 After dropping out of the Senate race, facing a bout of prostrate cancer, and a separation from his wife, actress, Donna Hanover, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided he wants to be a "better" mayor. Some students from Central Park East Secondary School sounded off on Giuliani's decision. To wit: I have a negative opinion of Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani . I think he should be replaced by another mayor. The reason I say this is because when you look at the work he's done so far, you can see that not much has changed. For example let's take the streets. If you were to take a look at 42nd Street and compare it to 138th street in the Bronx, where I live, you would see a major difference. On 42nd Street, it's clean and it's a safe neighborhood in which to walk. Unlike where I live where the streets are filthy and you'll want to think twice before staying out late after dark. Mayor Guiliani talks about how he's going to make the streets everywhere as clean and safe as possible but it doesn't look like he's doing a very good job of it. He said he would do this by giving tickets to people that littered. I know that he's made progress in the streets downtown in Manhattan because I always see cops on every corner. Probably I see cops in every coner because downtown is a place of business, but that shouldn't make any difference. What goes for one place should go for the other. If Guiliani would have done this to my neighborhood, it would've been a better environment in which people would want their children to grow up. - Christina Camacho ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rudy Giuliani done both good and bad things for this city. In a New York Times article by Joyce Pernick, it was said that, "If Rudolph W. Giuliani quit the mayoralty tomorrow, he would leave behind a city that is safer and more prosperous". Yes the city is safer, but not more prosperous. Since Giuliani has been in office, crime in NYC has decreased by 75%. This decrease and the methods used have given the police too much power. Power to the point where some think they can do anything. It also has given some officers itchy trigger fingers. So Giuliani has done well by reducing crime, but at the same time has turned some communities against police officers. - PJ Ortiz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Guiliani wants to work on being a better mayor, he also has to work through the issues that have built up against him. I think that from the start, Giuliani has pushed the plan to improve New York's police department but now he needs to move on. There are so many other important issues that need to be touched on. For example what happened to Amadou Diallo who was shot 19 times by police. What exactly is the point of putting more police on the street if 50% of them are trigger-happy? What about the fact that the streets of New York are filthy dirty and sanitation isn't doing a good enough job cleaning up?I mean more police doesn't mean the streets magically become cleaner. I think Guiliani needs to start focusing more on things like racism, police brutality, and homelessness and less on how many guys with badges and guns walk up and down the New York City blocks. - Dominique ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The mayor made our city what it is today whether that's good or bad that's the way it is. We can change that but it s a long hard process. The city has changed over the years but it can improve and get better. I also feel that police have too much power and they feel they can do anything and get away with it. That has to change. - Alina Lopez -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Giuliani may have changed certain aspects of the city and made them better, but at what cost?. Schools . . . are short many teachers. He employed more cops, but what are they creating, but more violence. Even if the people in our community aren't killing as much, those who are suppsed to be protecting us are doing the killing and dehumanizing. Amadou Diallo, an innocent man who was doing nothing to anyone lost his life because he was a black man in the streets at the wrong time. I don't think that Guiliani can possibly be for the people when he hates the race that the community consists. I agree with what New York State Comptroller Carl Mcall says, "Who cares what he says, when he is only looking out for himself and not the well being of [our comunity's] future. - Karmen Baez
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