The Summer of Blaz

Who had a better summer than Mayor Bill de Blasio? Ever since Governor Andrew Cuomo completed his stunning fall from grace, the mayor has had a whole new attitude.
Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like the mayor is a lot more carefree, despite all of the issues facing the city, including the controversy surrounding school reopenings and vaccine mandates, his decision to send all city workers back to the office, and the mess on Rikers Island.
When he gets questioned on those decisions, he seems a lot more confident and less defensive than he did when Cuomo was constantly calling him out in public.
And what does a mayor whose feeling himself do? He demands a bulldozer and then uses it to crush some illegal dirt bikes confiscated by the police, which is exactly what he did on Staten Island recently.
Now he’s taking on world leaders. The mayor told Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to not bother coming to the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly this week, as the unvaccinated Bolsonaro would be in violation of the city’s vaccine mandate.
“We need to send a message to all the world leaders, including most notably Bolsonaro from Brazil, that if you intend to come here, you need to be vaccinated,” de Blasio said during his daily City Hall news conference.
Of course, de Blasio can’t stop Bolsonaro from coming to New York City, so the demand is futile and the South American leader still gave the first speech of the annual meeting on Tuesday.
But de Blasio could theoretically tail Bolsonaro and his party and keep them from dining in restaurants or entering bars and clubs.
Of course, if Bolsonaro pulls the same stunt as the tourists from Texas who caused a fracas when they were denied entry to a restaurant, there’s not much de Blasio could do: Bolsonaro enjoys diplomatic immunity.
Fall starts this week, so as far as the calendar is concerned, the “Summer of Blaz” is coming to end, but we’ll see if de Blasio can ride his newfound confidence all the way through to the end of his term on December 31.