Source: Politics<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Bill de Blasio promised a transformation so extraordinary, New Yorkers would scarcely recognize their city if they elected him mayor. No longer would the upper crust gallivant around, untethered to the problems plaguing the masses. He would tax a relative few to expand pre-K for all, force developers to build affordable housing and rein in the nation\u2019s most powerful police department.<\/p>\n
After 20 years of Republican mayors, New Yorkers decided to take their chances on a Democratic political operative turned politician \u2014 one who had violated a U.S. travel ban to honeymoon in Cuba and raised money for Nicaraguan revolutionaries<\/a>. They seemed keen enough on his principles to shrug off questions about his management credentials.<\/p>\n Eight years later, supporters and detractors alike are confounded by what became of a man who assumed the mayoralty at a time of prosperity and is leaving office amid a crisis of immeasurable proportion.<\/p>\n In a phrase, it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n De Blasio proved himself to be a capable manager who shepherded New York from the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic to a city that reopened schools, restaurants and theaters \u2014 all while maintaining one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Along the way, he broke with his own conventions \u2014 challenging unions and religious leaders who have reliably supported his electoral ambitions.<\/p>\n But the sharp political instinct that guided him from Brooklyn school board to City Hall eluded him throughout his tenure. He instigated unwinnable fights, waged class warfare on people who fancy themselves civic boosters and persisted in courting constituencies that never much liked him in the first place.<\/p>\n That paradox, which became clear after he was in office just a year<\/a>, intensified as he settled into a role he sometimes suggested he was only witness to. (More than six years into the position, for instance, he promised<\/a> to \u201csave our city\u201d from the ails of economic inequality, as though he were not in charge of the metropolis.)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Bill de Blasio took office, there was a misconception that he would be a formidable political animal and someone with questionable management abilities. And the reality is, the opposite occurred,\u201d John del Cecato, a consultant who worked on de Blasio\u2019s 2013 campaign, said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can complain about his style, and how he treats some people he interacts with,\u201d del Cecato said. \u201cBut they can\u2019t question the results of the past eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n Now de Blasio \u2014 who will hand over the job to incoming Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday \u2014 is gearing up to run for governor in June. He has hinted at a campaign focused on his record on income inequality and Covid, which was initially overshadowed by vitriol for his own public health department<\/a>, and more recently by a shortage of tests<\/a> during a surge in cases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to fundamentally take this moment as a moment of transformation, just like we saw this country do after the Great Depression \u2014 profound transformation, much greater equality and fairness in the distribution of wealth,\u201d de Blasio, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said during a recent press conference.<\/p>\n He is almost certain to be haunted by fissures with left-of-center Democrats who initially supported him. And if they have forgotten, one of their own will be on hand to remind them: Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, an early de Blasio supporter, is running for governor as an unabashed activist. Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul has been working to make inroads with wealthy and middle-class voters who either didn\u2019t back de Blasio in the first place or lost faith in him along the way<\/a>.<\/p>\n While acknowledging the difficulties of the job, Williams criticized de Blasio for \u201ca lot of unnecessary failures\u201d in an interview this week. \u201cHe didn\u2019t really push forward in earnest a lot of the things that many people were asking him for,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n De Blasio vowed to \u201ctake dead aim\u201d<\/a> at New York\u2019s wealth gap. He ballooned the budget from nearly $73 billion<\/a> when he took office to more than $102 billion today<\/a> to expand city services.<\/p>\n He availed every 4-year-old of pre-K, albeit without a wealth tax, which was denied to him by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo \u2014 his nemesis who resigned amid scandal over the summer. The initiative, which cost nearly $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds this year, is lauded for its relief for working parents who cannot afford child care as much as for being an academic innovator.<\/p>\n He spent another $166 million this year on legal services for renters \u2014 a program that contributed to a 41 percent drop in evictions from 2013 through 2019, according to a city-issued report card<\/a>.<\/p>\n He increased city subsidies<\/a> to the struggling public hospital system, which proved vital when the pandemic hit. \u201cHad we actually closed hospitals or closed clinics, we wouldn\u2019t have those resources available to us now,\u201d Deputy Mayor Melanie Hartzog told POLITICO in a recent interview.<\/p>\n And he reopened a contract<\/a> with the largest municipal union, District Council 37, to ensure some of the lowest-paid city workers were making the wage he was demanding of the private sector.