Which Mayor Cleaned Up New York City

New York mayor winds upward on acme

Giuliani appeared calm and in control at a news conference soon after the attacks.

(CNN) -- Onetime New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a controversial politician known for chasing down mobsters, slashing welfare rolls and jeering at the press, left office at the end of 2001 on a surge of popularity. His parting image was that of a big-hearted hero of the metropolis, credited with lifting spirits and organizing tireless recovery efforts following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Merchandise Center.

New York's new mayor, Republican Michael Bloomberg, may owe a debt of gratitude to his predecessor. Bloomberg lagged far behind Democrat Marking Green in polls before the November vi ballot, but his campaign crested sharply afterwards he was endorsed by Giuliani. Term limits prevented Giuliani from seeking a third term as mayor.

Every bit New York mourned the loss of thousands of lives and cleaned up thousands of tons of droppings, Giuliani steadfastly held news conferences, gave interviews and attended funerals and clemency functions, spreading his appeal for fortitude, calm and unity.

"Nobody should blame any grouping of people or whatever nationality or whatever ethnic group," he said on the 24-hour interval of the attacks.

New Yorkers -- who oasis't pulled whatsoever punches with Giuliani in the by -- took to cheering him, shouting "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!" when he appeared. Although he's a life-long Yankees fan, Giuliani received a standing ovation at a recent Mets game.

"Giuliani is the personification of courage," said CBS "Late Show" host David Letterman, who like many comedians put jokes bated in the days following the attacks.

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Giuliani's popularity goes far beyond New York.

Queen Elizabeth II conferred honorary knighthood on Giulani, along with the city'south police and burn commissioners.

During the last months of his term, he became the kickoff New York mayor in 50 years to address the U.N. Full general Associates.

"This massive set on was intended to pause our spirit," Giuliani told the U.N. delegates. "Information technology has non washed that. It has made us stronger, more than determined, and more resolved."

These days it seems hard to believe that Giuliani was the field of study of countless negative headlines during the by few years. He was accused of fueling racial tensions in the city for his reactions to allegations of police brutality. His extramarital affair and the ensuing divorce proceedings with his married woman of 17 years became daily tabloid provender.

After he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, Guiliani appear he would not run as expected for a U.Due south. Senate seat confronting Hillary Clinton, making him seem like a man by the pinnacle of his career.

Only on September xi, everything changed. In New York'due south darkest hour, Giuliani became ane of its shining lights, showing that he has much more to give to the urban center.

Brooklyn adolescence

An invigorated Times Square is i of the legacies of Giuliani's drive to clean up New York'due south image.

Rudolph William Giuliani was born to a working class family in Brooklyn, New York, on May 28, 1944, the only child of Harold, a tavern owner, and Helen, a bookkeeper.

His grandparents were Italian immigrants and passed on their animosity toward the Mafia to their children. At the turn of the century, Giuliani's grandfather was forced to close several of his cigar stores because he refused to pay protection money to the mob.

"My father saw [the Mafia] every bit bullies, as people who had to band together in order to accept the courage to do things," Giuliani wrote in an autobiographical article published in April 1987 by the New York Daily News.

"There's a very strong family in that location. Very loving." said Peter Powers, a long-time friend of Giuliani's and first deputy mayor.

Powers met Giuliani when they were students at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn.

"He was very popular. People liked him. There was e'er that leadership power there," Powers said.

Immature Giuliani was voted "Course Politician," without ever having held an elected part in the educatee government. He was raised a liberal Democrat and headed the loftier school's Kennedy-for-president committee.

Tough prosecutor

Giuliani arrived at the disaster site before long after the first plane struck the World Trade Center and he has fabricated frequent return trips to "basis zero" to survey the harm.

Later graduating in 1961, Giuliani attended the then all-male person Manhattan College, a Roman Cosmic school in the Bronx. He pondered becoming a doctor or a priest, earlier finally deciding to become a lawyer in his junior twelvemonth.

He graduated magna cum laude from New York University Constabulary School and took a task as assistant U.Due south. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He made a name for himself as a brilliant cross-examiner and moved on to Washington D.C. in 1975, to become associate deputy attorney general under Republican President Gerald Ford.

Giuliani changed his political affiliation to the Republican Party and stayed in Washington for three years before he returned to New York and began practicing law with the firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler.

In 1981, under the Reagan assistants, Giuliani garnered the number iii position in the Justice Department: Associate attorney general, handling narcotics police enforcement among other duties.

He then took on the job of U.S. chaser for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted white-collar criminals also every bit mobsters.

"We want people to hear that this urban center is the near aggressive in fighting against organized crime," Giuliani said.

Combative mayor

Giuliani ran for mayor of New York City in 1989, a time when the crime charge per unit was skyrocketing. He lost past a close margin to David Dinkins.

In 1993, the adamant Giuliani once once more ran for mayor.

"The city was in desperate shape. The economic system was kind of wavering. But worse than that, our law-breaking situation was really out of command," said Andrew Kirtzman, a New York journalist and the author of "Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of New York."

Giuliani, the tough-equally-nails prosecutor, campaigned on the platform of improving the quality of life, the business climate and didactics system while fighting crime. He won, condign the first Republican mayor of the city in xx years.

