Rudolph W. Giuliani pledged yesterday that "New York City is poised for dramatic change."
But what change?
He used his inaugural address to suggest that a major difference with his predecessor, David N. Dinkins, may be less his agenda of change than the perception he wants to foster that he will able to make good on it. In other words, the change he speaks of is not just new positions on policy, but a new level of effective government.
Still he carefully made no promises he may be unable to keep. He hardly made any at all, using his speech instead to buy time and good will until he hunkers down to governing.
His goals are broad, but not yet specific. Mr. Giuliani's own challenge is to make New Yorkers feel safer, reduce tax burdens, deliver services more efficiently, inspire the dispirited among every social and economic groups and give the impression that he and not durable bureaucrats, unelected power brokers or deviant hooligans is now in charge.
Yesterday Mr. Giuliani invoked the past to suggest the future more often than Mr. Dinkins had. And Mr. Giuliani's speech was less lofty than the inspiring remarks delivered in 1990 by Mr. Dinkins, who described his inauguration as the city's first black mayor and a descendant of slaves as "more than a transfer of power."
Mr. Giuliani touched many bases yesterday. But his make-it-like-it-was speech evoked an earlier era, as did the guest list, which, not surprisingly, did not include two of Mr. Dinkins's more prominent 1990 invitees, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mr. Giuliani is the first mayor in decades to win election without winning Manhattan, and his remarks suggested the boroughs outside Manhattan are ascendant again.
Mr. Giuliani gave a no-frills address (quoting neither poets nor philosophers but invoking the "indomitable spirit" of Fiorello H. La Guardia and the "common-sense approach" of Edward I. Koch) and almost evangelical (intoning "it should be so and it will be so" after stating each goal).
His speech echoed Mr. Koch, who in 1977 was elected, too, by contrasting his spirit and pragmatism with the despair and failed policies associated, fairly or not, with the previous one-term incumbent. He exhorted New Yorkers to "dream with me of a city that can be better than it is now" and challenged them to "believe, plan and work" to achieve it.
There were moments when the 107th Mayor struck themes that sounded quite similar to those mentioned by the 106th, perhaps unsurprising in a city whose basic problems remain what they have been from the first Dinkins- Giuliani election through the second.
Mr. Dinkins promised to be the "toughest mayor on crime this city has ever seen." Mr. Giuiliani generally avoided superlatives and, as a former crime-fighting prosecutor, talked tough about gun control.
Mr. Dinkins promised to "renew the quest for social justice," suggesting that he would restore the compassion that his predecessor, Mr. Koch, was accused of lacking. Mr. Giuliani pledged to continue that quest but with a pivotal caveat: social justice will not be achieved if society refuses to acknowledge the failure of some good-intentioned programs and merely repeats their mistakes.
Mr. Dinkins recalled that his ancestors came to America in slave ships. Mr. Giuliani, in contrast, cited his immigrant grandfather's perseverence and, implying how far the city has slipped, insisted that New York "will again be the capital of the world."
Some themes were strikingly similar. Mr. Dinkins cautioned his core constituents that "our dreams are bigger than our budget," to which Mr. Giuliani stressed that "our problems can be reduced, not magically resolved." Mr. Dinkins said he would be judged by "how well we treat those who start out in life during my tenure at City Hall," to which Mr. Giuliani said of children, "they are our future." Mr. Dinkins promised to "demand discipline and respect for the law," to which Mr. Giuliani promised to "reverse the trend of ever increasing tolerance to crime."
Under Mr. Dinkins, reported crime dipped and the police force grew, but still New Yorkers apparently believed that the Mayor had insufficiently delivered on his promise to be the toughest mayor against crime.
Independent but inexperienced, Mr. Giuliani was elected without a mandate (though arguably more of one than Mr. Dinkins had). He inherits a vast recurring budget gap that, as the first white to succeed a black mayor of New York, he cannot afford to balance disproportionately on the backs of Mr. Dinkins's constituents. He may have raised the expectations of a disaffected middle class as he inherits a job in which he may only be able to marginally affect their lives.
And he assumes office with the potential to become a prisoner not so much of his own oratory but of his response to perceived political shortcomings -- as Mr. Koch did in devoting enormous resources to housing for the homeless and as Mr Dinkins did, at the expense of his social agenda, by expanding the police force.
Fully one year after Mr. Dinkins was inaugurated, he promised a "new beginning" -- implying that his first beginning had not been good enough. Yesterday, hailing a "city of new beginnings," Mr. Giuliani began in his own way to lay the groundwork for a legacy that, unlike Mr. Dinkins's, he hopes will get him re-elected.
