On Monday, Mayor de Blasio did what Mayor de Blasio does best: make a splashy announcement that will do nothing to help the city he runs.
The news that private businesses in the city will be forced to mandate vaccinations starting on Dec. 27, and indoor businesses will now have to check the vaccination cards of all kids over 5, was just the latest missile the mayor has lobbed at a once-thriving city.
The reign of the Spectacle Mayor can’t end soon enough.
The mayor didn’t make his announcement at a sober press conference while presenting data on why such a move would be necessary. He did it on the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC and, of course, offered no evidence. He did not say why these mandates are necessary. He did not point to success with his previous mandate since cases in New York City are actually higher since the implementation of that mandate in mid-October. The whole thing was entirely performative and very typical of this mayor.
De Blasio has big plans for himself. He may try his hand at running for governor. Though his previous attempt at greatness, running for president, resulted in 0.0 percent support at the polls.
It’s no surprise why. Deeply unlikable, hateful and inept, the mayor likes to create a spectacle — but that’s all he likes to create. A few days before he announced that failed presidential run, de Blasio held a press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan. While protesters chanted, “Worst mayor ever,” behind him, the mayor warned the Trump organization that “we will take your money, we will fine you, we will hold you accountable” if it didn’t retrofit its buildings to green standards. And that, of course, was the last we heard of that.
Two months later, the mayor was back at Trump Tower painting “Black Lives Matter” on the street outside. It’s the performance that matters to him.
But the mayor’s legacy in this city will be that black lives very much don’t matter to him. His vaccine mandates have hit the black community the hardest. Today, after being expelled from public indoor spaces and pushed out of city jobs, only 49 percent of black New Yorkers are vaccinated. Force is simply not working.
The ineffective mayor has, once again, failed. Instead of making a compelling case as to why African-American community holdouts, or other unvaccinated New Yorkers, should get the shot, the mayor has treated us all like misbehaving children who will lose recess time if we don’t behave.
Businesses in the city will feel the repercussions of these mandates. So many restaurants across the five boroughs are so obviously hanging on by their fingernails. I’m vaccinated, but my restaurant visits have plummeted. It’s not enjoyable to have to show my papers. With a virus that even vaccinated people are able to transmit, it does not do a single thing for safety to add this layer of bureaucracy. And I’m certainly not showing some maitre d’ any medical information of my children. The mayor doesn’t get that there are repercussions to his half-baked plans.
Not to mention the cost to other private businesses. The cost of having to keep track of which employers are vaccinated, reporting that information to the government, policing the mandate . . . but de Blasio doesn’t care. He got to appear on MSNBC!
Hizzoner can be seen most days strolling around Park Slope, miles from his Gracie Mansion home, in a haze, popping in to his favorite cafes, while bopping to music on his ear buds. He has never been a mayor dedicated to his job. He has never been a force for good in a city he seems to merely tolerate. He leaves office in a pageantry of incompetence. Jan. 1st can’t come soon enough.