Mayor Bloomberg’s got his work cut out for him if he wants to go down in the history books as the Muhammad Ali of mayors — the greatest of all time.
A NY1-Marist College poll released tonight found only 9 percent of New Yorkers rank Bloomberg at the top of the historical charts, which date way back to 1665 when the first person to hold the title was Mayor Thomas Willett.
At least Bloomberg could take solace in some of the other poll numbers: 32 percent of voters considered him above average; 48 percent as average and only 12 percent came in below average. Six percent wrote him off as the worst mayor ever.
The mayor put all modesty aside when asked how he wanted to be remembered during an appearance on “Meet the Press” in December 2010.
“I want to go out being, having a reputation as a very good, maybe the best mayor ever,” he said.
Marist reported 46 percent of voters now give the mayor good grades on job performance, while 53 percent don’t.
That represented a 12-point gain from August, when the mayor was at a dismal 39-58 percent.
Pollster Lee Miringoff said the mayor’s deft handling of Hurricane Irene and his central roll in 9/11 activities probably accounted for the bounce.
As they have throughout his career, black voters scored Bloomberg significantly lower than white voters, in this instance by 19 percentage points.
Ironically, the poll came out the same day that the administration announced yet another initiative targeting minorities in the greatest need, prisoners with mental health issues.