“Less Than Six Months After Bill De Blasio Became Mayor Of New York City, A Campaign Donor Buttonholed Him At An Event In Manhattan”

And here’s what $33,000 will get you:

Still, Mr. de Blasio’s efforts on behalf of Mr. Singh illustrated in stark terms the transactional form of governing that had largely been absent under Michael R. Bloomberg, a billionaire who eschewed campaign donations during his 12 years as mayor.

Being a donor afforded Mr. Singh access to a mayor eager to put the city bureaucracy at his service. Emails, city documents and interviews with the participants show how Mr. Singh was attended to by members of Mr. de Blasio’s inner circle and other top officials. Over 15 months, meetings were arranged, and City Hall officials were given progress reports. And when the talks were not proceeding to Mr. Singh’s liking, the city’s team of negotiators was suddenly replaced.

Nothing Hamburger

The point?:

Mr. de Blasio’s travels to Hamburg, where he spoke at a nonviolent political demonstration against the G-20 meeting of world leaders and visited his son, who is living abroad this summer, would probably have raised curiosity under most circumstances.

But the timing of his trip — he left the day after the ambush killing of a city police officer as she sat in her mobile command unit in the Bronx — drew criticism from even some staunch supporters. It threatened to reopen wounds between Mr. de Blasio and the Police Department that the mayor had worked assiduously to salve since the last time officers were gunned down in an apparently targeted killing, in December 2014.

And it also demonstrated, in stark terms, a political reality that the mayor knows well: His fortunes have been improving as he heads toward re-election, and with few challengers, he now appears to have broad latitude to behave in whatever way he sees fit.

That has created something of a de Blasio Unbound, free to disregard criticism from various parts of the spectrum, including police unions, commentators, Democratic and Republican rivals — and, of course, the lacerating series of tabloid headlines: “And Don’t Come Back,” The New York Post shouted Friday; “Mayor Phones It In,” The New York Daily News remarked Saturday; and, finally, The Post’s welcome-back front page to the mayor, “Deutsch Bag.”

“That’s what’s frustrating for me about him not having an opponent,” said Christina M. Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University. “There’s a certain level of accountability that is not there.”

Mr. de Blasio, back in New York on Monday, defended the trip, saying it was important to let people in other parts of the world know that many Americans disagree with President Trump, who attend the G-20 meeting in Hamburg.

“This was a particularly meaningful moment,” Mr. de Blasio said, “and bluntly, what a lot of people wanted to know was that the cities of America, that the states of America were not going to follow along with President Trump on issues like climate change.”

Many New York elected officials groused about the apparent fruitlessness of the travel — it was not tied to a job-seeking economic mission or other possible city business — and the perception that Mr. de Blasio was being disrespectful to a police force in mourning over the loss of an officer. But none would do so on the record, to avoid picking a fight with the newly emboldened mayor.

. . . to achieve a “city purpose”:

The city Conflicts of Interest Board gave Mayor de Blasio the green light for a free trip to Germany because it achieved a “city purpose” — of opposing President Trump, a spokesman said Monday. An email from the conflicts board’s lawyer, sent at 10 p.m. Friday — more than a day after de Blasio flew to Germany — said the board approved his itinerary based on a rule that allows acceptance of travel-related gifts if “the trip is for a city purpose and therefore could properly be paid for with city funds.”

Asked what city purpose was achieved by de Blasio giving the keynote speech at a G20 protest rally in Hamburg, spokesman Eric Phillips cited Hizzoner’s self-appointed role as a progressive foil to the president.

“He was representing New York City and our values, and providing an alternate American viewpoint to the deeply problematic vision of President Trump,” Phillips said.

On Cheap Symbolism

June 2017: “During a regularly scheduled radio appearance on WNYC recently, Mayor de Blasio implied that he would not be baited into the ‘cheap symbolism’ of taking mass transit to the gym, and that caravan-style mobility was, in effect, his right” (“Mayor de Blasio’s Symbolism, Plastic-Wrapped in Arrogance”).

