Bloomberg touts Brooklyn development, styrofoam ban, at State of the City
It may have been Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s last opportunity to deliver the State of the City address, but, one thing was clear, it was no swan song.
Addressing a crowd seated adjacent to the entryway at downtown Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — arguably the largest development to come to fruition while he occupied City Hall and, as he said, “the latest sign of just how hot Brooklyn has become” — the mayor spent a full hour going over the achievements of his nearly 12 years at the helm of the city of New York, and promised to keep pushing forward during the last 320 days of his administration.
There was definitely a feel of theatricality to the entire event. Banners were festooned around the area set aside for the speech proclaiming the administration’s high points, and there were performances by the Brooklynettes and their junior counterparts, not to mention cellophane bags of popcorn for speech-goers to munch on.
Thus setting the stage, the mayor primed the pump for both his elaborate recap and his announcements, which ranged from the clearly popular (support for gun control, immigration reform and the DREAM Act – all of which engendered loud applause) to the considerably less so (a long defense of stop and frisk as well as of the city’s position in the protracted school bus strike).