Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg officially entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last week.

One of his first public speeches before his announcement was an apology for the controversial policing practice in New York

during his administration known as Stop and frisk, which we've

covered extensively here at City Journal in writing about the city's remarkable crime reduction

gains during the 2000s. But that's not the only thing Michael Bloomberg did in his 12 years

as mayor of New York. During his mayoralty, the city added nearly 200 charter schools.

Entire new developments arose, think Hudson Yards, downtown Brooklyn, and Long Island City.

There's the infamous ban on large sodas, or big gulps, as they came to be known,

and other policies that we'll try to cover here today.

Coming up on the show, our associate editor, Seth Barron, will interview four

City Journal contributors to talk about Bloomberg's record on crime, education, economic development,

and more.

That's it for the introduction.

After the music, Seth Barron will begin our first discussion with Ralph Mangwell to talk about Bloomberg's record

on crime and policing,

including the stop and frisk question.

We hope you enjoy.

Thank you. Welcome back to 10 blocks, the podcast of City Journal.

This is your host for today, Seth Barron, Associate Editor of City Journal.

The mayoralty of New York City has long been seen as a graveyard for political ambition.

Mayor de Blasie, who's already dropped out of the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for the presidency,

...