Michael Bloomberg |
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Michael Rubens "Mike" Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is a businessman and mayor of New York City.
Bloomberg was born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He made his fortune selling financial-information terminals to Wall Street firms. Bloomberg L.P. also began a radio network (the flagship station is 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City). Prior to founding the company, he was general partner at Salomon Brothers, where he headed equity trading, sales and, later, systems development.
Mr. Bloomberg is among the world's richest people, with a net worth approaching $5 billion.
Michael Bloomberg is a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 with a BS in electrical engineering and Harvard University with a Master of Business Administration degree. Bloomberg has since donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University, as well as serving as the chairman of the board of the university from 1996 to 2002.
He has written an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg (1997, ISBN 0471155454).
Mayor of New York
In 2001 he was elected mayor, succeeding Rudy Giuliani, who—despite increased popular sentiment for a third term following the September 11 terrorist attacks—was required to leave office because of term limits. Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat, ran for mayor as a Republican (or Republican In Name Only), reportedly to avoid the crowded field in the Democratic primary. He defeated Herman Badillo in the Republican primary to go on to the general election.
In the general election he also had the ballot line of the Independence Party. With Giuliani's endorsement, he defeated the Democratic candidate, Mark J. Green, by 50%-48%.
Among his political positions and policies:
- He supports the movement to allow gays and lesbians the right to marry, though he has appealed a decision legalizing gay marriage because he has stated he wants to ensure it is permitted under New York State law:
"My personal opinion is that anybody should be allowed to marry anybody. I don't happen to think we should put restrictions on who you should marry.... What the city doesn't want to have happen is people getting a marriage license and then six months, or one year later, or two years later, finding out it's meaningless"
- In the 2001 campaign, he criticized Green for refusing to rule out a tax increase, but during his first year in office, Bloomberg proposed a 25 percent increase in the property tax. The City Council approved an increase of 18.5 percent.
- He has supported moves to restrict public smoking during his time as mayor, removing the last indoor public areas where one could smoke in the city: bars and clubs.
- He supports legal abortion.
- Since 2003, he has become increasingly assertive in demanding federal anti-terrorism funds be distributed to municipalities based on risk and population rather than any other measure.
- He has been a strong proponent of the proposed West Side Stadium.
Bloomberg will be up for re-election in 2005. In late 2004 or early 2005, he gave the Independence Party $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign. [3] (http://nydailynews.com/front/story/268291p-229740c.html) Some possible Democratic opponents may be former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. Bloomberg also faces some opposition from Republicans in a primary challenge from former City Councilman Tom Ognibene and investment banker Steve Shaw.
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