In light of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg's unimpressive performance at last night's Democratic candidates' debate in Las Vegas, here's a flashback to an Atlantic Yards event where the mayor displayed his peevishness upon being questioned.
At a press event at the under construction Barclays Center 4/26/12, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and developer Bruce Ratner announced 2,000 arena jobs, saying Brooklynites, including public housing residents, would get priority.
But that nice round number was overinflated. From the press scrum, I asked for the full-time equivalent (FTE) job figure.
I don’t have any idea what that is,” responded the famously data-driven mayor, as I wrote for Daily Intel. "Bruce, you want to--?"
Then Bloomberg cut himself off, and couldn't resist showing his smarts: "Full-time equivalent jobs, I don't know how you--it's really different, it's hard to calculate. If the average person works 30 hours, and you say a full-time job is 40 hours, then you would just take three-quarters of the 2,000 number."
"The state said 1,100," I responded. (Actually: 1,120 FTE jobs.)
“The state can say anything they want,” responded Bloomberg testily. “I don’t know.”
“They approved the project,” I continued.
“That’s fine. What does that got to do with their numbers?" Bloomberg responded, his tone increasingly impatient. "Maybe their numbers are right, maybe their numbers are wrong. Address it to the state, don’t address it to me.”
Ratner took the podium and cracked, snidely: “Norman, we’ve created one more job. That’s a job for you.” He clapped conspicuously at his bon mot.
A Forest City spokesman later provided a figure: 1,240 FTE jobs. Whether even that's been fulfilled is another question; the arena has a payroll larger than 2,000, but significant turnover because of limited and/or irregular schedules.
At a press event at the under construction Barclays Center 4/26/12, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and developer Bruce Ratner announced 2,000 arena jobs, saying Brooklynites, including public housing residents, would get priority.
But that nice round number was overinflated. From the press scrum, I asked for the full-time equivalent (FTE) job figure.
I don’t have any idea what that is,” responded the famously data-driven mayor, as I wrote for Daily Intel. "Bruce, you want to--?"
Then Bloomberg cut himself off, and couldn't resist showing his smarts: "Full-time equivalent jobs, I don't know how you--it's really different, it's hard to calculate. If the average person works 30 hours, and you say a full-time job is 40 hours, then you would just take three-quarters of the 2,000 number."
"The state said 1,100," I responded. (Actually: 1,120 FTE jobs.)
“The state can say anything they want,” responded Bloomberg testily. “I don’t know.”
“They approved the project,” I continued.
“That’s fine. What does that got to do with their numbers?" Bloomberg responded, his tone increasingly impatient. "Maybe their numbers are right, maybe their numbers are wrong. Address it to the state, don’t address it to me.”
Ratner took the podium and cracked, snidely: “Norman, we’ve created one more job. That’s a job for you.” He clapped conspicuously at his bon mot.
A Forest City spokesman later provided a figure: 1,240 FTE jobs. Whether even that's been fulfilled is another question; the arena has a payroll larger than 2,000, but significant turnover because of limited and/or irregular schedules.
Comments
Post a Comment