You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway. You see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence…the city just feels threatening, out of control, and in crisis.
These conditions exist not as an act of God but rather as an act of our political leaders – or more precisely – the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.
But New Yorkers know the simple answer of what to do when there’s a crisis: You lead, you act, you do.
I had the honor to serve the public in every level of government. In my 20s with my father when he was governor, with Mayor David Dinkins on homelessness, with President Clinton as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development working with cities all across the nation, and as NYS Attorney General, and as your governor.
I know government can make a positive difference - because we did. Was it easy? No. But together we achieved historic progressive accomplishments. We did things they said couldn’t be done.
We changed lives by setting the highest minimum wage in the nation – a 66 percent increase. We saved lives by enacting the toughest gun violence protection laws in America. We created new families by leading the nation in passing marriage equality, which established a new civil right for the LGBTQ community and set a new standard for the country. We created the best paid family leave program, enshrined Roe v. Wade into state law 3 years before Trump’s Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to control her own body, enacted the most aggressive green economy program in the country, and the highest minority business participation.
We showed government can actually work and get things done: big, hard, important things, and get them done well. A new LaGuardia airport that went from the worst in the country to the best, the beautiful new Moynihan train station, a new Second Avenue subway line, a Kosciuszko Bridge, and the largest infrastructure project in the nation, done on time and on budget, the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. And on top of it all, we faced COVID, which was an historic life and death challenge and we had it first and worst, with no warning. We were on our own, and we were pushed to our limits, but we got through it, together, and we led the nation.
We didn’t do these things because they were easy – they weren’t, they were hard, but they were necessary, and today it is necessary to launch a bold action plan to turn New York City around to save our city.
We now walk down the street passing homeless people living in garbage, and it’s become so commonplace that we have become conditioned to think it is okay, that there’s nothing we can do about it. No. It’s wrong. It is not advancing civil rights to abandon seriously mentally ill people to the street, allowing them to endanger themselves or others. We are better than that, and they deserve better than that. We must get them the professional help they need – that is the caring, loving thing to do, that is what New Yorkers believe is the right thing to do, and that is what a competent, effective government must do.
We must attack the crime problem. After politicians have been minimizing the need for police and cutting funding, we must acknowledge the simple truth that they are just plain wrong. Deadly wrong. They set us back and we must now return to actually fighting crime. Let’s remember what Mayor Dinkins did when he took office and we had a crime problem. He hired 6,000 new cops - a 40% increase in force - while today we have fewer cops for a larger city. We need more police and specialized units and law enforcement must focus on the small number of recidivists who commit the large number of crimes. We must also restore a relationship of mutual trust and respect between the police and the community. The police have been devalued and today people don’t even want to apply to be police officers. That must change.
And our subway system, it was a visionary achievement demonstrating New York at its best. They began construction in 1901 and in just four years built a system that went from City Hall to 145th Street in Manhattan, with 28 stops, including Grand Central and Times Square. Remarkable really. Government worked and the subways were safe. But today people stand with their backs against the walls, away from the tracks and away from each other, wary, on guard, afraid they might be the next victim, afraid of New York at its worst. Why? Because once again, government leadership has failed to perform a basic function: public safety. We need a significant presence of real police, not publicity stunts with short term efforts, a permanent significant increase by the city and state, more NYPD, MTA Police, State Police, whatever’s necessary to make our subways safe 24 hours a day, safe as an alternative to driving, safe for our working men and women, and safe for my daughters and for yours. And we must bring order to the chaos of e-bikes on our streets and sidewalks. Pedestrians are getting needlessly hurt and even killed. It must end.
We must stop talking and actually start building thousands of new affordable units and create thousands of good jobs in the process. Look around you, we know how to build. We built the greatest city on the planet. We built the Empire State building in one year in the middle of the great depression. It’s basic competence: Government just has to get out of its own way and get it done. Our public housing is 50, 60 years old, many developments have open areas. We should be transforming them on a large scale basis to modern mixed income communities. We did it at HUD 25 years ago, cities across the country have done it, and we can too. It’s long overdue.
We must do more to advance social justice, and a top priority must be investing in training and jobs rather than jails. Many have said it, now it’s time to do it. We must provide economic alternatives for young minority men now turning to crime. Private employment partnerships, vocational training, apprentice programs, positive opportunities. We can do it, and we will do it.
