Amid federal and state investigations into fundraising activities and the administration, Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking a new approach to communicating his message to New Yorkers.
The mayor says he is going to begin appearing every Friday on WNYC radio, where he will take questions from New Yorkers.
It's a big change for the mayor. When he first came into office in 2014, many New Yorkers expected him to continue with the modern mayoral tradition of having a weekly radio show.
De Blasio turned down invitations from radio stations like WNYC and TV stations like NY1.
His change of mind comes at a rough time for the mayor. He is the focus of a number of damaging investigations.
And the mayor's press secretary, Karen Hinton, announced Thursday that she is leaving City Hall, after only one year.
The mayor was questioned about the investigations during a radio appearance Friday and he stuck with the same line of defense he's been using these past few weeks - that there is a double standard at play and he is being unfairly targeted for activities he says are the norm.
"I mean there are massive conflicts of interest going on every day in this country that go fully unexamined. What we are doing is doing the people's business. And there is a lot of examination of the work we are doing. And I've said to you, I think there's a double standard here," De Blasio said.
The mayor also argued that the city's conflicts of interest board had issued formal guidance for what he could and could not do in regards to fundraising, which he says he follows.
NY1 first reported this week that the board had directed the mayor not to ask for money from anyone with business pending or about to be pending before the city. Yet the mayor's nonprofit group collected thousands of dollars from people who do business before the city, raising questions about whether he indeed followed the board's order.