’s career?
Shitting your pants in court, doing a presser in a landscaping company’s parking lot and doing another with shoe polish dripping down his face shouldn’t have partisan opinions. The man is a buffoon. Nevermind all the sexual harrassment, “middle-manning” for Trump’s corruption, stochastic terrorism and espionage.
