I don’t know. It’s a counterfactual, and you can make up any series of imaginary facts to present your counterfactual in a way sympathetic to your argument. The principle is the same: the mayor has zero relation to the content of this article. If you removed the line in question, nothing of substance would change.

Over here in our current universe, we’re talking about one of the largest cities on earth, and one of the most divisive political figures in the nation.

So yes, it’s both unnecessary and partisan. It’s an article about road signs. Exactly how unrelated does the article need to be before you’d accept this kind of thing as crass?