- Person
- Michael Bloomberg
- Lived
- b. 1942
- Field
- Financial data & media
- From
- American
The story
When Michael Bloomberg became mayor of New York City in January 2002, the city was still recovering from the September 11 attacks and faced a budget deficit of about six billion dollars. Over his three terms he turned it into a surplus of about three billion dollars, largely by raising property taxes, while accepting a token salary of one dollar a year in place of the mayoral pay. He ran City Hall with a data-driven style, seating himself and dozens of senior aides together in an open-plan "bullpen" modelled on a Wall Street trading floor.
Housing costs were a constant worry for New Yorkers. In 2003 Bloomberg launched the New Housing Marketplace Plan, which at first called for 65,000 affordable homes. In 2006 he expanded it into a ten-year effort with a goal of 165,000 homes, promising to build about 92,000 new affordable units and preserve about 73,000 existing ones. The city's housing department called it the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation's history.
The plan drew on several sources of money, including the city's capital budget, the city's Housing Development Corporation and federal tax-exempt bonds. Bloomberg's administration also rezoned large areas of the city, which encouraged widespread new residential and commercial construction, and programmes that tied affordable homes to market-rate building were part of the strategy.
Progress was steady. By the end of the 2007 fiscal year the city had financed about 64,400 affordable homes, and the Independent Budget Office found it was on pace to reach its target. By the time Bloomberg left office, the plan had created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes across the five boroughs.
After leaving office, Bloomberg used his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, to share lessons about running cities well. It funds programmes that train mayors and their senior staff and competitions that reward bold ideas from city halls around the world, many of them aimed at the same everyday problems of housing and services that he tackled in New York.
Why it matters
The housing plan helped keep homes within reach for many thousands of working New York families.
About Michael Bloomberg
Fired from Wall Street in 1981, he built the Bloomberg Terminal and a global news empire, then served three terms as New York’s mayor and became one of the world’s largest philanthropists.
More about Michael Bloomberg
- Michael Bloomberg helps mayors govern betterThrough the Mayors Challenge and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Michael Bloomberg has rewarded city innovation and trained hundreds of mayors.
- Michael Bloomberg made New York's workplaces smoke-freeIn 2003 Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned smoking in all New York City indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many cities and states followed.
- Michael Bloomberg helped protect children from drowningSince 2012 Bloomberg Philanthropies has funded drowning prevention in Bangladesh through childcare and swimming lessons; child drowning deaths fell by 80%.
- Michael Bloomberg helped close coal plants across AmericaIn 2011 Michael Bloomberg gave 50 million dollars to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, expanding its push to replace coal-fired power plants with clean energy.
- Michael Bloomberg backed America's Black medical schoolsMichael Bloomberg gave 100 million dollars in 2020 and 600 million dollars in 2024 to America's four historically Black medical schools.
- Michael Bloomberg made Johns Hopkins medical school freeIn 2024 Michael Bloomberg gave 1 billion dollars so that medical school at Johns Hopkins would be tuition-free for students from families earning under 300,000 dollars.
- Bloomberg gave over a billion dollars to fight tobaccoMichael Bloomberg’s foundation has committed more than $1.6 billion since 2007 to reduce tobacco use, making it the developing world’s biggest funder of tobacco control.
- Michael Bloomberg funds safer roads and polio eradicationBloomberg Philanthropies has committed $865 million to global road safety since 2007, partnering with the WHO from 2009, and has given $200 million to help eradicate polio.
Michael Bloomberg in the news
- September 24, 2026Bloomberg Philanthropies expands free school eye care to seven more US cities
- August 19, 2026Michael Bloomberg gives $155 million for a public science hall in Boston
- June 22, 2026Bloomberg commits about $590 million to oceans, clean energy and cleaner city air
- April 28, 2026Bloomberg pledges $350 million more to cut road deaths in 13 countries
- March 10, 2026Michael Bloomberg tops the Philanthropy 50 for a third year with $4.3 billion in gifts
- February 24, 2026Bloomberg Philanthropies awards $1 million each to 24 cities in Mayors Challenge
Sources
- Michael Bloomberg Wikipedia
- Analysis Asks: Can City Meet Affordability Goals? City Limits
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.