If you ask anyone who the New York mayor in 2001 was, they’ll usually give you a one-word answer: Giuliani. But there is a weird, forgotten quirk of history here. For most of that year, Rudy Giuliani was actually a "lame duck" with tanking approval ratings. He was on his way out. People were tired of him. Then, a Tuesday morning in September changed the trajectory of his legacy, the city’s DNA, and the very nature of American policing.
It's wild to look back at the data from early 2001. Giuliani couldn't run for re-election because of term limits. The city was obsessed with the primary race to replace him. Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who had been a Democrat most of his life, switched parties just to avoid a crowded Democratic field. Meanwhile, Rudy was dealing with messy headlines about his personal life and a prostate cancer diagnosis. He was, for lack of a better term, yesterday’s news.
The Two Versions of New York in 2001
Before the towers fell, New York was a different beast. We often forget that. The early 2000s were defined by the tail end of the "broken windows" era. Giuliani and his first police commissioner, William Bratton, had spent years pushing a theory that if you stop the small stuff—squeegee men, turnstile jumpers, graffiti—you prevent the big stuff.
It worked. Sorta.
Crime was down, but the social cost was high. By 2001, the tension between the NYPD and Black and Brown communities was at a breaking point. You had the shooting of Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Patrick Dorismond in 2000. When people think of the New York mayor in 2001, they often picture the guy standing in the dust of Ground Zero, but the guy in January 2001 was being protested daily for his aggressive policing tactics and what many called a lack of empathy.
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Then came 8:46 AM on September 11.
The Day the Mayor Became "America's Mayor"
The transition was instant. Giuliani didn’t hide in a bunker. He was actually nearly trapped when his temporary command center at 75 Barclay Street was compromised. He was on the ground, walking through the soot, talking to reporters, and—this is the part people remember—staying calm. While the federal government was still scrambling to figure out where President Bush should go, Giuliani was the face of the response.
He gave people something to hold onto. He famously said the number of casualties would be "more than any of us can bear." He didn't sugarcoat it. That honesty bought him a level of political capital that most politicians can only dream of.
But here's the thing about power: it's addictive.
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As the New York mayor in 2001, Giuliani actually tried to leverage the tragedy to stay in office. He floated the idea of extending his term or even overturning term limits so he could keep managing the crisis. It sounds insane now, but at the time, some people were actually for it. The Democratic candidates—Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer—were put in an impossible position. How do you campaign against a guy who has 90% approval ratings and is being called a hero by the entire world?
The Bloomberg Pivot
Eventually, the "Third Term" idea died. New Yorkers, as much as they loved Rudy in the moment, weren't ready to scrap the democratic process. The election went forward.
Michael Bloomberg won, largely because he promised to be a manager rather than a firebrand. He spent roughly $74 million of his own money on that 2001 campaign. Think about that. In 2001 dollars, that was an astronomical sum to win a job that paid $195,000 a year. He positioned himself as the logical successor to the Giuliani era of safety but without the constant combativeness.
Bloomberg's victory was a direct result of the chaos. People wanted stability. They wanted someone who understood the economics of a city that had just lost its financial heart.
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Why the 2001 Mayoralty Still Matters Today
We are still living in the shadow of the decisions made by the New York mayor in 2001.
- The Surveillance State: Under Giuliani's final months and Bloomberg's early years, the NYPD transformed into a paramilitary intelligence agency. They started tracking foreign threats in a way no local police department ever had before.
- The Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan: The fight over what to do with "The Hole" (as Ground Zero was called) began in late 2001. Giuliani wanted a massive memorial; developers wanted office space. We ended up with a mix of both, but the seeds of that conflict were planted during the transition.
- The Identity of the City: 2001 was the year New York stopped being seen as "Fear City" and started being seen as a symbol of Western resilience. That sounds cheesy, but it changed tourism, real estate, and global investment forever.
What Most People Get Wrong
People think Giuliani was always popular. He wasn't. They think the 2001 election was a landslide. It wasn't—Bloomberg only won by about 2 percentage points. They think the city was united. It was, for about three weeks, then the old grievances about police brutality and economic inequality came roaring back.
Honestly, being the New York mayor in 2001 was a job no one should have wanted, yet everyone fought for it. It was the year the city almost broke and then decided it was too big to fail.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Researchers
If you're digging into this era, don't just look at the 9/11 footage. To really understand the 2001 mayoralty, you have to look at the fringes.
- Check the Primary Results: Look at the September 11 primary that was actually interrupted by the attacks. It's a fascinating "what if" of history.
- Read the 9/11 Commission Report: Specifically, look at the sections regarding the lack of interoperability between the FDNY and NYPD radios. This was a massive failure of the Giuliani administration that often gets glossed over in the "hero" narrative.
- Study the Budget: Look at the NYC budget from late 2001 to 2002. It shows the brutal reality of how the city stayed solvent after its tax base was literally incinerated.
- Visit the Archives: The NYC Department of Records has digitized thousands of photos from the 2001 transition. It shows a city that was much more fragile than the history books suggest.
Understanding the New York mayor in 2001 requires looking past the "America's Mayor" title and seeing the complicated, messy, and deeply human transition of power that happened during the city's darkest hour.