Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio

  • A Closer Look at the Costs, and Savings, of Closing Rikers and Building Four New Jails

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    Rikers Island (photo via Lippman Commission report)


    Late last week, the New York City Council approved the de Blasio administration’s plan to build four new borough-based jails to replace the detention complex on Rikers Island. The plan hinges on a continued reduction in the city jail population, in large part brought on by state and city criminal justice reforms and changes in city policing. Various aspects of the costs, and potential savings, involved in shuttering the Rikers jails and opening the four new ones – from

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  • NYPD Pledges Release of Body Camera Footage Policy This Month

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    De Blasio with a body camera (photo: Rob Bennett/Mayor's Office)


    The New York City police department is set to finally publish its formal policy regarding the release of body-worn camera footage, nearly seven months after every uniformed patrol officer was equipped with a body camera. While the signature reform has been touted by Mayor Bill de Blasio as a means to improve policing and to provide transparency and accountability to the public, there have been no clear guidelines on how the department determines when to release footage to the public and the

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  • Johnson Says City Council to Pass Streets Master Plan Bill This Month

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    Speaker Johnson (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is advancing his legislation to create a master plan for city streets, promising Thursday that the Council will vote on the bill this month.

    Johnson, a Democrat from Manhattan, first proposed the idea of creating a five-year plan for the city’s

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  • As City Council Vote Nears, Leading Mayoral Contenders Clarify Positions on Jails Plan They May Have to Implement

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    De Blasio, Johnson, Ayala & others at Rikers announcement (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The plan to close the Rikers Island jails and replace them with four borough-based facilities has sped through the city’s land use process and is awaiting approval from the New York City Council, prompting both support and rebukes from criminal justice reform activists and those who prefer to keep most city detainees on the island. If it passes at the scheduled October 17 vote, full implementation of the plan will fall in the hands of a future mayor, perhaps two,

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  • City Planning Chief on De Blasio Administration's Zoning for Growth, and the Need for More Housing in the Suburbs

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    City Planning Director Marisa Lago (photo: May Vutrapongvatana)


    In a Friday morning speech about how New York City’s limited space is used, Marisa Lago, director of the Department of City Planning, discussed some of the department’s approaches to the housing, employment, and equity challenges facing the city.

    The city has a population of 8.4 million and is “the only older U.S. city that has surpassed its 1970s-era population peak,” said Lago, who was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to direct the Department of City Planning and chair the City

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  • As City Rolls Out Census Funding for Outreach Efforts, State Lags Behind

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    (photo: @NYCImmigrants)


    New York City is moving full steam ahead with its effort to ensure that the 2020 Census counts each and every resident of the five boroughs, with millions of dollars in funding and a four-pillar strategy for outreach to hard-to-count communities. But New York State’s effort seems to have stalled and there is little indication that state authorities are moving with urgency despite the many billions of dollars in federal funding and congressional representation at stake.

    In the 2010 Census, New York City residents’ self-response rate to the

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Post-Presidential Campaign, De Blasio Faces Final 2+ Years as Mayor

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    October 2, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Post-Presidential Campaign, De Blasio Faces Final 2+ Years as Mayor

    Bill de Blasio has abandoned his short-lived presidential campaign and returned to New York City for the final two years, three months of his second and final term as mayor. Several experts -- Errol Louis of NY1, Sally Goldenberg of Politico, and David Jones of the Community Service Society and MTA Board -- joined the show to discuss the mayor's status and

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  • After Rally with De Blasio, City Council Hears Bills on Private Sector Retirement Security

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    De Blasio, Council members, AARP members & others rally (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Just days after he ended his presidential campaign that was focused on issues affecting working people, Mayor Bill de Blasio rallied with AARP volunteers and City Council Members at City Hall on Monday to push for a proposal that could help millions of New York workers save for their futures.

    The Retirement Security for All proposal, which de Blasio first raised three years ago and then again in his State of the City speech this year, would establish a retirement

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  • 2019 Mayor’s Management Report Gives Snapshot of Government Services, City Trends

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio released the latest Mayor’s Management Report, an exhaustive document  of data behind city government -- the metrics the city uses, at least in theory, to determine whether government services are being delivered effectively and that the public can use to hold city government accountable. The report is broken down by agency, with each listing a set of broad goals, the progress toward which is illustrated by indicators.

    The dense report covers data for fiscal year (FY) 2019,

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: The City's Fight Against Homelessness

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    Steve Banks, right, with the Mayor and First Lady (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    September 18, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: The City's Fight Against Homelessness

    dss commissioner banks wbai 150Steve Banks, Commissioner of the Department of Social Services and Mayor de Blasio's homelessness czar, joined the show to discuss the city's fight against

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  • 7 Years After Sandy - Part II: The City’s Limited Resiliency Efforts Since

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    Rendering of Coney Island wetlands project (photo: mayor's office, Oct. 2013)


    This is part two of a three-part series on '7 Years After Sandy.' Find part one -- Pieces In Place That Worked, Rebuilding Efforts That Failed -- here. Find part three --

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  • 7 Years After Sandy - Part I: Pieces In Place That Worked, Rebuilding Efforts That Failed

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    Brooklyn Bridge Park (photo: mayor's office)


    This is part one of a three-part series on '7 Years After Sandy.' Part two -- on the city’s stalled and advancing resiliency measures -- can be found hereThis series is part of Gotham Gazette's work in participation with the Covering Climate Now project, which includes over 250 media outlets focusing on

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  • One Promising Reform with Rare Support from Both the City and Board of Elections, But Little Movement

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    (photo: Edward Reed/Mayor's office)


    While city officials and elections administrators clash over what changes the Board of Elections should make to improve operations and the voting experience, one widely-supported option the city could pursue sits on the back-burner.

