Mayor Bloomberg's 2005 State of the City Address The mayor's challengers respond to the State of the City address: |
"Your view on the state of the city depends on where you look at it from. The city looks very different from a penthouse than it does from a two-family home in Bayside, or a walk-up in Flatbush.
We all want Wall Street to thrive, but we want our neighborhoods and the families who live there to flourish, too.
And in a city where so many working families are struggling to keep their heads above water, the mayor offers a myopic vision and misplaced priorities.
He is determined to spend hundreds of millions in tax dollars to build a stadium for a billionaire team owner, while our schools are overcrowded and too many working families can't find child care or after-school programs or housing they can afford.
It's time to address the affordability crisis in our city, grow our middle class, and renew the promise of New York for all New Yorkers."
"This was an effective political speech, and I welcome the Mayor's decision to join us in many of our longstanding efforts to build a better city for all our residents. The real lives behind these issues have deserved attention for some time now and what we heard today was a re-election speech that spelled out the Mayor's vision.
I am concerned, however, that the Mayor's new focus on these issues will suffer from his standard process of insular governance. We need governance that includes all of the people, and we simply haven't seen that up to this point.
Voters are looking for results. We have heard about the efforts to reform education, now we will look at the results of those reforms. We know about the 50 percent unemployment rate for African American males in New York; now we need to know what is being done to reduce those numbers? [sic] We have heard the plans for tens of thousands of new units of housing, now we need to see these units being built.
I am glad the mayor has decided to pursue an issue that I have been advocating for a long time in city government - expanding the participation of minority owned businesses in huge projects like the Westside and Lower Manhattan. We now hope to see results in this area so more New Yorkers can benefit from economic opportunities in our own city."
"I was trying to find out what city he was talking about. He painted such a rosy picture. This was a campaign speech, not an evaluation of what is really happening in the city. He doesn't mention that 50 percent of black males are unemployed. Complaints against the Police Department are up in my neighborhood.
He has turned New York City into New York City Inc., a playground for rich developers - Nets, Jets, and the Olympics - that is not trickling down into neighborhoods like East New York, where there is double-digit unemployment."
"Due to Mayor Bloomberg's tax-and-spend policies, over the last two and one-half years, New York City has lost more private-sector jobs than it has created. He seeks increases in the welfare state... rather than focus on ways to get people out of these programs.
He sees stadiums as top priorities, but I guarantee you not one in 100 New Yorkers would consider publicly financed sports stadiums top priorities of theirs. New York needs to move in a different direction, which today's speech made even more apparent."
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Mayor Bloomberg's 2005 State of the City Address The mayor's challengers respond to the State of the City address: |
The following is the text of Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City Address as delivered at Hostos Community College in the Bronx:
Good afternoon and thank you. It's one of the great thrills of my life to be here and I hope all of you appreciate just what a wonderful city we have.
Mr. Speaker Miller, Members of the City Council, Comptroller Thompson, Public Advocate Gotbaum, Borough Presidents - all five, former Mayor Koch and distinguished guests.
It's great to be in the Bronx, the borough of Colin Powell, and Regis Philbin, and Lauren Bacall, and Jerry Orbach, Jennifer Lopez, and in about one hour, Randy Johnson. Randy actually has to sit down with me for some tips on how to deal with the New York City press corps but I'll be doing that.
Thank you all for coming. And please join me in thanking Doctor Dolores Fernandez and the students and faculty of Hostos College for having us here this afternoon.
Over the years, Hostos College has truly lived up to its motto of being a "Jewel of the South Bronx." And under Doctor Fernandez's leadership, it shines more brightly now than ever.
So, that's a real tribute to her, to City University Chancellor, Matt Goldstein, yes he deserves a round of applause, and to someone else I want to acknowledge: A graduate and former trustee of the CUNY system, who has served our city with distinction, my friend, Herman Badillo.
We're also joined by some special guests here on the stage I wanted you to meet: Lieutenant Joseph Ferrera, who is in his 40th year with the NYPD; Firefighter James Mills, who last year won the FDNY's highest award for bravery; Corrections Officer Kathleen Collins, who saved an inmate's life at Rikers Island recently; Carlin Anderson, who, 20 years ago, was one of the first women to join the Sanitation Department; and Dr. Andrew Whiznia, who heads Jacobi Medical Center's great Pediatric AIDS Unit here in the Bronx.
These are the people who make our city great, and I wanted you to meet them.
There are also some other members- other people that we wanted you to meet, some members of the press. We have three reporters here who deserve special recognition. They are Danny Marin, Jacob Clemente, and Janita Mercado. They're middle school students in the Bronx, with us today on assignment for a borough-wide student journalism initiative called "The Knowledge Project." And I wanted to welcome them.
Three years ago, I was inaugurated as the 108th Mayor of this great city. I remember looking out across the crowd that had gathered on the plaza at City Hall that freezing afternoon. And in the distance, above everyone's heads, smoke was still rising from the World Trade Center site. New Yorkers there - and throughout the city - were asking ourselves the same questions:
Will we be able to come back? Can we recover? Will we be safe? Would we ever be the same?
Those were the question marks hanging over our City's future.
Three years later, I can stand before you and tell you that, we have answered those questions.
We are safer today than we have ever been in modern memory.
We have taken our City from fiscal crisis to fiscal stability.
We are building new buildings.
We are buying our first homes.
We are reopening our waterfront.
We are creating new jobs.
We've redoubled our commitment to fighting disease and to ending homelessness.
We are making our school system the best in the nation.
Where once there was doubt, New Yorkers believe again.
There is a spirit, a confidence, an expectation for the future that is new and exciting.
And does anyone think we are finished? Does anyone think we can't do more, go further, be even better?
Let me tell you…We're just getting started!
The state of our City is strong - and we are going to make it even stronger for the future.
We will do that by building on our successes - and building "A City of Opportunity."
Together, we will foster opportunity by making the safest American city even safer.
Together, we will broaden opportunity by meeting the social and human needs of our people.
Together, we will cultivate opportunity by improving the quality of life in every community, and making New York a more livable city.
Together, we will expand opportunity by creating jobs - in all five boroughs - for all New Yorkers.
Finally, and most importantly, we will bestow the blessings of opportunity on our children.
That means providing all students with first-rate education. That is their fundamental civil right and we're going to give it to them.
Creating this opportunity - building on the progress we have made - is not something that happens on its own.
We have made great progress, not by putting patronage and politics ahead
of the public interest.
And together we will continue to fight for our city by being fiercely independent, by pursuing the people's business, not the business of the special interests, and by working day and night to provide innovative, honest, and responsible leadership.
And I promise you once again, I will continue to not make just the tough decisions, but the right decisions - based on one standard and one standard only: What's best for the people of this great city.
That is how we have moved - and will move - forward.
That is how we have met - and will meet - the challenges ahead.
That is how we have made - and will make - New York greater still.
Let's start with safety. The ability to walk the streets without looking over your shoulder- it's essential to fostering opportunity and equality for all New Yorkers.
Three years ago - in the aftermath of 9/11, and in the midst of a worsening recession - many New Yorkers would have been satisfied if we had simply maintained the reductions in crime achieved during the 1990s.
But I wouldn't have been. And I am proud to report that today we've driven crime 14% lower than it was when I stood before you three years ago.
Rape, a particularly vicious crime, is down 9%. During 2004, we had the fewest murders since 1963. And here in the Bronx, the NYPD has reduced murder by an astonishing 34% since 2001.
The subways are safer, public housing is safer. Last month, the FBI ranked New York's crime rate the lowest among the nation's 25 biggest cities.
To some, these are just statistics, but to me, these numbers represent lives saved and families spared the hurt and anguish of being victimized.
But there's more that we can do.
During 2005, we're going to work to make New Yorkers even safer against crime with a three-part strategy:
A laser-like concentration of resources where they're needed most; increased use of state-of-the-art crime-fighting technology; and a continued zero tolerance for quality of life crimes.
First, Operation Impact shows our success in focusing resources on problem people and problem places.
Last year, officers made more than 33,000 arrests in Impact Zones, reducing crime
by 26%, and murders by 40%. Year Three of Operation Impact will team experienced officers with 1,000 of last Friday's graduates from the Police Academy - the newest of the 8,000 officers we've hired since 2002.
Second - during 2005 - we're going to upgrade our crime-fighting technology. That includes our multi-year modernization of the 911 system and a major upgrade of CompStat, which will take it to the next level by establishing a Real Time Crime Fighting Center at One Police Plaza. It will provide same-day information on emerging crime patterns, and lead to quicker arrests, so that spikes don't become trends.
And third, we're going to continue to prevent quality of life crimes. Because whether it's jumping turnstiles, aggressive panhandling, or other "broken windows" offenses - some may say they're petty crimes, but if left unchecked, they permit more serious crimes to flourish.
That's why we're launching a major new initiative to stop graffiti. It will include an 80-member NYPD anti-graffiti task force, with coordinators in each police precinct.
Our success in making New Yorkers safer extends beyond reducing crime though.
Traffic and pedestrian safety are also at record levels. Last year - thanks to better traffic engineering and stepped-up DWI enforcement - New York City had fewer pedestrian and auto fatalities than at any time since we started keeping track back in 1910.
The Fire Department is also leading the way. Last year, we had the fewest fire fatalities in 85 years! In fact, there have been fewer fire deaths over the last three years than in any three-year period since the FDNY started keeping records back in 1916. And that's a record of accomplishment we're going to build on.
New York City also leads the nation in homeland security. Before September 11th, terrorism was the farthest thing from our minds.
