When Bill de Blasio announced his first campaign for mayor in early 2013, he vowed to turn the tide on what he described as a “tale of two cities,” in which the rich kept getting richer while the poor kept getting poorer.

On Wednesday, with his time in City Hall approaching its end, de Blasio sounded far less idealistic and admitted that his lofty promise to fix New York’s economic disparities remains unfulfilled.

“I don’t think anybody — literally, I don’t know a single person — who thought we were going to solve all the inequalities of society in four years or eight years,” he said in his daily morning briefing.

“Our job was to fundamentally attack them and make a difference ... That’s how you fight inequality, but does that end inequality? No. Inequality is a profound problem that needs tremendous work, not just locally, but at the state level and the national level, and that work continues.”

De Blasio made the admission after being asked about Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ repeated indirect jabs at him over pervasive “dysfunctionality” in city government.

De Blasio, who considers himself an ally of Adams, insisted that the incoming mayor’s critique isn’t aimed at him, and said it rather reflects the same intra-generational struggle as his “tale of two cities” pitch.

“I hear it very much as similar to what I said in 2013 about ‘the tale of two cities,’” he said. “He’s put his whole life into fighting against those kinds of inequalities. It’s what I put my life into fighting against.”

Adams, who will be sworn in as de Blasio’s successor on Jan. 1, did not immediately return a request for comment via a spokesman.

Despite de Blasio’s remarks, Adams has taken several shots at the state of the current mayoral administration in recent months.

“I know we are dysfunctional. I know we are blocking progress. I know we are failing and betraying New Yorkers,” Adams said at a campaign rally in Brooklyn on Oct. 22.

In contrast to his “tale of two cities” soft-pedaling Wednesday, de Blasio was more hard-hitting on the premise eight years ago.

“When I said we would take dead aim at the tale of two cities, I meant it,” he said at his Jan. 1, 2014 inauguration after being elected mayor in a landslide. “And we will do it. We will succeed as one city.”