Shame on you, Flegenheimer, for using the time granted to interview Mayor Dinkins as part of a trivial contribution to the tired and untrue rhetoric about 'tuxedos and tennis' while the city was swept in turmoil....His mayoralty has never been given the credit it deserves for NYC's turn-around that Giuliani took credit for, and that the media left undefended. As the graceful elder-statesman that he is, who welcomed you into his office and openly answered all your questions, he deserves a better depiction than your throw-away lines. And just to be clear - this comment comes solely from me, and me alone.
5
So, if this wasn't such a non- issue, would he lose his focus a year into the Presidency? Two? Did he think -- and maybe he's a bit like Trump here - that talking a lot, and loudly, could solve NYC problems and make people love him? Like the cops who turned their backs, HE's turned his back to his constituents and to city government.
His inability to accept that he isn;t in the running is just embarrassing.
2
He would have lost a run-off against Bill Thompson.
3
He did make it home in time for his favorite photo-op -- the parade float for the US women's soccer team in the Canyon of Heroes (dream on, Mr. Mayor!). Hizzoner and Chirlane served as cheerleaders yet again, nearly all at city expense. NYPD security detail for his campaign, with 10-15 people showing up for events, must be the cushiest assignment ever.
Now about that $billion or so given to Chirlane to oversee the mental health initiative (the one where even she couldn't provide any specific results)? Now to see it listed here as one of his highlights -- c'mon, you've got to be kidding.
By the way, he was fired from running Clinton's senate campaign, for being "too contemplative." That's being far, far too kind...
11
Or maybe... maybe NYC is just a bad bad place... overpopulated. Too many entitle people (who will rather stagnate in the1qir HUD buildings than accept a job offer from Amazon). Too corrupt. Too
2
de Blasio was elected to an executive position where he tried to implement the idealist policies which failed under the weight of pragmatic obstacles. Biden, Warren, Sanders, et al, have never been executives and actually had to make their drivel work in a less than ideal world.
2
Alabama almost elected Roy Moore. Alabama is the poorest state in the union. You should probably be quiet. “Bless your heart”.
5
My impression of him right from the start was that he thought after he was elected that he was sworn in as pope instead of mayor. Here were some of the clues: Ruminates about dogma instead of what is going on in the temporal world of the five boroughs, check. Invokes infallibility if questioned by anyone about how his doctrine lines up to actual results, check. Drops in uninvited and frequently travels to trouble spots where he is not necessarily wanted, check. It was too bad he hadn't really been elected pope, because it would be interesting to see his new commandments and some of his papal progressive pronouncements. I can't imagine one of the the first of the new commandments wouldn't be, Honor thy large campaign contributor. On the other hand he might be disappointed that the Swiss Guards don't move furniture and that he would riding in a compact Fiat instead of a large SUV.
8
His run for presidency is a joke.
10
Before he leaves, can he at least find a competent sanitation leader? The city is filthy. Dirtiest its been in 20+ years.
15
@Sssur
I know. I am not waiting - just got a job elsewhere and am typing this as the crickets chirp outside of my window and a scent of a blooming bush or tree or whatever wafts into my open window.
Why did i sweat in the dirty, stinky, crowded NYC for so long?
4
what really is surprising is Trump has better poll numbers in NYC then Bill de Blasio
8
Get the sex ads out of the subway system, so my young kids don't have to look at them on their way to school and tell the developers who want to destroy the Elizabeth Street Garden to take a hike. de Blasio can't say no to anybody, apparently, and the city continues to get worse for everyone but money launderers.
10
I’ve been voting since 1972, and the only times I didn’t vote for a candidate were during the NYC mayoral elections in 2013 & 2017; there was no way I was going to cast a vote for de Blasio. He’s actually turned out to be even *worse* then I’d expected, which is certainly saying a lot. I think it’s pathetic that de Blasio insists on going to his Brooklyn Y.M.C.A. (and nearly every day); not only does he waste a humongous amount of time doing that, but he’s setting a horrible example re: global warming and he's very hypocritical. Also, he’s *always* late and that’s a continual sign of arrogance. Of course, these days he can barely be bothered to even go to City Hall. Then, there are his connections to shady real estate developers. Fortunately, at least, it seems likely de Blasio won’t qualify for the next Democratic presidential debate (good riddance to him!).
17
With DeBlasio as mayor the streets have become filthy. Garbage everywhere. Disgusting.
20
Excuse me because I am not a NY voter but I just seem to like this guy. Now tell me - am I smarter than a voter that would say the same thing about 45?
He is the worst NYC mayor of my lifetime. He wants to build 27/33/40 story, boro-based mega jail complexes in our residential communities, destroying them.
I am working with grassroot organizations fighting these monstrosities. We are not giving up our neighborhoods.
12
I really question how de Blasio is judged by many people, including this reporter. He seems like an odd guy, who has made himself somewhat opaque to reporters. But on the other hand--I'm thinking of starting universal pre-k and ending stop-and-frisk--he has unquestionably improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. What's more important, the pretense of a non-ideological, objective critique by this reporter or the daily lives of New Yorkers who usually escape the notice of the New York Times?
7
@J. Free
Nailed it. Lots of entitlement showing up in the comments and the writing of this reporter is full of that.
I mentioned in an earlier comment that one only has to read this reporter's profile of Trump right hand man John Kelly to see how fawning and "accentuate the positives" the very same reporter can be when profiling a right wing Republican Trump enabler. But when it comes to a progressive politician who has done quite a bit of good for this city, it is "accentuate every negative and pretend that positives don't matter" because those major, major accomplishments which no Mayor in any other big city seems to have been able to achieve don't matter to entitled and privileged New Yorkers, including this reporter.
4
Please Governor Cuomo - please use your powers to remove as Mayor a person who has contempt for his job and contempt for his city.
8
The Governor has no power to remove a mayor
2
@GMooG actually the governor of New York does have the power to remove a public official from office. “Per the City Charter and the state Constitution, the governor can suspend the mayor immediately for 30 days, then prepare charges, present de Blasio with them, give him a chance to answer them — and finally officially remove him.”
8
@E
the governor has no authority to remove a Mayor! You seem to be pining for a tzar?
2
When you're the NYC mayor, you need to be (or at least be seen as) a plow horse, not a show horse. In his own mind he thinks he is the former, but everyone sees him as the latter.
10
Progressives face some genuinely fundamental problems in trying to appeal to most Americans. Bill de Blasio could a teaching moment. His appeal was always going to be limited outside New York, but that was only apparent if you had ever lived and thought outside the progressive bubble. For most Americans--the vast majority of whom have never visited NYC and thus have a particularly powerful negative view of it--the Big Apple is not something you run on but run against. Carter proved this. Reagan proved this. Trump proved this. Even de Blasio belatedly realized this truth, which might be a contributing factor for why he is now sick of the city.
4
Where are the serious questions (and follow-ups) for the Mayor? How can the NYCHA and the NYC school system be reformed without confronting union work rules? The best teachers are needed in the worst performing districts, not the best ones! NYCHA workers currently learn how to cheat the system and not perform the repairs they are paid to do, and the Mayor says nothing! Just two of many examples!
11
Here’s DeBlasio’s problem as I see it: (1) In interviews and debates, he sounds rehearsed and insincere. (2) All of the news I read about NYC is about its dysfunction: transit problems, homelessness, deep inequality in public schools, giveaways to rich developers.
So why should I believe DeBlasio is the right candidate to deal with America’s crises? Because he’s an entitled, wealthy white man who bought his way into being mayor? Sorry, I’ll pass.
10
What police reform does he refer to.
1
He publicly roots for the Red Sox. End of story.
15
Read about his appearance on Hannity. The real damage of that is the enormous number of Hannity viewers will remember De Blasio as what is possible should a Democrat win in 2020. Of course he doesn't care!
3
Staten Islanders hate this guy with a passion I have never seen. The article fails to bring up his "Vison zero" program, which is seen as another tax on the middle class and a vendetta against drivers. de Blasio has been horrible for Staten Island.
17
For most jobs, the first requirement is showing up on time.
26
It struck me a few days after reading this profile that Bill deBlasio is a suburban mayor who commutes to a 9-to-5 job who only WORKS in the city but doesn't LIVE in the city.
Personally, I live within a 30-minute drive and train ride outside of NYC Proper, yet I spend most of my time in NYC working, eating, biking, exploring, and taking in shows and concerts.
I can easily engage any resident in debating which coal-brick oven pizza is the best (Juliana's), and have taken visitors way off the beaten path - one foreign elected official wanted to see Yankee Stadium, but since we were in the area, I brought him to see Via Verde, an innovative model in building affordable and sustainable housing, and to Barretto Point Park (near Hunts Point Market), which provides green spaces to an underserved neighborhood surrounded by industry. My visitor was pleasantly surprised and has taken these ideas back with him.
I have seen the mayor and his wife (and security detail) walk into Prospect Park with a picnic basket for an afternoon concert, but that's about as much of the city life I've seen the mayor partake in.
Suburban Mayor indeed!
6
When will the US media learn to use the term, "gun safety" measures?
It's a less loaded term and there might be less resistance to the much needed changes!
Besides, we're way beyond gun "control" in this country because of the number of weapons in circulation.
One thing that could help in the future is steeply taxing the sale of guns and bullets. Another wise move would be the requirement that when you buy a gun, you must carry liability insurance to pay for any damage it might cause: Just like a car!
The amount of public monies that will have been expended because of the carnage in just a 10 day period is astronomical. The insurance companies would be responsible to the families who’ve been devastated by the loss of people they cherish. Let’s give the insurance companies a piece of this action and in that respect, the gun owners and manufacturers will pay for picking up the pieces after these mass murders, not taxpayers!
3
To @MattFlegenheimer, your writing is great. I was born and raised in NYC but now live in the DC metro area. And, we are very happy that Amazon chose northern Virginia to build their new headquarters as we had none of the chaos that NYC experienced. I keep up with all goings on in NYC by reading the Times everyday. As I read your incredibly well-researched piece, I laughed at the mere insanity of de Blasio's tenure. It takes a certain amount of hubris for him to run for president considering his record in NYC. Thank you for being an awesome reporter! I look forward to reading your next feature!
10
3/4 of the city don't want him to run. Who are these other 1/4???????????
17
it all started when Billy D slaughtered an innocent groundhog. Progressive animal abuser is an oxymoron he impersonates.
10
The only reason de Blasio was re-elected was that everybody was too freaked out about Trump to vote for anyone else. Meanwhile De Blasio is basically the left’s version of Donald. Neither of them is interested in the job they were elected to do, they both hate the press, they both install their family members into important positions without the necessary experience and they both use race as a political tool.
My taxes have gone up while the quality of the city has gone down under De Blasio. Why should we keep paying our employee for a job he’s not only terrible at , but seems unwilling to do? Why are the people of New York paying for an incompetent absentee mayor?
26
He should just come home. It would be a good move. Work hard for 2 years and move on.
3
@joan snyder he doesn’t do anything for us New Yorkers when he is home.
9
Boston?
3
I wondered how someone could possibly do a job as demanding as being mayor of New York City while doing something as time-consuming and exhausting as running for president. Now I get it. You can't.
19
If you want to be taken seriously in national politics, a good place to start is by not being too progressive for New York City voters.
10
Very well written article! It made me Lol at some places.
2
After railing against de Blasio during his shock win in 2013, I am happy that the Times is finally coming around to how incredibly unqualified he has been for this job all along. When I met Anthony Weiner at a law school event in 2012, it was clear he would be the next mayor. Apparently nobody saw the sexting on the wall, including myself. De Blasio lucked into the biggest job in the city, and sadly has been around ever since. Thank god it is apparent he doesn't even want the job anymore, so we only have to suffer 2 more years of this disaster.
19
The writer says:
I count myself among the veterans of the City Hall beat who delighted at times in watching him squirm.
I appreciate the candor but is that really the right mindset to cover a politician that will deliver the truth to the reader?
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to observe and report the squirming without delighting in it?
6
@Jay Why No it wouldn't, if he is squirming, it tells you your questions are going in the right direction. I wish more reporters delighted in holding our politicians to account!
9
The article covered some useful ground and I can see the Mayor’s limits but one has to ask the following: a) what’s structure and what’s agency? In other words, couldn’t the article identify how diversions if huge federal resources into the military budget, b) political opportunism by real estate interests, c) deindustrualization and d) past failures that let the city’s port and other infrastructure decay seriously constrain any New York mayor? Can we honestly say these are less important that Giuliani’s opinions or eating a hotdog in a New York fashion type arguments? I don’t think so.I would have cited some more knowledgeable academic sources who could explicate these issues for the readers.
3
Excellent article. I was a huge supporter of the Mayor during his first run. I have never been more disappointed by a progressive Democrat than by de Blasio. His affect is awful. He’s his own worst enemy. His inability to be present diminishes his successes.
19
He’s not that bad
7
@Liz not that bad compared to what, Trump? We deserve so much more in a mayor than "not that bad".
1
@Liz
Ok, then you can have him in NJ..
good luck.
2
I know people are going to yell at me, but as a parent with children in NYC schools I actually think the school system (or at least the ones I have seen) have improved under DeBlaiso. I think most teachers and principals would agree. In a nutshell, the testing regime under Bloomberg was out of control. Teachers and principals were very unhappy and it felt as if too many children were being taught to the test. DeBlasio's chancellor, Carmen Farina, was an experienced educator who took a more balanced view towards testing and it seems like the curriculum has become more open, engaging and vigorous under this administration. Yes--the new chancellor has not handled the city's racial dynamics well and probably should not have started by going after the specialized high schools. Even so, I think my children are getting a better education than they would have pre DeBlasio. The pre-K piece is quite significant as well. I wish the article had touched on this.
18
@Ellen
de Blasio was re-elected in a landslide. But the voters who use public schools don't really register with NY Times reporters as having any worthwhile opinion.
6
This reminds me of the phrase Mario Cuomo made famous. “Campaign in poetry and govern in prose.” Unfortunately, our Mayor does not like to get his hands dirty in the “prose” part. And the real damage of de Blasio will not reveal itself for many years. The rapid expansion of the public sector and the accompanying pension obligations will handicap future mayors for decades.
10
“The real damage may not manifest itself for years”. Well said.
Unfortunately, I find this is true for all elected offices and wish we had a process to hold them accountable if they move on to higher office or retire.
2
DeBlasio is a stupid person's idea of what it means to be progressive.
24
de Blasio, oh please. He hasn't fooled anyone. An elitist masquerading as a progressive
16
Has Bill de Blasio ever had a real job? Has he ever worked in an environment where he was held accountable of his actions (& inactions)? Did he ever in his life get a performance review? Gad, the guy sounds even more irresponsible & inept than DT.
21
What happened?
Before he became a punching bag, he proved to be nothing more than a gasbag.
All hat and no cowboy.
21
De Blasio is a prime example of a racist with a guilty conscience. He deeply believes that blacks and Latinox are incapable of competing with other races in science. He also seems to hate Asian people and wants to kick them out of great yet affordable schools. Despite all of this extreme racial prejudice he is still virtue signaling phony anti-racist views.
Let's not even go into his catastrophic policy proposals and incompetence.
20
I love how NYT even in a clearly negative piece only pays basic lip service to what should have been indictments, but at the very least involver federal probes and some really questionable land sales. while yes he is lazy and an extremely poor choice for mayor...that is the least of his foibles. He is certainly guilty of unabashedly selling to the highest individuals who have business with the city. The complete truth regarding crooked politicians is only reserved for republicans by the NYT.
11
Holy Mother of God.
He's a Red Socks fan. Do we even need to write one more sentence about Bill?
A Red Sox fan?
10
It’s really easy: he let the cops continue to run wild like it’s Alabama in 1950.
2
@Greg M, what an incredibly out of touch perspective. I work in Manhattan, and my office building as well as nearby landmarks are often patrolled by NYPD. I'd venture a guess that no less than 30% of the officers are "PoC'. So what are you saying exactly.
13
Bill de Blasio is a corrupt coward, a real embarrassment to the good people of this great city.
I can't wait to see him perp-walked just for the bogus real-estate deals he did in our names, and with our money.
16
Only clowns, commies, and crooks want the job of president any longer. It’s time to start treating the presidency like jury duty.
4
Are you aware, Matt M, that you've written a very long article. And that we the readers of the NYT have huge amounts of stuff to read, as the country is in crisis? And even if it wasn't?
So, we don't want to plow through such picturesque but silly sentences like--
"A sprig of white chest hair curled skyward beneath de Blasio’s open collar...."
And 'looking like a brand ambassador for divorced dads trying to get back out there."
What's a brand ambassador? Is that what you are for the New York Times? Cute prose! Now stop wasting our time. I may skim the rest if/when I have time, maybe later. Maybe not.
13
It might not be apparent if you’re reading this on line, but the article is for the weekend magazine section. Hence it’s long form.
4
@Meredith it is called writing. It is what writers do. Sorry your day is so busy.
8
"Punching bag," fiddlesticks!
He's incompetent. And a crook.
11
After twenty solid years of sound city government by Rudy and Mike all Bill DeBlasio had to do was keep the lights on.
But even after the republicans made NYC the safest big city in America and Bloomberg plans revitalized all parts of the city the democrat formula for slow steady urban decay is taking hold and even liberals are noticing.
Shootings are up, rapes are up, sexual harassment is off the charts- all do to DeBlasio insane policies
25
De Blasio can't run for mayor again .His large entourage is very costly. Running for President offers NYC Finance and Real Estate a place to park contributions with some short term return. Yes, it's very cynical, but what else can it be.
10
I don’t think you can be too cynical with this guy - and it’s not cynical if it’s true.
After all this is a guy who is turning over Rikers island to real estate developers under the guise of prison reform.
5
One of the many reason's why David Simon's TV series "The Wire" is the best text to explain America in the early years of the 20th Century is the character of Tommy Carcetti. As a city council member all he was interested in was becoming mayor. Once he was Baltimore Mayor Carcetti was focused on becoming governor of Maryland.
Tommy Carcetti's character was based on Maryland's Martin O'Malley, but the depiction also applied to John Corzine and Chris Christie of my former state of New Jersey and now applies to Bill de Blasio of my hometown of NYC.
I want to scream at these so called leaders, "Do your job! Make a difference in the lives of real people!"
8
@Greg Canwe add Corey Booker and Gavin Newsome to your list,please?
1
Thank you for this great article. I always knew that I did not like de Blasio but could not really articulate a reason why beyond the Park Slope gym thing. This article does a great job at stringing together all the little pieces so I can confidently consider him a hapless punchline. Thank you NYT!
13
One sentence in particular sums up the problem with De Blasio (and to my mind AOC), " “What am I supposed to do?” he asked privately, citing Sanders’s success in moving the conversation as he had hoped to." So many of these "progressives" don't actually care one iota about improving life for anyone. What they really care about is personally riding the wave of "soak the rich" into their very own fame and wealth. They're leeches just as much as anyone else.
13
Here's an item I didn't see yet in the comments. Bill has bloated a poorly functioning city payroll with thousands of additional employees - greatly increasing the pension burden for decades to come.
22
New Yorkers have moved on from de Blasio. We've watched. We've listened. We've ;earned that he isn't worth watching and listening to. He's just another careerist without any plans to help us — and obviously so.
The scandal of hundreds of millions of federal development aid intended for Harlem being diverted to billionaire developers at Hudson Yards via gerrymandered maps screamed for some one who cared about the little guy and social justice to come out swinging. Didn't happen
It would behoove the NY Democratic party to take note of this extraordinary situation — an executive who beca,e a nonentity in his own job by chasing fame around the country. It wouldn't have ended any better for the city if he'd found it. He didn't though.
There are some junior people hovering under and around him who actually show up to work and work hard. The party should start shifting the wheat from the chafe and bring forward some of the more promising leaders into the public eye befor the next election. Instead of doing what it always does — pretending the top person is some sort of important person or a star just because they hold the office.
De Blasio shows us that many people enter politics in search of celebrity. Their lives then become mere show business. In this case poorly scripted, over budget and way way past deadline.
Journalists can help. Write some stories about NY Democrats other than De Blasio and Cuomo. I want to meet the ones who will replace them. I think most of us do.
16
He's responsible for far more high-end luxury development units than affordable housing. That's a fact.
15
Our Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti thought about running for President, but decided to keep his job and work for the residents of L.A. instead. Mr. de Blasio, who has no chance of becoming President, should drop out and do the same.
3
With all due respect to the office, Mayor de Blasio often acts in ways that seem to conflict with his political duties. He has done some great stuff (universal pre-k, etc.), but what about addressing the needs of the homeless, working with the Governor to ensure fair union contracts, NYCHA, etc.?
And now a "vanity run" for President?
But it his insistence on wasting thousands of our dollars for daily motorcades to "my favorite gym!" And being late for really somber ceremonies like the AA587 remembrance?
Inexcusable.
I used to see Koch, Dinkins, Guiliani, and Bloomberg around town all of the time. I guess de Blasio is too busy watching "The Wire" and traveling to states that hate NY, and which will probably hate it more when he leaves.
9
Nit pick about the guy's personality you want, but DeBlasio expanded pre-k, ended stop-and-frisk, required employers to offer paid sick leave, and greatly reduced the harassment of public-school teachers along with the pressure on schools to fake their achievement data. These are not small accomplishments. And did I mention that he ended stop-and-frisk?
5
@Martin, and the results of ending stop-and-frisk were...?
4
The impression that he left after the two debates was a) he loves to interrupt conversations and b) he took unnecessary shots at the Dem front-runner Biden to lift himself up. He would have made a better impression if he just stood there and said nothing.
6
Bill de Blasio seems like the kind of politician who made politics a career choice but without the characteristics of a strong politician. He isn’t a great communicator, his leadership skills are mediocre, his work ethic is nominal. Without passion or talent, reason or vision, de Blasio is the ultimate political hack. Be here enough, be there enough, and some day, we, too, could be mayor.
8
In order to be mayor of NYC, you need to be from New York. I am not talking about where you are born, I am talking about where you want to live and die. de Blasio has no passion for the city and being mayor. He is like Trump in that it is all about him and not about serving the people of NY. Bloomberg didn't have to do a thing for the rest of his life, but he wanted to make NYC a better place. No mayor is perfect, but you better have a deep (maybe irrational) love of NYC to be mayor.
