CIVIC CENTER — New Yorkers are feeling blah about de Blasio.
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s approval rating has sunk nearly 10 points since his inauguration. According to the survey of city voters, 45 percent approved of the job de Blasio was doing in City Hall, down from 53 percent back in January.
De Blasio trails other citywide officials in popularity. The 1,234 city voters in the survey gave Police Commissioner Bill Bratton a 57 percent approval rating and City Comptroller Scott Stringer a 53 percent approval rating.
Not that voters are expecting worse from the mayor. Nearly two thirds of votes surveyed said they were optimistic about the next four years — down slightly from January — while 46 percent say he’ll make the city better, compared to 27 percent who say he’ll make it worse.
“Mayor de Blasio’s overall job-approval numbers are off a bit, but still positive,” the Qunnipiac Poll Assistant Director Maurice Carrol said. “And he gets solid marks on the standard pollster traits – leadership [56 percent], honesty [62 percent] and understands people's problems [57 percent].”
The mayor retained strong support in minority communities.
Among black voters, de Blasio got a 60 percent approval rating and Hispanic voters gave him a 47 percent approval rating. Only 39 percent of white voters approved of how he was handling the job.
Likewise, black and Hispanic voters were significantly more optimistic about the direction of the city than their counterparts in the white community, with 81 percent of blacks and 69 percent of Hispanics expressing optimism about the city’s future, compared to 51 percent of white voters.
The poll was conducted from March 12 to 17 over land lines and cell phones, and had a margin of error plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
