Metro

Curtis Sliwa slams de Blasio as NYC’s ‘biggest meatball’ over Columbus Day flap

There was no cherry atop the cake mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa and a group of Italian-American city leaders brought to Gracie Mansion for Mayor De Blasio’s 60th birthday.

Instead, the Guardian Angels founder’s dessert was adorned with a 10-pound meatball, “for the biggest meatball in New York City.”

Sliwa and Italian-American leaders from Bay Ridge are angry about the cancellation of Columbus Day in city schools and blame De Blasio.

But Hizzoner insisted last week that he and Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter were blindsided by the city Department of Education’s move to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“We are outraged that De Blasio is claiming he had no knowledge of it and is blaming it on on [former DOE chief] Richard Carranza,” Sliwa said. “Since de Blasio’s been in office he’s been plotting to get rid of all the Christopher Columbus statues in the city. He wants to wipe Columbus off the history books.”

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and Italian-American leaders from Bay Ridge blasted Mayor Bill de Blasio for allowing the DOE to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Brigitte Stelzer

Sliwa said he has no problem with having an Indigenous Peoples’ Day but believes kids should be taught about non-white people in history as well as Christopher Columbus.

Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa says Mayor Bill de Blasio “wants to wipe Columbus off the history books.” Brigitte Stelzer

De Blasio, despite having Italian ancestry, is “vilifying” Italian-Americans, Sliwa insists, noting how the mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray, nixed a statue of Mother Cabrini in Manhattan in 2019 only to later be overruled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who unveiled a monument to the Italian saint.

Curtis Sliwa with his meatball birthday cake for Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 8, 2021. Brigitte Stelzer

“De Blasio is doing all this to prove himself to people like AOC who talk about white privilege,” Sliwa said. “What’s next? Renaming LaGuardia?”

Sliwa, who used to work at his uncle Jimmy Scavone’s butcher shop in Canarsie as a kid, said he picked out the chopped meat for the cake meatball at Gristede’s — but added he “did not get prime. I got the lowest grade meat with a lot of gristle.”

When reached by the Post at the Yankee game Saturday, de Blasio spokesman Bill Neidhardt said only, “Curtis Sliwa? Is he even relevant?”

Mayor Bill de Blasio marches in the annual Columbus Day parade in Manhattan on Oct. 13, 2014. Getty Images