TALK ABOUT A MAYOR CULPA!
BLAZ APOLOGIZES TO ORTHODOX JEWS OVER LOCKDOWN FEUD
Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday he apologized to Orthodox Jewish leaders for the city’s handling of renewed coronavirus outbreaks in their communities.
“I certainly got very frustrated at times when I saw large groups of people still out without masks,” he said at a press conference. “But I think more dialogue would have been better. So I certainly want to express my regret that I didn’t figure out how to do that better.”
He and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea met with Jewish leaders on Tuesday for what the mayor described as thorough talks about “everything that happened from the beginning of the pandemic and how painful it’s been for everyone and how confusing it’s been.”
Earlier this month, the state’s closure of schools and non-essential businesses and a crackdown on religious gatherings prompted chaotic demonstrations in Borough Park, Brooklyn, home to a large Orthodox Jewish population. Some accused de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo of discrimination.
“The No. 1 takeaway from the meeting is more dialogue, more communication is the way forward,” the mayor said Tuesday.
The attendees included Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn. He did not immediately return a request for comment.
De Blasio, who has sought close ties with Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers going back to his days on the City Council when he represented part of Borough Park, called the recent meeting “very
I certainly got very frustrated at times when I saw large groups of people still out without masks. But I think more dialogue would have been better. So I certainly want to express my regret that I didn’t figure out how to do that better.
MAYOR DE BLASIO
moving” and “very productive.”
“We absolutely need a positive reset,” Hizzoner said. “What the meeting really helped me to appreciate is that so many people in the community have suffered and they need to know that we, as the city government understand their suffering, understand the difficulties the community has gone through, understand the fears that people have, rightfully, of discrimination.”
Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-Brooklyn), who reps three “red zone” zip codes, voiced mixed feelings about the mayor’s apology.
“People apologize all the time, which is good,” he told the Daily News. “An apology right now doesn’t help the people
who lost their jobs, businesses that shuttered, schools that are closed, parents of special needs students who are near a nervous breakdown.”
Deutsch noted that in spite of the mayor’s renewed talk of communication, he’s yet to receive a phone call from city or state officials to go over strategy.
“They have to learn how to communicate with each neighborhood,” the councilman said of authorities who have been spreading COVID info. “You can’t take one single type of communication action for every single neighborhood in this city. Different people communicate in different ways.”
At the press conference, de Blasio refused to share detailed statistics about the outbreak in Borough Park and other parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
“We’re definitely seeing a leveling-off all over the city,” he said.
Earlier this month, daily stats on the percentage of COVID tests coming back positive in and around Borough Park, along with Far Rockaway and Kew Gardens in Queens, prompted the crackdown.
But the city stopped providing that information after Cuomo imposed shutdown measures based not on zip codes, but on “red zones” his office drew up. “We want to make sure there is no further confusion,” de Blasio said Tuesday.
He also echoed Cuomo’s Monday comments that restrictions could be lifted in parts of Queens as soon as Wednesday.
De Blasio said Monday morning it could take weeks for the measures to be ended, but in a separate press conference that day, the governor said he was looking to ease rules as soon as Wednesday.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said he hopes the mayor’s apology marks “a turning point.”
“I renew my call for a precision model of enforcement that would allow law enforcement to identify specific areas with high rates of non-compliance so credible messengers can flood the zone with informational materials,” the mayoral wannabe said in a statement.