Deputy Mayor for Twitter

Wolfson takes to the Twittersphere to defend the Bloomberg administration

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg is under attack, one trusty weapon in Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson’s arsenal is the tweet.

Wolfson, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, has been garnering attention in recent months for taking to the Twittersphere to go after the administration’s critics, from elected officials like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to journalists and news outlets like The New York Times.

“I think it has the benefit of being unfiltered and immediate, and those are two things that are difficult to find elsewhere,” Wolfson said of his use of Twitter. “Although it limits one to 140 characters, it does give you the freedom to say what you want to say, when you want to say it and speak directly to the audience that is following you.”

Wolfson, who has been tweeting for several years as @howiewolf, said he used the social media website during the 2009 Bloomberg campaign to engage Bill Thompson, the mayor’s Democratic challenger. And like many Twitter users, he regularly mixes in his outside interests (Major League Baseball, Bruce Springsteen) with work-related matters (proposed soda size restrictions, bike lanes).

Here’s a selection of his Twitter exchanges.

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In May Wolfson and de Blasio clashed over the city budget and a new website the public advocate launched that pushes back against teacher layoffs.

@BilldeBlasio
Bill de Blasio RT
@nydailynews Public Advocate launches new website that lets parents protest planned teacher la…nydn.us/kogrRI #savenycteachers

@howiewolf
Must have missed the site protesting state Ed cuts @BilldeBlasio @nydailynews PA’s new website to protest ed layoffs. nydn.us/kogrRI

@BilldeBlasio
@howiewolf Can’t blame state for all layoffs when DOE spending $52mil on tech consltnts $21mil on recruitng & $2.6mil on PR #savenycteachers.

@howiewolf
@BilldeBlasio wish you had been this vocal when state cut us 1b in Ed funds

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Also in May, Councilman David Greenfield called attention to the administration’s opposition to requiring bike helmets while pushing soda size restrictions.

@NYCGreenfield
@howiewolf best way to save lives is to use NYPD resources to pull over reckless drivers instead of giving officers parking ticket quotas

@howiewolf
@NYCGreenfield your efforts to convince cyclists that you care about their safety are falling flat online Cyclists know bikelanes save lives

@NYCGreenfield
@howiewolf It’s amusing that same day the Mayor bans a 20 oz bottle of cola he opposes protecting cyclists by requiring life-saving helmets

@howiewolf
@NYCGreenfield bike lanes save lives. Do you support them?

@howiewolf
@NYCGreenfield best way to save cyclists lives is to expand bike lanes – More cyclists and separation from cars way to go. Join us!

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In mid-June Wolfson tweeted back and forth with journalist Nick Rizzo over the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies.

@nickrizzo
@howiewolf How do we know Stop Question Frisk is effective if there’s never been a control sample?

@howiewolf
@nickrizzo is there a section of the city we should providing police protection to as an experiment?

@nickrizzo
@howiewolf So there is a level where a large number of stops of one individual is excessive?

@howiewolf
@nickrizzo depends on individual and his/her activities, no?

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In January Wolfson got into a spat with The New York Times and its metro editor, Carolyn Ryan, after the newspaper revealed that a poster from the city’s health department depicting a man with diabetes was altered to make it appear that he had lost a leg.

@howiewolf
@NYTMetro curious are the Times subscribers in your ads actual Times subscribers? Because if, gosh, they werent I would be so disillusioned

@howiewolf
Still waiting for @NYTMetro to answer if folks in Times ads are actors and if they are whether that says anything about the product/message.

@carolynryan
@howiewolf I knew this story had legs.NYC public health ads derive power from perception that victims – & health effects shown- are real.

@howiewolf
@carolynryan story was more focused on ads integrity than efficacy – yet correlation btwn sugar drinks and obesity/diabetes is a fact

@carolynryan
@howiewolf  Of course. The photo suggests- vividly – if you drink soda, you lose your leg. Turned out city-not diabetes-sawed off guy’s leg.

@howiewolf
My grandmother lost a leg to diabetes. She would not have appeared in an ad. Doesn’t make her loss less real to have it depicted by another