You didn’t need to be a swim instructor to see that Mayor de Blasio was flailing.

First, he said he couldn’t create open space for crammed-in residents at the start of the coronavirus because he was already doing enough under Vision Zero. Then he said he could, but it would have to be tiny. Then he said it had to have so many police that there was no way to staff it. Then he said Oakland isn’t at all like New York.

In any event, our editorial cartoonist Bill Roundy — who has never been that impressed by the mayor’s integrity — found the perfect graphic representation of Hizzoner’s changing rationale to explain why Oakland can have 74 miles of open streets for people and New York City can have exactly zero (well, .8 miles, if you count Shore Boulevard in Astoria, which was closed to cars last week because neighbors complained of drag racing).

Bill Roundy is a national treasure. All his Streetsblog cartoons are archived here.