This mayor has been the worst thing to happen to NYC since Dinkins. If he does get re-elected, then that means this city is truly brain dead. You absolutely could not do any worse. So, don't complain when your commute is twice what it should be, or if you have heroin addicts all over the train stations, or if the city streets are filthy, or if the schools are war zones, or if the quality of life in this city continues to deteriorate, as it has since the moment he took office. If you can't see that he is not for this city, and only for himself and his cronies, then you must not live here, or you just don't care.
3
I wonder if the Mayor has gone to Church during his term? I believe he is an Atheist
1
if you look at the voter turnout percentages from his election, DiBlasio did not win by a land slide; he did not even get a majority.
He insists on affordable housing and homeless shelters except in his beloved brownstone Brooklyn and he wants everyone else to cut down on greenhouse gases and traffic so that he can commute halfway across the city IN A FLEET OF SUVs to get to his gym. There are crises in NYC where he is the mayor and yet he'll jet off to protest in Europe and see his kid on the public's dime. He's let exceedingly lucrative contracts go to his patrons and the unions in whose pocket he is in, contracts that have far reaching and irreversible effects.
I submit that many New Yorkers will agree with me that our beloved city is worse off than it was four years ago when he took office. Why are you giving him a puff piece?
7
Shouldnt we be focusing on more important issues like homelessness, opiod crisis, crime and immigration? Who cares for crying aloud about whether the mayor goes to a Yankee game or not?
3
While I'm not a New Yorker, I have to admire Mr. de Blasio for staying true to himself. We all knew that Hillary Clinton was totally inauthentic as a candidate, but you can't say that about de Blasio. As a lifelong baseball fan, I also admire his sticking to the team he's always loved and not becoming a "me too" Yankees fan.
1
Perhaps his authentic self shouldn't be mayor of NYC. Sometimes, your attitudes, previous acts, past statements or breadth of experiences don't mix with certain activities or employment. People (rightly) expect a certain level of likeness to themselves in their elected officials.
1
When will New Yorkers wise up to this mayor? He preaches a good game about caring about the city, but disdains the things New Yorkers care about like bringing good jobs to the city, the Columbus Day parade and even rooting for the Yankees. How is that being a New Yorker?
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I am a New Yorker and I do NOT care about the Columbus Day parade. I am in favor of renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
3
I don't really care about the mayor's stances on parades or the Yankees. But I respect that he's holding on to his fandom.
I'm a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, having grown up in San Antonio. While I have some love for the Nets (similar colors and they play only three stops away from where I live), I would never I mean ever go to Knicks game or support any MSG team, even if I'm eligible for a bank loan to do so. That doesn't make me feel like less of a New Yorker.
Doesn’t read to me like criticism, reads to me like journalism. Kudos to Mayor di Blasio for sticking to his personal likes: note, he’s not proselytizing or pandering, he’s merely acting within his rights. It’s refreshing to hear such candor.
The Times just won't quit. Ever since De Blasio defeated The Times' anointed candidate Christine Quinn, this newspaper has been out to get him. The coverage has been snarky, petty, and mean. This article is so typical of the pointless coverage from The Times: I mean, do we really care whether he goes to Yankee Stadium? Whether he visits the High Line?
I want to know about his success in concluding union agreements that were left undone for years; I would like to know more about his actions in implementing universal pre-K; about his success in creating budget surpluses; about his actions to stop the racist stop-and-frisk; about his actions to boost infrastructure.
But, no, all The Times wants to do is smear and snarl. This has to stop.
7
Baffled by NY Times criticism of Mayor de Blasio for expressing support for neighborhood stores (not )- and lack of interest in the High Line?
Don’t agree with the Mayor on everything but this article seems snarky and unnecessary.
In fact, chain stores and Amazon have wrecked small stores and businesses throughout Manhattan neighborhoods - supporting local business is a good thing.
And the NYT has published numerous articles chronicling the “dangers” of Amazon – most recently, Timothy Egan’s discussion of the negative impact on Seattle and Farhad Manjoo on Amazon (and others) control/monopoly.
And the High Line turned out to be a luxury real estate Trojan Horse enabled by the Bloomberg Administration – the luxury real estate hyper gentrification of Chelsea has resulted in countless local stores and restaurants forced out, some residents losing housing and a once mixed-income area has been transformed for the 1% and tourists. Not a good thing for regular NYC residents. Check out Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York for the history here.
