"He disdained compromise."
You don't get to be a two term republican mayor of nyc without having extraordinary negotiating abilities. He got a lot done which would have been impossible if this were not the case.
A lot of the stuff he got done was mostly the stuff that you can win at -- all or nothing -- like quality of life law enforcement, etc. (which was actually a Bratton theory)...the major contribution he made in terms of negotiating was cutting deals with wall street and the banks. He was pretty much elected the second time because nobody any good was running against him. And there really aren't any (or very many) NYC pols left.
I suspect that your mother wouldn't recognize NYC today. It's changed a lot.
The truth of the matter is, NYC is going to hell in a hurry. It's not like it used to be. You should have seen it 20 years ago. I knew the end was near when they got rid of the red bird subway cars.