Yes We Can (Bury Bad News)!

The mayor’s finely honed Jo Moore sensibilities on display during this historic occasion:

Mayor Bloomberg plans to send out 500 pink slips as part of his goal to slash 3,000 jobs from the city’s workforce to cope with the budget crisis.

The layoffs will come from various agencies, said a source, who would not identify which will be hit.

To meet the target, City Hall is canceling the January Police Academy class, eliminating 475 education positions and chopping night hours at five fire engine companies, his administration revealed Tuesday.

Bloomberg, who recently said layoffs were unlikely, will announce the job cuts today as part of his midyear budget changes.

The drastic move is meant to partially plug a budget gap for this year and next that stands at $4 billion, his administration said.

In September, Bloomberg predicted his budget blow could be achieved without firing city workers, but he never committed to saving jobs.

“I don’t think we will get to the point of layoffs,” he had said.

The looming pink slips have some lawmakers stunned.

“I thought layoffs were a last resort. I thought we’d do attrition first and see how it is,” said Councilman David Weprin (D-Queens) who heads the Finance Committee.

Annotation: There was obviously a deal, wasn’t there?

I’d Rather Be A Lamppost In New York Than A High-Level Official In What Could Be One Of The Most Transformative Presidencies In The History Of The Country

As Joe Biden might say, “That’s not change — that’s more of the same!”:

There’s at least one famous New Yorker who is less likely to get a call from the Obama administration than was once supposed.

Despite the advice he has offered to the next president in Newsweek columns, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is no longer in consideration as a candidate for a top job. To the degree that he was discussed at all, Mr. Bloomberg’s name all but vanished from serious conversation when he pushed a bill to overturn a two-term limit on city elected officials through the New York City Council, according to a number of insiders interviewed for this article.

(An anecdote that makes this horrible episode just a tiny bit better.)

Wow, A New Definition Of Chutzpah Emerges

Four borough presidents — vitally vestigial! — actually showed up to support the term limit extension:

If you want self-interest, consider that 29-to-22 Council vote. Of the 51 lawmakers, 35 would have been forced out of office at the end of next year. Nearly two-thirds of them, 23 of 35, voted to reward themselves with a possible extra term. Of those who do not have a 2009 expiration date, 63 percent — 10 of 16 members — voted against the change. Funny how that worked.

Of course, to hear lawmakers talk on Monday, self-interest had nothing to do with it. It was all about government continuity during a crisis. Times are so hard, you see, that New York cannot survive without the foresight, the high-mindedness and the command of municipal finances that this batch of council members provides. Besides, if New Yorkers feel differently, they can always vote them all out of office next November.

“This is democracy at its best,” said Councilman Kendall Stewart of Brooklyn.

That’s how the borough presidents saw it as well — four of the five who showed up, anyway. “We need all the experience we can count on to get us through this crisis,” said Helen M. Marshall, who represents Queens.

Got it. Without these borough presidents hanging on beyond next year, New York might not make it.

You’re Telling Me That You Can Make It On Your Own By Yourself All Alone Without My Help, Mister You Just Made A Big Mistake

Is that “well oiled” as in “snake” or “well oiled” as in “grease the system”? Either way, a Freudian slip:

At times, he slouched in his chair, crossing his arms, then uncrossing them. His eyes darted around the room, sometimes settling on the clock. He fidgeted.

The body language was not difficult to read: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was uncomfortable.

“To hell with your agenda,” thundered David Tieu, a 21-year-old deliveryman from Brooklyn, as the mayor sat about 15 feet away, staring at him.

Patrice Senior, a nurse from Brooklyn, accused Mr. Bloomberg of “plantation politics.” And Patti Hagan, a writer, assailed his “strong-armed knuckle-busting” tactics.

Custom at City Hall has long allowed anyone to appear at a bill signing and offer an opinion on the legislation being enacted. Most such ceremonies are sleepy affairs that attract a handful of political gadflies.

But on Monday, this tidy ritual was turned on its head. For four uninterrupted hours, scores of New Yorkers walked up to a microphone, looked at Mr. Bloomberg and rendered a blunt verdict on the legislation that would allow him to seek a third term.

