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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, November 02, 2009
According to the Post, America’s Former Mayor was bumped from his favorite seats near the dugout in Yankee Stadium on the first night of the World Series to get him, and wife Judi, away from Michelle Obama. A source blames “the White House.”
To add insult to injury, Mrs. Obama ended up not using the seats because of the rain.
The Post, which says that Giuliani has a history of not having much of a sense of humor about this kind of thing, noted that the Yankees won when he was back in his favorite seat for the next game. His favorite seat is apparently the one where the cameras can catch him talking to players.
Thanks to Rach.
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Mugging for the camera in that godawful hat is all the man has left, and it's just plain cruel to take that away from him.
Because Bloomberg chooses to sit in a luxury box next to the Yankee guest of honor for that night.
I doubt Mrs. Obama cares, either.
I repeat: #### that guy.
I've always hated that hat because it's backwards. It's the FDNY and the NYPD, but his dumb hat reads PD NY FD.
And #### the NYPD anyway.
they aint too smart
No, seriously, count the rings. The Yankees actually gave Rudy Guiliani four World Series rings.
When I was growing up, you couldn't take the subway late at night, 86th and 42nd street had hookers on the corners, and low-level street crime was accepted as normal-- I was mugged twice between age 10 and 12, my parents were mugged at least 2-3 times b/w 1975 and 1993...and I don't think we were unusual.
Giulani had fascist impulses, but even Musso-######-lini made the trains run on time. The city that he left for Bloomberg was 1000x better than the city he inherited from limp-dick Dinkins. If it wasn't for Giuliani, bleeding-heart idiots like y'all would still be locked in your West Side walkups instead of walking around at 2AM all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, looking at your reflection in store windows and thinking, "god, I am so sweet, I am SO in touch with the zeitgeist of the People".
I bet some of the politicans who go to church every sunday don't actually believe in god.
It's a figure of speech, dip-####.
Technically, they sold them to him at a steep discount.
What's the deal with Rudy's cancer?
They nipped it in the bud with a radioactive "seed." To the best of my knowledge, that was the end of it.
And the police hiring surge which probably contributed as much as anything to the decline in New York crime (along with the burning out of the crack boom, which wasn't restricted to New York) was initiated with federal funds during the administration of one David Dinkins. Giuliani probably merits some credit for bringing in Bratton, who instituted CompStat, but then he ran him off in favor of a succession of flunkies, including the estimable Bernard Kerik.
There's surely some truth in this, but decoupling the effects of an improving economy and innovations in policing is hard to do. A lot of cities experienced precipitous drops in crime in the late 90s. The spread of Broken Windows/CompStat surely helped, but so did the economic boom. How much is attributable to the former and how much is attributable to the latter is beyond me.
As an aside, I worked as a writer for crime research group in Jackson, MS around this time. I'd spend a good bit of time with my nose in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. I recall one year--1996, I think--in which roughly 1 out of every 1,000 New Orleans residents was murdered. That's really unthinkable.
And the drastic drop in crime in every other American city during the same period was just a coincidence.
Depending upon how one assesses the government handling of Katrina, one might say that a similar percentage of New Orleanians succumbed to homicide in 2005, as well. But that's another story.
Bratton's back in town. In the (extraordinarily unlikely) event that Thompson wins on Tuesday, there's a good chance he'd be back in the saddle.
The great man theory of history is emotionally satisfying, but almost always simplistic and inadequate.
I also grew up in NYC and this may be the single best post I've ever seen. The baseball talk is worth it but there is way too much asseholery here.
That whole post was funny! Well done.
The flow got turned back on in the late 60s and, over the subsequent 25 years, the new immigrant and second generation communities of East Asians, South Asians, and Latin Americans matured and revitalized the formerly semi-abandoned neighborhoods of the urban periphery.
Like I said, it's purely a gut theory, but it kind of feels right.
(1) My understanding is that, even in the context of the nationwide drop in crime and, in particular, the drop in crime in urban areas, New York stands out as having a particularly large drop in crime rate, and is now literally the safest large city in the world in a non-authoritarian state. Obviously, many of the changes in NYC are driven by forces beyond the Great Man. But New York used to be of a kind with Chicago or LA- it is now, I think, unarguably safer and with a higher quality of life for a broader range of its citizens.
(2) I think Giuliani deserved credit not for what he instituted, but what he refused to take away. People forget that there was enormous pressure from the usual NYC urban special interests to relax the more radical of the changes in governing/policing- Rudy effectively refused to bend to those pressures. (Bloomberg also, to his credit, has largely ignored these voices.) I simply can't believe that Ruth Messenger or Mark Green would have had the personal will to make the ungovernable city governable; this isn't as much a liberal/conservative thing as it is a force-of-will thing. To rise to the top of the Democratic party in New York requires such an astute ability to please everyone that it creates the type of politician uniquely unsuited to governing a city.
If Guiliani is getting these tickets as some kind of perk, then f him. You get what you pay for.
