Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio

  • The Issues Likely to Dominate The 2017 Mayoral Race

    de blasio children schools

    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Candidates running for mayor have begun to gather signatures to get on the ballot, bringing election season into full swing. Mayor Bill de Blasio is in a relatively comfortable position and polls show that he is likely to sail to reelection, but it is still relatively early, with September primary and November general elections on the horizon. Anything can happen in a political campaign.

    As the mayor prepares to spend the next six months asking New Yorkers to give him another four years, he will also have to

    ...
  • As Session Nears End, Electoral Reforms Mostly Stalled & Cuomo Quiet

    Cuomo voting 2015

    Gov. Cuomo votes (photo: The Governor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo’s prediction that there is insufficient political will at the New York State Legislature to pass any significant voting reform measures this year may be coming to fruition.

    During the final weeks before the end of the legislative session, this year June 21 -- when lawmakers leave the Capitol and

    ...
  • Republican Mayoral Candidates Noncommittal on De Blasio Paris Climate Order

    de blasio climate paris

    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order Friday affirming New York City’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, from which President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would withdraw the United States. New York City, the president’s hometown, has terrain that makes the city especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which the Paris agreement seeks to mitigate by limiting global temperature increases. The agreement was signed by 195 countries in December 2015.

    De Blasio

    ...
  • De Blasio Announces Plan to Push Electoral Reform in Albany

    de blasio voter registration

    Mayor de Blasio registers voters (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that he is about to “launch a major effort” to see voting and election reforms passed in Albany by the end of the legislative session, which runs until the middle of June.

    De Blasio, a Democrat running for reelection this year, has called for reforms like early voting and same-day voter registration that have stalled in the state capital. While the mayor has expressed his support for those and other changes to the state’s

    ...
  • Where’s the Mayor’s Jobs Plan?

    de blasio jobs tour

    Mayor de Blasio in the Bronx (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Kicking off his week in the Bronx, Mayor Bill de Blasio said May 22 that his administration’s efforts to fight inequality are working and that while unemployment has dropped significantly in the borough, there is more work to be done. “The Bronx has borne the brunt of that inequality crisis in many ways,” the mayor said, but what his administration is doing is “disproportionately benefiting the Bronx.”

    The mayor told those sitting with him -- senior administration officials and

    ...
  • City Council Progressive Caucus Sets 18 Policy Goals for 2018

    18 for 18 progressive caucus

    The Progressive Caucus conference (photo: Daniel Altschuler‏)


    The City Council’s Progressive Caucus met this week to discuss its 2018 agenda, a set of 18 policy proposals that, its members say, pits them as direct adversaries to President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.

    “Now more than ever, it is crucial for local progressive leadership in NYC to set the

    ...
  • De Blasio Receives Reelection Support from Three Democratic County Committees

     bill de blasio mayor march

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    The Democratic county organizations of Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island have endorsed Mayor Bill de Blasio for reelection. The three borough party committees, formal local affiliates of the larger Democratic Party, will officially announce their endorsements on Thursday, joining Brooklyn county, which has already announced its support of de Blasio’s candidacy for a second term.

    A Democrat who took office in 2014 after a contentious 2013 primary and landslide general

    ...
  • De Blasio Says He Doesn't Take The Subway More Because New Yorkers Don't Want Him To

    de blasio subway metrocard

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that he doesn’t take the subway very often because New York City residents want him to use his time as effectively as possible.

    “My life and schedule are well known and what it would do in that case is add a whole lot of time to moving around and that’s not in the public’s interest,” de Blasio said, when Gotham Gazette asked why he doesn’t lead by example and use the subway to commute to work, given that de Blasio regularly implores New

    ...
  • The May Mayoral Money Race

    de blasio ferry wave

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Candidates in the running for Mayor in this year’s municipal elections filed their latest fundraising and expenditure reports with the New York City Campaign Finance Board on Monday. Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Democratic incumbent, leads the pack with more than $2.5 million in his campaign account, while those seeking to unseat him -- Democrats, Republicans, and others alike -- lag behind in terms of cash-on-hand. Those other candidates have shown varied levels of success in fundraising, and have

