In New York, Mayor Has Power to Get Things Done

Re “Bloomberg Stock Is Way Down in New York,” July 21: While local readers’ impulses may be to compare their own Mayor James Hahn’s personality to that of embattled New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the most instructive thing should be the picture you paint of a city whose charter places the lion’s share of political power in the mayor’s office.

For all New York’s problems, the article makes clear that Bloomberg’s tough-love austerity, no-smoking initiatives and school system reorganization would be nearly impossible in Los Angeles, where the mayor is little more than a figurehead and political will takes a back seat to the machinations of those on the City Council more intent on jockeying for influence and personal glory than in improving the lives of the citizenry who elect them without holding them accountable for problems that only seem intractable.

New York’s crime rate has continued to drop to historic low levels. Its traffic signals are sensibly synchronized and have been for decades. Its police commissioner serves at the pleasure of the mayor, ironically minimizing the very political evils Los Angeles sought to eliminate when it gave the police chief near-lifetime tenure, before 1992. It’s a tale of two cities: New York -- five boroughs, one city; Los Angeles -- one city, 15 fiefdoms.

Avie Hern

Los Angeles