5
Sorry everyone, but Amazon is terrific. I still like to shop in local stores, but when I can buy classical music cd's no longer available in defunct retail stores, and15 Gillette blades for 50% off retail it's hard to resist.
4
Bill de Blasio knows and plays to his base as does our Commander In Chief, as distasteful it may be to many. We are sorely in need of a third party, both parties have been co-opted by the extremists of their base.
Can anyone drive in the center lane anymore ? That's where my family and I reside, nobody speaks top us, truly a dilemma of two evils.
HELP !!!
3
I miss Bloomberg. Can he please run again?
6
Well, there was hope that Mr. de Blasio would represent the "outer boroughs" since he is from Brooklyn. But, as we all know, that has not been the case.
The mayor lives in an isolated area that is really Manhattan for those who can't afford it. He is not part of the "outer boroughs" and has not merely slighted us, but done more to harm us than any mayor since John Lindsley (as Mike Quill called him).
His Zero Vision program ignores the necessity for automobiles in most of Queens, much of Brooklyn (outside of Park Slope and Williamsburg), and Staten Island.
His housing programs will do more to destroy neighborhoods than any since Robert Moses. Just look at his plans to insure the final destruction of Far Rockaway and turn it into a complete island of subsidized housing, chasing out anyone with two nickels to rub together.
While pre-K for all is clearly in the public interest, his continued destruction of the large, great schools of bygone times will continue to insure the movement of the middle class to the suburbs.
Altogether, a man with great ideals but an abject failure as mayor.
6
Mayor Bill de Blasio supports local mom and pop shops which is good, but I hope he doesn't forget local manufacturing and shops, in the garment district that the landlords are trying to evict, in order to court tenants like Amazon. Sure the garment district has been around for almost a hundred years and survived eviction due to zoning (landlords hate manufacturing). However the garment district is as vibrant an incubator for businesses in fashion as ever, and has created many billions of dollars more of value than any other city incubator. Nearly every major American fashion brand with an international presence was boot strapped in the garment district by designers learning the ropes (scrambling from shop to shop to put together their lines). Mayor Bill de Blasio don't kill the garment district.
1
Like Mayor de Blasio, I'm a native New Yorker (and born Yankees fan, though I switched over to the Mets as a kid in 1969) and I applaud his convictions. The City has become the playground for and bastion of corporate interests and the rich (ever tally the costs for a night of baseball for a couple, or family at either Yankee Stadium or Citi Field?) Shunning lifestyles of the rich and famous and addressing economic inequality and hopeful prosperity by advocating to "Shop Local" isn't juvenile clinging to silly principles, it's inspired leadership.
11
Don't think the Yankees thing is a big deal, but give De Blasio big, big points for pointing out the destruction wreaked by Amazon and other chains to regular Main street businesses, and more importantly, tell people they should support their local businesses or someday, maybe very soon, they will be very gone.
7
Baseball ain't politics. Move on.
2
It is clear that de Blasio is a small-time homebody at heart who doesn't like to stray outside his routine. He is comfortable in his high-end restaurant in Park Slope (depicted), and refuses to expand his circle on behalf of his role as mayor and leader of the City. In that regard, he reminds me of a current limited-range president we have.
De Blasio is also either a tone-deaf politician or doesn't care about becoming a more important political force. Refusing to go to the Yankees game reminds me of when he wouldn't call off the family vacation to Italy a few years ago when a major railroad strike was looming. Just putting his small, personal interests first.
Finally, if he keeps it up, he will win re-election, but when the end of his tenure comes, there will be an electoral backlash, and his "legacy" will be someone in the mold of Guliani who succeeds him. If he doesn't like the "traditional" mayoral public relations tasks, he could be more visible in other equally important realms, for example, by getting visibly involved in voter registration drives in minority neighborhoods, spearheading Puerto Rican hurricane relief drives, etc. Instead of dining in that shi-shi Park Slope restaurant with his wife.
1
Hurrah for our mayor for supporting local businesses as opposed to impersonal chains. NYC is a draw to people from all over the world in part because it has unique and individual stores and businesses that reflect the personalities and tastes of its' owners and patrons. As rents rise and small store owners can't afford them chains & big box stores come in and change the nature of a neighborhood - making it boring and not providing needed goods.
