When the people of New York entrusted me with the honor of serving as mayor of this great city, I promised to deliver a progressive, diverse administration that gets the important things done.
I’m really proud of what we’re accomplishing, but I’m also aware that many New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs have real concerns about the city’s quality of life. So let’s be clear: We will never allow the quality of life in New York City to erode.
Today, there is much for New York City to be proud of. This is the safest big city in America. Overall crime across the city is down more than 4% compared to last year — itself a record-setting year for crime lows — and shootings are also down compared to last year.
Unemployment has dropped to 5.7% — the lowest level in seven years — and this summer saw the highest percentage of New Yorkers employed since 1976.
Our city’s budget is balanced and buttressed with reserves. The city has reached fair and responsible labor agreements with 83% of our workforce — up from zero just 20 months ago. The number of tourists coming to New York — pumping billions of dollars into our local economy — continues to climb, reaching a record of more than 56 million last year.
I also came to office with a solemn pledge to the people of New York City to tackle the urgent issue of our time — income inequality — and we have made important strides. Working with Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña, every 4-year-old child in New York City, about 70,000 kids, now has access to universal, free, high-quality, full-day pre-kindergarten — a game-changing development in early childhood education.
We expanded paid sick leave protections to 500,000 more workers in New York City, so people won’t have to lose a paycheck, or a job, if they become ill. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers now have a municipal ID card, moving undocumented people out of the shadows and into society, and providing the tools for people to open a bank account and access other key services.
For the first time ever, a rent freeze was secured for more than 1 million New York apartments, and this past year a record-setting 20,326 units of affordable housing were financed — well on our way to our goal of creating or preserving 200,000 units of affordable housing over ten years.
We are delivering results on the challenges before us, and making real progress on the promises we have made.
Yet despite these successes, there are some issues that have New Yorkers concerned and that command our attention. The sight of more homeless on our streets in the summer months; quality of life concerns; the state of our roads; aggressive panhandling that borders on harassment; and a sense that, despite the record-low crime statistics, the city is not as safe as it truly is.
To be sure, many of these concerns have been overblown by hyperbolic pundits and right-wing politicians with an ideological axe to grind. Some are in a rush to convince people that the city is on the slippery slope back to the “bad old days.” The stats and figures show just how categorically false and misleading these fearmongering attacks really are. And this much is certain: Under my watch, New York City is never going back to those days.
But there are legitimate worries from New Yorkers, and I take these concerns seriously.
My administration is committed to addressing sweeping problems like economic inequality, but also solving the day-to-day problems that impact the quality of life in our great city. Progressive values and successful management must go hand in hand.
Here’s how we are at work to swiftly and effectively fix not only broken windows, but keep sidewalks and parks clean, move homeless people off the streets and into permanent housing and places where support and services can be accessed, prevent disorder and — of course — continue to protect all New Yorkers from crime.
We are adding 1,300 more police officers to make New York City even safer, and to introduce a new neighborhood policing vision that brings cops and the communities they serve closer together. We also beefed up patrols in precincts experiencing spikes in crime over the summer. These targeted deployments have been successful in curbing crime in the past, and are working again this year. New York City is blessed to have Commissioner Bill Bratton, the finest police leader in the country, at the helm of the NYPD.
The summer months have seen an increase in the number of homeless on New York City streets. That’s a trend we aim to reverse. Since we arrived in office, we have put our money where our mouth is to address the issue head-on, investing $1 billion in additional funds over the next four years. These dollars are getting people off the streets and into shelters, connecting them with services for mental health and substance abuse needs, preventing at-risk people from becoming homeless in the first place, and helping those in shelter transition back to permanent housing.
These efforts are beginning to yield results. Since last fall, this programming has helped nearly 15,000 individuals exit shelter, and expanded prevention programs have assisted more than 20,000 vulnerable New Yorkers keep their homes and avoid homelessness.
The NYPD and Department of Homelessness Services have also partnered in a joint venture this year to clear out homeless encampments in parks, under overpasses and in other localized areas — informing people of services available and shelter sites to find a bed. And we have made a promise to end veteran homelessness in New York City by the end of this year.
Taken together, these policies are a proactive, comprehensive strategy to reduce homelessness in New York City after years of budget cuts.
Aggressive solicitation, too, has become a growing, troublesome occurrence in our city. Serious concerns have been raised — most pointedly in the Daily News — about the often forceful way costumed characters and desnudas solicit tips in popular destinations like Times Square, with residents and visitors alike often feeling harassed for money.
Times Square is a booming tourist and theater destination spot, and this situation is unacceptable. The city has formed a multi-agency task force to address growing concerns over aggressive solicitation. The group will draw on a wide range of strategies to ensure Times Square remains a safe, positive, and popular public space, and counteract the spread of this activity to other parts of the city, like Battery Park and Coney Island.
Road repairs continue to be a subject of concern. Streets and highways riddled with potholes or in desperate need of repaving wreak havoc on a smooth commute, and decrease the safety of our streets. The city is responding with an ambitious plan to invest $242 million to finance the repaving of more than 1,200 lane-miles in the coming year. This will deliver the work our roads need.
This plan funds the resurfacing of 2,500 lane miles through Fiscal Year 2017, which will increase to nearly 80% our roads rated in good repair. Roads all over the five boroughs, from Union Turnpike to Arthur Kill Road to the FDR, will reap the benefits.
And thanks to the efforts of the city’s Department of Transportation, potholes have met their match. The city’s comprehensive plan for pothole maintenance is both effective and efficient; from mid-December 2014 through August of this year, the DOT repaired more than 405,000 potholes across the city.
Repaved roads mean that New Yorkers will be safer than ever. As we continue to repair our streets, we can improve road markings such as crosswalks. The rules of the road will be even clearer, and pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists will be safer. Thanks in part to our Vision Zero initiative, last year pedestrian traffic deaths reached their lowest level since 1910.
New York City is as strong as it has ever been, from low crime to better educational opportunities to more jobs to increases in affordable housing.
But we don’t settle for second best. We never have. We know we must always do better. Nuisance violations and other quality of life concerns — whether noise complaints, graffiti or street cleanliness — diminish the sense of pride in a community, and how people feel about living in the city.
It’s why we are ever vigilant on threats to safety and order, from serious crimes to the quality-of-life offenses that the broken windows theory has proven must also be enforced. It’s why we are aggressively combatting homelessness, to move people out of shelter and into sustainable, affordable housing; improving our street and road maintenance; and cracking down on nuisance panhandling.
It’s why we are focused like a laser beam on combatting the “tale of two cities” without losing any focus on the nuts-and-bolts tasks that also matter to people in their communities and everyday lives.
And it’s why we won’t stop on every front to make life better and stronger for every New Yorker.
De Blasio is mayor of New York.