14
How did it happened? People love the idea of free stuff until the see and experience reality.
5
Let's hear it for Warren Wilhelm who changed his name to garner the Italian vote in NYC. He is so for himself and his money-making cohorts. What about the people? What about: the subway system, the bus system, the quality of life crimes visible all over the city. Does he care about the image presented to tourists and to children. Apparently not. Selling out to developers to build ridiculously tall buildings blocking sunlight from playgrounds and hurting the infrastructure of the city. Too many people crowding the transit system. too much garbage generated that the DOS cannot handle. Taking away parking spaces on the UWS for deliveries by Trucks that are NOT allowed on West End Ave. Everything is done to ensure that his business partners make money. What about us? Different than the current person in office in DC but the results are the same: nothing for the people.
4
It starts with the daily chauffeured drive from Gracie mansion to a gym n Brooklyn gym, he can't work out nearer Gracie Mansion or City Hall? Selfish, entitle off the bat. Everyone seems to think he hardly works at city hall. Pays no attention to details. Mr. Progressive had no trouble taking money from seedy characters (Rivington?) He is a narcissist and deluded about his accomplishments. Having an ex-gay black wife and a black son (and daughter but she does not get as much press...) are fine- but he seems to think that wins him those constituencies. He actually
shows no real affinity for the city of which he is mayor.
14
Pick any workday after 9 am, and Mayor de Blasio can be found taking leisurely post-workout walks through Park Slope in his sweatpants, sipping coffees with his wife. To criticize him for this attitude isn't racist. He's the mayor of America's greatest city. He should act like it. We expect our mayor to show up to work, not to pretend he's a work-from-home app developer.
One day after 2 children were tragically run over and killed by an out-of-control car - at an intersection 1 block away from the Park Slope YMCA where Mayor de Blasio "works out" most mornings, a crowd of anguished parents gathered outside to voice their grief and demand action to make the streets safer.
Here was an opportunity for the Mayor to demonstrate his empathy with constituents, and to show that he loves his city and his neighborhood. He needed to show up, suit up, and do his job. He failed. Rather than arriving prepared to address the aggrieved crowd which had gathered, he maintained his typical routine. He casually strolled up, coffee cup in hand, wearing the usual baggy sweats, T-shirt and Red Sox cap.
Here was a man who was telegraphing, to the 200 or so citizens waiting for him: I don't care enough about you enough to disrupt my precious routine. I can't be bothered. You're wasting my time.
I prefer my progressive leaders to have a work ethic, and to actually care about the people they serve. He has neither of these attributes. Mayor Bill de Blasio is an utter disappointment.
22
White New Yorkers yearn for the return of what amounted to a police state under Bloomberg. The liberalism of most white New Yorkers is only a cover-up of their real feelings toward lower-income black New Yorkers, whom they still disregard and even fear. As income gaps increase, made possible by the rigid law-and-order of Bloomberg making New York a "safer" city, and thus more attractive to those with some money, their fear becomes even greater. Bloomberg's effectiveness came at a price. Rikers and city jails became places where blacks in it, and others, were treated like the deep South, a form of extra punishment to "teach them a lesson." Stop-and-frisk was a form of intimidation not unlike a dictatorship where certain groups are made constantly aware of the State's power to humiliate them without any recourse. White middle-class New Yorkers (not to mention the rich) as a body welcomed the increased quiet of the City without much thinking how it had been achieved and the price paid by others with whom most had little intimate contact. DeBlasio returned the City to sanity merely by getting rid of these abuses, even if not totally eradicated. Now, with things better, white New Yorkers wish for a return to the absolutism of a Bloomberg #2. Their liberal cries against DeBlasio are merely a smokescreen for what they want: rougher justice to protect them.
2
@Amos M I don’t know how you can possibly expect anyone to respect your comments when you have completely overlooked any discussion of the gross mismanagement of NYCHA, a legacy that profoundly affects poor blacks and minorities who rely on the city for the most basic services. There’s hardly a remediation plan in place, still riddled with red tape while children ingest toxic levels of lead. Why aren’t the black liberals screaming about that? Shocking and sad.
12
DeBlasio is just one of many candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination who just needs to pull out of the race and clear the way from for those who actually have a shot, of which there are about 6 or so. No one outside of NYC cares about him.
3
Seems that all of deBlasio's complaints revolve around a school-yard whine: "That's not fair!" His presidential big money PAC is even called FairnessPAC.
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?cycle=2018&strID=C00683664
As reported here in the Times, he just criticized the Daily News for revealing how he used the NYPD as his personal moving company - by calling the report "unfair."
It is astoundingly childish, especially from a man just shy of 60 years old. This is hardly presidential. Political neoteny is the scourge of the system now. Where, among the Baby Boomers, are the actual adults?
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
13
He has failed at managing the city. He has failed at following through on his promises(all that pie-in-the-sky) and he has turned the city over to the power brokers for his own personal benefit. Look at Rivington House. Look at the TechHub. If the Village Voice was still mucking around... Death-of-the-City de Blasio would be out of office not a candidate for president.
8
Having married an African-American woman formerly gay, DiBlasio tapped into two groups which typically do not agree on issues. It didn’t hurt that his marketing people focused on his son’s Afro. But being a Red Sox fan really did him in.
As a lame duck mayor, he has no choices left in government except that by “running” for president, he is likely auditioning for a cabinet job, like secretary of education. The condition of the projects disqualified him from HUD.
11
Kinda like Ted Cruz 4 years ago.
From a big state with a big ego with a message that flops like most provincials - life in their bubble is great.
1
Good article, but may I suggest that de Blasio has worn out whatever welcome he had from New York's black community,
most of it earned by exploiting his black wife and children as examples of his sensitivity toward black lives. It helped get him elected, and it's been a bummer ever since. When Officers Ramos and Liu were shot and killed in Brooklyn in 2014, and the NYPD turned their backs on him, de Blasio experienced, for just a moment, what black people and other people of color feel constantly, fear of the police. But the experience didn't strengthen his backbone, instead he got scared and made a non-existent connection between the murders and Black Lives Matter activism in the city. In doing so, the "Great Progressive" depressed a growing multi-racial, inter-generational movement, and, as James Brown sang, "Sold us out for chicken change." The end of his term can't come soon enough.
4
Tens of thousands of words and only 2 sentences about nepotism and corruption, with hiring of dozens friends & friends of friends, steering millions to his wife's "projects"?! This reads like an exculpatory missive for the candidate who is polling at 0.0% in NH.
9
Still in shock this guy became mayor of one of if not the best city in the country. What the heck were voters thinking?
4
@Nature Voter---they weren't thinking, that's the problem. I voted for the moderate Republican mayoral candidates both times when I saw what a disaster this guy would be. But most New Yorkers just automatically pull the Democratic lever in every election no matter who's running. It's been that way for a century with little hope of ever changing. Possibly, once De Blasio completely runs the city into the ground, voters will wake up and choose a mayor based upon merit rather than party.
6
My takeaway is that liberals can be bamboozled nearly as easily as Trump's base.
4
This threads is filled with the most disingenuous dribble I've ever read in the NYTs comments.
The local media and news rags, have been very successful in swaying public opinion regarding de Blasio. And guess what it boils down to! Two classic American character flaws called racism and classism.
Just as many have pointed out. They want him to be a Bloomberg. A shining untainted white billionaire who will front as a Republican to win. But he's not. He's a 'bleeding heart' liberal with a mixed race family and that is what drives the local billionaire/multi-millionaire media owning elites of New York insane. They want one of their own.
Let's say it all together de Blasio. Italian for love!
2
I cannot help but wonder who is paying for all these campaign trips and what they might want in return. Surely no one gives money to the campaign in the rational expectation that he can get the nomination .
18
De Blasio was reelected last year by a landslide, yet he only receives negative attention, because of his progressive idiosyncratic policies and his lack of automatic deference to elites in the media and politics. De Blasio has many supporters, even NYC officials, that back him only privately, for fear of crossing the same elites.
13
@Rafael
Absoluely correct. This same reporter wrote a fawning article about John Kelly with numerous quotes about how admirable he was. John Kelly!! But of course since the elites on both sides have decided he is upright and honest, every article must promote that view.
The elites hate de Blasio and yet they have a hard time finding things to attack him for because he has had many accomplishment in running a city that is doing better than almost every other American big city despite having to cope with high poverty, new immigrants and a host of other issues.
2
Like why Elizabeth Warren didn’t dare endorse the progressive candidate in 2016 whose policies she’s running on now...?
1
@Rafael
A landslide with less than 20% of eligible voters participating. A little like AOC’s primary victory.
6
Aha - the 80s
Ed Koch in Gracie Mansion, Reagan in the White House, NYC on an upswing.
8
An upswing NYC didn’t actually experience until the late 90s. So at most you are off by 15 years. At least by about 5.
1
de blahsio: WORST mayor in the history of civilzation of planet Earth. the end.
30
@AC Oh c'mon, Thats ridiculous....
Off the top of my head, Pontius Pilate was worse, granted, I cant think of any others right now...
1
@AC
The "worst" Mayor for racists and billionaires who think their money means they should get special treatment.
1
de Blasio is a product of a one party political system. Regardless of which party is in control of the city or state, there is no decent choice other than the party's choice. de Blasio is what you get.
30
Almost no one outside of his hometown had ever hear of him before. Interesting to find out that the people who know who he is don't like him.
15
@JustInsideBeltway
He won re-election by a huge margin -- much bigger than Bloomberg ever did.
Of course, since the people who vote for de Blasio are not the elites, their opinion is not relevant to NY Times reporters and many of this newspapers' readers. I hope you aren't one of the people who believe only white people's opinion matters. If so, you have good company at the NY Times.
1
I actually didn't even realize that Bill de Blasio WAS mayor of New York City until I read this story. (Joking, although nothing about his tenure as mayor of the world's greatest city is funny.)
Makes you almost wish we had Ed Koch running around asking, "How'm I doing?" It passes me that people keep seeing this fascinating job as a springboard to a national, yea international, platform. You'd think this would be enough for one resume.
I do a daily roundup of news clips for my office staff each morning, and usually top each story link with a brief explanation for those who are in a rush. I took a little detour into verse today with the story about the dear mayor's death spiral of a presidential campaign. For your reading pleasure:
Oh, Mayor DeBlasio, we just can’t keep track
Of how many times you’ve been caught in the act
Of questionable finances, and AWOL excursions
This explains why your presidential campaign ambitions
Are tanking from all of these ethical omissions.
13
Guess we know who our liberal Jeb Bush is for the 2020 presidential election. To all my fellow New Yorkers, I'm sure you feel the same about Mr. de Blasio, disappointed but not at all surprised.
8
@Angela
Jeb Bush was a smart moderate relative to the rest of those candidates, I don't think the analogy holds. People expected Jeb to do better than he did, no one expected de Blasio to do well at all..
10
Jeb’s biggest fault was he didn’t engage a bully and acted gentlemanly. The horrors!
1
@E B
And yet de Blasio did do well.
You have to be a white person to be angry that stop and frisk ended and think that was just not important because you didn't personally benefit.
2
"Instead of celebrating the fact that most of the Asians were children of poor immigrant backgrounds who had to overcome barriers in language, culture, discrimination and poverty in order to get where they were he devalued their achievements and sought to suppress their success." Not sure what the problem is here, individual achievement has nothing to do with the it . The main criteria for admission is race, gender and sexual orientation. As a general rule, if it is a quality that is under a persons control(like effort and achievement etc.) then its not important, if its something that is not under a persons control(race,sex,ethnicity etc.) that is what is important. I think de Blasio is keeping things consistent here.
8
Dinkins doesn't know that de Blasio is running for president, and he's a professor at Columbia?
Remind me never to send one of my children to an outrageously priced Ivy League education.
15
A Columbia professor would probably advise you to always reread passages carefully before making comments.
5
Worst mayor ever. Can’t wait for him to leave office.
31
I have lived in NYC since 1988 and hands down he is the WORST Mayor that I have witnessed. I am a staunch DEMOCRAT and honestly he makes me sick to my stomach. He's all about himself and has done absolutely nothing to help anyone but himself. I wish that he would just GO AWAY; soon is not soon enough for me! Ugh.
27
@Teri
The parents of 70,000 kids in universal pre-k every single year beg to disagree with your lie that he has absolutely nothing to help anyone.
Let's see, that is probably over half a million 4 year olds by now. I'm sure since most of their parents are poor, they don't count for someone who loved Giuliani and Bloomberg.
2
I suggest all NY Times readers read the fawning profile Flegenheimer wrote in February 2018 about the right wing Republican John Kelly and his role in the Trump administration.
Every negative thing John Kelly did is couched in the most positive terms. It shows how biased this reporter is and his desire to do what this newspaper did in 2016 and please the Fox News-watching rightwingers by holding their favorite progressive punching bags to an outrageous standard and dismissing all their successes as worthless when compared to their minor flaws.
If you read this reporters' John Kelly profile and his de Blasio profile, you would think that John Kelly is the honest and upright do-gooder, while de Blasio has single handedly ruined NYC and done absolutely nothing good for 6 years.
Shameful reporting by another co-opted NY Times reporter.
14
When was this man anyone's progressive hope? LOL
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
6
It's pretty wildly insulting that his people blame racism for his terrible relationship with press. His behavior could not be more befitting of an entitled white dude who, despite all evidence to the contrary, is convinced that the world must know his brilliance. What an embarrassment.
31
@Jemilah
Of course it is racism. De Blasio has high approval rates among African-Americans and his policies tried to combat Giuliani and Bloomberg's racist policies.
Those people are invisible to NY Times reporters who think only the opinions of white NYers matter.
1
It's a long ride from DC to Park Slope.
16
The world's biggest phony. He talks about rent control, but gouges his own tenants. He talks about the environment, but has 2 SUVs drive him to Park Slope because he is too cheap to pay for a gym membership in Manhattan (I hear Jack Lalain is pretty cheap). He is anti-developer until he gets payoffs from them. And he wants to give away everyone else's money, but donated only $350 of his own money in 2017 (even though he made $106,000 in rents in addition to his salary as mayor). https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-de-blasio-mccray-taxes-20190416-5gsnkcmeirgrxewirwmp3bbgom-story.html
32
@EJ
There is a gym at Gracie Mansion.....butnhe “prefers” the Park Slope Y. Unbelievable hypocrite on the environment and a buffoon who cares not one whit about inconveniencing others, whether on the street or the tarmac. Good thing mayors in NYC are term limited.
2
Not one NY Times Pick that defends de Blasio despite there being plenty of good comments here.
Funny, whenever there is an article about Trump, the NY Times chooses at least 2 or 3 rabid defenses of our horrible President.
But for the Mayor who enacted universal pre-k that serves nearly 70,000 four year olds EACH YEAR, for the Mayor who ended stop and frisk despite naysayers insisting it must be continued to keep New Yorkers safe, for the Mayor who lowered the speed limit and did the absolutely right thing during the Ebola crisis to calm NYC residents, the NY Times editors refuse to include a single comment that defends the man who has the approval of the majority of African-American NYC residents. It seems anyone who isn't white and agrees with the overprivileged NY Times reporters are invisible to this newspaper.
So many comments that you'd think nothing good happened in the last 6 years when the truth is that for many New Yorkers who the NY Times doesn't care about, things are much improved.
15
What he's saying and doing these days isn't any more self-absorbed and self-centered than when he was first sworn in...
Just that the vast difference between what he said he'd do, what he actually did – and the growing damage and decay ensuing from both what he should and shouldn't have done - are catching up with him...
Like all progressives, he'd like a do-over...
Except for any pension accrued, of course...
#me2020candidatetoo
PS
Probably the worst damage he’s done is to our pragmatic centrist governor – who’s no had to go so far over to the idiot dark side to cover his flank, he’s now a progressive without a purpose...
8
billie dee mayor was never anyone's "hope". He was my councilperson and was then as he is now, an inept, CORRUPT, opportunistic poseur. His misdeeds litter the long and obviously transparent road of a not-too-bright yet very ambitious man. May he be buried in history's trash heap.
15
Anyone who thinks he can base a campaign for president on his "incredibly successful" mixed-race marriage is a fool.
De Blasio's debate performance was telling - extremely loud & constantly interrupting others but usually with nothing worth listening to.
A vain, ridiculous man.
33
comparing the Mayor with Hitler? Who's the one who has to grow up here?
1
Bill de Blasio a true advocate for a better quality of life changed the course for so many who would have become homeless.
Rent burdened tenants were given a reprieve with 0% - 2.5% increases. He revamped the Department of Buildings by creating an office of the Tenant Advocate; illegal construction, vacate orders and harassment of tenants had become the norm. BdB’s change of how we build new construction shows he’s environmentally proactive.
Central Park is car free for greater enjoyment. Made good for our kids with Pre-K. Opened the dialogue for EDP individuals.
10
Since he’s in office my property taxes have gone up significantly. Where’s the concern for my burden ?
2
De Blasio is the only man who can unite America. Everyone hates him. The right and the left, certainly. And everyone else increasingly. He's a uniter, not a divider.
101
@Locho. I never thought of it like that. But you just made me feel better about De Bill.
13
@Locho This is the greatest comment in the history of the NY Times! Brilliant!!
3
One only has to read the very first paragraph to understand why a Mayor who has accomplished significantly more in 6 years than his predecessor did in 12 years -- universal pre-k, the end of stop and frisk, historically low crime rates -- is tired of NYC. de Blasio is tired of a co-opted media that fawned embarrassingly over Bloomberg as the billionaire they wanted to make like them.
"came with an overnight makeover that had the City Hall press corps tittering: fresh navy sneakers, de-fuzzed sideburns, pants that fit. A sprig of white chest hair curled skyward beneath de Blasio’s open collar as he patrolled a nearly empty library in Columbia, S.C., looking like a brand ambassador for divorced dads trying to get back out there."
City Hall press corps "tittering" is exactly right. Shame on you all. You fawned over Bloomberg and now compete to try to please the white folks who tell you de Blasio is bad because the opinion of white New Yorkers is the only one that matters to you.
66
I too have always wondered about the rationale(s) for the semi-slanderous coverage of De Blasio over the years. I’ve witnessed countless said New Yorkers voice opinions of him that were fully parroted from sources such as the New York Times, being unable to support this derision with any objective evidence. The same New Yorkers express parroted praise of Bloomberg. I’ve always suspected that this represented nothing more than conditioned envy of wealth and both the temperament and polish that accompanies it. I could be wrong though.
16
@RJ How is this about the "white folk?" Our mayor spends much of his time trying to get a better job rather than doing his job here and you are surprised that many of us don't appreciate that? Not about race at all.
56
@RJ. My many NYC students of color have loudly proclaimed their dissatisfaction and plain disgust with him. They resent his assumption that he has their vote just on the basis of color.
39
Dear Mayor Bloomburg, NYC needs you.
We need your leadership on the vision and the operational details. we need your daily ride on the subway telling us you see these problems too. We need your good attempt at spanish and your expressive ASL interpreter to tell us that you're aware of our city's diversity and embracing it.
Thank you for your past service, for staying above the fray and your professionalism in all your years of service.
11
@William
Easy for you to say as you were not one of the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of stop and frisk
Bloomberg was totally tone deaf to the needs of the non rich in this town.
Bloomberg missed every opportunity to advance qualified minorities for positions of power in his administration, he made me feel as if he would search the solar system and beyond to hire a white person totally unqualified (see Cathy Black) rather than a minority. When he did, he found the lightest skinned black person he could. Mr I know what’s good for you, you don’t.
He charged residents of public housing for repairs, and balanced the budget on the backs of those who could least afford it.
I remember that blizzard where he was in Bermuda, came back and stated we do dinner and a Broadway show.
For one born in the city . I wanted to leave so badly. For me, he was just a rich Giuliani. You can have him
De Blasio's 2013 primary victory was hardly an "upset".
Given how detested Quinn was for enabling Bloomberg's legally dubious 3rd term and her 3rd council term, she (the presumed Democratic nominee for mayor) was not to be.
This would all be clear to any NY Times reporter in 2019, had the NY Times dealt with the 2009 mayor's race polling scandal--which remains unaddressed today.
Now about the west side power failure and de Blasio in Iowa: See the surprise Dec. 2010 20 inch snow storm; Bloomberg was in his usual weekend house in Bermuda and the deputy mayor who was supposed to be running the City in Bloomberg's absence was in Washington DC.
Right, De Blasio should have returned to NYC at once, but there have been far worse failures to return for a crisis in NYC.
Submitted Aug 7th 12:44 PM eastern
6
I said this the day he was elected and its still true. DeBlasio is the epitome of a "hack", a politician who only wants to "occupy" an office, not really function in it.
31
If Mr. de Blasio cared about poor New Yorkers he would have fired the NYCHA management and instituted work-rule reforms for the NYCHA union workers (ha-ha!). NY Times reports show fraud is rampant, particularly in falsifying reports showing repair jobs completed. That alone should be a firing offense but the major didn't make a squeak!
13
(1/1)
Matt Flegenheimer reporting is a concoction of conjecture, bloviation, distortions & a bizarre dose of some sort of extrasensory projection. Total hogwash. This mayor has reduced crime to lowest level in modern times & has unfairly received cheap shots, threats & disrespect from the police union and right-wing radio & media.
Flegenheimer offers no facts on this topic aside from conjecture and stories. This mayor brought us Pre-K and its been such a success that dozens of cities want to emulate his program. Each Democratic candidate for president is promising a federal Pre-K program. He even got teachers in this program a badly needed raise.
10
Long time nyc resident who remembers the days of john Lindsey as mayor. diblas--the most disgraceful since then, including dinkins and abe beame. Nuff said
10
He is the typical leftist visionary. They come into your city and stir the pot. They promise everything and deliver nothing. Then they move onto greener pastures, just leaving more destruction and chaos in their wake. DeBlasio is in love with his own image. He has been sick of NYC a long time ago and looking for an exit. Fixing NYC takes hard work and perseverance and for a personality like DeBlasio’s it is boring work. We all know people like this—they usually aren’t mayor of a major US city but they can be found in any organization. It’s a personality type.
