"Just watch us do it." The Mayor Bill De Blasio Thread

[Omaha 680]

This guy is kind of a weirdo and it will be an interesting ride with him as mayor. I have concerns about a possible rise in crime, but hopefully most of his tenure will be relatively harmless pandering like this:

"We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period,” de Blasio said when asked about his plans for the tourist attraction.

“There are some moving parts to work out. But we are going to quickly and aggressively move to make horse carriages no longer a part of the landscape ... They are not humane, they are not appropriate for the year 2014. It's over. So, just watch us do it.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1561981

[Jacob]

This guy is kind of a weirdo and it will be an interesting ride with him as mayor. I have concerns about a possible rise in crime, but hopefully most of his tenure will be relatively harmless pandering like this:



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1561981

Sounds like a real moron.

De Blasio said he would work with existing drivers to set them up with alternative vehicles — perhaps antique cars — to ferry tourists around Central Park. He called electric vehicles “a cleaner, safer, wiser, more humane alternative that will be very appealing to tourists.”

lol

[Katy Lied]

I agree with him about the horses. I wish SLC would get rid of them too.

[Omaha 680]

I agree with him about the horses. I wish SLC would get rid of them too.

For the same reasons he states? I've never really thought much about the carriages other than they can get in the way. I guess I just find it odd that this is one of the first things he wants to do.

[Omaha 680]

De Blasio's first scandal: Eating pizza like Trump.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/jon-stewart-bill-de-blasio-pizza_n_4594950.html

[Moliere]

This guy is kind of a weirdo and it will be an interesting ride with him as mayor. I have concerns about a possible rise in crime, but hopefully most of his tenure will be relatively harmless pandering like this:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1561981

He uses the same reasoning that I've used for decades to try and convince people that making humans work is inhumane.

[Jeff Lebowski]

De Blasio's first scandal: Eating pizza like Trump.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4594950.html

Jon Stewart tore him to shreds last night over that issue.

[Omaha 680]

Upper East Side Residents Say De Blasio is Witholding the Snowplows as Payback

Huge swaths of the city’s wealthiest neighborhood had been not been plowed by early Tuesday evening, leaving 1-percenters out in the cold, according to the city’s own map of snow-plower activity.

“He is trying to get us back. He is very divisive and political,” said writer and Life-long Upper East Sider and mom Molly Jong Fast of Mayor de Blasio.

“By not plowing the Upper East Side, he is saying, ‘I’m not one of them.’ But we have everyone in this area on the Upper East Side. We have rich people, middle class people, and housing projects. We have it all.”

There appeared to be no snow plowing between East 59th and 79th Streets and between Second and Fifth Avenues.

Martin Cisse, 45, who works at a flower shop near 85th and Lex, said he can’t understand why the city would fail to plow the UES.

“De Blasio is trying to hurt the more wealthy people by ignoring us but there’s no logic to that,” Cisse said.

“There are a lot of blue collar working people out here driving trucks and trying to get around too.”

Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, at an evening press briefing, defended the handling of the Upper East Side — claiming that one spreader had a busted GPS and was not reporting progress to the PlowNYC Web site.

[clackamascoug]

This guy is kind of a weirdo and it will be an interesting ride with him as mayor. I have concerns about a possible rise in crime, but hopefully most of his tenure will be relatively harmless pandering like this:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bill-de-blasio-won-horse-controversial-carriages-article-1.1561981

He's not very handsome.

[Omaha 680]

De Blasio Goes After Charter Schools/

After New York City spent years building a thriving charter school community, Bill Phillips, president of Northeast Charter Schools Network, says Mayor Bill de Blasio is showing how to take it down.

"If New York City has been a national model for growing charters, I think Mayor de Blasio is laying out a blueprint for killing charter expansion," said Phillips, whose school network serves New York and Connecticut. "This is clearly a blueprint: Do everything on your power to take away access to buildings. Facilities are almost always one of the major challenges for charters across the country."

During his campaign, de Blasio clearly voiced his intention to charge rent to charter schools co-locating with district schools, sparking a protest involving about 20,000 charter school supporters.