But we have had to adjust to the new reality - the more dangerous world we live in.
From the ground up, we've had to find innovative, tough-minded, and effective ways to protect our city.
I'm proud to lead an incredible team of professionals in this crucial and demanding task. And proud that whether it's the FDNY's superb hazmat and rescue teams, or the NYPD's internationally recognized leadership in intelligence and counter-terrorism, or the trailblazing syndromic surveillance performed by our Health Department, or the Office of Emergency Management's simulations and training - working together as never before - City agencies are prepared to protect New Yorkers and respond if necessary against the unthinkable.
This is a job that will never be done.
We can't rest - not for a minute - nor can we stop in our intelligence, counter-terrorism, and response capabilities.
We've fought hard for the distribution of Federal Homeland Security dollars based on risk, and not as political pork.
We've made progress, but we won't stop until all the money is distributed based on risk, and risk alone.
New York is protecting the nation, not just itself - and Washington has to do its part, too.
New York City can't be short-changed any more. Enough!
We will never forget that the first battle in the global war on terror began on our streets 40 months ago today. Nor will we forget the New Yorkers who have fallen serving our country and our city on distant shores.
We honor all those who defend our nation - including those with us today.
Would you soldiers please stand up so we can thank you for protecting our democracy? Members of the military: Marines, soldiers, Air Force, Coast Guard.
Our military forces not only are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other places around the world, they are also on the front lines of distributing our city's and our country's aid to the victims of the terrible events in Southeast Asia.
After 9/11, aid from around the world poured into our city.
We said we'd never forget that show of kindness - and we aren't now.
New Yorkers are opening our hearts to comfort and support those devastated by this enormous catastrophe.
And we in this city also show compassion every day by broadening opportunity for all New Yorkers who need help: people without a place to live or sleep, for example. Homelessness has no place in our city of opportunity.
Now, the easiest thing in the world for us to do is to do nothing, or to just tinker with the system on the margins.
To innovate though- it takes real progress and requires change, and taking on bureaucratic inertia and entrenched interests.
For 40 years- for 20 years, our city struggled with homelessness and made so little progress.
Today, we are bringing courage and compassion to this issue - and action.
During the last fiscal year, we placed a record- more than 28,000 homeless men, women, and children in permanent homes. But, we also recognized that, for too long, we've focused on crisis management, instead of on long-term solutions.
In the process, shelters that were designed to be a safety net have become semi-permanent housing for thousands of New Yorkers - including children who are growing up without ever having had a home of their own.
We're not going to let that happen to another generation.
By shifting to real solutions - and also by requiring people to do more to help themselves - we are working to realize one of our most important goals: As we pledged some six months ago, to eliminate chronic homelessness in this city within the next five years and we're going to do it.
Most importantly, we're aggressively acting to prevent homelessness before it happens.
A few months ago, in the South Bronx and in other high-need communities, we launched our "Home Base" program. It mobilizes community groups, landlords, tenant associations, and others, to keep at-risk families out of City shelters, and in their own homes.
Many of our homeless have histories of substance abuse, or are struggling with mental or physical illness.
The solution for them is supportive housing.
It provides on-site services that help troubled people get their lives back on track.
This year, we will persuade State leaders to join New York City in our campaign to develop 12,000 units of supportive housing in our city. And we'll ensure that all those in need of emergency shelter are treated with respect.
We are reforming the intake process for families seeking aid.
We are shutting down the old Emergency Assistance Unit - a place of despair for families, and a place of disappointment for those who have dedicated their lives to helping people in need.
And early next year, we'll break ground on a new intake center.
Our Administration for Children's Services is also making an enormous difference in the lives of children and families.
Last year, we completed a record number of adoptions - 2,500 boys and girls.
That's more than 80% of the kids who were eligible to be adopted during 2004.
And last year, there were fewer than 20,000 children in foster care - the lowest number since 1987.
And because we're linking more troubled families to support services - instead of to the courts - we've cut by 80% the number of kids placed in foster care due to a family crisis. This is an amazing number.
We've committed to protecting our most vulnerable New Yorkers and we're not going to stop.
During 2005, our Health Department will implement licensing and inspection reforms to help children who are in day care keep them healthy and safe.
And make no mistake: We are committed to keeping all New York's senior centers open, and taking care of those who built our city.
We'll also continue to be a leader in stopping the terrible scourge of domestic violence. These are ugly crimes that turn victims' lives inside out, leaving them physically battered, emotionally anguished, and, often, with their financial lives in ruin.
Over the last three years, we have reduced domestic violence crimes by 27% - and we're going to build on that success.
During 2005, we'll open the Family Justice Center in Brooklyn. It will be a national model.
Women and children fleeing domestic violence will at one location, be able to meet with a prosecutor, receive help in obtaining public assistance and new housing, and find counseling and spiritual support, in their own languages, which will help them start their lives over again.
For the first time since World War II, life expectancy in New York City is higher than the national average. And over the next 12 months, our Health Department's trailblazing "Take Care New York" campaign will continue to help New Yorkers live longer, healthier lives.
And because the City Council worked with us to pass the Smoke Free Workplace Act, that should continue to improve. Ladies and gentlemen congratulations, you did the right thing.
Our aggressive outreach, education, and HIV-testing campaigns also will work to roll back the AIDS epidemic here in the South Bronx, and in other communities.
The continuing turnaround of the Health and Hospitals Corporation will ensure that every New Yorker - regardless of income - can get the best hospital attention possible.
And we'll protect our public hospitals, and the City's budget, by working to ensure that State Medicaid reforms - which are badly needed - don't wind up shifting burdens to our hospitals, and reducing their ability to serve New Yorkers.
Making New York a city of opportunity for all also means attacking poverty.
This tax season, the City - for the first time - offers an Earned Income Tax Credit.
In addition to the Federal and State EITC's, it will help hardworking New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet.
It will put money back in their pockets, and back into the city's economy.
And for you homeowners who bailed the city out of the fiscal crisis, we will offer another $400 property tax rebate as our thank you for being there when the city needed you!
Your sacrifice helped preserve the great quality of life that defines our city of opportunity. This is something to be proud of.
Even though we inherited a fiscal crisis, and cut City spending by more than $3 billion, and kept controllable spending in the City budget flat, we've learned to do more with less.
Our quality of life is better than it was three years ago and it continues to get better. This didn't happen by magic.
The 70s showed how easy it was to drive jobs away.
Crime, garbage in the streets, homelessness; these are all job killers.
Improving our quality of life has taken independent leadership, effective management, hard work by our dedicated municipal work force, and you!
And it has sent a clear message to those who create jobs in all five boroughs: New York City is open for business.
We're going to get a job for everybody that wants to work here.
Let me give you some examples of what we're doing to improve our city.
Our Sanitation Department has launched "Operation N.I.C.E." N-I-C-E - which stands for "Neighborhood Intensive Clean-up Effort." It's a block-by-block strategy for identifying and cleaning litter-filled vacant lots and other problem areas. And the result is that, today, New York's streets are cleaner than they've been in 30 years.
This year, we'll also be working with the City Council to put a ceiling on the capacity of waste transfer stations in the South Bronx, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and other communities. These communities have been too heavily burdened for too long. And we're not going to go and- yes that's right- we're not going to pit one community against another. We will all do our part.
We will also continue to reduce what callers to 311 tell us - loudly - is the City's Number One quality-of-life problem: noise.
Six months ago, our Administration proposed the first major overhaul of the City Noise Code in more than 30 years.
It will curb excessive noise in our neighborhoods. It has the support of the nightlife, construction, and real estate industries.
And today, I urge the members of the City Council to pass a revised Noise Code this year.
New Yorkers don't want to wait any longer for the peace, quiet, and good night's sleep we all deserve. It's time to act.
We're also building better lives for New Yorkers by transforming the face of our city: Creating and preserving housing, reclaiming our long-abandoned and neglected waterfront, and making over entire communities - from the Bronx, to Brooklyn, to Manhattan's Far West Side.
Every day, we read about the astronomical price of housing in New York. That hot real estate market represents a strong vote of confidence in our future. But there's a catch: this success is pricing homeownership beyond the reach of more and more working
New Yorkers. That's a major threat to our economy, and our ability to create more jobs.
To meet it, we've launched the biggest affordable housing initiative New York has seen in 20 years.
It's on course to meet our goal of funding the creation and preservation of affordable housing for 200,000 New Yorkers by the end of 2008.
It is bringing new homes - and new opportunity - to communities all over the city.
It's helping low-income and middle-income families alike.
It's giving families across New York the chance to share in the great American dream of owning their own homes.
Look around you. You will see it taking shape right before your eyes over the next 12 months.
Here in the South Bronx, we'll move ahead on preserving and building more than 1,500 houses and apartments.
In Williamsburg, we'll open the first of 350 housing units in Schaefer Landing, where rents in 40% of the units will be pegged to low-income families.
And in East New York, this spring we'll join East Brooklyn Congregations to break ground on more than 800 affordable homes.
That will give hundreds of families the opportunity to own their own homes. And there's someone here on stage who understands just how happy those people will be.
His name is Tomas Vallejo. He's a mail clerk at John Jay College. With the help of our administration's down payment assistance program, he just bought his first home in Cypress Hills.
Tomas, bienvenidos al sueño Americano.
Every New Yorker deserves a good home - and that includes the one out of every 20 New Yorkers who live in public housing.
So this year, the Housing Authority, helped by the Housing Development Corporation, will launch an unprecedented four-year investment of nearly $2 billion to modernize and preserve public housing.
