De Blasio Touts 'Sane' Talk With Hochul In Dig At Cuomo

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio and soon-to-be Gov. Kathy Hochul appear to eager to reset the years-long contentious relationship between the city and state.

The pair met face-to-face this week for what de Blasio called a very positive and productive meeting focused on the delta variant and the city's recovery from the pandemic.

Hizzoner, during his Wednesday briefing, also contrasted it with his famously contentious relationship with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is resigning after a sexual harassment scandal.

“It was just a good, healthy, sane — I emphasize the word ‘sane’ — conversation which I truly appreciate,” he said.

De Blasio has not been shy about casting shade on Cuomo, his long-time rival. The governor's bullying, vindictive nature has harmed New York City, in the mayor's telling.

Perhaps the most tragic example was a delay on a "shelter-in-place" order during the coronavirus pandemic's early days, de Blasio said on NY1's "Inside City Hall" this week. In March 2020, de Blasio said the city should prepare for such an order, only to have Cuomo trash it before waiting days to release an essentially identical measure he called "PAUSE."

"Those days we lost when he wouldn't even entertain the idea because it came from someone else, which is just tragically immature on top of everything else," de Blasio told NY1. "You know, that was a horrible, horrible impact. I'm not even going to go into the mistakes around the nursing homes and the cover-up. There's so many issues here, but did his approach to people and his unwillingness to work with others – did that have a negative impact on New Yorkers? Of course it did."

Hochul didn't have to distance herself much from the governor after he announced his upcoming resignation. As she put it, she hasn't been close to him, physically or politically, in months.

"I'm going to stand right here: at the end of my term, whenever it ends, no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment," she said.