De Blasio appoints wife head of coronavirus racial inequality task force

Mayor Bill de Blasio isn’t letting the controversy surrounding his wife’s embattled billion-dollar mental health initiative stop him from appointing her to head a new coronavirus recovery task force.

Citing her work with the ThriveNYC initiative, de Blasio revealed Sunday that first lady Chirlane McCray, a rumored contender for Brooklyn borough president, would co-chair a Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity as the city plans its eventual reopening.

“The economic and racial disparities that have been made so clear by this crisis, we knew about them before,” said de Blasio, who was elected six years ago on a pledge to make the city more equitable and eliminate its “tale of two cities.” “A powerful, painful exclamation point has been put on them by this crisis.”

New York’s poorest ZIP codes have been hardest hit by the pandemic, city data show, and minorities — many among the city’s essential workers — have died at disproportionately higher rates.