<\/p>\n \u201cThat helped literally about 20,000 of our people who were below the $15-an-hour,\u201d union President Henry Garrido said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n He lamented the mayor\u2019s failure to close gender and racial pay gaps in the union. \u201cThis is something he ran on \u2014 the tale of two cities and income inequality,\u201d Garrido said. \u201cIt would\u2019ve substantially improved the lives of many people who are his constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n One measure of inequality calculated by the U.S. Census shows no improvement over his tenure, and unemployment in the city is double the national average<\/a>. But the Independent Budget Office determined the gulf between rich and poor narrowed from 2014 through 2019, in contrast with a national trend, Gothamist recently reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m no huge fan of Bill de Blasio. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s been that good of a mayor, but I think his policies and what he pushed for made a meaningful difference in income inequality in New York City,\u201d said economist James Parrott. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of people in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n With that record came public disdain for the wealthiest residents.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not tell you that Gucci and Tiffany are my central concerns in life,\u201d the mayor declared in 2016<\/a>, responding to the posh retailers\u2019 fears about heightened security around neighboring Trump Tower costing them business.<\/p>\n That comment, perceived as dismissive, proved a headache for de Blasio\u2019s private-sector liaisons, recalled Gregg Bishop, then the city\u2019s commissioner for the Department of Small Business Services.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot tell you how much heat I got from the business community and I had to go and clean it up,\u201d said Bishop, who largely defended the mayor\u2019s record.<\/p>\n De Blasio avoided the gala circuit, refused for years to visit the High Line in Manhattan and derided Central Park’s “elitism.”<\/a> Aides implored him to attend these functions, three recounted in recent interviews. Former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen once warned him<\/a> to stop criticizing a hedge fund firm whose executive had been an ally.<\/p>\n He even referenced the fictional Showtime drama \u201cBillions\u201d to explain his trepidation about hedge fund manager Steve Cohen buying the Mets<\/a>, someone privy to the conversation told POLITICO.<\/p>\n \u201cDe Blasio was dismissive of the business community, particularly the corporate community, and I think that cost the city a lot in terms of collaboration on economic and workforce development,\u201d Kathy Wylde, head of New York\u2019s leading business consortium, said in an interview.<\/p>\n Former spokesperson Eric Phillips said the approach excluded New Yorkers who are pivotal to the city\u2019s economy. \u201cUltimately I don\u2019t think that strategy did anybody any good,\u201d he said in a recent interview, blaming some of the most divisive messaging<\/a> on staffers.<\/p>\n De Blasio\u2019s near-singular focus on his mission helped him win reelection in 2017 despite multi-year investigations into his campaign finance practices that belied his soaring rhetoric about reforming the system<\/a>.<\/p>\n But he fumbled in an arena he once dominated.<\/p>\n A campaign-operative-turned-candidate, the mayor never quite got his footing as he grappled with an ever-changing political landscape during his tenure. He fashioned himself an ideological warrior but governed as a pragmatist; he dug in his heels when pushed by progressives on issues they hold dear, like affordable housing and police reform, while trying to appeal to moderates and conservatives who never gave him a chance. And he avoided tough political decisions, often kicking them to meandering ad hoc task forces while lecturing Democrats across the country for lacking his boldness<\/a>.<\/p>\n For all his soaring oratory, the mayor cared more about local political machinations than either ideology or management, said one former agency official, who declined to speak on the record. \u201cIt was the smallest of small politics,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n The cascade of missteps could be distilled into the saga over how to handle city statues.<\/p>\n Inspired by a national conversation about<\/a> dismantling Confederate monuments, de Blasio ordered a review of all \u201csymbols of hate on city property.\u201d Pushback ensued from New Yorkers of Italian descent<\/a>, who admonished the half-Italian mayor\u2019s consideration of calls to remove a statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus. His gusto for the issue waned.<\/p>\n Tensions erupted when a related campaign spearheaded by the mayor\u2019s wife, Chirlane McCray, to honor female icons appeared to rebuff a request for a monument to Mother Cabrini \u2014 the Roman Catholic patron saint of immigrants. Italian-Americans again nearly revolted, with \u201cA Bronx Tale\u201d star Chazz Palminteri challenging de Blasio<\/a> during his weekly radio segment. The mayor blamed the fight on the New York Post for previously misquoting the actor, but Palminteri dismissed that.<\/p>\n The mishap reportedly led to the ouster of de Blasio\u2019s cultural affairs commissioner<\/a>, and a year later a Mother Cabrini statue was finally unveiled<\/a> \u2014 by Cuomo.<\/p>\n While small in scope, the episode displayed some of de Blasio\u2019s most self-destructive qualities.<\/p>\n His reliance on commissions \u2014 at times seemingly to avoid making tough decisions \u2014 has led to a stalemate on far more consequential issues, like school segregation and property tax reform.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he hadn\u2019t picked incredibly stupid fights that wasted political capital over and over again and showed voters his disdain for the job and the city, he actually could have been an incredibly popular mayor,\u201d said one former adviser, citing years of therapy over dealing with de Blasio in declining to speak on the record. \u201cThey did a lot. In spite of that, they spent an enormous amount of mental, political and psychic energy tilting at windmills and almost daring New Yorkers to dislike him.