Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Mayor de Blasio’s inaugural guests took turns beating up on former Mayor Mike Bloomberg at City Hall Wednesday — even calling his reign a “plantation” that callously ignored New York’s hungry children.
With the ex-mayor seated just feet away, in the front row of the dais, performer and civil-rights icon Harry Belafonte launched the first shot by calling the city’s justice system “Dickensian” thanks to Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy — an apparent reference to de Blasio’s “Tale of Two Cities” campaign theme.
“New York alarmingly plays a tragic role in the fact that our nation has the largest prison population in the world,” he said, without mentioning that incarceration rates in the city had plummeted by 36 percent since Bloomberg took office in 2002.
Sanitation Department Chaplain Fred Lucas Jr. prayed that God free New Yorkers from the “shackles of partisan politics” and “political correctness,” and then went on to refer to the city as a “plantation.”
“Let the plantation called New York City be the city of God, a city up on a hill, a light shining in darkness,” he said.
And Public Advocate Letitia James bragged that the city’s Democratic victories werevoiceless must give way to a government that works for them, that speaks for them, that cares more about a child going hungry than a new stadium or a new tax credit for a luxury development that a majority of New Yorkers can’t afford,” James said.
“inevitable” because of current conditions. “The policies that made [the struggling class]
She added that “we live in a gilded age of inequality where decrepit homeless shelters and housing developments stand in the neglected shadow of gleaming multimillion-dollar condos.”
She later insisted her rhetoric “wasn’t personal.”
At one point, James held hands with her new “BFF,” Dasani Coates, a 12-year-old girl The New York Times profiled in a week-long series about homelessness.
Bloomberg appeared to grimace through much of the ceremony and endured faint boos from the crowd when he was introduced. His successes were virtually ignored until former President Bill Clinton finally acknowledged him an hour into the program.
“I also want to thank Mayor Bloomberg, who has committed so much of his life to New York City,” Clinton said, as Bloomberg mouthed the words, “Thank you.”
“He leaves the city stronger and healthier than he found it,” Clinton added. De Blasio followed, acknowledging Bloomberg’s “incredible commitment” and noting his crisis management and environmental stewardship.
Many New Yorkers watching the inauguration bristled at the Bloomberg bashing.
“I find these speakers offensive,” Brooklyn Democratic district leader Betty Ann Canizio tweeted. “It appears to be reeking of racism. Didn’t know we had a plantation.”
