Regrets? Bill de Blasio has a few.
In a Tuesday column published in The Atlantic, the former New York City mayor expressed his disappointment for being remembered as one of the city's least popular mayors, conceding that he grew out of touch with regular New Yorkers and failed to engage with the city's "aggrieved residents."
In his mea culpa piece, de Blasio said he believes he failed to present an "overarching vision for the future" to the city's residents.
"In 2017, I won my second term with two-thirds of the general-election vote. But by last year (2021), my popularity had tanked. Why?" de Blasio wrote.
"I failed to give New Yorkers a clear sense of where I was taking them. I lost my connection with the people because I mistook real policy for real popularity ... I let a focus on individual initiatives, no matter how noble or substantive, distract me from offering an overarching vision for the future."
The former mayor sent a warning to President Joe Biden.
De Blasio said Biden should take a more hands-on approach to reversing the trends of sagging approval ratings.
"I fear Biden is making the same mistake" wrote the former mayor. "He's handling crucial problems as they arise, yet without illustrating to the public what a better America looks like."
A recent national poll cited President Biden's job-approval rating, among registered voters, at 33%.
More effective and creative messaging could possibly reinvigorate Biden's presidency, said de Blasio.
"Yes, Americans expect him to address innumerable daily issues and run an extensive bureaucracy. And I understand that behind the scenes, he's keeping together the extraordinary coalition he built to support Ukraine," wrote de Blasio, who briefly ran for presidential office in of 2020.
"But that example illustrates a bigger point: Keeping things together, even in the midst of a crisis, isn’t the same as moving things forward."
President Biden needs to let the general public know that he cares about everyday concerns among regular Americans, de Blasio wrote.
"As the mayor of New York City, I had one of the loudest megaphones in the country, and I failed to use it properly," wrote de Blasio. "Biden's bully pulpit is a thousand times more powerful. He needs to use it to show that he truly empathizes with everyday Americans on the issues they care most about, such as inflation, public safety, and affordable healthcare.
"Biden still has a chance to do what I did not: present a clear, sharp message and repeat it incessantly."
Among the areas in which de Blasio holds the greatest mayoral regrets: New York's troubled public housing agency, the area's dangerous prison environments, and police-community relations.
"I needed to engage with aggrieved residents of public housing, for example, the same as I did with those parents early on," de Blasio wrote. "I should have walked among them rather than just working for them behind closed doors. Voters need to know both what you're up to and why you're up to it. You have to help them feel your efforts."
Conversely, de Blasio was proud of his work in the Universal Pre-Kindergarten initiative, designed to help "parents desperately trying to make ends meet for their families."
The former mayor's Atlantic column ended with a plea to Biden and the other Democrats seeking positive results in the November midterm elections.
The message: Take de Blasio's public-perception missteps to heart.
"When it comes to being unpopular, I'm unfortunately somewhat of an expert. I made my fair share of mistakes. President Biden and the Democratic Party should learn from them," wrote de Blasio.
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