    A municipal poll workers program would allow the Board of Elections to hire Election Day poll workers from a pool of city employees, significantly reducing the hiring and training burdens for administrators and helping to ensure poll sites are more effectively

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  • The Mayor's Missing Pen

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Many New Yorkers are expressing frustration at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s lack of attention to his job as he travels around the country campaigning for president. But his laid-back attitude toward the mayoralty manifested itself long before he announced his presidential candidacy.

    One particularly illustrative and significant aspect of the job that he has neglected is his role in the legislative process. 

    First, a quick refresher on how, pursuant to the City Charter, a bill becomes a law in New York City: 

    -If

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  • De Blasio, City Council Look to Move Ahead with Private Sector Retirement Savings Program

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    Feb. 2016 (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In his State of the City speech in January, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that the city would create a system of retirement security for millions of New Yorkers who work in the private sector and may not have access to employer-provided savings plans. It was a revival of an effort the mayor had first pushed in 2016 but that bumped up against the change in presidential

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  • New York City is Waist-Deep in a School Desegregation Conversation - How Did We Get Here?

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Earlier this week, the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG) released its second and final set of recommendations to integrate city schools, a significant development in the current chapter of the city’s response to deep racial and economic segregation in its school system, which is the largest in the country and home to 1.1 million students.

    This chapter began in 2014, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education and Bill de Blasio’s first year as Mayor, when ...

  • The State’s $7 Billion MTA IOU Comes Due

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    (photo: the governor's office)


    MTA officials acknowledged at their June 2019 board meetings that the agency is borrowing money to be repaid through a New York State law that promised to have the State of New York provide the MTA $7.3 billion once the authority had exhausted its own funds on spending for the current five-year capital program.

    The 2016 state law was merely an “IOU," there had been no specific source of funds identified for how the state would pay the money, nor has there been any plan developed since enactment in the state budget that

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  • The City’s Pouring Money Into Trash Basket Pickup, and Complaints of Overflowing Bins are Dropping

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    (photos: Department of Sanitation)


    In the public conversation surrounding quality of life in New York City, litter baskets -- the mostly green, metal-wire trash cans standing guard on street corners throughout the five boroughs -- have taken on a unique focus. They seem to exist at the nexus between public and private life, providing relief for the refuse-laden pedestrian, and serving as a symbol of the urban order embodied in mundane municipal service delivery.

    Where baskets are placed, how often they are serviced, and how the city enforces the

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  • Drug Overdose Deaths Drop for First Time in 8 Years, City Reports

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The New York City Health Department announced on Monday that the city’s efforts to curb the ongoing opioid crisis are showing progress, with 38 fewer drug overdose deaths in 2018 compared to the previous year. It is the first year over year drop in eight years, the city said.

    There were 1,444 drug overdose deaths last year, down 3% from 1,482 in 2017, according to ...

  • De Blasio’s Promised ‘Comprehensive Strategy’ for City Response to People in Mental Health Crisis is Well Behind Schedule

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    Community Access members rally at City Hall (photo: @ca_nyc)


    A task force empaneled by Mayor Bill de Blasio to recommend how city government, particularly the police department, can better respond to emotionally disturbed people in crisis has yet to release its report, about 10 months after its work was to be concluded.

    Calls from community leaders and activists have grown, but the “NYC Crisis Prevention and Response Task Force” remains largely silent, leading advocates and elected officials to wonder why the issue isn’t a higher priority for a city that has

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: The 30th Anniversary of David Dinkins' Election as Mayor

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    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)


    August 21, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: The 30th Anniversary of David Dinkins' Election as Mayor

    may dd wbai250This November marks 30 years since David Dinkins was elected New York City's first (and to date only) black mayor. Dinkins joined the show to discuss his 1989 victory, his term as mayor, and more. Then, journalist Tom Robbins joined

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  • De Blasio Says He’s Reformed the NYPD and Improved Police-Community Relations. The Reality is Complicated.

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    Mayor de Blasio & members of the NYPD (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    “Fire Pantaleo!” the crowd chanted. “Fire Kizzy Adonis!”

    At an August 14 rally on the steps of City Hall, a crowd of advocates and elected officials called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill to take what they said was long overdue action against police officer misconduct. Daniel Pantaleo is, of course, the officer who used a banned chokehold while arresting Staten Island resident Eric Garner in 2014, leading to Garner’s death. He was on desk duty for

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  • As New NYCHA Chair Takes Over, the Future of Public Housing Hangs in the Balance

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    Chair Gregory Russ visiting a NYCHA complex (photo: @NYCHA)


    “These first few months of our work have revealed NYCHA as an organization fraught with serious problems in structure, culture, and direction, and perhaps even worse,” wrote Bart Schwartz, the new federal monitor of the city’s public housing authority, in his first progress report, released July 22.

    Three weeks later, this past Monday, Gregory Russ arrived in Manhattan for his first day of work as NYCHA’s new Chair and CEO, with an enormous task in front of him.

    NYCHA’s short- and long-term futures

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  • Assessing Alicia Glen's Impact on the City's Physical Landscape - Part II: 'Chunky and Funky'

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    Alicia Glen cristens a ferry (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    This is part two of a two-part series on former Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen's impact on the "built environment" of New York City. Jump to part one here.

    Part one of this series focused on Glen's style and leadership broadly, as well as her legacy on housing, including the de

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  • Assessing Alicia Glen's Impact on the City’s Physical Space - Part I: 'We have completely changed the housing landscape'

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    Alicia Glen (photo: Paige Polk/Mayor's Office)


    This is part one of a two-part series on former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen's impact on the "built environment" of New York City. Find part two -- on economic development, transit, and more -- here.

    It’s the year 2026 in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of new units of rent-restricted apartments have been added to the city’s housing stock as the

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