Gotham Gazette

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Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio

  • NYC Racial Justice Commission Approves Three Proposals for 2022 Ballot

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    The mayor's commission has decided what to offer voters (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Racial Justice Commission, created to advance racial equity through structural changes to the city charter, voted Thursday to approve three proposals that will appear on the November 2022 general election ballot.

    The three proposals would establish a new preamble to the City Charter; create new racial equity oversight bodies and a citywide racial equity plan; and establish a new measure of

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  • WATCH: Experts Discuss Essentials to a Successful Mayoral Transition

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    Carl Wesibord, left, & Richard Buery with Mayor de Blasio at the announcements of their 2014 appointments


    As Mayor-elect Eric Adams is in the process of transitioning to become the next Mayor of New York City on January 1, two veterans of city government and mayoral transition processes spoke about the keys to a smooth transition, setting up a new city government, accomplishing top goals, and more. During an online "civic conversation" hosted by Citizens Union Foundation on Friday, December 3, former Deputy Mayor Richard Buery and Carl

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  • In Certified 2021 Election Results, Adams Wins Mayoralty with 66% of the Vote Amid 20.5% Turnout

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    Voters voting (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    With the New York City general election results certified Tuesday, Democratic Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ tally finished at 754,000 votes, leaving him with close to 66% of the vote-share compared to Republican Curtis Sliwa’s 27%, or 312,000 total votes.

    In total, the New York City Board of Elections counted the ballots of about 1,150,000 New Yorkers, bringing the turnout rate to 20.5% of the 5.6 million registered voters across the five boroughs. That included 85,000 absentee voters and 7,000

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  • De Blasio Releases Final City Budget Update as Mayor, Setting Fiscal Stage for Adams

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    Mayor de Blasio giving a budget briefing (photo: Rob Bennett/Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio)


    New York City’s budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which began July 1, has increased to a record $102.8 billion, a $4.1 billion uptick since it was first adopted, according to the latest financial update released by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday. The increase in spending, driven by federal relief and stimulus aid, was accompanied by new savings in agency spending, reduced debt and pension costs, and lower projected budget gaps for the future than previously

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  • De Blasio's Racial Justice Commission to Vote on Potential Ballot Proposals for City Charter Changes

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    Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The Racial Justice Commission convened by Mayor Bill de Blasio to revise the City Charter in pursuit of greater racial equity is nearing the end of its work and is considering several proposals that may end up on the ballot in the 2022 general election. The commission will vote on those proposals on December 3 – whatever it passes will be binding and appear on next year’s ballot – and issue its final report on December 13.

    The ideas are broad changes to city government and its

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  • Democrat Eric Adams Elected Next Mayor of New York City

    Eric Adams Elected Next Mayor of New York City

    Eric Adams voting for himself for Mayor (photo: @ericadamsfornyc)


    Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat and former NYPD captain, was declared victorious on Tuesday in the 2021 mayoral election, making him set to become only the second Black mayor of New York City after David Dinkins won in 1989. Adams, the two-term Brooklyn borough president and former state senator, was projected by the Associated Press to win not long after polls closed at 9 p.m., with early returns showing him well ahead of Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa,

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  • City's Timeline for Brooklyn Shirley Chisholm Statue, Promised for 2020, Still Unclear

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    The 2018 She Built NYC announcement of a Shirley Chisholm statue (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    At the height of the pandemic last year, as the city was forced to shut down, all design and construction projects were frozen including an initiative to build monuments of famous women from New York’s history. The first of those monuments, honoring Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was intended to be built by the end of 2020. But, while the design process has resumed, there seems

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  • 'We Can Get More Out Of This Unique Space': Governors Island on the Way to Major Transformation

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    The view from Governors Island (photo: @Gov_Island)


    Governors Island will be open to the public year-round with daily ferry service starting November 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Trust for Governors Island announced on September 28. The 172-acre island in New York Harbor, which was previously only open to the public from May to October, is about to undergo major

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  • Unfinished Business, Major Decisions and Grand Pronouncements: De Blasio Has Much To Do in Final Months as Mayor

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    Mayor Bill de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the clock winds down on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s second term, he is exploring his political future, reflecting on his tenure, and laying the final pieces of his legacy. But as de Blasio celebrates some of his signature accomplishments and continues making grand pronouncements and attempts to shape his image, promises made were not always promises kept, major crises are festering, and a long list of unfinished business looms.

    The devastation of Hurricane Ida, increases

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  • De Blasio Administration Looks Toward Final Climate Actions

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    The new Brooklyn Bright bike lane (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio is putting the final touches on its efforts to combat climate change and create a more sustainable city, with significant short- and long-term challenges at play, major decisions to be made in the mayor’s final months in office, and questions about its policy choices.

    Ben Furnas, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, points to key accomplishments of the last several

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  • Max Politics Podcast: New York City's Climate and Sustainability Efforts

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    New York City (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    September 24, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: New York City's Climate and Sustainability Efforts

    Ben Furnas, the director of the mayor's office of climate and sustainability, joined the show to discuss the de Blasio administration's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a more sustainable, livable city.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You

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  • De Blasio Outlines Spending Plan for $5.9 Billion in Direct Federal Pandemic Aid

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    Mayor de Blasio's 'recovery budget' was helped by federal aid (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Since the March passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the nation's most recent pandemic-era stimulus package, de Blasio administration officials have been crafting a plan to use close to $5.9 billion in direct federal funding to New York City government.

