The city has seen a 2 percent drop in crime since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, and yesterday he attributed the reduction to his policing approach. Murders fell by 21 percent, shootings dropped by 14 percent, and the city went 10 days without a murder. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who again mixed up some statistics while speaking, conceded that unseasonable cold and numerous snowstorms probably helped. Major felonies in the city's biggest parks rose, however, and last year saw an 18 percent jump. Meanwhile, the commissioner will be transferring at least 100 NYPD commanders in a sweeping overhaul.
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>Mayor Bill de Blasio altered his position on pre-K yesterday, saying he's open to state funding - as long as a verifiable source is found to provide his plan's full amount of $530 million annually over five years. The switch, revealed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, came as the Assembly announced it would include his tax plan in their preliminary budget. On the show, the mayor also acknowledged that he could have done better work in terms of public relations on the charter school front. His first deputy mayor, Anthony Shorris, reiterated the statement afterwards, calling the mistakes "bumps" in communication with the public. But then he went on to link charter schools with support of privatization of the school system. Later in the day, the mayor met privately with a group of supportive charter school executives, who left heartened by the discussion. At about the same time, Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared on a WNYC radio program to defend charter schools as a more relevant part of the education discussion than pre-K.
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>Consumed by what appears to be a losing battle over his universal pre-kindergarten strategy, Mayor Bill de Blasio seems to be moving one of his signature issues to the backburner. De Blasio had called on Albany to allow New York City to set its own minimum wage because of the difference in the cost of living between the city and the rest of the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly opposed the idea and the leadership in the Senate appears to be uninterested. When de Blasio traveled to Albany last week he failed to mention the minimum wage measure and focused on pre-k. Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who has allied with de Blasio on other issues, told the New York Times in an interview that he did not plan to press for the minimum wage increase. Lawmakers appear to be unwilling to revisit the staggered wage increase they implemented last year.
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