‘Colum-boos Day’ Parade for Blasio
Mayor de Blasio just discovered a whole new world of people who can’t stand him.
Hizzoner was ruthlessly jeered at Monday’s Columbus Day Parade, where several members of the crowd shouted obscenities
and insults at him as he made his return to the yearly Italian-American celebration.
“F--k you, you piece of s--t,” a man yelled at the mayor, igniting applause from other attendees.
“F--k you, de Blasio. You piece of garbage,” screamed another as the mayor strolled along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. “Get out of here, you piece of s--t. You’re garbage.”
East Villager Suzan Miller waved an Italian flag as she explained to The Post why she felt the mayor received such a cold reception.
“I love my New York people. I love my blue. I’m tired of the crime. I’m tired of him dividing people,” she fumed. “He can go to goddamn hell.”
Several hecklers peppered de Blasio with derision as he took photos with Timothy Cardinal Dolan on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The archbishop of New York, however, defended him.
“All I can say is this: He and I have gotten along well. We talk candidly and disagree on stuff, but he’s been a gentleman. We’ve worked together. Have there been controversies? Sure,” Dolan told The Post. “In general, I’m grateful — very grateful — that we got along so well.”
The parade participants — numbering a “less than usual” under 10,000, according to the NYPD — weren’t as happy with the mayor.
“Yeah for the FDNY, boo for you,” one said.
“Can’t wait for you to leave,” jeered another at the lame-duck de Blasio.
“You suck,” one taunted with their thumbs down.
The reaction came as no surprise to Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, who before the event celebrating Italian Heritage predicted that de Blasio would be derided.
“I’m looking forward to Bill de Blasio being booed,” the Guardian Angels founder said when asked what he was looking forward to about the event. “He got elected saying he was 100 percent Italian, now watch the Italians boo him!”
Before the event, the mayor said he’s “very proud” of his Italian heritage, and that it can be honored alongside Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
“Italian Americans, tens of millions of Italians Americans, came to this country, made this country a better place. You’ve got to honor the Italian-American people. That’s what the day should be about,” he told reporters before marching. “It doesn’t have to be a contradiction. Let’s love and respect Italian-American heritage. I’m very, very proud of it. Let’s also acknowledge the history of Native Americans and support them.”
Though he is of Italian ancestry through his mother’s side, de Blasio has often not enjoyed a close relationship with the Big Apple’s Italian-American community.
In 2019, the mayor was ripped when his wife, Chirlane McCray, removed Mother Frances Cabrini, America’s first canonized saint, from a list of honored women under consideration for a statue in the five boroughs.
Last year, he sparked outrage when the city public school system scrapped Columbus Day, replacing it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Also in 2020, he was excluded from New York City’s major Columbus Day event by the foundation that hosts the annual parade.
The chairman of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, Angelo Vivolo, told The Post at the time, “No, he wasn’t invited” to speak at the virtual event, after the cancellation of the in-person occasion due to the pandemic.