17
Mayor of a large U.S. urban metropolis: the booby prize of American politics.
Notwithstanding Harry Truman's famous Oval Office desk sign, in every other executive political office I can think of, it's possible to pass the buck somewhere else, at least sometimes. Not big-city mayor. It stops at their desk.
4
de Blasio is the prototypical liberal progressive: his head in the clouds and his hand in your pocket. This is what happens when the right to vote is ignored.
20
He's disrespected because he's wrong about everything.
And because we all can see that he is not anywhere near as good as Giuliani and Bloomberg, who effected a miracle in what had been a crime-ridden City.
DeBlasio has ALWAYS been wrong about crime and cops. ANyone with a brain in his head knew that the City had to stay tough on crime. Now it's creeping up and we start to feel a whiff of the old dread.
He has not managed the City's existing social programs well - NYCHA being the poster child of inept, corrupt and dangerous government agencies. Why didn't he focus on it? If he wants to be "progressive", why didn't he make it his tool to show us what he could do? Because he can't.
He is wrong about school excellence - he wants to ruin Stuyvesant High and Bronx Science.
But he does represent a slice of the NYC electorate that WANTS the wrong policies - the same slice that elects our Communist City Council and that leaves so many leftist, reverse-racist comments in this newspaper. Very thankful that most of the US rejects such harmful nonsense.
24
You can be sure the NYPD would have been dowsed and humiliated only once if Rudy Giuliani was Mayor.
17
(2/2)
This mayor has built housing in a breakneck speed and again he is criticized. This mayor has put in place free attorneys in the once lopsided Housing Court. No mayor ever went that far to help-out New Yorkers in their time of need & to help to keep their homes. I know Landlords & they despise this mayor for that fact alone. Now he is taking on ConEd billing practices that isthreatening small businesses. Fact!
(
5
Don't worry about promises or plans. They all fail once put to task. He pretends to be a hyper-progressive, but can't even fire a cop whose policy-prohibited chokehold (which he denied despite clear video of him choking Garner) killed a non-violent poor black man. The trains don't run on time.
7
Just had to check the URL to make sure I wasn't accidentally on The Onion's site.
How did Warren "de Blasio sounds more ethnic" Wilhelm turn in to a punching bag?
* ThriveNYC
* NYCHA
* NYPD
* Charter Schools
* Advanced High School Exam
* Mayor's Fund for NYC
* Pay to Play
* Incapable of working with Albany
* Late for everything
* Never shows up to City Hall
* Congestion Pricing
* East Side Garbage Transfer Station
* Hates about 30% of his constituents
* Refers to Gracie Mansion as "public housing."
* Use of security force to move his daughter
* Motorcade used as a personal chauffeur
* Chirlane McCray
* Rachel Nordlinger
* Rats
* Homeless and bums
* Roads
* Crime
* Consultants he derides yet uses
* "Affordable Housing" mayor rents his tiny row house for $60,000 a year
Here's a slightly edited quote from an interview with NY Mag when he was asked what the hardest part of being mayor was for him:
"What’s hardest is the way our legal system favors private property. I think people all over this city would like to have the government determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be.
There’s a socialistic impulse that people would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. I would, too. What stands in the way is hundreds of years of property rights.
People would love to have a very powerful government directly addressing their needs."
Not enough characters. He's without doubt the worst mayor in NYC history.
23
Strictly from an outsider, non-New Yorker viewpoint, to me his biggest problem is that he just comes across looking and acting like a complete jerk.
23
Not a New Yorker, so my first exposure to the guy was at the Dem debates—from which he needs to go away. He was the biggest interrupter and the most obnoxious. I do not care for his tone (nor for Kamala Harris’s).
10
Agree. I actually believe he was trying out for a spot as a CNN moderator.
1
Hey..If you don't want your job, are lousy at doing your job and it's all wrapped up in arrogance what do you expect?
7
At least he s tall so you don’t confuse him with all the other navy blue suits.
6
"But for all of Mr. de Blasio’s focus on income inequality, his mayoralty has been dogged by questions of whether his personal behavior contradicts his political message."?
Funny, I don't seem to recall this daily drumbeat of ethics criticism and personal activities innuendo when Bloomberg was mayor (including for an illegal third term!), or when Christine Quinn was constantly doling out "lulus" (basically legal payoffs) to reward council members who did her (and Bloomberg's) bidding.
Under Bloomberg, middle class housing was trashed big-time (think, Stuyvesant Town, or the lost opportunity to create affordable housing in the Hudson Yards area, instead of the viper's next of ugly, sky-high glass boxes for luxury housing the uber-rich!
And then there's the small matter of the schools!
Joel Klein (later a shill for Fox's 'edutainment division' who got a $50 million contract from Bloomberg for essentially nothing!) and the risible Cathi Black heading the schools? And shilling for the Charter Schools industry too! DeBlasio at least appointed REAL EDUCATORS to head the schools! And overall, clear improvement there.
With Bloomberg, NYC suffered CitiTime and SAID boondoggle scandals costing NYC a BILLION dollars! And he regularly offered all sorts of blandishments to those doing his bidding -- like free rides on his jet for Ray Kelly and others!
Admitedly DeBlasio does seem detached. And his presidential run is a bizarre ego-trip. But maybe blame term limits?
5
Where is the $850 million your corrupt wife “misplaced”?
25
How dare you criticize Mr. de Blasio, after all, he is married to a (lib buzz phrase alert) "woman of color", so in lib/wacko world I believe that makes him inherently "good" if not great, and technically should be above any criticize what so ever! In fact, I'm now wondering if all this criticism is (another alert) "RACIST!" I'm thinking all this criticism is most likely based upon Mr. de Blasio being married to an African American woman of color, I just so don't understand how he can be criticized without it not somehow being racist? Oh, that's right, he's a member of that single group of non-protected class who in lib/wacko world is PC to criticize and attack with impunity, he's a white male so even his wife cannot shield him--silly me!
15
Who do you like less Blasio or Tom Steyer? For me it's a tie!
2
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
- Albert Einstein
5
Now that the NYT mentions it..I do see a strange resemblance to Cummings.
"What happened?" asks the paper that carried the banner for this minor-leaguer from Boston right from the beginning. Maybe if the NYTimes hadn't bent over backwards for him and keep an objective eye on what a self-serving clown he's always been you wouldn't have to ask that question. Every NYer knows what happened. He is a fraud and "savvy" NYers fell for it again.
16
Quick answer: solely due to unrelenting negative coverage from NYT.
1
I’ve read this piece all the way through and I still don’t know what political or ideological actions and issues are at stake. All I know is that some of De Blasio’s habits are annoying and that the author is spiteful and biased. Did the mayor run afoul of the charter school people? The ultra-wealthy? Zionists? If he’s accomplished the things he says he has, why doesn’t he have some strong defenders? Or is he lying? Why does the black community support him? Or should we all be reaching conclusions based primarily on the way he dresses and his workout habits?
3
In 2015 this reporter, Matt Flegenheimer, wrote a fawning article about Rebecca Kirszner Katz when she left the de Blasio administration for the no doubt higher paid job of a political consultant.
That article was completely fawning - she got credit for everything and blame for nothing and instead of having all her personal foibles held out as something terrible as Flegenheimer did to de Blasio, she was simply perfect.
And now this reporter clearly uses the same person he wrote an outrageously fawning article about as his source for a vague quote viciously attacking de Blasio without actually saying why.
I find it interesting that NY Times reporters -- in a city where de Blasio has high approval rates in the African-American community -- can never find anyone except overprivileged people to attack him. Everyone who thinks de Blasio is doing a decent job is invisible to this newspaper but getting a quote from a source who you previously wrote a fawning piece about is easy.
3
Third from the left, standing, on the Democratic black Caucus photo, is that Brittany Kaiser?
1
Is this nytimes or pitchfork. Scathing reviews by writers who can't even play the kazoo. Ah, it's so easy to tear people down when all you do is write articles about other people... The latest screed in the Time's consistently negative coverage of DeBlasio. Peculiar pattern, no?
3
The article is great but the comments are even better. Not a single comment from a New Yorker praising DeBlasio. Please Bill, go away and stay away.
17
@John
That tells you more about who reads the New York Times than it does about how the majority of New Yorkers feel about DeBlasio. He was reelected in a landslide. This paper is not the City.
What a waste of an article - this man does not deserve any ink - good or bad. He just needs to leave politics and retire or go drive an Uber for the rest of his life (with apologies to all Uber drivers).
10
just quit.
7
"If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York"...evidently DeBlasio never got this message...
2
Wow! What a hack job! NYT really brought the FlegenHammer down with this one, eh?
Every acknowledgement of positive effect was qualified with a “But,” and every description of progressive efforts followed with ‘Not progressive enough’.
But why, NYT? I mean, I’m no big BDB fan, but why be an assassin?
Eyes open people! ‘The old devils are at it again! Who knows what they’ll do...’ —WEW.
7
Really great vignette by Matt Flegenheimer. It also explains why there can be no liberal leadership. A long time ago when I was in college, a well-known professor admonished us liberals at an anti-Johnson rally that there can't be any leadership from the liberal flank. Some posters here might protest, and I'll give them de Blasio's record.
It's the idealism of liberalism without the tools to make it work:
"de Blasio edged into the conversation with a Huffington Post op-ed and a media tour outlining his theory of the failure: Incumbents should have run as true progressives."
In other words, simply being a progressive makes it all work. If you believe this, then you've drunk the Kool-Aid. It explains the failure of the Left to lead: If they attack the center of the Party, then the Left will only have a handful of voters "left" to vote for them. This is what de Blasio tried in the last primary debate.
It validates the statement in Matt's fine article:
“'The left has people that are just clueless as hell'” Annette Taddeo, a Democratic state senator in Florida, told The Miami Herald."
It carries on with AOC who kicked Amazon out of Queens. To what end?
The other issue with the de Blasio strategy is, how effective will playing the race card be in 2020? De Blasio is yet another candidate using that ploy.
De Blasio shows how difficult it's going to be to nominate a progressive candidate. She or he would have to shun de Blasio.
3
Part IV from the wild, wild Midtown West.
Our street, West 58th Street - which The NY Times called "A Sidekick Street" in one of its articles - is now described as "billionaires row" when talking about The Savoy Hotel being converted for the homeless. That particular street - squeezed in-between two streets with ultra-luxe super structures - has small businesses - restaurants, a framing shop, a dry cleaner - older residential buildings - already has problems with the homeless sleeping in front of their businesses and police having to be called.
The residents of this area have been smugly dismissed by the Mayor - and The NY Times - because quality of life issues have less than zero priority. Most residents of Midtown West do not live in those buildings. We do not drive let alone in cars with tinted windows. We are just trying to go about our daily lives, maneuvering through gridlocked sidewalks and streets. We are trying not to be mugged in broad daylight by the homeless. We are trying to not be run over by pedicabs or bicycle delivery guys. Maybe because I am a senior citizen, I feel more vulnerable.
21
@doe74 I live on 57th Street and the residents of my building and I laugh when it is referred to as Billionaires' Row. We call our building NYCHA on 57. Apparently, the writers of some articles don't get out much.
8
When he was elected mayor it sounded good to many New Yorkers . Short time after he adopted it is not my fault, I never make a mistake , made anti cop remarks, did not solve the massive problems in New York Housing Auth and then traveled outside of NYC These are only part of his mistakes.
6
I'm 76. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see NYC elect a woman as mayor. Seems odd it hasn't happened--long ago.
3
@Cody McCall They could have this past election! She was bright, spunky, and energetic! But alas, people cling to the cult of their choice (Dem/Rep) no matter who is the candidate.
1
Not enough people are pointing out that de Blasio is being paid by the people of New York to perform a specific job from which he is AWOL a staggering amount of time.
At best he is putting in only part-time hours -- an absentee rate that would have gotten most other salaried workers in our city fired a very long time ago.
22
@Daniel I agree. I'd also like to add that ALL our elected officials are AWOL most of the time - at least more than you and I could ever be. Their Christmas holiday season lasts a month, they're gone now until September, Spring breaks, they don't work on Fridays and usually half days the remaining four.
11
@Daniel
And don’t forget the cost of his traveling security, paid for by NYC and not his (ridiculous) campaign.
1
Amazing to read all of these comments. Not one favorable opinion of DiBlasio - not one - among the NYT readership, which would be a natural source of support for a self-described "progressive," one would think. As far as I know, the voters can't recall a mayor mid-term. Too bad. We're stuck with Bill for another two and one-half years.
7
Some street comments from a very long-time, native NYC resident - formerly Brooklyn and Manhattan since 1988 - from what I call wild, wild Midtown West.
I have watched West 57th Street - a river to river major cross street - for over 30 years becoming increasingly gridlocked from Uber, Lyft, Via, increased online orders, deliveries for the additional hotels and residential buildings and the MTA adding about 20 express buses to the street particularly Queens buses and recently Staten Island buses.
And, now we have gridlocked sidewalks!! I call it the death of sidewalks.
We have no bus lane on 6th Avenue and of course no bike lane. Result - the sidewalks have become the de facto route to/from Central Park. Bike companies have opened up to compete with Citi Bike and some do business on the sidewalk.
The almost always lawless pedicabs ride on the sidewalk - my husband and I had to get out of the way - go the wrong way on one-way streets, make U turns across double yellow lines, park perpendicular to the curb at every available parking space and then horizontally behind those pedicabs. As a result, delivery trucks which are a lifeline to this island have to double-park.
The hawkers for the bike companies and pedicabs are on every street corner leading to the Park.
Further comments in next posting.
7
DiBlasio managed to do the unthinkable: his liberal base thinks he's a terrible mayor. NYC is a tough town, Bill. Listening you whine about how the mainstream press is treating you unfairly makes the average New Yorker laugh at you. Yes, running this burg is a tough job. You need to be one part administrator, one part cheerleader with empathy for all. If you can't do both, you won't succeed. He's failing at both. Even though I disagreed with Mayor Mike a lot of the time, I liked him and thought he was successful. He tried things. He worked hard. DiBlasio is lost in space, or at his health club. He doesn't understand that being casually late and not showing up at the office reflects on how he views the job. Bottom line: nobody believes you work hard, or care. Especially since you decided to run for President.
23
I like him ok when I hear him on the Brian Lehrer Show, but he is, apparently, a light worker and there’s been a bit of nepotism and corruption, not that that’s wildly unusual in city hall.
I think his bashing of Bloomberg during his inaugural address , along w Tish James, was an unmistakable sign of the insecurity that is expressed unconsciously by those who know deep down they don’t have the goods or are in some way presenting inauthentically.
We do need better.
10
I had concerns about de Blasio when one of his core campaign promises was to get rid of carriage horses in Central Park. That hardly seemed like a top-ten issue for the city. The horses may not have the best life, but they don't have the worst life, either, and there isn't much evidence they are terribly abused. My concern was that it seemed like a position he adopted to signal his "wokeness." And people who need to signal their wokeness are exhausting. An NYC mayor's focus should be on leadership and justice, and on tackling the biggest, most pernicious problems (which are admittedly the hardest to solve.) It is a thankless grind a lot of the time, but that's public service.
Instead, De Blasio always seems like he wants a cookie for being so progressive. And I say that as a progressive.
19
@RVC
A position he took to advertise his “wokeness”, or a position meant to help wealthy real estate contributors who wanted the west side property some stables were on?
8
What happened? He immediately alienated the state's governor. He and his administration engaged in some very corrupt activities. His wife "lost" a lot of money at the non-profit that she runs. Vision Zero is a joke. He can't seem to get anything done.
I had such high hopes for his campaign, but have been let down.
13
It doesn't look like he was elected; it looks like this job was forced on him.
And it's a small thing but speaks volumes. He couldn't bring himself to root for the Yankees, preferring to root for his boyhood team, the rival Red Sox. If you're going to be THE MAYOR then embrace the local team, become a New Yorker. Is that asking too much? He never liked the job and he let it show. Ugh.
10
Happily, crime has stayed low, putting the lie to a prediction that a liberal mayor would result in going back to the "bad old days."
I never considered that the "lazy" accusation might have racial component. Food for thought.
1
@Robert
There’s all kind of petty crime going on that didn’t happen under Bloomberg, making it increasingly unpleasant to be out and about. And the dousing of police? Would not have happened under Giuliani or Bloomberg. The city is sliding back to the old days of rising crime.
1
As a non-New Yorker, I find New Yorkers' criticisms of DeBlasio fascinating in their snarky pettiness, I.e., he lacks punctuality and goes to his old neighborhood gym, thereby giving to his liberal critics an impression of aloofness, laziness and indifference to his job and to public opinion. (Perhaps, on the other hand, he is on the phone working while being chauffeured? Perhaps he prefers rising and working late to getting up early?) Simultaneously, by striking contrast, Trump's conservative supporters appear completely unconcerned about his monumental profligacy and waste of time while he tweets, watches Fox News, and golfs at his resorts. The ultimate hypocrite, and he could benefit from hitting the gym, Trump has accomplished very little, except for thrilling the hoi polloi by demonizing nonwhites and making the power elite happy with tax cuts and deregulation. Perhaps DeBlasio can learn from Trump's lesson: You don't have to work hard. But you need to keep your key sponsors happy. It's all about the optics.
2
I read Michele Goldberg's defense of de Blasio. Considering he's in his second term, the list of successes is small, and quite frankly don't affect me.
The homeless situation in front of my very expensive co-op building near Union Square is now as severe as it was during the Dinkins administration, when the building was a rental. They huddle, behave, and look like heroin addicts. I have to step over them to enter my doorman building.
Why were Republican mayors able to deal with the homeless for many years? During Giuliani and Bloomberg, there were no homeless or drug addicts on my block (14th Street).
The subway has reached all-time lows. No middle-class New Yorker can afford a taxi anymore, and no one can trust the subway's timetables because the equipment is in such disrepair. Cars are often too packed, you have to wait for another train. And I'm not even talking about rush hour.
De Blasio has been a failure at some basic things that effect the lives of everyday people. I think this is the primary reason why he's disliked. To hear him talk on the debate stage, you'd think he's done amazing things for NYC's working people. He hasn't. Not enough of us.
21
While some of the criticisms in the article are true, particularly on housing policy and not having a good feel for mass politics, several important reasons for DeB's early fall from political popularity (2014-15) are either not mentioned or skimmed over. And as Sharpton mentioned, DeB has a much higher approval rating among Blacks than either Bloomberg or Giuliani -- for good reason.
Very early on, when DeB justly tried to take on charter schools, Cuomo went after him and totally undermined him. And even worse was the incident a little later on of the police, egged on by the PBA, turning their backs on DeB for no good reason.
DeB's first two years of achievements were spectacular:
-- signing contracts with 150-odd city unions, which Bloomberg had let languish for years, causing loss of morale in workforce;
-- universal free pre-K;
-- extending mandatory paid sick leave to some 500K workers;
-- extending "prevailing wage" standard to 30K-40K workers;
-- a unprecedented freeze on rent increases;
-- reallocating parks $s to poorer neighborhoods in the outer boroughs;
-- restoring many programs such as arts, music, after school programs to middle schools.
There were many more, most aimed at poor, working class, people of color.
His downfall was: 1) Cuomo's undermining; 2) the PBA's unnecessary disrespect; 3) appointing Goldman Sachs alum Alicia Glen in charge of housing policy; 4) not having the personality for outreach.
7
I forgot to mention the biggest achievement: getting rid of racial-profiling based "stop and frisk." Bloomberg supported this and DeB got rid of it. This one simple fact makes DeB a more successful Mayor than Bloomberg. Hundreds of thousands of younger Black and Hispanic men, almost all in the city in that demographic, were "Stopped and frisked" repeatedly for no reason under Bloomberg.
6
The funds for pre K came from the state. Stop and frisk would have stopped whoever the mayor was, given that it was found illegal. The unconscionably low rent increases were to buy votes and will result in a serious decline in the quality of housing.
Those open muni contracts were the result of the unions declining to bargain in good faith. Bloomberg refused to fold. Di Blasio did and gave away the store, all to buy votes.
8
Is it too much to ask the mayor what happened to the billion dollars in taxpayer money allocated to his wife’s city initiatives?
20
I have no strong opinion about de Blasio. What interests me is the tone of this article, which is a gossipy hatchet job. It mixes up the policy failures of his administration with what amounts to personal attacks on his character. I would be more interested in reading detailed attacks and defenses of his policies than in reading about the personal trivia one could probably find to say about any politician. And here is a hot news tip— anyone who runs for high political office almost has to be a bit of a narcissist.
I know you can never eliminate the high school gossip and celebrity journalism aspects from politics, but we seem to have gone much too far in that direction, and Trump benefited from this in his 2016 campaign.
6
It is all very well for Bill DeBlasio to run for President, but as a New Yorker I'd prefer he'd make the Six Line run with fewer delays.
6
Bill is doing an absolutely awful job of running this city. Homeless people are on every corner and subway car, real estate is completely unaffordable for all but wealthy foreign investors and bankers, and the school system has become a hyper-racialized political pawn. These problems all got exponebtially worse under Bill's corrupt, crony-filled regime. So no, I certainly don't want him as president.
20
It is funny how voters cannot see how narcisstic their chosen politicians can be whether on the the left or the right. For so many politicians like de Blasio or Trump the sun truly sets on their shoulders and everyone else is in the dark.
5
@Jon It's amazing to read the comments in articles like this one, an article not about our President, that somehow always find a way to bash Trump! I bet you could find a reason to denigrate him even in the weather forecast. Get a grip, he'll be around to torment you until 2024.
2
As I've written before, if he did nothing else for NYC than promoting and instituting pre-K for all NYC students, he should considered far more progressive than most of the nation's mayors and legislators including Mayor Pete. He also supported overturning the city's stop and frisk policy, and as a result crime in the city has declined. No mayor of the nation's largest city or governor of New York has been without severe criticism, but Republican alternatives like Giuliani are deplorable. And he is a much better representative of New York than the despicable US president.
