I attended a campaign event for Bill Thompson tonight at Peaches Restaurant in Stuyvesant Heights.About thirty people came, most of them from the neighborhood. Letitia James and Bill DiBlasio (shown with Thompson in the photo at right -- it was kindof dark) also showed up and expressed warm support for Thompson.
Thompson spoke briefly about why he is running and what he thinks is important.
Although he is not an eloquent speaker, I was impressed by his complete sincerity.
In my opinion, Thompson, of all the mayoral candidates, best exemplifies the vast diversity of the middle-class New York of which he is a product. Born in Brooklyn, Thompson has lived here all his life, only recently moving from Bedford-Stuyvesant to Harlem.
I agree with Thompson that middle-class New Yorkers and small businesses not only deserve to be treated with more respect, but that they, not Wall Street and Big Development, hold the key to the city's future.
Thompson, once the president of the city's former board of education, favors mayoral control of the city's schools and would continue it, but would let parents back into the process and would rely on more than test scores to measure the quality of the education delivered.
