Friday, October 4, 2013

With Focus on ‘Affordability Crisis,’ de Blasio Offers His Vision for New York


In a breakfast speech to a prominent civic group, Mr. de Blasio, the Democratic nominee for mayor, called himself “a progressive activist fiscal conservative” and declared that the city’s “affordability crisis” was as urgent and serious a civic problem as the turmoil faced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.


“We cannot resign ourselves to the mind-set that says rising inequality is a necessary byproduct of urban success,” Mr. de Blasio said, adding: “We cannot expect prosperity to trickle down from the top. That is a philosophy that has failed time and again.”


A former political operative, Mr. de Blasio ensured his speech was delivered a year to the day when he last addressed the group, the Association for a Better New York, whose membership draws from the city’s business elite. At the time, he was considered a long-shot in the race, and his plan to raise income taxes on the wealthy to pay for education programs was met with a chilly reception.


On Friday, in a standing-room-only hotel ballroom packed with real estate moguls and eminent Democrats, a smiling Mr. de Blasio received an energetic standing ovation, and the crowd — which included former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and former Mayor David N. Dinkins — was rapt as he unspooled his vision for governing the city. About 800 people turned out for his remarks, more than twice as many as a year ago, enticed by the prospect of hearing from the overwhelming favorite to be the next mayor; Mr. de Blasio leads his Republican opponent, Joseph J. Lhota, by nearly 50 points in recent polls.


In remarks that lasted 30 minutes, Mr. de Blasio paid tribute to labor unions as a guarantor of economic security, and he said he would find a way to restore their place in the political sphere.


He pledged to raise wages for city workers and require that businesses offer more sick days to their employees, two measures fiercely opposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He promised to reinvest in the city’s colleges and local manufacturing concerns. And he said he would entertain no tax cuts of any sort until after the municipal budget had been hammered out this spring.


He denounced “giveaways that disproportionately favor luxury housing,” a warning shot at the city’s powerful real estate industry, which has enjoyed significant support from the Bloomberg administration, and he said he would end “overly generous tax incentives for big corporations.”


But after a campaign of harsh rhetoric that took aim at Park Avenue residents and the so-called 1 percent, Mr. de Blasio was also seeking on Friday to reintroduce himself to the business leaders he will be expected to work closely with if elected in November.


Mr. de Blasio offered repeated, if muted, praise for some of the economic development policies of Mr. Bloomberg, a stark contrast to the denunciations that were a hallmark of his primary campaign.


But he also made clear that he believed the current administration had not gone far enough in expanding affordable housing and social mobility in a city where millions of residents remain under the poverty line.


The response was mostly positive.


“This was an audience that did not know Bill de Blasio that came away reassured,” said Mitchell L. Moss, an urban studies professor at New York University who attended the event. He said Mr. de Blasio succeeded at his goal: “to convey to what is largely a business community that he understands what it takes to be mayor.”


But, clearly, many business leaders were trying to figure out what to expect if Mr. de Blasio is elected.


“There’s an old Irish expression: A new broom sweeps clean,” said Bill Cunningham, a former spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg. “This room was filled with old brooms. They know the corners, and they’re trying to figure out what corners they can play in the next administration.”


In the most deeply felt portion of the speech, Mr. de Blasio described the struggles of working-class families in images rarely invoked before this sort of elite audience, many of whose members would qualify for the higher taxes he has proposed.


He described “parents speaking in worried whispers after their kids who have been put to bed, parents who are living paycheck to paycheck,” and cited “working single moms who have to cast aside nervous thoughts of their children’s whereabouts during those long hours after school lets out.”


After his speech, Mr. de Blasio was mobbed by well-wishers as he tried to leave the ballroom, his aides finding mixed success in holding back a pulsating scrum of reporters and photographers, eager for a moment with the man who may be New York’s next mayor.


It was a stark contrast to the lonelier scene a year ago, when Mr. de Blasio, after delivering his speech to the civic group, departed with only a pair of close aides by his side, standing nearly alone.




David W. Chen contributed reporting.






Yahoo Local News – New York Times




http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=15053

via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info

No comments:

Post a Comment