Fresh from his election triumph, Bill de Blasio hit the ground running on his first full day as mayor-elect, sitting down Wednesday with the man he battered throughout the campaign.
Not his opponent, former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota, but the man de Blasio will succeed, Mayor Bloomberg.
For nearly an hour at City Hall, the outgoing and incoming mayors chatted across a table overlooking the second-floor bullpen, Bloomberg’s celebrated office-without-walls that de Blasio has said he likely will dismantle.
First in the Democratic primary, and then in the general election, de Blasio campaigned as the anti-Bloomberg, bashing the mayor as an out-of-touch billionaire presiding over a city with a growing gap between the haves and the have nots.
On Wednesday, however, the mayor-in-waiting emerged from his sit-down with Bloomberg proclaiming their conversation “very cordial” and “very collegial.”
They talked in hushed tones about how to staff a new administration, the challenges of working with Albany and how their aides could work together to assure a smooth transition.
All while Bloomberg’s trademark digital clock counted up the minutes they spent together.
Bloomberg gave de Blasio an electronic book with information on city agencies, and the two men agreed “to stay in regular touch,” de Blasio said.
In an interview later with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bloomberg was equally gracious in talking about his successor.
“He and I just one-on-one talked about how we can help and the transition,” Bloomberg said.
“Keep in mind, I have a big vested interest in making Bill de Blasio an even better mayor than I was. The bottom line is, I’m going to live in New York City.”
During the campaign, Bloomberg warned about the possibility of crime and mayhem returning if de Blasio was elected, but the current mayor swept aside such questions Wednesday.
“Twelve years ago when I got elected there were a lot of people who said, ‘Oh, he could never keep us safe the way (Mayor Rudy) Giuliani did,” Bloomberg said.
“And so you never know, and I’m optimistic. I’m sure everybody’s not going to be happy with every decision that Bill de Blasio makes, and they’re not happy with every decision I made.”
De Blasio, trounced Lhota, a Republican, 73% to 24% in Tuesday’s election, returns showed — the largest margin of victory by a nonincumbent running for mayor in city history.
With the outcome certain for weeks, barely 22% of registered voters cast ballots, the lowest turnout in a mayor’s race since at least 1955, the last year for which Board of Election figures were available.
After meeting with Bloomberg Wednesday, de Blasio unveiled the leaders of his transition team, who were picked, he said, for their experience in government, their commitment to “progressive values” and the way they reflect the city’s diversity.
Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and Carl Weisbrod, who was a top economic development official under then Mayor David Dinkins, will head the effort, he said.
“Today is now the first day of an eight-week sprint preparing our new administration,” he said.
“Every single one of us up here knows we have 55 days until opening day . . . We’re going to need every single one of those 55 days.”
He also announced a website, transition2013.com, where New Yorkers can apply for jobs or submit ideas.
As he proclaimed on election night, de Blasio said he considers his overwhelming victory as a mandate for his liberal campaign agenda.
“The people of this city have spoken. The mandate is clear,” he said. “We all feel that this is a sacred mission.”
In Albany, Gov. Cuomo gushed about de Blasio’s win — but dodged questions about whether he’d sign on to the mayor-elect’s call to tax the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten.
“You couldn’t have a better relationship than I have with this mayor,” he said on the “Capitol Pressroom” radio show.
But he said of the tax plan, “that is a January conversation and that is a multi-part conversation.”
Although de Blasio launched his transition, several key decisions have not been made.
Still undecided, de Blasio said, is the timeline for picking a new police commissioner and schools chancellor.
Also unclear, he said, is the precise role his wife Chirlane McCray will play in his administration — but he made a point of saying that the transition leaders were people he and his wife decided on together.
De Blasio said he plans to depart Thursday for the annual gathering of New York’s black and Latino legislators in Puerto Rico.
The future First Couple plan to take a few days off on the sunny island afterward.
“After a long, long battle, Chirlane and I are going to get a few days just to spend some quiet time, spend some time to think and regroup, and I think that’s necessary,” he said.
De Blasio said it was a “special feeling” to return to City Hall as mayor-elect, although he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the horde of reporters and photographers that awaited him.
“All this . . . it’s incredible,” he said softly.
With Glenn Blain
