The biggest reason for the doubts about de Blasio’s devotion to closing Rikers is that doing so will require tough decisions in a policy area where this mayor faces unusually high expectations and especially acute risks.
‘If I could program him as a robot every morning at Gracie Mansion and wind him up and send him out on his day dealing with the press and he would be thoughtful and smart and polite and kind and funny and jovial and smooth and all of those things, of course I would. But…