New York City - Miscegenous Mayor 'Comrade' Bill De Blasio in the news

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/08/21/de-blasio-moves-homeless-men-into-boutique-hotel-rooms/

De Blasio moves homeless men into boutique Brooklyn hotel rooms
By Julia Marsh, Khristina Narizhnaya and Natalie Musumeci
August 21, 2020 | 6:49pm | Updated

Dozens of homeless men were moved into a Downtown Brooklyn boutique hotel Friday — just days after Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s looking to end the city’s emergency coronavirus shelter program.

During four different times Friday afternoon, The Post observed four yellow buses drop off more than 40 vagrants with their belongings in trash bags at the Hotel Indigo on Duffield Street, where a sign on the front door read that it “cannot accommodate reservations” for guests and redirected those with reservations to a nearby Sheraton hotel.

An NYPD cop on site confirmed to The Post that there were no homeless residents living at the hotel between Fulton and Willoughby streets and city sources said it is being converted into a men’s shelter.

A worker from the Bowery Residents Committee, a nonprofit that assists the homeless, was seen moving boxes with computers and other supplies into the lodging, while another was spotted hauling in materials to set up metal detectors.

Locals griped over the new development, especially after they say another hotel, Aloft — located just steps away from Hotel Indigo — opened as a temporary city homeless shelter three weeks ago.

Homeless people are seen moving into Hotel Indigo in Brooklyn today.
Paul Martinka


“I’m no one to say where these people have to go. The only problem I have is that they’re very dirty,” said Belen Lopez, 34, a graphic designer who lives in a nearby luxury building.

“I used to take my [2-year-old] daughter to the park here … now it’s dirty. They drink and they smoke. You can always smell the smoke every time I come out,” said Lopez.

The mom called the area, where residential rents hover between $4,000-$5,000 for a two-bedroom, “a disaster,” and explained, “We can’t go there anymore.”

“There is alcohol. There are little bottles of booze on the grass,” she said, adding that she’s “concerned” about the wellbeing of her daughter.

“We don’t feel safe anymore,” said Lopez.

Angel Serate, 42, who lives directly across the street from Hotel Indigo, said he felt helpless about the situation.

“There is nothing I can do. It’s what the city wants. I just hope that everybody will be respectful and keep the peace,” said Serate, who claimed that the homeless tenants already residing on the block “make garbage” and loiter.

A resident at the nearby upscale Avalon Willoughby Square building said the area has “become a little bit more run down” since the homeless were moved in.

“It’s a tough situation, but the concentration [of homeless people] seems to be skyrocketing,” said the 33-year-old man. “We’ve had three to four shootings in the last few weeks. A lot more people are huddling around at night.”

Another local railed, “It’s terrible. There is trash all over the place.”

“This used to be a beautiful block — now it’s completely changed. It’s quite disturbing,” the neighbor said.

Homeless people are seen today in Brooklyn.
Paul Martinka


De Blasio told reporters Monday that the vastly improved virus situation in the Big Apple has opened the door to winding down the city’s emergency COVID-19 shelter program in hotels.

“Hotels is certainly not where we want to be in general and we’re going to start that process immediately,” Hizzoner said.

The Department of Homeless Services said Friday that the “total number of hotel locations is not increasing,” and declined to confirm that it was using Hotel Indigo as a temporary homeless shelter.

“The safety and health of our clients is always our first priority. As the city continues to reopen, we’re watching our health indicators closely and working with [the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene] to determine when and how clients can be safely relocated back to shelters from the temporary emergency hotel relocation sites,” said DHS spokeswoman Arianna Fishman.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/08/25/nyc-d...meless-people-toss-bottles-into-private-park/

NYC dog run shut down after homeless people toss bottles into private park
By Julia Marsh and Bruce Golding
August 25, 2020 | 7:30pm

It shouldn’t happen to a dog.

A swank apartment building in Downtown Brooklyn had to shut its dog run because homeless people put into the hotel next door by the city have been tossing bottles into the private park, The Post has learned.

Residents of the pet-friendly AVA DoBro got an email from management alerting them that the refuse raining down from the windows of the Aloft New York Brooklyn meant their pooches would need a new place to pal around.

“We have received concerning news that there are bottles being thrown from another building and that some have landed in the Dog Run,” the Monday message said.

