New York Mayor Bloomberg looks ahead to golf, speaking Spanish

Reuters – by Jonathan Allen

A golfing holiday and learning to speak Spanish “like a native” are at the top of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s list of activities he’ll pursue when his term ends in December, he said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Bloomberg will also continue to use his multi-billion-dollar fortune to try to tighten gun-control laws, combat climate change and improve public health, he told Forbes magazine.  

“Look, I will stay involved in the cases I care about,” Bloomberg, 71, said in the interview with Forbes, which estimates his net worth to be $31 billion.

“I’m not just going to give away money. I want to actually be involved with guns and immigration and innovation and government and public health. Exactly how, I don’t know.”

Bloomberg made his fortune with Bloomberg LP, the financial data and news company, but said he had no plans to return to running the company.

“I can tell you what I won’t do,” he said. “I’m not going to become a professional investor. That’s somebody else’s job. I don’t want to teach. I don’t want to become a consultant. These things don’t appeal to me. I’m not going back to Bloomberg LP. I don’t want to start a new company.”

Bloomberg, whose distinctively accented brand of Spanish at press conferences became a source of amusement to New Yorkers during his 12 years in office, told the magazine he wants to polish his delivery until he can speak the language “like a native.”

He plans to give his entire fortune away through his foundation, citing both Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and former U.S. president Bill Clinton as models, and will continue to fund political candidates who support his beliefs on tightening gun-control and reforming education.

Bloomberg recently agreed to become the chairman of the Serpentine Gallery in London, a city he said he may be spending more time in after leaving office and where he owns at least one home. There is also Bloomberg Place, reportedly the largest building development underway in the city’s financial district, which will become the European outpost of his company and foundation.

The mayor said, if invited, he will attend the inauguration of his successor on January 1. The next day, Bloomberg, who frequently flies to his home in Bermuda at weekends, said he will take his “first vacation in 12 years” with friend Diana Taylor to play golf in Hawaii and New Zealand, including at least one game with hedge-fund billionaire Julian Robertson.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Gunna Dickson)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/30/us-usa-newyork-bloomberg-idUSBRE99T1BX20131030