Final week, within the Bronx, the borough the place hip hop was born, I reported to New Yorkers on the state of our metropolis.
When our administration got here into workplace 24 months in the past, we had a transparent mission: defend public security, rebuild our economic system, and make this metropolis extra livable for New Yorkers.
Two years in, we’re seeing actual outcomes. Crime is down, jobs are up, and on daily basis we’re delivering for the hard-working folks of New York.
We took 14,000 unlawful weapons off our streets and drove down shootings and homicides by double digits, whereas getting hundreds of thousands of individuals again on our subways.
We created 270,000 private-sector jobs and set a first-of-its-kind minimal wage for deliveristas, as we labored with our brothers and sisters in labor to get them the pay and the advantages they deserve.
We unlocked billions of {dollars} for public housing by the NYCHA Preservation Belief, and broke inexpensive housing data — financing probably the most inexpensive houses in metropolis historical past and connecting extra New Yorkers to inexpensive houses than every other yr.
We drove down the price of youngster look after working dad and mom, elevated public college enrollment, boosted take a look at scores, and revolutionized studying in our school rooms.
We made our streets cleaner and greener with extra parks and fewer rubbish baggage and rats. And we did all of this whereas marshaling our complete metropolis authorities to reply to the asylum seeker humanitarian disaster.
The final two years have been about resetting and renewal. Now, it’s time to make the longer term collectively.
That begins with public security. Whereas New Yorkers welcome the way forward for transit, we can’t have mopeds dashing down our sidewalks or harmful lithium-ion batteries burning down our buildings.
We’re going to work with the Metropolis Council to create the “Division of Sustainable Supply” — a first-in-the-nation entity that may regulate new types of supply transit and make sure the security of drivers, supply staff, and pedestrians.
And whereas we’re doing the whole lot in our energy to maintain our streets secure, everyone knows there’s a secret weapon inside our bedrooms, kitchens, and on our front room sofas. We’re defending our kids from on-line hurt by changing into the primary main American metropolis to designate social media as a public well being hazard, simply as previous U.S. surgeons normal have performed with tobacco and firearms. We can’t stand by and let massive tech monetize our kids’s privateness and jeopardize their psychological well being.
The way forward for our economic system is inexperienced, and that’s why we introduced the “Harbor of the Future” — our plan to create 53,000 short-term and everlasting jobs, generate $95 billion in financial impression, and set up New York Metropolis as the worldwide vacation spot for inexperienced know-how, innovation, and alternative.
Our administration has already superior tasks from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Manhattan and Staten Island that may drive analysis and innovation in rising fields. This yr, we’ll add a brand new cease alongside the Harbor of the Future with a $100 million Local weather Innovation Hub on the Brooklyn Military Terminal. This hub will deliver enterprise improvement, incubation, and analysis to Sundown Park as we put money into clear tech innovation and manufacturing.
And whereas we’re rebuilding our economic system, we should additionally be sure New York stays a livable metropolis that’s cleaner, greener, and extra inexpensive. Chief amongst our priorities right here is to make sure that persons are not priced out of their houses. That’s the reason our administration is advancing a strong agenda each to construct extra housing and hold folks within the houses they have already got.
This yr, we’ll construct on our previous success with our ‘24 in 24’ initiative, advancing 24 housing tasks on public websites to create or protect over 12,000 models. We may even increase our Home-owner Assist Desk, which supplies counseling and sources to maintain folks of their houses, to your complete metropolis. We’re going to be a metropolis of sure relating to housing: “sure” in my yard, “sure” on my block, and “sure” in my neighborhood.
COVID taught us that folks don’t simply need public areas — however that public areas are important. We’re going to proceed reimagining the city expertise for all New Yorkers, together with an entire makeover of Kimlau Plaza in Chinatown. And we’re going to construct and refurbish 4 main public skate parks within the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Moreover, we should ensure that all New Yorkers can share in our metropolis’s success. Final week, we launched a greater than $40 million motion plan — “Ladies Ahead NYC” — to attach extra girls to job alternatives, dismantle boundaries to well being care, scale back violence in opposition to girls, and a lot extra.
We additionally introduced the cancellation of over $2 billion in medical debt for as much as half 1,000,000 working-class New Yorkers, a life-changing coverage that may hold cash in New Yorkers’ pockets.
Thanks to those investments, and the dedication of our public servants and hundreds of thousands of hardworking folks throughout the 5 boroughs, New York Metropolis will stay a spot the place anybody could make it. Surely, the state of our metropolis is robust. We Can Make It Here | State of the City 2024 (youtube.com)