    ...
  • Long-time Supporters, City Council Members to Host De Blasio Birthday Fundraiser

    de blasio wave

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Joanna Graham/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio turned 56 on Monday, and he’s marking his birthday as politicians often do: as an opportunity to reach out to voters and fundraise for his reelection campaign ahead of a key campaign finance filing deadline. And though the mayor said he was celebrating quietly with his wife on Monday night, the festivities will stretch into Tuesday evening, with a star-studded birthday bash in Greenwich Village where dozens of donors and close allies will show their support, and loosen their

    ...
  • Mayoral Candidate Malliotakis Falsely Claimed Rape Up 33% Under De Blasio

    malliotakis on ny1

    Malliotakis on NY1


    In one of her first interviews as a mayoral candidate, Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis claimed that “rape against women has increased 33% since [Mayor Bill de Blasio’s] taken office.”

    In fact, from 2013, which was Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s last year in office, to 2016, de Blasio’s third year in office, reported rapes increased by 4%. In New York City, there were 1,378 reported rapes in 2013 and 1,438 reported rapes in 2016, the same number as in 2015. (There were 1,352 reported rapes ...

  • Malliotakis Officially Launches Mayoral Candidacy

    malliotakis campaign launch

    Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, officially launched her mayoral campaign on a rainy Friday morning at the steps of City Hall, criticizing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s record on crime and what she called the city’s out-of-control spending under the heavily progressive partnership between the mayor and the City Council.

    “City Hall has been taken from us,” Malliotakis said. “Over the past four years,

    ...
  • Sharpton Distances from De Blasio, Says Reelection Support Not a Given

    Sharpton De Blasio

    De Blasio and Sharpton (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Reverend Al Sharpton, the national civil rights leader, radio and television host, and founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), is emphatically disinterested in the nitty-gritty of local politics and says that his support for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is not unconditional.

    Gotham Gazette sought comment from Sharpton on his relationship with de Blasio, a first-term Democrat who is running for reelection this year, and how he gauges the mayor’s leadership and

    ...
  • At First Executive Budget Hearing, Council Pushes Unfunded Priorities

    mmv budget

    Speaker Mark-Viverito (all photos: John McCarten/City Council)


    The City Council held its first hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $84.86 billion executive budget for fiscal year 2018 on Thursday, and Council members gave the mayor a mixed review for his updated spending plan. They praised de Blasio for increasing funding for a number of recommendations made by the Council and for taking steps to control the capital budget. But, Council members expressed concern that crucial priorities remained unfunded, or underfunded, even as the latest budget plan increased projected

    ...
  • Federal Government Halts City’s Plan to Establish Private Sector Retirement Savings Program

    de Blasio retirement savings

    (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor’s Office)


    Through a recently-signed resolution, President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have struck a death blow to New York City’s plan to become the first city in the country to establish a retirement savings program for private-sector employees.

    After advocates and elected officials identified a crisis in the limited amount most workers have saved for retirement and started calling for government action, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during his February 2016 State of the

    ...
  • De Blasio and Homelessness: A New Progressive Mayor Wrestles with an Old Social Problem

    de Blasio Banks homelessness

    Mayor de Blasio & Commissioner Banks (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    This is part one of a three-part series.

    Part One: The Challenge of Homeless Policy
    During the course of his overwhelmingly successful campaign for mayor, Bill de Blasio made poverty and income inequality his main issues. As the liberal journalist and fervent de Blasio supporter Eric Alterman put the matter, “De Blasio made economic inequality the central issue in his campaign and attempted to tie nearly

    ...
  • De Blasio Wrestles with Homelessness -- Part Two: Setbacks and Responses

    de Blasio Banks McCray homeless shelter

    Mayor de Blasio & aides visit a shelter (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    This is part two of a three-part series, De Blasio and Homelessness: A New Progressive Mayor Wrestles with an Old Social Problem, by Peter Nasaw and Thomas J. Main. [Jump to Part One: The Challenge of Homeless Policy]

