Rudy Giuliani in Leadership, autobiography by Rudolph Giuliani

On Budget & Economy: Under-estimate future revenue to force cost containment

• 2002: $39,698,000,000
• 2003: $39,713,000,000
• 2004: $40,976,000,000
• 2005: $42,228,000,000

Too often, organizations base their projections on best-case scenarios. A city will borrow substantially after a healthy year only to find, when revenues sink, that it needs to ramp up taxes simply to cover its debt. Or a business will hire new staff and plush up its headquarters, even when its strong recent past cannot be relied on to continue.

On Crime: Banished "squeegee men": civility from treating small crimes

That's how the idea for addressing the squeegee man problem appeared. There were men who would wander up to a car stopped in traffic, spray the windshield, & wipe it down. After the unsolicited "cleaning," the man would request payment.

My belief was that treating small crimes was a way to establish lawful, civil behavior & a feeling of safety. The police chief said we lacked a legal basis to move them as long as they were not threatening drivers or demanding money. I said, how about that they are jaywalking. When they stepped off the curb they violated the law. Then, in giving them tickets, you could investigate whether there were outstanding warrants & so on.

In under a month, we reduced the problem dramatically. New Yorkers loved it & so did all the visitors who brought money into the city

On Crime: Community policing is comforting but doesn't stop crime

The reality is that community policing does not stop crime. There are only so many police officers any city can afford. Once a certain quantity of them are committed to standing on a corner in every neighborhood, the number who can deployed to higher crime areas or added to task forces targeting specific problems is reduced. Another problem:it's not only law-abiding citizens who are reassured by knowing where this visible new police presence is. Criminals get a big kick out of the predictable, daytime beats of community police officers

On Education: Schools should focus on educating kids, not protecting jobs

Until I could get everyone to agree that the system existed to educate children, fixing little bits of it was symbolic at best. The system needed to say we are not a job protection system but a system at its core about children's enrichment. All rewards & risks must flow from the performance of the children. If you took a broken system & repaired just enough so that it could limp along, you lessened the chance that a real solution could be reached. That is why I resist partial control over a project. The schools should be made into a mayoral agency--like the Fire Department--so the city can enact real solutions

On Education: Supports vouchers and supports using the word vouchers

Nevertheless, I refused to abandon it, and still do. We're only going to win the battle for choice for parents when the word "voucher" loses its stigma. In using all the euphemisms, voucher advocates cede the battle, because behind people's fear of the word lies the contorted thinking that prevents voucher programs from being adopted. Those who oppose vouchers tend not to understand them. For those of us who believe in the concept, it's our job to defang the word, to counter the irrational reaction to it. The more supporters say the word, the less opponents can milk it for propaganda reasons.

On Education: Cut city funding for offensive art at Brooklyn Museum

There was an important First Amendment issue at stake. I believed that the mayor should never have the right to stop anyone from making a statement of any kind. People have a right to free expression. If they were to create offensive art on their own property, using their own funds, and someone were to attack them for doing it, the mayor would be obliged to protect them, and so would the police. But I believe there is a difference between protecting someone's right to desecrate a religious image and being required to fund that desecration using tax dollars from the very people it offends.

On Families & Children: Restrict sex shops to small buffer zone

We made the case for creating a zone in which the shops could stay open. Since the zone reduced the area available to sex shops, rents in other areas could increase. Eventually, rents rose even within the zone, making it too expensive for the sex shops-the free market could achieve what zoning could not. In the years that followed, whenever the sex shops took us to court, judges would cite this buffer zone we created as proof the rules were not overly restrictive.

On Government Reform: Applied "reinventing government" to New York City

The ideas about "reinventing government" found in the book of the same name by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler proved extremely useful: as much as possible, I tried to run the city as a business, using business principles to impose accountability on government. Objective, measurable indicators of success allow governments to be accountable, and I relentlessly pursued that idea.

I am not above using good ideas that originate from places on might not expect me to mine. I expanded several programs that [Democratic mayors] had implemented.

On Government Reform: Debates on campaign finance reform miss the point on honesty

In politics, there is an outcry whenever an officeholder who has received campaign contributions from a particular industry supports a position perceived as favorable to that industry. The implication is that, say, the tobacco industry's contribution "bought" the official's support or at least bought access. I would be the last to say it never happens, but much more common is a company choosing to support those it views as sympathetic to its interests. At any given moment in my administration, someone who supported me was angry because I didn't do what they hoped I would do. If they withdraw their support, you don't want them around anyway. There's no one thing you can do to establish the principle. All you can do is keep making decisions based on what you believe, and by your example, you will demonstrate your independence.

