A group of New Yorkers fed up with Mayor Bill de Blasio marched to Gracie Mansion earlier this week to call on hizzoner to step aside.
The Facebook group New York Voices for a Better NYC organized the Sept. 13 march, which began at the plaza at the corner of East 91st Street and 2nd Avenue on the Upper East Side. The group then headed east to Gracie Mansion, carrying signs urging the mayor to quit.
The protesters railed against de Blasio over various woes afflicting New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic — from a rise in murders to the prolonged prohibition of indoor dining. (Restaurants will be permitted to welcome limited numbers of guests back inside as of Sept. 30, as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s previous direction.)
Demonstrators also called for an investigation into the alleged misuse of nearly a billion dollars in funding allocated to Thrive NYC, a mental health program headed by de Blasio’s wife, NYC First Lady Chrilane McCray.
Upon arriving at Gracie Mansion, the group met some counter-protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement and found some common ground with them in expressing their displeasure with de Blasio.
The mayor was in New York City this weekend, but did not appear at Gracie Mansion during the protest.
De Blasio is ineligible to run for another term in office in 2021 due to term limits.
Under state law and the City Charter, only the governor has the authority to remove an incumbent mayor from office “upon charges” before an election; the mayor cannot be impeached or recalled. The public advocate would serve as acting mayor in the event of a mayoral vacancy.
