Mayor Bill de Blasio has faced criticism for rarely visiting Staten Island. When he did go Thursday, he was confronted by a resident.
Chris Altieri said he's upset the mayor pays lower property taxes on his Park Slope home than Altieri does on Staten Island.
He also complained that the location of a nearby speed camera was not legal. He said the cameras are designed to raise money for the city. The mayor says they are important.
Altieri: If you wanted to save people's lives, you'd have all 140 cameras up and running.
De Blasio: Trust me. We want to save people's lives. That's what the motive is.
Altieri: No you don't. You want the revenue.
De Blasio: No, come on.
Altieri: I have to walk in the street all the time.
De Blasio: Then how do you -
Altieri: I have to walk in the street all the time.
De Blasio: Do you really look me in the eye and say we don't want to save people's lives? Do you really believe that?
Altieri: I think you want the revenue, yes. I believe that.
De Blasio: You think we don't want to save people's lives?
Altieri: If you wanted to save people's lives, there'd be sidewalks on the south shore of Staten Island.
An unscripted exchange like this, especially a hostile one, is something that rarely plays out on camera, at least not with de Blasio. Unlike past mayors, he has so far refused to hold any town hall meetings. The mayor, though, says he speaks to New Yorkers regularly.
Other Staten Islanders were pleased to see the mayor. James Oddo, the Republican borough president, had high praise for the Democrat now running City Hall.
"For us to get better roads, we need an extroaridnary committment of resources, and it's this mayor, Bill de Blasio, and this commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, that is making that commitment," Oddo said.
It's a commitment that may be winning over some, but hardly all, Staten Islanders.