It was a singular moment in the Bloomberg era of government. For much of his tenure, the mayor has been showered with accolades and surrounded by friendly crowds that have treated him like a head of state.

But during the bill signing, a man unaccustomed to direct, public criticism endured a heavy — and very harsh — dose of it from those he governs.

Dozens of speakers accused the mayor of arrogantly disregarding the will of New York voters, who overwhelmingly endorsed the current eight-year term limits in two referendums in the 1990s.

There were many voices of support, too — from average New Yorkers, elected officials and union heads — and Mr. Bloomberg appeared relieved when they spoke of his proven leadership and financial résumé.

“You have everything well oiled, and I would like you to sign this so the people of New York City have a choice to keep you in office,” said Jill Whitaker, a personal assistant in Manhattan.

. . .

When the testimony was over, around 2 p.m., it was Mr. Bloomberg’s turn to speak. Still sitting behind the table, with the room half empty, he said that “I thought long and hard” about the issue. After long opposing any attempt to tweak term limits — he once called the idea “disgraceful” — the mayor said he had decided to reverse himself.

“You know that I have, over a period of time, fundamentally changed my opinion in terms of how long somebody could be in office,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

“Nobody is irreplaceable,” he said. “But I do think that if you take a look at the real world, at how long it takes to do things,” he added, and finished the thought, “I do think that three terms makes more sense than two.”

With that, the left-handed Mr. Bloomberg picked up a black and gold pen and, with a flick of his wrist, rewrote New York City’s term limits law.

The Kind Of Financial Steward It Takes To Pull The City Out Of A Recession

More Bloomberg legacy:

Days after taking office in 2002, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg killed Rudolph W. Giuliani’s plan to spend $800 million in city funds to build baseball stadiums for the Yankees and the Mets, saying they were too expensive during a recession.

Three years later, Mr. Bloomberg unveiled his own plan calling for the two teams to pay the construction costs of their new stadiums, while the city would build public parks, parking garages and transit stations nearby. The cost to taxpayers, the mayor suggested, would be relatively small and the benefits to the city would be great.

“We don’t do subsidies,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the time. “The city is getting paid back at a profit.”

But as the two stadiums near completion, the cost to taxpayers is anything but small, a review of the projects shows. Though the teams are indeed paying approximately $2 billion to erect the two stadiums, the cost to the city for infrastructure — parks, garages and transportation improvements — have jumped to about $458 million, from $281 million in 2005. The state is contributing an additional $201 million.

Those totals do not include an estimated $480 million in city, state and federal tax breaks granted to both teams. In addition, neither team has to pay rent or property taxes, though they are playing on city-owned land.

. . .

Shortly before he stepped down, Mr. Giuliani signed a nonbinding agreement with the Yankees and the Mets to pay half of he $1.6 billion cost of building two baseball stadiums. Mr. Bloomberg rejected that plan in 2002, but his own push to build a heavily subsidized football stadium for the Jets on the West Side also ended in failure.

Finally, in 2005 and 2006, the city and the state reached deals with the Yankees and Mets in which the teams agreed to pay the cost of constructing the stadiums on city-owned land, while Mr. Bloomberg insisted that the government would build only infrastructure around them.

In those early stages, city, state and team officials estimated that the Yankees project would cost about $1 billion, with the team paying 80 percent, or $800 million, for the stadium, while the city and state would contribute $208.6 million for parks and garages.

The total cost of the Mets’ project was put at almost $645 million, with the team paying about 65 percent, or $423 million, for the stadium and the public putting up $221.8 million in site preparation, pilings and mass transit improvements. The deal also allowed the Mets to keep revenue generated by the garages, money that in the past went into the city’s coffers.

In the world of stadium building, these were considered relatively good deals even by critics of public financing of private stadiums. By comparison, San Diego paid 67 percent, or $303 million, of the $449 million cost of a new stadium for the Padres that opened in 2004.

But in the past two years, the costs of the New York projects — the stadiums and the related infrastructure — have swelled substantially, with the current cost of the Mets’ project put at about $900 million and the Yankees project expected to be more than $1.7 billion, making it the most expensive ballpark in the country. The rising price tags mean public costs have grown as well.

Location Scout: New Yankee Stadium, Citi Field.