I love this paragraph from Walter Robinson's news roundup on artnet:
New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is running for his second term as a Republican mayor in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, is trying to ingratiate himself with New York Citys progressive voters by showering $20 million on 400 New York arts and social-service organizations, according to a report in the New York Times. Visual arts institutions on the list range from the American Folk Art Museum, Anthology Film Archive and Art in General to the Studio Museum in Harlem, Triple Candie and UbranGlass. Made through the Carnegie Corporation, the donations are for sums between $10,000 and $100,000. According to the Times, Bloomberg gave a total of $140 million to more than 800 groups in 2004. By contrast, the Bloomberg administration jailed peaceful protestors at the Republican National Convention and was only narrowly defeated in a scheme to turn over almost $1 billion in public funds for a private sports stadium on the west side of Manhattan.
