By Ruth Papazian
7 Deadly Sins of Mayor De Zastero: Wrath
Numerous media reports about Mayor Bill de Blasio (a/k/a De Zastero) include the words “lashed out” in the hed or lede, and New York Post calls him “America’s touchiest mayor.” For instance, a May 19 New York Times article opens: “Mayor Bill de Blasio, with delay-fatigued transit riders as his latest backdrop, lashed out with a fury at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo during a radio interview on Friday, opening a new front in the yearslong public feud between the Democratic leaders.” Two years earlier, a Wall Street Journal article started out like this: “Mayor Bill de Blasio, unleashing months of frustration on Tuesday, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo undermined his Albany agenda and…said he expected more retribution from the governor, a fellow Democrat, for expressing these views, but that he was prepared to handle it.”
The problem is, New York City can’t handle any more De Zastero. Zack Fink, the statehouse reporter at Spectrum News NY1, notes that the feud between the two men is “unique in its level of vitriol” and that they “simply seem incapable of understanding one another’s objectives,” because Cuomo is a pragmatist and dealmaker who “favors functionality” whereas De Zastero is an ideologue, who “considers his office a perch upon which he can fight for what he believes in” and would “rather go down in flames than alter his beliefs.”
And when De Zastero and his misguided, impractical, ineffective (possibly unconstitutional) and unworkable policies go down in flames, so does New York City.
Running New York City requires a competent, hard-working, pragmatic problem-solver.
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