'KEEPING IT REAL' SPIEL
DeB motors to 'B'klyn to 'remember' roots
Mayor de Blasio wants to be a man of the people — and claims he can’t do that if he’s not able to travel to Brooklyn to exercise and escape “the prism of Gracie Mansion.”
Offering another excuse for his regular 12-mile treks from his government residence on the Upper East Side to the Park Slope YMCA, the mayor claimed he needs the trips to stay grounded.
“I want to be someone who sees the world through the prism of the neighborhood I come from in Brooklyn and remembers where I came from and all the people who have been part of the life here,” the mayor said during his weekly appearance on WNYC radio.
“I don’t want to be someone who is seeing the world through the prism of Gracie Mansion . . . So, you know, I just feel very comfortable. This is what I’m going to do.”
But de Blasio doesn’t exactly embrace the whole neighborhood — or stick around long enough to soak in some Brooklyn perspective. During his trips to Park Slope, he goes to the same gym, typically around the same time, and likes to frequent his old haunts, including the cafe Bar Toto.
His predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, never moved into Gracie Mansion. De Blasio has come under fire for his jaunts because they require a motorcade of gasguzzling SUVs to shuttle him between the boroughs.
The mayor insisted Friday that even if he took the subway, a car would have to follow him above ground the whole way there. “So those cars are running one way or another,” he said. “So I think this has been really painted in an unfair light.”
But the mayor could get in a good sweat at several gyms in the area surrounding Gracie Mansion, which would require nothing more than a short walk, rather than fuel-burning SUVs.
The mayor downplayed the issue, saying, “We have much bigger fish to fry.”
He insisted that New Yorkers don’t care and he should be allowed to exercise where he wants because his job is so tough.
“You are right that when you’re mayor of New York City, first of all, it is literally a 24/7 job. It is — I can’t stop for a moment thinking about this job every hour of every day or every week as it should be, and I knew that coming into it,” he said.
City Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), who represents the Upper East Side, said the neighborhood is “disappointed” the mayor continues to shy away from the area, and wishes de Blasio would work out closer to Gracie Mansion.
“We’re ready and willing to open our arms to our neighbor Bill de Blasio and welcome him to our community. It’s been 3 ¹ /2 years, so we would love to see him,” he said.
Kallos added he would be willing to escort de Blasio to Asphalt Green, a gym a mere three blocks from the official mayoral residence. “I’d love to train with him,” he said. “We could lose weight together.”