Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Same City Hall

Mayor Michael Bloomberg did what he does best yesterday. He struck a blow against some of New York City’s poorest people by raiding stores in Chinatown.

The Office of Special Enforcement seized fake Rolex, Coach and Gucci products, shut down 32 shops and put hundreds of New Yorkers out of work.

The mayor seemed proud of all this.

“Whoever you are, wherever you are, we are going to shut you down,” Bloomberg said at his Canal Street press conference.

This was all done to support multi-billion dollar corporations like Switzerland-based Rolex, which thanked Bloomberg for “recognizing the pervasive crime of trademark counterfeiting and stepping up to the plate.”

I’m sure a custom-made Rolex is on its way to City Hall, but that doesn’t pay the bills in Chinatown. People were back on the streets selling the American-made “fake” watches before the mayor even finished his little speech. New Yorkers have to be industrious to survive in a place where the best interests of a Swiss company are a priority at City Hall.

This is the same City Hall that just cut a tax deal worth $20 million for Major League Baseball to locate its new television network in East Harlem.

The same City Hall that closed the East Harlem Little League field last spring to build another luxury building.

The same City Hall that gives Manhattan’s richest private schools priority use of the baseball fields on Randall’s Island.

The same City Hall that allowed the Yankees to start construction on a new stadium before replacing the parks they took.

The same City Hall that fines people who try to scrape out a living by collecting recyclables off the street.

The same City Hall that allows housing prices to spin out of control and utility companies to rack up record profits while our infrastructure crumbles.

That same City Hall took a shot at people who can’t afford a “real” Rolex yesterday. The mayor got a watch for brokering the deal.

10 comments:

Pete said...

Finally… Someone speaks out against this stuff. Bloomberg will have us all out of here before long.

Todd Drew said...

Pete,
Check out The Palimpsest (www.palimpsest.net) written by Michael O. Allen. He also wrote a great piece about this and just about everything else going on in the world. I recommend making it a regular stop.

Olivia said...

This is outrageous! What kind of a country do we live in?

Donna said...

Olivia,
This is a very frightening country. Or, more accurately, this is a very frightening mayor.

JoeyBoy said...

Bloomberg isn’t as bad as Giuliani because no one could be as bad as Giuliani. He does seem to be going downhill fast.

Todd Drew said...

Joeyboy,
Bloomberg may be going downhill fast, but there is no way he overtakes Rudy Giuliani in “the worst-mayor race.” Giuliani wins that one easily.

Henry said...

Yeah, Giuliani is the worst, no question about that.

DMan said...

I don't understand this concept..

How did they even pitch this to the public?

For saftey reasons? Helping the economy? I'm confused how this didn't get more press.

Todd Drew said...

DMan,
They didn’t have to sell the public on this because the Office of Special Enforcement was formed by Executive Order. That means it didn’t have to be approved by the City Council or any other elected officials that are answerable to the public. These are basically private armies under the direction of the mayor.

Pretty soon no one will be able to survive in this country. They ship American manufacturing jobs overseas and then when Americans try to build and sell something they shut them down.

Don’t even get me going about the laws against people collecting the recyclables.

I did a post on that last month: http://yankeesforjustice.blogspot.com/
2008/01/crime-to-be-poor.html

Mike said...

Take a look at how Rudy's cronies take care of each other at our expense.

http://nyyu.blogspot.com