ADMIN

WHY IS ECONOMICS IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team Since the pandemic began, unemployment in NYC has risen to over 20 percent. The City’s deficit has risen to $9 billion dollars and is expected to continue to rise. The new mayor will have the task of revitalizing NYC in the midst of pandemic paranoia, shrinking revenue, a dwindling budget and the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression… On the public housing front, though the administration has been successful in stabilizing the operating finances of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), its plan to [... Read More]

WHY IS POLICING and CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team One of the issues where de Blasio has disappointed many of his supporters the most has been policing. Though he came to power indicating he would take a more sweeping approach to reform of the NYPD, he has been more of an incrementalist and has often had to be pushed into accepting increased accountability and oversight of the department. In 2020, de Blasio and the NYPD are expected to finally show evidence for their claims that the mayor’s neighborhood policing program is as effective as de [... Read More]

WHY IS TRANSIT and INFRASTRUCTURE IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team The state and city have just over a year to prepare for the implementation of congestion pricing, the controversial traffic mitigation (and MTA revenue-raising) strategy that was approved by the state Legislature and Governor Cuomo last year. The plan cedes much authority over city streets to the state-run and Cuomo-controlled MTA. However, the new mayor will probably have to undertake several measures to make the program a success, including expanding and improving bus service. There is also Vision Zero – which aims to eliminate [... Read More]

WHY IS SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team Six years into de Blasio’s mayoralty and New York City schools remain the most segregated in the country. The mayor and his two school chancellors, Carmen Farina and Richard Carranza, have proposed a series of fairly tepid, incremental initial reforms. De Blasio did empanel the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG), which released two sets of recommendations, with the administration adopting most of the first, more mild set. The second set, full of more controversial proposals, including related to the city’s admissions policies and gifted and talented programming, was [... Read More]

WHY IS HOMELESSNESS, HOUSING, and NYCHA IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team In 2019, the current mayor announced a new five-year plan to end chronic street homelessness that includes opening 1,000 new “safe haven” beds, converting 1,000 privately-owned housing units into new permanent housing for those leaving homelessness, expanded outreach, health care, and rental subsidies. The administration did succeed cutting down on evictions through free legal services for many low-income households and in re-housing thousands of people who have wound up in city shelters. Still, there are estimated to be more than 75,000 individuals in various city-run shelters [... Read More]

WHY IS BUDGETING & PROPERTY TAX IMPORTANT? By Wright for NYC 2020 Campaign Team The city’s budget has rapidly expanded under de Blasio, with projected spending hitting $94.3 billion for the current fiscal year which ends June 30, 2020, according to the latest budget modification released in November. That’s a whopping $21.6 billion more than the last budget modification under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, shortly before de Blasio took office. The city’s Office of Management and Budget predicts that spending will break the $100 billion mark within the next two fiscal years, a number that has fiscal watchdogs worried since savings [... Read More]