DJ NYC Mayor Promises New Ground Zero Role, Gun Crackdown
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NEW YORK (AP)--Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his State of the City address Thursday to muscle his way into some thorny second-term battles: he wants control over World Trade Center redevelopment and plans to be an anti-gun spokesman.
The Republican mayor, who four years ago was a businessman untested in politics, is more emboldened now than perhaps ever before. He was re-elected after easily crushing his opponent, he insists he has no higher political aspirations, and says his first stint in public office prepared him to sink his teeth into a second term.
"We can take on the toughest issues and get results," he said.
Bloomberg blasted the existing plan for redeveloping the swath of Lower Manhattan left scarred by the 2001 terrorist attack - a project largely led by Gov. George Pataki throughout the mayor's first term. Bloomberg said redevelopment will stall unless the timeline is rejiggered and jumpstarted.
To start, he said trade center developer Larry Silverstein should give up control over two key towers planned for ground zero, in exchange for rent reduction, and allow the city to take over "so that all projects can proceed simultaneously at the same, quick pace."
"We need this now, to advance our economy and pay tribute to those who died there - not a decade and a half in the future, when it fits a developer's financial plan," he said.
Janno Lieber, director of World Trade Center development for the Silverstein organization, said the group wasn't responsible for the delays. The Port Authority must first excavate the sites and build a protective slurry wall before the buildings can go up, he said.
"As City Hall is well aware, the Port Authority has not begun this key preparation work
.. and will therefore not be able to deliver the sites to Silverman - or anyone else - for some time," Lieber said. "It's unclear how the business proposal included in the mayor's speech today addresses this, the largest obstacle to a timely rebuilding."
Bloomberg signaled in his speech that another major second-term priority is a gun crackdown, both to "root out and punish these criminals and stop the flow of illegal guns into our city." His police department is still mourning the recent shooting deaths of two officers, and the families of several slain officers were in the audience Thursday.
The mayor described new tactics including a gun offender registration system, similar to one required for sex criminals, where gun offenders would have to register and update their addresses with law enforcement. Bloomberg also said he would push to make criminal possession of a loaded gun a felony with a minimum jail sentence of 3 1/2 years. Both proposals would have to be pushed through the state Legislature.
He admitted his hands are partially tied because so many of the city's illegal guns come from other U.S. states. He warned that the city will begin to go after gun dealers with lawsuits to "hold them accountable for the terrible damage their guns cause."
His anti-gun crusade will also take the form of a national coalition, a group that he plans to chair with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, whose own city is plagued with a high number of shooting deaths.
The mayor gave his fifth-annual State of the City address in Staten Island, completing a five-borough tour. Each year he has delivered the speech in a different borough. |
