The first thing he’ll need is a new podium.
At 6-foot-5, Bill de Blasio will be the tallest New York City mayor of the modern era — and possibly of all time.
Come January, de Blasio will take over City Hall after the 12-year reign of Mayor Bloomberg, who stands 5-foot-7.
It won’t be the first time a height discrepancy created an issue for a new mayor.
When Bloomberg delivered his first inaugural address in 2002 after replacing the 5-foot-10 Giuliani, he stood on a box at the lectern to give himself a boost.
Hizzoner later replaced the mayoral podium so he could get rid of the box.
And when the 6-foot-2 Ed Koch took office in 1978, he was determined to sit at the same desk as Fiorello La Guardia, who served from 1934 to 1945 and stood a full foot shorter.
“Ed’s first problem was that he wanted the La Guardia desk, but it was too short, so we called in the carpenters” to raise it up, recalled John LoCicero, a Koch aide.
“People would always come up to Ed and say, ‘I saw you on TV. you look taller in person.’ ”
Another mayor who faced a similar quandary was the patrician, 6-foot-4 John Lindsay, who served from 1966 to 1973. His staff had to prepare for his diminutive replacement, Abe Beame, who measured 5-foot-2.
“We had to get a new desk, chair, everything. Beame’s chair was more like a barstool,” Lindsay aide Sid Davidoff recalled Thursday.
The mayor-elect could use La Guardia’s desk, since it’s still at City Hall.
But he would have raise it again, as it’s back at its the original height.
De Blasio has not decided whether to move his family from their pad in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to Gracie Mansion, which Bloomberg declined to use as sleeping quarters.
If de Blasio does make the move to the Upper East Side, sources said, he would occupy living quarters on the second-floor that include four spacious bedrooms and a bathroom equipped with an old tub that is large enough to accommodate his height.
The de Blasios could bring in their own furniture — which presumably includes an extra-long bed — or buy new furnishings for the place.
More recent mayors didn’t have height issues, with David Dinkins standing 5-foot-10, same as Giuliani.