NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson Criticizes Bill De Blasio, Discusses Possible Mayoral Run
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson makes it clear he wants to be the city's next mayor, offering a pointed attack on the failures of the present occupant of Gracie Mansion during an appearance on our new political talk show "The Point" on CBSN New York.
Johnson has two years, one month and eight days left in his term, and it may get just a little bit more difficult for him after he offered a blistering criticism of the job Bill de Blasio is doing as mayor.
"You have a raging homelessness crisis in New York City," he said, pointing out that 114,000 children are deemed homeless.
"You have public housing that is crumbling before our eyes ... You have people that, again, are being killed on the streets in New York City every single day and I think the council has driven the conversation on how to make the streets safer," he continued. "We still have too much gun violence."
The council speaker found only one thing to give the mayor props on.
"I think this mayor has had some successes with universal pre-K," he said.
Johnson was the first guest on "The Point," hosted by political reporter Marcia Kramer. The thing that set him off was when Kramer asked him if he does run for the top job, would he model himself after de Blasio?
"No, I would model myself on myself," Johnson said.
RELATED STORY: Council Speaker Johnson Hints At Mayoral Run In 2021
The speaker, the closest he's come to making a formal announcement about the 2021 race, spoke of his fears of an economic recession and faulted de Blasio for growing the size of the city workforce to historic proportions -- 325,000, about 40,000 more than under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"One of the big things we need to do is make sure that there is real management. We've had a significant increase in headcount in New York City, which has affected the city's budget. We need to be smarter with our dollars. We have to be thoughtful about how we spend our resources because this economic expansion is not going to last forever," Johnson said.
The council speaker said he doesn't expect to kick off his campaign in earnest until after next year's presidential election, and if you're looking for a sign that he's really serious about the campaign, he said getting rid of free on-street parking was a non-starter.
You can watch "The Point" on our streaming service CBSN New York.
