Would you like to be Mayor of New York City?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'd decentralize the city and place as much power into the hands of the Burroughs as possible.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I'd decentralize the city and place as much power into the hands of the Burroughs as possible.

Edgar Rice and William?  That's a very ambitious alternate history.

William, with Alan Ginsberg as Vice Mayor.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Only if I got to govern it in my typical style, that is, autocratically. More specifally I would have to govern for multiple decades, have complete control over all branches of government, a centralised party machine, influence throughout the metropolitan area, an ability to implement policies and projects without substantial opposition, and a mild personality cult.

In short, that is why I'd never be a politician.

But I've given it a bit of thought, and I'd imagine serving for 24-28 years, building a strong "Metropolitan Republican League" as the electoral vehicle, and playing the borough Democrats and WFP against each other to achieve electoral domination. (Something that Guilani could have done-if not so dramatically-but failed to). 

Term limits would obviously be abolished. I'd do the same for the Public Advocate office. Community boards would be greatly weakened if not eventually abolished. Gradually, the citywide elected officials would be appointed. I might try to tack on some functional constituencies on the city council.

In terms of policy, a strong anti-union element would initially dominate. Teachers' unions, transit unions, construction unions, all would have to be taken on in order to reduce costs (I mean, NYC wastes over $1 billion annually on yellow school buses). Perhaps, as the crowning achievement in that push, a Scott Walker-esque repeal of public collective bargaining rights.

Following this, with NIMBYs and unions neutered, a massive construction spree would commence. I'm envisioning plain old cut-and-cover construction of 10 new subway lines. A comprehensive reorganisation of sub-street utility lines. Something like 1,000,000 new apartment units, concentrated on the Far West Side, Astoria, Mott Haven, and Downtown Brooklyn. A Cross-Manhattan Midtown Tunnel connecting the Lincoln Tunnel and the Queens Tunnel. A bridge over the Raritan Bay. A tunneled Cross Brooklyn expressway, Gowanus, and BQE. A new (if not rebuilt) Penn Station is obviously a given.

A direct link between the WTC and JFK and Grand Central (utilising East Side Access) with LGA and JFK. Or, perhaps, a brand new airport dreged from the Raritan Bay south of Staten Island accompanied by an Incheon-style development of the area.

Downtown Brooklyn would be further developed as a commercial centre with the intention of getting it to be in the top 10 CBDs in the country. Long Island City would be completely built over with the goal of getting it in the top 15-20, centred around the Citibank Building there. Regional clout would be leveraged to develop tristate regulations and tax codes that effectively punish suburb-based corporations.

I would take personal control over the Landmarks Office. I would also impose a form-based code that emphasises not only transit-oriented development but somehow manages to engender traditionalist architecture (as part of the code). I would impose congestion pricing, and I would keep most of Bloomberg's programs, although I might ease the smoking ban in bars and in some restaurants (or just make an exception for Keens Chophouse), and throw in a pipe loophole.

The drinking and smoking age would be set at 18- and I dare the Feds to take 10% of our highway money. The NYPD has better things to do, like get all the homeless with the anti-loitering laws and off the subways and streets and into shelters, as conduct the occasional raid for drug users to put them into rehab.

My greatest task would be to smash the cycle of poverty, and that would be achived by reinforcing community institutions, empowering local leaders, creating support for education, denigrating and ostracising negative influences,  supporting two-parent households, fostering engagement between those in the community who have been successful in business and the community, and supporting entrepreneurship and business ownership. Let me hasten to add that last one is not an empty plaudit- have you ever been to a black neighbourhood and looked at who owns the businesses. More often than not, it's not black people. This is very gradualist, but it is made possible by the generation-spanning length of the term.

I think that's most of it.

Bob Mosses is alive!

(Also, please don't have the homeless people put on buses and sent down here. The last time that happened the buses stopped a mile away from my house.)