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New York Mayor-elect’s reputation for lateness parodied on Twitter

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exits after a speech to the Real Estate Board of New York in New York, May 30, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had “ElBloombito,” a Twitter account that parodied his flawed manner of speaking Spanish. Now Bill de Blasio, Bloomberg’s soon-to-be-successor, has “HowlatewasBdB” to document the mayor-elect’s tardiness.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exits after a speech to the Real Estate Board of New York in New York, May 30, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The tweets began on Thursday, shortly after de Blasio kicked off a press conference about his signature education initiative – expanding access to pre-kindergarten – almost 40 minutes late.

“December 5, names police commissioner. 50 minutes late,” read the first post. The second: “December 12, names deputy mayor. 34 minutes late.”

The person behind HowlatewasBdB, which has just over 100 followers, declined to say over the Twitter service who he or she is. A spokeswoman for de Blasio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

De Blasio, who takes office January 1, has been chided for his lateness before. After his over-sleeping delayed a campaign event, his Republican opponent used the incident as a chance to question de Blasio’s readiness to be mayor, saying that “being mayor is a 24-hour-a-day job.”

ElBloombito, which is run by New York blogger Rachel Figueroa-Levin and pokes fun of Bloomberg’s halting Spanish as well as his vast personal fortune, has more than 79,000 followers.

A sample tweet, from earlier this week: “Esta supposed to sñowado mañana. Agaiño. If tu needo mi, yo willo be en my officero. In Bermudando.”

(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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