Bill De Blasio Challenger Shows Up To Park Slope Y To Challenge Mayor's Gym Routine

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Bill de Blasio's Democratic challenger for mayor stood outside of the Park Slope YMCA on Wednesday morning to offer him a Metro card and urge him to take the subway to his daily trips to the gym from the Upper East Side.

But former City Councilman Sal Albanese was late to the political stunt himself — because the car he was taking to get there got stuck in traffic.

"The problem is I live on Staten Island," Albanese told reporters once he finally got there, according to Politico.

"What I normally do is I come over the Verrazano Bridge and I take the subway," he said. "I lived in Bay Ridge all my life. The problem is, on Staten Island, if you’re gonna go to Bay Ridge, there’s no other way to do it."

De Blasio has been slammed in recent days for taking the 11.5-mile trip almost daily from Gracie Mansion to the Ninth Street YMCA in an SUV motorcade, particularly after he asked New Yorkers to make personal sacrifices to prevent climate change.

Albanese, who hasn't been included in most major election polls and has raised just a fraction of what de Blasio has, was looking to capitalize.

He said taking the subway would help de Blasio understand what New Yorkers go through on a day-to-day basis.

"It may be cheap symbolism in his eyes, but basically I think if he got onto the system, he would find out that people are packed in like sardines, there’s significant delays on a regular basis," Albanese said, according to Politico.

De Blasio wasn't there to take him up on his offer, though. The mayor had gone to the gym earlier than usual Wednesday to avoid the scene.

"We’ve already achieved a major milestone. Bill de Blasio had the earliest workout – I’m convinced – in the history of his workouts," Albanese said, according to The New York Post.

"What I wanted to do was ask Bill to take the subway: On behalf of all New Yorkers, he should experience what I’ve experienced many times. The system is in disarray and the mayor should take the subway once in a while. So we’re here to spur him on."

Read more from Politico here.

Read more from the Post here.

Lead photo by John Moore/Getty Images