In Fairness, Central Kentucky Does Have a Certain French Flavor
By Peter Berger, via Andrew Gelman:
[New York mayor Michael Bloomberg] resides in his private apartment on the Upper East Side. His co-resident is a woman to whom he is not married—something that he would probably not get away with as mayor in many other American cities. In an international perspective, however, he is in good company—both the current presidents of France and Germany live with similarly non-matrimonial partners. I cannot say whether Bloomberg’s quasi-European lifestyle has anything to do with his idea of New York City as a quasi-European welfare state.
Let me begin by introducing Dr. Berger to Jim Gray, Mayor of Lexington, Kentucky. Let me conclude by asking Dr. Berger to try to wrap his mind around the Honorable Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
But then people often mistake central Kentucky and southern Ohio for “quasi-European welfare states.”