\u201d<\/p>\n De Blasio also struggled at times to navigate the Democratic Party\u2019s leftward shift.<\/p>\n He once identified with the progressive movement, and grew frustrated by what he viewed as its rejection of a mayoralty that was putting many of its priorities into practice.<\/p>\n Some of it stemmed from natural tensions between activists and mayors.<\/p>\n And some was the result of a new generation that he couldn\u2019t quite relate to. During an early talk with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>, de Blasio urged the new Congress member to forge better relationships with Jewish community leaders who were troubled by her stance on Israeli politics, according to two people familiar with the meeting. A defender of Israel who believes the left misunderstands the relevant history, de Blasio instructed his aides to follow up with Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly, until finally accepting her apparent disinterest in his advice, the people said.<\/p>\n De Blasio also didn\u2019t wield the powers<\/a> afforded a mayor, several aides concurred in recent interviews. He never vetoed a piece of legislation, accepted what some viewed as a bad deal with the Trump administration<\/a> on oversight of the city housing authority and allowed the City Council to push for changes to the charter that curtail executive authority.<\/p>\n \u201cBill de Blasio\u2019s political instincts come from being a legislator. I think he didn\u2019t settle into the powers of the mayoralty and the executive branch,\u201d said Glen, who was otherwise supportive of his record.<\/p>\n Another area where he faces criticism is treatment of staff.<\/p>\n Some commissioners felt micromanaged; others felt ignored. Younger aides were often harangued over their mistakes \u2014 one to the point of being kicked out of a car, according to multiple people. He has been known to criticize the chefs at Gracie Mansion over the content of salt in his sauce and the placement of silverware around his dinner plate.<\/p>\n De Blasio\u2019s relations with the NYPD, which can make or break a mayoralty, started off tense and worsened over time.<\/p>\n He made good on his campaign promise to reduce stop-and-frisk \u2014 a tactic that was found to be employed unconstitutionally<\/a> under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. And for most of his tenure, violent crime fell before rising during the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n But his sweeping rhetoric around police reform took a backseat when faced with one of his biggest challenges.<\/p>\n During de Blasio’s first year in office, Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man selling loose cigarettes, was killed by a police chokehold<\/a>. Protests were contained, and the mayor even embarked on a family vacation to Italy a few days later. But conflict erupted when a grand jury decided not to press charges against the officers that December. The mayor responded with an emotional speech<\/a> referencing his own fears as the parent of a biracial son.<\/p>\n Weeks later, after two NYPD officers were assassinated in a squad car, scores of cops turned their backs<\/a> on him as he visited the grieving families in Brooklyn\u2019s Woodhull Hospital.<\/p>\n De Blasio and his police commissioner at the time, Bill Bratton, managed to quickly regain control over the situation, but the mayor never appeared to recover from the shock. Six years later, when police officers drove a car into demonstrators following the murder of George Floyd, he instructed protesters<\/a>, \u201cYou\u2019ve made your point; it\u2019s time to stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n Aides quit in protest and some of his most loyal confidantes publicly denounced his handling<\/a> of the situation.<\/p>\n Some of his commissioners of color were so upset they requested an audience with the mayor. A virtual meeting was scheduled but, after they were left waiting for half an hour, a staffer informed them de Blasio would not be joining after all, a person involved with that meeting told POLITICO recently.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cops never forgave him and activists never forgave him. He lost both coalitions,\u201d progressive advocate Jonathan Westin said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan disagreed: \u201cThe mayor had a set of values he entered with eight years ago. Those values drive us, and that includes the NYPD, which is a different place than it was eight years ago,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n Perhaps because of these foibles, de Blasio never received the national attention he craved.<\/p>\n He botched an effort to impact the 2016 presidential election, declining to endorse Bernie Sanders but waiting so long to back his former boss, Hillary Clinton, that her campaign manager dubbed him \u201ca terrorist<\/a>.\u201d He hoped to corral candidates to a bipartisan forum, but none agreed to show up<\/a>. Four years later his own campaign for the White House went nowhere.<\/p>\n But his signature achievements \u2014 pre-K and a vaccine mandate \u2014 are mirrored by current White House policy, Democratic consultant Neal Kwatra said. \u201cHe may not have become president, he may not have gotten traction, but Joe Biden has adopted a big part of the Bill de Blasio agenda,\u201d Kwatra said. \u201cBad management, bad optics, often bad execution, but a pretty darn good record.\u201d<\/p>\n Even some of de Blasio\u2019s staunchest defenders admit that despite his record of achievements, people don\u2019t seem to like him.<\/p>\n Asked about this dynamic on NY1\u2019s Inside City Hall recently, the mayor replied: \u201cI could have been someone people wanted to have a beer with, but I didn’t do anything to make their lives better. I’d much rather be the person who made their lives better.\u201d<\/p>\nTackling inequality<\/h5>\n
Fumbling politics<\/h5>\n
Police relations<\/h5>\n