A Tale of Two (Twin) Cities

This week, in part to jump start my blogging efforts again and in part to get away from writing just about Bloomberg (and his attempt to gain a third term), I will be focusing on the relationship between St. Paul and Minneapolis as they host the Republican Convention.

I will also be taking a look back in time (although not too far) to Denver's role during the Democratic Convention, as well as examining the speeches delivered by Mayors there.

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Race to replace Bloomberg heats up

The race to be the Mayor of the most important city in the world is starting to get rolling. Here's a round-up of the news as reported by the most important newspaper in the world:

Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, has got 774 Facebook friends. That's significantly more friends than anyone else has. This, he believes, makes him the front runner. I am not convinced.

Could Police Commissioner Ray Kelly be considering a run? Personally, I've never been a big fan of the Police Chief to Mayor or General to President transition. I don't think the skills are necessarily comparable. This is perhaps best seen in President Grant (great General, lousy President).

The best article focused on Council Speaker Christine Quinn's dad. I've always like Quinn and now I'm definitely convinced about who should be the next Mayor of New York: Quinn, that is Mr. Lawrence Quinn.

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Bloomberg introduces record number of Charter Schools

For any other Mayor it'd be a major initiative, but for New York's Mike Bloomberg it's just business as usual. Bloomberg has announced plans to launch 18 new charter schools this year, the most ever to be introduced in the city in a single year.

To describe it as "business as usual" is to get at precisely the type of thinking Bloomberg has applied throughout his reign. In this case, his thinking is that by introducing additional schools it will create the competition necessary to spark fundamental education change throughout New York. More below:

“It is the charter schools that will get the public to demand that the rest of them come up,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It’s the charter schools that let parents vote with their feet and tell us what the parents think about the quality of the education, of the schools. And I can tell you, one of the reasons that the public schools in the city have gotten better is because the charter schools exist and give parents an alternative and let parents see that you can do something better.”

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Bloomberg counts down

Billionaire New York Mayor (and, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed against all odds, possible Vice-Presidential candidate) Mike Bloomberg is known for his obsession with data. Heck, that's how he made his billions.

These days he is closely keeping track of a simple number and making sure that his staff does as well: how much time left they have to make a difference.

500 days might not matter much in most lame duck administrations, but Bloomberg has shown his ability to create huge impacts in short periods of time. Impacts that often spread outside of his municipality.

For the sake of all our cities, we can only hope that Mayor Bloomberg has a few major innovations left in him.

On a side note, for awhile now I've been thinking that America needs a figure to focus us on the power of local (rather than federal) government. I think Bloomberg could be that figure after he leaves office (heck, he's already doing it now). He has the money obviously to create a significant City-focused think tank and the experience to back up his bold ideas for urban transformation.

He also has the relationships with other Mayors to create a powerful political force that may well be able to get Washington to listen (if not actually respond).

If Bloomberg doesn't create this role for himself, whoever ends up the next President would be wise to stick him in a cabinet position and essentially give him this role - an ambassador from the Federal Government to our nation's Cities (and, of course, the reverse would apply as well).

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