    A new report from the de Blasio administration, required by the federal stimulus

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  • City Council Schedules Oversight Hearing on NYC School Reopening

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    Council Speaker Johnson, right, and Council Member Treyger (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    UPDATE: On Saturday August 21, following the publication of this article on the evening of Thursday August 19, the City Council scheduled an oversight hearing by the education committee on the city's school reopening plans for Wednesday September 1. The hearing will come less than two weeks before the first official day of school for more than 900,000 public school students on Monday September 13. The article below has been

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  • Watchdogs Worry About De Blasio's Last Budget, City’s Fiscal Future

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    New York City’s budget has grown massively under Mayor Bill de Blasio and reached a record high of $98.7 billion for the current fiscal year. The latest spending plan, which the mayor dubbed a “recovery budget,” deployed a huge infusion of federal stimulus funds to restore services that were cut at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand existing programs, and launch new initiatives. But despite the mayor’s assurances that his successor, due to take office January 1, will inherit manageable

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  • City Funding Inadequate For Human Service Workers To Meet Basic Needs, Report Says

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    (photo: @winnyc.org)


    New York City's nonprofit human services workforce – a sector of 200,000 social workers, case managers, and counselors serving the city's most vulnerable residents – is, itself, in need.

    According to a new report from Win (formerly Women In Need), the city's largest shelter provider for families and children, pay among social service

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  • City Civic Engagement Commission Makes Slow Progress on Participatory Budgeting Program

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    Mayor de Blasio votes in participatory budgeting in 2018 (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's office)


    When New York City voters approved the creation of a Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) in 2018, one of the only defined mandates for the new body was to set up and run a citywide participatory budgeting program. But due to pre-pandemic delays as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the city, the commission has yet to establish such a program, well after its

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  • Eric Adams Launches General Election Campaign With De Blasio’s Endorsement

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    (Photo: @kallos)


    Eric Adams, the two-term Brooklyn borough president and Democratic mayoral nominee, kicked off his general election campaign on Monday with a rally at City Hall Park where he was endorsed by dozens of Democratic elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio.

    “I'm going to work harder, intentional, determined," Adams said, standing with members of Congress, the state Legislature, the City Council and labor leaders. “I'm going to give New Yorkers the spirit that just as they get up every morning and fight for this city, you're going to have a

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  • City Council Goes More Than 5 Months Without Oversight Hearing on Covid Vaccination Effort

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    City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Health Chair Mark Levine (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    After weeks of flagging covid vaccine rates, ongoing racial disparities among the vaccinated, and the troubling spread of the Delta variant, Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking his first steps to impose more coercive vaccine policies in New York City. The mayor announced on Monday an upcoming mandate for all city workers to be vaccinated or subject to weekly covid testing, while encouraging private sector actors to institute their own

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  • De Blasio Racial Justice Commission Launches Public Hearings Leading to Ballot Proposals

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    The mayor in the Bronx (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio’s racial justice commission, which he officially created in March to confront and eliminate structural and institutional racism in the city and doubles as a New York City Charter revision commission, will release proposals for the 2022 general election ballot at the end of this year, just as the mayor ends his second term and leaves office.

    The racial justice commission, which will hold its first public input hearing on Thursday, is a first-of-its-kind commission

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  • City Officials Discuss Managing the Frontline Workforce During Covid and Bringing Nearly Everyone Back to the Office Now

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    Welcome Back to City Hall (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    While many employers in New York City and beyond were shutting their doors, laying off workers, and severely cutting operations when the pandemic hit last year, others kept providing essential services. That latter group included New York City government, the country’s eighth-largest employer. And while many thousands of city workers shifted to remote work, most did not.

    Essential city operations like sanitation, water, schools, fire and police departments, food delivery, and

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  • Bill De Blasio Has Been A Good Mayor, Actually

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    Mayor de Blasio and kids (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office)


    I would have voted for Bill de Blasio a third time if I could. Strip away the car trips to the Park Slope Y and the misguided presidential run, and evaluate the objective facts about New York City before and after his eight years in office and his two terms were a success. De Blasio’s administration shows the value of liberal incrementalism, or as President Obama put it: ...

  • City Launches Site Detailing $134-Billion Ten-Year Infrastructure Strategy

    City Launches Website Detailing $134 Billion Ten-Year Capital Strategy

    The mayor and others cut ribbon at new park (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    The New York City Department of City Planning on Tuesday unveiled a new website that details its ten-year strategy for building and enhancing city infrastructure, including everything from housing and schools to transit systems, roads and bridges, parks, and water and sewage piping. 

    The ten-year capital strategy

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  • Mayor and City Council Reach Agreement on De Blasio's Last Budget, $98.7 Billion ‘Recovery' Plan

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    Mayor and Council Speaker in 2019 (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Wednesday announced an agreement on a $98.7 billion “recovery budget” for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins Thursday.

    The budget, the final one for both de Blasio and Johnson as they reach term limits, was $100 million more than the executive budget that the mayor unveiled in April, flush with billions in

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  • Maya Wiley's School Choice

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    Maya Wiley (photo: @mayawiley)


    Maya Wiley is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor as one of the leading progressives in the race, leaning heavily on her accolades as a civil rights attorney. Her education platform includes a number of the most aggressive and embattled proposals to integrate the city’s deeply segregated schools and she has said her position is forged by her own experience going to a segregated elementary school. But as she has sought the progressive mantle and pledged decisive action toward racial equality, Wiley has not emphasized school

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  • Effort to 'Defund the NYPD' Appears Stalled Ahead of De Blasio's Final Budget

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    De Blasio and the NYPD (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Even though cutting NYPD funding has become a popular position among many candidates running for mayor, City Council, and other offices this year, the city’s current leadership seems unlikely to embrace any significant cuts to the police department in the upcoming budget amid a sustained increase in gun violence and a glut of federal funding.

    “The voters of this city overwhelmingly, I'm convinced, want a balance. They want reform. They want non-discriminatory policing. They want respectful

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