    Part Two: Setbacks and

    ...
  • De Blasio Wrestles with Homelessness -- Part Three: Can de Blasio Turn the Tide?

    de Blasio new homelessness plan

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)


    This is part three of a three-part series: De Blasio and Homelessness: A New Progressive Mayor Wrestles with an Old Social Problem, by Peter Nasaw and Thomas J. Main. [Jump to Part One: The Challenge of Homeless Policy or

    ...
  • De Blasio Increases Spending and Savings in $84.86 Billion Executive Budget

    de blasio budget

    The Mayor presents the budget (photo: Edwin J. Torres/ Mayor's Office)


    Nearly $200 million more in spending and $587 million in savings were added to the budget for the 2018 fiscal year in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest iteration of the city’s spending plan released on Wednesday.

    The mayor presented an $84.86 billion executive budget, which increased proposed spending from the $84.67 billion proposed in the preliminary budget in January. The new spending is targeted at early childhood education, job creation, veterans services, anti-eviction

    ...
  • De Blasio Skeptical of Cuomo’s New Budget Powers

    Cuomo de Blasio

    De Blasio & Cuomo (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    As part of the budget deal announced earlier this month, Governor Andrew Cuomo highlighted the inclusion of new power his administration now has to adjust the state spending plan mid-year given significant federal cuts to New York. While Cuomo said it is an important provision in the state budget given uncertainty and threats from Washington D.C., Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed skepticism.

    When he announced a deal with the state Legislature on April 7, Cuomo outlined the major

    ...
  • De Blasio Defends Limited Media Access

    de blasio reporters

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Joanna Graham/Mayor's Office)


    "It’s scintillating,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said wryly when a reporter asked if he enjoys taking questions from the press. The mayor left it at that and called on another questioner, toward the end of an open question-and-answer session that followed de Blasio’s announcement of new anti-smoking measures at a news conference last week.

    Over the course of about 30 minutes of Q-and-A on any topics reporters wanted to ask the mayor about, de Blasio on Wednesday fielded an unusual number of

    ...
  • City Council Members Opt Out of Campaign Finance Program

    Lander Council members

    City Council members, with Brad Lander center (photo: William Alatriste)


    A first-time entrant into the New York City electoral system stands almost as much a chance of running a solid campaign as long-time political insiders and incumbents. That’s because the New York City campaign finance system includes a public matching funds program, which helps levels the playing field by incentivizing local small-dollar contributions, matching them at a 6-to-1 ratio. In doing so, it also reduces the influence of special interests in elections and helps

    ...
  • De Blasio Holds Town Hall as Week on Staten Island Nears Conclusion

    de blasio oddo staten island

    De Blasio & Oddo on Staten Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    As Mayor Bill de Blasio’s week on Staten Island neared a close Thursday evening, City Council Member Debi Rose told a north shore town hall audience that “Staten Island can no longer use the moniker that we are ‘The Forgotten Borough.’” In opening remarks before introducing de Blasio at I.S. 27, Rose said that the mayor’s attention to the borough had negated that longtime, self-given nickname of neglect.

    From Monday through Friday, de Blasio and his

    ...
  • 10 Key Takeaways for New York City from the New State Budget

    Cuomo de Blasio


    A new $153 billion New York state budget was passed through the Legislature Sunday evening, nine days into the new fiscal year, following a particularly lengthy and tumultuous negotiation period.

    After Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a budget deal Friday night, the Assembly approved the budget Saturday, while State senators -- called back to Albany from their districts -- moved through the final budget bills the following day.

    Within the spending plan are items that have serious ramifications for New York

    ...
  • Investigations Into De Blasio Spurred City Reform, Renewed Calls for State Changes

    de blasio spotlight town hall

    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Edwin J. Torres/ Mayor's Office)


    Although it was recently announced that Mayor Bill de Blasio and his aides would not be charged in two separate investigations related to their fundraising activities, both cases prompted widespread calls for reform of campaign finance laws and closure of holes that allow, even encourage, a pay-to-play political culture.

    The two parallel investigations, at the state and federal levels, exposed vulnerabilities in the law that allowed the

    ...