New York City once basked in the glow of innovative governance, primarily during the administrations of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, a political outsider with roots in financial analytics, propelled a data-driven approach to city management through his Geek Squad, a team of motivated tech specialists bent on improving civic life through smart data usage. This initiative built upon Giuliani’s earlier efforts with the CompStat program, which employed crime pattern analysis to enhance public safety, transforming the city into one of America’s safest urban areas.
In stark contrast, the past several years under the leadership of Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams have been marked by poor governance and a decline in accountability within city agencies. As a result, New Yorkers today are grappling with an increasingly dysfunctional city, where residents, businesses, and visitors alike feel the strain. The next mayor must reignite the principles championed by Bloomberg’s Geek Squad, focusing on measurable outcomes, effective programs, and results-driven spending.
One critical aspect that tied Giuliani and Bloomberg together was their status as political outsiders who had never held elected office prior to becoming mayor. This allowed them to build innovative administrations independent of the entrenched political class. Giuliani, a Republican, broke boundaries by appointing prominent Democrats such as Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, the latter being instrumental in implementing community-driven strategies within the NYPD.
Bloomberg mirrored this approach, favoring nonpolitical appointments and focusing on qualifications rather than diversity metrics. Notable selections included investment banker Daniel Doctoroff as head of economic development and Marc Shaw from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as his budget director.
Bratton’s reorganization of the NYPD exemplified the effective governance models of this period. By decentralizing authority and empowering precinct commanders to make decisions, Bratton enabled a tailored response to crime based on local understanding. CompStat emerged from this strategy, a revolutionary database utilized not only to monitor precinct performance but also to reveal crime trends that had gone unnoticed, thus allowing for a more proactive approach to public safety.
The results of CompStat were so commendable that later into his tenure, Giuliani encouraged the application of a similar model beyond policing. Recognizing the need to address various quality-of-life issues through quantitative analysis, Bloomberg introduced a customer service approach to government, launching the 311 non-emergency hotline that facilitated residents reporting issues directly to City Hall.
The data collected from the 311 hotline provided substantial insights into community conditions, which Bloomberg’s Geek Squad then worked to analyze and respond to effectively. This initiative employed young, tech-savvy individuals recruited from diverse backgrounds—some even found through platforms like Craigslist—to harness data for public good, ranging from tracking downed trees after storms to enhancing the small-business licensing process.
The fiscal discipline exhibited during Giuliani’s and Bloomberg’s administrations was illustrated by initiatives like the Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG). This policy mandated that every department head identify savings in their budgets regardless of revenue fluctuations. Such constraints helped prevent workforce expansion despite a significant rise in city population, maintaining a stable number of city workers amid the addition of approximately 700,000 residents.
Unfortunately, this operational rigor has diminished in recent years. Bill de Blasio’s administration, which succeeded Bloomberg’s, adopted a contrasting philosophy that emphasized expansive city services and increased political patronage within public-sector unions. Major and often untested initiatives like universal pre-K and enhanced mental health services contributed to budget increases and added roughly 35,000 jobs to the city payroll over eight years. De Blasio also discontinued PEG, opting instead for a voluntary approach to efficiency in departments, which resulted in ballooning budgets.
Education expenditure exemplifies this shift, rising dramatically from $18.7 billion in 2014 to $31.3 billion by the end of de Blasio’s term. Concurrently, the administration neglected the sustained focus on quality of life, leading to a rise in crime rates and urban disturbances, alongside a notable population decline after the lockdowns resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2021 Manhattan Institute survey found that over half of New Yorkers believed city services were not worth the taxes they were paying.
Eric Adams, who followed de Blasio, has faced immediate fiscal challenges, attempting to curb workforce growth by cutting about 15,000 jobs over de Blasio’s additions. However, crime has remained problematic, and funding for the police has diminished relative to the expanding budget allocation for education and social services. The Citizens Budget Commission, noted for its fiscal oversight, criticized the city’s performance reports as they tend to focus on expenditures rather than concrete outcomes, questioning the effectiveness of the city’s strategies.
Adams has also appointed several longtime political allies in significant roles, some associated with controversies from previous scandals, challenging the precedent of a professionally run administration focused on accountability and efficiency.
The trajectory of a city’s administration reflects the priorities of its elected leader. Over two decades, five mayoral terms established a focus on initiatives aimed at measurable improvements in quality of life. The results during this period were clear: significant crime reductions, revitalization of commercial districts, an increase of nearly 1 million residents, and an impressive recovery from the 9/11 attacks. In recent years, however, governance has shifted towards questionable spending on ineffective programs, with a distressing de-emphasis on basic municipal functions and public order maintenance.
The lessons from the effective governance approaches of Giuliani and Bloomberg are clear. New York City is at a crossroads, and the next administration must prioritize a playbook based on measurable improvements, strategic planning, and a commitment to restoring the city’s past achievements in governance and quality of life.
image source from：https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-york-city-mayor-michael-bloomberg-rudy-giuliani-compstat
