Brooklyn isn’t an area that shies away from political statements. Long before anyone even knew how to
pronounce ill-fated presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s surname, I watched a man walk past the brunch
place where I was shovelling waffles into my mouth wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed “BOOT-EDGE-
EDGE”. I have a similar bit of deliberately obscure political merchandise myself in the form of a black shirt
with a signed Polaroid-style photo of Andrew Yang on the front. My fiancé has one from the same store
with Yang’s unofficial slogan “MATH” emblazoned across it. I realise how this makes us sound.
Despite the well-developed fan bases of the various Democratic candidates – most of whom have now
dropped out back into obscurity or publicly announced that they’re backing Joe Biden – pretty much
everyone I’ve met in my local area is “blue no matter who”. In other words, they have their preferred
person but they’ll vote for any Democrat standing against Trump in November. Even the fabled “Bernie
Bros”, known for sometimes referring to Sanders’ opponents as “rats” and “establishment stooges”, aren’t
usually as bad in real life as they appear on social media. There’s a car parked on my street which has a large
“Bernie 2020” on the side, as well as one each for Yang, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro
on the back.
There’s really only one candidate who people in New York have very little time for – and that’s Michael
Bloomberg.
Will people in Kings County believe yet another billionaire Manhattanite with a Messiah complex?
Now, you might find that strange, considering Bloomberg was the mayor of New York not that long ago. He
was also pretty close with then-President Obama during that time, if you believe his numerous campaign
advertisements. But there’s nobody New York hates more than a former mayor running for the highest
office in the land (see: Bill de Blasio). And there are a host of reasons why liberal Brooklynites might not
consider their values chiming perfectly with Bloomberg’s: the racially controversial practice of stop and
frisk for one thing; and the fact that he is a proud billionaire with a media empire at a time when many
young Democrats are questioning whether billionaires should exist at all.
So when I passed by a house in the area with two huge “BLOOMBERG 2020” signs in the upper and lower
windows, I quite literally stopped in my tracks. I was so stunned that I took out my phone to take a picture
- and bumped headlong into the woman who lived there, who was returning from the grocery store with
three big bags of shopping.
“That’s my baby,” the woman told me brightly, pointing to a toddler standing in the window on another
floor of the house. “And those are your posters?” I asked. She nodded. She owned the entire four-floor
brownstone property on a prestigious street near the park; she was almost certainly a multimillionaire
herself.
“I haven’t seen many Bloomberg posters round New York,” I said, in an effort to explain why I was standing
outside this woman’s house with my phone camera raised like a creep or a burglar.
“Oh, we love him,” she replied, nonplussed. “I think you’ll be seeing a lot more.”
Doubt it, lady, I thought to myself as I walked off down the street – and was almost immediately confronted
with a previously empty shop window that was now pasted over with hundreds of Bloomberg posters. Ever
the journalist, I took a picture of those, too: “NEW YORK FOR MIKE”, said one; “WOMEN FOR MIKE”
said another (predictably pink) one beside it; “I LIKE MIKE”, said two of them, which seemed almost
comically subdued despite the rhyme. There was also a large map of the States with “SUPER TUESDAY”
written above it and two recently handmade and hand-coloured posters: “DIAL FOR DEMOCRACY” and