Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio

  • Interim NYCHA CEO Kathryn Garcia on the Federal Monitor and Future of Public Housing in New York

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    Mayor de Blasio & Kathryn Garcia, right (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Four months on the job, NYCHA Interim Chair and CEO Kathryn Garcia remains optimistic and determined about the future of the New York City public housing authority, home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers and several major crises. Garcia, who was the city’s sanitation commissioner for about five years until taking leave to fill in as the head of NYCHA, appeared on

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  • De Blasio's End-of-Session Albany Agenda

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    With 11 days of state legislative session left, including Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio headed to Albany to confab with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to push for several legislative priorities.

    Among the major items on his agenda, according to mayoral spokesperson Freddi Goldstein, are reforming rent regulations, legalizing marijuana, eliminating the Specialized High School Admission Test (SHSAT), authorizing design-build contracting at several city

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: NYCHA Interim CEO Kathryn Garcia

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    May 29, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: NYCHA's Future, with Interim CEO Kathryn Garcia

    kathryn garcia wbaiKathryn Garcia, the city's sanitation commissioner for most of Mayor Bill de Blasio's tenure, was recently named interim chair and CEO of NYCHA, tasked with steering the public housing authority through tumultuous times,

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  • Criticizing De Blasio Rezonings, Williams Introduces 'Racial Impact Study' Requirement

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Fulfilling a promise he made in his successful campaign for public advocate, Jumaane Williams introduced legislation on Wednesday that would require the city to conduct an assessment of expected racial and ethnic impact brought on by proposed neighborhood rezonings, in order to ensure that the city is complying with the federal Fair Housing Act, and combat segregation and displacement.

    The Fair housing Act, passed in 1968, is meant to protect against discrimination in the sale, purchase,

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  • WATCH: Breaking Down De Blasio's Presidential Bid

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Why is Mayor Bill de Blasio running for President? What's his pitch in the early days of his campaign? How was he received in Iowa and South Carolina on his first campaign trip? How might he gain some traction? What will this run do to his image at home in New York City?

    Gotham Gazette's Ben Max hosted a discussion answering those questions and more featuring political strategist L. Joy Williams, WNYC radio's Brigid Bergin, and The New York Times' Jeff Mays. Watch the program, produced by

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  • More Sites, Better Democracy: Board of Elections Must Get Early Voting Right

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Early voting has finally come to our state, but it won’t work in our city unless the City Board of Elections ensures there are enough voting sites. That needs to happen, and it needs to happen now for our 3 million immigrants, our communities of color and every New Yorker who has a hard time voting on Election Day.

    Later today, the BOE is due to announce how many early voting poll sites New York City will have for the November election – the first time New Yorkers will have the right to vote

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  • 8 Big Questions About De Blasio's Presidential Bid

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced his campaign for President of the United States, hoping to win the Democratic nomination and face President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election. De Blasio's decision to run raises many questions. Here are eight big ones.

    1. Can he run for president and run the city at the same time?
    De Blasio of course says yes, he can run the city and run for president at the same time. First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan will be in charge of the

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  • 10 Things to Know About Presidential Candidate Bill De Blasio's Policy Record

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    De Blasio & McCray on ABC (photo: Good Morning America)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday officially launched his campaign for president, declaring a progressive vision that would put “working people first” while taking on President Donald Trump’s policies that have benefited corporations and the wealthy.

    “There's plenty of money in this world. There's plenty of money in this country -- it's just in the wrong hands," de Blasio said in a video

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  • De Blasio Launches Underdog Campaign for the Presidency with Pitch as Progressive Executive and Mixed Record

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat serving his second and final term, officially announced on Thursday morning that he is running for President of the United States.

    De Blasio made the announcement with a YouTube video followed by a television interview on ABC’s Good Morning America. He's scheduled to speak to reporters Thursday afternoon in Manhattan before flying to Iowa then South Carolina over the weekend.

    "There's plenty of money in this

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  • De Blasio Fundraising Exposed Grey Area for Ethics Board

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)


    In the last three years, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been investigated by law enforcement and oversight entities at the city, state, and federal levels for soliciting donations from people seeking favors from his administration. While several of the investigations have concluded without chargers, investigators and others have criticized the mayor for shirking conflicts of interest and campaign finance rules.

    In the case of the city investigation, conducted by the Department of Investigation (DOI) and referred to the

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  • De Blasio's Budget Savings Plan Contains Few Real Efficiencies, Experts Say

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    Mayor de Blasio (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio’s much-touted budget savings program is not what he has made it seem.

    After rapidly growing the budget over his first five years in office and resisting calls to find significant efficiencies at city agencies, de Blasio this year instituted his first “program to eliminate the gap,” or PEG, to achieve hundreds of millions of dollars in “savings.” But though the mayor boasted at his executive budget presentation of $916 million in

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  • Former City Taxi Commissioner on Regulating the App Companies and Saving the Yellows

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    Meera Joshi, right, at a rally (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    Meera Joshi’s five-year tenure as the head of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission coincided with a tumultuous time for the industry she was tasked with overseeing and regulating. Joshi, who left the de Blasio administration in March, joined the What’s The [Data] Point? podcast from Citizens Budget Commission and Gotham Gazette to

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  • What's the [Data] Point? 125,323, with Former Taxi Commissioner Meera Joshi

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 73 -- 125,323, Meera Joshi, former chair of the city's Taxi & Limousine Commission [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    wtdp meera joshiMeera Joshi was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014 to chair the city's Taxi & Limousine Commission, which sets rules for and has oversight over the city's taxi

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  • A Citywide Office for Sexual Harassment Prevention? It Almost Happened 25 Years Ago

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    Former Mayor David Dinkins, left, with Chirlane McCray (photo: Edwin J. Torres/City Council)


    In October 1992, amid sexual harassment scandals that rocked his administration, former Mayor David Dinkins created a task force to examine the issue of sexual harassment in city government. The task force, chaired by late Congressional Rep. Bella Abzug, who led the larger Commission on the Status of Women, submitted its report to the mayor the next year in November, recommending that the city create a Citywide Office for Sexual Harassment

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Should De Blasio Run for President?