“The police have been called and we have been in touch with the hotel, but as a safety measure we are closing the dog park until further notice.”

The Aloft is among an increasing number of hotels that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is using to help decrease the population in the city’s homeless shelters to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The policy has infuriated Big Apple residents and business owners who’ve had to deal with rampant loitering, harassment, drug use, public urination and even worse.

Dog owners in the AVA DoBro — where the average rent is more than $3,500 a month, according to the StreetEasy Web site — were barking mad that their new neighbors had forced the closure of their third-floor, rooftop run.

“I was kind of confused at first. I mean, why would anyone do that?” Tom Hale, 24, said Tuesday.

“They can see that dogs play there. It’s not an empty area.”

Hale said he took his 8-month-old Spaniel mix, Lulu, to the run “three times a day, at least, to go run around and play with other dogs” and was “glad that we weren’t outside when anything was crashing down.”

“I love people without homes getting a place to stay, but as a general rule, you shouldn’t be throwing glass on other people’s property,” he said.

Another tenant, Jennyrose Halupka, 30, said she preferred taking her dog, Walnut, to the run because “the streets are riddled with debris and garbage.”

“I don’t like to take my dog out there because I don’t want him to eat anything off the ground,” she said.

Halupka also said that Walnut, a 1-year-old Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix, required a lot of exercise and that she didn’t “feel safe” taking him out at night.

“They told me this breed had a lot of energy and needed a lot of attention, but I didn’t know how much energy and attention they meant,” she said.

Homeless people outside the hotel.
Paul Martinka


“So the dog run is very helpful.”

A worker at the Aloft who identified himself as the shift supervisor took a message for the hotel manager, who didn’t return a request for comment.

But the worker, who gave his name as “Robinson,” suggested the homeless residents weren’t behind the bottle throwing.

“To my understating it’s not us,” he said.

“Anything that goes wrong will be blamed on us because we’re here.”

A spokeswoman for the city Department of Homeless Services, Arianna Fishman, said, “As members of the community, we and our clients intend to be good neighbors , and it is stigmatizing and unfair to attribute all challenges in the city to those experiencing homelessness.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/08/28/de-blasio-calls-to-tax-the-wealthy-even-as-the-rich-flee-nyc/

De Blasio calls to ‘tax the wealthy’ even as rich taxpayers flee NYC
By Julia Marsh and Carl Campanile
August 28, 2020 | 2:08pm | Updated

Mayor de Blasio made a public plea Friday for taxing the rich and redistributing their money even as the Big Apple reels from a coronavirus-induced budget crisis that’s already caused well-heeled New Yorkers to head for the hills.

“Help me tax the wealthy. Help me redistribute wealth. Help me build affordable housing in white communities if you want desegregation,” de Blasio said on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer” show after a caller asked about integrating public schools.

“If you just talk about it and feel self-satisfied, god bless you,” de Blasio said to the caller who cited a New York Times podcast called ‘Nice White Parents” that argues white parents should do more to bring racial equality to schools.

“That’s not actually going to change things. What changes things is redistribution of wealth. Tax the wealthy at a much higher level,” the mayor said, adding that he’d never heard of the podcast.

“I just feel like this is a lot of cocktail party comfort going on rather than people honestly dealing with this issue,” he said.

Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said the mayor should cut fat from the city’s budget instead of squeezing more funds out of his constituents.

“Everyone should pay their fair share in taxes, but instead of begging for even more money from taxpayers, the mayor should consider cutting out the enormous waste in his bloated budgets with programs like ThriveNYC that have no measurable outcomes,” Holden said, citing the $1.25 billion mental health plan run by First Lady Chirlane McCray.

“Middle-class residents are already being driven out of the city, and the ‘tax the wealthy’ mantra is just de Blasio’s code for continuing to use the middle-class as his cash cow because he considers everyone who makes a decent living as ‘wealthy.’

“We’re not fooled by this,” Holden said.

Jay Martin, executive director of the real estate group the Community Housing Improvement Program, called out de Blasio for failing to bridge the gap between the city’s haves and have-nots.

“In six years of economic boom times the mayor did nothing to help the poor and working class he claims to care about. His only solution to job loss is to put more people on government payroll.

