Tsar Bloomberg's Free Pass to Occupy Wall Street

I have nothing but admiration for Mayor Mike Bloomberg as a successful entrepreneur, builder of a global business and as Mayor of one of the world's most ungovernable cities; but in his third term as Mayor, he has stayed on too long and appears to have lost any enthusiasm for the shin whacking necessary to exert leadership in Gotham.

Inviting the Occupy Wall Streeters to be our guest and see New York on "$10 a day" was irresponsible.  The dynamics since then mirror what happened on the Columbia campus during the strikes of 1968-69. What then began early as a quasi-student protest quickly got taken over by professional agitators with no investment in the University and loyalty only to their political agendas.  Columbia College, its professors and students, and the City picked up the tab, while the "movement" got its legitimacy.

Demonstrations in New York require lots of overtime for the Police and Sanitation Departments.  How is a strapped municipal budget going to absorb this expense? Now that the OWS crowd has expanded to include professional agitators, their supervisors and videographers, municipal expenses are going way up, and since there's no deadline for clearing out the demonstrators, the sanitation expenses will be ongoing.

The choice of Zucotti Park as a focal point for the demonstrators now brings in Brookfield Properties as another target, since Zucotti is not strictly a municipal park.  The brain trust for OWS made a good strategic choice, as the City and Brookfield will now be pitted against each other to see who bears what costs.

The Mayor's debacle with his Schools Chancellor and one of his top aides demonstrates that he has gone off his game and lost interest, and it's perfectly understandable.  However, passing the buck on dealing with this Sixties-style demonstration is an unnecessary affront to NYC residents, taxpayers and property owners.

As Wall Street execs arrive at work in their livery cars, I don't think they are giving OWS any thought beyond how to make a good trade on the news stories.