Bill de Blasio's mayoral reputation takes shape
Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a press conference on Sept. 25, 2014, in Manhattan. Credit: Getty Images / Andrew Burton
Nearly a year into the job, Bill de Blasio's public profile as New York City mayor has begun to jell.
He met several top first-year goals. By all accounts, his school system really did manage to enroll 53,000 prekindergarten pupils as promised. He prodded funding from the state, even if it didn't come from the tax on the rich he wanted.
Helped by healthy tax revenue, de Blasio reached a punctual $75 billion-plus budget agreement with the City Council. Then he and his team settled long-overdue contracts with more than 60 percent of the city's sprawling unionized workforce.
So after elected roles of minimal reach -- as a City Council member and public advocate -- de Blasio has engaged in major league governance.
Like his predecessors, he's also proven capable of screwing up.
On Nov. 12, his habit of showing up late for public events caused serious consternation from the bereaved when he missed the tolling of a ceremonial bell commemorating the crash of Flight 587 in the Rockaways.
And like his predecessors, he's seen fit to slam certain press coverage -- most recently when Rachel Noerdlinger took leave Monday as $170,000-a-year chief of staff to first lady Chirlane McCray amid negative stories involving her live-in boyfriend and teenage son.
Much like his predecessors, de Blasio cites huge problems he inherited. Discussing the Rikers Island jail complex alongside Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte Thursday, the mayor said repeatedly that the problems there "have been not just years but decades in the making" (though three promotions by Ponte, embarrassingly, had to be rescinded).
More than many past mayors, though, de Blasio constantly praises -- to the point of eulogizing -- subordinates and colleagues, as well as McCray, who advises him on key issues.
And unlike past mayors, de Blasio keeps up a seasoned political operative's interest in campaigns other than his own. He got involved in this year's failed bid for a Democratic State Senate majority, and since Election Day, he's criticized a failure by many Democrats to vigorously fight income inequality, a point he reiterated Wednesday in Washington.
New York is starting to know the full de Blasio -- for whom political push is perpetual.
At the same time, he doesn't seem to harbor a political agitator's taste for calling out the powerful by name. De Blasio has differed from Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on several issues -- from Ebola quarantines to charter schools to minimum wage policy -- but wraps his positions in words of overall fidelity. And for all his identification as a progressive, you won't likely hear de Blasio pigeonhole either Bill or Hillary Clinton as middle-of-the-roaders.
De Blasio has also appeared to adjust priorities to circumstance. Under pressure from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and reform advocates, he has lately vowed to bring sweeping changes to city jails.
He noted that matters of jail violence and incarceration of the mentally ill were not "widely debated last year."
"Literally, with each month, I've learned more about the extent of the problems," the mayor said.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
