NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has named his wife Chirlane McCray to head the new Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity regarding the coronavirus, despite past controversy over how McCray, who is black, led the ThriveNYC initiative to address mental illness.
The task force was formed to deal with the disproportionate number of black Americans dying from the coronavirus. “The economic and racial disparities that have been made so clear by this crisis, we knew about them before,” de Blasio said in a New York Post article on Sunday. “A powerful, painful exclamation point has been put on them by this crisis.”
But city lawmakers were befuddled by the appointment of McCray, considering her Thrive program was a billion-dollar money pit with sketchy results.
“Putting @NYCFirstLady in charge of the newly created task force on racial inclusion and equity is a great idea, – said No One Ever,” tweeted Councilman Eric Ulrich on Sunday. “By the way, what ever happened to all that money for ThriveNYC?”