Mayor de Blasio is tossing his “tale of two cities’’ mantra out the window this week, as his Law Department begins defending two hallmarks of th🥃e Bloomberg legacy in court.
One case involves park activists who first sued the city in 2008, alleging that an upscale restaurant concession servin꧑g $18 omelets in Union Square would violate rules about profit-making ventures in public space.
A lower-court judge ruled that the eatery represented “conspicuous consumption” inꦕ an era of “austerity.”
B🎐ut a higher court overturned that decision, backing the opening of Chef Driven Market, to be r🔯un by the owners of the well-known 5 Napkin Burger chain.
The activists have now taken their case to the state’s highest court, where argumen❀ts are to be heard Tuesday. A sourc൩e in the Law Department, which argues cases on behalf of the mayor, said the city would continue to oppose the suit.
The source added that de Blasio also would🦋 not change direction in a second case, either — over the Taxi of Tomorrow.
🧔That 2013 case, set for arguments in the Appellate Division on Tuesday, pits taxi drivers against the city over its mandate to replace yellow cabs with futuristic Nissan NV200s.
The🔜 drivers say the order gives Nissan a monopoly and would hurt them financially. The city is appealing an earlier lower-court ruling against it.
By picking up Mike Bloomberg’s mantle in both cases, de Blasio is going against his political and fund-raising al🌠lies.
Plaintiffs in the first cas🐽e include four politicians who endorsed de Blasio — Assembly members Richard Gottfried and Deborah Glick, and state Sens. Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman — who argue that the restaurant will come at the expense of play space for kids.
The pꦜols were mum when asked t🧜o comment on their new adversary.
The second suit pits the city against one of the mayor’s biggest fu🐈nd-raisers, taxi-fleet boss Gene Freidman. A rep for the usually hard-charging Freidman’s Greater New York Taxi Association issued a conciliatory statement, saying, “It is a shame that the new mayor had to inherit a failed and poorly thought-out matter from the old administration.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger