David Owen

Plenty of New Yorkers found reasons to vote against Michael Bloomberg yesterday, although roughly five percent more found a reason to vote for him, and he was elected for his third term as Mayor. (You may have heard as much if you use sites other than gbNYC for your local politics news, which you probably should) Whether they made that decision despite or because of the Bloomberg campaign's $85 million mini-stimulus to the negative-advertising and direct-mail industries is a decision each voter made for him- or herself, but one achievement on which Bloomberg can easily hang his (very expensive) hat is the impressive greening of New York City. I'm not always the hugest fan of Bloomie -- Stephen likes him more than I do, I think -- but His Orange, Philanthropically Inclined Honor has delivered to an impressive degree on his goal of making New York City a surpassingly green city for its size.