Assailed for months by the Democratic candidates seeking his job, Mayor Bloomberg struck back Thursday by reminding New Yorkers how far the city has come since the perilous days following the 9/11 attacks.
“There were so many questions about the city’s survival back then,” Bloomberg said at a breakfast near Ground Zero sponsored by the Downtown Alliance.
More than a decade later, he declared that the “era of post-9/11 uncertainly is over.”
But he cautioned that his successor would have to stay the course. “The truth is, we have answered the questions about New York City’s post-9/11 future — but only for now,” the mayor said.
Bloomberg took office just weeks after the terror strikes rattled the city and devastated Lower Manhattan, which had six hotels at the time. Now there are 18 hotels there, with 30 expected within two years, he said.
He also pointed out that downtown’s population has expanded from 23,000 to 60,000, while the entire city has gained three times the jobs it lost immediately following the attacks.
Developer Larry Silverstein pronounced Bloomberg a visionary.
“He was a great mayor at a time when the city desperately needed it. He’s got huge, huge footprints. And anybody who is going to have to follow him — wow,” Silverstein said.