New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio spent a total of seven hours at work in City Hall during the month of May, when he announced his intention to run for president of the United States.
Records showed that de Blasio, 58, took part in just a fraction of the events that were on his calendar for May and included only six visits to his office at City Hall. De Blasio, who has served as NYC’s mayor since 2014 and is in his final term, has been the subject of sharp criticism for his perceived absence as the mayor of New York while he has campaigned for the presidency.
Satirical posters appeared over the summer throughout Manhattan asking “Have you seen me?” with a photo of Mayor de Blasio. Citizens of New York also sponsored a billboard to be displayed near Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the Democratic nominees for president were campaigning in July. “Hey Bill de Blasio! It’s New York … remember us?” the billboard said. “What are you doing in Iowa? Come back and meet with us!”
De Blasio has also drawn criticism for missing what many considered to be major events in New York including the Puerto Rican Day parade, the funeral of 9/11 hero Luis Alvarez, and a partial blackout that plunged thousands of New Yorkers into darkness in July.
Activists in New York also pointed to de Blasio’s low presidential polling numbers as a reason to recall the mayor to fulfill his duties in the Big Apple. “There are over 61,000 homeless individuals living in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression,” the West 58th Street Coalition said in a July statement. “De Blasio has among the least support in his campaign for president, finishing at 0% in the polls.”
De Blasio reportedly kept only 11 appointments in May, though over 150 New York events appeared on his calendar. Another former de Blasio insider called the mayor’s recent performance “real bad … at this point, you’ve got to wonder how much of his heart is really in it.”
“If he’s trying to show New Yorkers that he’s over doing the job, he’s doing a good job of it,” a former de Blasio aide told the New York Post.
