New York Post

It’s Blasio in blunderlan­d

- By YOAV GONEN and BRUCE GOLDING ygonen@nypost.com

Mayor de Blasio claimed to be at a loss Tuesday to pick out his worst screw-up from among the dozen-plus scandals and missteps his administra­tion suffered during the past year.

Asked by a reporter to name his “biggest mistake of 2016,” Hizzoner struggled to reply and said he’d have to “give that some thought.”

“Look, I think — I’m not going to give you a snap answer on that,” the mayor said.

De Blasio had plenty to choose from, given the raft of bad news like the federal and state probes into suspected pay-to-play fundraisin­g by his since-shuttered nonprofit and alleged campaignfi­nance-law violations on behalf of fellow Democrats.

Other potential regrets include his failure to enact a ban on horse-drawn carriages — which was a signature campaign promise — and blowing his self-imposed deadline for repairing homes still damaged by 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.

There was also last week’s resignatio­n of his child-welfare commission­er following botched probes that led to two fatal child beatings, and the death of a Harlem deer because de Blasio was fighting with Gov. Cuomo over the poor creature’s fate.

But instead of selecting from his lengthy menu of options, de Blasio tried to pivot by declaring: “I feel very satisfied with the year because of the big things we came here to do.”

Of the accomplish­ments he then claimed, however, one — his much-ballyhooed pre-K program — dates to 2014. And just last week, the mayor was still griping that he didn’t get to pay for it with a special tax on city residents earning more than $500,000 a year.

De Blasio also claimed credit for bringing a record 60 million- plus tourists to the Big Apple this year, but then admitted being “very concerned that we have to find new ways to address the homelessne­ss issue and better solutions.”

“But I think some of those are starting to really take hold,” he insisted.

Pressed on whether there was nothing he “would have done differentl­y,” de Blasio sniped, “I didn’t say that at all. I said I don’t have a simple answer for you.”

Assemblyma­n Tony Avella (DQueens), who plans to run against de Blasio next year, said “the mayor’s response shows that he just doesn’t get it.”

“He doesn’t see that there are real and serious issues facing everyday New Yorkers,” Avella fumed.

“It’s nice that he wants to be applauded for programs that were put in place years ago, but that doesn’t help residents in our city that is currently falling apart due to his mismanagem­ent.

“His administra­tion is doing a terrible job handling basic city services and making sure that New Yorkers can live in the city they helped build.”

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