"The Mayor’s speech described a city we should strive to create and be glad to live in. Moving forward from the speech in the next year, we will need to see the specifics, the prioritization, and the budget backing of these initiatives.
"There will always be points of debate and discussion, but there are also many areas of agreement and collaboration on which I look forward to partnering. I appreciate the Mayor’s commitment to cracking down on bad landlords, supporting violence prevention programs, promoting economic justice efforts and job growth, opening up COMPStat to communities, and meeting our climate goals and obligations, among a litany of other initiatives. As important as the elements included in the speech are the topics left out. While the city claims that it 'wants the problem' of Rikers, the crisis there was not mentioned.
"Building the city the Mayor discussed requires a strong, progressive, effective city government, with the necessary support, staffing, and funding. The Mayor calls this his ‘Aaron Judge year’ - and the city needs it to be - but as we know, that success means committing the spending and the team needed to get stuff done."