New Yorkers were outraged at the shabby treatment of Mayor Bloomberg at his successor’s inauguration. Many emphasized that they didn’t always agree with Bloomy, but believed he deserved better because he served the city honestly and left it in better shape than he found it.
“I fear for our great city,” Gilly Safdeye wrote. “Appreciation and good manners seem to be anathema to our new mayor.”
Pamela Mullen put it this way: “Didn’t anyone in this new administration play team sports as a kid? You never leave the field without shaking the hands of the opposing team.”
Len Resto included a brief passage he wanted de Blasio to say, starting with: “First, I join the entire city in thanking Mayor Bloomberg for his enormous contributions in steering our city through one of its most challenging times and leaving me a with a budget in surplus, city agencies which are fully functional and for a quality of life which is better today than when he took office. Mr. Mayor, thank you!”
It would have taken only a few seconds and, Resto says, would have changed the tone of the day. I agree, but de Blasio doesn’t.
Asked later about the ungracious attacks, the new mayor said: “Everyone who spoke at the inauguration spoke from the heart . . . I’m very comfortable with all that was done.”
There you have the new mayor’s standard. As long as you speak “from the heart,” nothing else matters, including facts and manners.
I trust de Blasio will support that same standard when his critics speak from their hearts.
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