And in the end, Bill Thompson's Tower O' Garbage endorsements and Stuy Town appearances couldn't quite push him over the edge in fancypants Manhattan, while the triumphant Mike Bloomberg's years of hammering home the affordable-housing message (with disappointing results, many would argue) couldn't win him the parts of town not inhabited by white people making $200K per year. Whew, it was close! (Staten Island, cut for space, was all red, fyi.)
But looking ahead, what does a third Bloomberg term mean for the urban landscape—other than a billion more bike lanes. A tireless champion of rezonings and new development, Bloombers mojo was derailed by the recession. He'll want to leave with a better legacy come 2013, and that means the next four years are big ones for his most ambitious megaprojects: Hudson Yards, Willets Point, Coney Island, Governors Island, etc. But can anything get done in this economic climate?
The Observer's Eliot Brown spoke with a number of experts on what Bloomberg could do to get a bunch of this stuff off the ground, and it's a fascinating assortment of ideas. What about a Hudson Yards filled in and parceled out to a bunch of developers à la Battery Park City? Or allowing new housing on Governors Island? And hey, why not even more rezonings to spur development, like in Hudson Square? One thing's for sure: The next four years will be make-or-break time for many Big Ideas that Bloomberg holds near and dear. The thing is, did the close election weaken his ability to git 'er done?
