TURNING INTO TRUMP!
Just because you don’t like a story doesn’t make it untrue. What kind of clown behaves that way?
OK, Bill. Thought we cleared this all up weeks ago, but we heard you on the radio again disparaging our reporting about your teetering streetcar plan. So this time we’ll speak SLOWLY & use SMALL words . . .
MAYOR DE Blasio had a Trump-worthy tantrum over “fake news” on Friday.
Hizzoner blew his stack during his weekly radio appearance — lashing out at the Daily News for its reporting on the shaky funding for his pricey waterfront streetcar.
It was straight out of the playbook of President Trump — who also derides media outlets when they print facts he doesn’t like.
The News reported Tuesday on remarks from Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, (below) who said the proposed Brooklyn-Queens streetcar, dubbed the BQX, could be shelved if studies show it won’t be able to pay for itself by spurring new developments and property tax revenue.
“Assuming that it does not pay for itself ... then we have to decide whether or not this is the right use of capital money for a transportation project,” Glen said after her talk at NYU Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management.
But de Blasio on Friday ripped The News for reporting Glen’s comments.
“This is an instance where a real disservice has been done by the media, specifically the Daily News, in taking comments that presented no change in our position whatsoever and trying to reflect something that’s entirely different,” he fumed.
“I don’t understand how a journalist does that. I don’t understand how a journalist goes out of their way to misrepresent the facts, and I’ve seen it way too often lately at the Daily News.”
The hissy fit was just the mayor’s latest assault on New York’s hometown newspaper for accurately reporting stories he doesn’t like — such as The News’ exposé of a lawsuit against his new Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
De Blasio insisted that Carranza wasn’t involved in a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a California teacher — despite explicit allegations in the suit that Carranza created a hostile environment in the school district where he was superintendent.
Despite the mayor’s irritation with The News’ reporting, de Blasio didn’t point to anything specific in the BQX story that was inaccurate.
And City Hall has been wary of the self-financing plan for the BQX for at least a year. The News reported on an internal memo in 2017 that outlined the astronomical costs of moving underground utilities and the possibility that tax dollars from higher real estate values may not provide “sufficient revenue to fund the entire project as originally stated.” KPMG was hired by the city to figure out the financing. Its audit was supposed to be done last year — but still isn’t finished. De Blasio continued to defend the BQX Friday, saying Glen was just discussing “the complexities of a major undertaking like this one” but insisting it would be “very, very valuable” for the city. The mayor didn’t reveal what the city would do if the self-funding tax revenue didn’t pan out. But he did say the project will require federal funding no matter what. “It’s a big complicated endeavor, and it’s certainly going to require some federal support as well, which is something I’m very hopeful about particularly because of the presence of Sen. (Chuck) Schumer in the Senate and the role he plays,” de Blasio said.
Schumer’s daughter, Jessica Schumer, is executive director of the Friends of the BQX. The organization declined to comment.
The mayor rolled out his plans for the streetcar in February 2016. The city has yet to even decide on an exact route.
In response to a series of questions about the long-delayed project, the mayor’s office sent a two-sentence statement that suggested federal funding might not be required after all.
“The mayor calls it as he sees it, and what he sees is that the BQX can bring jobs and a brand new, green transportation system to growing and transit-hungry Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods,” spokeswoman Melissa Grace said. “With a block-byblock study, we’ll determine the best way forward – including if federal or other public funds are needed.”