“His feckless actions have left the people of NYCHA to live in squalor, while he squanders taxpayer dollars for his political gain. New Yorkers of every political persuasion have had enough of his blundering,” Martin said.

De Blasio is begging Albany for $5 billion in borrowing authority he says he needs to prevent the layoffs of 22,000 municipal workers and plug revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic.Gov. Cuomo has warned that a push by some state legislators for a millionaire’s tax “in this environment in New York City, where we’re struggling…people might leave.”

One Albany Democratic legislative insider mused that “the mayor must not be paying attention.

“There’s certainly been movement to pass a statewide millionaires’ tax. We’re not going to do a state tax and a city tax. It would be a heavy lift. Didn’t he just ask us to approve a $5 billion loan?”

Suffolk County officials are already welcoming wealthy vacationers and weekenders to stay put after Labor Day by providing local businesses with additional labor and personal protective equipment. Public school districts in those areas have seen their enrollment rise to their highest levels in decades.

Kathryn Wilde, CEO for the business group The Partnership for New York City, said at least the urban exiles in Suffolk County are still paying state taxes.

“We should be glad this is happening in Suffolk County rather than Florida,” she told The Post.

New York’s highest income earners pay 43 percent of the city’s and 51 percent of the state’s income taxes, according to the Empire Center.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/09/03/de-blasio-blames-covid-19-not-defunding-cops-for-nyc-crime/

De Blasio blames COVID-19, not defunding cops for crime wave in NYC
By Julia Marsh and Craig McCarthy
September 3, 2020 | 4:48pm

Mayor de Blasio insisted Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic and not the $1 billion his administration cut from the NYPD is responsible for the city’s surging violence — even though his own police department statistics tell a very different story.

“This predates any funding decisions that’s just the truth,” de Blasio told MSNBC’s Katy Tur when she asked about police unions blaming rising crime in part on defunding the NYPD.

“We saw the violence start in earnest May into June into July. It’s clearly because things came unglued,” de Blasio said referring to COVID-19 fallout including job loss, closed schools, and a truncated court system.

“The original cause of this is all the effects of the coronavirus,” he said.

The mayor and City Council passed a budget in late June that knocked NYPD funding down to $5 billion from $6 billion in response to calls from anti-police activists to “Defund the Police.”

While shootings were up 64 percent in May compared to the previous year, they doubled to 130 percent in June, according to NYPD data.

The spike coincided with the NYPD’s decision to disband the undercover anti-crime unit responsible for taking guns off the streets after critics pointed out that the plainclothes patrol accounted for over half of police-involved shootings.

After the budget cuts took effect shootings jumped even higher, increasing by 177 percent in July and 166 percent in August.

“They are trying to say anything at this point. Surprised he didn’t use climate change,” as a driver of rising crime, a police source told The Post about the mayor blaming crime solely on the pandemic — and even claiming Wednesday that a COVID-19 vaccine would help curb shootings.

Meanwhile gun arrests were down from May through mid-August when they finally caught up with the number of arrests from 2019.

Later in the MSNBC interview de Blasio seemed to contradict himself, saying he’d put more money into the NYPD if the federal or state government helped ease the city’s coronavirus-induced budget crisis.

“If I had additional resources I’d invest even more in public safety both through policing and the community-based solutions,” he said.

But, he said, the “clear and present danger” was to reverse the 22,000 layoffs of municipal workers before pouring money into public safety.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/09/28/de-blasio-says-city-will-check-if-trump-paid-fair-share-of-taxes/

De Blasio says city will check if Trump paid ‘fair share’ of local taxes
By Kenneth Garger and Julia Marsh
September 28, 2020 | 9:10pm | Updated

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday night said the city will look into whether President Trump has paid the correct amount of city taxes.

“Our City Finance Department will get to work right away to determine if, in fact, the President of the United States cheated New York City on his taxes,” the mayor said on NY1.

“We’re going to pursue this with all we got because he needs to pay for his fair share.”

The mayor’s announcement came after host Errol Louis asked him about Sunday’s story in the New York Times that reported that Trump paid just $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017.

In 11 of 18 years through 2017, Trump paid no federal taxes, the report said.

The mayor called the tax revelations “appalling.”

“I think a lot of his supporters are going to look at this and be very angry that it’s the least patriotic thing you could do to use your wealth and power to evade the taxes you owe the people of this country ,” de Blasio said.

