Gov: I'm Mr. 'NYCHA' guy
Cuo steps in as Blas skips town
While Mayor de Blasio was at a Texas festival Sunday peddling his national agenda, Gov. Cuomo was quick to jump in on some Big Apple issues critics say Hizzoner has sorely neglected — agreeing to meet with public-housing tenants over their heat, mold and leadpaint woes.
De Blasio gallivanted around the South by Southwest fest talking up such things as the city’s divestment from fossil fuels, immigration policies and mental-health services.
Meanwhile, political foe Cuomo was busy arranging to upstage him by addressing the New York City Housing Authority’s many woes.
“We really expected that we were gonna get some sort of out- reach from the city when the lawsuit was filed, but we heard crickets,” said lawyer Jim Walden, recounting how he finally reached out to Cuomo on behalf of the 400,000 public-housing tenants he is representing in a lawsuit against NYCHA. “I saw the mayor was going out of town, and it wasn’t really going to be productive to ask him to come meet with NYCHA tenants while he’s out [of ] state stumping.”
Walden, who is working with the tenant-advocacy groups Citywide Council of Presidents and At Risk Community Services, said the governor agreed to meet with them at a to-be-determined date.
Cuomo had already taken a shot at de Blasio last week by announcing that he plans to make an emergency declaration to speed up NYCHA repairs.
He also tweeted a blistering at- tack against City Hall on Saturday night, writing, “Failing schools, NYCHA, Rikers, what do they all have in common?
“They’re have mostly minority populations and they are all being abused. I see my job as Governor to put my thumb on the scales for social justice.”
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips fired back, “It’s like this guy hasn’t been the NY Governor, the top federal housing official, or an NYC prosecutor and state AG for three decades.”
City Hall spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie added on Sunday, “The mayor’s public-housing investments are at record levels.”
Cuomo — who will appear at the Jackson Houses in the Bronx — on Sunday defended his decision to inject himself into the public-housing issue.
“Some people are living with no heat. And they’ve asked for me to look at their situation, and I said I would,” he said at an unrelated press conference in Larchmont in Westchester County.
“By definition, New York City is in a place called New York state.’’
Cuomo’s anti-Blasio blitz comes on the heels of reports that the mayor is pushing former “Sex and the City’’ actress Cynthia Nixon to run against the governor in a Democratic primary.
The mayor insisted during a TV interview in Austin on Sunday, “I’m not involved. I don’t know what [Nixon] is going to do.”
Hizzoner is set to attend a closed-door United States Conference of Mayors strategy session Monday, then go to DC for a National League of Cities spring meeting, where the press will not be allowed to ask questions.