Mayor de Blasio Denies He is Leaving the City in Disarray, Says, “New York is Coming Back Strong”

By Yehudit Garmaise

When Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked how he would respond to the idea that many New Yorkers feel that the city, at the end of his eight-year term, has been left in a state of disarray, he said, “I always appreciate when people have feelings. 

“You have to acknowledge their feelings and perceptions matter, even if it doesn’t always correlate to reality.”

“I understand there are some folks who have a dire view of New York City,” the mayor told BoroPark24, “but I don’t buy it. I think New York City is coming back really, really strong, and I think we have a lot to be proud of as New Yorkers.

“This is now the safest place to be in the United States of America [in terms of COVID], the mayor claimed. “We have the highest level of vaccination of any major city.

“The facts are the facts.”

“We are driving back the crime that we saw that resulted all over the country from the crisis. We are driving it back. Shootings are going down. Murder is going down. Gun arrests are going up.”

In terms of the cleanliness of the city, the mayor was happy to report that “the Sanitation Department got its funding back, and those workers are doing a great job, as are the City Clean-Up Corps.” 

Although the mayor felt that he was leaving the city in “promising” condition, BoroPark24 asked whether he agreed with the “Broken Windows Theory” of crime, which says that when cities allow small crimes, such as graffiti and vandalism, to go unpunished and unrepaired, perpetrators are emboldened to commit more serious and violent crimes.

“I do believe we need to focus on smaller fences, not just bigger fences,” the mayor said. “Consequences are something that keep everything in balance in society.”

Repeating what he said said many times in recent months, the mayor blamed the lack of consequences for crime in New York City on the city’s court system, which has only been hearing and convicting a tiny fraction of the number of cases it did before the pandemic.

“We haven’t seen enough consequences because the court system is not functioning,” the mayor said emphatically. “It could be functioning again.

“The city of New York will do anything and everything to help make sure that we are supporting the state in bringing back the court system fully.”

“But overwhelmingly, what we are seeing is this city coming back strong. 

“We can keep improving upon it for sure. I am very hopeful for 2022 and very hopeful for Mayor-elect Eric Adams.”

Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office