[Alberta's Child]

There might be a couple of different issues here. The anti-jaywalking initiative I remembered was specifically aimed at eliminating traffic congestion at some key locations in midtown Manhattan -- by prohibiting people from crossing at the intersections (this is what the barriers were for) and forcing them to use new signalized mid-block crossings instead. This eliminated the vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at those busy intersections and helped reduce congestion by allowing cars to turn freely at the intersections without having to stop for pedestrians.

This is an effective way to improve the flow of traffic at busy intersections, and the "pedestrian group representatives" who complained about it were basically just professional malcontents.

[dashing doofus]

You remember correctly. There were barricades erected at intersections around 53 and fifth, and pedestrians were re-directed toward the center of the block to cross.

I agree that it wasn’t really much of an inconvenience. I just see it as an example of Rudy’s authoritarian, former federal prosecutor streak. He did do many good things for the city after the ruinous Dinkins administration, and I think NYC needs an authoritarian type.

But, he still scares the hell out me as President, and he is LYING about his position on 2A, parsing words on abortion, and completely distorting his so called tax cutting record.

His criticisms of Romney’s so called tax raising while Julie Annie was cutting is as completely disingenuous as the rest of his “America’s mayor” campaign, IMO. Julie governed during a period when personal income tax receipts were booming (largely due to capital gains recognition and the Nasdaq bubble). Everyone, including Gov Pataki, Gov Whitman, Engler, etc were cutting taxes. Romney goverend later, during a period when capital gains recognition (and therefore PIT receipts) collapsed, and the state was in a fiscal crisis. I’m not a huge Romney fan, but believe he did a reasonable job with the cards he was dealt.