Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his final State of the City address on Thursday and proved himself more delusional than ever.
Not that it drew much attention: The pre-recorded 28-minute video he posted in lieu of a live address drew fewer than 15,000 views, Facebook and YouTube combined, by the next afternoon.
He took credit for a host of dubious achievements, including supposedly much-improved schools at a time when families are fleeing the system. Most of his lofty, expensive ideas will go nowhere (there’s no money!) before he’s out of office in 11 months.
And the dreams that don’t cost the city would slam its citizens, such as banning natural gas and fuel oil hookups in new buildings by 2030. He’s also going to name a two-year charter revision commission with the goal of putting new “racial justice and reconciliation” mandates into the city’s fundamental law.
He wants more power for the Civilian Complaint Review Board including centralized oversight of the NYPD. Well, that’s one way to ensure his successor has a tough time undoing the de Blasio spike in shootings, homicides and other violent crimes.
In his eighth year in office, he suddenly wants to reduce red tape and to eliminate onerous fines that kill small businesses. What a joke.
And all without a word about the truly existential threat to the post-pandemic city: a likely permanent loss of many office jobs and plummeting real-estate values, not to mention possibly-permanent increases in crime that will further deter the lucrative tourism industry.
Pray that our next mayor is at least less of a dolt.