City still carries torch, but for the 2016 Games

David Saltonstall

A solid majority of New Yorkers think the city should go back to the starting line and bid for the 2016 Olympics - even though they're not sad to see the 2012 Games go elsewhere, a new Daily News poll shows.

Taken after New York lost the 2012 Games to London last week, the poll found that 58% of New Yorkers think the city should now chase the 2016 Games.

A roughly equal 56% think the city's 2012 bid, which spurred the rezoning of Manhattan's far West Side and ultimately wrought plans for a new Shea Stadium, has already resulted in long-term benefits to the city.

But New Yorkers, perhaps weary of all the haggling over the 2012 bid, also seem relieved it's over: 47% say it's good that the city lost the Games, compared with 34% who say it's bad.

Pollsters surmised that the diverging views have more to do with acrimony over the city's most recent bid than New Yorkers' views of the Olympics in general.

"There was never a plan that everyone seemed to get behind last time," said pollster Julie Weprin of Blum & Weprin Associates, referring to Mayor Bloomberg's unpopular plans for a stadium on Manhattan's far West Side, and his last-minute shift to a cheaper, more popular alternative near Shea Stadium.

"Perhaps people think there was a healthy debate, and now the city can go forward with a more coordinated plan," added Weprin. "Because New Yorkers seem to want the Olympics."

The poll offered mostly good news for Bloomberg, whose approval rating is close to its highest level ever at 61% among registered voters.

The random telephone poll of 800 New Yorkers was taken last Wednesday and Thursday and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Of the respondents, 629 were registered voters.

Mayor soars in poll

Despite Olympic bust, he leaves foes in dust

BY DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating is at its highest level since the early, honeymoon days of his mayoralty - giving him comfortable leads over all his Democratic rivals, a new Daily News poll shows.

The poll found that 61% of voters now approve of the job the Republican Bloomberg is doing, compared with just 29% who do not, according to the survey.

That's an almost complete reversal of fortune for Bloomberg since mid-2003, when mammoth budget deficits and an 18% property tax increase combined to turn a record two-thirds of New Yorkers against him.

Many said then they'd never vote for him - ever.

But the most recent poll found that if the November election were today, Bloomberg would best Democratic front-runner Fernando Ferrer 50% to 36%.

Other Democrats in the race wouldn't fare any better. Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields would lose 32% to 53%, while City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Congressman Anthony Weiner of Queens would trail by a cavernous 22% or more.

Bloomberg, whose approval rating hasn't cracked 60% since the first few months of his term, is riding a crest of support driven by rising school test scores, declining crime and budgets that now include $400 property tax rebates to offset increases of yesteryear, experts said.

His campaign also is spending an estimated $1 million per week on advertising - money his opponents don't have.

"There have been few sour notes for him recently," said Julie Weprin of Blum & Weprin Associates, which conducted the poll for The News.

More recently, Bloomberg's handling of a bias attack in Howard Beach, Queens - in which a white teen allegedly clubbed a black man with a baseball bat - seems to have drawn solid marks.

The poll found that 42% of city residents approved of the mayor's swift denunciation of the attackers, followed by his vow to press for tough punishments. That's more than double the 20% who did not.

More importantly, pollsters said, the mayor's support for his Howard Beach response was spread evenly across whites, blacks and Hispanics.

"Once upon a time in this city, you would have seen very strong racial divisions in a case like that," said Weprin. "The fact that we didn't this time bodes well for Mayor Bloomberg."

Indeed, the poll underscores how thin support is for top contenders Ferrer and Fields, even among Democrats.

While Fields, the only African-American in the race, still holds a commanding lead over Bloomberg among blacks, for instance, more Democrats and Manhattanites would vote for Bloomberg than her in a head-to-head matchup.

Similarly, while Ferrer does well in his home borough of the Bronx and among Latinos, Bloomberg is essentially tied with Ferrer among blacks and Democrats, while whites favor the mayor more than two to one.

"Bloomberg's support is wide and deep," said Weprin, "while his opponents really have very small groups of constituents that they can look to."

Although the mayor devoted enormous sums of time and political capital toward pushing his West Side stadium plan, only 38% of those polled said they thought the stadium's demise was a major factor in the city's loss.

At the same time, respondents seem divided over the mayor's handling of the Olympic bid, with 48% giving him a thumbs-up, 39% thumbs down, and 13% were not sure.

Those polled also had strong feelings about using taxpayer dollars to fund future stadiums, with 71% opposed to such expenditures.

As for the 2016 Games, the mayor has so far refused to say whether the city will pursue the event - an effort, some believe, to give the issue a rest until after the fall election.