The tragic situation in the Middle East generates strong opinions, understandably. It is a terrible story of human loss and suffering. But nothing justifies racism and antisemitism. We have the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. They are our neighbors and friends, they are our family literally, they helped build this city, it is their home, and they must feel safe. Our NYC should not be tolerating any harassment or disparagement of our Jewish brothers and sisters, and certainly not from our elected officials. In fact, they should be condemning it. The law must be aggressively enforced and our New York should go further and be at the forefront, leading the fight against the global rise of anti-semitism.
But to do any of this, we need a government that can actually perform, we need a government with leadership that can take a stand and get things done – intelligently, professionally, efficiently, effectively, and do it now.
To me, the founding premise of a progressive Democratic Party is all about serving working men and women but the cruel irony is they are the ones now paying the highest price for New York’s failed Democratic leadership. The affordability crisis, the madness of the mass transit system, mainly affects the poor and middle class. And 75% of the victims of crime are black and brown. This is not progressive policy but in fact regressive policy.
FDR, John Kennedy, LBJ, Mario Cuomo, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, taught us what it meant to have a true progressive government. It wasn’t about rhetoric but results. Look at the word – progressive government makes progress. They focused on issues that mattered to people in their day to day lives, issues that were relevant to people and then actually made life better for people, and that is what Democrats must do once again.
New York birthed the original progressive movement and it worked, it lifted this city, this state, this nation, to new heights, and it is time for its rebirth and the place is New York and the time is now.
My philosophy as an elected official is simple: I work for you, not the politicians and not the special interests. I work as hard as you do, 24/7. I know what needs to be done and I know how to do it. Experience matters. Leading New York City in the midst of a crisis is not the time or the place for on the job training.
Did I always do everything right in my years of government service? Of course not. Would I do some things differently knowing what I know now —certainly. Did I make mistakes, some painfully? Definitely, and I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it and I hope to show that everyday.
But I promise you this, I know what needs to be done and I know how to do it, and I will give it my all to get the job done—and it will get done.
And I will work with anyone who wants to work for the benefit of New York. I will cooperate and collaborate on any and every level. I have worked with President Trump in many different situations and I hope President Trump remembers his hometown, and works with us to make it better.
But make no mistake, I will stand up and fight for New York. I have done it before and I will do it again. I will fight Washington and Albany to make sure we get our fair share of funding, and to protect the rights and values that New Yorkers hold dear: that we believe that any discrimination by race, color, or creed is anti-American. We do not harbor criminals but we believe in lawful intelligent immigration because we are a city of immigrants. We believe good government helps people lift themselves up to reach their full potential and that then raises us all. We believe integrity in government is essential to ensure opportunity and justice for all.
My friends, we can save our city, we are New Yorkers, we are a special breed, you have to be to live in this town. We are New York tough, knock us down and we get back up and we are then stronger and smarter for the experience. That is who we are. We survived the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the economic attack of 2007, hurricanes, floods, superstorms, deadly diseases. We are a people built from the greatest talents from all over the globe. We can do anything when we are together.
But time is short and we must do it now. We must do it not just for the sake of New Yorkers, we must do it because New York stands for something bigger. At this time when the nation is searching for its soul, divided as never before, questioning our democratic values, questioning the very role of government and the balance of power, New York must show the way forward and remind the nation of who we are because it all started here. This was the epicenter. It is this country’s past and it forecasts the future. New York says that we can’t run from each other, but rather we must turn towards each other: that our diversity is not a weakness but in fact our diversity is our greatest strength. That our city brings people together from around the world in one place, one dense place, 8 million people on 300 square miles, a cauldron of humanity, sharing ideas, celebrating cultures, exchanging experiences, exciting the imagination, creating a collective energy, a community, with a spirit of inclusion not exclusion, acceptance not rejection, and love not hate.
Our founding fathers expressed their vision for America in three words: e pluribus unum, out of many one. We say it in 3 words: New York City, and that my friends is what makes this city unique – the place, the space, that is the heart of the American dream and an international phenomenon. That is New York at its best.
As the gre at E.B. White said, ‘New York is to the nation what the white church spire is to the village – the visible symbol of aspiration and faith, the white plume saying the way is up’.
I am not saying this is going to be easy, it won’t be easy but I know we can turn the city around and I believe I can help and that is why I announce my candidacy today for Mayor of New York City today.
I am a lifelong New Yorker, and I love New York, and I want New York to not only survive, but to thrive, for my children and for yours.
So now, the only question is, are you ready to fight to save our city? I know that I am.
Let’s do it, let’s do it together, and let’s do it now.
Comments
Post a Comment