Bill de Blasio says it’s the ‘Summer of New York City’ - and everyone’s making the same Seinfeld joke

Bill de Blasio announced an end date for all Covid-era restrictions and declared it the ‘summer of New York City’ - and everyone piled in with the same Seinfeld joke.

At one point last spring, the city was suffering 800 deaths per day due to the deadly pandemic, but the vaccine rollout is moving so fast that the city’s mayor said July 1 was a realistic date to end the remaining restrictions.

And in an attempt to boost morale in one of America’s worst-hit cities, he threw up his hands during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and said: “This is going to be the summer of New York City. You’re going to see amazing activities, cultural activities coming back. I think people are going to flock to New York City, because they want to live again.”

But as any Seinfeld fan knows, Christening any period of time as the ‘summer of...’ can only end in disaster.

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In an episode on season eight of the sitcom, George Costanza gets a severance check from the New York Yankees equal to three months pay, and declares it the ‘summer of George’.

Bill de Blasio speaking on Morning Joe on Thursday

But instead of living his best life, he never changes out of his pajamas or leaves his apartment. Later in the episode, George slips on a discarded invitation and is taken to hospital, where he’s told his legs are in a state of atrophy due to inactivity, and he may never walk again. (Don’t worry, he gets physiotherapy in the show and does return to full strength.)

Basically, calling it the ‘summer of New York’ conjures up images of a weakened city that could topple over due to atrophy the moment it starts getting active again.

De Blasio added: “We said a month or so ago, it was the variants versus the vaccination, what was going to win, which one was going to win the race. Vaccination is winning this race ... 6.3 million vaccinations, COVID is plummeting.”

The mayor has repeatedly warred with state governor Andrew Cuomo, who always tries to contradict or outshine the city mayor.

On Reddit, New Yorkers were united in the assumption that De Blasio’s announcement of July 1 would trigger Cuomo to announce an even sooner date.

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