4
Bring back stop and frisk
5
@NYC Dweller
Stop and frisk was declared unconstitutional by a federal court because its application was found to be racially biased.. Perhaps SCOTUS, as with the citizenship question, may give those who advocate your view an opportunity to come up with a different reason for overturning that decision. But it seems more of the same and in fact regressive to give police the power to decide, whom to "red flag. "
1
I don't live in New York and even I can't stand him. I never could figure out how he got elected. He's a legend in his own mind.
And nobody cares what Dante thinks.
15
What if the de Blasio family has gone to the Met Gala in jeans, navy blazer, no tie? In other words — I love opera but I don’t need a tux to appreciate it? Bet his poll numbers wd’ve skyrocketed.
1
@Susan McKenzie
I think you mean art, not opera.
3
Nice try but that would be disrespectful to the other attendees. If your not willing to make the effort and dress the part stay home. Like wearing a bathing suit to church.
1
He is absolutely the worst mayor of NYC in my lifetime. This is the person who wants to dump boro based mega jails in our residential communities, destroying them.
I belong to grassroots organizations that are fighting these 27 story, 33 story monstrosities. We’re not giving up our neighborhoods.
7
How could anyone tire of condescending lectures from a holier than though guy who earns his living from political posturing and who legitimizes himself through redistributing money to those who enable him?
7
If the NYC press corps gets him down, he'll love their national counterparts.
4
I simply want to know in detail what happened to the one billion dollars in taxpayer money the Mayor’s wife was put in charge of?
12
This is quite good. I'd add only two points.
1) Flegenheimer somewhat alludes to this, but one reason de Blasio never got the buy-in from the avowed left that he craves is because he's a progressive of convenience. Perhaps it's that he came up with such close Democratic establishment ties; perhaps it's an inherent weakness. But whenever his ultra-liberal views come up against established power, he shows his belly. It's why he managed to alienate both Team Clinton and Team Sanders in 2016; why he tried and utterly failed to have it both ways on Amazon in LIC; why he's been a better friend to Big Real Estate even than his predecessors; and why he's painfully blowing it with Garner/Pantoleo... which could finally dent the support among Black voters that's kept him marginally viable.
2) In terms of entitlement, hypocrisy, and resentments rational and not, I see his marriage as the tragedy of the Clintons, replayed as farce. Don't get me wrong: I think BDB is a million times better as a spouse and a human being than Bill Clinton. But he and his wife learned all the wrong lessons from the older couple's experience, in terms of how to bear up under scrutiny and how to engage the press.
In many respects--jobs, crime, education--NYC overall has fared well during his mayoralty. He deserves some credit for this. But I've never seen a politician so consistent in tripping over his own feet.
4
Come to NYC and take a look. There are homeless people at the entrance of subway stations. I understand the homeless need a place to sleep but this is an infringement on all NYers when they block the subway and building entrances (with all of the other food, dogs, and waste near the blankets). Why doesn't De Blasio care about the average daily NY commuter? Where is he? Why is it now legal to use 5th avenue as a bathroom? Why are the Subways late all the time? Where's Bill?
13
@Jerry
The subways are Cuomo.
So many critics of BDB because of something he doesn't run...MTA ..aka the subway. Call the Governor. It is his JOB.
The headline is really off-base. Bill de Blasio was never a hope, for anyone, ever.
He's just there because nobody better wanted the job.
6
BDB is one of the best snake oil salesmen to come along in quite some time! His goal has always been to enrich himself and his family financially, politically, and socially.
9
DiBlasio never had a chance, and he should have just stayed out.
1
I must've blinked and missed the interval of time where he was the "progressive hope".
2
I actually walked away from this piece liking De Blasio even more, despite the author's smarmy tone. Sure, De Blasio has his faults and could probably care more about the optics of traveling to Brooklyn to work out, but I appreciate that he says what he thinks, shuns the elites, doesn't grandstand, and doesn't pretend to be a man of the streets. Also, if the author was seeking subscribers to his point of view by eliciting sympathy for the NY tabloids, all I can say is, "better luck next time."
3
I want to be mayor of New York City because I believe I can change it with Progressive ideology.
OK, you got me. It was a spring board to national prominence. I had an epiphany that this was the time to run for President. I always wanted to do this. If I told you the truth, you wouldn't have voted for me. The deception suited my agenda. Tough nuggies for that.
2
To say de Blasio has been a mediocre mayor is an understatement-
This guy thinks he’s line himself up for a book deal or something- I’m buying / I think I already know the end of this story
5
When Diblasio made those utterly thoughtless and ignorant comments about the Dominican Republic in 2015 (whispered to him by some equally ignorant handler) and then had the gall to double-down on them(!) I knew he was hopeless. He often forgets he's the mayor of New York, a city with its own racial problems and challenges and whose job is to fix them, but instead wants to sound like a self-righteous college professor making comments for cred and cheap applause.
Diblasio is bumbling his way through a job and a campaign he is and always was ill-prepared for. Sure, he's not as arrogant as Bloomberg and not as arrogant and entitled as Trump but those are very low bars.
1
This is amazing.
1
I lived in Manhattan during the Beame/Koch regimes, 1974-1981.
Seriously, why was this guy re-elected? Anyone?
4
An ideological progressive cannot run a city, even a progressive city like NYC. At some point, like every day, compromise is required, budgets govern actions and mundane municipal needs beat lofty progressive aspirations. Spewing progressive rhetoric to progressive audiences is the easiest job in the world. Managing a big city is hard and anything but ideological. He had to pick one and he picked the former.
17
I'm no huge de Blasio fan, but some of the comments here are puzzling, particularly the bizarre worship of Bloomberg. First, Bloomberg actually started the tradition of absentee mayors--has everyone already forgotten Bermuda? And so many of the problems New Yorkers are now dealing with--runaway homelessness, inadequate transit and infrastructure, NYCHA--are the result of failures on the part of the previous administration. Furthermore, the subways, which many people mention here, are under Gov. Cuomo's control. I don't understand why this is so difficult for people to accept. And NYCHA is also primarily a problem of inadequate federal funding (cut for decades by Republicans). I'm shocked at some of the comments below remembering stop and frisk fondly--not only was that practice immoral, harmful, and unconstitutional but studies have shown it was not even effective as an anti-crime strategy!
12
Aside from his political views -- left or right, by what process does a guy like this become a presidential candidate? Who would invest in his candidacy? It seems that de Blasio cleared an extremely low bar to arrive on the debate platform.
There must be 500 energetic, accomplished leaders in New York City who would make a better President of the United States. We need to innovate our processes to bring them forward.
10
Was de Blasio ever really a "progressive hope?"
I don't think he was ever anything other than someone who stood out in a crowd of mediocrities and who won because turnout didn't hit 20%. From his inaugural address forward he's shown no class, no grace, and no ability to be self effacing.
A mayor's job is to make the rubber hit the road and to fix the potholes in front of the moving vehicle. Bill de B has shown zero interest in doing this.
And, he's unethical. Raising pac and campaign money from firms that do business with the city and putting his son on the payroll is only the latest manifestation in a fairly long line.
He's almost impossible to like.
42
He has been figured out. And that exposure is very unflattering. Nothing worse that an insincere, arrogant, ultra progressive that clearly thinks the rules he dictates apply to everyone but him.
34
“And New Yorkers are incredibly tribal and proud and think they’re the greatest people in the world, and they think New York is the greatest city in the world, both of which happen to be true.”
This quote is exactly why I'm leaving NYC, and both comments are delusional.
19
@Bocheball: Right. Go to Boston. They have no sense of pride in that city. Or Chicago. Hey, try Dallas, Houston, Austin or San Antonio. You might not like LA or San Francisco in that regard. New Orleans? Portland? Seattle? Maybe not those either.
Well, there *is* that cabin in Montana...
1
@Bocheball
Goodbye! Can I help you pack?
4
Great expose article. Thank you!
I’ve felt that he was getting to live out his youthful fantasies of being a radical politician. He has somehow missed the hard lessons of growing up.
I was very impressed when as new mayor he announced his focus on providing housing for lower income New Yorkers. But that’s a massive job, that goes against the flow of our current period. If you’re serious about it,( and it would be worth it) it is going to take iall with your commitment.
12
Very few people have ever so over-estimated themselves as de
Blasio.
27
The same newspapers that called Joe Torre "Clueless Joe" when George Steinbrenner hired him in the fall of 1995, couldn't stop praising him after winning 4 World Series with the Yankees. Give de Blasio a break Matt Flegenheimer, he's a Mets fan just like you! How many NY Times reporters predicted a Donald Trump presidency?
3
I think Bill De Blasio's biggest problem is that he never stopped thinking of himself as "public advocate" and community organizer. While the Mayor of New York should incorporate many of those traits, he or she is also, and probably mainly, the CEO running one of the largest public entities outside the Federal Government. And that means having to "be there" to lead. New York City doesn't lend itself to be run by remote control. By doing what he's doing, he lame-ducked himself long before that would have happened naturally.
23
I find him to be the worst of the liberal side (the side on which I would class myself). He said he would address the situation of homeless people; no one could expect him to solve that himself, but he has made it worse. He has promoted incompetent people, failed to manage, exacerbated tensions between communities and classes, and pursued "virtue signaling" programs while leaving basic, practical issues unaddressed and picked a fight with the Governor when it served no purpose. He's a manipulative, ineffective, demagogue without the base for demagoguery. He should leave the presidential race promptly and stop wasting everyone's time - and perhaps do a bit of work on the city for which he already has responsibility.
319
@E
The democratic trump.
6
@E Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." De Blasio just destroyed his political career. It's unlikely he will ever be elected to any major office again. I have to wonder if this farce was on purpose. Lately, he seemed to be irritated with the responsibilities of being NYC mayor. I think he saw himself above dealing with the grimy day to day aspects of being a city official. His campaign has been an embarrassment and proved that he's not ready to play in the big leagues. All he will accomplish with this pointless exercise is to bleed energy & money from other progressives candidates like Booker, Harris, and Warren. He is watering down their message & engendering lots of infighting. Mayor de Blasio will also prove another point that Democratic moderates know to be true. If Democrats nominate a progressive candidate then all is lost. This is political suicide. There is no progressive majority in America & never will be. The numbers are simply not there. And there certainly is no progressive Electoral College coalition in America that could get to the needed 270 votes. This point can't be emphasized enough: almost every progressive candidate in whom Democrats invested tremendous time, money, & emotional energy in 2018—Beto O’Rourke in Texas, Andrew Gillum in Florida, Stacey Abrams in Georgia— lost. What progressives & their co-dependents will never understand is that Anti-left” will always beat “anti-Trump” in most places in this country.
16
@E
My impression that it was Governor Cuomo who picked a fight with De Blasio more than the other way around. (That's mostly why I voted for Cynthia Nixon.)
But yes, it is definitely part of the Mayor's job to have a good relationship with the Governor -- more than the other way around -- and De Blasio is temperamentally incapable of doing that. In fact, I think Bill De Blasio and Andrew Cuomo were born to feud with each other.
4
I’ve always thought that his core problem is that he claims to be progressive but is instead anti-elitist. He makes a fetish of avoiding things like the Met Ball, working out on shabby treadmills, snubbing the business community. A real progressive would find creative solutions to difficult problems like homelessness, embrace education reform.
Related to this is the fact that he appears to have no love or appreciation for NYC, unlike every other mayor in memory. Dinkins was dapper and spirited, Koch was the consummate Village resident that thrives on indy films and ethnic food. Bloomberg patrician. Giuliani a hard driving fighter. All NYC archetypes.
And the base reason for that lack of love is that NY is a city of ambition and drive. Has been since its founding. A character that’s totally at odds with anti-elitism.
30
Huh, I guess authenticity IS a factor in how voters perceive candidates. I guess that's why I love Bernie Sanders.
10
So another sellout is moving on. Goodbye.
We have nothing but river to river construction of hideous mega-towers for rich investors who will never live in them and continued corporate welfare.
Interesting that there are few tangible examples of anything he has done for working people in NYC other than making life even more stressful than it has always been.
18
I'm a life-long Democrat and I can't stand de Blasio, who's all pontification and has no "there" there.
He's the epitome of the so-called "tax and spend liberals," whose performance never quite measures up to its cost.
In a recent analysis of the fiscal soundness of America's 75 most populous cities conducted by the non-profit government finance group Truth in Accounting, New York City scored 75th. Yet the city's 2019-2020 annual budget is nearly $93 billion, up from about $75 billion just five years ago.
And what has New York City gotten for that nearly 25% budgetary increase? Well, for one the recent appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the New York City Housing Authority's pathetic performance. And for two, according to a 2017 national educational assessment, the even more dismal performance of our fourth- and eighth-grade public school students, only 28% of whom were rated as proficient in reading and math and only 13% of whom, in the eighth- grade, were rated as proficient in science.
Meanwhile, as de Blasio levies greater and greater real estate and other taxes to fund his profligate and ineffectual spending, life in the city has become barely affordable for the majority of its lower and middle-class residents as well as its small business owners.
It's small wonder why this man is despised by the majority of New Yorkers.
23
@Cordelia I was going to comment, but your summary is spot on. I'm looking to leave NYC because I'm sick and tired of the budgets and taxes while begging for things to actually change and they don't. This city is riddled with incompetency and corruption and my heart is breaking for the mentally ill and homeless. The NYCHA and what they've done to those needing help in this city-- people need to start going to jail.
5
It's all been said in the comments below. The question is: when will the City Council find its spine and impeach the guy? There are grounds enough.
12
I can see Trump holding up Bill de Blasio and the problems he made for New York City as a key part of his re-election campaign.
9
@Maureen Don't worry, Maureen, Trump will not be running against BDB.
@Maureen
Tat's OK. There is plenty to pile on for Trump.
Great article. Another of the ones I've read recently that has really zippy prose. Please keep this up!
I was very enthusiastic about De Blasio at first. But the carriage horses moved off the streets, the fake inspections for lead paint in public housing... one thing after another has led me to be truly sick of him.
What best encapsulates it is the Politico headline cited:
“Amid murkiness over spending, de Blasio team says campaign launch video was not a campaign expense.”
1
Governing NYC as an agent of change is as easy as if an outsider had tried to change Jeffery Epstein’s habits from within Epstein world. Can’t happen. He got elected under the notion that the tale of two cities was unfair; the real estate side evicting working families from affordable housing to build luxury apartments and then, the displaced. The Establishment immediately denounced him as (gulp!) a socialist.
Nothing could have gone right after that, and the establishment made sure it didn’t. He did manage to eliminate “stop-and-frisk”, which as we know, had no impact on anything, except to systematically contribute to today’s Trump/ Stephen Miller killings in El Paso.
DeBlasio’s two terms are up, unlike Bloomberg, he can’t buy another illegal term. But illegal abuse of the system is what the City’s establishment is all about. Can you say Jared Kushner?.
On the other hand, had DeBlasio been a true activist, he would have thrown caution to the wind and tried to enact true reform, he mainly did not. What’s ironic and laughable is that he should pursue a presidential run, probably to market himself for a cabinet position. That hopefully won’t happen, ever!
2
I enthusiastically supported his first mayoral candidacy and election, but it didn't take long to realize deBlasio already had his eyes on something much bigger once he took office — the glad-handing trips outside of the city, many abroad, only solidified my disappointment and confirmed that he never truly occupied the office he was elected to. Clearly NYC (and its many pressing issues) didn't hold enough allure for him. His upzoning of NYC was another boon to the real estate industry at the expense of neighborhoods, trash pickup became erratic and sloppy and our mayor failed to regularly communicate to constituents just what it was he was actually doing. But now we are witness to his "vanity candidacy" for president, built on the slightest of policy victories over 1.5 terms as mayor. It's ridiculous, delusional — and arrogant.
181
@Brunella AND he had the area behind Gracie Mansion blocked off - which is the East River Esplanade that goes from 60th Street to 125th Street - with signage that reads the area is being upgraded. There has been nothing but weeds growing for years. We have to turn around at either end and go back the way we came instead of enjoying a lovely, long walk/bike ride/jog along the East River. Although he spends most of his time sleeping and napping, he apparently needs it to be very quiet in order to do so.
12
We all had extremely high hopes for Bill de Blasio when he was elected. But it was a mess from the first days after the election.
He and the fam took forever to move into Gracie Mansion signalling ambivalence.
He came in late.
He continued to travel all the way to Brooklyn to his gym. Come on man.
Then he won another landslide election and we heard that he stopped going to City Hall. What?
I don't know -- maybe he loved the chase more than the actual conquest.
But he let the people down and, I think, in many ways he's let himself down.
10
@DickeyFuller
Sorry but this lifelong New Yorker had no such "high hopes" for Mr. De Blasio and my lack of high hopes has been fully vindicated. I supported Bill Thompson for Mayor and rued that fact that he decided not to challenge De Blasio in a primary. Bill would have been a fine mayor and hope that he chooses to run again. The "landslide" that you mention for the second term was with less than 20% of the electorate voting. He was elected in a veritable tsunami. And his greatest accomplishment is raising a black son, as far as I can tell.
4
Oh the ironies of De Blasio riding on the coattails of Andrew Yang. One wants to elevate the discussion and provide concrete plans, while the other tries to tear us apart. In so many ways, all I see in de Blasio is mirror image of Trump, with the image reversed for the left instead of the right, but the tone of the message is the same, all I hear De Blasio saying is we need to fight each other.
7
Mayor Koch's “How’m I doing?” didn't come from neediness. It was his playful way of interacting with the city and a spontaneous expression of his joy in the role of mayor.
I think love of the job and of the city--and an ability to express that--is a requirement for being an admired NYC mayor. With his large and booming personality, Koch personified the city. Bloomberg rolled up his expensive sleeves and seemed to thrive on problem-solving. De Blasio has had some very significant accomplishments, not least the end of Stop n' Frisk, but he has never conveyed the required relish for the job.
So why would we support him for president? I think the right attitude for an NYC mayor is, "Why would I want to be president when I get to be the mayor of the big apple?"
23
Mayor de Blasio appears on the local public radio “Ask the Mayor” segment every Friday morning. He does himself no favors. Under questioning from a respectful but skilled interviewer and constituents calling in, he frequently comes off as defensive and dismissive. The interview conducted after the failed trip down the Amazon is a prime example. After participating in secret negotiations with the company and Governor Cuomo, and after the deal fell apart because of progressive pushback, he attacked Amazon for not being responsive enough to community concerns. Clearly what happened is that de Blasio decided the politically expedient thing to do, in hindsight, was to align himself with anti-Amazon forces and to distance himself from the pro-Amazon faction of which he was a key member.
That’s the kind of blatant political maneuvering that alienated progressives who would be otherwise inclined to support his agenda.
20
Two things jump out at me.
1:People who are chronically late think they are more important than anyone else and their time is more precious. Inside is the conceit, "You wait for me, I don't wait for you."
2: Having an ideology is not the same as living by its tenets. In my experience, the more rabid the ideology, the greater the distance between the theoretical and the manifestation of the creed. It's as if all the hard work has been done and there's nothing left to do, but go to the gym and work out.
3: His height. ( I know I said two ... but) De Blasio doesn't occupy his body. He stoops but doesn't conquer. He's ungainly in body and mind and looks uncomfortable in his own skin. It's not a good look in a politician. As shallow as that judgement is, it's true. He's toast.
50
@Memi von Gaza No. 1 is not necessarily true. Some people (myself included) have real problems with time. If you don't have the problem, I'm sure it seems inconceivable that it is anything other than laziness or arrogance, but I can promise you that that is not the case. That's not an excuse, and it's clear that tardiness affects others and people like me need to do everything we can to overcome it, and in a professional context, it is a reasonable reason to find someone unsuitable for a role (e.g., the presidency) - but in interpersonal relationships, you may be hurt less if you realize that the people in your life who are like that are not doing that to you or because of their views about you - it's about a missing piece in their inner architecture that exists despite their feelings for you. That might help you reduce your feeling that you are being treated with disrespect.
5
@E, I'm very glad that you responded as you did to my post. I used to be one of those people and I had my own particular reason, which in its own way is similar to yours - missing a particular piece of inner architecture is an interesting way to put it.
I come from a place I remember well in dreams and waking visions, in which time and place has different measures, or more accurately, none at all that needed measuring.
Travel time doesn't exist. You left one place and ended up in another by intention which travels at the speed of though. You could, as well, inhabit as many places as you were interested in being.
You can imagine how irritated people were when I chronically arrived at meetings late by the amount of time it had taken me to get there.
It behooves all us who are differently built to hew to the place we inhabit, to assimilate despite our inner architecture. Unintended selfishness in an adult is still selfishness.
8
What de Blasio lacks in talent, he doesn't make up for in integrity. A former political "operative" he markets a brand of "progressive" politics while being thin-skinned, authoritarian, sanctimonious and self-righteous. His choices reflect his ego, rather than his so-called "values." He's filled his administration with ineffective ideologues and greased the wheels with donations from cronies and hand-outs to local unions. NYC is too big, too complex and too important to be run by a hack like him.
44
Fortunately for Mayor de Blasio, only so many gaffes can fit into a newspaper article. This article failed to quote my favorite, from another NYT article 5 years ago:
'And the notoriously tardy mayor, who arrived 35 minutes late to a midafternoon interview on Wednesday with The New York Times, declared that punctuality was sorely overrated.
“George W. Bush was punctual,” Mr. de Blasio said, reclining in an upholstered chair in his corner office at City Hall.'
35
I don’t get how de Blasio was re-elected as mayor just two years ago.
19
@M Davis Because the alternative was even worse.
4
@M Davis
Because in reality he basically tan unopposed. It's hard to remember who even ran against him.
This guy has no business at all running for President. Less than zero.
I will say that the police union made his life a living hell for no good reason. Still though, he's an ineffective mayor and couldn't be further out of touch.
Phil Murphy is our own DeBlasio here in NJ.
6
@PubliusMaximus Phil's trying at least as hard as any of the more recent governors have tried.
Be honest -- NJ's issues are and have been insurmountable for decades.
@DickeyFuller NJ has very real and serious problems, with many people to blame but the people here deserve a full time Governor. Murphy has taken a bunch of vacations at his home in Italy. Meanwhile the infrastructure here is crumbling, marijuana is still not legal and the cost of living is becoming unbearable.
It was a vote wasted. He will be a one termer, mark my words. And then we'll end up with another Republican disaster.
