Is Rudy Giuliani a well-liked/respected politician in NY?

Question

we had mitt romney here in MA and have known since he arrived that we were nothing but a stepping stone to wash for him. he's not impressive to most but, unfortunately, he's a handsome man and can look the part. please do not let any of this fool you.

it seems people outside NY will always relate Rudy to 9/11 but i do remember all of the issues he was dealing with prior to that year and some of them made him look pretty bad. i watched the debate in NH and many said he "won", that he was the most impressive. i would never vote for him, (i'm a democrat) but i'm just curious to hear some new yorker's opinions of his politics. i know he's had an active personal life, don't care about that.

Answer 1

He is good at the snow job thing. I will give credit where credit is due. he cleaned up the subway system and got rid of the peep shows etc in Times Square, went after the mob HOWEVER. he is running on the reputation of being " America's mayor" and for looking heroic. He is not one because of his arrogance. He raised middle class taxes/fees, presided over the continued decline of one of the worst public school systems in America, worsened the state of health care in NYC, and doled out corporate welfare to his fat cat buddies. He is no hero. He was just on camera a lot which helped make him appear heroic.
When there had been the first bombing of the WTC in 1993, recommendations had been made to him on how to improve security, response by first responders etc. At the time of the second bombing and ultimate destruction of the twin towers MOST of the recommendations were NOT implemented, yet he was heralded as this great mayor. Don't believe the hype.
Also listen to how he treated the fire fighters after 9/11, especially from the President of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
People have that memorable image-Rudy among the ruins- this hides a multitude of sins: in the event of a terrorist attack, Giuliani should have been directing police, fire and emergency services from the city's high-tech underground emergency management center; unfortunately, Giuliani had insisted that that secure center be located at the World Trade Center along with a diesel fuel truck which was against the advise of FDNY.
During the attacks, because the command center was rendered inoperable, NYC had no clear chain of command and no physical command structure in place to coordinate the emergency response. Frankly, the whole reason Giuliani was on television all day and available for interviews was because he was scrambling around the streets trying to set up a command post since the one he had designed and located was paralyzed during the attacks.
Political infighting between police and fire departments went unchecked, preventing coordination between first responders, and Giuliani's rush to return New York to business as usual (fearing that Wall Street might relocate) may have seriously impaired the health of returning workers and residents. The New York City government now estimates that 43,000 people have significant 9/11-related health problems
How can we continue to treat this man as a hero when firefighters were looking for their brethren and he said no and took some of the debris which contained bodies and/or body parts to fix holes in the streets of New York. He was more concerned about getting the gold and silver bullion for the Corporations than he was about getting the bodies of the real heroes of 9/11, the firefighters and police officers that went into those buildings. Giuliani also made a conscious decision to institute a “scoop-and-dump” operation to expedite the clean-up of Ground Zero in lieu of the more time-consuming, but respectful, process of carefully removing debris in hope of uncovering more remains
Excerpt from a letter from the IAFF President
"The real reason was that the Bank of Nova Scotia's assets were buried in that rubble, the day they got those assets out of that pile, Rudy shut the pile down, said 'everybody off, we're going to full scoop and dump'... It was gold, it was silver, it was other assets, I've seen a lot of numbers too, I don't have an exact one so I don't wanna give it to you... Our firefighters were on the pile helping excavate the gold as well, our problem is that all Rudy cared about at the end of the day was the gold bricks, not the lives and the memories of those that were the true heroes that day."
At the time, in November 2001, it was reported that $200 million in gold bullion has been recovered from the site. One day later around 50% of firefighters were removed from the job and totally denied access.
Mayor Giuliani’s actions meant that fire fighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like so much garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills Landfill"
So before anyone claims these are untruths, I have provided proof.

Answer 2

I am a life long New Yorker. Has many people have said Bloomberg's approval rating is much higher then Rudy's ever was and Mayor Mike seems to handle the day to day job better. Before 9-11 most New Yorkers hated Rudy. His war on the mob was silly, the Italian mob (despite the Sopranos) had long since lost its hold on New York, the fact that he could arrest a bunch of 80 year old men while younger guys from the Russian, Albanian and Colombian mobs ran wild is not impressive.

