Hizzoner’s $400 Haircut

If it feels good, pile on:

For most mayors, mass transit has been as much a place to meet voters as a means to get to the office. Mr. Koch said he used the subway a couple of times a month to listen to the concerns of riders. John V. Lindsay regularly took City Hall reporters along for rides (“it was a real crush,” grumbled one former newsman), though he rarely rode it to the office. Neither did David N. Dinkins or Mr. Giuliani. But using mass transit, with its populist overtones, can be a double-edged sword for mayors, political analysts say: It may provide face time with the citizenry, but it also carries the risk of appearing calculated.

“From Mayor McClellan, when the subway opened, to the current mayor, every mayor has used a subway for political purposes,” said George Arzt, a former press secretary to Mayor Koch. (George B. McClellan took office in 1904.)

During his first campaign, in 2001, Michael R. Bloomberg pledged to travel by public transportation nearly every day. He seemed to relish being cast in news reports as a mogul squeezed onto a crowded No. 6 train.

But a report in The New York Times yesterday showed that nowadays, Mr. Bloomberg’s commute typically consists of a sport utility vehicle ride to a Midtown express subway stop 22 blocks from his Upper East Side home.

. . .

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg brushed off questions about the report on his commuting.

“You know, the story is what it is,” he said at a press conference in Brooklyn. “Some people focus on important things, some people don’t. There’s not a lot to say.”

The mayor then refused to acknowledge the journalists who swarmed around him as he left the news conference. Stu Loeser, the mayor’s chief spokesman, insisted to reporters that “the question was asked and answered.”

Later, Mr. Loeser added: “No matter where the mayor goes, his security detail follows him. That’s a fact. He takes the subway because it’s the fastest way to get around, but no matter where he is, in case of an emergency, in case of a disaster, manmade or otherwise, there are security vehicles with him.”

One reporter asked Mr. Loeser afterward if the mayor was taking the subway “for show.”

“No, he takes the subway virtually every day,” the spokesman replied, “because it’s the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B.”

“It is what it is” . . . hmm . . . sounds familiar.