New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Can t Fix The Knicks David Letterman

Welcome to the, uh, program. Let me ask you, first of all, we... It's taken you 28 years to invite me. No, that's not true. You know that's not true. We invite you every day. You're very busy. You've been kind enough to be on the show several times. But now you're a guest, and I can't thank you. But the last time I gave your beard a key to the city. That's right. It was... Which we want back, incidentally. Okay, you can have it... Because you shaved. You can have it back. Um... Now, we always say the greatest city in the world. Explain to people why, in fact, this is the greatest city in the world. Because you do your show here. Yeah. Be... At work. Beyond that. It's the Big Apple. It's where things happen. Ed Koch once said, this is where the world comes to addition. And things do start out here. It's very diverse. It's very big. It's a fun place to be. And it is safe. And, uh, you mentioned Ed Koch. When you look back at mayors that you have been aware of in the city, who did you admire? Who do you think did a good job? Well, I think each one of them builds on what their predecessor left them and leaves some stuff to be done. And if you go back and look at each one, they made a contribution. And if you think I'm going to get between... No. I've won a handful of things in the last nine years. Yeah, I was thinking, well, this is quite a politician's answer to a question. Now, the other thing that I've noticed, after the attacks on the city and also Washington, obviously the skyline changed. But in addition to that sad change, I have noticed over the years that just generally, New York City has a different look to it. Am I right about that? Yeah, people are building here. People are coming here. World Trade Center area is being rebuilt. I was down there today. But you go throughout all five boroughs. And what's changed is people used to leave the city because the schools weren't good. Today, people in Nassau County lie about where they live so they can send kids to New York City public schools. Is that right? Yeah. And in terms of the Ground Zero project, are we still in the middle of the controversy about whether there will be a mosque there, whether there won't be a mosque? Well, the issue is simply, should the government be involved? I happen to believe the First Amendment says if you want to build a place of worship, pray any ways you want to pray to anybody you want to pray, government shouldn't be involved. Whether anybody has the money to do it, and they'll do it, I don't know. And the outcome of that will be what, as you see it now? What is the status these days? The World Trade Center memorial is almost done. It'll be done in a year from now. Other buildings are going up. What will be built in the surrounding neighborhoods, I don't know. There is a mosque that has been there for a few years. There's another one just two blocks, more blocks away. But this is New York City, so you have adult bars and you have all different kinds of things that you'd expect in a big city. Where are these adult bars you speak of? I guarantee you there's an app on your iPad that'll tell you. Oh, my gosh. You rode the subway up here. I did. You frequently ride the subway. Every day. And, uh... You know, with your driving record, maybe you should ride the subway. Okay. Okay. My son is fascinated by the subway. I think all kids love it. It's very exciting. Yep. Very exotic. You go downstairs and ride a big train and stuff like that. Do you ever... You must talk to people, the voters, people that give you tips and criticism. Um, they have suggestions. The one that's the most important was some guy screamed at me, -"Fix the Knicks." I think I'm a good mayor, but I'm not that good. Yeah. But can't you intervene? Now, I know... Did your office take part in the LeBron Jameses shootout? Were you involved in that? I said a number of nice things about LeBron. I filmed LeBron come on and all that sort of stuff. It was worth zero. Yeah. Not that it makes much difference, but do you have an opinion on his choice? Uh, if it wasn't New York, then it was a bad choice. I thought... I honestly thought the guy should just stay in Cleveland for another segment on his contract, try it again there, be a hero, and then maybe he'd be free to move around after that. Well, he didn't call me and ask me my advice, but... You, uh... How did you get so damn rich? The truth of the matter is I was lucky enough to get fired. Really? Fired from...? From my last job, and then I started a company, and that worked out. You know, okay. What was the job from which you got fired? I was working on Wall Street. And they said, it's not working anymore, take a hike. They weren't that nice. No, actually, they were. And so then you started... The first I knew of it was some sort of news bureau in Tokyo. Am I right about that? It's a news bureau here and in Tokyo and in 60 countries around the world. Right, and what was the seed of that idea? Where did that come from? Because at the company that I'd worked for before, Salomon Brothers, I'd built a similar system, and then they didn't want to keep it going, and I