Subj: Letter to the Editor/The New York Times

Mayor Bloomberg's Billions

Recently, it was reported that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's personal net worth had swelled to 27 billion dollars (making him the 13th richest person on the entire planet), and this amount is 5.4 times the 5 billion dollars he had when he was first elected Mayor in November 2001.

At the same time, it was also reported that there are a record number of homeless persons in NYC, and that the rate of homelessness increased at record levels during Bloomberg's mayoralty.

The shame of these homeless statistics is part of the larger tragedy that there are 1.8 million people living in poverty in the city.

Mayor Bloomberg not only coveted the office of Mayor; he lusted after the office. He spent roughly $100 million of his personal fortune in each of his three mayoral campaigns and applied ferocious pressure on the City Council to circumvent the term-limits law and allow him to run for a third term.

Repeatedly, during his tenure as Mayor, Michael Bloomberg has stated his commitment to the welfare and well-being of the people of New York.

Mayor Bloomberg, with his personal fortune of 27 billion dollars, has a unique ability to reduce homelessness, malnutrition, hunger, and other scourges of poverty that are afflicting such a large percentage of those people.

The enormously wealthy industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, said it is a disgrace to die rich.

Likewise, it is a disgrace for the enormously wealthy Mayor Bloomberg to leave office with all of the 22 billion dollars that accrued to him while he was in office---through no direct, hand-on efforts of his own----while so many of his constituents are in such desperate straits.

Bob Siegel