There aren't very many panhandlers left' in city subways says Bloomberg

[garbon]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/05/17/2011-05-17_we_beg_to_differ_mike.html

Mayor Bloomberg had folks questioning what planet he was on Monday when he declared "there aren't very many panhandlers left" in city subways.

Bloomberg got irritated when the question of panhandlers came up in a press conference.

He cut off the questioner, saying, "There aren't very many panhandlers left, in all fairness to the MTA. Come on."

Advocates quickly suggested our billionaire mayor's sight may be clouded by the security detail around him when he travels from the upper East Side to City Hall on the subway.

Joel Berg, head of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, called the remark "absurd" and said it "bears no relation to reality."

Saying the mayor lives in an entirely different city "from the one that I and 8 million other New Yorkers live in," Berg added, "To quote that great statistician, Chico Marx, 'Who you gonna believe - me or your eyes?'"

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign reacted less harshly to the mayor's comments, saying, "I respectfully disagree with him" and adding that riders probably would, too.

Poor Bloomie.

[Malthus]

It beggars belief that he doesn't believe in beggars.

[Kleves]

He should just have all the homeless killed, like Giuliani did.

[DGuller]

Poor Bloomberg, the job is really getting to him.