Bronx cheers rained down on Mayor Bill de Blasio in Queens during a raucous town hall Wednesday night.
The mayor was met with boos from residents mad as hell about homelessness, criminal justice reform and controversial Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
A hostile crowd at JHS 190 Russell Sage in Forest Hills lobbed verbal grenades at de Blasio, calling him a liar and branding his responses “bulls–t” when they didn’t agree with them during the three-hour fracas.
“New York City is becoming crime city,” 74-year-old retiree Deanna Condino said of no-bail criminal justice reform.
“They’re releasing people who are very, very violent,” she said to applause.
The mayor responded, calling the link between rising crime and bail reform “right-wing propaganda.”
Two New Yorkers even said they were considering deserting the city because of the mayor’s decision to put new homeless shelters and a jail in their neighborhoods.
“The fact is, Mr. Mayor, people are leaving New York,” Fabiola Milord told de Blasio.
“Mr. Mayor, I do not feel safe.”
Milord said she opposes the replacement of Rikers Island with borough-based jails, including one near her home in Kew Gardens.
The mayor has said four new, smaller jails would be needed to facilitate the closure of Rikers.
David Rem, the 56-year-old father of a Latina, was escorted out of the town hall when he asked the mayor to fire Carranza, whom Rem called “racist.”
De Blasio’s chancellor has repeatedly sparked rage among school parents and other critics, who have accused him of cronyism in his hirings and overemphasizing race when setting policy.
“Lived in NYC my whole life and you are the worst mayor we’ve ever had!” Rem shouted on his way out of the gymnasium.
As soon as Rem left, another audience member, Edwin Wong, said, “Many in the Asian-American community do not feel the current chancellor has our back. We do feel he is racist.”
De Blasio disagreed with Wong, but admitted bungling a proposal to change admissions criteria for the city’s elite high schools.
“I didn’t handle it well and he [Carranza] didn’t handle it well,” the mayor conceded.