See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
If half of life is just showing up, then Mayor DeBlasio better be good at the other half.
On Friday, Sloper-in-Chief DeBlasio further cemented his reputation for serial tardiness when he showed up an hour late to the Department of Corrections academy’s graduation ceremony at Brooklyn College — which he was emceeing.
Attendees who set their alarms early just to get seats did not appreciate being kept waiting by hizzoner.
“We got up really early,” said Joann Della Valle, the proud mother of Jordan, who graduated on Friday. “My son said, ‘You can’t be late; there’s no assigned seats,’ so we rushed over. But to wait for so long was embarrassing and a little rude.”
The Della Valle Family left their home in Manorville, Long Island at 7 am and, after a two-hour drive and a quest for a parking spot, managed to find a seat at Brooklyn College’s auditorium at 9:30 am. It was a half hour before the graduation ceremonies were supposed to begin and an hour-and-a-half before DeBlasio showed up.
Unlike many of his fellow Long Islanders, DeBlasio’s Park Slope home is a 15-minute drive from Midwood’s Brooklyn College, yet he did not show up until 11 am, long after the crowd got restless.
“Kids were making noise, people were getting fidgety, and then a speaker came up and said the graduation will begin in 10 minutes,” said Nick Della Valle, the cadet’s father. “Then 10 minutes went by, then 20 minutes, then a half hour.”
The Della Valle family acknowledged that when the mayor finally did show up, he gave a lovely speech. But they were again disappointed when the mayor ran off skipped out on pressing the flesh with the new officers and their families.
“The speech was very nice,” said Nick. “But when he was done, he left. I thought that was rude.”
The couple’s other son recently graduated from the police academy and the parents could not help but draw comparisons between DeBalsio at Brooklyn College and his predecessor Michael Bloomberg, who did not keep the NYPD’s Madison Square Garden Crowd waiting.
“I know nothing about the man, but he has big boots to fill,” said Joann. “My other son graduated two weeks ago from the NYPD, and Bloomberg was on time.”
DeBlasio earned a reputation for taking a flexible approach to punctuality during his campaign for mayor, giving his Republican opponent fodder when an event was delayed on his account, according to a businessinsider.com report. The mayor was late so often that a Twitter account was created for the express purpose of documenting his arrival times.
The Della Valles said that DeBlasio may be mayor, but he might not have been able to hack it in correctional officer academy.
“One of the things the department insisted on was punctuality,” said Joann.