This morning, it emerged that Bill de Blasio, who’s notoriously tardy for everything from memorials to speeches, was so late for a flight from JFK in November that he kept passengers from boarding for 20 minutes. New York’s mayor is so perennially late that the Post once gifted him a West Elm alarm clock (without a snooze button). A 2013 Observer profile noted that as public advocate, de Blasio “sometimes had difficulty waking up in the morning … leaving staffers waiting for hours outside his home or showing up late to morning events he had been scheduled to attend.” Some things never change! Here, all the times we could find that the mayor has been late.
When: November 3, 2013
What: Pre-election rally
How late? Over an hour
Excuse: A mysterious 5 a.m. phone call interrupted his sleep.
When: December 4, 2013
What: Press conference to name the first deputy mayor
How late? 31 minutes
Excuse: None
When: December 5, 2013
What: Press conference to name the police commissioner
How late? 50 minutes
Excuse: None
When: December 12, 2013
What: Press conference to name deputy mayor
How late? 34 minutes
Excuse: None
When: December 18, 2013
What: Press conference to name budget director
How late? 19 minutes
Excuse: None
When: December 19, 2013
What: Press conference to make an educational announcement
How late? 39 minutes
Excuse: None
When: January 28, 2014
What: State budget hearing
How late? 15 minutes
Excuse: None
When: March 20, 2014
What: First bill signing
How late? 45 minutes
Excuse: None
When: March/April 2014
What: Interview with the New York Times
How late? 35 minutes
Excuse: None
When: November 6, 2014
What: JetBlue flight from JFK to Puerto Rico
How late? 20 minutes
Excuse: None
When: November 12, 2014
What: Memorial for victims of Flight 587
How late? 20 minutes
Excuse: He had a “rough night” and the boat he was traveling on got stuck in some bad fog.
Total lateness: 368 minutes, or 6.1 hours.
And this is just the lateness that we could find noted in the press! Who knows how long he’s made staffers wait.