Hizzoner on Monday night also offered a foregone conclusion into Trump’s handling of city taxes.

“I think we can guarantee based on the information from New York Times, that he hasn’t paid his City taxes the way he should have,” the mayor said.

Trump has blasted the report, which examined years of his tax information, as “totally fake news.”

In a series of Monday morning tweets, the president said he “paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/07/de-bl...t-plan-that-would-create-3200-new-apartments/

De Blasio pushes ‘racial justice’ Soho development plan for 3,200 new apartments
By Julia Marsh
October 7, 2020 | 6:09pm | Updated

Mayor de Blasio on Wednesday pushed forward forward a city-led rezoning plan for Soho and Noho that would bring 3,200 new apartments including 800 affordable units to the upscale area plus an update of 50-year-old regulations for business owners and artists.

“This is a rezoning that’s been proposed to really create substantial community benefit, and there’s a lot of support on the ground for the idea that there needs to be affordable housing in every community, including those that are upper income,” de Blasio said about the plan during his daily press briefing from City Hall.

The proposed rezoning area sits roughly between Canal Street and Astor Place to the from Avenue of the Americas to the Bowery. Three “housing opportunity zones” on the edges would provide space for the new apartments and a “commercial corridor” between Broadway and Lafayette Street would allow for more retail.

James Power, a partner at law firm Kramer Levin who specializes in land use, said Soho and Noho have “the most anachronistic zoning in all of New York,” dating back to the 1970s.

“Most people have realized that it’s long overdue for an update,” he said. Even though the neighborhoods are well-known shopping destinations, retail currently involves a cumbersome special permitting process, said Power, who is not involved in the rezoning project.

But Deputy Mayor Vicki Been said the real impetus for the plan going forward now is the combination of the coronavirus pandemic downturn and anti-police protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

“The pandemic and the movement for racial justice make clear that all neighborhoods must pull their weight to provide safe, affordable housing options,” Been said.

That racial inequality argument is not sitting well with some community activists.

“He’s playing his class card, his race card and that’s despicable,” Sean Sweeny, director of the Soho Alliance, told The Post.

“They’re trying to play this that we don’t want affordable housing which is completely wrong. We want affordable housing, we want diversity, but it’s really disgusting that they’re introducing the race card and it’s equally disingenuous to assume that more minorities will win a housing lottery that’s totally random,” said Sweeney.

“I don’t want some upper-class person taking advantage of the system and people are still going to be living in welfare hotels. Let him do it in Park Slope.

”We don’t want to be the whipping horse for another one of de Blasio’s failed schemes.”

Mayoral candidates Scott Stringer and Eric Adams also back the plan, but the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation opposes it.

Society director Andrew Berman says it would create luxury towers that are out-of-scale with the neighborhood at two-and-half times the size of those currently allowed.

De Blasio said Wednesday the project would start the public review process with a remote hearing on Nov. 10. Approval could come as early as the end of 2021, but may stretch beyond the end of the mayor’s time in office.

De Blasio refused to back a deal to redevelop Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn despite its plan to create 15,000 jobs amid the COVID-19 downturn. Developers ultimately withdrew the proposal citing a lack of political leadership when community members argued the area would be gentrified by the project.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/13/de-blasio-scandal-donor-lands-nyc-school-bus-company-bailout/

De Blasio scandal donor lands school bus company bailout amid NYC cash crunch
By Selim Algar, Julia Marsh and Nolan Hicks
October 13, 2020 | 6:37pm

No kids? No problem!

The Department of Education is bailing out a school bus company owned by a major donor in one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s biggest campaign finance scandals, agreeing to take over the firm for an undisclosed price.

Under the deal announced by City Hall on Tuesday, the DOE will take ownership of Reliant Transportation’s fleet of 1,000 school buses, other vehicles and related functions.

“This move raises all sorts of questions, including, how can the city afford it in the face of huge budget shortfalls?” said Leonie Haimson, a longtime parent advocate who heads the nonprofit Class Size Matters. “Why are they adding more city employees while threatening to lay off thousands of others?”

“And,” she added, “why move to acquire this company now, when we have no idea how long school buildings will remain open and whether any busing will actually be needed?”

Reliant’s current employees will all be offered new positions after the takeover at the city-owned nonprofit formed to operate Reliant’s former business.