On Homeland Security: Led New York City through the events of 9/11

While mayor, I made it my policy to see with my own eyes the scene of every crisis so I could evaluate it firsthand. As shocking as this crash was, we had actually planned for just such a catastrophe. My administration had built a state-of-the-art command center on the 23rd floor of 7 WTC, just north of the twin towers. So that's where we headed.

My first assumption was that it was some nut flying a small plane. Then the 2nd plane hit. All I saw was a big flash of fire. This convinced us it was terrorism.

I immediately devised two priorities. We had to set up a new command center [further from the twin towers]. And we had to find a way to communicate with people in the city. [We spent the day accomplishing those two priorities, which continued 24/7 for several days.]

On Homeland Security: We're right and terrorists are wrong--as simple as that

On 9/11, NYC was viciously attacked in an unprovoked act of war. This was an attack on the very idea of a free, inclusive, & civil society.

Because of our principles--particularly our religious, political, & economic freedoms--we find ourselves under attack by terrorists. Our freedom threatens them, because they know that if our ideas of freedom gain a foothold among their people it will destroy their power.

There is no room for neutrality on the issue of terrorism You're either with civilization or with terrorists. On one side is democracy, the rule of law, & respect for human life; on the other is tyranny, arbitrary executions, & mass murder. We're right & they're wrong--it's as simple as that.

On Homeland Security: Deal with untrustworthy negotiators by getting it in writing

Ronald Reagan exemplifie the best way to approach such situations. Reagan forced the Soviets to make concessions up front before the US made any in return.

In politics--in any organization--you must apply to institutional decisions the wisdom acquired from individual relationships, because institutions are largely just reflections of individual behavior. Sometimes in negotiations you want a particular result so badly that you become soft-headed about the likelihood of the other side living up to its end of the deal.

On Homeland Security: Would personally execute Bin Laden for attacking NYC

I told him, "If you catch this guy, Bin Laden, I would like to be the one to execute him." I am sure he thought I was just speaking rhetorically, but I was serious. Bin Laden had attacked my city and as its mayor I had the strong feeling that I was the most appropriate person to do it.

On Principles & Values: Dropped out of 2000 Senate race to put his health first

Contemplating a decision about dropping out of the race for the Senate was clouding my decision about how to deal with cancer. Without realizing it, I was trying to evaluate my treatment options with one eye on the Senate race. I had a gnawing feeling that it was wrong to allow the Senate race, as important as I thought it was, to affect decisions about my health.

A friend crystallized my thinking when he said to put my health first. As soon as I agreed with that priority, other decisions fell into place. My first decision was that I would include hormones in my treatment. On May 19th, I went to get the Lupron injection. Later that day, I announced that I was not going to run for the Senate.

On Principles & Values: Considered medicine & priesthood before entering law

If I was going to become a priest, I was going to help the most underprivileged I could find. But then I realized I had a problem: my budding interest in the opposite sex was something that wouldn't be suppressed. I thought, maybe I am just not ready.

In college, I entered the pre-med program. But as much as I liked learning biology, I liked ideas better. I turned away from medicine; and as by this time I was already dating, I knew that religious vocation was not for me. In its place, I began to view my love of debate as pointing toward a new calling--to the law, where I could indulge that enthusiasm to the full.

On Principles & Values: Endorsed Democrat Mario Cuomo for NY Governor in 1994

On Tax Reform: First day as mayor: reduced sales tax from 6% to 5%

Economists could have a great deal of fun calculating how much of the rise in visitors was attributable to the tax cut. How much of the increased hotel occupancy came from the drop in crime, how much from the improved quality of life? How much from the positive publicity NY get from those two factors? How much from the dynamics in different economies--factors way beyond the control of any mayor? The exact proportions are impossible to know.

On Welfare & Poverty: America Works: pay company for jobs for welfare recipients

The liberal world was incensed about the fact that America Works would "make a profit from welfare." The company was tying its profit to getting people a job, though, and the concept appealed to me immediately. Those who were not able or willing to find permanent jobs were expected to participate in the Work Experience Program, spending 20 hours a week doing work like cleaning parks and answering phones at various agencies.