At the same time, many communities are being unwanted- are battling unwanted over-development.
Building on what we learned from the Staten Island Overdevelopment Task Force, we're working with homeowners and homebuilders to prevent inappropriate development, and preserve the traditional character of Throgs Neck, Bay Ridge, Kew Gardens, and other neighborhoods.
Communities across the city, however, also need more parks and open spaces. And that's why last year we added 150 acres to the biggest and best City parks system in the nation - much of it along our 578 miles of waterfront.
They include Fort Totten - whose dramatic views of Long Island Sound make it destined to boast- to be one of the most beautiful parks in the city.
This year, we'll finalize the master plan for the biggest new City park in nearly 100 years: Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island.
We'll begin construction of the Harlem Piers - opening up a long-abandoned stretch of the Hudson waterfront to public use.
Here in the Bronx, we'll begin an historic five-year, $220 million campaign to improve 38 of this borough's parks and playgrounds. It's the biggest investment in the City parks in nearly 70 years - and it will produce an incredible green legacy throughout the Bronx.
Of course, improving our quality of life means more than just cultivating greenery...
it means cultivating opportunity for New Yorkers, for all New Yorkers.
It ensures that - in an increasingly competitive global economy - this remains the city where businesses want to locate, and where ambitious and hard-working men and women want to live.
A growing economy however, is not just about numbers and forecasts. It's about New Yorkers supporting their families, with good wages and benefits that include health care.
When I came into office, New York's economy was hemorrhaging jobs.
Unemployment eventually rose in this city as high as 8.6%. But we've come back strong - and we're creating jobs and opportunity in all five boroughs.
Today the unemployment rate is down to 5.4%. For the first time in 16 years, New York City's unemployment rate is as low as the entire nation's.
Since January 2002, we've moved almost 35,000 New Yorkers off the welfare rolls. Now were helping thousands and thousands of New Yorkers get on the payrolls.
During 2005, we expect to create at least 50,000 new private sector jobs.
A construction boom is generating construction jobs. The number of new permits set another record last year, and is up by 20% since 2000.
Over the last year, some of the nation's biggest corporations gave New York their vote of confidence.
Bank of America and Citigroup are building new office towers, and Virgin America Airlines has found new headquarters space in Lower Manhattan. Pfizer brought 1,000 new jobs to our city, with plans to create 3,000 more in the years ahead.
Our economy - which was written off three years ago - is back, and it's back in a big way.
This success is because of a three-part strategy we've had to create jobs.
You've already heard me talk about how we're making the City more livable.
The next step is diversifying our economy.
That means encouraging, for example, film and television production.
Last fall, Steiner Studios opened the biggest soundstage on the East Coast, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
A year ago, at Silvercup Studios, we said we'd also push for job-creating tax credits for movie and TV production and I commend the City Council for passing that legislation - and last week, I signed it into law. Ladies and gentlemen it is going to make a big difference.
Diversification means tourism: our second-largest industry. And the good news is that visitors are flocking back to New York.
We hosted nearly 40 million tourists during 2004 - a new record. Many continue to come to enjoy our unparalleled cultural institutions.
Hotel occupancy is up; so is traffic at all our airports. And after several years of decline due to 9/11, the number of overseas visitors climbed during 2004. And to put icing on the cake, two of the world's largest cruise companies, the Norwegian and Carnival Cruise Ship lines, have recently committed to New York as their exclusive Northeastern port of call through 2017.
Last month, the Governor signed the long-awaited legislation to expand the Javits Convention Center.
And next month, hundreds of thousands of visitors will start pouring into New York's Central Park through "The Gates" - the dramatic, free art installation that will make our city an even more popular tourist destination this winter.
Diversification though also means industry.
In a few weeks, we'll launch a comprehensive industrial policy. It will involve designing new industrial business zones and creating new incentives to encourage long-term investment in manufacturing, warehousing and other industrial businesses.
We'll also select a developer for the East River Science Park. That will capitalize on our world-class health care institutions, diversifying our economy even more, and make us a leader in the growing biotech industry. The last element of - in the biotech industry, you can applaud.
The last element of our job creation strategy is making the City business-friendly and that means investing in all five boroughs.
The key is our independent leadership that lets us solve the big, seemingly unmanageable problems that have stymied growth for too long.
You don't have to go very far to find a good example. Just look a few blocks from here, where the long-awaited revival of the Bronx Terminal Market is finally beginning. It's an area that has been mired in controversy since the days of the Lindsay Administration. But as Adolfo Carrion can tell you, the years of inaction are finally over.
Some of the dilapidated structures there have already come down. The stores and riverfront park that will eventually replace them will bring 2,000 permanent new jobs to the community, and be the shining gateway that the Bronx needs and deserves.
And in a few weeks - less than 10 minutes from here - the biggest wholesale seafood market in the nation will open at Hunts Point, and bring with it 500 new jobs and $1 billion in economic activity.
We're making sure, incidentally, that local residents get a fair shot at the jobs coming to Hunts Point. And that's why our Department of Small Business Services established a community-based job-training and placement partnership called "Hunts Point Works." Efforts like that have put people in jobs in a thousand different businesses across the city.
Two women who are leading the effort in Hunts Point are with us today: Amy Betanzos of the Wildcat Services Corporation and Josephine Infante of the Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation.
During 2005, City projects will transform communities in the other four boroughs, as well.
Let's start on Staten Island, where, by this time next year, the reconstructed Staten Island Railroad will start supporting hundreds of new jobs at the Howland Hook ship terminal.
And Jim Molinaro will join us in rebuilding streets, sewers, water lines, and piers in the Stapleton area - towards creating the first open space, housing and jobs at the Homeport. We've talked about it long enough, now let's do it.
Jim, the Homeport has been like the way Mark Twain described the weather: Everybody talks about it…but nobody does anything about it.
But that's going to change. Isn't it Jim? You betcha it is.
Cross the bay to the South Brooklyn to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, where a new - and yeah, a big smile on Marty's face - where a new industrial center employing 400 people will be in operation.
Marty Markowitz I know you will be with us at Red Hook when a new cruise terminal that will create 600 Brooklyn-based jobs opens for business by the end of the year.
And we'll work together to see the construction of a new areas for the Brooklyn Nets, the capstone of Downtown Brooklyn's rebirth.
Come up north to Queens Plaza, where a multi-million dollar reconstruction will complement Helen Marshall's efforts to develop the city's newest central business district.
And in Flushing, the first phase of a joint community-City master plan will be to turn five acres of City-owned land into a high-quality, mixed use retail and entertainment center. We can do it Helen and we're going to do it together.
All right, all right. I know what you're thinking- we're neglecting Manhattan. But yes, Virginia, we've got our eye on Manhattan, too. In the last three years, we've made great strides in stabilizing Downtown and preventing an exodus of companies.
Now we've got to dedicate ourselves to ensuring Lower Manhattan's long-term future as a global center of commerce. It's New York's historic birthplace, and we can make it a great place to work.
This year, we'll unveil our master plan to open up downtown's East River Waterfront. It's part of our ongoing partnership with the State to revitalize Lower Manhattan.
Then there's transportation. The reality is that it's harder to get to Lower Manhattan than it is to get to Midtown - a major impediment to commercial growth.
The single most important project for the future of Lower Manhattan is the new rail link connecting it directly to JFK Airport and Long Island. And in 2005, we will succeed in converting unused Federal tax benefits into funds for that purpose.
Today, I'm also directing the Economic Development Corporation to explore with our partners at the State, and you have Charlie Gargano here, and with the Downtown Alliance, potential incentives for Lower Manhattan that would replace expiring Federal programs. They ensure- yes- and we're going to ensure that existing companies stay - and new companies are attracted - downtown.
Further Uptown, Virginia, this year we'll show that New York can still dream big and build big.
Yesterday, the City Council's Land Use Committee approved our historic plan to rezone 60 blocks on Manhattan's Far West Side. It has wide support, including from Borough President Fields.
That puts us on course to turn this area into the city's next great, commercial, residential, and recreational destination. It will be the future site of almost 40 million square feet of development space. It will include almost 14,000 apartments, of which 25% will be affordable.
The Hudson Yards Plan will create more than 280,000 new permanent jobs - many of them in our crucial tourism and hospitality industries.
We'll also move ahead with our plans to break ground on the New York Sports and Convention Center. That's a central element of our bid for the 2012 Olympics, and it will help New York land major conventions and trade shows that we now simply can't compete for.
This is an investment which will pay off for the City in increased jobs and tax revenues - an enormous opportunity for New Yorkers. That's exactly why we're so strongly committed to it. That's how we're creating jobs for our people.
New York is at the dawn of a major new era of construction and development.
The re-development of the Far West Side will create 230,000 new construction jobs alone. And I think all New Yorkers should have a fair chance at these jobs.
So, as the initiator of so many big projects, I think City government has a duty to ensure they get that fair chance. That's what a city of opportunity is all about.
So as another part of our economic development strategy, we're firmly committed to broadening opportunities in employment and contracting.
My Executive Order 36 expressed just that determination: to encourage City contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses. We're making sure the record of City agencies improves as they pursue that objective.
A quintessential New Yorker, Congressman Charlie Rangel, asked me recently if I was ready to commit myself to taking another step toward making opportunity for all New York a reality.
Well Congressman, the answer is yes. Together, with our partners in the real estate, construction communities, and our friends in organized labor, we can make it happen.
We're blessed with the world's most talented and hard-working pool of construction workers, represented by the Buildings and Construction Trades Council.