On 9-11 and right after wards he was great. But try as I might I cannot think of a New York mayor who would not have been. Maybe Dinkins and Beame would have been quieter but they would have handled it. And Ed Koch would have been twice the mayor that Rudy was on that day (and Rudy was great). Lindsey would have been excellent and so would have Wagner. Mayor Mike would have topped them all

What I am saying is I find it hard to believe that the mayor of the Capital of the World would not rise to the need of an tragedy like 9-11. So was Rudy impressive: Yes but then again it was his job to be

Answer 3

Bloomberg has been ten times the mayor Guiliani was.

Due to malfunctioning radio & com equipment the FDNY was not able to save as many as they could have on 9/11. Perhaps 2000 more died than would have. This is Rudy's fault. He had been mayor for 8 years up to that point and year in and year out the FDNY asked to have their equipment updated and he always said no.

Like Bush, Rudy would send our troops into battle without the necessary armor. He's very authoritarian and had a 35% approval rating in NYC on September 10, 2001.

Bloomberg is at 75% now, which is unheard of in NYC.

Answer 4

I lived in NY while Giuliani was mayor and he cleaned up that city, regardless of what "special interest" groups (like ferret lovers and union bosses) want you to think. 9/11 is not what Giuliani is all about. He improved so many things in NY while mayor.

He also went after the mob, which let's face it, has pretty much been an accepted part of the US after all these years. NY was completely infested with it. It was a crime organization brought in from immigrants and has grown stronger through the years and has been glamorized on television and in the movies, the perfect example of immigrants bringing in the worst of their way of life and changing our country.

Giuliani didn't have to go after the mob. The public wasn't demanding it. Even the government said you can't beat the mob. He did it because it was the right thing to do and he had personally seen people in his life negatively effected by the mob.

Answer 5

U.S. Veteran got it right. Thanks to his cuts and skimping, Rudy essentially killed firefighters on 9/11. The FDNY had been begging for money to replace their antiquated communication systems, because they were unable to communicate with each other in a number of NY buildings (pre-9/11 this lack of communication had *already* led to the death and injury of several firefighters). Rudy, however, dragged his feet and declined their requests (at the time, Rudy had other priorities -- like his sordid affair with Judith Nathan). On 9/11, the FDNY was unable to radio firefighters who were in the towers; they couldn't get through to warn them that the buildings were in jeopardy of collapse. As such, many people perished who might have survived. And the FDNY isn't the *only* group in New York that loathes Rudy -- not by a long shot. Pre-9/11 fascist Rudy had become a reviled figure in New York. Out of desperation (because Bush was hiding in a rabbit hole that day), New Yorkers rallied around him, because they needed a leader -- *some* leader. After the smoke cleared, however, most New Yorkers gradually came back to their senses. The rest of America is being sold a bill of goods. : Okay, I just now heard it on the news... David M. is right. The FDNY union is angry (for good reason), because Rudy tried to cut back the number of firefighters searching for bodies, shortly after 9/11 (he wanted to get at all of that gold buried below ground!), and Rudy led the charge to have the rubble and remains unceremoniously dumped. They are *also* angry, however, for the reasons noted above (and probably for other crimes as well!).

Answer 6

He's liked by some and not others in NYC. Remember that it was 5-1 democrat to republican there, so there is an inherent bias against him from the start. You really should lean more to national opinion polls to get a better idea of how people view him. Most view him favorably.

Answer 7

Depends who you ask. Most people liked him after 9/11, but his support has eroded with all the recent reporting of his failure to properly protect firefighters and others from the toxic dust from the WTC along with other reports of his failure to do more before, during and after the attack.

Answer 8

No. Giuliani knew the WTC buildings were going to ''collapse'' before they did, he also knew a second plane was on the way, but never bothered to warn any of the people in the towers, or the hundreds on emergency responders rushing in.

Answer 9

ny elected clinton nuff said

Answer 10

yes my friend lived there when he was senator but i bet it was far better than win hillary took office there.