Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio returns to his alum mater to teach a course on public service.
De Blasio, 61, will don his professorial hat in January 2023, almost 40 years after he graduated from New York University in 1984, where he majored in metropolitan studies and engaged in activism.
He will be a Fellow teaching a graduate course at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
The former mayor, who failed to secure a seat in Congress after handing his role to Eric Adams, will work with the school in January and said he was “excited” at the opportunity.
“When I graduated from NYU in the 1980s, I never dreamed of a path that would take me to City Hall and then back to my alma mater,” he said Monday in a joint statement with NYU. “Now I can help others achieve their dreams.”
In July, de Blasio also said, “Public service is what I want to do, and that can take all sorts of forms: non-profit organizations and a variety of good causes.”
De Blasio, 61, will don his professorial hat in January 2023, almost 40 years after he graduated from New York University in 1984, where he majored in metropolitan studies and engaged in activism
NYU said it is thrilled that de Blasio is “offering students, faculty and graduate students an unparalleled opportunity to learn from someone with tremendous experience and many hard-earned successes in the political arena, as well as in policy making and management.”
“I am extremely pleased to welcome him to NYU Wagner as a Marnold Visiting Fellow for the coming year,” said Sherry Glied, Wagner’s dean.
After losing the mayoral seat to Eric Adams, de Blasio left City Hall and moved to Brooklyn’s chic Park Slope neighborhood.
Earlier this month, he was spotted walking the streets of Manhattan, unimpressed and unrecognizable, while sporting a Brooklyn t-shirt.
He was spotted shortly after it was revealed the father of two would be teaching a course at Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
De Blasio announced the position at Harvard last month and tweeted that he was delighted to teach at the venerable institution.
“I’m VERY optimistic about the coming generation of leaders and activists,” he said. “It will be a privilege to offer lessons I’ve learned over decades of public service.
He will teach a graduate course at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service as a fellow in the spring and will teach a public service course
“My key message to them: we CAN make bold, progressive change. I know it because I’ve lived it.”
De Blasio, who served as mayor from 2014 to 2021, will participate in “a variety of discussions, events and programs” at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Department of Politics.
He will also teach leadership and public service courses at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
De Blasio and his family will remain in his adopted home of Brooklyn, according to The New York Times, but it’s unclear if he has relocated part-time to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the duration of his tenure at Harvard.
De Blasio was born in New York City but grew up primarily in Cambridge.
Speaking to The Times earlier this month, he said it would be “cute to spend some time in the town where I grew up.”
The deeply unpopular Democrat accepted the gig with Harvard after announcing he would run for Congress in May, but then dropped out in July when it became clear he had no chance of winning.
After De Blasio announced the grant last month, Tucker Carlson laughed at the appointment, saying it was “to pay for his weed habit.”
“He tried to be a candidate for Congress, but no one wanted to vote for him,” Carlson said. “So what do you do when you’re Bill de Blasio?
“You have to pay for your weed addiction. Where are you going? Well, there’s one place in America that would hire Bill de Blasio. Harvard University.’
The progressive politician has long been dogged by online rumors of regular marijuana use without any evidence. He said he tried it as a teenager but hadn’t smoked since college. He did, however, laud legalization of marijuana in New York in 2021, after initially opposing it.
His wife Chirlane McCray has been open about seeking therapy to quit smoking marijuana, and his daughter Chiara said she abused alcohol and marijuana when she became depressed.
He is currently a visiting fellow at Harvard School of Politics and has since moved to Brooklyn after losing the mayoral seat to Eric Adams (pictured: de Blasio in October).
Carlson ridiculed Harvard for hiring de Blasio – who, he said, “oversaw the resurgence of bubonic plague in New York.”
Carlson explained, “You can’t say Bill de Blasio doesn’t get things done. It only lasted eight years and he basically destroyed the largest city in the country.”
He added: “It’s measurable. De Blasio recorded a 65 percent increase in homelessness. People living on the streets, addicted to drugs. During the pandemic, he has government bureaucrats targeting small business owners.”
“He forced private company employees to take the COVID vaccine and ruined the lives of all who resisted. Of course, one would think that Bill de Blasio would have a brilliant career even as a homeless person after his tenure.”
