He’s the digital mayor, a proponent for all things Internet, but Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that social media makes it tougher to get things done in government.
“I think this whole world has become a culture of me now, rather than for my kids later on,” the mayor said in Singapore, where the city received a prestigious $230,000 prize for urban planning.
“And that makes governing more difficult. I think you should not forget about social media. Social media is going to make it even more difficult to make long-term investments. We are basically having a referendum on every single thing that we do every day, and it’s very hard for people to stand up and say, ‘No, no. This is what we’re going to do’ when there’s constant criticism and an election process.”
Bloomberg also compared New York to high-achieving Singapore.
“In New York City we’ve tried to, in many senses, emulate the Singapore model and insist that people produce results,” he said. “We’re trying to hold our teachers to a higher standard . . . Our crime rate is so low, it’s hard to see it ever getting lower. But we’re going to try.”