I know that they want to see a pool of workers that's busy, that's growing, and that's representative of New York's diversity, and that's why I'm proud to announce a new initiative called "Building Jobs Through Building New York."
Its mission will be to ensure that the major construction projects our economic development strategy is helping to create are built safely and fairly, with opportunities for all.
The City will focus initially on how its construction industry can directly benefit young people and returning veterans.
Within the next few weeks, I will establish the Mayor's Commission on Construction Opportunity, made up of developers, contractors, union representatives, senior members of our Administration, and I'm happy to say Congressman Rangel himself.
It will explore how the private sector can also ensure opportunities for all. Our economy is growing again and we want to make sure that no one gets left behind.
And that includes some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers: those who do not have, or are not on course to receive, either a high school diploma or G.E.D. Sadly today, that describes tens of thousands of young people in our city. It is a tragedy and one we must address head on.
We want to give all of our young people an opportunity to succeed.
So this September, our Department of Education will launch a dramatic new vocational initiative targeted to such vulnerable young people. Called "Learning to Work," it will help them get the vocational and educational credentials they need, and also connect them to careers in growing sectors of our economy.
"Learning to Work" will include study programs, internships, and paid work. Students will participate in a full-day educational program, or an evening high school program, or a literacy program - all with workforce connections.
We hope it will attract back into the schools those who have left because school lacked relevance to their lives, and they didn't stay engaged. We failed too many of our children in the past - something we are committed not to do again.
The challenge of reforming our schools of giving fresh opportunities to those who were failed by the old system, while also raising the bar of achievement for all our current students is simply enormous.
Don't forget: we've got more than 13 hundred schools, 85,000 teachers, and 1.1 million kids. More kids than there are people in Detroit, and almost as many as the populations of San Francisco and Miami combined!
But there's no more important job than bestowing a future of opportunity on every one of those students.
That's why we fought to establish mayoral control of the school system.
It's why we then boldly and systematically overhauled and streamlined the management structure of the schools.
It's why we eliminated the patronage-infested community school boards.
It's why we put parent coordinators in every school in the city. For the first time we're ensuring that parents finally get the information and respect they deserve.
It's why we established a citywide school curriculum in reading and math to make all of our students proficient in these fundamentals in the early grades.
It's why we've brought math and literacy coaches into the schools.
It's why we have given our 5,000 of our newest teachers experienced mentors who help them do their best in the classrooms.
And it's why we'll be in court tomorrow, fighting to ensure that the landmark ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit is upheld so that the State's shameful shortchanging of our schoolchildren finally ends!
Last year's citywide test results showed that we're on the right track. The percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in math increased in five of the six grades tested. Achievements in English were not as consistent, but the gains made by 3rd and 8th grades students were the biggest one-year improvements seen since testing began.
And just last week, a net of 11 of our schools were dropped from the state's list of schools under "registration review" - those are the ones that are in danger of being closed for incurable failure.
Since 2002, we've cut the number of these kinds of schools by more than 50%, to an all-time low.
Not every student, not every classroom or school, has improved. We've only just begun. But we are moving forward.
Maintaining that progress is why last year we ended the social promotion of 3rd grade students who weren't ready for 4th grade work. It was the right thing to do, and the results proved it. The rate of 3rd grade students attending our Summer Success Academy who earned admission to the 4th grade more than doubled what we'd seen in years past.
One of those students is with us today. Her name is Tennesee Banola. She attends
PS 119 right here in the Bronx. She's here today with her mother Jacqueline, who told us how proud she is of her daughter's accomplishments. Well, Jacqueline, Tennesee, we're proud of you both.
People like the Banola family show that standards, support, and patient effort pays off - and that's the course we're going to stay on with our 3rd graders, our 5th graders, and all our students.
This year, we are also going to do more to engage our most capable students. We're going to maintain all existing "gifted and talented" programs in the schools and districts where they now are.
And, this September, we'll start to create such programs in historically under-served districts.
By September 2006, we'll also significantly expand Advanced Placement classes in large high schools that have traditionally lacked them.
The goal is to challenge the best of our students in all our neighborhoods because we believe that excellence should be reached for, and rewarded, wherever it appears.
That's also why we're bringing accountability and fairness to our city's "out-of-school" programs as well. I want to thank here the Wallace Foundation and its president, Christine De Vita, for committing up to $12 million that will help us ensure high-quality out-of-school programs for students in every neighborhood.
To help all our students succeed, we will also continue to reform and rebuild our schools in the year ahead.
That includes expanding the number of new, small, and academically rigorous secondary schools. Over the last two years, we've created 100 such schools in all five boroughs. These schools typically have no more than 500 students. They have something else in common too, though: They work.
In new small schools, the promotion rate is 93% - more than 20 points higher than the city average and a full 50 points higher than in some of the "super-sized" schools they have replaced. That progress is part of why the citywide graduation rate has shown small but steady increases over the last three years.
We're going to continue to develop more small schools and more charter schools as part of the most aggressive education capital plan New York City has ever seen.
The $13.1 billion construction that will take place over the next five years will turn schools that are struggling into schools that are succeeding. And it will help make every public school in the city a center of educational excellence.
It will wipe out pockets of overcrowding, reduce class size in kindergarten and grades one through three, and create new labs and gyms and an up-to-date technology infrastructure in schools throughout the city.
It includes building 95 new school buildings with 66,000 classroom seats. That will be on top of the nearly 34,000 new seats we've created over the last two years.
And because we've thoroughly reformed the School Construction Authority, we've reduced bid prices by one-third, without sacrificing speed or quality. That's a product of the ethic of accountability we have established - for the first time - in New York's public schools.
For another example of its success, look at how we're also making our schools safer.
A year ago, when crime and disorder in a few schools threatened to get out of hand, we didn't duck the blame. We acted.
The outcome? We've reduced major crime at these 16 "Impact" schools by 46% this school year. The turnaround in five of them has been so encouraging, that last week we removed them from the Impact program.
That shows what we can accomplish: our schools are getting safer; parents are now welcome partners in education; we're setting and enforcing standards; and test scores are rising; and Chancellor Klein and his team are well on their way to creating the best public school system in the nation.
But it's not just them. The credit also belongs to the dedicated teachers. And I've met some amazing teachers whose love of teaching and concern for their students is inspiring.
The credit belongs to the teachers, to parent coordinators, to principals who go beyond the call of duty, and to the parents who give their time and passion to improving our schools. And of course, the credit also goes to our children.
Let me say something directly to those kids: You are good, you are smart. You haven't failed us. In too many cases, the system was failing you. And we will work day and night to help you succeed. And together, we will, and you will.
I will stand - and this administration will stand - with teachers parents and administrators who embrace reform, who share our commitment to make our schools better.
We can't allow school reform to be politicized or stifled by critics who always advocate for change, but can never agree on what change. They will always find problems, the glass will never be full enough, and another class of students will be lost.
But we won't turn back. Because the future of our children - and the future of our city, your city of opportunity - depend on it.
It would have been easy to let the system continue to fail our kids. It would have been easy and it would have been wrong.
The progress we're making in reforming our schools, in reviving our economy, in driving crime down, and in enriching our quality of life, didn't just happen. It's the product of independent leadership, a commitment to the kind of government New Yorkers deserve.
And that includes keeping the workings of government above reproach. Six years ago, the voters said that campaign contributions from those who do business with the City should be disclosed and restricted.
We're working with the Campaign Finance Board to fulfill that mandate from the voters. And I challenge every elected official to join us in ending "pay-to-play."
Pay-to-play taints policy decisions. It breeds cynicism. And it shortchanges taxpayers.
It isn't about how much money you can spend. It's about what you owe if you take the money.
New Yorkers want reform. They voted for it. They've waited long enough. It's time to deliver.
People elected us to deliver...to deliver opportunities…to focus on problems, not play politics…to produce results, not press releases…and most importantly, to give every New Yorker the opportunity to dream.
Many of you in this room know about that. You've lived it.
Well, so have I. I never thought I'd be here today. Supported by a mother who went back to work after my father died, and paying for college with a combination of loans and a job parking cars, I never would have predicted where my life would take me, and I never had anything handed to me.
But I was lucky. I could dream. And, like millions of others, I brought my dream to the right place: this city that welcomes drivers and strivers - this city of opportunity.
With all my heart I believe we have a responsibility to make that journey and those dreams possible for every New Yorker, now and in the future.
I will never forget that freezing January day three years ago, but I take great pride - as every single New Yorker should - in what we've done, in how far we have come.
I remember one of the questions on every mind back then: Will New York ever again be the same?
The answer, of course is no. New York is going to be better!
We're going to be better because we have had the courage to tackle old problems, and create new solutions…better because we're living and working together - all of the communities in this city - as we've never done before. And we are going to be better because we have been through worse than we could ever imagine and have emerged even stronger and more compassionate.
We may not agree on everything. In fact, that's one thing that will never change in this city. But I know we all share the same love and passion for this great city. And with our passion, our pride, and our people how can we not succeed?
We are New York.
Happy New Year to all of you. It will be a good one if we work hard. God Bless New York, and our city of opportunity.
Read Gifford Miller's response here.
Mayor Bloomberg's 2005 State of the City Address The mayor's challengers respond to the State of the City address: |
We heard a lot today about what a great City New York is. I agree. I grew up here. My wife and I are raising our two sons here. I believe in our City.
We heard today about Mayor Bloomberg's version of a City of opportunity. But the reality of his record is that the Mayor hasn't extended opportunity to all New Yorkers.