1
NYC has been deteriorating lately. There are homeless everywhere, encampments on the street, garbage everywhere, subway breakdowns, aggressive begging on the subway, failing schools, and more racial disharmony. In the last month, I've seen middle-class, well-dressed white people jumping the turnstiles in the subway, NYC burns, while Nero fiddles around in Iowa.
39
@Mark Mandell Everything you mentioned has been going on for decades.
Income inequality has everything to do with the homelessness, begging, etc., and this, along with the subway problems and racial disharmony are -completely- outside BdB's purview.
1
Thanks for this excellent long form answer to my frequent question, “What’s he doin’?”
8
A short story written by Herman Melville about a tall man who drags a sled with a rose bud on it through heavy slush wherever he goes in all seasons.
2
@Vincent Amato
Citizen Kane?
All you need to know about this guy is that he thinks he can get elected president of the US when he couldn’t get elected to be DogCatcher!
7
@Mark Innj He's hoping he gets national notice and ends up VP or with a cabinet position.
@Mark Innj Honestly, it's as if just being tall isn't enough anymore.
Bill DeBlasio is a very poor leader and the worst mayor ever..
the fact that he considers himself presidential illustrates how out of touch he is...
21
DiBlasio quickly became a punching bag because it became quite apparent from the beginning that he was just like everyone else as a Politician. He is clearly in this for himself. He loves money and power and only throws a few token ideas out and then stands on them as if they are the end all and be all of his job. His work is done because he helped install a universal Pre Kindergarten curriculum in Nursery Schools. Big deal. The Federal Minimum wage has not been raised in 10 years from 7.25 and for a very long time, NY followed suit in paying nothing for all the hard work people do. This wage should be more than 15, dollars an hour in NYC. He fought for Amazon and is against Unions from his behavior. He rarely gives press conferences and seems to be the absentee mayor, phoning it in all the time. Now he runs for President. It is laughable that he thinks he could be President.. He just wants the money. He wants another term as mayor for the money. He is all about the money. He has no interest in NYC and comes off aloof and for himself just like Cuomo. He won't open the MTA books and volleys it to the State in a phony manner. He has his police write summons constantly and does not care since he is driven everywhere on the taxpayer dole. He did not fight against congestion pricing, he does nothing for the greater good of new yorkers especially the elderly for example with Acess A Ride. He gave it away to Uber for a price. Many elderly cannot use Uber cars with Physical issues.
16
Citizens of New York City are entitled to their choice of mayor, good, bad or indifferent, but after a Presidential race in which the two major candidates were both from the area (one at least ostensibly), I would not support another, from either party, and that includes Senator Sanders. It's time for another part of the country to have the predominant voice in Washington D.C., one not steeped in the irascible and aggressive nature of New York politics.
2
@David Godinez
This is essentialism. If you want to have the predominant voice then go out and get it.
1
@David Godinez
Since when has this part of the country been the predominant voice in the country.
If anything, because of the electoral college and Congressional district races, many jerrymandered, the East coast is under represented. Why does Wyoming have two Senators, the as NY and California? Who has more people?
Next question, when was the last time someone from this area became president? Nixon? Reagan? Johnson? Ford? Carter, the Bushes, Obama? You have go back to Kennedy to find an East Coast president.
2
De Blasio has been a disappointment from the start. In the city, he is almost invisible, and the city sorely needs attention to detail and innovative thinking. We've had a resurgence of homelessness, the subway is a mess, metro-wide mass transit is not where it needs to be. NYC needs a visible, dynamic, focused, innovative leader - we had one, but he term-limited out, and now we are left with the invisible mayor.
24
It has been over 35 years since I last spoke to the Mayor when we were students together at NYU. We met in the Politics of Latin America class. We became friends and over the course of a year we talked about topics ranging from his name, history and politics. He was wicked smart. Once when we were walking around Washington Square, we were talking about college in general. He told me he was accepted at Johns Hopkins. I asked why he didn’t go there to school and he told me he loved the City and wanted to make his career in New York City. I am glad to have seen he did exactly that.
In some ways he is the same person I knew. An introvert in a profession that is more suited for extroverts though even at that time he was involved in student politics. He is also the same person who was concerned about the injustice he saw around him.
I was not impressed with Mr. Flegenheimer’s tone in the article. Bill has made his mistakes, no doubt about that, but many of those are superficial mistakes based more on perception rather than reality.
Bill may be ambitious, but name me one mayor who hasn’t been ambitious. I don’t agree with some of Bill’s policies and positions, but there are worse things in this world then trying to do good and waging the good fight.
19
@johnlaw
He might be “wicked smart” in some ways, but he does not have the “know-how” or the organizational ability to run a city government, let alone the government of one of the largest and most complex cities in the country.
He might be at his best as a critic. With a daughter who suffers from mental illness, perhaps he and his wife would find their calling as advocates for the mentally ill.
@johnlaw
It's not about his ambition, for that seems fairly obvious. It is indifference to the city and its people. We are just a stepping stone in his political ambitions. He just chose a place he thought would be the best show case to national prominence.
3
@johnlaw
If he was "wicked smart" he would have gone to Johns Hopkins.
Whatever else you can say about Bloomberg, he never had political ambitions beyond being mayor. He never wanted to head a national movement. He understood that being mayor was a roll-up-your-sleeves, day-to-day job of managing a huge city workforce. Under De Blasio, the city's bureaucracy has been floundering because there's been no hands-on involvement at the top.
43
@HKGuy
Bloomberg was first a billionaire businessman with a financial empire. He was a contract-maker and he negotiated more than once a projected run for US Presidency. He demoralized teachers, city workers, and the CUNY systme, and put his money in the private sector. In real ways, the mayor job was a shell for his financial ambitions.
8
@Judith Thinks Bloomberg was a billionaire several times over when he ran for mayor. Even his bitterest enemies concede he was an honest mayor. He hardly needed the mayoralty as a "shell for his financial ambitions," because by then he didn't have any financial ambitions. He was giving away more money than he made.
16
@HKGuy
Bloomberg didn't operate as a machine politician, just myopic class-consciousness, as he fancied himself a latter-day Medici. His giveaways to the real estate cabal were done because they belonged to the same billionaires club. When we think in horror of Trump's Betsy DeVos, let's recall Cathie Black, Bloomberg's short-lived appointee as Schools Chancellor. Her only qualifications were that they attended the same cocktail parties and she probably pretended to laugh at his lame jokes.
3
Bill de Blasio's definition of equality. 20% whites can stay unaffected in HS reorganization. Asian enrollment must decline from 60% to 30%. Truly, he is a profile in courage. Dems like to talk about punching down , too bad their blind to their own folly.
29
@Raj Shah They are just takers. Pretending greed is good when taking over earning.
@Raj Shah
The point of the HS reorganization is to increase white enrollment. Anyone thinking it is about giving blacks an increase is fooling themselves. Wake up.
He ran on affordable housing, and all I see are mega skyscrapers for the rich. He did however roll back rent increases on rent stabilized tenants, so I commend him for that.
10
@Bocheball You do realize this is the very reason market rate apartments are so expensive right? Almost half of available units are effectively off the market ( 2% vacancy rate, apartments passed down over generations ) so developers and landlords need to target the up market sector to make any profit. Public housing then? NYCHA. No need for further elaboration.
12
@B
Developers and landlords target the upmarket sector because those are the majority of people in NYC.
It makes no financial sense to target the middle class because they don't exist in sufficient numbers in the city. They're out in the boroughs where they get a lot more for their dollars.
Rent controls have very little to nothing to do with the lack of affordable housing. See Toronto, which has a vacancy rate of less than 1%, rental/housing prices similar to NYC, but Ohio-level salaries for most people.
And unlike NYC, there are no affordable commuter cities. If you commute, the amount of money you have to spend on gas/public transport to get into the city is more than the increase in housing costs if you lived closer.
1
@B No, they don't realize it. It's all magic money for most.
1
"Punching bag" AND "laughingstock."
16
Ummm --
I hate to tell you this -- but for some of us life-long liberal democrats - always searching and working towards social justice and equality -- Bill de Blasio has never been a model of "Progressive Hope" -- punching bag though he might now be ...
18
We have had some doozies as Mayor and though I disliked many of them politically, I have never felt the visceral hate for any of them that I feel for that bumbling fool that is our Mayor.
34
People are not happy with their lives. They are angry and need something to punch. De Blasio is the punching bag of the day, tomorrow it will be something else.
8
Let us count only the most obvious reasons he is a punching bag
*This is probably the only politician in NYC History who has united the unlikely Trio of the NYTIMES, NYPOST and NYDAILYNEWS in their utter disregard of his record
* Who is equally by HILLARY CLINTON and DONALD TRUMP
* Who befriended Americas enemies by Honeymooning in Fidels Cuba and aligning himself with the Sandinista's against American interests and Democracy
* Who changed his name TWICE, to find favour with NYCs largest Ethic Group at the time. It doesnt take much imagination to think he would've changed it to a Russian, Chinese or Latino surname again if it would help in this election.
*This is a man who spouts Climate Change rhetoric, then travels 11 miles a day in an SUV caravan, and Helicopters to events and is STILL chronically late
*who champions Safe Driving and covered up a car accident caused by his driver running a red light.
* Who engineered the Speed Limit being dropped to 25 while continually being driven at twice that speed (hes busy, he says like hes the only one)
* Who asks NYers to sympathize and put up with out of control Homelessness, yet has his squad keep them out of view of Gracie Mansion, City Hall and The Subway Car on those rare camera ready instances hes in one.
61
@Sara I only remember him riding the subway once, on a Sunday morning. The fact that he had his security team force all of the homeless people out and made sure the car was spotless, shows how big of a hypocrite he is. I am sure there are many more instances of his hypocrisy than what you've pointed out.
I am not a progressive, but Billy has really given them a bad name. The reality is that he's more like Trump than he can ever admit, he just pretends that he cares about people where as Trump is more honest about not caring about anyone other than those who line his pockets.
8
@BD Youre right, they are alike in their arrogance and smugness and how they think theyre always right ... I would add AOC as well.
Its interesting though, while Trump does have many faults and critics, he has many defenders, just look at any of the comment sections on any of the anti Trump articles on this site.... Then try to find any defenders in the comment sections on this article....
3
DeBlasio, Cuomo and the other members of the "Democratic Machine" ruin the quality of life in the Bronx. (1) The Bronx is the poorest urban county in America. So what do they do? They use zoning to restrict incomes of new construction in the Bronx. How is the median income in the Bronx every going to rise? (2) Property values are artificially depressed in the Bronx. There are minimal zoning & landmarks restrictions. Supply is high & demand is lower than other boroughs. Meanwhile property values in Manhattan are artificially inflated via maximized zoning and landmarks restrictions. (3) The poor are being warehoused in specific existing poor precincts such as Jerome Avenue with no consideration of the quality of life. Towers are being constructed immediately adjacent to El trains throwing the undersides into perpetual dystopian darkness. The occupants have to contend with endless noise and air pollution. (4) Our politicians claim to care about congestion but offer ZERO solutions to address the most congested road in America - The Cross Bronx Expressway. (5) There is zero consideration of existing subway ridership levels in zoning. The 4 train is the most congested line in the system so the mayor decides to upzone there? (6) Rather than focusing on workforce housing, our politicians focus on "program" housing for those outside the workforce (i.e. druggies). This is most likely done because there are more unaccountable tax dollars involved. DEM'S RUIN THE BRONX!!!
13
The Democratic agenda in large cities are failing our communities and NYC is no exception.
20
deBlasio's goal is to destabilize every middle-class neighborhood in the city by the placement of massive homeless shelters and other 'social welfare' facilities in otherwise stable middle-class neighborhoods. This is what happens when most voters stay home on election day.
36
I heard Bill de Blasio speak twice at local Democratic club meetings years before he thought of running for President. I thought he was then an unimpressive candidate for Mayor, though tall, and nothing since then has altered my opinion.
Height does not make for competence. Just look at the guy in the WH: manipulative yes, competent, no.
De Blasio too often strikes me as just plain bland.
10
Mayor Bloomberg tried mightily to make the city solvent and livable despite ingrained democrats who only know how to spend and loot the city/ state treasury for their own selfish ends and largesse. The current mayor can’t help himself because his whole life’s work has been Democrat politics and living large off the taxpayers. He demands nothing but the best, with other people’s mon$y! It can’t continue like this, voters.
34
And this article didn't even mention that de Blasio is a shameless Red Sox fan. The metaphor of wanting someone who "plays for the home team" has never been so apt.
It also shows his innate stubbornness. Why is it necessary to proclaim your love for your own city's arch nemesis?
New Yorkers at the very least want someone who is as shamelessly pro-New York as they are. He fails at even that - and it's really not that hard.
23
If de Blasio can't figure out how to play nice with Cuomo, how does he expect to take his skills to Washington? The o nly reason pre-K exists is that Cuomo spent the money to do this statewide because de Blasio proposed a millionaire's tax which never would have made it through the state legislature. And although the article only gives this brief mention, why does Mrs. de Blasio gets a budget of nearly one billion dollars to spend on a mental health program that doesn't release outcomes. This is nepotism at its worst. Where's the public outcry about our tax dollars being spent on a program led by the mayor's spouse?
29
On my way to vote in 2017, I slipped on the subway steps, as it was pouring rain. I never got to vote for the Republican, who I don't remember. I am a staunch Democrat, but DeBlasio is just awful. That night at the hospital, my doctor came in to check an me and informed me that the mayor won a massive landslide. HOW? And I do agree he is arrogant. He and AOC are both anti-job, pro-tax spenders. MY GOD, DeBlasio makes me sound like a Republican! That's when you know he's gotta go NOW!
39
@Benjamin
And you call yourself a democrat, calling AOC anti job and big spending?
You sound more like an old extremist Republican.
5
@Johan Debont Did you follow the amazon story at all?
4
@Johan Debont
I'm also a Democrat and AOC's opposition to Amazon's move to Long Island City cost our city thousands of jobs-- at least 1,000 of which would have paid a minimum of $100,000 annually--and roughly $28 billion in new taxes.
Yes, AOC, that darling of the ultra-left, has indeed proven herself to be anti-job and I, for one, will never forget it
10
The man like all of us has demons. The difference with him is that he wants to lead. He's in no position to lead. He needs a lot of help, even at 58.
7
This piece does a good job of illuminating de Blasio's character and mannerisms. But it omits a discussion about the corruption in his administration steeped in favoring irresponsible real estate development over New Yorker interests (livability, affordability, sense of place, dignity, etc.). There is no excuse for ignoring the big elephant in the room.
30
I think this race is full of plenty of fine candidates... there are just too many of them. And that makes it tempting to see mostly the flaws in the so-called "lower tier."
Gillibrand, Castro, Inslee, Klobuchar, Bennet... all smart people with a lot to offer. They just haven't caught fire for whatever reason. De Blasio is suffering from the same problem. Which isn't even a problem at all, we just have a really outstanding field of candidates and it's hard to stand out.
We're reaching the point where some campaigns should take stock of whether they really have a chance in the general, and return to other pursuits. This just may not be the right time.
5
@nyt reader
Each of those people hasn't caught fire because their hypocrisy was revealed early on in their campaign, and they never addressed it, or changed their behavior. Doubling down doesn't look good when you're in the wrong.
4
@nyt reader De Blasio is suffering because he is truly unqualified to even be considered for this experiment in boosting his own out of control ego. He is not a smart person, and he has NOTHING to offer the country, especially when we desperately need a smart leader.
He needs to disappear from public life forever.
That he chose to change both his first and last names says something about the man, and not something favorable. He consistently shows himself to be something other than what he wants people to think he is.
He has squandered the economic boon times by spending on permanent employees (that come with very permanent costs) as opposed to using the tax surplus on infrastructure.
He is arrogant in the extreme. The daily gym trips to Brooklyn are just the most obvious example, but not the most significant. He has sold his office to political contributors (overpaying for slum buildings while selling a nursing home to developers at a discount) who also seem a good deal shadier than the Uber rich that Bloomberg catered to.
He has always collected a government paycheck (nothing against that, I did for 36 years) but has never seemed committed to working hard to justify his salary. He is not alone in this; I would never vote for anyone who held or aspired to the “job” of Public Advocate, a bogus position if there ever was one.
It has often been said that the job of New York City Mayor is the second hardest elected position next to the Presidency. As is the case with the current inhabitant of the White House, getting the job doesn’t guarantee doing it well.
33
He comes across as Bill Blowhard,
wasting time on the Democratic debates,
when he should be solving the problems of New York.
Vanity project. Why doesn't he go for a midday workout?
22
Could we dock his salary as he is AWOL.
39
@BS What are we paying Charlene?
2
de Blasio is a character in a failed SNL skit.
21
DeBlasio cares about Big Real Estate which is ruining middle class neighborhoods.
20
He’s too left. That’s why nobody likes him,
13
@The Truth He acts left and lives right.
12
@The Truth he's corrupt and a total hypocrite which is why nobody likes him. He gives progressives a horrible name.
3
I hadn't realized dDe Blasio was anybody's hope for anything.
20
He has proved to be worse than Dinkins. Bloomberg must just shake his head every night before bed.
31
"Mayor de Blasio Has Earned a Second Term
By The Editorial Board"
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/opinion/mayor-deblasio-endorsement-second-term.html
28
I think that the article speaks well to the argument that the NYC press has rendered a 'guilty' verdict on the Mayor; the article is a hatchet job.
The NYC press often seemed in my years in NY to be smug and all knowing. They have the power to bring down a Mayor in public perception and like to exercise that capability. The article is an example of that.
DeBlasio has real accomplishments, which the article cites. It also acknowledges that a Mayor has little influence or resource with which to remedy income inequality and lack of a housing stock for the poor.
But the article does relish his personal quirks (arriving late to meetings, shouting at aides) as if these were matters of state. I imagine reporters screaming at junior staff after being screamed at by impatient editors. I imagine reporters being lazy and waiting to the last minute to write articles. Are personal quirks really important? Do a content analysis of the article and judge how much of it is about quirks.
I lived in and around NYC for 40 years and retired to warmer climates in Austin. But NYC appears to be a better place for many of its people, doesn't it? Doesn't the Mayor deserve some praise for that?
10
@Greg smith the problem is that de Blasio ran on things like increasing housing stock and reducing income inequality...things that aren't within his control. So at the end of the day, all he had was rhetoric. Quality of life has gotten objectively worse for middle class residents.
134
@Greg smith
You have nailed it. But those people who benefitted from de Blasio's accomplishments do not matter to the NY Times and many of their overprivileged readers. Those who benefitted are not white, they are not affluent, and the many accomplishments that de Blasio achieved in half the time Bloomberg catered to rich white people and their pet causes are invisible because entitled white folks don't care about them.
5
@Greg smith "NYC appears to be a better place for many of its people" -- do you really think so, meaning better during and/or as a result of his administration? Or do you just mean it has improved since the 80s/90s (mostly as a result of demographic trends and crime trends as well as changes put in place by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg)?
4
After this Mayor, I will be voting Republican. This city is running on the fumes of the last two Administrations. Tale of two cities indeed: one that worked and one that doesn't.
33
Here’s a big problem for our time: politicians who display flash over substance tend to win. Over and over, the guys who do their homework and focus on the details tend to get defeated by slick, photogenic pols who are way more interested in campaigning than getting down to the work at hand.
13
@MaryC
The problem for DeBlasio is that he lacks both flash and substance.
2
He is too artificial and calculating for his own good. It works until it doesn't.
12
His accomplishments in office for six years have been few this is particularly discouraging given the economic health this city enjoys. Little has been done with infrastructure or increasing reserves for a rainy day. Some of his Don Quixote programs have just squandered funds, his UN-elected wife has too much influence in city government.
Starting with trying to ban Horse carriages in Central Park he displayed how tone deaf he is. The 4k program and it's execution and funding was taken over by the Governor. The East River Ferries are a transportation success but the subsidies far too great to sustain. Real damage with NYPD was avoided by the skill of Bill Bratton in his first year. To me his best accomplishment was free school lunches something the city could afford and a necessary thing for children.
For six years and a City flush and not tightening it's belt the accomplishments have been small potatoes.
19
De Blasio's fundamental failing was that he only understood the theatrical part of politics and not the practical matter of governing. For a Democrat, the thespian mandate includes promising a freebie to each identity group while decrying capitalism and white men. That got de Blasio into office. Unfortunately, a Mayor also must govern: the subways must run, crime must be controlled, potholes must be fixed, trash must be collected, and government employees must be kept from swindling the taxpayers. The actual governing part of being Mayor was the part that tripped up de Blasio--actually, he failed at it completely. All leadership positions have some ceremonial component, but a candidate for higher office should know more than how to splash on some makeup and swan before the cameras.
16
@Troglotia DuBoeuf
Given that NYC became even safer, with record low crime rates DESPITE ending racist stop and frisk policies, your entire comment proves that any time a liberal succeeds, dishonest right wing Trump supporters offer lies and pretend that those successes are really failures.
1
All self inflicted wounds, and well deserved. When you announce publicly that you want to reshape American society, tax the rich until they scream for mercy, and replace capitalism with socialism, you deserve to be shunned. Not to mention laughed at. de Blasio has allowed New York to lapse back to the bad old days of David Dinkins, with rampant homelessness, a non-functioning mass transit system, and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He deserves the full derision of New Yorkers, and the nation.
19
Bill “do little” Blasio started off with such promise. His aspirations were always higher, and he used the city as his political stepping stone. Not a good idea to lose trust in a city that hosts a good deal of the late night content, when things aren’t working they’ll talk about it.
Oh, and stop spending so much time at the Park Slope YMCA. Not only is it a waste of gas, but a waste of time.
6
DeBlasio is not the worst mayor in my lifetime. That honor would go to John Lindsay and Ed Koch.
The best? Mike Bloomberg, with a very honorable mention to Rudy Giuliani who straightened out his predecessors' mess.
DeBlasio gets credit for not spoling it all again.
8
@MIKEinNYC
I agree that people like you who adore Rudy Giuliani's term will hate de Blasio. I agree that if you are white and you wanted a Mayor who would make you feel like you were better than other races, Giuliani was your man.