said, well, maybe I'd go off, and they said, fine, go off and do it on your own. And it certainly worked, didn't it? So far. I saw a thing today where... And it's probably embarrassing. You're, like, the tenth wealthiest person in the world or something? That's not embarrassing. Yeah, what am I talking about? Try it sometime. You'll like it. Well... And then people like Bill and Melinda Gates, their foundation, they're talking about people of your financial status should readily divest half of what they're worth, and I know you agree with that as well, right? When we see each other after the show backstage, I was hoping you'd sign the pledge too. I'll sign. If that meant you and I could go places together, I would be happy to sign. We could go places together. Straight to the poorhouse, probably. How would you have handled the economic explosion or whatever you want to call it of two years ago? Did the administration do what was needed to be done? More, less? What would you have done? I think when everything came apart, the administration had to do it. Hank Paulson and Bernanke were the real heroes. If the banking system had fallen apart, the repercussions would have been horrendous for not only our economy and everybody else. After that, Congress got involved in the stimulus, and that's debatable whether or not that made a difference, but we'll see with time. And New York, things look pretty good, I'm guessing? Today, this year, we have generated 10% of all the private sector jobs in the country. Wow. All the new ones. Wow. 100% of those in the city. That's a remarkable statistic. Well, because people come here. They want to be here. They come because of shows like yours, because of all the other cultural things we have. Adult bars. Adult bars are clearly part of it. That's what capitalism is all about. They come because the streets are safe and clean and the schools are getting better. Speaking of streets, what happened to Broadway? I remember you and I showed up at a thing together, and one of your assistants or aides came up to me, and he said, everything all right? And I said, yeah, except the mayor's turned Broadway into a petting zoo. What the hell's going on? It is. We don't stop at petting in this city. But it's. Explain what Broadway is now and how it's improved not only the quality of life, but the economy of the area. Well, Broadway is a big tourist magnet. People come and they can walk. They go into the stores. They sit. They have a cup of coffee. They socialize with each other. It's a big magnet. And the stores love it because there's more foot traffic. And actually, traffic is better because a diagonal street really screws everything up. So now you're back to the old straight and square streets, and they're working very well. And traffic has improved, or it's just gotten worse somewhere else? No, you can actually. It's interesting. You can measure it because when you get in a cab, it sends a signal to the central dispatch, and then when you get out, it sends it. And so we can measure how long it takes to get from one point to another. And the computer says, on balance throughout the city, traffic's a little bit better. So you're telling me that the cab traffic is actually monitored via computers? Yeah, sure. And the nice thing is, if you were to forget your suitcase in a cab, just call 3-1-1. They'll ask you where you got into the cab, where you got out, and we'll call the cab driver and get your luggage back. Now that's a joke, right? No, it happens all the time. It really does. It really does? It really does. No. Sure, because the cab driver knows that we know that it was in there, and it's amazing how the light of day makes people honest. You're in your third term. Third term. You love this job, I'm guessing, right? I get the feeling that people who get the privilege of running this city really fall in love with the job. Well, but you like your job. It comes through, and I love mine. Yeah, sure. And thoughts after you... Or how many terms? Is it going to be another four, five, six? This, no. Public would not stand for another one. But I was thinking, actually, my next career, maybe something like a talk show, maybe 11.35 at night on CBS, something like that. I'll keep thinking. What was I going to ask you? In terms of running... Oh, the Tea Party. What do you think of the Tea Party? Well, people are annoyed, people are frustrated, people are disappointed in government, both sides of the aisle, both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and every once in a while we have these groups that get together and say, I'm not going to take it anymore and try to change it. You saw that with Perot, you saw that with McCain. I think this is another one. Some of these people will get elected, and then once in office they'll realize that anger is not a strategy to manage or to govern, and they'll drift more towards the middle and hopefully function. I thought when this happened, it's the perfect American thing to have done. People, as you mentioned, unhappy. They're losing money. The jobs are going away. Of course they're unhappy. We're all unhappy. So they want to change and do something about it. So now I feel like they're more