The first rule of perquisites:
It's not the having (or the using); it's the getting.
As to 42, I very seriously doubt Giuliani paid for the seats, but I of course don't know.
How long will the game stay 2-1? Pichers seem to have rhythm now.
I question the notion that New York is the safest large city in the world, barring authoritarian nations. Is it safer than Tokyo or Stockholm? I don't know, but I have my doubts.
US Cities by crime rate. New York looks pretty damn good on that list.
As for international, I suppose that it depends on what some of crimes you're including when you make a statement about somewhere being the "safest large city in the world in a non-authoritarian state." For example:
In terms of street crime, I wonder if Jakarta is in the top 3 of safest big cities in the world. Seriously. This place is amazingly safe. Of course, the occasional terrorist bombing is a problem.
Speaking as a Chicago resident, I'll grant that NY is a safer city. Chicago has tended to lag many of the other big cities in the U.S. in seeing its crime rates come down. In terms of murder, in particular, NY has something like 3 times the residents and has had not just a lower murder rate, but fewer absolute murders than Chicago for probably about a decade now.
IOW, it wasn't a figure of speech, dipshitt.
That's how I read it. If you don't live in NYC or Chi there's no reason to expect to know their relative murder rates.
I was raised in DC, did undergrad in West Baltimore, law school in the southside of Chicago, and spent substantial time in NYC. NYC was easily (and I do mean ridiculously far-and-away easily) the safest of them all. Baltimore was without a doubt the worst (genuine fear for your life, even on campus -- we had fratboys being stabbed to death in their houses by drug-addicts around the time I was there).
Needless to say, I don't think that liberals give nearly enough credit to Giuliani for what happened in NYC. But being surprised by that would be like being surprised by the sunrise.
Does it pass the non-authoritarian state test?
So, you're saying there was an upside to the crime rate.
1. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
2. Bern (Switzerland)
2. Geneva (Switzerland)
2. Helsinki (Finland)
2. Zurich (Switzerland)
6. Vienna (Austria)
7. Oslo (Norway)
7. Stockholm (Sweden)
9. Singapore (Singapore)
10. Auckland (New Zealand)
10. Wellington (New Zealand)
That said, he did a hell of a job reducing crime and cleaning up the city. All the other U.S. cities that did similar things followed the example and tactics set by NY.
If we're talking policing tactics, isn't that more Bratton than Giuliani? Obviously, Giuliani deserves credit for bringing Bratton in, but then doesn't he deserve a lesser demerit for essentially firing Bratton in a fit of ego?
I currently live on the NW side, and while I'd say that it's a generally safe neighborhood, my wife was mugged three houses down from our house a couple of years ago. The first place I lived in Chicago was Hyde Park for grad school. Actually, I lived just outside of Hyde Park - the corner of 60th & Drexel. The U of C police gave us the "safe borders" in orientation and basically, I could only safely walk North or East (I walked to the El on 63rd street a couple of times and those were easily the most terrifying walks of my life).
I think that Chicago - at least the places where I've lived - is safer than most of my suburban / small-town friends probably think it is, but from what I've seen and heard, it's not as safe as NYC.
You're aware that Al Roker is the real BTK, right?
Also, I did that 63rd street El walk a couple of times too...the pants-shitting terror of that is something that hasn't changed much at all.
zop can relate.
Economics, 1990-92.
I live on the North Side, but I've made that walk once before. Unsettling, to say the least.
Cleaner, though!
Presumably, the force of Mayor Daley's mighty will.
...with my girlfriend.
And that's the detail that makes the story so crazy/sad/weird.
Speaking of my girlfriend, she -- no joke -- saw a guy get stabbed viciously on 61st St. in broad daylight. Yeah, that area still has some real problems.
UPDATE: It was actually 60th & Stony Island, she says.
But, even after taking into account his ego and his character and his tendency to surround himself with yes-men, he was an extraordinarily successful mayor. I'm glad he didn't become President, though.
Seriously. I can't imagine many things scarier than Giuliani having access to the US military
...with my girlfriend.
Were you going Dutch?
Or the NSA. You thought his little escapade with Patrick Dorismond's sealed juvenile record was cute?
Well it wasn't really scary, because the inhabitants were in such bad shape I was pretty sure they'd never catch me. But man it looked just like a Hollywood exaggeration of a junkie alley.
Most everywhere else was worthy of mostly shoulder shrugging. There wasn't much to get worried about until there was something to get worried about. I got chased a couple of times and had my car broken into several times when I was not around, but other than that I spent 30 years in that city without much crime affecting me.
Since I didn't go to U of C and had no reason to ever go there, I can't speak much to that neighborhood.
I think women in particular would probably feel much differently.
From the year before he took office, through his last full year in office, reported violent crimes declined at an 8% annual rate.
Truly only Rudy Giuliani could achieve such a feat while tackling all of the other problems associated with running a major east coast city in the mid-late 90s.
