Monday, May 25, 2015

Big City

De Blasio Is Not Insulting Enough to Be Popular

The New York City mayor’s decline in public approval may stem from his demeanor more than his policies.

Photo
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York at a news conference this month in Washington. Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press



"Among those who disapprove, there are certainly those who do so with greater intensity — preservationists who believe Mr. de Blasio’s affordable-housing initiative will lead to overdevelopment; neighborhood people who believe there has been inadequate planning to support all the proposed construction; black civic leaders concerned that Mr. de Blasio’s interest in criminal-justice reform is waning; rich people who feel offended that he doesn’t involve himself in rich-people things.
In a matter of a several days, Mr. de Blasio managed to rankle both the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III and the event publicist Peggy Siegal. Ms. Siegal, prompted by the mayor’s absence from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Ball, told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. de Blasio “had disdain for the striving, successful New Yorkers,” and that “it is a major shortcoming not to mingle with all classes,” as if she were a regular at game night at the Walt Whitman Houses."

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