We are now just two weeks away from Primary Day, but the one name everyone seems to talking about is Christopher Columbus. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.
He's not taking a stand on the Columbus Circle statue, but Mayor Bill de Blasio is clear about the Columbus Day parade.
"I will definitely be marching in the Columbus Day parade," he said.
Columbus has become the latest flash point in the controversy over which monuments to controversial figures should be taken down.
The mayor, a regular at the parade, said the event is about Italian heritage. He also noted his pilgrimage to the old country in describing his ethnic pride, as he urged Italian-Americans not to rush to judgment before a commission conducts its review.
"I would ask my fellow Italian-Americans who are concerned to step back for a moment and recognize that we haven't even named the commission, which is going to look at any and all monuments around the city where there is any concern," de Blasio said.
De Blasio said Monday commission members will be named hopefully in a matter of days and will take public input in an open process. Options could range from removing a monument to providing more information on a plaque to leaving it alone.
Apparently unclear is whether the mayor will be the ultimate decider.
"I'm ready to be. But we have to look at the laws, and we have to look at what city agencies are involved," he said. "This is uncharted territory."
One critic on the issue is Democratic rival Sal Albanese, who was on Staten Island Monday calling for more ferry service, including from Staten Island's South Shore.
"Mayor de Blasio called his ferry plan a five-borough plan, but he forgot Staten Island," de Blasio said.
The mayor's remarks came at an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn, where he signed into law new anti-smoking legislation that'll raise the minimum price of cigarettes to $13 a pack, the highest in the country, plus reduce the number of stores that can sell cigarettes and regulate for the first time the sale of e-cigarettes.
Other pieces will ban smoking in apartment building common areas, and require landlords to create and post a building's smoking policy.