New York City definitely does not have a churros-in-the-subways problem. It has a rabbits-in-public-office problem.
It’s not that people are disrespectful of Gotham’s public vending regulations, and flout them. It’s that the city’s elected leaders are terrified of their own laws, to say nothing of their own shadows.
And they want them to go away. The laws, that is — though probably the shadows, too.
Yesterday Mayor “Who Me?,” fresh from embarrassing himself before the nation, took time off to remind New Yorkers why they laugh at him whenever he opens his mouth.
The silly man wants the MTA to set up zones in the subways where anybody with a basket of vittles — presumptively lacking Health Department certificates — would be guaranteed hassle-free hawking.
Think of them as opportunity zones for salmonella.
The MTA dismissed the suggestion with a stern no, which is more than the horse-laugh it deserved, but it was a telling moment nevertheless: It once more established Bill de Blasio as among those elected leaders — City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Comptroller Scott Stringer got there first — too timorous to show respect for the offices they hold.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but this issue has very little to so with churros. It has everything to do with character.
Which de Blasio lacks, and profoundly so. Hence Thursday’s MTA cop-out.
He also lacks the courage to face up to the consequences of his own policies — specifically the slow-motion dismantlement of quality-of-life policing over the past six years.
Face it. When panhandlers have free rein in the subways, unlicensed food peddlers won’t be far behind. And not just food peddlers. That means undifferentiated chaos underground. And, soon enough, not just underground.
Bill de Blasio never disappoints, bless his lame-duck heart.