the racie for gracie

Bill de Blasio Once Fought for Transcendental Meditation, Against Parking Tickets

Democratic mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio attends a
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A deep-dive by the Village Voice into Bill de Blasio’s (incomplete, hard to find) archive of City Council papers reveals a man who battled for what he believed in, even on the smallest levels. “I recognize that double parking is illegal, however, as you know, double parking during street cleaning has long been an accepted practice in New York City,” De Blasio wrote to the Parking Violations Bureau in support of a constituent. (Later, however, he spoke out against the practice of ticket fixing amid the NYPD scandal.)

More in line with the liberal dream of De Blasio, he also wrote to schools chancellor Joel Klein with a hippie idea: “to extol the virtues of transcendental meditation” for kids. According to the mayoral favorite, “The technique is strictly a mechanical, natural procedure that allows the mind and body to settle down to a deep state of rest.” It’s like prayer in schools, but for democratic socialists.

Bill de Blasio Is Pro–Transcendental Meditation