If Mayors Ruled The World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities

by Benjamin R. Barber,
The Huffington Post, November 5, 2013

"The difference between my level of government and other levels of government," Michael Bloomberg has said, "is that action takes place at the city level." While the federal government remains polarized and paralyzed, "the mayors of this country still have to deal with the real world." In New York City, which has "every kind of people from every part of the world and every kind of problem," Bloomberg boasts, "I have my own army in the NYPD and my own State Department." Asked whether federal officials approve of this approach, he shoots back, "Well, I don't listen to Washington very much."