De Blasio promises State of the City speech, then fails to show up

This was strange, even for a mayor who once declared — seven years into his administration — that New York needed saving while standing beneath a model blue whale.

For one thing, Bill de Blasio’s eighth and final State of the City speech wasn’t even a speech.

Not one bit of the presentation was live.

And never once during the entire 28-minute, pre-taped online affair did Hizzoner ever turn to the camera to directly address the audience.

Instead, New Yorkers (if any beyond reporters getting paid to do so tuned in) were treated to often generic footage from around the city — sometimes scenes of pre-pandemic life jarringly mixed with those clearly shot after the coronavirus struck — as de Blasio played narrator.

Generic stock music played in the background. Text occasionally flashed on the screen as de Blasio laid out his agenda for 2021 under the banner of ‘A Recovery for All of Us.’

“The future starts here in New York City. It is the place that people need to come, it is the place where people need to invest ” Hizzoner intoned towards the end of the 30-minute commercial. “We will show the world, day by day.”

An hour after the video had been posted online, it had been viewed just 423 times.