PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Michael Eric Bloomberg wants to bring his expertise in finance and urban redevelopment back to his hometown.

 

The 26-year-old Pittsfield native is challenging state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier for the Democratic nomination for the 3rd Berkshire District. Bloomberg is holding a campaign kickoff on Thursday at Flavours of Malaysia but spoke with iBerkshires on Monday.

 

"I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think it would offer something above what we have as a city. I've known Tricia [Farley-Bouvier] for quite some time. She's a great person. She cares about the city. But, our differences are in the role of state representative and what it does and its ability to get things done and bring things back to the city," he said. "We differ in the strategy.

 

"For me, it is running against her record of what she's done for jobs. It's not running against her as a person."

 

Bloomberg has most recently worked for Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund managing an estimated $169 billion in investments. Bloomberg said he worked with leading companies in the technology field to craft policies and plans to attract, recruit, and assess employees.

 

"I was working with our recruiting and technology teams to both shape the strategy for attracting the top technical talent in the company competing with the likes of Google, Facebook, and Goldman Sachs," Bloomberg said.

 

Prior to that he was the first full-time employee for the start up Kora Management, another hedge fund, and previously worked with the 2012 U.S. Olympic Committee on the planning and logistics for those summer games. He was an intern for the city's Office of Community Development in 2010.

 

Bloomberg is a 2008 graduate of Pittsfield High School, a 2012 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, majoring in political science, and recently attended PDX Code Guild, a technology training program in Oregon. He returned to Pittsfield last year and began taking courses in labor economics at UMass. 

 

"I am a proponent of lifelong learning not only for other people but for myself. After graduation I haven't stopped taking courses," he said.

 

Through his career and training, Bloomberg said he came to understand the relationship between business growth and the public sector. He wants to use that knowledge to benefit Pittsfield.

 

"What is comes down to is making it a community people want to live," he said.

 

He says he'll bring a collaborative approach to the State House that will allow the city to become a leader. Instead of having leaders from the area "fight for every scrap of state funding," he wants to work with other leaders in Boston to create policies that will help the entire commonwealth.

 

"I'd like to ignite the theme of the commonwealth," Bloomberg said. "The successes and failures of Pittsfield impacts the rest of the state." 

 

He cited the work of state Sen. Benjamin Downing as to how he'd go about turning Pittsfield into a leader for the whole state. 

 

"Pittsfield is in a unique position out here where we have these great bones of a city that was built on innovation. We have great resources. We have people who want to work and they are looking for that job growth," Bloomberg said, hoping the city can be the home for new state strategies and ideas focused on revitalizing the economy.

 

"Instead of being an afterthought, I want Pittsfield to take a leadership role."

 

Economically, he said policies are in place that subsidize urban sprawl, adding to the cost of property taxes in towns. He said many of the current tax incentives and policies have unintended consequences that can hinder natural business growth.

 

"The median family income in Pittsfield is more than $25,000 below the state average. Our population in Pittsfield has dropped at a higher rate since 1970 than any other city in the entire state of Massachusetts. When we talk about wanting the old Pittsfield, wanting safe streets, wanting affordable housing and wanting jobs, we need to look at the root causes of that and not the Band-Aid fixes," Bloomberg said.

 

Bloomberg's family has deep roots in Berkshire County. Most notable is his uncle Jim Shulman, founder of the Berkshire Carousel, and his grandfather Irving Shulman, who founded Jim's House of Shoes. His mother, Nancy Shulman, operates Bloomberg Realty. Growing up in Pittsfield, Bloomberg credits his career growth in finance to the foundations given to him here.

 

"I want to come back to the city that gave me those schools, that gave me those experiences as a kid. I think it is incredibly important that we take what we've learned and give the city a return on its investment," Bloomberg said. "It invested in me."

 

Bloomberg joins the race as the third candidate seeking the seat. City Councilor Christopher Connell announced his candidacy last month and has until March 8 to declare if he will run within a party.