Last year, in April, Amoy Barnes, the community relations representative for the mayor's office on Staten Island, called her acquaintance, Josephine Marino, and asked if Mayor Bill de Blasio could check in briefly at her home in Great Kills during a whistle-stop tour of the borough devoted to complaints regarding sky-rocketing water costs. 

Josephine said her door would be open when the mayor came calling two weeks later. As the day drew near, Josephine began to prepare for the 10-minute visit. She put together a cold antipasto with a variety of cheeses and snacks, whipped up some eggplant rollatini, featuring her homemade tomato sauce, and baked some Italian pastries and cookies.