Mayor Embarks on Trip to Israel Today

Go Nakamura/For New York Daily News Mayor de Blasio meets the public at a town hall meeting at Gregorio Luperon High School of Science and Mathematics on Wednesday.

The mayor asked many people complaining about landlords their addresses and pointed them to one of the huge retinue of city agency commissioners and aides he brought with him-“you don’t need to call 311″-usually Department of Housing Preservation head Vicki Been and Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks, who seemed less at ease with the microphone than their boss”.

De Blasio has been dogged for weeks over criticisms that he’s taken too many trips out of town, while failing to hold a town hall meeting nearly a full two years into his four year term. Businessman Eliezer Gross, chairman of Besadno Investment Group and SkySaver, will pay de Blasio’s airfare, lodging and expenses for the visit, which was approved by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.

But De Blasio still got a few tough questions.

“The people demand affordable housing”.

De Blasio appeared Wednesday evening in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, primarily to discuss tenants’ issues.

De Blasio explained to the man concerned about affordability that the bulk of his affordable housing plan targets families who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 per year.

At the end of the meeting, de Blasio promised he’d take action.

The area around Washington Heights and Inwood has 53,500 rent-stabilized apartments, the most in the city. Another said a city housing employee was rude to her. And another suggested de Blasio’s affordable-housing plan, which allows a few market rate housing, would flood her neighborhood with wealthier new arrivals and push out longtime residents.

“You have a partner, you have a friend, you have an ally at City Hall”, de Blasio told the crowd as he wrapped up. One woman held up her Municipal Identification and said it was working, prompting de Blasio to whip out his own card and explain that he used it when he was carded as he tried to buy a beer recently.

“We all know there are stores that are closed, bigger things are coming soon”, she said. City Hall rebutted that argument, saying the mayor would interact with voters while riding on the subway or while at the gym. De Blasio also touted universal pre-K.

Despite his inexperience in the town hall setting, he seemed comfortable.

Another spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick, said in a statement of de Blasio’s planned visit: “Building inclusivity and tolerance between all of the region’s people is critical to achieving peace – and there’s no better place to start than with kids, through programs like Hand in Hand”.