Because the Mayor's priorities aren't New Yorkers' priorities.
It would be nice to get the Olympics, for example, but not with the expense of a stadium that we don't need and can't afford given that half of the children in our school system aren't meeting basic standards.
It would be nice to have lower taxes, but we can't have real tax relief as long as Republican administrations in Albany and Washington take $18 billion more than they give back in services every year.
What we didn't hear was that scores continue to fall for our most at risk kids, including children in Central Harlem, Bed-Stuy, and Crown Heights.
And we didn't hear that the number of homeless New Yorkers continues to grow. Or that almost half of African-American men in our city can't find decent jobs. Or that NYC has lost 200,000 private sector jobs under this Mayor.
In short, we didn't hear a vision for a City that extends opportunity to all New Yorkers and makes people the top priority.
We didn't hear a vision for making fundamental education reforms so every child has a fair shot at a bright future.
We didn't hear a vision for balancing fiscal responsibility with protecting the critical investments in child-care, housing, seniors, security, and jobs that every New Yorker needs.
And we didn't hear a vision for how the Mayor will finally stand up to Republicans in Washington and Albany who deprive us of the resources we need to fix our schools and build a better city.
We heard a lot of talk from the Mayor about education today, but no amount of talk is going to change the fact that our schools are in trouble.
Although getting control of the schools was the best thing the Mayor did for the City, the promise of mayoral control is unfulfilled.
Under this Mayor, control has meant a bureaucratic reshuffle instead of a radical change in the fundamentals that we need to really educate our kids - smaller classes, quality teachers, safe schools and strong after-school programs.
Children haven't gotten the help they need where they need it - in the classroom. The result is that test scores have remained flat and our children are being left behind.
Parents have been left out of the process. And you can't have real education reform without real parental involvement.
Teachers simply have not been given the respect they deserve as professionals. And they are leaving our schools in droves.
Schools aren't safer. And instead of a laser-beam focus on making sure every child in every one of our over 1,300 schools is safe, the Mayor has chosen to concentrate on a small handful of schools, some of which have actually grown more violent.
Instead of making fundamental education reforms his priority, the Mayor has chosen instead to invest all of his political capital and energy and the City's resources on a West Side Stadium. That's not my priority.
People are my priority. And while we heard a lot of talk about fiscal discipline and tough choices, the reality is that the Mayor has repeatedly made the wrong choices for people by targeting day care, and senior centers, and jobs programs, and libraries, and parks, and schools for cuts. And our Council has protected those investments.
And what we didn't hear today, and what we know we won't ever hear from this Mayor and this Administration, are real solutions for finally getting our Fair Share from George Bush and George Pataki.
We've reached a crisis on the mistreatment our City gets from these Republicans. Right now, New York City is paying $18 BILLION more in taxes than we get back in services.
That's $18 Billion that saps our City's competitiveness. That means it's harder to attract and retain businesses because they pay too much in taxes.
That's $18 Billion that we don't have for schools.
That's $18 Billion that we don't have for job creation.
And that's $18 Billion that we don't have to pay teachers, or police officers, or firefighters or do any of the things a City must do.
Because of this mistreatment, we are trying to build our City with two hands tied behind our back. And it's got to stop.
It's got to stop if we are going to really reform education.
It's got to stop if we are really going to have a budget that balances fiscal responsibility with critical investments in the future.
And it's got to stop if we are going to be a City that really extends opportunity to every New Yorker for generations to come.
We face real challenges, but our City has shown for 350 years that New Yorkers love a challenge. There's simply nothing wrong with New York that can't be fixed by what's right with New York. And there is a lot that's right with New York.
This city represents the best hopes and highest aspirations of the entire world. Everyone who lives here chose New York because they believe in themselves and they believe in our ability to build a better world … where every child gets an excellent education, where every person has a good job with a bright future, where every family can live in a neighborhood that's safe and secure.
The UN Secretariat Building looming over the controversial piece of asphalt known as Robert Moses Park |
For 30 years, some New York politicians have grumbled about the United Nations: "If they left tomorrow morning," New York State Senator Martin Golden has said, "the office space would be filled within a year."
"The U.N. needs a good smack in the face," says New York City Councilmember Simcha Felder.
But if their past rants did little but please some of their constituents, legislators like Golden now have an opportunity to bring the world body to heel -- thanks to a patch of asphalt in the shadow of the UN building, at 42nd Street and 1st Avenue.
The bare playground is part of what is called (rather too augustly) Robert Moses Park, and the United Nations wants to construct an office building there. Though the plan has the support both of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Bush administration, a few New York Republican state senators have the power to keep it from moving forward. So far, they have succeeded.
Why are they doing this? It depends on whom you ask.
State Senator Liz Krueger, whose district includes the United Nations, says some of her senate colleagues, and like-minded members of the City Council, "have turned a land use issue into a referendum on the UN in New York City."
Whatever happens next, there seems sure to be more tension in what has already been a troubled relationship between the international organization and its host city.
In 1945, after many meetings and lengthy debates, the United Nations decided to locate in the United States. A number of UN delegates looked longingly at the posh suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut. But future U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of the current president, and other town luminaries feared the UN would destroy that community's character.
"The anti-UN folks raised a lot of money, and they began spreading rumors that camels would walk down the streets," Bernie Udain, then a reporter for a local paper, later recalled. One opponent allegedly hired two men to pretend to be Syrians by wearing fezzes and walking through the town speaking pig Latin, which apparently sounded like Arabic to outraged town denizens. On the other hand, New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer wanted the UN. He recalled later that he thought getting the world body "was the one great thing that would make [us] the center of the world."
A series of Byzantine maneuvering and arcane real estate transactions eventually brought the UN to its nine-acre site on the East River between 42nd and 49th streets - an area that featured slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants.
When the UN moved into the marble and glass headquarters in 1952, most New Yorkers welcomed it. "New York was wonderful," Oscar Schacter, a former UN legal adviser, told the New York Times on the organization's 40th birthday in 1985. "We were invited to people's houses and given free tickets."
In the 1950s and the 1960s most U.S. opposition to the UN came not from New York but from more isolationist sections of the country. But then, in 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution - by a margin of more than two to one - equating Zionism with racism.
Mayor Abe Beame condemned the resolution, and City Council members called on the city to shut its liaison office with the UN, setting the tone for the rhetoric that continues to this day.
At the same time, member countries had their problems with New York. Some diplomats complained of police harassment, racial discrimination and being denied apartments. Others worried about the crime rate. "Frankly I'm terrified living in New York and I never leave the East Side," the wife of an unnamed European delegate told the Times in 1985.
The conflicts between some New Yorkers and the UN grew more rancorous in the 1990s. Many persist. They include:
PARKING FINES. Because of immunity, UN diplomats cannot be taken to court if they fail to pay parking tickets. And many have taken advantage of that. In 1996, the city said, foreign missions and consulates in New York received 143,508 tickets totaling more than $5 million in fines. While only a small portion of the more than $350 million in parking fines levied that year, this irked many New Yorkers and enraged Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who said he would not care if the UN left town.
Faced with the criticism, more foreign missions and consulates asked their employees to respect city traffic laws. The State Department revoked special license plates of some persistent scofflaws. In 2003, Bloomberg declared victory in the parking ticket conflict.
But Eva Moskowitz, who represents the area in City Council, disagrees. "It's gotten better, but it's not great and it's annoying," she said.
TRAFFIC. During the weeks in the fall that the General Assembly meets, the city shuts streets surrounding the UN. Security can be tight and traffic snarled. This is "a pain," said Krueger. But she added the disruption is similar to many other headaches that occur in Manhattan including "a visit by the president --- any president."
Gary Papush, chair of the Parks, Landmarks and Cultural Affairs Committee of Community Board 6, said he would like the UN to have a community liaison who could alert residents to street closings and other potential problems. "On UN community relations, I wouldn't give them a failing grade, I'd give them an incomplete," he said
ISRAEL. The UN has passed many resolutions criticizing Israeli actions, while failing to condemn suicide bombers who kill Israeli civilians. But the resolutions against Israel may simply reflect what most nations think. In these UN votes, virtually all the countries of the world usually line up on one side with only the U.S. and Israel - sometimes joined by El Salvador, Costa Rica, Romania or Micronesia - on the other, Phyllis Bennis wrote in 1997. "These Assembly resolutions reflected a clear UN consensus on the way forward toward solving what had been for so long an intractable regional crisis," she said.
This undoubtedly riles many pro-Israel New Yorkers. But supporters of the UN note that Israel, despite the many votes against it, continues to belong to and support the world body.
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, said he would prefer that the UN remain in New York City. "At least here it gives our Jewish community an opportunity to have more dialogue with many members of the UN and have them understand us a little better," he told The Jewish Week.
CORRUPTION, INCOMPETENCE, INEFFECTUALITY. Critics of the UN cite a litany of failures, including alleged corruption of the UN's multi-billion dollar oil for food program, which was designed to get food, medicine and other necessities to pre-war Iraq. An audit to be released this week reportedly criticizes UN oversight of the program.
Councilmember Simcha Felder, author of a resolution opposing the UN expansion, said the UN is so ineffective that individual nations are taking it upon themselves to deliver aid to victims of last month's tsunami in Asia. And he says, the world body has failed to stop killings in Bosnia, Rwanda, Israel and Sudan.
Supporters do not contest all these allegations, but argue this does not mean the US, nor New York, should abandon the UN.