July 2017: “Homeless booted from subways so de Blasio could have ‘clean’ ride”:

Mayor Bill de Blasio ventured into the city’s decrepit subway system Sunday — but didn’t have to face the foul-smelling and often crazy vagrants whom ordinary New Yorkers are forced to contend with every day.That’s because police were ordered to roust all the homeless people from two stations ahead of the mayor’s four-stop press event as he rode from his Park Slope gym to his new re-election headquarters in downtown Brooklyn, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The rank and file had until 11 a.m. to prepare the Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street and Jay Street/MetroTech F train stations for the mayor’s brief, underground publicity stunt, sources said.

One source characterized the directive — contained in an email from the NYPD’s Transit Bureau — as instructing cops to “make sure nobody’s hanging out” so that the stations “looked nice.”

Another source said the mayor’s office notified police brass of his schedule ahead of time “with the expectation that the subway stations would be free and clear of homeless people.”

A: Berating, Belittling, Brusque; And Did We Mention Condescending?

Q: “Why Have So Many Women Quit on Mayor de Blasio?”:

Thirty-one high-level officials hired by Mr. de Blasio have left City Hall since he took office in 2014. Of those, 22 were women, more than twice the number of men who left.

The gender imbalance of the departures has raised questions as to why so many women, including many who are black or Hispanic, have jumped ship on a mayor seen as welcoming to women and minorities.

Interviews with a dozen women who either have left City Hall or continue to work there pointed to several factors fueling the departures. Several of the women spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to damage relations with the mayor or other city officials.

One factor mentioned repeatedly was the mayor’s management style. It can be deliberative to the point of plodding, and several people said that it had produced a high level of frustration among top officials. They said that promising projects sometimes go many months awaiting approval or simply languish, drowned in a flood of memos, indecision and political strategizing.

Another factor cited by some who frequently dealt with the mayor involved his personality; he often lectures his staff during meetings in what people describe as a condescending tone, and he is known for berating or belittling subordinates in front of others or shooting off emails criticizing them in brusque terms.

Nearly everyone experiences this, the women said, but they suggested that women may have less patience.

“You’re at a point in your career where, why should you put up with the nonsense,” said one woman who left a senior job at City Hall. “If you came to make a change and to make a difference, your tolerance is going to be a lot lower than if you just came for the title.”

But some found the work environment at City Hall directly hostile to women.

“I just found it to be a totally inhospitable workplace,” said Lindsay Scola, Mr. de Blasio’s former scheduler, who had previously worked with the former first lady, Michelle Obama, and the Energy Department.

Ms. Scola and two other women recounted repeated instances where they felt they were marginalized or talked down to by a male colleague, because they were women. Ms. Scola said she was once told that her “job was to hold time on the Outlook calendar and nothing else, like I was a little girl.”

Ms. Scola said that the mayor was aware of the behavior and “knowingly tolerated it.”

Petulant, Withdrawn; Who So Fiercely Poses . . .

The mayor field tests his ideas about building a low-information coalition:

After arriving in a ferryboat festooned in bunting, with big-band jazz blaring from the shoreline, Mayor Bill de Blasio made an announcement on Monday that New York City’s new ferry service would soon begin. Then he walked away.

No questions were asked; no questions were allowed.

Most other times, this would be a strange sight — the mayor of the nation’s largest city passing up a chance to pontificate and parry with the City Hall press corps. But over the past four weeks, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, has staunchly exhibited an approach that might be described as “don’t ask, don’t answer.”

No questions were allowed after a Police Academy graduation, beside the statue known as “Fearless Girl” in Lower Manhattan, or even at the handful of events during the mayor’s weeklong road trip on Staten Island last week.

[. . .]

“It’s very unusual for a mayor of New York City,” said Robert Shrum, a former Democratic political consultant, presidential campaign adviser and speechwriter who teaches politics at the University of Southern California.

“Unless you’re Donald Trump, appealing to a very different electorate, it’s just a loser,” he added. Voters may not care about whether this or that question is answered as much as the news media does, but “after a while, people get upset, too,” Mr. Shrum said. “Over time it can make you look petulant, withdrawn.”

. . . and rises to the level of the Times editorial board:

As for reporters being stifled at staged events: “You don’t want to be a part of it, you don’t have to come.”

That is a bad, bad thing to say. Especially now. This is the age of President Trump, defamer of the news media, suppressor of facts, denier of reality. When shutting down reporters for doing their jobs, Mr. de Blasio — who so fiercely poses as an anti-Trump — displays his inner Donald.