Shortly afterwards he entered office, Giuliani began to make clean up the metropolis, but his harsh methods drew criticism.

"To combat the sense of lawlessness on the street, Giuliani used his police force every bit an army," said Kirtzman. "And in a very short time, New York started to expect a lot ameliorate. On the other paw, the tactics they were using started to antagonize people, especially in minority communities."

Giuliani stood behind his methods. "I believe you create a amend lodge by setting higher standards and expecting better beliefs from people," he said.

During his first 2 years as mayor, law-breaking dropped by 30 percent. Murders and robberies were at their lowest bespeak in 25 years. And the city's welfare rolls were trimmed by more than 100,000.

"At some bespeak Giuliani became about the victim of his own success," Kirtzman said. "Crime had been cut in half; the city was cleaner; tourists were just flooding the streets of New York. And he was just without an enemy to fight."

Mounting criticism

Only ex-prosecutor Giuliani managed to find some enemies. To many, his "quality-of-life" campaigns against hot domestic dog vendors, jaywalkers, publicly-funded fine art and cab drivers came dangerously close to trampling on civil rights.

The New York Police Section came under fire in 1997, when Abner Louima, who is blackness, was sodomized with a broomstick in the 70th Precinct stationhouse. Two white law officers were convicted of conveying out the attack and four others were found guilty of lying almost what happened.

Two years into Giuliani's second term, an African immigrant named Amadou Diallo was shot 19 times in the vestibule of his Bronx home past iv white constabulary officers.

The officers said they thought he was reaching for a gun. It turned out to exist a wallet. Thousands protested at law headquarters, just Giuliani stood behind his officers, who were acquitted in February 2000.

Despite the controversies swirling around him, Giuliani emerged in 1999 every bit the Republican Party favorite to run confronting former Starting time Lady Hillary Clinton for New York'due south U.S. Senate race.

Every bit Giuliani campaigned and dealt with municipal problems, his personal life became chaotic.

In 2000 he announced that he had prostate cancer. The news broke that he was having an extramarital affair with Judith Nathan and he separated from his married woman, Donna Hanover. The couple's bitter and very public divorce proceedings included wrangling over custody arrangements for their ii children, Andrew and Caroline.

Giuliani somewhen said that he would non run for the Senate seat, due to his treatments for cancer.

Rising from the ashes

Giuliani was limping toward the end of his second term as mayor of New York when an airliner crashed into Manhattan'due south Globe Trade Center the morning time of September xi.

He rushed to the scene of the disaster and was below the twin towers when the second aeroplane struck. The mayor met with three top fire department officials at a makeshift command mail service ten minutes before the burn officials were crushed by debris.

The explosion of fume and ash from the kickoff tower collapse engulfed the mayor, but he managed to keep his sophistication.

Two hours into the tragedy, he was on the telephone with CNN trying to give people an update on the condition of the subway system.

"This is a vicious, unprovoked act, a horrible set on on innocent men, women and children. It's one of the nigh heinous acts, certainly, in earth history," he said.

President George W. Bush, meanwhile, was unavailable for comment in the hours immediately following the attacks, as the Hugger-mugger Service tried to secure a safe haven for him.

"You take to remember that for most of the day, George Due west. Bush was in flight," said Kirtzman. "It was actually Rudy Giuliani who was on the air most of the day, being very decisive and existence very reassuring, telling people that we had weathered this extraordinary catastrophe, but that New York was going to be hither today, and it was going to be hither tomorrow."

Giuliani, who already had a reputation for sleeping no more than than four hours a night, outdid himself, seeming to work around-the-clock in the days following September 11.

With access to City Hall blocked by ash and debris, Giuliani ready temporary headquarters and delivered statistics every few hours as the victim count steadily climbed into the thousands.

Members of Congress and international leaders joined Giuliani on his daily tours of the disaster site. His surprising displays of tenderness included an emotional hug to quondam rival Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Even Giuliani'due south harshest critics acknowledged he handled the crunch well.

"Since the ending, he has exerted the leadership which he's always had. What was different was that he was sensitive and warm and compassionate and showed nuances with respect to emotion that he never showed earlier," said Ed Koch, a quondam New York mayor and Giuliani rival.

Only some critics who feel that Giuliani's policies divided the city over the by eight years are taking his emotional epiphany with a grain of table salt.

"Maybe if he wasn't perceived to exist so insensitive, no one would exist paying so much attending to him finally showing sensitivity," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has frequently defendant Giuliani of being hostile to African Americans.

Where does he go from here?

Despite some speculation that Giuliani would seek to amend state law so that he could go eligible for a 3rd term as mayor, he did non press for a 3rd term. And his efforts to stay on for an actress three months to brand the transition to a new administration more "seamless" were ultimately blocked.

"People begged me to stay, begged me to stay. And I know what that's about. They're afraid," Giuliani said on CNN'south "Larry King Alive."

He insisted that his efforts to stay on longer had cipher to do with his own ambitions.

"I'm not looking for a task," he said. "I don't need a chore."

But speculation is rife most what the future holds for Giuliani.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/giuliani/profile.html

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