Tiffany Nicholas

PAF 9199

NYC Speech on Rhetorical Criticism

Mayor Bloomberg’s Speech on NYC’s Fiscal Future

The city of Detroit, Michigan, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18, 2013 due to the city’s outstanding debt and no sources of revenue. It was the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history by debt. On August 6th, 2013, former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg delivered a speech regarding New York City’s fiscal future as he reflected upon the dangers that New York City faces. Bloomberg addressed that if measures for extensive debt prevention are not sought, the unfortunate circumstance that took place in the city of Detroit can happen in the city of New York. Former Mayor Bloomberg spoke on the economic and fiscal status that contributed to the progress in the city of New York and the difficulties that may affect its progress. Bloomberg delivered this speech in the Brooklyn Research building, which is located at the former Pfizer building in Brooklyn, New York, at the Brooklyn Chamber of ​​Commerce Event.

The fiscal status of the city during 2013 was facing challenges with the budget, as throughout the years of Bloomberg’s terms, “the city’s annual pension costs have increased from $1.4 billion to more than $8 billion as a result of raises, pension sweeteners and a growing number of retirees, while health care spending has swelled to $6.3 billion. The city also has $85 billion in unfunded liabilities for future retiree health care benefits.” (Bloomberg, 2013) The importance of this speech was to prepare Bloomberg’s successors for the substantial fiscal woes the city was dealing with and how to prevent the city from falling into the same fate as Detroit. This speech also highlights and shows how New York City’s diversification in businesses and financial industry is a vital role in keeping the City’s fiscal livelihood thriving and copious.

This paper will discuss this speech’s significance and how it displays Bloomberg’s influential contributions to shaping New York City’s future and rebuilding it to thrive better than prior to the detrimental tragedy that struck. This speech reflects upon the development of New York City, and the continual advancements and changes that has allowed the city to endure throughout tumultuous times this country has faced. It will also provide an analysis on the use of rhetoric in arrangement, setting and place, and agenda setting. I would like to give further insight into Bloomberg’s strategic choice for these analysis components and how they play extensive roles in impacting the public and fore-warning future administrations to not let the progress that has been produced go to waste with poor decision making and immoral business deals. As we provide further analysis on the speech, first let’s take a look at the leader that delivered it.

Michael R. Bloomberg is an American business magnate, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 108th Mayor of New York City, holding office for three consecutive terms beginning with his first election in 2001, and his last term ending in December 2013. Throughout each term, Bloomberg campaigned to represent a different political party, as before the 2001 campaign he was a part of the Democratic Party, for the 2001-2007 mayoral term, he ran for the Republican Party, and for his last mayoral term he ran as an Independent Party candidate. Bloomberg's 2005 election was marked the first time in the history of New York City that two different Republicans had been elected for mayor consecutively. New York City has not been won by a Republican in a presidential election since Calvin Coolidge won in 1924. Bloomberg is also considered a social liberal, who is pro-choice, as he was in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and an advocate for stricter gun control laws. His well known law enforcement policy for “Stop and Frisk” was heavily enforced throughout the boroughs during his mayoral term.

He is the founder, CEO of Bloomberg L.P., the global financial data and media company that bears his name and is notable for its Bloomberg Terminal, which is widely used by investment professionals. Bloomberg began his career at the securities brokerage firm, Salomon Brothers, before forming his own company in 1981 and spending the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. He also served as chairman of the board of trustees at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, from 1996 to 2002. When he started his first term as mayor, Bloomberg inherited the city in its most vulnerable and repairing stage due to the September 11 attacks that took place in 2001. Bloomberg has initiated many renovation projects throughout the boroughs to reconstruct historical sites and help create New York City to be a futuristic, technologically enhanced place unlike many cities. Being that it was 2013 and this was the last year of Michael Bloomberg’s term, he addressed New York City’s fiscal status and how important decisions made now will affect it’s fiscal future.

The city of Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy occurred a few weeks prior to Bloomberg delivering this speech at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce event. Bloomberg spoke on this occurrence to awaken the next-to-be successors for mayor to understand that despite the thriving businesses our city may have that attracts revenue, and the progress of renovations to revitalize the city that has taken place, we must be cautious and not think our city is not susceptible to this result. Bloomberg uses the example of the former Pfizer building and discusses its fate to display how one of the most successful companies in the world became defunct, due to not planning beyond its initial purpose and scope of business.

Bloomberg’s speech giving details addressing various issues that the city needs to resolve were well received from press as it gave full insight as to what the next-up successor must uphold moral and upstanding principles and not jeopardize the city’s budget to attain popularity or friendship, especially regarding the unions’ pensions and benefits. The verbiage and diction used within the speech helped to emphasize upon his views, such as the following terminology that was used were the words “myopia” and “virtuous”. His use of the word myopia aided to explain the “mismanagement and corruption” that can cause the downfall of the operation of a city. The use of the work virtuous was used to describe the essential progress and growth in the population as New York City’s geographic diversity contributed to the growth that was taking place.

