Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, went to New York as an outsider — which surely gave him a critical perspective on what was and wasn't working in his adopted home. His great personal wealth and confidence allowed him to push through policy changes that other mayors might never have attempted. Among his innovations were banning trans-fats from restaurants, requiring the posting of calorie counts, creating a 311 hotline for city services, and cultivating bold new public spaces such as the High Line elevated park. Not everything worked. His attempt to ban big sodas was widely ridiculed. He also championed the city's "stop-and-frisk" policy, which he insisted was responsible for lowering the crime rate, but humiliated and marginalized many young African-Americans and Hispanics.
His successor Bill de Blasio — who was raised in Cambridge — launched a powerful critique of Bloomberg's mayoralty as more for the rich than the poor. That rang true for some people, but Bloomberg also made crucial inroads in improving public education and boosting services in low-income neighborhoods. There is much work left for de Blasio to do in reducing income inequality in the city of Wall Street. But he, too, will benefit from an outsider's perspective — marshaling his Cambridge-bred values to fight poverty in the Big Apple.