A fresh coat of paint

As fast as the Daily News and then federal prosecutors peeled away layers of neglect and misconduct and lies about lead paint and poisoned children in the Housing Authority developments, Mayor de Blasio slathered on his own whitewash, hitting a low point with a preposterous statement late last year: “Thank God there has not been harm done to any child because of mistakes that have been made.”

Actually — more than 800. But what are kids’ lives between friends?

Now the mayor wants you to know he’s turned a repainted corner. Monday night, a month after signing a consent decree that would oblige the city to spend at least a billion dollars to fix lead and other hazards, he suddenly committed to test all 130,000 NYCHA apartments built before 1978, when lead paint manufacturing ceased, and clean up conditions.

Better late than never, but what a shame de Blasio so consistently, so depressingly leads from behind.

The very day after his announcement, city and Trump administration lawyers were in the court of Manhattan Federal District Judge William Pauley, making the case for installing a monitor to make sure NYCHA gets a grip not just on lead paint, but also epic mold, broken elevators, and barely functional heat and hot water systems.

Pauley, who recently excoriated NYCHA for sneaking around a prior agreement to clean up mold and refused to approve an extension, wondered aloud in court on Tuesday: “I have real concerns about the ability of the consent decree to meaningfully effect these urgent reforms.”

The skepticism is warranted. The burden of proof remains all on de Blasio.