To be fair, it's also much nicer to live in (at least for white people) than it ever has been. New York before it became a police state was basically Gotham City.
What's the marginal improvement under Bloomberg vs. Giuliani's last year in '01? I remember NYC as being in pretty good shape by that point. Has livability improved substantially because of the Bloomberg Nanny State stuff? Smoking bans are pleasant for some, but most everywhere has those now.
Though I do have the impression that Bloomberg has done yeoman's work on public education.