The nonprofit — New York City School Bus Umbrella Services, Inc. — will also be responsible for Reliant’s pension obligations, which a source in August pegged at $150 million.

Officials described the deal as “tentative” and refused to provide additional details as they spun the purchase as “a long-term investment in school bus transportation that will provide greater stability, flexibility, and oversight in school bus service in the years ahead.”

“We are doing everything we can to guarantee safe, fast, and reliable bus service for the students who need it most,” de Blasio claimed in a statement. “This agreement delivers on that promise and makes a lasting investment in our school communities for years to come.”

Reliant’s parent company is partially owned by Alex Lodde, a key donor to de Blasio’s failed 2014 effort to bankroll a Democratic majority in the state Senate, who was its longtime chief executive and remains on the firm’s board of directors.

Lodde gave $100,000 to an upstate Democratic county party in de Blasio’s effort to skirt campaign finance laws, which resulted in a probe and scalding report from state regulators.

The DOE’s purchase comes less than four months after City Hall hired a consulting firm to study a possible DOE takeover of its privately run school bus system. The contract, potentially worth $800,000, was let through the city’s secretive Economic Development Corporation.

Officials were not able to immediately say if the consultants had wrapped up their work yet.

The school bus buyout comes just after The Post revealed that the DOE recently inked new deals with bus companies that would pay them $106 million for the two months they stood idle during the springtime after the coronavirus pandemic outbreak forced officials to shut down in-person learning.

Reliant’s parent company, MV Transportation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/16/de-blasios-big-effort-to-push-mccray-into-politics-fizzles-out/

De Blasio’s years-long effort to push McCray into politics ends with a thud
By Nolan Hicks and Julia Marsh
October 16, 2020 | 7:15pm

Mayor Bill de Blasio and his beast Chirlane McGray attend a memorial service to honor the life of George Floyd.
Wang Ying/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire


Mayor Bill de Blasio spared no expense to burnish the image of his wife, Chirlane McCray — but like many of his big bucks plans it all came to nothing.

Hizzoner’s effort to use millions in tax payer money to make McCray a political star came crashing down this week when the city’s First Lady changed course and declared she would not run for Brooklyn Borough President.

Throughout his time in office de Blasio set McCray up to follow in the family’s politics biz, including giving her a staff that in recent years grew to a size larger than any First Lady’s in recent memory.

The McCray team had a $2 million payroll, and as recently as August included a chief-of-staff, senior adviser, speechwriter and a videographer. At one point civil rights activist and political heavy hitter Rachel Nordlinger was McCray’s top lieutenant.

Hoping to give her a huge feather in her cap, de Blasio also made his wife the face of City Hall’s much-ballyhooed ThriveNYC mental health initiative in November 2015.

But the program has burned through an estimated $1 billion, while being blasted for showing little success in helping the needy.

“It was a five-year exercise in futility and that hinged on not only the First Lady’s popularity but also the Mayor’s,” said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “Things would have been different if Thrive was successful in its mission. But that’s just not the record that she could run on.”

The Borough President contest was shaping up to be a difficult one thanks to a crowded field and her husband’s heavily criticized handling of the coronavirus.

“That’s Bill de Blasio’s idea of what she should be doing, not what she would inherently do,” one person who knows the first family said. “I’m glad that she did what was truer to her heart than what her husband wants.”

Another former insider said: “I would guess that if COVID hadn’t happened along with everything else that’s made the last year miserable, she’d be running. I don’t think she’s ever liked being in the spotlight, but it’s something that he thought would be good for her.

“She has fallen victim to how people feel about him,” the person added.

De Blasio’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new state lockdown orders for heavily Orthodox neighborhoods in southern Brooklyn would have likely been the latest obstacle in any bid.

“Maybe you don’t need Orthodox Jews as a bloc to win Brooklyn boro-wide, but you sure can’t win if they are unified and edging to vote against you,” one veteran political strategist noted.

Eight other people have filed paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board to run for the high profile but largely ceremonial post, including two prominent Democratic councilmen — Robert Cornegy and Antonio Reynoso, both of whom complimented McCray following her announcement.