There is a reason both Giuliani and Bloomberg were deeply unpopular -- far more so than de Blasio. But since they catered to the white privileged New Yorkers, you would never hear anything negative about them from the media.
1
@RJ
So I take it that you preferred The City when crime was rampant, there were 2,200 murder per year, (now 300), there was dog mess all over the sidewalks, every surface of every subway car was covered with graffiti, you couldn't use a cash machine without looking over your shoulder, the parks were unusable, open use of crack was all over the place, you couldn't park a convertible car on the streets without its top being slit open, not to mention other quality of life issues.
If you miss all that you might enjoy Baltimore.
2
"...looking like a brand ambassador for divorced dads trying to get back out there..."
brilliant!
8
Glad the NYT finally decided to take a hard look at de Blasio after that ridiculous Goldberg column praising him, but I would have liked a harder look at his record, and not just his governing style (or lack thereof). I don't get how the guy ever got a reputation as a "progressive"--besides his appalling record on NYCHA and homelessness, his plan to close Rikers was too little and too late, his only transportation initiaitve has been subsidized ferries for the people who can afford waterfront condos, he wasted over $700 million to keep failing schools open in order to appease the teachers union, his mental health initiative is another multi--million dollar boodoggle with no results...well, I could go on. There is only so long you can coast on universal preK. What has he done for the 99% lately?
20
@Katherine Goldberg lost any credibility with that column, my only guess is that she is not a NYER, or if she is lives on the Upper East Side
2
I'd wager he is not tired of having his official NYC security detail moving his children's furniture though....
20
No matter your political stripes, no one thought it possible that the NYC of the 90s would ever return to NYC.
It seems you cant go anywhere without witnessing his failure in every aspect of City Life. The Garbage, The Homeless, The Police being afraid to do their jobs.
Love them or Hate them, and most NYers probably did both, Guiliani and Bloomberg 20 years of governing now look to be the Golden Age of NYC
28
Bill de Blasio rather obviously and who knows exactly why doesn't have the temperament for the job of mayor/politician. Pretty hard being all tings to all people and as the comments have indicated he seems to have forgotten the middle class. Too many of his people lie to him but from this article he seems that he isn't even meeting with people. Set the time at nine if you can't make eight. And ditch the gym thing -- use a bike. (We have lots of bike lanes.)
That subways were built a hundred years (in fact they work very well- considering) Recently some of the stations were scrubbed clean but not all (14th St. IRT, TS need to be done). The new station at Hudson Yards (Free US work Visas and 20 year tax abatements to all foreigner who buy -- Federal and state laws). There was no need to give Amazon (which frankly should be shackled -- a would be total monopoly) any tax break -- Bezos wanted to be in NYC -- and esp. not for building in LIC.. maybe had they decided to redevelop East NYC. God is in the details.
OTOH the media doesn't help. I often find more pertinent info in the comments than in the articles. Nepotism and favortism BTW Bill does notplay well.
2
What happened should not even be a question. Bill De Blasio had a political death wish from the very beginning. Where to begin?
The most obvious the daily motorcade to the gym. De Blasio simply dismissed people offended at this extravagance as haters. Then seemingly making a point of being routinely late or not showing up, labeling those who took issue as haters. Then the defiantly blasé defense of millions wasted on the Thrive initiative, with sneering testimony delivered by his wife before the city council for good measure. The latest: dismissing outrage at his use of police to move his daughter as unfair. Where to stop? Throw in ostentatious rooting for the Red Sox, as if anyone cares. All this against a nagging underlying dread of a ballooned city budget waiting to blow up.
24
The man never really wanted to be mayor. Not really. His heart wasn't and isn't in it for the real hard work and commitment the job requires. He's an opportunist and a bit of a windbag. A lot of talk, not so much action. Becoming mayor was always a stepping stone for his grander ambitions. Which was and is laughable, as seen by his polling in the primary race, and his ridiculous "performance" in the debates.
6
The last thing we need in the WH is another loud-mouthed New Yorker with a very thin skin.
Bored by your job as mayor of the greatest city in the world, so you decide you need a GREATER venue?
And stop screaming and interrupting in the debates, ( you won't make the next round); you perpetuate the stereotype of the ugly New Yorker!
6
Nice article and so complete-- except for de Blasio's initial refusal to fire the corrupt and lying (under oath) NYCHA Chair, Shola Olatoye. It showed his solid lack of understanding of ethics that is reflected in many of his fund-raising efforts. His loyalty has to be toward the citizens of the city, not one imbedded administrator with whom he had "great faith" even after she lied to City Council.
6
When was he ever “progressive hope”? Barely.
3
Oh please. He's just shopping for a cabinet position because after his current term is up, he is done.
10
This is an excellent example why voters need to closely examine candidates before voting.
Past history is the best predictor of future performance.
Bill has clearly lost interest in his job of mayor.
New Yorkers need to demand that he return home and do his job or resign.
10
@Michael Kittle
The residents of NYCHA voted him in .. he’s a disgrace to the office
2
The article states that de Blasio adopted his mother's maiden name when he was a young man. I believe it's more accurate to say that he did it shortly before he planned to run for city council in a heavily Italian district. He essentially excluded his father from his narrative for a cynical reason.
And his father wasn't just a WWII vet but a hero who lost a leg during the battle for Okinawa. Yes, he was an alcoholic but that is a disease that is nothing to be ashamed of. I haven't heard that de Blasio tried to separate himself from his daughter because of her problems with drug abuse.
And no doubt de Blasio would be better thought of if he had Bloomberg's money to buy off the media and any critiques. And as far as I know for all those accusations of misdeeds against de Blasio, he never funded attempts to challenge black and Latino voters as Bloomberg did during his final mayoral campaign nor did he donate money to right wing Republican candidates as Bloomberg did.
5
Very insightful and accurate from my point of view. Many, many of us who love our city deeply are so disappointed. Even Vision Zero which started with such success has petered out with no overall plan and no neighborhood input -- & more cyclist deaths. What wasted chances all around!
6
Eats a slice with a fork.
Red Sox fan.
Case closed.
14
Sad joke for the city of New York. It’s like being president and running for president of another country.
NYC is experiencing a transit crisis, affordability crisis, and is among the most inequitable cities on the planet. Get to work, or let someone else do it.
210
@Chris N. The Mayor is making the ultimate sacrifice.
I am convinced he has left himself open to ridicule and entered the Presidential Race only to make his fellow Left Wing hopefuls look less scary and more competent in comparison.
9
@Chris N. 1. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority runs the subway, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo controls the authority. Mr. Cuomo appoints the M.T.A. chairman. 2. The last two adminstrations run by Bloomberg and Giuliani are responsible for the current affordability and inequality crisis -- it was their administrations that rezoned much of the city and gave sweetheart deals to developers and corporations to turn New York into an enclave for the rich.
11
@Bill
Are you implying that the mayor has no capacity to improve transit (not explicitly MTA) outcomes?
Even if Bloomberg created affordability crisis (obviously that can't fall entirely on him, anyway...all cities have an affordability problem), no new mayor has the capacity to respond to the errors of previous administrations?
Solving problems handed down by state bureaucracies or by past administrations is absolutely within the purview of de Blasio's job. Didn't he run on these issues? And what good mayor isn't deeply involved in solving problems he/she didn't create?
If you're suggesting de Blasio can't make a difference here, you're bar for mayor of NYC is appallingly low.
19
When Dante declared it "unfair" that some students couldn't afford $1 to park their phones outside of school during the cell phone ban, I predicted the outcome as a 29 year veteran teacher. I was right, as many students now remain fixed on their devices throughout the school day while teachers beg and cajole and are often abused verbally and physically for requesting that the students in their classrooms take a break from social media and video games in order to learn something new. The DOE has no cell phone policy, letting each school devise their own. My school had no policy whatsoever. I even asked a class of 10th graders how they felt about the Mayor not caring whether or not they learned anything in school. Clueless, they looked at me like deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. Realizing that the curtain had just come down on my profession, and the futures of the many NYC public school students who need all the help they can get in order to succeed in life, I retired without looking back. Thanks, Bill and Dante, for your contribution to "equity".
188
@Mr. D . Your theory appears contradicted as this same Dante gained admission and graduation from no less than Yale University.
@Edwin
Not unusual for children of politicians to gain admittance to Ivy schools. Dante was not an academic super star. His father now wants to remove the opportunities for low income Asian children to attend specialized high schools in NYC. Like a typical limousine liberal he wants to pull the ladders of advancement away form minorities he does not seem worthy.
31
@Edwin Yes and I am sure that his father as Mayor and being a minority had nothing to do with it.
29
Congratulations, Matt Flegenheimer! A witty and brilliantly conceived and executed piece of writing . I never imagined I would actually enjoy reading a lengthy profile/ deconstruction of the psyche of our mayor. Thank you.
27
He is a product of his own making.
Where he could have forged a better alliance with Albany and Washington, he stumbled badly. His poor financial stewardship will leave the city with multiple. issues to be resolved.
Hopefully, he will be on time for his last day in office. As to his political aspirations, it is difficult to perceive of any Democratic Administration offering him an opportunity.
Given his tardiness, teaching is probably off the table as well.
43
This is why people (left and right) are fed up with politicians. Do your job. The one for THE PEOPLE who hired you in the first place
58
Same sense of entitlement as Hillary Clinton, with same outcome.
59
@Harry Perfect comment. Hillary duped the voters of new York state into voting for another carpetbagger in the Robert Kennedy mold. Both used the position of Senator to immediately position themselves for higher office, doing nothing for their constituents. de Blasio tried to vault himself into the presidential campaign based on his "experience" as mayor. Unfortunately for him, and all new York City residents, he had no substantive record of accomplishments to run on.
8
@Harry
Same outcome? You mean a city with the lowest crime rate that is thriving and working to combat racism and segregation?
You mean a city that had high rents because so many people want to live here?
@Harry I actually thought Hillary was a terrific Senator. She was smart on policy, capable of brokering deals, all the things a Senator should be. I really, really wanted her to stay as a Senator, because I thought it played to her strengths (and she'd probably be leading the Democrats in the Senate by now.) Instead, she ran for President and I thought -- oh, dear. That is not her strength -- bringing people together with natural charisma.
In both cases, though, the idea of being President outstripped the person's proper talents.
2
This brilliant city of New York deserves better leadership. And, if you’ve looked around town recently, it shows.
37
I so hope none of the Democratic candidates comes up with the idea i saw in an earlier comment, ie, de Blasio as running mate. Not sure I could stomach voting for a ticket that includes him.
I lived in, and worked for NYC for more than a decade. Being the Mayor is a hard job, and if you don’t want to put in the hours to do the work, you shouldn’t run.
It may sound crazy, but his insistence on being chauffeured to the Prospect Park Y every day just puts me over the edge. The only way to get from Gracie Mansion to the PPY in 40 minutes is with lights and sirens. A huge waste of taxpayer money, the creation of potential hazard to other drivers, and all so he can work out his gym of choice. And he probably only does it to prove he’s just an ordinary guy sticking to his old neighborhood even though he was elected Mayor. Incredibly wasteful, and a farce.
No thanks. Hope he doesn’t start showing up on MSNBC after his pointless presidential run fizzles, and New Yorkers summarily vote him out of office next time should he be crazy enough to seek re-election.
95
@cirincis He is term limited, hence his urgency at finding another job.
4
Unfortunately he allowed over development in the city and all services are strained severely. From the unsafe and filthy subways, to the mess of traffic while developers over built with minor concessions for middle income and low income housing. Homelessness is all over the city and the city has a failing housing department for its existing tenants. The cost of living in the city has soared. $100,000 a year is the old $40,000. Studios are $3,000 and wages are increasing at a very low pace. There are so many empty stores due to greedy landlords and NYC is no longer appealing . Uber and Lyft are clogging the streets as they were allowed to bankrupt the yellow cab industry. Bicycles are clogging traffic.The police seem like wimps at times allowing themselves to be hit by water balloons in Harlem . They only want overtime. Send the police to high crime areas.if DeBlasio can run the city anyone can. The same is true for Trump . We have poor leadership in the US currently.
44
Mr. deBlasio giving ' quixotic' a bad name- its one thing to have lofty aspirations, and another to don the armor and get out there every day and fight the unbeatable foe. This would mean attention every every day to the quality of life here in this city - cleaning-our subways and our streets would be a good place to start.
10
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This article expresses so much of what I've thought about the mayor and clearly shows what a phony he is. As a moderate democrat and lover of our city, I really feel no connection to this mayor. de Blasio inherited a city that was on the rise when he took office, the economy was growing, crime was down, etc...
It is no surprise that he has no support in his presidential bid. My worry is that the democratic leadership team that allows him to even entertain this idea will come back to our city and promote another phony once he leaves. Their lack of telling him the truth -that he has no chance, is actually a disservice to our nation.
33
It's easy to bash people, not so easy to try to bring out the true picture. I think DeBlasio's heart is in the right place. He also inherited a lot of problems that Bloomberg refused to address, specifically the horrors of Rikers Island, the extreme income inequality in New York and a broken educational system. DeBlasio, unlike his three predecessors, comes across as somewhat clumsy and introspective (almost unheard of in a politician.) Bloomberg did a lot to gentrify NY, most of it very conspicuous and for that he got a lot of praise. The greening of NY under Bloomberg was great, the gentrification, not so good. de Blasio seems most comfortable doing behind the scenes work, as he did for Hillary Clinton. A lot of his problem is rooted in the fact that neither he nor his wife seem to be particularly charismatic or easy going with crowds of people. I think the press is too hard on him - and why make his ultra liberal background a negative? You made fun of it as cartoonish, but it's quite impressive.
11
@Joanna Stelling
I'm glad you can't vote in NYC. Many of us would gladly pay for DBlasio's one-way ticket to NJ.
4
@Michael McAllister
He's not welcome here either.
1
@Michael McAllister
Those of us who can vote in NYC....did vote. And relected him by a landslide. Quite recently. The "many of us" you refer to are the readers of the NYTimes.
The mayor of this great city likes to stay home and watch TV reruns? It's evident that he doesn't have that passionate love of the city that is emblematic of New Yorkers. It would be nice if he worked harder on making this city more affordable so the rest of us could go out on the town more often.
18
@H Bolando I'd respect him more if he re-watched The Wire on blu-ray discs.
The impression he gives is that he's more interested in his reputation than in actually achieving anything. That may not be particularly unusual for a New York City Mayor, but he also lacks the bizarre and colorful personality New Yorkers expect from their figurehead. Digging deeper, he's been something of a mild disaster for the city's social services programs, doing nothing about paying the nonprofits that carry the city's workload - either what they deserve or anywhere near on time. Thus, overall, he has a lot more debits than credits to his name.
12
He ran for mayor basically unopposed. Nobody every liked him or was excited about him except his cronies. He has zero charisma. If there weren't term limits, Bloomberg would still be mayor and we'd all be better off. The most bizarre thing is how De Blasio somehow believed his own hype, he always wanted to run for President and it was always a pathetic joke.
53
A more valuable (and interesting) article would be about the accomplishments of this mayor’s administration and the state of the city, which has issues but is pretty great compared to most of the last 50 years. We won’t get that from the city’s press. We live in an era in which our reporters have no hesitation putting themselves in the middle of the story, and no hesitation reporting relentlessly on ginned up non-scandals.
This article is the apotheosis of the de Blasio experience of the press. I read half of it.... zero useful info about the administration and what it’s accomplished, zero info about the actual state of the city... but everything about egos of the mayor and of the reporters who have become pundits on the news pages, stroking their own wannabe brilliance, who can’t be bothered to report on anything without putting themselves, and their (now very cold) take on the subject, in the middle. So I stopped reading.
12
What did he accomplish?
Compared to the prior 2 mayors in their 2nd term are his accomplishment less, same or more?
3
@BS
Way more than Bloomberg. Universal pre-k, right to counsel, ferry service, paid sick leave and other worker protections, elevated minimum wage... The only good things I remember from Bloomberg are the smoking ban and some nice fancy new parks. And I worked for two city agencies under Bloomberg! He was good at cultivating a veneer of competence, but there was nothing underneath, and the economic inequality that reached a fever pitch during his reign was abominable.
1
This piece perfectly condenses and articulates this current New Yorker’s (and, I suspect, many others’) feelings on Hizzoner.
Matt Flegenheimer—I plan to reference your work in the future to remind myself of his laughable second term and delusional Presidential bid. Future generations may judge de Blasio kindly (doubtful), but right now he deserves every single word written about him.
I can see why this profile caused the mayor to skip the NYPD monthly crime rate announcement. It’s hard to be confronted with a mile-long list of how your vanity has negatively impacted millions of New Yorkers.
15
So, de Blasio is never around NYC any more. The real question, then, is "Why is anyone upset about that?"
18
@Connecticut Yankee Well the rest of the country wishes he would stay home.
2
Gov. Cuomo has run rings around de Blasio in the progressive arena, just in the last legislative session alone. AND he doesn’t go around bloviating that he’s a progressive. Look at the way Mayor Koch rose to the occasion in NYC and how deBlasio has sunk. Bottom line—deBlasio is ineffective at virtually everything he puts his mind too.
22
How can there be such a long article without mentioning in detail the massive corruption scandals involving donors in which the mayor barely escaped indictment? (sorry but a link does not do it) His cozy relationship with various developers who donated to his campaign has been particularly devastating as well as his horrific record regarding New York City Public Housing. He literally allowed children to be poisoned by lead paint , then highly praised the person who covered it up as she was driven from office only to work for a developer making campaign contributions in order to get more projects in the city. This is NYC's Flint and again only mentioned here generically and with a link. de Blasio is by far the most hypocritical, damaging and fake progressive in the United States. I am actually glad he is running for president as any day he is not in the city is an improvement.
50
The problem for De Blasio is that the quality of life in the city has deteriorated under his leadership. The streets stink of urine and filth. Traffic congestion is horrendous while the mayor focuses on bike lanes. The mayor does not recognize that NYC is not Amsterdam. Air quality is bad and idling engines contribute to the toxic miasma we call air. Cars, buses, trucks, idle their engines while parked. The subways break down, some lines function as homes for the homeless. Rats scurry over the tracks and sometimes up onto the platforms. Buses crawl through traffic.
102
Thank you for this highly entertaining and well written profile of a man who should return from where he came — Boston.
58
I resent that my taxpayer dollars are paying DeBlasio a salary so that he can travel around the country to campaign for an office he is neither qualified to hold nor capable of winning.
211
@Elisabeth
I’m with you, and I also resent my governor Jay Inslee’s vanity presidential campaign, which is costing WA taxpayers millions — all so he can be in the running for a cabinet position. The egotism is quite sickening.
1
Most New Yorkers only know him as that guy who takes a city paid car to the gym. Take public transportation if you want to be elected to a position other than chief dog walker.
36
I just read the headline. As a born and raised in NYC and as someone who has lived there most of my adult life who has recently left to live in Europe, how can you not be sick of NYC? It's a shadow of itself and now has malls with ugly buildings with people to take pictures of themselves. Nightlife has been relegated to Brooklyn (to the extent that it exists at all). Bloomberg decided years ago that every New Yorker's silent wish was that it became a very crowded Scarsdale. It's the least cutting edge city in the world with a completely broken infrastructure (who needs subways, Scarsdale people have drivers). I was homesick for NYC before I left. I can see a time when I never come back. I feel sorry for De Blasio, Mayor of whatever this is now.
18
Matt,
I haven't noticed if I have read your work before today -- and in sincerely putting any personal opinion aside -- your article is one of the best written pieces I have read in seemingly forever. Everything from prose to pacing to grammar and transitions to balance and thoughfulness etc etc etc
Thank you
17
His Honor needs to learn a thing or two about P.R. New Yorkers soured on Mr. de Blasio in large part because he and his crew handled the press very badly. In the case of his presidential run, it's just too late to fix that. And of course, as a result, his mayoral behavior comes into question as well. That said, he's actually been a pretty decent mayor, in my opinion.
3
No. We soured on him because he gave our neighborhoods to rich developers
6
The mistake is thinking that DeBlasio, or any mayor, can do anything for the people of the city. The price exacted by the city’s elite for bringing the city back from bankruptcy in the 1970’s was to shift spending from social programs toward the private sector. The city’s elites needed to save their own wealth and power. NYC became a place of tourism, consumerism, cultural consumption with banks and expensive real estate. The city can’t build housing for the middle class, much less the poor. The city doesn’t own the land. You can’t do anything without the people who are the city’s major stakeholders. Yeah, the mayor can do a few things around the edges like an early childhood program. So what? There almost no poor or even middle class people left in New York but there are still complaints about undeserving people who are getting something for nothing. Occasionally the people revolt and an Amazon slinks away but they are negotiating for a lot of space as I write this. If I were DeBlasio I’d get out of town too.
11
@Jc It is impossible to believe your are really a New Yorker if you think there are almost no poor or even middle class people left in NY.
New York politicians are always connectable to very wealthy people who use money for political influence. New York state and city have historically been very corrupt. New York tolerated and even promoted Trump.
On a national level New York has given us Trump and Rudy Giuliani in recent times.
In my opinion New York politicians are generally concerned with the issues that affect the wealthy. That includes many DFL politicians. Lip service is paid to the liberal cause but actions tell the truth. At best their actions can be considered incremental with the intent to not harm the wealthy. It looks a lot like they believe in trickle down economics since they believe if they service the wealthy everyone will benefit.
7
@Chris Uh, no one here supports Trump or promoted him.
De Blasio was originally the least-liked candidate for mayor, too, but he won, somehow. Don't underestimate this skill at pulling off dark-horse wins.
Remember, too, unpopular politicians are often sought for the VP position. Imagine a Midwest moderate Presidential candidate seeking to diversify her bid with a progressive from one of the coasts…
5
@DPB De Blasio one heartbeat away from the presidency? I would rather have 4 more years of Trump, and that says a lot.
16
One of the problems is that people see the spotty performance and sometimes odd behavior of this mayor (i.e., the wasteful morning caravans to the Brooklyn gym) and they say to themselves, “If this is a progressive, then I’m out.” He makes things harder for real progressives to pursue their agenda.
