Guiliani’s farewell address
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:category: research
:date: 2005-06-22T21:46:00
:tags: dissertation, BostonMiracle

While reading `Guiliani’s farewell address`_ I was quite surprised how
much liberal it sounded—if I am not mistaken then the biggest
achievement he saw in his work as a mayor of the New York City was that
the situation of the poorest has visibly improved. I don’t know if this
is genuine compassionat conservatism or he was just trying to apeace
liberal New York public (after all New York is very blue state, isn’t
it?).

Another thing is that his point of view on the Boston-NYC discussion
about policing seems to be much less radical, then what I would expect
from (mostly liberal and pro-Bostonian) articles I read so far. It
sounds more like his wounded defense of a good work he did (and Compstat
strategy) against the attack of liberal professors then anything else.
Actually, when reading his address I thought that the difference between
Boston community policing strategy and New York more policing strategy
may be more political and virtual then real (after all, most supporters
of the Boston miracle *are* liberals). Yes, Boston policing was probably
more participatory then New York one, but it seems to me that the root
of the idea (“Broken windows”) is present in both of them. In New York
the broken windows are taken much more literally (petty crimes,
disorder, etc.) and in Boston more abstractly (lonely kids, conflict
resolution, having a bullet), but the idea that fight against huge
crimes should begin with clearing out small issues is the same.

.. _`Guiliani’s farewell address`:
    http://www.rightturns.com/special/rg20020101.htm