NEW YORK (AP) – Mayor Bill de Blasio is having a really bad summer, unable to shake a media-driven perception that the Big Apple’s crime-and-vagrant-filled days are returning.
Homicide and homelessness numbers are up only modestly but that hasn’t stopped almost daily tabloid pictures of bedraggled men urinating in the streets or bathing in public fountains. One tab has adopted the standing headline “Rotting Apple” and launched a website – deblasio.fail – that counts down the hours until his term ends at the end of 2017.
All of that comes amid a series of political setbacks, including a dispute with Uber that made him the target of millions of dollars in attack ads and an about-face on hiring new police officers that seemed like a cave to his police commissioner and City Council. And most notably, there was de Blasio’s diatribe against the governor, which only heightened the tension between the two men that has now spilled into a turf war amid a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak in the Bronx.
While the mayor’s allies have steadfastly defended his record, de Blasio’s sudden losing streak has taken a toll, sending his poll numbers plunging.
“He should be very worried,” said Kenneth Sherrill, professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College. “He’s in some trouble and you can’t just say, ‘In two years I’ll be fine.'”