30
Like many New Yorkers, I am not the biggest fan of our Mayor. HOWEVER, it must be said that significant LEGISLATIVE strides have been made under his leadership, specifically:
1) Universal pre-K
2) Six weeks of paid parental leave
3) The end of stop and frisk leading to historically low crime rates
It makes me wonder what else could be achieved if he delayed his political aspirations for the presidency and really focused on his elected role.
19
As a former resident of the city, it genuinely amazes me that we could go from a hyper-capable and effective mayor like Bloomberg to an incompetent narcissist like deBlasio. You don't know what you've got till it's gone I guess. Hopefully New Yorkers will remember that in the next mayoral election, and not vote based on the color of the candidate's wife.
192
@KM If by competent you mean arresting democratic protesters during the Republican convention, going all out with stop and frisk and corrupting city council members so he could be elected him to a third term against the ratifications of two two-term referendums, then I have to agree: he's sure competent at doing the wrong things.
14
@DMMP Arresting protesters who were disrupting an important public event was good. Stop and Frisk was a good policy that saved lives, I thought democrats were all about stopping gun violence?
24
@KM
Bloomberg and his Albert Speer, Daniel Doctoroff envisioned NYC recreated, in their own magnified self-image, as a new Athens, full of gleaming towers and philosopher-epicures, with the uneducated riffraff swept out to the fringes of the city. Instead what they got was a sterile, soulless, forest of glass prisons, containing vapid, incurious, self-indulgent philistines, all scrambling for the next hot spot to stuff their faces. No quirky shops, no serendipitous pleasures from just strolling, no art or architecture worth viewing, just a uniformly bland technopolis, in other words, Bloomberg personified.
Bloomberg catered to the real estate interests because it was a matter of class allegiance; de Blasio caters to them because he is an abject stooge. The result is the same.
22
Worst Mayor Ever. And I grew up under Ed Beame so I know from worst mayors. No ethics, no leadership, no clue.
79
@Kount Kookula
Abe Beame (a midget) towers over DeBlasio.
3
DeBlasio's presidential ambitions are no more ridiculous than John Lindsey's or Rudy Giuliani's. What he lacks though is a real love for both the job and the city. Most mayors have an enthusiasm for and a boosterism of the city they represent. DeBlasio seems to think NYC should be more enthusiastic about him, not vice-versa.
It's kind of creepy.
82
He was always a limo liberal, identity obsessed social engineer that played well in NYC and other extreme liberal cities but not outside these area.
Nothing new. He was never a moderate progressive like Obama or Biden.
23
The wrong NY mayor ran for president.
Bloomberg would have been excellent
298
@John Yes! He was excellent at arresting democratic protesters during the Republican convention, going all out with stop and frisk and corrupting city council members so he could be elected him to a third term against the ratifications of two two-term referendums.
20
@John
Yes, Bloomberg would have been superb as Pres. What a shame the country never had a chance to vote for him.
I miss him very much.
20
De Blasio isn’t a mystery. He likes campaigning. He likes big ideas. He hates doing the actual day to day grind of governing. He wants all the glory and none of the work. In the end he is just lazy.
230
@Jonathan
We are seeing that exact same show by the current occupant in the White House.
Time to cancel that program for the 2020 season.
Why would anyone replace a failed show with the same content?
14
I've lived in NYC for 18 years and he is the WORST Mayor I have personally witnessed! Bring back Bloomberg!
89
@Jean Heinsohn I have lived in NYC 35 years. Yes, de Blasio is the worst bar none in that time. Bring back Bloomberg!
24
@B
I've been here for the same amount of time (35 years), and I honestly think that second-term Giuliani and third-term Koch were worse (second-tern Giuliani considerably worse) than De Blasio.
Even so, at the time he was elected, I think he was probably the best choice that was actually on the menu. (Although if I had known that he treats his staff as badly as Christine Quinn did, and perhaps worse, I would not have voted for him.)
As a native New Yorker, I've been against this phony hack politician since day one. Progressive? Needs of the poor over those of wealth? Is that why he loves his police escort from Gracie Mansion to his Park Slope gym for his daily workouts on those few days he's actually in town, costing the city needless thousands clearly without any noticeable results to DeBlasio's physique? Or why he spent so much political capital trying to put the carriage horses who meander through Central Park out to pasture as the number of homeless increases during his time in office? Or his going on TV to tout the resurfacing of the FDR Drive "in record time" while that short stretch of road IS NOT and HAS NEVER BEEN completed? Riker's Island? He barely knew where it was before everyone started screaming for it's closure and then he tepidly got on board. Or Amazon? Trying to force the deal down our throats IN PRIVATE with no consultation at all between government and community AND NOW he boasts about "taxing the rich". PRAISING the deal between NYCHA and Ben Carson which brought the Feds into do the job that the city, under HIS watch, has failed to do in ridding apartments of lead and much more? Praising that failure as a success? At least with the Republicans you know where you stand - they stand for nothing and you expect nothing. With politicians like "Do-Nothing" DeBlasio, they PRETEND they care when they don't which in my book is even a worse character flaw than having no principles at all.
56
Fix the subway!!!
21
@LiberalNotLemming
The MTA is controlled by the state, not the city. You're yelling at the wrong guy.
1
Bill de Blasio hardly had a chance. From the get-go, he was viciously attacked by the New York Post ( a Murdoch/Trump tabloid) and the Daily News. Occasionally, the Times attacked him, too. Also, the governor has been hostile and uncooperative on important matters, such as schools and subways. The landlords and developers have fought him, too, as well as the wealthy supporters of charter schools
Nevertheless, he has been a good mayor, far better than Giuliani and Koch, whom blacks feared. I would rank him with Bill O'Dwyer, who governed New York in its glory days, Impelliteri, Wagner, and Lindsay.
The voters liked him and re-elected him to a second term. Maybe he shouldn't have run again With the forces arrayed against him, he may have burned himself out.
7
Check out the spike in NYC spending and public employment under this Mayor. He is a child.
30
I had no opinion of the Mayor until my recent visit to the city. It was filthy. I have been to NYC many many times and this is the first time I noticed so much garbage and debris in the streets. I had recently been to Barcelona and city workers are all over sweeping the streets. Not a hard fix.
68
I feel scammed by DeBlasio. In his first mayoral run, he campaigned on saving Long Island College Hospital (remember how he was arrested at a protest?) and promptly forgot about it after his election. And that was just the beginning. There is no affection for him in NYC for good reason.
30
Well, we now have a runner up in the worst mayor of NYC category. Rudy Giuliani still holds the crown, but Bill Di Blasio turns in a solid performance as his challenger.
14
Our absentee Mayor the Prime Progressive has made NYC Progressively worse! What a shame to walk the streets stinking of urine, piles of trash, people smoking weed, bicycles going in every direction with no regard to basic traffic rules, drivers routinely running red lights and the NYPD basically told to stand down.
Don’t want to mention the Homeless that get no meaningful help or the failing schools or his financial shenanigans.
We have a long time to suffer through this and who knows how much worse it will be!
30
He is the worst NYC mayor of my lifetime (and I'm in my late 60's).
37
This is what happened. He’s not a meunch who represents the best of the city to us or the world. Say what you want about Bloomberg but at least he was respected. De Blasio sleeps in, eats a pizza with a knife and fork and is open about his love for the Red Sox. All three things, antithetical to what NyC represents. Cuomo saved the L train. Rent is still going up. He has coasted off Bloomberg’s accomplishments and alienated the NYPD, teachers union, the Asian community, the MTA, Albany and everyone else in between. He wastes the day going to park slope just to work out. Cyclists are dying at unprecedented rates. He skipped the pride parade and the Puerto Rican parade and wouldn’t march in the St Patrick’s day one. He’s progressive enough to claim he’s environmentally conscious, pro immigrant and small business but then arrests, confiscates and makes illegal the green transportation that is used to help both. NYC is the most important city in the world. It requires a full time mayor. Deciding to run for President when it’s quite obvious there is no chance is symbolic of where his allegiances lay. Now he’s embarrassing the city in front of the whole world. He puts himself over the city time after time after time and New Yorkers don’t like coming second to anybody. That is what happened.
52
@Mat. "...arrests, confiscates and makes illegal the green transportation that is used to help both." I wish! Whether I am walking or riding my bike, I am t greater risk of harm from delivery people racing on sidewalks, streets and bike lanes, in any direction they like, often without lights in the dark, completely oblivious to pedestrian traffic , and apparently immune from law enforcement. Bill De Blasio touts the mutually exclusive goals of increasing human-energy-free bicycles and scooters while out of the other side of his mouth espousing a campaign to decrease the real threat of an increasingly obese populace.
2
@Mat
I lived in NYC for many years, in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
I eat pizza with a knife and fork because of dental problems with my front teeth.
If eating certain foods with a knife and fork is "antithetical to what NYC represents," I'm a monkey's uncle.
@fast/furious his teeth are fine, its that he has utter disdain for NY and NYers. they are beneath him
2
Familiarity breeds contempt, what else is there to be said?
1
Bill de Blasio is arrogant, and that is the basic reason we don’t like him. I’m a lifelong Democrat and I’ve only voted against two Democrats, de Blasio is one of them. The other was Elliot Spitzer. Can you guess why?
12
Most New Yorkers just wish he would just go away. We, will see his ability to lead after the verdict is announced on the cop who choked Mr. Garner.
11
De Blasio shows what happens when socialistic, progressive ideals and politics are applied to the real world. The people in power become corrupt and ignore the state of the same people they are trying to help. The housing authority, the subways, the increase in violence, the way police are treated are all examples. His rule is a litmus test for the leftists.
29
No one who kowtows to Big Real Estate is a progressive.
5
@JoeGiul
Ending "stop and frisk" has not resulted in any increase in violence or crime. Also, the Governor controls the MTA and is primarily responsible for the state of the subways.
He should be removed from duty so the city has the opportunity to enjoy the attentions of a focused person because we need it badly. De Blasio is a joke and his attitude and way of communicating so alienating. We deserve much better.
12
And this article title is the last nail in DeBlasio's political coffin.
6
Gosh, maybe just being “progressive” isn’t enough. Perhaps trying to manage a large city requires experience and competence. I know, I know, these remarks aren’t particularly “woke”.
36
DiBlasio doesn't have the temperament for the job as this terrific article points out. An unabashed Red Sox fan, he doesn't seem to get that New Yorkers really don't want their mayors to root for rival sports teams. We boo and razz our mayors all the time, but the ones who revel in it - Koch, Giuliani - succeed. DiBlasio comes across as an arrogant know-it-all who's never made a mistake. I would have liked to see more in this story about the sheer incompetence of his administration: The author alluded to his wife's squandering several hundred million taxpayer dollars on a vaguely defined mental health initiative, but what about his NYCHA commissioner who falsified reports about lead inspections? In true DeBlasio fashion, at the second debate he trumpeted his record on eliminating lead in public buildings. It really is comical, how utterly clueless he is. That's why for so many, he can't leave fast enough.
46
@Arthur Larkin
The NYCHA falsifying lead paint reports is much worse than it seems. In addition to directly causing permanent learning impairment among the most vulnerable of society, De Blasio should also know that it is his constituents that are really being victimized.
Rather than spend the hundreds of millions to make the necessary repairs on this lead paint, the DeBlasio administration is contesting 94% of the results in court. By the time it winds it way through the courts, he will be long out of office and can blame his successor.
11
To understand de Blasio's unpopularity you need look no further than his rezonings. Bloomberg did plenty of rezonings, but they were balanced affairs of upzonings and downzonings designed to make a modern New York thrive (and they did). De Blasio managed to upset everyone by throwing out the zoning handbook entirely -- it's not entirely clear he actually understands the concepts behind zoning, despite New York having inventing it.
Despite being well intentioned, the upzonings were badly handled by EDC and ramrodded through with zero community feedback. The process involved so much propaganda and spin that everyone ended up offended. And in the end it was never about housing as much as creating juicy sites for cronies and allies.
Just look at the Inwood rezoning -- rather than approach it as a city planner would, creating an evenhanded increase in density consistent with the existing neighborhood, de Blasio's mess of a plan actually created fewer housing units but concentrated them in a few 30-story sites owned by his friends. It was never about building a better city.
18
@North
„designed to make a modern New York thrive „..... yep no more middle class, only rich. No more sun, only shadow. No more stores, only empty storefronts. No taxes from the glass buildings, only use of city infrastructure... and so on and so on.
Incredible how short memories are... Bloomberg! exactly! Bloomberg thought of 12 years.. but simply forgot to do anything for the 13 nd year... - subway, air quality, neighborhoods, quality of ( us!) life - we build for a better New York..!?! - so where is it now?
Don’t think it worked so well despite the saying we will have the best city in the world..
If I hear one more praise of that over- the- term mayor I am today! 2019 going to scream!
1
Right from the beginning of his first term, Bill de Blasio was more interested in being the national progressive spokesperson than being Mayor. He set up a national organization that failed. He campaigned against Republicans Upstate New York and it backfired, hurting New York City instead. He is now running for President and his campaign is running into the ground. What I'm sure that his next goal will be to get a job on some network as a commentator after his term expires. Once again, he only wanted the Mayor's position as a stepping stone for national prominence.
279
@Louis Bill DiBlasio is a cautionary tale for those seeking more Progressives Statewide, in the Senate and in The White House
14
@Louis Right from the beginning indeed — he used his first inauguration as a platform for Bloomberg-bashing, disgusting treatment for the outstanding outgoing Mayor.
20
@Louis: From what I've seen, De Blasio is mostly interested in lining his pockets with payoffs from developers and others who seek his "favor." He's an empty suit with a nasty attitude. Worse, he's not even from NYC - and recent history shows us that mayors who were born & raised in another location are NOT actually capable of understanding NYC.
De Blasio's mayoralty is a disgusting affront to all ordinary New Yorkers; we deserve a REAL mayor who will give priority to our needs.
9
Being Mayor of New York is perhaps the 2nd hardest job in America. You can't run New York from a distance. It's not that kind of city. It requires someone's full and undivided attention.
Being Mayor of New York is not like being a Congressman, Senator, or serving in any representative role. You can't run for President - even if the public wanted you to, which we don't - and still do the job.
Bill de Blasio should promote "his brand" on his time and not ours.
155
@Matthew Carnicelli
Running a city with a money tree like Wall Street is the easiest thing in the world - all you have to do is not eat the goose that continually lays the golden eggs.
Try running a rust bucket city with no taxpayers and everybody's hand out
7
I doubt the job is harder than governing California or Texas, but it is certainly up there as requiring an exceptional leader with exceptional work ethics. Sounds like Mayor Bill has fallen significantly short in both counts.
This Carpetbagger took this job with absolutely NO intention of staying. His ego is so out-of-control that he thinks he is spouting new and Creative ideas. For the safety and health of out city, LET HIM RUN and Bill, please DONT come back.
102
De Blasio as a 'progressive hope' was always pathologically delusional thinking.
He is and has always been nothing more than a political hack looking for his next quid pro quo.
That he was reelected shows just how toxic New York politics is.
47
I'm no fan of de Blasio, but at least when he ran out of ideas as Mayor he decided to take his show on the road and leave us alone.
When Bloomberg ran out of ideas during his 3rd term we got a bunch of annoying Nanny State stuff like the soda ban.
7
@SMK
I'm feeling nostalgic for the days when we could all argue about things as goofy and innocuous as the soda ban. But on the nanny state topic, I've learned to love the calorie info on menus. When we travel to other places, I miss it! (And, yes, I know menu descriptions give us enough info to determine that something's unhealthy, but seeing it in black and white is helpful.)
3
The start of this article refers to New York as the city de Blasio "leads."
Besides the categories of political sleaze and absenteeism from work, it's unclear in what area de Blasio has ever led New York.
And please don't insult progressives by asserting this guy was their "hope."
28
The man does nothing as Mayor.
People in the gym he belongs to, say that he shows up to exercise with his security detail at their gym at 10:30 in the morning.
Why isn't he at work, at that time being mayor? He should be exercising early in the morning, or later at night, just as any other working stiff would be doing.
The only other elected official that does less work than Blas is Trump, who watches Fox news 4 to 6+ hours a day.
And he wants Trump's job.
Maybe the two of them could share a joint Presidency, and Blas could exercise all day, while Trump watches Fox all night.
They're both a waste!
125
Why de Blasio is disliked? Because he runs on false progressive platforms that appeal to the upper crust at the expense of the hardest-working poor: get rid of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park! (Very largely Irish immigrant drivers, a trade that has gone on for 150 years, and a ban that looks mysteriously like it would hugely favor de Blasio’s real estate buddies by offering up the stables.) Get rid of e-bikes - they’re dangerous! (Zero stats to show they are, as opposed to car stats, and ban really hurts the immigrant delivery folks, mostly Chinese and Latin American.) Get rid of specialized high schools! (One of *the* great resources for first generation immigrants to get a private school-equivalent education, even if the parents are penniless.) This kind of stuff doesn’t go over well in a city filled with striving immigrants, and those one generation away.
112
@GG - I cannot forgive him for the horse-carriage issue. The Central Park carriage horses have it made--a steady and easy job, a good diet, comfortable stables, veterinary care, and companionship from stablemates and owners and drivers who love them. Instead he uses the misguided calls from the anti-animal welfare, animal-rights movement as cover to try to kill a traditional, working-class NYC industry in favor of his wealthy real-estate buddies. Also, de Blasio is a Red Sox fan in a Yankees/Mets town. He can't leave office soon enough for me.
3
No mayor of the consolidated (1898) City of New York has gone on to higher office.
3
We found out that de Blasio is a fraud. He ran a great campaign the first time around, tapping into a lot of building resentments and dissatisfaction after 3 terms of Bloomberg. Once he got into office, he had (and still has) no idea what he was doing. He has poor judgment in every respect.
72
Mayor Michael Bloomberg initiated the transformation of NYC into a playground for the rich, young college graduates and tourists. Rezoning and tax deals enabling luxurification - starting the tsunami of neighborhood destruction, displacing middle moderate and low income residents and small businesses.
Was incredibly hopeful about Mayor de Blasio as he discussed the tale of “two cities.”
But sadly Mayor de Blasio has allowed destruction of affordable housing and neighborhoods! He has aligned with luxury real estate. The East Village is a prime example.
He has also seemed uninterested in basic city infrastructure needs like trash etc. The garbage is overflowing on Manhattan streets and rats are a problem. Many other issues as well.
No longer have any faith in Mayor de Blasio.
35
De Blasio shares a couple of key traits with Trump - arrogance and narcissism. Neither trait wears well and generally ends with the wearer overstepping their way into disgrace, or in Trump’s case, prison. The Times has cut Metro coverage and not covered city hall as aggressively as it once did - but I’m guessing when De Blasio is gone the extent of the bad policy making and low-level corruption will come out.
32
Two words: Tech Center. Two more words: Rivington House. Crony politics from all appearances. But I do give him credit for his gumption.
10
de Blasio is one of the few avowed leftist/socialists to achieve and exercise executive authority over a large number of people in the US (as compared to Warren and Sanders, who have zero practical power and authority as minority party Senators). In one of the most liberal cities in the United States his legacy is massive unpopularity. That indisputable fact is why a progressive will never be elected to nationwide office - never. Bill has in fact done the USA a service, serving as a cautionary tale.
48
@Richard
That is if people outside of NY and the region are aware of the damage he has wrought. I hope they are and that they take note.
9
Yeah because Americans love their expensive for-profit health care. Why, nobody in America worries about how they will pay their medical bills! No one! And no American family is worried about high interest student debt. Yoking our children to debt that will take a lifetime to discharge is no problem at all!
And Americans don’t want living wage jobs! We don’t want action on climate change. And we surely don’t want money out of politics!
Tax cuts for the rich!
1
One of the most liberal cities in America, not one of the most progressive, and a liberal city with a strange penchant for voting in Republican mayors, and some like Giuliani, with fascist tendencies. Maybe New York’s liberalism is all on the surface.
Perhaps those on the Left should listen more to those on the Right. Republicans predicted (in fact were certain) that Del Blasio would be a spectacular failure.
12
@Matt Williams, de Blaiso is not unique among politicians. How many newsworthy opponents faded into oblivion following the 2016 Republican debates? All of them, and have found rocks to crawl under, avoiding association with trump. One of trump’s earliest supports Jeff Sessions morphed into hologram in another dimension.
3
Except that he’s not a failure because progressive policies don’t work, as conservatives claimed. He’s a failure because he hasn’t actually tried to IMPLEMENT any of them. That is why everyone who voted for him sees him as a gigantic disappointment.
13
@Matt Williams Your comment infers that Republicans are never failures, which is the funniest thing I've heard all week.
2
Whoever saw Bill de Blasio as a “progressive hope”?
He has shown much more interest in promoting the political fortunes of himself and his wife than in leading and improving the city of which he is the titular mayor (I say titular because he is away on the presidential campaign trail so much).
Given de Blasio’s near-or-at-the-bottom of polls after the July TV debates, I’m happy to see that voters across the nation have not bought his posturing.
54
It is always amazing and amusing to me how tone deaf politicians get with regard to their real popularity as well as how many of them are able to trick voters once for a good ride then their one hit wonder is over. Hopefully that will be the case with Trump as well.
6
I worry that when this campaign of his is over and he retreats to Gracie Mansion, he'll be more disinterested in the mechanics of governing than ever before. If you think managing trash collection, street paving, parks and public housing was not his cup of tea before, you haven't seen anything yet.
I've often felt that NYC needs a pure technocrat mayor: someone who enjoys managing a vast bureaucracy and lives to make agencies work best for the citizens - not someone with delusions of grandeur on a national stage. This article shows that we clearly are stuck with the latter.
121
@Brian, sounds like you miss Bloomberg. I do, although I didn’t agree with every one of his policies. He was a good mayor. Too bad is decided not to run for President. But then again the food fight it’s become, who can blame him?
20
De Blasio wholly exhibits the same "Do what I say because I'm -obviously- smarter than you" attitude that turned so many voters away from Clinton.
