Dudewho
Member
- Location
- NORTH CAROLINA
Another liberal experiment gone bad, what this man has done in New York City is a disgrace.
Piles of sandbags haven’t gone up around the building, but they’re already there in the mayor’s mind. Frustrated that he’s not hailed as the Second Coming, he’s hunkering down and hiding from the public.
“I have a job to do,” he said in explaining why he was cutting back on press conferences. “Much more important than giving the answers to the questions is actually doing the work.”
Like so much of what The Putz says, that was dishonest. It’s not that he doesn’t have time to answer questions. It’s that he doesn’t have good answers and can’t take the heat when he’s caught making up stuff.
His decision to opt for quickie radio interviews instead of facing the City Hall press corps comes amid reports that he’s furious about leaks from his team and is getting paranoid about critical coverage. Whatever his thinking, hiding behind locked doors and armed security is exactly the wrong response.
Every mayor goes through a rough spot or 10, but most know it will pass as new headlines crowd out the old ones. The best leaders aim to create more favorable coverage through better performance and better messaging. Part of that effort is taking the time to honestly explain what they’re trying to do.
But de Blasio is determined to reinvent every wheel. “We don’t approach government the way others approached it,” he told reporters.“There are assumptions that some of my predecessors have that I just don’t have, about how we do this work, what our obligations are to the people.”
Translation: He assumed that his far-left agenda gave him a blank check to ignore anything he didn’t care about. The result is a leadership void where the mayor is always behind the curve and playing defense.
That image is accurate, and there are two fundamental reasons.
First, his out-of-town travels and focus on national issues have reduced the time available for the nitty-gritty details of governing. Throw in his leisurely late-morning workouts and his frequent meetings with friendly lobbyists, and the result is that he often appears unaware of what’s going on outside his bubble.
Second, even when he’s around, the mayor doesn’t dig below the surface of key issues.
His level of interest stops at the politics, with his shameful dereliction on the homeless explosion being a good example.
Even as complaints mounted last spring and summer, his top aide on the subject, Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, couldn’t get enough face time with him to develop a strategy. She grew frustrated by her declining *access and inability to get decisions out of him, so the 70-year-old former nun abruptly quit.
“She was fed up,” a source told The Post.“She wasn’t able to do her job.”
Her case points up another oddity about the mayor’s work habits and his plan to stiff-arm the press. Insiders say City Hall is aimless most days and gets energized primarily when officials see something embarrassing in the media. A front-page story on crime patterns in housing projects or bad cabdrivers sets off a sudden scramble to take immediate action, even when officials don’t know much beyond what they’ve just read.
The mayor, who has criticized coverage on the homeless as excessive, actually suggested Monday that he counts on published reports for much of his information. After boasting about the removal of 21 homeless encampments, he seemed to credit the media for alerting him to the problem.
“Any time we see a report of something like this, NYPD and Homeless Services move in, and both [work] to restore the quality of life for everyone who lives in the area, but also to get services to the people involved,” he said.
He added, “There was a report the other day in Soho. That was resolved within 24 hours.”
In that case, the mayor ought to spend more time with reporters, not less. That way, he’d get up to speed sooner about the problems in the city he allegedly governs, and might even get ahead of the curve.
That would be good news for him, and he could cancel the sandbags.
Piles of sandbags haven’t gone up around the building, but they’re already there in the mayor’s mind. Frustrated that he’s not hailed as the Second Coming, he’s hunkering down and hiding from the public.
“I have a job to do,” he said in explaining why he was cutting back on press conferences. “Much more important than giving the answers to the questions is actually doing the work.”
Like so much of what The Putz says, that was dishonest. It’s not that he doesn’t have time to answer questions. It’s that he doesn’t have good answers and can’t take the heat when he’s caught making up stuff.
His decision to opt for quickie radio interviews instead of facing the City Hall press corps comes amid reports that he’s furious about leaks from his team and is getting paranoid about critical coverage. Whatever his thinking, hiding behind locked doors and armed security is exactly the wrong response.
Every mayor goes through a rough spot or 10, but most know it will pass as new headlines crowd out the old ones. The best leaders aim to create more favorable coverage through better performance and better messaging. Part of that effort is taking the time to honestly explain what they’re trying to do.
But de Blasio is determined to reinvent every wheel. “We don’t approach government the way others approached it,” he told reporters.“There are assumptions that some of my predecessors have that I just don’t have, about how we do this work, what our obligations are to the people.”
Translation: He assumed that his far-left agenda gave him a blank check to ignore anything he didn’t care about. The result is a leadership void where the mayor is always behind the curve and playing defense.
That image is accurate, and there are two fundamental reasons.
First, his out-of-town travels and focus on national issues have reduced the time available for the nitty-gritty details of governing. Throw in his leisurely late-morning workouts and his frequent meetings with friendly lobbyists, and the result is that he often appears unaware of what’s going on outside his bubble.
Second, even when he’s around, the mayor doesn’t dig below the surface of key issues.
His level of interest stops at the politics, with his shameful dereliction on the homeless explosion being a good example.
Even as complaints mounted last spring and summer, his top aide on the subject, Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, couldn’t get enough face time with him to develop a strategy. She grew frustrated by her declining *access and inability to get decisions out of him, so the 70-year-old former nun abruptly quit.
“She was fed up,” a source told The Post.“She wasn’t able to do her job.”
Her case points up another oddity about the mayor’s work habits and his plan to stiff-arm the press. Insiders say City Hall is aimless most days and gets energized primarily when officials see something embarrassing in the media. A front-page story on crime patterns in housing projects or bad cabdrivers sets off a sudden scramble to take immediate action, even when officials don’t know much beyond what they’ve just read.
The mayor, who has criticized coverage on the homeless as excessive, actually suggested Monday that he counts on published reports for much of his information. After boasting about the removal of 21 homeless encampments, he seemed to credit the media for alerting him to the problem.
“Any time we see a report of something like this, NYPD and Homeless Services move in, and both [work] to restore the quality of life for everyone who lives in the area, but also to get services to the people involved,” he said.
He added, “There was a report the other day in Soho. That was resolved within 24 hours.”
In that case, the mayor ought to spend more time with reporters, not less. That way, he’d get up to speed sooner about the problems in the city he allegedly governs, and might even get ahead of the curve.
That would be good news for him, and he could cancel the sandbags.