Here's just one example of hyperbole:
'Sometimes it felt like he was trying to put the whole unruly, diverse city through obedience training, as he......, put up barricades at busy street crossings to modify pedestrian behavior'
I lived in New York at the time, and this was just one example of a simple common sense thing that needed to be implemented in order to avoid gridlock in the city.
It's kind of hard to explain, but imagine a four lane 5th Avenue going south, and a 2 lane 45th street going east. Now imagine a red light for 5th avenue (there is no independent walk light where all lanes are stopped.) So when the 45th street drivers are trying to turn right onto 5th avenue they were blocked during the WHOLE DURATION of their green light because of the pedestrians crossing on the south crossing, instead of the north one (where they didn't block traffic.)
It was a simple obvious solution, but someone had to get down to street level and implement it, and Guiliani did.
(and then all the newspapers started whining how he's a control freak...)
No doubt the free thinkers at The Nation would prefer that the "unruly, diverse" denizens of NYC (that would be the homeless, etc.) be free to express themselves at will, including taking a whizz in public, wherever and whenever. Free the people!!