Advice for Mayor Bloomberg

From the NY Times:

Perhaps Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg should spend more time in the Bronx and less in Bermuda. He could travel less like a rock star and more like a neighbor, showing up without television cameras to hear what is on the minds of residents, especially in poorer sections of the city.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at an event on Tuesday honoring Central Park workers for cleaning up after a storm this summer.

Instead of acting as an autocratic chief executive, he could run the city more like a prime minister of a fragile coalition government. And it wouldn’t hurt if he dressed more casually, or — hey, why not? — grew a little stubble on occasion.

After Election Day, when Mr. Bloomberg won a third term but captured only 50.6 percent of the vote, many political analysts came to the same conclusion: The mayor needs to start acting a little more humble. His inclination toward arrogance had already turned off some residents after he changed the term-limits law, and he risks alienating even more as many New Yorkers struggle with hard times and the city grapples with a $5 billion deficit.

(Not that Mr. Bloomberg is viewing the results as reason for reflection. He said the day after the election that he had “as close to a mandate as I think you can possibly come.”)