Well, maybe only Rudy Giuliani and Marion Barry.
In Giuliani's case, it was Judi Nathan who was the ##### what set him up.
Labash is easily the best conservative journalist tackling urban issues we've got (with a shout out to Heather MacDonald). His article on Detroit is equally haunting, and thoughtful in a way not normally associated with right-wing journos and their typical priorities.
Which reminds me, why is it that being an adulterous scumbag seems to not have any career repurcussions for Republican politicians?
In fairness, I think it was the conviction, rather than the adultery, which inconvenienced Barry.
As to the latter point, Republicans believe in droit de seigneur.
Besides, at least Rudy made an honest woman out of her. A modicum of credit for not pulling a Newt Gingrich or something.
Where do you get this crap from? I live in Sydney with 4 million other people and we have like 25 murders a year, most of which are of the domestic violence type. I am sure there are a plethora of cities in Europe that are "safer" than NYC. Don't get me wrong, I like NY, it's an amazingly fun place to visit(and I'm sure to live), but to say it's the safest large city in the democratic world is just inane. Heck, I'd bet money that even places like Tokyo are safer. It's funny to quote something like that on a site that normally requires the most definite of statistical backing to make any legitimate claim to anything.
I think this is correct. I was quoting from an article which I don't remember, the basic thesis of which was that many of the purportedly "safe" cities around the world merely push their crime to a ring of more-dangerous suburbs, and that if you look at the totality of the metro area New York and Tokyo were the safest of the "megacities". I'm not sure if Sydney was covered in that article (it may have been too small), and I'm not sure if the article was accurate.
Australian chauvinism, maybe?
We try to push our crime to Melbourne and Brisbane, the other major cities on the Eastern seaborn of Australia....
No, but was it ever brought up as an issue during his run for president? during his aborted run for senate? During discussion about a possible run for governor?
And how about John McCain? Newt Gingrich? How often is it that the extra-marital affairs of these people mentioned in the media? And how is it that guys like David Vitter and John Ensign can talk about the sanctity of marriage without being asked about their affairs?
My memory is that Newt did make an honest woman out of his mistress. Then he got a new mistress. Then, of course, he had to make an honest woman out of HER...
That was when he converted to Roman Catholicism.
Beyond his first comment, I agree with near everything 'zop has said.
I just wish he wasn't using that stupid "internet tough guy" attitude. The more stuff I read online the more it seems blogers/writers/commentoers start conforming to certain archtypes, and lately everyone's acting in this over agressive, misanthropic tough guy thing that's really annoying.
There's something to be said for voting for opposition party canidates in areas where one party dominates local politics.
I'd add I really don't see Rudy as much of a republican, or a conservative, he seems authoritrian if anything.
Also, I kind of wonder if new york's drop in crime etc is just due to all the gentrification, the same thing has happened in areas of london, except London still has poor immigrants coming in.
I think the causation goes the other direction. With the drop in crime, "scary" neighborhoods become "charming, authentic, emerging" neighborhoods and the advertising and non-profit white collars move in.
And there are plenty of poor immigrants still moving to New York.
Secondly let us not ignore the gigantic impact that the financial sector had on bringing tons of money to NY and the Feds caused that not RudyG. There is no urban revival without Wall Street and corporate America growing by leaps and bounds.
Clearance rates.
I don't know that Stockholm, or really any of the cities on Bernal's list in [56], really belong in this discussion, for a variety of reasons, chief among which is size and minor and scattershot among which are probably ethno-religious, cultural, and economic factors. New York is more properly compared to cities on the order of Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Mumbai, Tokyo, Moscow. On that list -- I'd lay even money that all of those save London and Tokyo are significantly more dangerous to live in than New York.
But it does depend on where in New York you live, too. The murder rates in Brooklyn and the Bronx are four to five times higher than those in Manhattan and Staten Island; I'm going from memory from an article I read last week, but in Brooklyn and the Bronx they're well over 8 per [whatever unit --100 000?], whereas in Manhattan and SI they're under 2 per [unit]. And I can say from experience that there aren't too many parts of Manhattan where you feel at all nervous about walking around, even after dark; but in Brooklyn, even where I live, which is a pretty nice area (though not exactly Park Slope), if you get off the subway late at night at the very least you keep your Ipod in your pocket and your eyes peeled. I would imagine the same is true in Queens and the Bronx.
All of that said, I haven't heard gunfire yet, though I haven't been here that long; that ranks it above area I lived in the Bay Area, which was safe right around me and dangerous as soon as you crossed the 101. And you certainly don't feel nervous walking down the street in broad daylight or the evening, when there are a lot of people about. I run in Prospect Park and Central Park, which I'm told used to be not necessarily the safest thing to do, but which is no more frightening than running through my old neighborhood in Portland. New York has its drawbacks, but garbage is a way bigger problem in most parts of it than crime.
This is true, for a lot of reasons.
He might've been responding to the guy who suggested we have Giuliani get hit by a train.
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