The structure of the speech was topical and divided into parts where Bloomberg stated some issues that New York City faced and offered answers that offered solutions. As he offered two important factors to pay close attention to that significantly affected the city of New York, which were neglected by Detroit. Bloomberg stated, "I think the Detroit experience has lessons for every American city and we have an obligation to protect our future by examining those lessons, which I would like to briefly address this morning. The lessons are divided into two main categories and are related: economic and fiscal”. (Bloomberg, 2013)

Within his remarks regarding the economic lesson, he gave his perspective upon the climatic times of Detroit in which the city was successful, but the one single aspect that produced success for the city, was the cause of its downfall. Bloomberg found the cause of Detroit’s downfall to be due to its one-dimensional contributing factor to the city, which was manufacturing. This industry was the only considerable revenue that funded the budget of its city. He used this example to draw attention to the answer for New York City in which would be a major factor in contributing to the city’s economic success, which would be diversification. The diversification in New York City was responsible for the essential growth in its financial, cultural, and industrial markets within the city’s boroughs.

"Before 2002, the government of the City of New York has never had a real strategy to broadly diversify our portfolio of jobs - either economically or geographically planning economic development -. To the extent that there had been - had been centralized in Manhattan and focused on corporate subsidies and tax concessions to keep existing businesses to leave.” (Bloomberg, 2013)

Bloomberg pointed out that within the 1970’s, New York City was almost to the brink of filing for bankruptcy, but the problem was discovered quickly enough to address and create solutions that would eliminate that financial desperation. After the terrorist attacks from 9/11, Bloomberg was faced with economical difficulties that were assimilated with the problems from the 1970’s, but with his plans and policies he has initiated, he accentuated that the city was rebuilt and constructed to thrive within the future.

Although New York City has found remedies to their fiscal troubles, one of the biggest challenges Bloomberg faced was regarding the reform of pension benefits and salary increases with union workers. This was the focus for the second important factor, which was the responsibility of proper fiscal management, for the future of New York City.

“The reality is we may be a long way from Detroit but we are only a short distance from relapsing into decline if we allow health care and pension benefits to crowd out the investments that make New York City a place where people want to live, work, study and visit,” Bloomberg said.” (Goldman, Bloomberg News, 2013)

Bloomberg cautiously spoke on the hazards of spending to appease the union workers and their demands, as it can be detrimental to the budget of the city. As he urged the state government to support his political agenda to reduce the huge budget deficits by implementing his policy to reform the pension benefits and employment contributions, he received support from Governor Cuomo, as he praised him within the speech for doing so. The structure enhanced the effectiveness of the speech as it gave an understanding to view Bloomberg’s plan and mentality on how to attack the issues with the proposed solutions and preventions he offered. He used various historical examples and realistic assimilations that can be visual to the public to take heed to his point of view. The structure interacts with setting and place, and also his agenda setting as it gives these characteristics true purpose to accentuate his objectives in this particular speech.

As we further analyze an important of the speech, which was the setting and place that the speech was delivered by Michael Bloomberg, as it played an essential role. The place that Bloomberg delivered his speech was located at 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., where it was a former pharmaceutical manufacturing plant for the Pfizer Company, which was started in 1849 by two German immigrants. Pfizer was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide, as it housed two-thousand employees. Pfizer closed at this building in 2008, and it was taken over by Acumen Capital Partners purchased the shabby building in 2011. This building now rents space to start-up companies and research labs.

The purpose of Bloomberg using this setting was to relate to the audience in his comparison of the history of Detroit city’s successful industry, which was manufacturing. It served as an example to resonate with part of his topic on how the downfall of the manufacturing industry came about in Detroit as it didn’t have other avenues to modernize and flourish as New York City did by its diversification. "We've got some artists in here, painters, sculptors, brewers. We've got everything," said Jeff Rosenblum, who believes his tenants are a reflection the surrounding neighborhood. "You have a deeply diverse population—they're actually in my building. It becomes this meeting point, which I think will help the community."(Kesinger, Camera Obscura, 2014) This speech brought attention to this abandoned building and the revitalization of its use to accentuate its potential in Brooklyn and spark growth in that area of Williamsburg. It was a visual instance that should people of how essential restructuring is to the economic and fiscal components of New York City as a whole. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce event was held at this place to reflect how the fiscal and economical status of New York City affects the borough of Brooklyn and the planned development that was to resurrect cultural and financial life back into this borough by renovating and investing into its environment.
Bloomberg brought to the forefront other problems that contributed to the issues of high budget deficits and warned his successors to maintain moral standing as a future mayor by not allowing the politics of special interests to deter from the main priorities of the city of New York.

"Myopia, the mismanagement and corruption, Perhaps the most dangerous of all - politics of special interests. Over several decades, we saw all these factors working in Detroit - and in recent years, the most harmful factor may have been the politics of special interests.” (Bloomberg, 2013)

Bloomberg’s reasons for bringing this particular issue to the forefront in his speech was to point out that there is corruption that goes on within the political realm that is the downfall of a lot of administrations and governments. The uncooperative and uncompromising demands from the unions in their contracts, would take away from the budget for developments needed to take place throughout the city for its residents. Ensuring the healthcare issue with Emblem was feasible for the NYC residents to receive benefits that were affordable, was another issue that was needed to be brought to the forefront for the public to be aware of. Within his mayoral terms, Bloomberg has implemented policies and focused his political agendas to create initiatives for the betterment of the residents within the boroughs of New York City and to prepare for its future that it thrives and succeeds.