With three years left on the job, Mayor Bill de Blasio is desperately focused on appealing to . . . out-of-towners. On Thursday, he even hijacked his own annual State of the City Address to pad his progressive résumé.
At times, his efforts to boost his leftist cred with a national audience left him sounding like a Marxist revolutionary. It may have conned the Bernie Bros, but he offered little new for New Yorkers.
“Working people have done their share” and become more productive, he huffed. Yet they’ve gotten “a smaller share of the wealth” they create. He told listeners they hadn’t been paid what they deserve and that prosperity should be “shared.”
Indeed: “Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world . . . It’s just in the wrong hands.” Huh — wonder who should be in charge of redistributing it?
He even vowed to seize buildings from “bad landlords.” (Does that include city-housing apartments he oversees?)
De Blasio also offered a misleading-at-best list of “accomplishments.” His “plan to bring brand-new everything” to city-housing residents, for example, hasn’t yet been OK’d or fully funded. He bragged he’d gotten 2,000 homeless off the streets, yet any local knows they still riddle the city’s public places and homelessness has hit record highs.
Plus, his “new” progressive initiatives offer little that’s truly fresh:
- His “universal retirement” plan was just like one he (and others) have proposed before, and it won’t let anyone save a dime more than they could on their own.
- His call to force businesses to offer two weeks a year of paid vacation leave is a rip-off of a bill City Councilman Jumaane Williams has pushed for years. (Moreover, most employers who can afford to offer such a perk already do. Even as he proposes taxing empty storefronts, is he looking to force more small businesses to close?)
- His plan to provide health care to anyone, despite immigration status or ability to pay, echoes laws already requiring that.
Given de Blasio’s radical rhetoric, New Yorkers can be glad his agenda is so hollow. Alas, there’s real work to be done — in the schools and on the streets, for starters.
With their mayor totally focused on marketing himself to people who don’t know the city, the people of New York are in for a very long three years.