NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent Christmas morning visiting firefighters and police officers in Queens.
Donning a green Christmas sweater with a red turtleneck underneath, the mayor hopped from a black SUV into the 108th Precinct near Vernon Avenue. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly arrived shortly before.
Bloomberg’s staffer brought a box of cookies from the Gracie Mansion.
The mayor said he spent the last two weeks calling the families of people who died in the line of duty during his twelve-year-tenure.
“It’s great that there are people like you who are willing to devote your lives to help others,” Bloomberg said. “Before I went into public service twelve years ago I don’t think I quite appreciated how many people in the labor force devote their lives and put their lives on the line to keep the rest of us safe.”
Bloomberg shook hands and chatted with the officers and headed out to a firehouse several blocks away. He was joined by the Commissioner of the Fire Department Salvatore Cassano.
A firefighter gave the mayor, who recently became a grandfather, a mug inscribed with “#1 Grandpa.” Bloomberg was fascinated about how tiny the baby is. His grandson, Jasper Michael Brown Quintana, was born on Tuesday afternoon.
“Will he become a police officer?” Bloomberg wondered. “I don’t know. He did not tell me anything.”
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