Bill de Blasio held a farewell ceremony at City Hall, which included a press conference, to mark the end of his second and final term as mayor of New York after eight years in office.
As usual, not distinguished by punctuality, de Blasio began the press conference 45 minutes late. In his speech at the Rotunda, he thanked the staff, while not forgetting to mention the main achievements of his own activities. Therefore, from the pronoun “you” he easily switched to “we”.
“You have changed the lives of millions of people,” he said. “We have changed the way our children learn. We’ve changed the way citizens get their much-needed housing. We have opened the way for people to improve their mental health, something that was previously denied to them. We changed police work forever. We’ve changed a lot of things for the benefit of the working people. “
De Blasio arranged for reporters to watch videos of himself as the main character. Many famous people in New York, such as filmmaker Spike Lee, actor Steve Buseny, singer and poet Patti Smith, political activist, “icon” of feminism Gloria Steinem, thanked the outgoing mayor for what he did for the city. Many of them received from him the symbolic keys to the city a few days before the ceremony.
De Blasio’s wife Shirlein McCrae and Dante’s son also gave speeches full of praise.
In his last press conference, de Blasio did not change another of his habits: to answer not all questions, but to some, and if he answer, then evasively.
When asked how he sees his political future, if rumors were to be believed, would he try to run for the governor’s or lieutenant governor’s office, or would he want to compete for the position of state auditor, the answer was vague: “The time to talk about the future will come soon the future. I can only say that as soon as I have any plans, I will immediately tell you about them. “
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