"The United Nation has brought enormous prestige to this already prestigious city," said William Luers, of the United Nations Association of the United States, a private group. The UN contributes some $2.5 billion a year in economic activity to the city, he points out, and is responsible for about 18,000 jobs.
"Nobody has ever suggested the UN is a perfect body. Like any organization, it has flaws," said Stephen Schlesinger, the director of the World Policy Institute at New School University, and author of Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. "But what is the alternative?... A reckless, divisive, militaristic, anarchistic world."
The latest controversy began simply enough. At about 50, the once glittering UN headquarters shows its age. "This great landmark sitting on the East River is in trouble," said Luers. The security system is outmoded, and asbestos reportedly can be found throughout the building.
Working with the UN Development Corporation, a city-state entity, the UN came up with a plan for a building of about 35 stories on a portion of Robert Moses playground, an asphalt area surrounding the ventilation towers of the Queens Midtown Tunnel that features benches and a baseball backstop. Workers in the Secretariat building would move to the new location while the older building was repaired. Then, the new building would house UN employees who now work elsewhere in the city, including in offices the UN rents from the city. The Bush administration promised a low-interest $1.2 billion loan.
As part of the deal, the UN would build an esplanade along the East River between 41st and 51st Streets, creating a needed link in the planned greenway around Manhattan. But many residents, including the Turtle Bay Association and Community Board 6, also want what they consider a "more active" space to replace the Robert Moses. Some are looking to the Con Ed site south of the playground.
"It's a land use issue," Krueger said. "If NYU Medical Center said it wanted to take the land or Mayor Bloomberg said he wanted to move City Hall there, the issue would be the same."
Not everybody sees it this way.
Last fall, New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno would not allow a vote on a bill that, while not approving the expansion, would have allowed the process to proceed. "There is tremendous community opposition" to the plan, Bruno said in a statement because "residents fear they will lose a prime piece of recreational real estate."
But, like Bruno, the leading opponents in Albany do not come from the East Side of Manhattan - and their opposition went far beyond the park issue. "The United Nations has evolved into an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic group of petty, sniping bigots who are pursuing an anti-freedom, anti-democratic, anti-American agenda," said Serphin Maltese of Queens. "To authorize an expansion of their headquarters would be a slap in the face of American citizens."
Back in the city, Felder, a councilmember from Brooklyn, sponsored a resolution opposing the expansion. Despite his comment about the United Nations needing to get smacked, he does think it does some good. His resolution, he said, seeks "to make some changes. If it can improve somewhat... then we've accomplished a lot."
In response, Councilmember Charles Barron offered his own resolution supporting the expansion and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Barron said he has done this because of the UN's contribution to New York's economy and "most importantly, the whole world is meeting in your backyard."
Neither of these resolutions, if passed, would mean very much; they are both non-binding. But no one expects the council will even vote on them. That would require the consent of Speaker Gifford Miller, who is unlikely to allow a divisive fight on a matter the council has little control over.
Meanwhile, many in the specific neighborhood where the park is located wish the foreign policy aspect of this fight would go away. "If elected officials really want to engage in the [foreign policy] discussion, they should go to Congress," Moskowitz said.
"We're not getting involved in the politics," said Papush of Community Board 6.
But, for now, politics has stopped the project. For it to move forward, Bruno must bring the issue to the floor. As the new legislative session begins this week, there is no indication that he will.
"I don't know whether we can change the points of view," of Bruno and the other senators, Luers said. "But it's always sensible to talk to him."
Some hope that the Bush administration will exert pressure on Governor George Pataki -- who is on record supporting the bill Bruno blocked -- and other state Republicans to let the process move forward. After all, Schlesinger said, this debate could come down to "whether the United States is allowing one state or city to block what would be a necessary change" -- expansion of the UN.
If the legislature approves the bill, there will be further talks about the park and other matters. And the expansion plan could eventually go before the City Council as part of the normal land use approval process.
Even without the new building, Luers expects the UN will remain in New York, perhaps finding other temporary space.
But some opponents wonder if blocking the expansion could force the UN to move. "I don't have a problem if they leave here," Felder said, adding "I would rather they stay here and be different." Hikind has reportedly urged the UN to go to Paris or Mozambique. The New York Sun, which has boosted the anti UN movement, suggested the body move to Bonn, the former West German capital. A city of 305,000, Bonn has had extra government buildings since Germany reunified and moved its capital to Berlin.
But proponents say losing the UN would hurt the city, the nation and the UN. For example, work on the new building would create 5,000 construction jobs, said Michael Sherman, communications director for the city's Economic Development Corporation.
"The UN without US participation would be a much weaker and less helpful organization," said Luers.
Moving the United Nations out of New York City because of a difference in political viewpoints, some say, would make just as much sense as moving the White House to Sugarland, Texas, because more people in Tom DeLay's hometown agree with the current president than do the residents of Washington D.C, 90 percent of whom voted for John Kerry.
Other Sources
United Nations Association A private support group
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations
The United Nations An overview of UN operations and history Wikipedia
THE UN AND NYC
The New York City Commission for the United Nations
The United Nations at 50: The Zeckendorf Connection The maneuverings that helped bring UN headquarters to New York. Real Estate Weekly
How Connecticut Turned U.N.'s Sights to New York The Washington Post
New York City and the United Nations: Towards a Renewed Relationship A 2001 report by a committee of of Association of the Bar of the City of New York on how New York can improve its relations with the UN and the benefits and concerns of having the UN here.
Turtle Bay Association The community groups; web site includes updates on the UN expansion plan.
THE ISSUES A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility The report of the secretary-general panel on UN reform
Failure of Nerve in U.N. Reform Washington Post
The Right's Assault on Kofi Annan The Nation
Towards a More Relevant United Nations The Economist
The Oil-for-Food Scandal Wall Street Journal
The Oil-For-Food 'Scandal' is a Cynical Smokescreen The Independent/Common Dream
The Oil-for-Food Scandal: What Happened, and Who's to Blame Slate
The United Nations and the Middle East Modern World History Index
Israel, the United States, and the United Nations Tikkun
Chief Judge Kaye, honorable members of the Court of Appeals, Lieutenant Governor Donohue, Attorney General Spitzer, Comptroller Hevesi, Majority Leader Bruno, Speaker Silver, Leader Nesbitt, Leader Paterson, respected members of the Legislature, distinguished guests…
It's an honor to stand before you again in the people's chamber, where generations of public servants have come together to enact the will of their fellow New Yorkers.
I am pleased to welcome today 18 new members to this chamber - four new Senators and 14 newly elected Assembly members. Congratulations to all of you, and may you serve our state and its people with honor and wisdom.
As in prior years, I'm pleased that we have with us a good friend, a devoted public servant, and a great Governor. Governor Carey, thank you for joining us again this year.
Libby and Mom, thank you for everything - and for sitting through each and every one of my State of the State addresses. And to my daughters Emily and Alison and my son Ted, thank you for being here.
I'd like to take a moment to note the passing of six of our fellow New Yorkers whose combined service in this Legislature approaches nine decades. We remember Assembly Speaker Perry Duryea, Senators Mary Goodhue and Howard Babbush, and Assembly Members Nick Calogero, Robert Connor, and Pinny Cooke.
Just this week, New York lost a true pioneer. Before she became the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress, Shirley Chisholm served right here in this chamber. She will be missed.
And as we remember our departed colleagues, let us also remember those who were lost in last week's tragic tsunami. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families - just as the people in that part of the world mourned with us during our great tragedy 3 1/2 years ago.
Please join me in a moment of silence to honor their memory.
****
After September 11th, nations from across the globe offered their generous assistance to the people of New York.
And whenever our friends around the world need our assistance, New York is there.
As we speak, crews from the New York Air National Guard's 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart are flying tsunami relief missions to Asia. Already, they've flown in over 200 tons of supplies and equipment.
And I am pleased to announce that today the 105th will deploy additional crews and another C-5 Galaxy to join in this critical humanitarian relief mission.
****
As we mourn those lost in Asia, let us also recall with great respect and sorrow, those New Yorkers who have paid the ultimate price while serving our communities, our state and our nation this past year.
Police officers, firefighters and EMTs protecting us here at home…
And soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines bravely defending freedom around the globe.
Since the War on Terror began, 74 brave servicemen and women who called New York home have given their "last full measure of devotion" to our state and nation.
People like 39-year-old Sergeant Christian Engeldrum - a citizen soldier of the New York National Guard's own Fighting 69th, who was killed in action on November 29th, near Baghdad.
Sergeant Engeldrum was no stranger to the War on Terror. On September 11th, he and his fellow members of Ladder Company 61 rushed to Ground Zero just before the second tower collapsed.
For some people, the call to duty knows no limits.
At Christian's funeral, I met his friend, and fellow unit member and New York City firefighter, Specialist Dan Swift.
Dan was fighting alongside Christian when he died, and suffered wounds in the attack.
Yet even after having been through that, do you know what he said to me?
He said, "I wish they'd just take the metal out and duct-tape me up, so I can get back to the guys in my unit."
Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored today to have with us Specialist Daniel Swift. Dan, we thank you, your fellow members of the New York National Guard, and all the men and women of the United States Military for your tremendous service to our state and nation.
I commend this Legislature for honoring Sgt. Engeldrum by passing Mayor Bloomberg's bill last month to provide his wife and children the same benefits they would have received had he been lost as a firefighter in the line of duty.
This year, let's build on our Patriot Plan laws and pass a law ensuring that the families of all public employees serving in the Guard and Reserves who make the ultimate sacrifice will receive the same benefit we provided to the Engeldrums.