I'd rather have a mayor who is true to his beliefs than parades around for things he doesn't believe in. The Yankees have enough fans; they won't win or lose because of our mayor.
Shame on the authors of this article!
5
Refreshing to see a pol who isn't a panderer; on the other hand, there's DJT for whom pandering is like breathing. I'll take de Blasio.
4
"Expectations would be that even when people move to new environments they tend to pick up the allegiance of the team."
Nonsense! High school friends - from Brooklyn - who for as long as 45 years have lived in other parts of the country and around the world, still root for the Mets, Yankees, Giants, Jets, Rangers and Knicks.
That's what a fan does. In cases like that of Doris Kearns Goodwin - a Brooklyn Dodger fan in her youth now rooting for her hometown Red Sox - the change is understandable. No way could she ever root for the Yankees, my team since I first remember baseball in 1960 (a great year for an eight year old to have learned about loss); growing up with a father crushed when his team moved to L.A., at least the Mets arrived for him in '62; he looked at the Yanks as, you know, the Evil Empire, well before it hit Larry Lucchino.
Which brings me to the mayor. I'm not a huge fan, but I respect his position. As for Amazon, I use it when necessary for things I can't get locally; Starbucks? A $2 iced coffee from a street vendor works for me.
Before getting a wild-card berth, I and all of my baseball friends thought the Yankees were at least one year away from post-season competition. But, we've beaten the team with the best record in the league and are on the cusp of meeting the best team in the National League.
And, I'll be thrilled if we reach the top; if not, I'll be over it by the next day, because, after all...it's only a game.
4
What nonsense! I am a native New Yorker and Yankee fan. My husband is from New England and roots for the Red Sox. We lived in Massachusetts for many years and I remained a Yankee fan. We have been living in New York for 10 years now and my husband remains a Red Sox fan. I admire his loyalty to his first love - in the same way that I hope he will always remain loyal to his first wife (me). When I was growing up I had friends who loved the Dodgers or the Giants and never switched to the Yankees when their teams moved. It has nothing to do with loving this city. Congratulate Mayor de Blasio for his loyalty instead of deriding him.
3
Very refreshing that Mayor De Blasio sticks to his ingrained habits and preferences. Showing that sort of stubborn independence (or loyalty or provincialism or self-centeredness) is the mark of a true New Yorker. Having grown up with the Cleveland Indians, I couldn't imagine setting foot in Yankee Stadium during the 40 years I lived in the city.
2
We fault politicians for being hypocrites, yet the detractors expect it from DeBlasio? I'm no big fan of his, but I find it refreshing that's he's honest about what really are trivial things (what team he roots for, where he shops). I avoid Amazon but don't have a problem with the city bidding for its business here. His opponents are grasping at straws and slinging whatever mud they're rolling around.
1
Putting his narcissist need to "keep in real" ahead of the interests of the city is another Trumpian quality of this self centered, bought and paid for Mayor. Disgusting that he will most likely be re-elected.
3
I lived in new york for five years. But i am from chicago and i love the cubs. I still went to yankee and mets games. I hate the yankees and the mets! But i LOVE new york! What a silly principle to cling to, deblasio. Grow up.
15
Only in the mind of a political candidate who will say and do anything to get elected is Mayor de Blasio, saying, "I'm not going to fake anything." controversial. The Mayor is that oh-so-rare politician who not only talks about loving the city which he governs but also in actuality supports the small and independent businesses, and by extension the people of NYC, that make New York City great. Mayor de Blasio, particularly by virtue of having been born in one of the five boroughs, is an authentic New Yorker. Would that more politicians were like him. I welcome his next term as Mayor as do most real New Yorkers here, in the rest of the US and abroad.
18
The issue is not that he supports small businesses. The issue is that he supports small businesses but then participates in the Amazon version of the Hunger Games, encouraging them to come to NYC. Amazon is the opposite of small business, and has cannibalized many small businesses throughout the country. So how can you encourage people to support small businesses and then actively court a company whose goal is to destroy them?
2
Easy for you to say. You're in North Carolina. I, and eight million others, are stuck with that big phony right here in NYC.
7