Politico’s David Freedlander chronicles how New York City Mayor bill de Blasio builds strong campaigns and coalitions, but is largely criticized for lackluster city management and how he spends his time:
His aides know they have a leash with the press far shorter than the one his billionaire predecessor enjoyed, but still de Blasio does himself no favors: he left on a weeklong vacation to Italy soon after being sworn in, takes mid-morning trips to the YMCA far from City Hall for workouts, and spends his Fridays kibitzing at his favorite Park Slope restaurant,” Freedlander writes.
But, Mayor de Blasio’s ambitions to build a national presence appears to be gaining steam in the current political climate. Marked by the country’s transition to the Donald Trump presidency, an agenda hostile to New York’s traditional melting pot variety, de Blasio’s own progressive platform is in natural opposition to the president-elect’s campaign promises, Freedlander suggests.
And so a mayor who almost comically screwed up his moment on the national stage suddenly found himself with another shot – but one that has the potential to put the nation’s largest city directly at war with the most powerful man in America,” he writes.
de Blasio’s new strategy, according to Freedlander, is taking it to New York City’s streets. The Politico writer remarks that de Blasio has found a calling on the national stage by actively raising the ire of New Yorkers against the social threats brewing in midtown at the president-elect’s Trump Tower office.
At a moment when so much fear pervaded the city that comparisons to 9/11 were becoming routine, the mayor of New York sounded the note that so many wanted to hear: We protect our own,” writes Freedlander.
