News: NYC Mayor’s Insider Resigns
(Long Island, N.Y.) The Deputy Mayor of Operations has announced his resignation just fifteen months after being on the job. He was one of the key figures implicated for the city’s poor response to the Post-Christmas Blizzard of 2010. Many believe that this is one of many indications that the mayor of New York City will have a hard time securing support while waning in the position in his third term.
The recent resignation of Stephen Goldsmith, the city’s short-lived deputy mayor, has reminded New Yorkers of previous lapses in the mayor’s administration. It also reminds them of current issues, which many feel have not been fixed since the disastrous failing of the emergency response back in December. Goldsmith was the former mayor of Indianapolis.
Some New York City residents have felt that the deputy mayor was unequipped to handle the job. They have claimed that the tactics used in Indianapolis cannot be applied to a city as large and vast as New York. They believe that what was once successful for the former mayor of Indianapolis has proven fatal in the wake of last year’s blizzard.
Two deaths and the loss of an infant were among the consequences of the storm that ransacked the city in the wee hours of December 26th. Ambulances and emergency vehicles could not navigate the unplowed streets. Twenty inches of snowfall had covered the five boroughs at a high rate of accumulation.
Goldsmith was considered unpopular amidst Bloomberg’s administration. Reports stated that his resignation is among many to occur within the mayor’s inner circle in recent weeks. Nonetheless, the former deputy mayor claimed that the fifteen-month job came as a great opportunity.
Sources claimed that the former deputy mayor will be replaced by the current head of the Department of Environmental Protection. The former deputy mayor was also once a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some have accused Goldsmith as being incapable of taking the kind of advice that may have provided the city with better service.
Another one of the mayor’s close personnel resigned in recent weeks. Former schools chancellor Cathie Black stepped down from office. Reports stated that she had been replaced by another longtime insider to mayor Bloomberg’s administration.
Other disastrous consequences of the 2010 Post-Christmas blizzard were due to the backlog of 911 calls. The city experienced its busiest day for emergency services since the September 11th terrorist attacks. There was much controversy over the administration’s decision not to declare a state of emergency and over who was responsible for such inaction.
