Bill de Blasio is getting ripped apart for saying that one of NYC's best pizza places should reopen despite not paying $167k in taxes
- Mayor Bill de Blasio found himself in hot water on Wednesday when he pledged to save a beloved family-owned New York pizza joint recently shut down for failure to pay outstanding tax bills.
- This week, the New York Daily News reported that state tax authorities seized and shut down Di Fara's pizza in Midwood, Brooklyn for not paying over $167,000 the business owed in taxes to New York state.
- "Di Fara is THE best pizza place in New York City. It MUST be saved. I'm ready to do anything I can to get them reopened," de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday.
- Twitter users slammed the mayor for taking immediate action to rescue a private business behind on their taxes while failing to fix some of the most pressing problems facing the city.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, a 2020 presidential candidate, found himself in hot water on Wednesday when he pledged to save a beloved family-owned New York pizza joint recently shut down for failure to pay outstanding tax bills.
This week, the New York Daily News reported that state tax authorities seized and shut down Di Fara's pizza in Midwood, Brooklyn for not paying over $167,000 the business owed in taxes to New York state.
Visitors who made the trek to the famed location this week discovered that Di Fara's was closed and plastered with notices reading, "this property has been seized for nonpayment of taxes and is now in the possession of the state of New York."
A spokesman for the New York Department of Tax and Finance told the Daily News that "seizing a business is always our last resort" and Di Fara's had been warned about their outstanding tax debt on multiple occasions over the past few months.
De Blasio immediately pledged to get the pizza place re-opened, tweeting on Wednesday, "Di Fara is THE best pizza place in New York City. It MUST be saved. I'm ready to do anything I can to get them reopened - as are thousands of New York City pizza-lovers. My team and I are looking into how we can help resolve this situation."
But de Blasio's efforts to save the pizza place instantly backfired, and his tweet was "ratioed," receiving far more angry replies than likes and retweets.
Twitter users slammed the mayor for taking immediate action to rescue a private business behind on their taxes while failing to fix some of the most pressing problems facing the city, including the dilapidated state of New York's public transit and a recent epidemic of cyclists being struck and killed by motorists.
De Blasio is highly unpopular both among the electorate and his own constituents in New York. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in April found that not only do 44% of New Yorkers disapprove of his job performance compared with 42% who approve, but an overwhelming 76% of New Yorkers also believed De Blasio shouldn't run for president.