As we’ve learned over the last year, some New York City mayors spend a lot of time not in New York City. For example, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel recently gained attention for basically living in Connecticut, while former Deputy Mayor for Operations Stephen Goldsmith appears to have mostly resided in D.C. during his tenure. And, of course, the most important mayor of them all — Michael Bloomberg — leads a secret double life in Bermuda, which many argue contributed to his botched handling of last December’s blizzard.
This June, City Council member Peter F. Vallone Jr. suggested that New Yorkers should at least know when their leaders are out of town, if only to keep things running smoothly during emergency situations, when “we need to know immediately who has authority on New York City streets.” So, he proposed a bill that would require mayors to inform a city clerk when they planned to travel either 250 miles from New York or outside the continental United States for more than 24 hours. (It would not have required them to say exactly where they were going.) Unfortunately for Vallone, nosy people, and those interested in more efficiently casing Bloomberg’s baronial Upper East Side home, the Council has apparently decided against moving forward with the bill. Was the privacy-minded Bloomberg’s expected opposition to the measure a factor in its dismissal? “Absolutely not,” said a spokesman for Council speaker Christine Quinn, whose reported “lack of enthusiasm” for the proposal might have just earned her a little trip to Bermuda this Christmas.
Council Will Not Require Mayor to Disclose Travel [City Room/NYT]
