Blas at mayor-palooza as school crisis looms
Life’s a beach for Mayor de Blasio. Hizzoner fled the concrete jungle Friday for a taxpayer-funded trip to Florida — soaking in Miami sunshine and shmoozing with other mayors as the fate of 1.1 million New York City students hangs in the balance.
Mayoral control of city schools expires in only one week, but that didn’t stop de Blasio from pushing his progressive agenda at swanky beachfront hotels and eateries as part of the 85th-annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors.
He’s attending the gathering with First Lady Chirlane McCray and seven staffers, including policy experts and his photographer, according to a City Hall representative who declined to give the cost of the trip.
McCray brought along two staffers of her own, and three city commissioners also attended.
De Blasio’s sunny getaway left education advocates steaming.
“New York City has never been the mayor’s priority,” said Mona Davids, head of the New York City Parents Union, a student advocacy group.
“His agenda has always been establishing a national profile, and he’s failed abysmally in that. So I’m really not surprised that he’s going to Miami while the school-system governance is up in the air.”
De Blasio’s spokesman, Eric Phillips, announced the trip just a day earlier, on Thursday evening, in a tweet with a palm-tree emoji.
The mayor kicked off his fun in the sun Friday with a breakfast event at the Eden Roc Resort, where he sat down with a Politico reporter and spent much of the interview pontificating about national problems.
“It’s clear the White House is not trying to work with mayors,” he lamented.
When he did discuss mayoral control over city schools, de Bla- sio insisted he “could not express the urgency more,” but said the real work would begin, conveniently, next week.
“I think the action will begin in earnest on Monday, and I will be talking to all the key leaders on trying to settle the differences and getting this done,” he said.
Later in the morning, de Blasio delivered remarks at the Fontainbleau Miami Beach.
He then headed over to Lucali, an outpost of the upscale Brooklyn pizzeria of the same name, for another speech.
De Blasio joined Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine for a walking tour of Sunset Harbor, where they discussed national affairs, such as climate change and the Paris Agreement.
“President Trump can turn a blind eye to climate change, but we won’t — our cities can’t afford it,” de Blasio wrote on Facebook.
De Blasio heads back to the city Saturday after several speeches.
Republican mayoral candidate Paul Massey told The Post that de Blasio “needs to get his priorities straight.”
“A million kids will suffer if he loses control of the school system, and there is a transit crisis that is getting worse every day,” he said.
Asked about suggestions that de Blasio should have stayed in New York, City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said: “It’s 2017. The mayor has a cellphone.”
She added that McCray was there “on city business and has several public events.”
Miami Beach’s Web site for the conference lists several “after-parties” for participants, including a private party at a penthouse.
“Networking never looked so good,” it says.
Other planned evening events included a poolside party at the Fontainebleau on Friday and a beach party on Sunday.
Several high-profile mayors, including Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, did not attend.