The New York City Mayoralty Becomes One Long Sister Souljah Moment

If Bill de Blasio didn’t exist, Andrews Cuomo would have to invent him:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, standing shoulder to shoulder in Albany with thousands of parents and students who rallied in support of charter schools, vowed on Tuesday to defend the movement and offered a sharply different vision for their place in the educational system than Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We are here today to tell you that we stand with you,” Mr. Cuomo said. “You are not alone. We will save charter schools.”

When The Movement Finally Arrives, Be Sure To Watch Out For The Crescendo

Look out, upstate sewers:

As Gov. Cuomo addressed several thousand charter school supporters in the frigid air outside the Capitol, de Blasio was up the street inside the half-filled Washington Avenue Armory pushing his pre-K agenda to a crowd comprised mostly of union members.

“We have built a movement over these last months and now this movement, it’s time for its crescendo,” de Blasio told the boisterous crowd. “It’s time for it to be felt here in Albany.”

Solutions Oriented!

Sentences like this seem more like an omen than anything “constructive”:

Still, there was much incentive for Mr. de Blasio to find a solution on the project.

Which is to say, 1.7 percent more “affordable” housing for 57 percent more stories of building; or, the kind of fact-based progressive leadership the city’s been waiting for.

Earlier: We Need More Cowbell.

Imagine A Four-Year-Long Press Conference . . .

. . . but not a normal press conference, but rather one of those stale theatrical happenings that take place daily on the steps of city hall, with a bunch of paid volunteers and a handful of reporters who may or may not even file the story, and then you think to yourself, “Wow, that’s something probably literally no one gives a fuck about,” and which is probably a good as indication as any that this is all probably going to end disastrously:

In Bill de Blasio’s City Hall, it seems more and more, there is only a left wing.

The mayor, who advanced in politics by grass-roots organizing, has built a team filled with former activists — figures more accustomed to picketing administrations or taking potshots from the outside than working from within. His administration is heavily populated with appointees best known for the fights they have fought.

[. . .]

In any case, Mr. de Blasio’s mayor’s personnel choices are just one means by which he appears to be easing the mayoralty from the practical details of governing into a platform for the kind of social change usually achieved on the streets and in the courts.

It is a far different approach from that of his predecessor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who favored agency heads and staff members with button-down business backgrounds.

“Old habits die very hard,” said Mark Green, a former public advocate and mayoral candidate, and no slouch himself as a liberal. “Giuliani was a prosecutor, Bloomberg was a C.E.O., and so far, Bill’s a political labor activist.”

[. . .]

Aides say Mr. de Blasio works backward in his hiring process, starting by identifying a candidate who shares his political philosophy or views on policy, and then figuring out how the person could fit into his administration.

Master Optician

It seems weird to antagonize the engaged parents of high-achieving students in underserved communities, but I’m sure the public fully supports this progressive agenda, by a landslide, an absolute landslide:

Mayor Bill de Blasio, seeking to curb the influence of outside providers of education, said on Thursday that he would block three charter schools from using space inside New York City public school buildings.

Under the plan, Mr. de Blasio would reverse the decision of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, to provide free real estate to the schools so that they could open new programs this fall. The schools had already hired principals and teachers and were in the midst of recruiting students.

[. . .]

Mr. de Blasio is a rare big-city critic of charter schools at a time when they are spreading rapidly in low-performing urban school districts. His position puts him at odds with fellow Democrats, including President Obama and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who has helped expand the schools across the state.