The back-slapping nature of campaigns was always set to be an awkward fit for the oft-shy and reserved McCray. The crowded field, coronavirus and inseparable ties to her heavily criticized husband threatened to turn a campaign she never desired into a slog.
see also

First lady’s failed plan to build statues to honor women is ripped by critics

“It was very clear that she this was never thing that she would ever naturally do,” added a former staffer. “She is an introvert, true to the word. She’s not someone who enjoys working the room and doing the sort of glad-handing necessary for any kind of necessary race.”

But the First Lady did not permanently slam the door on a potential future run for office when she told New York 1 that she would not run for office in 2021.

“The First Lady surprised the Mayor and public when she first expressed interest in running for public office more than a year ago,” said McCray spokeswoman Chanel Caraway. “But the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as usual, exposing deep social and economic inequity, which the First Lady is focused on to help our City come back stronger.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/23/de-blasio-to-send-poll-monitors-claiming-trump-can-intimidate-voters/

De Blasio deploying poll monitors claiming Trump can ‘intimidate voters’
By Julia Marsh
October 23, 2020 | 4:26pm

Mayor de Blasio is sending hundreds of volunteers to poll sites in poor and immigrant neighborhoods on Election Day claiming he needs to protect against a push to “intimidate voters” that he pinned on President Trump — despite little to no evidence of suppression efforts in the five boroughs.

“The president has made very clear he’s intending to defy the will of the voters,” de Blasio said on WNYC radio Friday.

“We want to believe that nothing like that will happen here but when you start saying it can’t happen here that’s exactly when it does happen,” de Blasio said.

New York City is not a swing district and Hillary Clinton took 79 percent of the vote in 2016.

WNYC host Brian Lehrer asked Hizzoner about concerns that because he’s a progressive Democrat his plan may “backfire and encourage the Republican Party to send out its poll workers.”

De Blasio ignored the question.

Lehrer also wondered why City Hall wasn’t leaving the work to more experienced nonpartisan groups. On Thursday, Common Cause, a half century-old good government group, announced its own extensive election protection program of in-person and digital poll monitors who’ve undergone extensive training. The group had a similar program in 2016 and includes early polling sites unlike City Hall’s plan that will only happen on Nov 3.

Still the mayor insisted his untested 11th-hour plan, called The Election Observers Corps, was superior.

In the past maybe this was something we could leave to nonprofit efforts — they’re very good, well-intentioned efforts — but this year we may be dealing with something more systematic,” he said.

De Blasio said the volunteers would include city workers from agencies like the Law Department and DemocracyNYC. He could not provide specifics on how many monitors would be out on Election Day or how they’d be trained before then.

“I’d rather be too vigilant and too prepared to have hundreds of people out at the polls ready to act than be painfully surprised on Election Day by a voter suppression effort,” de Blasio said.

A tweet sent Friday from an official mayoral account said the election corps would be comprised of “civically-minded New Yorkers” trained by city lawyers and DemocracyNYC officials. The monitors would report any instances of “voter intimidation, suppression or harassment” to “central staff” who would in turn notify the state attorney general and Board of Elections.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/31/tricksters-decorate-mayor-de-blasios-home-with-gop-campaign-sign/

Apparent tricksters decorate Mayor de Blasio’s home with GOP campaign sign
By Melissa Klein
October 31, 2020 | 10:32am

GOP campaign signs were placed on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Park Slope home.
Gregory P. Mango


In what appears to be an early Halloween trick on Mayor de Blasio, someone put signs on his Park Slope house that would send shivers through any lefty politician.

One sign popped up on Hizzoner’s property saying “All Lives Matter,” while another scribbled poster urged, “Vote John Cummings,” the Republican challenger to progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional seat.

The signs were quickly kicked to the curb Tuesday in the left-learning neighborhood. By late morning, the Cummings poster had been run over by cars negotiating alternate side parking.

A woman who answered the door at the 11th Street home looked surprised when asked about the posters Wednesday.

“I have no idea what that is,” she said. “I have no comment.”

Tenants recently moved into the modest yellow home, which de Blasio has rented out since departing for Gracie Mansion in the summer of 2014, more than six months after taking office in his first term as mayor.

De Blasio frequently returns to his old neighborhood to visit the gym or take long walks in Prospect Park. And despite no longer living there, his home drew a crowd of teachers in September protesting the planned reopening of city schools.

The mayor claimed on his latest tax filings that the home brought in $54,000 in rent in 2019.

