New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s record with the city’s parents appears to be only getting worse. After catching grief for making children trek to school during a blizzard earlier this month, the New York Post reports that the parents of children slain in traffic accidents are not amused by de Blasio’s SUV speeding through the city.
The group Families for Safe Streets called on de Blasio to urge his caravan to drive him through streets more safely, for the sake of the children of the city. The local CBS affiliate caught de Blasio’s caravan speeding and running through two stops signs on video earlier this week. The incident occurred the day after de Blasio announced an initiative to lower speed limits in the city and more aggressively pursue traffic violators. The New York Post also caught de Blasio breaking traffic laws personally, jaywalking on his way to the gym on a weekday morning.
“Obviously, everybody needs to obey traffic laws, including the mayor and the police,” said one of the group’s organizers, Amy Cohen, who lost a child to a reckless driver. She noted that she did not want de Blasio’s personal transgressions “overshadowing what’s really important,” supporting his plan to make the streets safer but hoping the mayor follows his own laws. Cohen also criticized the mayor for announcing a plan to make the streets safer without any logistics to prove the mayor was serious about his plan. “We are demanding a timeline for rapid implementation,” Cohen added. “We demand change now.”
Another member of the group, Dana Lerner, thought the plan to make streets safer didn’t go far enough. For one, the plan would not ban taxi drivers involved in deadly accidents from returning to their jobs. Lerner also criticized City Hall for being distant from the victims of reckless drivers. “I’ve heard from strangers all over the world,” she told the Post, “I have heard nothing from [de Blasio] and nothing from the TLC.” Lerner lost a nine-year old son to a reckless cab driver.
The complaints that Mayor de Blasio’s plan is lofty but appears to have no follow-through is no surprise to those following criticism of his mayorship. De Blasio’s city hall has been the target of much criticism for lack of logistical strategy. Staffers have claimed under anonymity that they are never given detailed orders and are never sure how to carry out the basic demand to “be progressive” without any policy order behind it.
Yesterday, the New York Post reported on a new and yet undiscovered traffic violation de Blasio has still to make good on: a parking ticket he acquired during the mayoral campaign, which remains unpaid to this day.
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