Two months into year one, the love affair between New Yorkers and Bill de Blasio is officially out of its PDA phase. A new poll from The Wall Street Journal and NYC New York put the mayor’s approval rating at 39 percent, with 37 percent calling his performance so far “fair,” 29 percent “good,” and 20 percent “poor.” Just 10 percent say he’s doing excellent, and 5 percent somehow still don’t know who the guy is.
De Blasio’s popularity remains high enough, with 59 percent of voters viewing him favorably and 33 percent unfavorably, but around the election, before he had to actually do anything, those numbers were 64 and 26 respectively. (The poll surveyed 785 people, including 586 registered voters, with a 3.5 percent margin of error.)
It is not, however, the snow’s fault: 56 percent of those asked approve of how he handled the winter storms. Crime is also down thus far, and 53 percent of people believe the city is moving in the right direction, according to the poll. But after winning the election with nearly 75 percent of the vote, built on big promises and bigger rhetoric, there was really nowhere else to go but down.
