I'm no psychologist, but I think Mayor Bloomberg has a serious Edifice Complex.

I diagnosed it for the first time last month when Bloomberg announced plans to turn
 the Tweed Courthouse -- which cost $90 million to restore from a decrepit,
 cubicle-filled office building into a perfect home for the Museum of the City of 
New York -- back into a decrepit, cubicle-filled office building to house the Board
 of Education.

And remember when he said he'd like to reward outstanding city workers by letting
 them spend the night at now-empty Gracie Mansion? There's the Edifice Complex
 again: He wants to turn a historic home into a bunkhouse for bureaucrats.

Then, the other day, when President Bush offered to give back Governors Island,
 Bloomberg did it again: He wants to turn this historic jewel into a
 teacher-training center for the City University.

Teacher-training?! Governors Island should be a grand public park for all New
 Yorkers -- and tourists -- to enjoy. It should not become a big classroom.

Given Bloomberg's clear penchant for defining decoration down, you can only imagine
 how he'd transform other architectural treasures into mundane, bureaucratic
 sinkholes:

<bullet>Empire State Building Observatory: Tourists, schmurists! Its location high
 in the sky makes it ideally suited for conversion into The Frank Field High School
 for Meteorological Careers.

<bullet>Wild Asia at the Bronx Zoo: Why do those damn animals need so much room? If
 we have any hope of winning the 2012 Olympics, all those animals must be crammed
 into one cage so that athletes' housing can be built on the remaining land.

<bullet>Brooklyn Bridge: The bridge's wood-plank walkway, so popular with tourists
 who love the panoramic views of Lower Manhattan, must be ripped up so the wood can
 be re-used to repair park benches along Pelham Parkway.

<bullet>The Carousel in Central Park: The physical structure will remain, but the
 horses will be removed and an entirely new propulsion system installed to transform
 this children's plaything into a high-powered partical accelerator for the physics
 students at Bronx High School of Science.

<bullet>Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Those sprawling acres of flowers, trees and other
 foliage would be the perfect place to relocate the Health Department's pesticide
 testing lab.

<bullet>Yankee Stadium: Remove the upper deck, cut it up into individual sections
 and re-install them at Little League fields all over the city to alleviate the
 heart-breaking problem of overcrowded bleachers.

<bullet>The Guggenheim Museum: Well, considering what it resembles, it WOULD make a
 perfect new home for the Department of Sewers.

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gersh.kuntzman@verizon.net