Last week, de Blasio's administration pulled $210 million allotted for new charter school buildings and directed it to expanding preschool programs. He's placed a moratorium on new charter school co-locations. And schools slated to open soon with co-locations approved by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg may see that approval taken away.

[Omaha 680]

Bill De Blasio: Groundhog Killer

In a story that promises to be our generation's Watergate (or at least our generation's subway kittens), the New York Post reports today that Mayor Bill de Blasio "has groundhog blood on his hands!" During his first Groundhog Day ceremony earlier this year, the mayor dropped Chuck, the Staten Island Zoo's groundhog, from a height of about six feet. The incident was well-documented, but what the public didn't know, until now, is that Chuck met a tragic end. The furry oracle died a week later due to internal injuries, which sources say were consistent with the fall – and the zoo tried to cover it up.

[Omaha 680]

De Blasio Wants to Run for President

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, Mayor de Blasio is positioning himself to be the leftist “progressive” alternative to Wall Street-friendly Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic candidate for president, a national party operative told The Post.

De Blasio’s hope, the operative said, is a “draft de Blasio’’ movement will develop among progressive activists over the next several months that will lead to the mayor being able to defeat Clinton in the primary elections next year in much the same way leftist Sen. George McGovern successfully challenged the initially front-running establishment Democratic candidate, Sen. Edmund Muskie, more than 40 years ago.

This is a Democrat candidate all sides could get behind. While he has done some very popular things here in NYC like universal preschool and a paid sick leave law, I'm not sure those things are winners nationwide. He also hovers in just the high 40s in approval rating here due to other issues like his horrible gaffes after the police murders. Shootings are also up 12% this year so far and appear to be climbing. It will be more apparent by the time he decides to run if the rise in crime can be pinned on his leadership but opponents will certainly paint it that way regardless.

[Omaha 680]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but since this seems to be my own private NYC/De Blasio thread I'll put it here. Someone just emptied a clip on my block, maybe 200 feet from the front door of my building. I am up making breakfast for my wife for Mothers Day tomorrow and I counted 10 rounds. I haven't heard any ambulances so the guy probably hit air like they usually do.

Police response was pretty impressive. Two vans of cops were rolling down the street asking questions of bystanders within 4 minutes. De Blasio recently installed the Shotspotter system, but I thought it was only in the Bronx and Brooklyn so far. Makes me wonder if it was installed in Harlem too with how fast they arrived. So I guess while shootings are up, at least we have Shotspotter so we can get cops to the crime scenes faster.

[Omaha 680]

De Blasio vs. Uber

City Hall officials say Uber and other for-hire vehicle fleets have added thousands of cars a month, which could damage the environment or cause more congestion in some of Manhattan’s busiest sections.

The City Council plan, with the mayor’s support, would limit expansion of the industry’s growth for a year while City Hall officials conduct a study.

Tony Shorris, the city’s deputy mayor, said that without a cap, Uber could put unlimited vehicles on the road. Meanwhile, yellow and green taxi cabs are limited. Mr. Shorris said the city was willing to discuss a cap with Uber, but that company officials were unwilling to talk of any such compromise.

Uber is growing quickly in popularity here because it is nominally more expensive than NYC cabs, but the service in not comparable. NYC cabs are typically uncomfortable, dirty, hot, and the drivers can be difficult and downright dangerous at times. Uber cars are typically new, the drivers are better and more professional, and they are extremely polite and responsive. To me De Blasio is only protecting the taxi unions. If it was a consumer based policy it would be a no-brainer.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

De Blasio vs. Uber



Uber is growing quickly in popularity here because it is nominally more expensive than NYC cabs, but the service in not comparable. NYC cabs are typically uncomfortable, dirty, hot, and the drivers can be difficult and downright dangerous at times. Uber cars are typically new, the drivers are better and more professional, and they are extremely polite and responsive. To me De Blasio is only protecting the taxi unions. If it was a consumer based policy it would be a no-brainer.

Sometimes mayors just hate business in their city. Eugene has no taxi union influence, but our fair mayor has also pushed to ban Uber.