-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4357774,00.html
> The criticism that Giuliani now faces as he considers a run for the
> vice-presidency in 2004 (or, as the popular theory goes, becomes
> George W. Bush's number two should Dick Cheney be brought down by the
> Enron scandal) goes beyond failure to uphold the social contract of
> mayor.
>>>Considering Rudi has already abdicated and subjected himself to a
froeign power, I'd say that the Britlanders have actually done us a
favour by taking him out of the running. Colin Powell is on the
fence in this respect, as well. All that's left is to ship them
across the pond. A<>E<>R<<<
}}}>Begin
City's poor scorn knight of New York
As Rudy Giuliani takes the plaudits abroad, critics at home round on
his divisive legacy, reports Edward Helmore
Observer Worldview
Sunday February 17, 2002
The Observer
Rudy Giuliani may be the toast of Britain, but his lap of honour
around London last week during which he was knighted by the Queen
produced few cheers among the small and ragged army of the homeless
and dispossessed that lines up each day outside the Church of the
Holy Apostles on Ninth Avenue for a hot meal.
'Somebody should shoot him,' remarked Arthur Foreman, 54, one of
nearly 1,000 homeless men who make their way to the church each
morning. 'He may have stopped a lot of crime but he made it worse for
innocent people. He was a terrible mayor for the poor. He's the devil
of New York City.'
While his extraordinary leadership as the city quaked with fear and shock following
the terrorist attacks of 11 September is still celebrated, whole swaths of Giuliani's
achievements over eight years in office are coming
under scrutiny even as his example is copied abroad.
Not only has his banner success in reducing crime come under revision - an
achievement, many criminologists argue, that had more to do with demographic trends
than zero tolerance - but long-standing criticism of his fisca
l prudence, his commitment to the poor and minorities, his leadership style and his
moral instinct, are resurfacing.
'No one can take away from him his courageous leadership, and none can take away his
serious reductions in crime, but he's not the saviour of all humanity,' says Joel
Berg, director of Coalition against Hunger, a voluntee
r group that represents 1,200 soup kitchens in the city. 'His long-term legacy will be
that he left the city in worse shape than he inherited it. He squandered a real
opportunity to do something about homelessness and hun
ger. Giuliani didn't move people to work, he moved them on to the streets. He cut them
off at the knees and threw them to the wolves.'
The crisis afflicting the homeless can be seen everywhere: at night, shelters made of
cardboard boxes line some of the city's wealthiest streets; homeless shelters, many of
them in the outer boroughs, are filled beyond ca
pacity.
Even before 11 September and its disastrous economic aftermath, the number of homeless
people staying in New York City's shelters had surpassed 25,000 a night, the highest
level seen since 1989 when the city's notorious c
rack epidemic was peaking. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, 40 per cent of
those needing shelter are children.
In 2000, about 600,000 people a month needed emergency food, according to the
Coalition against Hunger. An advocacy group, the Welfare Law Centre, estimates that
2.3 million people in the New York area were living in pove
rty in early 2000. Since then, with a deepening recession and the effects of 11
September, matters have only got worse.
'Leaving aside rising to the occasion of 9/11, many of his policies and programmes
during his tenure as mayor have hurt the city enormously,' Marc Cohan of the Welfare
Law Centre says. 'His legacy to the poor is horrible.
He attempted to drive down the welfare rolls without attempting to end poverty. He
slashed services for the disabled, people with HIV and the mentally ill, cut
programmes for people to acquire basic literacy, and focused
on replacing unionised city workers with welfare recipients working at or below the
minimum wage.'
One of the major challenges to Giuliani's legacy is the problem of affordable housing.
During his tenure there was almost no building of low-income housing, and much of the
rent-controlled property was released to the mar
ket. In the past 10 years, New York has lost more than half a million low-rent
apartments.
'He threw us out onto the streets and then gave landlords the right to raise rents,'
says Willie, a 41-year-old homeless man. 'Welfare gives you $215 a-month for rent, but
the rents are $2,000. What am I supposed to do? R
ob a bank?'
One of Giuliani's last - and vividly symbolic - measures was to order the rousting or
arrest of the homeless sleeping on the steps of city's churches.
According to Clyde Kuemmerle, director of the Ninth Avenue soup kitchen, Giuliani saw
the poor as threatening the quality of life of New Yorkers: 'But whose quality of
life? He viewed the poor as criminals. He didn't say
it, but that's the way he treated them.'
One of the measures he used to get the homeless out of sight was to bus them to a
shelter upstate from which they could not easily return to the city. 'By some people's
reckoning it was a kind of internment,' Kuemmerle ad
ds.
The criticism that Giuliani now faces as he considers a run for the
vice-presidency in 2004 (or, as the popular theory goes, becomes
George W. Bush's number two should Dick Cheney be brought down by the
Enron scandal) goes beyond failure to uphold the social contract of
mayor.
Even his crime-fighting legacy is under scrutiny. The dramatic
reduction in crime statistics attributed to zero tolerance policing
is comparable to other cities which did not implement similar
policies, suggesting crime fell more due to shifting demographics.
'Giuliani was very successful in taking credit for things to which he
is not entirely entitled,' Cohan says.
Moreover, Giuliani's style of leadership - controlling and
prosecutorial - may yet to come to define him. He is attempting to
determine which records can be made public by placing them in the
Rudolph W. Giuliani Centre for Urban Affairs, a new organisation run
by former colleagues.
'His reputation is certainly going to decline over the next few
years. The big story is the drop in crime but there are a lot of
things that didn't happen,' says Kenneth T. Jackson, president of the
New-York Historical Society.
As the post-11 September love-fest wanes, his divisive support of the
police in the wake of several shootings of unarmed black men, his
failure to reform the crumbling education system, and his moralistic
attacks could come to the forefront.
'He was extraordinarily divisive,' says Berg. 'The tone of
vindictiveness he set was very troubling. People just didn't feel
they had access to their government unless you were rich and white.
And this is a city that mostly isn't.'
By contrast, Giuliani's fiercest critics are hopeful that his
successor, the millionaire businessman Mike Bloomberg, will provide a
different kind of leadership. He served Christmas dinner at the Ninth
Avenue soup kitchen - a place Giuliani never visited - and has said
that reducing poverty will be a priority of his administration even
as the city faces a $4.5 billion budget deficit.
As Rudy Giuliani continues his victory parade across the capitals of
Europe, there is little doubt his reputation is tarnished in his home
town. Arnold Cohen, president of New York's Partnership for the
Homeless says: 'Whether it was the instinct of a prosecutor, or just
failing to understand that a city is a social enterprise, he has left
us with a very divided city.'
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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