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Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who previously served as the city’s top government watchdog, allows the taxpayers to pay for nongovernment trips outside the five boroughs, a practice other elected officials with police protection decided is improper.

The mayor’s aides said Mr. de Blasio wouldn’t reimburse the city for taxpayer-funded costs such as fuel, though other politicians do.

Marti Adams, the mayor’s first deputy press secretary, said she erred this week when she told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. de Blasio pays for his subway rides and that it was an “exceptional case” on Tuesday when the Journal observed the mayor entering the subway without paying.

[. . .]

The mayor’s staff told the public that Mr. de Blasio paid for his trip to Italy, but Ms. Adams confirmed that a chauffeured white Mercedes-Benz that transported the family all over Italy was paid for by the taxpayers. She declined to provide the cost of that car.

Ms. Adams signaled that Mr. de Blasio’s stance on travel-payment issues is developing. She said the mayor “recently clarified” with his office’s legal counsel whether he should be paying for his commute since moving to taxpayer-funded Gracie Mansion.

[. . .]

Betsy Gotbaum, who preceded Mr. de Blasio as public advocate, said she reimbursed the city for nongovernment use of her city vehicle. “The mayor should pay for anything that isn’t work related,” she said.

Ms. Gotbaum said she also paid for her subway rides, even when those trips were related to city business. She said she believes Mr. de Blasio should pay for all of his subway rides, no matter the purpose.

“He is an example, and I think he makes enough to pay,” she said, referring to Mr. de Blasio, who is paid $225,000 annually. “It’s better for his image and the city’s image if he pays. People watching, seeing the cops swipe him through — it’s not a great image.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, unaware he would be asked to share the stage with William J. Bratton, the police commissioner, delivered a provocative attack on law enforcement as Mr. Bratton sat stone-faced, inches away. With Mr. Sharpton to his left and Mr. Bratton to his right, Mr. de Blasio sounded more moderator than mayor, trying to mollify both.

It hasn’t worked. By Wednesday, as police unions threatened a slowdown, Mr. Sharpton and scores of liberal activists were making plans to ratchet up pressure on City Hall, hoping to force an end to the so-called broken-windows approach to policing — cracking down on little crimes to deter bigger ones — that Mr. Bratton pioneered and that Mr. de Blasio has so far defended. “We really need to step up on this,” Mr. Sharpton told the group, recommending a march this month across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Now, Mr. de Blasio is turning to his closest advisers, including the strategists who guided his mayoral campaign and crystallized his position against stop-and-frisk tactics, to help him better communicate his message.

When the lengthy text of a zoning resolution was amended by the City Council in July 2009, then-Councilman Bill de Blasio — who arrived late to the meeting — was among the majority who voted “aye.”

One provision said developers of market-rate condos could include affordable units on site, instead of off-site, while allowing for the separation of a number of services that included the entrances.

But de Blasio’s vote didn’t stop City Hall officials last week from putting the blame for the controversial Extell Development project at 40 Riverside Blvd. — which will have separate entrance for subsidized tenants — solely on former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s team.

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Among the other elected officials who voted in favor of the 2009 zoning changes are current Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Public Advocate Letitia James.

The school bus owners were among a number of special-interest groups that helped de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York raise $1.7 million in the first six months of 2014. But, unlike the yellow-cab firms and the teachers union, the bus owners tried to mask their involvement.

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