David Norman Dinkins, Essay Example

David Norman Dinkins served as a New York City’s Mayor between 1990 and 1993. He was the first and only, to date, African-American to hold the mayoralty office. His politics was based on reconciling the black and white communities. He lost his re-election to Republican Rudy Giuliani in 1993. Rudy Giuliani can be termed as an opportunist since he became the mayor when the city had a great improvement in the economy, and the national rate of crime had gone down. He claimed that he had brought the crime levels down, but crime had declined in all cities of the country.

If both Dinkins and Giuliani were regarded as one mayor, the levels of crimes would go down. Before Dinkins became the mayor, the levels of crimes were high in New York City. He deployed police officers in the streets, which brought crime levels down. When Giuliani became the mayor, he continued hiring more officers and hence crime rates went down even further. In addition, city taxes would go down. When Governor Mario Cuomo reduced state tax, Mayor Giuliani followed suit. The result was reduction of taxes in city’s hotels, a factor that lead to growth of the tourism industry.

On the other hand, racial disparities would rise. When Giuliani was the mayor, the rate of black employment went down considerably. 95% of the supervisors in the fire department were white in his term. Jewish and black communities would have no position in the “white collar” jobs. In addition, the economy of the city would go down. None of the two mayors was actively involved in economic growth of city. Dinkins was more involved in social matters than in economic matters; for example, he was actively involved in reduction in crime and reconciling races.