than welcome to get in there and try to do something about it. But they have to have real ideas. They have to have ideas that are legal and practical and that they could get other senators and congressmen to agree to because they'd have to build a constituency to pass them and get the president on board so he doesn't veto it. It's not easy. And you've got to implement it. Governing is not easy. Nothing is easy. And is it beyond governing this country? No. It seems like the problems are greater than they've ever been. Well, you know, my mother's 101 and she'll tell you the good old days were never the good old days. Things really are better. We just don't remember it that way. And I still think this is the most wonderful country in the world. This is the land of opportunity. And what we've got to do is make sure we have more immigrants coming here because that challenges all of us and creates jobs. We've got to fix the fiscal problems, social security and cost of medical care and those kinds of things. And we've got to improve public education. So the people who are unemployed will have the skills to match the jobs that are available. And that's what does not exist today. Your mother is 101. Yep. That's amazing. Congratulations to you and to your mother. I can't thank you enough. Now, I know every now and then there's an article about you in one of the papers. And I know you own a home in London. Which do you prefer? New York. New York is the greatest city in the world. What are you doing in London, honestly? What goes on over there? I don't know. I mean, they have a queen. We have queens. They have beef eaters. We have beef eaters. I don't know. Yeah. OK. You put some thought into this, I can see. Absolutely. What's the problem in Albany? Are things all right in Albany? Things are not all right in Albany. Things are not all right. What are we going to do in Albany? Hopefully replace a lot of people because that's the only way is to fix it. Yeah. Fiscally, how are things in Albany? Disaster. A job you might be interested in? No. Terrible job. Really? Why is it a terrible job? Because I've got the best job in the world. The city, you can meet everybody. You can talk to everybody. The state is so spread out as governor, it's really hard to do. Also, mayors around this country, every mayor will tell you they have the best job because you actually can do some things. Governors and presidents reallocate monies and things like that. But mayors work, you know, closing roads and putting dumpsters outside your house and things like that. And we mentioned earlier, Rahm Emanuel wants to be mayor of Chicago. Is that a good fit? Do you know him much? I know him very well. I don't know if he's made the decision to do so. He's talked about it before. I can tell you, Richie Daly was one of the great mayors in history for the whole country. He really did a spectacular job. And we often hear rumblings that you're going to join the Obama administration or that there might be even an exploration into running for president. Any of this of interest to you? None. Really? No, I mean, I've got the best job in the world. Right. Although I have a job that John Lindsay said was the second toughest job in the world. The first being? The president. Yeah. But then Ronald Reagan said, the way Lindsay does it, it is. Yeah. But the kind of thing I like about you is there's no equivocating with you. We get it left, we get it right, but we get it, by God, and we shut up and we take it. I've always... Right. That's exactly right. I respect other people's right to be wrong. Mm-hmm. He's absolutely right. What's the deal with... I got two questions. What are we going to do about the rats? Honest to God, there's like 10 million rats. On Manhattan. Forget the other boroughs. And the bedbugs. What are we going to do? We're going to try to export them elsewhere. Yeah. But the rats came in. You brought the rats in to kill the bedbugs. Is that what it was? Actually, I think the bedbugs are probably tougher. Is this alarming or just something that's fun to report in the paper? No, it's fun to report in the papers. The bedbugs, nobody knows why they came back. They've almost been eradicated. But rats are a function of every major city. Right. And you keep going after them and keep it under control. Yeah. But you'll never eradicate them. You know, I read recently a book about a colony, more than a colony, perhaps, communities of people who actually live beneath the streets here in Manhattan. Do you know that to be a fact? That is not true. It's not true? It is not true. There are about 2,500 people that live in the city on the subways and the streets, that sort of thing. We interface with all of them all the time. They have substance abuse or psychiatric problems, and we try to bring them in and give them counseling, but they go back on the streets. And if you take a look, 2,500, it's like one out of every 3,500 in the city, because we have 8.4 million people. That is dramatically less than any other big city. Yeah. Well, I will say, personally, in all the years that I've been here in New York City, it's never been better. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ladies and gentlemen.