Baruch Herzfeld for Mayor?

After meeting with Baruch Herzfeld for an hour last week, a thought crossed my mind that I’m sure he’s already had: he should run for mayor of New York. I was blindsided by the idea after two employees of the Bowery Whole Foods we were meeting at came over to talk with him and ask him where he’d been. A few days later, when watching one of the many Traif Bikes Youtube videos, my vision of Herzfeld’s campaign became even clearer. This specific video, titled "The mayor’s mother stole Jon’s bicycle", has Herzfeld talking with his friend (Jon) about Jon’s stolen bicycle, which Herzfeld claims was stolen by the mother of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He repeated the claim to me when we met to talk. During our conversation, Herzfeld expounded upon his idea that Charlotte Bloomberg is a modern day Fagin who has placed all of her sons into public office up and down the coast to steal bikes. Hearing this, I kept thinking "Baruch just got meta on me", but after watching the video, I realized that Herzfeld has mastered an art that all great politicians must learn: the power quote. While I’m unsure where Mr. Herzfeld’s stands on other political issues, he has become a strong voice against the city’s increasingly antagonistic policies against bike riders, and one of the few positives to come out of the media infatuation with the battle between Brooklyn’s hipsters and Hasids. New York has a history of quixotic mayoral campaigns built around counter-cultures — is somebody running for the bike riders of New York that incredibly far fetched? Sure, it’s improbable, but if Herzfeld were to consider a run in 2012, it would probably place his name alongside Norman Mailer and Reverend Billy (I should be in such company!). If anything, it would give Herzfeld a valuable chance to tell a larger audience how one of the biggest cities in the world has failed to become cyclist friendly and he could still keep his title of the "New Rebbe of Williamsburg."