Beyond the Blame Game

Let’s hope Mayor de Blasio’s praise for Joe Lhota, Gov. Cuomo’s pick to take over as head of the MTA, is at least a sign they’ll end their feuding when it comes to the subways. Yes, Cuomo’s got effective control with his six appointees to the MTA board. But de Blasio has four appointees himself.

Nor has the mayor made the least stink as one of his seats sat empty, since the state Senate has refused to confirm City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez in the post since 2015.

Only last month did de Blasio put forward a different pick, the far less controversial technocrat Carl Weisbrod, who duly won confirmation last week.

In any case, the mayor’s other reps on the board leave him fully able to pay attention to what’s going on — and raise alarms if needed.

Then again, “paying attention” isn’t something this mayor does: After all, he’s been surprised time and again by huge problems in agencies he does control.

Scandal and dysfunction have forced out de Blasio’s heads of major departments (Homeless Services, Children’s Services and Correction) as well as smaller ones such as Administrative Services and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

This past weekend, with mayoral control of the city schools set to expire at month’s end if he can’t get action, he was off in Miami Beach pontificating on national problems.

Clearly, the leadership for ending the subway crisis is going to have to come more from Cuomo, who’s actually capable of getting things done.

But both leaders are likely going to have to come up with more cash — both from state and city funds, and from Washington, assuming they can find a way to work with the Republicans who run the federal government.

As Nicole Gelinas notes at length on the preceding page, there’s plenty of blame to go around on the subways, going back decades. What the city needs now isn’t finger-pointing, but action.