New York Mayor Bill De Blasio took a walk in the park over the weekend with his wife.
No, not in the sprawling 11 acres of Carl Schurz Park, which is adjacent to his residence at Gracie Mansion, but rather in Prospect Park, some 11 miles away in Brooklyn, according to the New York Post.
The Democratic mayor, of course, has imposed restrictions on the city in an effort to curb coronavirus infections.
“We have to change the way we live if we’re going to bend the curve of this epidemic,” de Blasio said in a March 22 statement on the city’s official website as he announced the strict rules.
“Do your part: stay home. That is the single most important thing someone can do right now. Protect yourself and save lives: only go out for the essentials,” the mayor said.
Apparently, he thought himself exempt from his own orders.
Twitter user Darren Goldner showed de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, out for a stroll in Brooklyn on April 25.
“I live right near Prospect Park. It’s a nice place to exercise at distance. Today, I ran into @nycmayor @billdeblasio w/ @nycfirstlady there,” he said in his tweet with accompanying photo of De Blasio and McCray.
“But they live 11 miles away *inside* another park and force a 4 SUV entourage to drive them non-essentially to Bklyn for recreation,” Goldner said.
Later in the thread, he shared footage he took as he caught up with the mayor and first lady with what appeared to be an entourage of staff, who tried to shoo Goldner away.
He questioned the mayor’s progressive bona fides and as he tweeted, “His actions tell us who he really is. Austerity for the working class, privilege for the ruling class.”
The video showed him confronting the mayor, calling his actions “selfish.”
“Seriously, you guys have a park,” Goldner continued. “You live in the middle of a park. You don’t need to nonessentially travel to Brooklyn. Come on, you won’t even open roads for people of all backgrounds.”