New Yorkers who choose to dedicate their lives to serving in harm's way both at home and abroad deserve nothing less. Let's honor our obligation to them and to their families.
Whether they wear police blue or desert camouflage, whether they're braving flames in Binghamton or bringing freedom to Baghdad, our uniformed men and women represent the very highest ideals of public service.
And while the nature of our service is worlds apart from theirs, our goal should be the same - changing and improving people's lives.
That's what our job in Albany is all about.
It's not about government programs, policies or agencies - they are the means, not the ends.
It's about the people of this great state and how we can make their lives better.
This is the eleventh time I've addressed you as Governor of this great state - what an extraordinary privilege.
I thank the people of New York for this honor and each of you for working together to achieve our goal of changing people's lives.
Ten years ago, I was a new Governor, Joe Bruno was the brand new Senate Majority Leader, and Shelly Silver had been Speaker of the Assembly for less than a year.
That year, colleagues and friends of ours like Carmen Arroyo and Will Stephens attended their first State of the State and brought their fresh ideas to Albany.
And it's amazing -- after ten years, none of us have changed a bit - we all look exactly the same…
…except maybe for Joe Bruno, who somehow manages to look even younger than he did back then.
I'm sure you recall and share the excitement I felt on that day - our first day together in this chamber.
I introduced a new philosophy that day - I asked you to join me in seeking not just incremental change, but rather "bold, sweeping fundamental change:" change to improve the lives of all New Yorkers.
Now, a decade later, I hope you'll indulge me as I reflect on what we've achieved together, and more importantly, outline the steps we must take today to build on that great achievement.
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Let's begin where we always have - with government's most important responsibility - ensuring the safety and security of its people.
In 1994, New York was the sixth most violent state in the nation.
Today, a decade later, we're the seventh SAFEST, and the safest large state in America.
That is undoubtedly a stunning achievement.
While I could cite a hundred different statistics to illustrate its magnitude, let me give you just one.
In New York State, 86,168 fewer violent crimes occurred in 2003 than a decade ago.
Let me repeat that…86,168 fewer violent crimes in 2003 than in 1994.
Think about it -- more than 86,000 families saved from being torn apart by a murder, rape or vicious assault.
And that's just in one year.
If the level of violent crime in 1994 had gone unchanged over the course of the last ten years, more than a half-million more New Yorkers could have become victims of violent crime.
But you and I made a difference - we made the fundamental changes that saved lives.
And we didn't just reduce the number of crimes, we reduced the number of criminals.
Because we had the courage to disregard the naysayers, there are now 8,000 fewer people in prison than in 1999.
Because of the tougher, smarter laws we enacted, the rate of recidivism in our state has fallen by an astonishing one-third.
Less crime and fewer criminals. How did we do it?
By fighting for "bold, sweeping, fundamental change" to our criminal justice system.
We instituted the death penalty.
We abolished parole for violent felons.
We gave police new tools like DNA technology to help them get criminals off our streets and out of our neighborhoods.
We passed 108 new laws that toughened penalties or closed criminal-friendly loopholes.
Of course, we couldn't have done it without the extraordinary efforts of the men and women in blue and the leadership of dedicated local officials across our great state -- from the smallest hamlets to the great City of New York.
I would like to give special thanks to Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for being great partners in our fight against crime.
Over the last ten years, no state in America has done more to protect its citizens and you can and should be proud for your role in this historic turnaround.
But we can and will do more.
Last year I set a new goal for our state - to make New York the safest state in America by 2009.
To achieve that goal, we launched Operation IMPACT to concentrate federal, state and local law enforcement on communities in 15 upstate counties experiencing spikes in crime.
I'm pleased to report that Operation IMPACT is delivering as promised - in the last year, murder in our IMPACT communities is down almost 20%.
And this year, Rochester, the first IMPACT site, has experienced one third fewer murders, including a 66% drop in murders of our most at-risk population - young African American men.
The "bold, sweeping, fundamental changes" we enacted together have saved lives and made New Yorkers safer. But we can do even more, and we will.
Today, I am proud to announce three new bold initiatives to make New York even safer.
First, we'll launch Operation IMPACT II, which will expand the program within the original IMPACT counties, add 100 more State Troopers to this effort, and bring new IMPACT operations to other parts of the State.
Operation IMPACT has succeeded by concentrating the combined efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement on our highest-crime locations.
Now it's time for another bold step -- focusing the combined efforts of these law enforcement agencies on the fugitive felons who've committed the worst crimes in the highest numbers.
Today, we're launching Project SAF-T -- Statewide Anti-Fugitive Teams -- to track down and capture New York's 100 most dangerous fugitive felons.
These hardened criminals have already committed more than 600 crimes, including murder, rape and armed robbery. Let's focus all our law enforcement resources to flush them out and put them in prison where they belong.
We will leave no stone unturned in this effort.
In fact, we will enlist the help of all New Yorkers by creating the "New York's 100 Most Wanted" program. We'll post their mug shots on a public website and provide them to every police department in New York. When a citizen spots one of these fugitives, they'll be able to make an anonymous tip through a dedicated hotline.
I'm proud that "America's Most Wanted" founder and host John Walsh, a man who knows how valuable the eyes and ears of the public can be in fighting crime, has agreed to include New York's 100 Most Wanted in his program that has already landed 818 fugitives behind bars.
With the attention of the entire law enforcement community and the eyes of all of New Yorkers on them, these fugitive felons won't stand a chance.
As Governor, I can implement these new initiatives on my own, and I will. But we must go further, and for that I will need your help once again.
This session I will send you an aggressive anti-crime package, dealing with issues ranging from deadly drivers and gun trafficking to strengthening Megan's Law, and yes - ensuring that our state has a strong death penalty law.
Let's make New York the safest state in America - that must be our goal. Let's achieve it together.
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The bold, sweeping changes we've made to our criminal justice system over the last decade have made New Yorkers markedly safer from the dangers of crime.
But as we've seen all too tragically, crime is not the only danger from which our citizens must be protected.
Over the past decade, we in New York have endured a string of disasters and emergencies that is virtually unprecedented in our state's history.
From the 1995 Suffolk County wildfires to the North Country Ice Storm, from tornadoes in Saratoga County to the Blizzard of 1996, from violent windstorms in Central New York to flooding on the Southern Tier, we've seen it all.
And it hasn't been limited to weather emergencies - there was also the blackout of 2003, the TWA 800 disaster and the crash of Flight 587 in the Rockaways.
But the bold, sweeping changes we made to our state's emergency response capabilities enabled our state to rise to the challenge time and time again.
We strengthened our State Emergency Management Office and rebuilt our National Guard into the proud capable force that it is today.
And then, on September 11th, everything changed.
Suddenly, New York found itself on the front lines of the War on Terror, facing an entirely new set of challenges.
Once again, we met these challenges with bold and decisive action.
We created one of the nation's first State Homeland Security Offices and today, ours is the best in the nation.
We implemented bold initiatives like the Statewide Counter-Terrorism Network and the Upstate New York Regional Intelligence Center.
We boosted our Trooper strength to the highest level ever, and we deployed our National Guard and State Police to defend our borders and protect our bridges, tunnels and train stations.
And…with your help…we enacted the strongest, most sweeping anti-terror laws in America.
But if we are to meet our supreme responsibility to keep New Yorkers safe, there is always more work to be done.
This year, we'll expand and strengthen our homeland security strategy with three more vital initiatives.
First, we will establish the nation's first State Preparedness Training Center, centrally located in the Mohawk Valley.
Next, I will submit a Terrorism III package that will include legislation dealing with two critically important areas - cyber-terrorism and agri-terrorism.
Finally, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that federal homeland security funds are concentrated on the areas under the greatest threat - and that means New York City, the world's greatest symbol of freedom and prosperity.
We've come a long way in the past decade - New Yorkers are safer in their homes and neighborhoods and on their streets than they've been in generations. This year, let's continue to work aggressively to make our state the safest and most secure in the nation.
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We know that when people are safe in their homes, they are free to pursue their dream for a brighter economic future for themselves and their families.
Unfortunately a decade ago, for too many New Yorkers, that dream was out of reach. Jobs and opportunity were fleeing the oppression of a government that taxed too much and regulated too much.
We came together and boldly transformed New York's failing economic climate by enacting a series of sweeping changes to state government.
We eliminated hundreds of unnecessary government regulations that were burdening our economy and killing jobs.
We fought for and achieved historic reforms to the Workers Compensation system, dramatically lowering rates for businesses.
We created smart new tools like Empire Zones to help attract new companies, new jobs and new investment to New York.
We began to seize the economy of the future by creating new high-tech job-creating programs like our Centers of Excellence.
Finally, and most importantly, we adopted historic tax cuts and returned billions of dollars to New York's families and businesses.
Together we reignited the entrepreneurial spirit of New Yorkers and unleashed the power of our economy, and in turn created hundreds of thousands of new private sector jobs.
But then came the national recession and September 11th.
The combination of the two cost the State more than 325,000 jobs, including 235,000 in New York City alone. It was a devastating blow to our economy.
But we've worked together to regain those jobs and are poised for even greater progress in the days ahead.
New York has now had sustained job growth for more than a year and our private sector job count has increased in 13 of the last 14 months.
Today, our unemployment rate is the lowest since September 11th and well below that of the nation.
Site Selection Magazine ranks New York second in the nation in business climate and in new corporate facilities and expansions.
And just recently New York was ranked second in the nation in "in-sourcing" - attracting jobs from foreign-based companies.
