Mayor Bill de Blasio says he'll keep traveling by city SUV from Gracie Mansion to Park Slope to work out, despite his own calls for New Yorkers to do more to help the environment. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.
On Monday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio was back at the Prospect Park Y. It is as clear a sign as any that he has no intention of changing his regular routine.
"This is something that is very personally important to me, as far as how I do my job as best I can. I'm going to keep doing it," he said.
This is how the mayor's day regularly starts, with an 11-mile drive from Gracie Mansion to his old neighborhood.
As is often the case, the mayor left the Y at 10 a.m. He hopped into his SUV to head to Queens to announce a $385 million investment to build gyms in schools that do not have them.
The mayor's own gym habit, though, has been coming under fire. Last week, as President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accord on the environment, de Blasio urged all New Yorkers to do more to go green. Given his long drives to the gym in an SUV, that struck some as hypocritical.
"We all have to do what we can do," de Blasio said. "I am very focused on recycling in my life. And composting."
The mayor argued that even if he took the subway, the SUVs in his security detail would still have to make the trip.
"The vehicles are going one way or another," he said. "I think that is what is different than a typical person's life."
NY1's exclusive video of de Blasio leaving the gym gained traction on Twitter.
Guess who is back at the gym? @NYCMayor left Y at 10 am. Next on his schedule? A gym class in Queens. For real. pic.twitter.com/BIdB9l42LN
— Grace Rauh (@gracerauh) June 5, 2017
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, retweeted it.
An elliptical thinker that has his city on a treadmill...working out or out working? https://t.co/Ft9nUizjb4
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 5, 2017
The mayor's press secretary fired back at her with an emoji message of a person lifted weights surrounded by Russian flags.
🇷🇺 🏋 🇷🇺 https://t.co/qIPiju5N3U
— Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) June 5, 2017
And Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican running against de Blasio for mayor, went to the Y to check it out, saying it's just like the gyms near the mayor's home.
Much commotion over mayor's gas guzzling trips to Park Slope gym, so I wanted to see for myself...Yeah, it's just like gyms near Gracie Masn pic.twitter.com/zzwQwNKHVc
— Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis) June 5, 2017
But the gyms near Gracie Mansion don't seem to have the same draw for de Blasio.