New York Mayor de Blasio's Height

choi

Michael M Grynbaum, A Mayor Most Everybody Looks Up to, Even When He Slouches. New York Times, Feb 2, 2014 (front page).
www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/nyreg ... en-he-slouches.html

Quote:

"His albatross-scale arm span is so wide that aides have trained him to avoid expansive hand gestures, to keep from accidentally smacking people nearby. His legs are so long that the mayor insists on traveling in the front passenger seat of his city-issued SUV, avoiding a cramped back seat but possibly exposing himself to greater security risks.

He is "the tallest mayor in New York’s modern history * * * Mr de Blasio has long described himself as 6-foot-5. But doubts about that measurement have lingered among skeptical tall people who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him and wondered if the mayor understates his height. Those doubts, it turns out, were well-founded. After an inquiry this week, aides to Mr de Blasio acknowledged that the mayor is nearly an inch taller than he has publicly let on. Mr de Blasio stands 6-foot-5 and seven-eighths of an inch, according to a study commissioned by his office. 'The man I’ve known for 22 years is not what he appears to be,' said Chirlane McCray, Mr de Blasio’s wife, who is 5-foot-3 1/2 inches and, according to aides, wielded a household tape measure to conduct the test. (The mayor was not made available for an independent review.)

"Security experts say that Mr de Blasio’s penchant for riding in the front seat of his city-issued SUV — a break from his predecessors, who sat in the back — is troublesome. Front windshields cannot be tinted, they point out, and the guards who ride with the mayor lose an unobstructed view of the road. 'It is highly unusual for the protectee to sit in the right front seat and have the bodyguard sit behind him,' said Robert Tucker, chief executive at T & M Protection Resources in New York.

My comment:
(a) This report is about heights of New York mayors, past and present--a topic not everybody is interested in.
(b) Latest mayor first. Data are from Wikipedia, except heights

mayor........................birth/death year......mayoralty.......height
Bill de Blasio................1961- .....................2014- ............6'5-7/8" [almost 6'6"]
Michael R Bloomberg..1942- ......................2002-2013.....5'7"
Edward I Koch............1924-2013..............1978-1989......6'2"
Abraham D Beame......1906-2001..............1974-1977......5'2"
John V Lindsay...........1921-2000..............1966-1973......6'4"
Fiorello H La Guardia...1882-1947..............1934-1945.....5'2"