36
I disagree with this articles portrayal of Mayor de Blasio. I believe the Mayor fights for New York everyday & at times loses sleep. Unlike the aides quoted in this article, I use my real name while commenting in the NY Times. I belong to the same YMCA the mayor frequents in Park Slope Brooklyn and have spoken to Bill de Blasio on several occasions. The conversation with the mayor I most recall took place the day after Miami's Alberto Carvalho went back on his word, after committing to the job of New York School Superintendent. Despite the mayor's obvious disappointment, our conversation was geared towards finding the best candidate for NYC. I told the mayor Mr. Carvalho did NY a favor by showing his true colors early. Despite our locker room chats, I don't agree with everything the mayor advocates, but I do believe Bill de Blasio is committed to the people of New York. The uneven results of human achievements evoke simplistic notions of injustice that can cause people to misunderstand the best actions that require difficult decisions. Any NY citizen with a proactively civic mentality has to closely follow current politics and affairs, since the decisions made at city hall are neither simple nor transparent. These acts naturally affect the future success of the city and require continuous attention. These aides should ask, why work for a mayor they don't support? Is it possible their counterproductive stories prevent these aides from seeing themselves objectively?
13
@José Franco
Jose, it is really great that you have direct access to the mayor. It would be wonderful if he were to shrink his carbon footprint by not having two suburbans go from Gracie Mansion to Brooklyn. Also, it would be great if he were to exercise earlier and perhaps get back to City Hall before 11:00 AM
Lastly, Chancellor Carranza is more a race baitor than educator. Please tell the Mayor to focus more on improving the schools for every child and stop picking on Asians.
2
New York City deserves a great mayor. It is a great and fascinating metropolis.
But it is also a sketch pad onto which divisive politicians can play out the worst in people.
In that sense, it shares a fateful treatment common among so many major cities in an age where leadership is an occupation to be jealously guarded rather than a calling to be humbly called.
13
I thank DiBlasio for replacing NJ as the most joked about place on the east coast. I have to admit, it was hard to accomplish that, but gotta give him credit. The only brand in recent memory to have performed as bad as NYC these past few years perhaps is SEARS.
37
De Blasio is De-lusional; however, I do admire his tenacity. That is the only positive thing I can say about him.
5
He should run for alcalde de Managua. he could win, especially if only about a quarter of the electorate votes. That was about the percentage of NYC voters who voted in the last mayoralty election, a majority of whom inflicted this incompetent on 8 million New Yorkers yet again.
25
Mr. de Blasio has simply failed to mind the basic things people encounter every day. Trash, rats, snow removal and subways aren’t sexy but if you can’t control them people aren’t going to be too impressed with anything else you do.
I’ve been in Manhattan for 30 years and it’s the worst it’s been since my first visit here in ‘79. Not as dangerous but certainly as gross.
You’ve got to keep the plates spinning if you want Ed Sullivan to ask you back.
323
@Ted The subway is controlled by the state. The mayor has no control over that.
10
Completely agree. I think BDB probably doesn’t get credit for some things he has actually done, but these are completely overshadowed by the things he hasn’t—in addition to the items mentioned above, and the subways in particular, I would add the increasing number of homeless people on the streets, rising rents and the associated myriad empty storefronts that stay that way for years, the uncontrolled development of high rise buildings without addressing the lack of infrastructure to support them (on top of the ugly matchstick design of some), and neglect of infrastructure in general.
28
@Ted
The City always smells. It is quite amazing, really. Everywhere you go. And the cabbies are hostile and have refused to drive me places three times in the last year alone (never hail a cab with a suitcase if you are not headed to JFK or Newark).
The only thing NY seems to have escaped is the suffocating presence of vagrancy so prominent in San Francisco.
Do the residents, many of whom are among the nation’s most politically progressive, really like it this way. Or do Progressive’s speak in sweeping gestures and ignore the crumbling house they inhabit?
22
If the team that convinced de Blasio he should run for president were to design a car, it would be a Pontiac Aztek.
40
Hilarious. Although as an older person I might have suggested the Edsel.
11
@Third.Coast,
An avocado green Pontiac Aztek, at that.
2
That last bit about de Blasio apparently not understanding/relating to the point that Errol Louis was making about an absentee city employee, captures the thing that, I think irks many, and certainly me - the hypocrisy that comes sprinkled with sanctimony.
His professed 'passion' for VisionZero, while saying on a radio call-in show, that he doesn't see the problem with someone stopping for "just a minute" in a bike lane.
His constant imploring about the need to act to address climate change, while refusing, at apparently all costs, to not ride in an SUV convoy 20+ miles each day for a perfunctory workout at the Park Slope Y, is something straight out of "Doonesbury" or "Bonfire of the Vanities".
A modern-day 'limousine-liberal' ...Ford Tahoe edition.
474
DeBlasio almost certainly understood the jab about absence. He was practiced enough in the art of deflection to feign otherwise. What counts is how the interviewer may have pressed on, which is absent at the article’s close. All real political journalists must have the one-two punches because the initial jab can be dodged.
11
@Suburban Cowboy Errol Louis is a good reporter. I'm not sure if there was a follow-up (I didn't see the interview).
But as for de Blasio's response - that disconnect he shows between personal action and professed goals, it's something a therapist, not only a reporter, needs to raise with him.
19
@Peter His smug elitist attitude has been proudly on display since day 1 when he ate his slice of pizza with a knife and a fork.... then DOUBLED DOWN by ridiculing those who criticized him for it.
9
"Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Bill de Blasio just destroyed his political career. It's highly unlikely he will ever be elected to any major office again. I have to wonder if it was on purpose. As of late, he seemed to be chaffing dealing with the responsibilities of being NYC mayor. All he will accomplish with this pointless exercise is to bleed energy and money from other progressives candidates like Booker, Harris, and Warren. He is watering down their message & engendering lots of infighting. Mayor de Blasio will also prove another point that Democratic moderates know to be true. If Democrats nominate a progressive candidate then all is lost. This is political suicide. There is no progressive majority in America & never will be. The numbers are simply not there. And there certainly is no progressive Electoral College coalition in America that could get to the needed 270 votes. This point can't be emphasized enough: almost every progressive candidate in whom Democrats invested tremendous time, money, & emotional energy in 2018—Beto O’Rourke in Texas, Andrew Gillum in Florida, Stacey Abrams in Georgia— lost. Almost every significant progressive initiative on the ballot in this country was voted down. What progressives & their co-dependents will never understand is that far-left mobilizes it's opponents to an even greater degree. Anti-left” will always beat “anti-Trump” in most places in this country but especially in swing states.
30
@Ed Davis
Very true. Progressives are 7% nationally, compared to 30+% who call themselves conservative. The problem is that MSM is 92% Democratic what is really happening on a national level
3
Only two mayors have served as president.
First was Grover Cleveland beginning in 1885, a former mayor of Buffalo, NY.
Calvin Coolidge, mayor of North Hampton, was elected vice president in 1920. When President Harding suddenly died, Coolidge ascended. He was elected in his own right in 1924.
Hubert H. Humphrey gained the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, but lost to Richard Nixon. Humphrey, as mayor of Minneapolis, had won a seat in the US Senate in 1948.
Even more recently John Lindsey, mayor of New York, and Richard Lugar, a former mayor of Indianapolis and then a US Senator, failed in their respective pursuits of their party's presidential nomination.
Now in 2019 we have the aspiring mayor of South Bend, Indiana -- Pete Buttigeig -- seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
As well as NYC's Mayor De Blasio doing the same.
Likewise, US Senator Cory Booker served as mayor of Newark, NJ.
Why do mayors find themselves thwarted?
Simply stated, they confront distinctive and thorny issues that senators and governors do not have to contend with.
All three find themselves trying to explain perplexing issues -- the role of police, racial discord, housing issues -- that
their counterparts do not have to contend with.
Governing a city presents a very different set of contingencies that often become hot-button issues as they pursue the American presidency.
Humphrey's circumstances are different. His problem was his service as LBJ's vice president.
8
@Michael Ebner That’s Northampton not North Hampton or as the locals call it Noho
1
He promised subway fare cuts for 300,000 low wage commuters who just spend 10% of their take home pay for the ride. He didnt deliver.
17
@Steve Ross The mayor has no control over the subway. Fares are controlled by the state.
2
@RP
Maybe he should not have made that promise.
4
The city where I spent my youth, got drafted, went to college is unmanageable. Give the mayor a break.
2
@Tonjo
Somehow it is vastly more "unmanageable" than it was just 6 years ago? No, it is more prosperous and interesting in what the private sector is doing, but incompetently run in the public sector. It is unmanaged, not unmanageable.
He is a blowhard hack. The situation is acute, whether Carranza's race-gaming or the way the subways have gotten even worse. It's time for another Bloomberg, if the city is lucky enough to find one.
2
Nothing is unmanageable - especially NYC!
1
@WeissMan
The subways are controlled by the Governor, not the Mayor.
Christopher Wren, the great scientist and architect who designed London's St. Paul Cathedral is interned there. The inscription upon his tomb reads "If you seek his memorial - look around you".
Bill De Blasio, who likes to parade around as a progressive has left us a monument of his own: a completely disfigured skyline of ultra-luxury towers that were built, uncontested, at the behest of his masters in the real estate cabal; a huge dysfunctional public housing system; failing subways; and a soulless city that has lost all character but just consists of 8 million anxious, hour glasses seeing how much longer they can afford to remain there. Look about you!
270
The loss of the city’s character started way back when Guiliani Disney-fied Times Square.
22
Great observations.
12
@stan continople
New York City has never been and easy place to live. But it has become so corporate, so expensive, and so bland I'm not sure living here is worth the trouble anymore.
44
Warren Wilhelm, Jr. is toast as a Presidential candidate. He doesn't want to mayor anymore. What's a poor far-left de Blasio going to do, actually take a private sector job in two years?
27
I love reading articles like this one. Makes my day.
16
Great piece Matt!
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I moved away from NYC in 2013 and then back again a year ago, so I’ve been gone for most of his terms but returning last year, I definitely noticed the subways don’t work as well. I know some of that is Governor Cuomo’s fault too, but from this article, it seems like De Blasio’s rather tone deaf, so it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the dysfunction of the city is due to him. And of course the total lack of justice over Eric Garner’s videotaped murder is beyond unconscionable, and he is partly responsible for that too.
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@LDeBlasio has no control over the subways. That’s Cuomo’s responsibility. And they are running much better than in 2013, in my opinion.
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It certainly is interesting to see New Yorkers take their shot at the presidency. Matt's article puts De Blasio in an interesting light, characterizing him and his time as mayor as without or at least lacking, the typical 'New Yorkers' persona. However, both De Blasio and Kristen Gillebrand seem to channel the typical 'New Yorker' traits during the debate, which is, to say the least, off-putting for many debate viewers. So which is the 'real' De Blasio: the brash, abrasive New Yorker on the debate stage or the quixotic, reclusive mayor?
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At the end of the day, all politics is personal and local. People look at their elected leaders and think, "Does this person represent what I stand for? Is that how I would act in their position?" In this area, BDB has failed miserably.
If I would lose my job due to consistent lateness, why should the Mayor be any different? I'm expected to lead a team of work colleagues cordially and consistently; we expect our civic leaders to do the same.
His accomplishments are real, but his failures as a manager and handshake politician have set back progressives in a really detrimental way. His Presidential run is the ultimate example of this disconnect.
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In his admirable quest to build more housing he has made the terrible error of allowing huge towers to be built in older New York neighborhoods and consequently helping to destroy the fabric of said neighborhoods. He doesn't seem to value or perhaps "get" the importance and need for New Yorkers to celebrate their small town local environments in the high city.
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@Ron Cohen
DeBlasio has reached less than 10% of his promise for affordable housing. But no worries, the target date was cynically set for after he leaves office, so he can always blame his successor.
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There is no mystery at all about what has happened to Bill de Blasio. He ran on a platform of what he would do if elected as Mayor of NYC and he has largely fulfilled all his promises. He said he'd improve life for the working class of NYC and he has. Starting with all day free breakfast and lunch from pre-K to middle school, for example.
The big mystery is how de Blasio thought he could do what he did and emerge unscathed. Making a massive transfer of wealth from the privileged classes to the working class is always going to extract a high price.
Bill de Blasio's Delusion is that he could become a hero of the people who do not read this newspaper and somehow still retain the esteem of the monied powerful class.
This delusion has allowed him to stage a shambles of a "run," more of a limp, into the presidential field. It has to end soon.
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@Vicki
Exactly. But kudos to de blasio for doing what was right and making this city better for it. For ALL New Yorkers, not just the privileged few that the NY Times reporters and their co-opted editors believe are the only ones who matter.
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The people who most passionately dislike de Blasio are the ones that know and remember least about the horror of living under Republican mayors in NYC. For the real people of this city, not the billionaire class and not the transient transplants, his mayoralty is overwhelmingly positive.
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@Dirk Not quite. My family has been NYC residents for over 100 years. Our view of his mayoralty is overwhelmingly negative.
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@Dirk What about the people somewhere in between love and passionately loathe? Are they "real" New Yorkers?
This article isn't claiming that BDB was guilty of high crimes and should resign, a la the NYPost (hardly a platform for the "billionaire class"; describing his detractors in that way is wildly, hilariously inaccurate). It's showing how his modest accomplishments are overshadowed by his being inconsistent, egotistical, and generally a poor advocate for progressive causes.
76% of new Yorkers, an absurd majority in every demographic polled, thought him running for president was a bad idea. He did it anyway. How is that helping "real" NYC?
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@Dirk
We are fourth generation New Yorkers - and appalled by Mayor de Blasio’s embrace of luxury real estate and allowing loss of affordable housing and destruction of neighborhoods.
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The mayor should've realized his presidential ambitions were doomed -- though he probably had no chance from the get-go -- when The Times published a two-part expose on the city's taxi-medallion bubble that had resulted in the suicides of a half-dozen cabbies. The bubble may have grown before his time as mayor, but the response to its popping -- and the city's failure until recently to rein in its out-of-control situation with Uber drivers swarming it in droves -- are on him.
Also on de Blasio -- and surely a scandal likely to burble up if he ever had any serious chance as a presidential prospect -- are his actions as the city's elected public advocate to halt Bloomberg's Boro taxi initiative, this during the pre-Uber period when taxis were effectively nonexistent outside of Manhattan and locals in the other four boroughs typically had to rely on exorbitantly priced "gypsy" cabs (a term now considered racist, but nonetheless common at the time). Bill de Blasio *sued* the Bloomberg administration in an attempt to kill the program! Only later was it revealed that de Blasio -- whose run for mayor was already underway by then -- had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in "campaign donations" from millionaire taxi-fleet players, which viewed the Boro cabs as a competitive threat, when he sued Bloomberg over them.
We already have a morally suspect New Yorker in the Oval Office. The last thing this country needs right now is another.
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It's true he's another nonsense candidate out to promote his brand rather than improve national leadership. But what is his brand? I know he is blamed for many things that are wrong in the city, but I only know in any significant way the case of the mismanagement of NYC Animal Care Center, which is run by a de Blasio crony at an enormous salary while the "care" center falls far below the standards of New York State in its operation, inflicting needless death and misery on thousands of animals who could be benefiting human partners. In a microcosm, a study of an inherited problem that de Blasio has either not fixed or has actually made much worse through corruption and inattention. It puts NYC almost alone in the Northeast in operating at a level of cruelty and waste that is normally associated with... other parts of the country.
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I consider him to be a joke of a politician. The highlight of his first term was meeting Bernie Sanders and yet he endorsed Clinton instead -- really?? Weak... just like his mayoral skills.
Had he endorsed Sanders, I would feel totally different about him. He chose the politically expedient route, instead of going for the candidate that supported his values.
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As a New Yorker, when I think of de Blasio, the sad state of our public housing, courtesy the New York City Housing Authority, comes to mind. And then a mental photo of him grinning as he enters his distant gym for his long daily workout, instead of being in his office to solve the city's problems.
I wish he'd stay in Iowa, abdicate, and let us have a caring and effective mayor.
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@MyOpinion
Yeah, I remember that was a problem he couldn't figure out.
Big entourage to a gym, didn't ride the subway, gas guzzling SUVs.
He just doesn't seem very bright.
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@MyOpinion
That is so unfair!
What did the good people of Iowa do to deserve WW Jr.?
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This article does a great job breaking down the dichotomy between how Bill De Blasio views himself and how the rest of the world views his mayoralty and persona.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as a progressive vanguard, yet he endorses establishment candidates like Hillary Clinton and Joe Crowley. If he weighs in at all.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as a champion of the working class, yet he greases the palm of Amazon will billions and fills his PACs with donations from rich NYers.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as a class warrior, but his willingness to trade favors for donations is far from egalitarian.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as fighting for the voiceless, but his failure to turn around NYCHA and the homeless issue represents perhaps the biggest black marks on his time in Gracie Mansion.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as a like-able guy who's bi-racial family is evidence he could be a uniter for a split society, but his arrogant, aloof and unapologetically self-centered approach tells a different story. Bill De Blasio just might be a mean, bitter, guy.
Bill De Blasio sees himself as a national figure deserving of attention and celebration, while the public sees him as New York's mayor who ignores the block and tackle fundamentals of his job. At its most fundamental level, this is the problem.
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@Benny
I don't think that too many people outside of NYC had heard of him before. Otherwise this sounds correct.
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@Benny . An obvious "gimmee" if one wanted to burnish ones progressive credentials would have been to endorse Bernie in the 2016 primaries. But De Blasio, after months of putative agonizing soul searching, opted for Hillary. Big deal. Doubtless having a job in a Hillary administration in the back of his mind.
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@Benny
You have my agreement on everything but Amazon, which was poised to bring in $31 billion in additional city tax revenues in exchange for a mere $3 billion tax write-off.
Hardly a bad deal for the additional thousands of city jobs the deal would have created, including about 1,000 jobs that would have paid at least $100,000 annually.
Given the tax write-offs routinely given to the city's real estate developers and the city's history of paying unseemly amounts for the construction of frivolous sports venues, the Amazon deal was a no-brainer win for the city. It's a pity it didn't go through.
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Good on De Blasio for getting universal Pre-K in the city, a real achievement.........
but BOO to him and the masses of other middling politicians who are treating this race as an opportunity to a token their egos and build their 'brand,' no matter what it does to their legacy.
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de Blasio and his team intimating that a big reason behind the criticism he's faced as mayor is that he's being treated like a black politician is, how shall I say this, a stretch. de Blasio, even with his family, is not black and these comments come across as trivializing the barriers to advancement in this city faced by actual black people when it comes to policing, education, housing, and more. de Blasio's inability/unwillingness to publicly ruminate on his own responsibility for his reputation is a much bigger reason for his current unpopularity.
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Is there any way to resurrect Jimmy Walker, Beau James? A New Yorker thru and thru, now that was a mayor!
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History will remember Bill De Blasio as an enabler of racism against Asian Americans. He practically walked into a Specialized Science High Schools and said there’s too much Asians here and designed a plan to reduce them from 60% to 30% while keeping whites at 20% before and after his plan. Instead of celebrating the fact that most of the Asians were children of poor immigrant backgrounds who had to overcome barriers in language, culture, discrimination and poverty in order to get where they were he devalued their achievements and sought to suppress their success. Bill de Blasio sought to build a wall to prevent the admission of Asian Americans into NYC’s Specialized Science High Schools just as Trump sought to build a wall to keep out the Latinos. He is unfortunately at best engaging in unconscious bias at worst active discrimination against Asian Americans.
If he had sought to increase the quality of education for every student of NYC it would be a different story. However, he chose instead to prey on the vulnerabilities of the Black and Latino communities, shamelessly told them to support his discriminatory plan against Asian Americans.
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@Henry
Hacking the entrance exam system isn't really that impressive.
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@Henry
NYC is 44% white, so going by the short-sighted equality-of-outcome dogma that affirmative-action proponents like to parrot, the schools are racist against white people too.
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@Henry
"History will remember Bill De Blasio as..."
History won't remember Bill De Blasio at all.
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DeBlasio has failed NYC, we deserved better. Our best hope he resigns to become the Real Estate lobbyist he already is. NYC Taxpayer will no longer pay for his SUV caravan to the Park Slope YMCA and his wife's billion dollar pet project Thrive NYC.
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Well summarized and cleverly written piece, been hoping for a while that someone would take on this topic. Working for the city government, the sentiment expressed here rings true to my reality, and that of many other colleagues. Thanks Matt!
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DeB-II was essentially a "rebound" victory after the Xrump-304 anomaly in 2016 - and like many rebound marriages the relationship is shaky
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I know when Bloomberg was mayor of NYC he used to take weekend and longer trips out of the city quite frequently, without announcing to the public where he was going.
Perhaps De Blasio has been inspired by Bloomberg’s regal attitude and believes that NYC can run itself while he is on the campaign trail pursuing his truly quixotic quest for the presidency.
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@Mon Ray people WANTED to work for Mike Bloomberg. He selected capable, confident deputies, who in turn hired capable people. Maybe some wanted to work for Bloomberg, L.P. in a cushy job later - many did. What does Wilhelm/de Blasio offer? Not much. Especially with all the financial issues surrounding his mayoral and now Presidential campaigns.
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@Mon Ray
Yes Bloomberg did...and was rightly criticized by then-Public Advocate Bill deBlasio, who now does the same thing himself.
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@Mon Ray Bloomberg also had a private jet at his beck and call.
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The Mayor has virtually no chance at the Democratic nomination. So why the Presidential run other than to boost his personal brand.
NYC deserves, and requires, a full-time mayor. In undertaking his Presidential quest. Mr. de Blasio is significantly shortchanging the city that has now elected him twice, as well as those supporting his national aspirations, whose investment in him is almost certainly for naught.
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@Mike McD
To be fair, it's not as though he was a full time mayor when he was actually here. At least now he has an excuse for his absence.
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@Mike McD
The Mayor inadvertently made himself unattractive to the nation simply by running and increasing his exposure.
The question is: what did New Yorkers see in the man, and what are the rest of us missing.
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@Stuart I disagree. The Mayor did pretty well on the last debate- no programs or policies but he was very good at articulating the problems from the citizen on the ground level's POV.
He was interviewed the other day as did as well.
But why did NYers vote for him twice?
That said, these comments from his detractors, if true about his governing, are not a recommendation for president. NYC has always had a heap of problems.. not an excuse for being a slacker if he is indeed one.
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