Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said none of his would-be successors have presented clear visions for the city’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic — even though the mayor has yet to detail his own effective plans for combating rising crime, street homelessness and a full reopening of schools in September.
“I think they all need to step up a bit,” de Blasio sniped about the slew of candidates at his daily remote press briefing.

“I think all of them need to clarify where they want to take us,” he said.

The mayoral wannabes were quick to call Hizzoner a hypocrite for criticizing their supposed lack of vision when de Blasio himself has struggled to find solutions for moving the city forward.

“This mayor still has no meaningful plan to get schools fully open or reduce the spiraling crime epidemic,” said a spokesman for Andrew Yang, one of the leading contenders.

“Andrew Yang will get schools fully open on day 1 and focus every day on reducing crime above ground and below,” the spokesman said.

The mayor hasn’t said if there will be a remote learning option for students in the fall.

Shaun Donovan, President Obama’s former housing secretary, said de Blasio should worry about his own shortcomings.

“Homelessness is worse than it was during the Great Depression, shootings are on the rise, and our streets are a mess. If anyone needs to ‘step up a bit’ it’s @NYCMayor,” Donovan tweeted.

De Blasio has refused to offer new solutions to the city’s spiraling crime epidemic, instead saying he’ll rely largely on neighborhood activists to partner with police to get guns off the streets.

But many of the candidates did agree with the mayor on one thing — that the two remaining mayoral debates should be held in-person instead of virtually.

At Wednesday’s press conference, de Blasio called for the next debate on June 2 to be in-person instead of virtual — even as he’s refused to return to in-person briefings.

Currently the debate, hosted by WABC-TV, is scheduled to be a Zoom video conference because of the station’s COVID-19 health protocols. The third and final debate is set for June 16. The only debate for the Republican primary’s two candidates is May 26.

“I would like to see obviously an in-person debate and if outdoors was the way to do it I think that’s a clever solution,” de Blasio said.Six of the eight major mayoral candidates agreed and signed a letter to the Campaign Finance Board late Wednesday that asked officials there to work with WABC to either loosen the station’s coronavirus restrictions in its studio or to find a new home for the forum.

“I would like to see obviously an in-person debate and if outdoors was the way to do it I think that’s a clever solution,” de Blasio said.Six of the eight major mayoral candidates agreed and signed a letter to the Campaign Finance Board late Wednesday that asked officials there to work with WABC to either loosen the station’s coronavirus restrictions in its studio or to find a new home for the forum.”New York City has begun to turn the corner from this devastating pandemic,” read the letter, signed by Andrew Yang, Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia, Ray McGuire, Shaun Donovan and Comptroller Scott Stringer, which pointed to the CDC’s newly revised safety guidelines as the vaccination rollout continues.

“Gov. Cuomo will soon lift the state’s mask mandate for fully-vaccinated residents; county fairs and music festivals are now deemed safe enough to host,” the letter continues. “Certainly, the same should be said of our democracy.”

The two candidates who didn’t sign, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Dianne Morales, told The Post they also favor switching to the traditional in-person format.

The debates come as a recent poll shows the mayor’s opinion that the crowded field of candidates running to replace him is lackluster is a popular one– a majority of voters are undecided about who should lead City Hall when de Blasio leaves office at the end of the year.

But de Blasio said “there’s still plenty of time on the clock” for voters to make up their minds.

“Most everyday New Yorkers are not even beginning to think about it at this moment,” de Blasio said at the briefing.

“They will solidify their judgements in the last week or two or even the last few days before the election. That’s how it works in general but especially in a moment of COVID,” he said.

— additional reporting by Nolan Hicks