A beleaguered Mayor de 🎀Blasio struggled Friday to explain how he planned to finally “save our city” from the shortcomings of his own administration’s first six years.
Hizzoner started his day on NY1’s morning program, where anchor Pat Kiernan asked de Blasio: “Couldn’t you ha💞ve saved the city last year — or the y🏅ear before?”
“What I laid out yesterday is for six years we’ve been doing the things that New Yorkers wanted to see,” de Blasio responded, defending the stunning premise of his annual State of the City speech Thursday, entitled “Save Our City.”
Hizzoner’s seventh annual address raised eyebrows across the political spectrum, including from allies and even precincts of press us🗹ually friendlier to de Blasio — .
“A call to “Save Our City” might make more sense as a🐼 campaign slogan for a newcomer running for office in a city in steep decline,” the broadsheet wrote.
Pressed about the coverage during an interview on radio station Hot 97, Hizzoner returned to one of his favorite excuses for his troubles — blaming The Post.
The station’s morning show host, Ebro, told de Blasio: “Come on, don’t give the papers layups like this man, ‘Save Our City’. They just got a layup,” to which de Blasio responded that The Post has “🌃an attitude problem.”
“Why are you even validating them,✤🐭” said de Blasio about New York’s favorite paper. “They have an attitude problem. I’m saying don’t fall into the trap.”
The deflection came as criticism mounted — even from usual supporters — about Hizzoner’s handling of the Big Apple’s housing shortage, which is the underlying 🍌cause of skyrocketing rents and the homelessness crisis.
“The mayor wants to stem the tide of homelessness but he hasn’t come up with a plan to do it. It must be frustrating for the mayor because he cares about people,” said de Bla𝔍sio booster, Bronx Assemblyman Mꦺichael Benedetto.
The numbers tell a depressing🗹 tale. Construction of new housing in the city and its suburbs has failed to keep up with the region’s strong job growth.
The city permitted just 197,000 new housing units since 2009, despite adding 700,000 new jobs over the same period, 𒀰an October 2019 report from the Department of City Planning found. It warned that failure to build housing in the city and suburbs could strangle the region.
That time span covers the last five years of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tenure a🐽nd the first five years of de Blasio’s ten⛄ure.
Housing experts said the policy proposals and tweaks de Blasio rolled out Thursday — like renovating and legalizing 10,000 basement 🐬a💫partments — were helpful, but do not match the sca♑le of the housing shortfall.
“I don’t🌸 think they go far enough,” Sean Campion, a Citizens Budget Commission housing expert. “It helps, it’s a good start, but I think [we need] more ambitious proposals.”
Even de Blasio critics admit that it’s difficult to build needed housing in New York, where there is little vacant land new projects often slowed or de✤railed by lawsuits and neighborhood opposition.
The city’s last massive affordable housing program — launched by then-Mayor Ed Koch — used buildings and lots abandoned during the city’s fiscal collapse to provide an easy supply of new units. That’s no longer possible today.
“It was better than saying, ‘Mission Accomplished,’” snarked Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the homelessness committee. “The mayor acknowledges there’s still need.”