The following is a quick summary, mostly paraphrased, of the Questions and Answers during the first mayoral debate between Michael Bloomberg and Fernando Ferrer.
Q. Why have you spent so much?
Bloomberg: “I’m trying to get my message out… I don’t have a big Democratic machine behind me.” Ads are expensive.
Ferrer: Bloomberg’s money distorts debate, destroys ability to discuss the issues. You won’t hear in a Bloomberg ad there is a 50 percent drop-out rate, one in five New Yorkers live in poverty, Bloomberg vetoed three bills that would have made it easier for the hungry to get food stamps.
Q. What would Ferrer undo that Bloomberg has done?
Ferrer: Atlantic Yards
Q. What would Bloomberg do to help blacks and Latinos get jobs?
Bloomberg: Opening up the unions, programs for minority-owned and women-owned businesses.
Ferrer: Bloomberg shouldn’t have focused so much on the Olympics and the West Side Stadium.
Q. What is Ferrer’s opinion of Goldman-Sachs tax break deal?
Ferrer: Misdirected priorities
Bloomberg: That deal will bring jobs.
Q. Should voters expect more property tax increases and raised fees ahead, given the looming budget gap?
Bloomberg: “We’ll be able to get through without it.”
Q. How would Ferrer have closed the past budget gap differently?
Ferrer: Hiring freeze, growing the economy
Bloomberg: We did that.
Q. Is Ferrer still interested in stock transfer tax?
Ferrer: We have an educational crisis
Bloomberg: We’ve raised school budget
Q. Why did MTA money go unspent for security?
Bloomberg: What they did was wrong, but things are going right now; the MTA “has finally got the message.”
Ferrer: Bloomberg’s appointees to the MTA have been “potted plants.”
Q. Should the NYPD be in charge of emergencies?
Ferrer: No, the Commissioner of Emergency Management
Bloomberg: Yes
Q. Three thousand fewer police officers and an increase in shootings. Related?
Bloomberg: The city doesn’t have the money to hire more. “Crime overall is down.”
At this point, there was an exchange about the two candidates’ national supporters, Bloomberg mentioning Howard Dean’s approval by the National Rifle Association, and then Ferrer mentioning the lack of support in Washington for gun control and bringing up Bloomberg’s support for George Bush and the national Republicans.
“You’ve supported right-wing politicians including the chairman of your own campaign. You can’t disclaim responsibility… You could do the people of this city a big favor sometimes by putting your checkbook away.”
Q. Can Bloomberg assure us he won’t close any more firehouses?
Bloomberg: We’ve increased the fire department, but no. “You can’t have a firehouse on every corner. We have to constantly re-evaluate where we put our resources.”
Ferrer: I will reopen four immediately.
Q. Both candidates have housing plans, but how do they address so many current rent-stabilized apartments going to market rate housing?
Ferrer: didn’t address the issue specifically; criticized Bloomberg and talked about his housing program.
Bloomberg: didn’t address the issue specifically, but talked about his housing program, rezoning.
Q. How will Bloomberg help renters with their high energy costs?
Bloomberg: We can’t do anything about the price of heating oli, but we can help New Yorkers in others ways.
Ferrer: Plan to cut taxes for renters.
Q: Would Ferrer support city-owned housing for the homeless
Ferrer: Yes. We also need to create more affordable housing
Bloomberg: Things are getting better
Q: Should the public have a chance to look at the education test scores?
Bloomberg: He trusts the scores; when the question was reiterated, he answered yes, “I didn’t realize” they didn’t have that right now.
Ferrer: At one point, responding to Bloomberg’s talk of increasing fourth grade reading and math scores, he said: “Look, I’m not running to be the mayor for the 4th grade. I’m running to be the mayor of all the grades.” He also brought up the 50 percent dropout rate again.
Bloomberg: disagrees that that is the rate
Ferrer: Your own chancellor said it
Q: Ferrer said four years ago that mayoral control of the schools was a political gimmick? Does he still think that, and would he reverse it?
Ferrer: He wouldn’t reverse it, but what he was saying turned out to be true.
Bloomberg: “At least the public finally has somebody to blame” or to credit.
Q: Why Bloomberg’s lack of focus on high schools?
Bloomberg: There hasn’t been a lack of focus; there have been smaller schools, and the addition of vocational programs.
Ferrer: “What city are you living in?”
Q: Ground Zero. Ferrer said initially you wanted the money for rebuilding to be spread to the five boroughs..
Ferrer: That was at the time, while Ground Zero wasn’t ready to be rebuilt. Most important is building a fitting memorial, and to have Ground Zero serve as an economic engine. “For years we’ve wasted time.”
Bloomberg: One has to do things simultaneously
Q: How does Bloomberg respond to critics who say he should have focused on Ground Zero for the past four years rather than West Side stadium?
Bloomberg: We have been focusing on it all along. Nine thousand housing units have been built down there.
Ferrer: We need to rebuild office space, keep downtown as an economic engine, not luxury condos.”For four years we’ve chased Olympic dreams and sweetheart deals for West Side stadiums; now it’s time to rebuild that economic engine for all of New York.”
Q: Ferrer has said he responded carelessly when asked about Amadou Diallo. How can we be assured he won’t respond carelessly in the future?
Ferrer:” I am a human being.” But he’s been consistent in his position, for example he drafted the first anti-racial profiling legislation in the city’s history.
Bloomberg: The police have done a good job, crime is down and people have been brought together.
Q: Not given fair share from Washington
This segued into a back-and-forth between Ferrer and Bloomberg about the Bush administration, Ferrer saying he was proud of how he worked with Bill Clinton to help reconstruct the Bronx, “are you proud of George Bush?”
Bloomberg: “George Bush is the president. I agree with him on some things, and disagree with him on other things….You’ve got to work with everybody.”
Ferrer then said that the war in Iraq had taken the lives of 37 New Yorkers and taken billions of dollars away from the city.
Q: The candidates were asked their pet peeve about the city
Bloomberg: “Everybody wants more service, nobody wants to pay for it.”
Ferer: Ticket blitzes, and the fact that not enough attention is paid to the high school dropout rate.
Then they made their closing statements.
Bloomberg: “I’ve always tried to do what is right for the city, and I am proud of what we have accomplished. We’ve brought crime down. We’ve improved test scores. We’ve made life expectancy in this city longer than the country as a whole. We’ve reduced death by fire and pedestrian deaths. We’ve gone and built housing in record numbers, we’ve brought job here, and people are getting along better than they have in an awful long time, I think. Is there more to do? Absolutely. That’s why I want another four years.”
Ferrer: “This morning you heard two very different visions of New York. Mike Bloomberg thinks everything’s going just great in this town, and for some it is. But for millions of others it isn’t.I’m running for mayor so that millions of others can cross over the bridge that I did. Mike Bloomberg says everything’s going fine in our schools, but half the kids don’t graduate. I’ll end the dropout crisis. Mike Bloomberg says there’s a housing boom, but the middle class is being crushed by property taxes that he raised. I’ll cut those taxes, and provide 167,000 affordable homes and apartments. Mike Bloomberg admits that there are two New Yorks, but he hasn’t done anything about them. Instead he spent most of his time going after a sweetheart deal for a West Side stadium, and forgotten the fact that one in five New Yorkers live in poverty. I’ll do something about that. That’s why I’m running for mayor.”
Stay tuned for the transcript, to see how much of this was accurately summarized.
Meanwhile, here is an account and video clips from WABC, one of the sponsors of the debate.
By Jonathan Mandell on October 30, 2005, 11:05 am
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