City Hall did not immediately return a request for comment.

 

[The Bobster]

Wow, 5 months without de Big Birdio news.

https://nypost.com/2021/03/18/nypd-should-confront-hateful-conduct-de-blasio/

NYPD should ‘confront’ hateful conduct even if it’s not a crime: de Blasio
By Lia Eustachewich
March 18, 2021 | 3:44pm | Updated

Mayor de Blasio on Thursday said cops should “confront” people accused of “hurtful” behavior — even if the behavior doesn’t rise to the level of a crime.

Asked if the NYPD and city could be doing more to thwart the troubling surge in hate crimes against Asians, Hizzoner suggested the warnings could be a last resort.

“Even if something is not a criminal case, a perpetrator being confronted by the city, whether it’s NYPD or another agency, and being told that what they’ve done was very hurtful to another person — and could, if ever repeated, lead to criminal charges — that’s another important piece of the puzzle,” de Blasio told reporters.

“That’s why we need these reports,” he said.

Asked how the so-called “confrontations” would work, de Blasio said the NYPD is already trained at doling out warnings.

“If someone has done something wrong, but not rising to a criminal level, it’s perfectly appropriate for an NYPD officer to talk to them to say, ‘that was not appropriate, and if you did that on a higher level, that would be a crime,'” he said.
Police Step Up Patrols In Asian Neighborhoods In NYC After Atlanta Shootings

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NYPD officers hand out information about hate crimes in Asian communities after mass shootings in Atlanta that left 8 dead, including 6 Asian Americans, on March 17, 2021 in New York City.

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

“I think that has an educating impact on people. I think it has a sobering impact that we need. That’s why we need every report.”

De Blasio suggested a simple warning could curb further violence.

“I assure you, if an NYPD officer calls you or shows up at your door to ask you about something you did, it makes people think twice,” he said. “We need that.”

Asian hate crimes have been on the rise in the Big Apple, prompting the NYPD to beef up its presence in Asian American communities like Chinatown and Flushing.

The amped-up response also came a day after a gunman slaughtered eight people — including six Asian women — at massage parlors across Atlanta, Georgia.

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2021/03/23/de-blasio-announces-new-racial-justice-commission/

De Blasio announces new ‘world-changing’ Racial Justice Commission
By Nolan Hicks and Bruce Golding
March 23, 2021 | 10:47pm | Updated

Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday announced the creation of a “Racial Justice Commission” that he said would suggest changes to the City Charter — and even “change the world.”

The move came after de Blasio touted it in advance more than a dozen times over the past year.

But he gave the 11-member commission a deadline to submit its recommendations in December, when he’ll be a lame duck following the Nov. 2 mayoral election.

Changing the City Charter requires approval by the voters and last happened in 2019, when the powers of the Civilian Complaint Review Board were expanded.

De Blasio claimed his new panel’s work would be modeled in part on that of South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission , saying, “We want to take from those international models and adapt them to the reality here.”

“Racism’s been with us for 400 years, but it can be eradicated,” the mayor said. :bow:

“This group will change the world.”

De Blasio didn’t detail how that would happen but said he was open to the idea of paying reparations after a reporter said the commission’s chairwoman — Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies — has called that something to be considered.

Betsy Gotbaum of the good-government group Citizens Union called the timing of de Blasio’s announcement — so near the end of his two-term tenure — “very bizarre.”

 

[The Bobster]

https://nypost.com/2021/05/24/de-blasio-to-kneel-in-honor-of-george-floyd/

De Blasio to kneel in honor of George Floyd on anniversary of death
By Julia Marsh and Jackie Salo
May 24, 2021 | 11:14am | Updated

Mayor Bill de Blasio will join faith leaders in Harlem to kneel in tribute to St. George Floyd on the one-year anniversary of his death on Tuesday.

The tribute will last for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the length of time that then-police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck while he was under arrest in Minneapolis.

The event, which is hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), will also call for the passage of the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act in the US Senate.

The legislation would ban chokeholds and do away with “qualified immunity” for law enforcement.

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Floyd. He will be sentenced on June 16.

Tuesday’s event will be followed by a mayoral forum in the evening at the NAN’s House of Justice that will focus on topics related to civil rights, social justice and closing the racial gap in the wake of the pandemic.