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    May 8, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Should De Blasio Run for President?

    mayor bdb wbaiMax & Murphy discuss whether Mayor de Blasio should run for president, what his message will be if he does, what might hold him back, how he'd manage to run and lead the city at the same time, and more.

    Listen to the conversation and let us

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  • There's Plenty of Money in the MTA Capital Plan, It's Just Not Being Spent

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    Gov. Cuomo inspects track work (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    The subway (plan) is delayed again.

    While subway service has improved since the nadir that led to the current (and controversial) “state of emergency,” it’s obvious to anyone who rides the system enough or just watches the New York City Transit Twitter feed that there’s still a ways to go before everything is at or near full strength.

    But while the Metropolitan

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  • City Council Pushes Its Priorities at First Hearing on De Blasio's Executive Budget

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    Council Member Dromm and Speaker Johnson (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The New York City Council and budget officials from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration engaged in a familiar push-and-pull on Monday, at the first hearing on the $92.5 billion executive budget proposal for the 2020 fiscal year that begins July 1.

    The Council, disappointed that many of its priorities were not included in the latest spending plan presented by the mayor, pushed for more funding and pointed to hundreds of millions in revenue available to the city, but

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  • Payphone-Replacing LinkNYC Kiosks Not Generating Projected Revenue

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    Mayor de Blasio makes the first LinkNYC call (photo: Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    During a February 2016 press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio made the first phone call on New York City’s first LinkNYC kiosk, stationed at the corner of 16th Street and 3rd Avenue. “It will be the biggest and fastest network in the world, and completely free of charge. And one thing I know about my fellow New Yorkers, they like things that are free of charge," said de Blasio.

    Not only that, but New Yorkers were promised money for the city’s general fund. That money

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  • Advocates Give De Blasio and Cuomo Failing Grades on Addressing Homelessness

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    (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio was defensive on Thursday when asked about a report, released earlier this week by the Coalition for the Homeless, that criticized him for not doing enough to address the city’s homelessness crisis.

    While he has acknowledged his administration’s struggles addressing the crisis, the mayor has devoted significant additional resources to fighting homelessness and though the number of people in shelter has increased under his watch, he has made some progress in breaking the trajectory of the

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  • City Council Examines Board of Elections' Readiness to Implement Early Voting, Poll-Site Interpretation

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The New York City Board of Elections, a state entity funded by the city, has a less-than-stellar reputation for running elections and has long been resistant to going beyond the letter of state law in improving voter access and participation. And this year, the city BOE must contend with a new state mandate to create an early voting program for potentially millions of voters, as well as a push by the city to provide broader poll site interpretation services in immigrant communities.

    At a Tuesday

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  • What's The [Data] Point? $92.5 Billion, Breaking Down the Mayor's Executive Budget

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 72 -- $92.5 Billion, The Mayor's Executive Budget - with Yoav Gonen of THE CITY [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    yoav wtdpJournalist and city budget expert Yoav Gonen of the news website THE CITY joined the podcast to discuss Mayor Bill de Blasio's recently-released $92.5 billion Executive Budget plan

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  • Where Top City and State Officials Stand on Raising the Charter School Cap

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    Gov. Cuomo at a charter school rally (photo: governor's office)


    After several new charter schools were approved last month, the cap on such schools allowed in New York City was reached. New York State has a cap on the number of issuable charters, which allow a group to start a new charter school, the controversial, privately-run, publicly-funded schools that mostly proliferate in the five boroughs and educate roughly 10% of the city's 1 million students. Within the larger cap, there is a sub-cap for charters that can be issued for schools in New York

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  • De Blasio Presents $92.5 Billion Executive Budget with Agency Savings, New Investments & Response to State Shifts

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    (photo: Rob Bennett for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio released on Thursday a $92.5 billion executive budget for the 2020 fiscal year that begins July 1, an increase of about $300 million from his preliminary proposal in February and nearly $3.4 billion more than the budget adopted last year.

    De Blasio’s latest budget plan will become the basis for City Council hearings

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  • New City Civic Engagement Commission Launched

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio named his eight appointees to a new charter-mandated Civic Engagement Commission on Tuesday, weeks past the April 1 deadline for creating the commission. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens borough presidents also announced their appointees while the other two borough presidents have yet to do so.

    The 15-member commission

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  • City Council Fire Department Proposals Don't Match Need for Reform

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Last week the City Council presented its response to Mayor de Blasio’s preliminary budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. It proposes to add $1.5 billion in annual operating expenditures and more than $1 billion in capital spending to the budget proposed by the mayor. Among the proposals are four that would significantly increase spending on the Fire Department and for which there is no clear justification other than political expediency. Two of them would not only be expensive, but would

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