In 1993, Rudy Giuliani was elected as mayor of New York City (NYC), United States of America, when he came into office he had to deal with a city that was battling crime and economic hardship.
No sooner had the city achieved steps forward, when it was devastated by a terrorist attack on September 11 2001. Giuliani talked about what it means to be mayor in a modern city.
Giuliani says when he was first elected mayor, during his inauguration speech he proclaimed that NYC was the “capital of world” and everyone in audience applauded his remark.
“I didn’t realise I was offending people. President Clinton was annoyed – after all Washington [is the] capital of [the] US,” he says.
“I dealt with that by saying Washington was the capital of the US but New York was capital of the world.”
Giuliani’s remark made him unpopular with other mayors in the country.
He even started getting letters from them wanting to know by what authority he had to usurp the title “capital of the world”.
“A second mayor wanted to know if congress had passed law declaring New York capital of the world and a third mayor wanted to know if the UN had passed a resolution making NY capital world,” he says.
“Even though no laws, resolutions or authority had been passed I kept saying it because of it was good morale for the city.
“Everybody loved it and at the time (1994) [the city] was in a terrible condition. We had about 2000 murders a year; we had 10.5 per cent unemployment rate; and a $3 billion deficit, with one million people on benefits.”
Giuliani says he couldn’t find anything to support his claims, except for his own hope or thinking.
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@governmentnews.com.au.
Sign up to the Government News newsletter