Last year, I stood before you and set an ambitious goal - to create jobs for a million more New Yorkers by the end of this decade. An ambitious goal -- suitable for an ambitious people.
Since last year, we've made steady progress, as evidenced by the decisions of some of the world's best-known firms.
By locating one of its largest stores in downtown Buffalo, Bass Pro will create hundreds of jobs and draw between 3 million and 5 million visitors a year to Western New York.
Hickey Freeman is investing millions of dollars in its manufacturing facility in Rochester and Lockheed Martin is hiring hundreds of engineers in Syracuse and the Southern Tier.
In Rome, you can once again hear the familiar roar of jets at Griffiss as Empire Air ramps up its flight maintenance operations.
And even more good news is on the way.
On Long Island, OSI Pharmaceuticals just received FDA approval for a new cancer drug and will expand its operations, with the potential to create 1,000 new jobs during the next several years.
In Central New York, AXA Financial Services will create 300 new jobs in downtown Syracuse this year.
And working together with the Western New York delegation, we are reclaiming a long-dormant brownfield site in downtown Buffalo. Health Now will invest $100 million to build a new corporate headquarters that will keep 1,200 jobs downtown.
Every one of these projects was fueled by one of the innovative job-creating initiatives we have enacted together over the past decade. Whether it's Empire Zones, the Brownfield Program, or our high-tech incubators, these initiatives have brought real jobs and investment to New Yorkers.
Through our Centers of Excellence, we continue our unprecedented journey that has put us at the forefront of the global high-tech revolution. Already, our investments in these centers are paying off with new attention from companies both nationally and globally.
Over the last decade, IBM has repeatedly demonstrated its confidence in New York and our policies through a succession of landmark investments.
Today, I am pleased to announce yet another.
IBM -- along with six global giants that include Sony, Toshiba, and Samsung -- will invest $1.9 billion to build the next generation chip plant. This investment represents one of the largest of its kind in the world and it's happening right here in the Hudson Valley, or, as the nation and world are beginning to know it, Tech Valley.
Here in Albany, we have yet another exciting announcement at our Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics. ASML, the world's leading chip equipment manufacturer, will invest over $325 million to create its first-ever R & D center outside of Europe.
But we are not done yet - there is more.
At the Albany Center of Excellence, IBM and a consortium of the largest nanoelectronics equipment suppliers will fund an unprecedented $450 million expansion of that center's R & D capabilities.
Together these projects will bring a staggering $2.7 billion in new private investment to Tech Valley, bringing jobs and optimism to communities throughout the region.
These exciting investments are happening at our Centers of Excellence across the entire State.
In Grand Island, Invitrogen will expand its operations in collaboration with the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, and in Buffalo, American Pharmaceutical Partners will add another 130 jobs.
In Fulton and Seneca Falls, we are working with the Syracuse Center of Excellence to establish two new ethanol facilities. In Fulton, the old Miller brewery is set to become the largest producer of ethanol in the East.
This will be a major boon to the Central New York economy, creating new jobs and offering farmers -- a vital part of the Upstate economy -- a new market for their products.
These announcements are proof-positive that our high-tech and Center of Excellence programs are working, attracting investment from around the globe and transforming our economy to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Senator Bruno and Speaker Silver, thank you and your colleagues for joining with us on these and other vital high-tech and biotech initiatives.
Clearly, we are making progress, but we must do more.
Let's fight to ensure that New York's 11 military facilities, from Ft. Drum to Westhampton, from Rome to Niagara Falls, remain vital assets to their local economies and the U.S. military.
New York is already second in the nation in in-sourcing jobs. Let's become first. Let's focus not just on keeping jobs, but on attracting new jobs and new investments from around the world.
To that end, later this year, I will travel to Japan and China with a delegation of business leaders to promote New York as the best place to do business in the 21st century.
While I'm there, I will visit Beijing, where the next Summer Olympic Games will be held. New York has a great Olympic legacy and this year, we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1980 Olympics and the "Miracle on Ice" with a series of special events in Lake Placid.
And in 2012, if our efforts are successful, New York will build on that proud legacy. Let's work with Mayor Bloomberg and build the sports and convention center on the West Side.
Let's fulfill New York's Olympic dreams.
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And as we continue our progress, let's make sure our entire state participates in our economic revival. Many upstate communities like Dutchess County, Saratoga, Glens Falls, Ithaca and Albany are experiencing strong economic growth. Let's bring that growth to every upstate community.
Just as we created Operation IMPACT to target high-crime counties, let's create an economic version to leverage job growth and investment in communities that need it the most.
To that end, I will propose Operation SPUR - the Strategic Partnership for Upstate Revitalization. This critical new initiative will target Upstate communities where we need additional economic growth and job creation, as well as areas that rely heavily on the farming and agribusiness sectors.
In my Executive Budget, I will propose a seven-point plan that will marshal our resources to revitalize these SPUR communities. From enacting a single sales factor for manufacturers and advancing new job tax credits to creating new Agri-Business Opportunity Zones and tax credits for high-tech businesses, SPUR will bring new jobs and the promise of a growing economy to all New Yorkers.
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As important as these targeted job-creation efforts may be, the best way to foster a job-friendly climate is by relieving the tax burden on all our fellow New Yorkers.
Since 1995, we've been the tax-cutting capital of America -- cutting 19 different taxes 75 times, for a total of $122 billion. This year, New Yorkers' tax burden is $15 billion less because of the broad, sweeping, fundamental changes we made in our tax code beginning in 1995.
Yet for all these changes, more progress must be made to reduce the tax burden on all New Yorkers.
We know tax cuts work. We've proven beyond all doubt how cutting taxes creates jobs and prosperity for our fellow New Yorkers. We've done it before, now let's do it again.
Let's strengthen families by expanding our Earned Income Tax Credit to include lower income, single fathers.
Let's protect and enhance every homeowner's STAR benefits by enacting STAR Plus this year.
And let's send a clear message to taxpayers. Let's accelerate the phase-out of the temporary personal income tax increase for all New Yorkers... and let's do it this year.
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And let's go one step further. Let's make the entire tax code fairer, simpler, and friendlier for everyone -- and ensure that New York has a new tax code for the 21st century. And there is simply no one better suited to lead this effort than one of our nation's leading tax reformers -- and he is with us today.
Larry Kudlow, on behalf of every New Yorker, thank you for taking on this worthy task.
And while we've helped relieve the school tax burden through STAR, Medicaid continues to impede our ability to achieve significant property tax relief at the county level.
For months, we've worked with county executives from across our state on a plan to cap Medicaid costs and give local property taxpayers the relief they deserve.
Two weeks from now, in my Executive Budget, I will propose Medicaid reforms that will reduce costs and also protect county property taxpayers, while ensuring the quality of health care we all deserve.
Let this be the year we get it done.
Let this be the year we stand up for taxpayers once again.
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Over the last decade, we've made bold changes that instituted a new approach to health care in New York - one that empowers people to make the decisions that affect their health and their lives. We've given New Yorkers and their doctors more options and taken decisions out of the hands of government bureaucrats.
This new approach, and the innovative new programs we've enacted have improved the delivery and quality of health care across our great state.
Today, over a million more New Yorkers have access to quality comprehensive health care, more seniors than ever before have prescription drug coverage, and four times as many children are covered by Child Health Plus.
This year, let's continue to be bold. Let's build on these unprecedented changes and make our healthcare system even better with initiatives to improve the health of our oldest and youngest New Yorkers.
First, let's ensure that our "Greatest Generation" can live in comfort, security and dignity, whether it is on their own, with their families, or in residential care. For some New Yorkers, a nursing home may be the best option, but it should never be the only option.
This session, let's give even more seniors and their families access to a wider variety of long-term care options.
For an older or disabled person, a simple ramp or other modification can sometimes mean the difference between living at home or entering a nursing home. This year we'll launch Access to Home - a program to help families make the home improvements needed to accommodate the needs of their loved ones.
And as we tend to our oldest New Yorkers, let's also ensure that our youngest get their lives off to a healthy start.
Last October, we nearly tripled the number of diseases and disorders tested for under our nationally renowned Newborn Screening Program. This year, we'll add even more and make our program the most comprehensive no-cost newborn screening program in the nation.
One of these new tests will be for Krabbe Disease - a life-threatening condition affecting the nervous system.
In 1997, after their son, Hunter, was diagnosed with Krabbe, a family in Western New York created Hunter's Hope Foundation, which has since been a leading advocate for newborn screening expansion.
Hunter's dad is with us today. Whether throwing touchdowns for the Buffalo Bills or for this great cause, he's always been a New York hero and a true champion.
Jim Kelly, thank you - today's victory belongs to you.
Newborn screening can help ensure that children are given an opportunity to grow into healthy, vital adults. But let's not stop there.
The continuing emergence of childhood obesity is one of our nation's most serious health concerns. It affects up to 30% of our children and can lead to serious health problems later in life including diabetes and heart disease.
This year we'll launch the "Active-8 Kids" program, a comprehensive education and awareness campaign encouraging kids to be active, healthy and physically fit. I'm proud that two very special people have agreed to support this effort - people who know a great deal about the value of exercise, nutrition and achieving goals: NHL star goaltender and Utica native Rob Esche, and Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans.
Rob and Janet, thank you for being great role models for New York's kids and for devoting your time and energy to their health and well-being.
As we address the challenge of increasing New Yorkers' access to healthcare and improving the quality of that care, we must ensure that our healthcare facilities are up to the challenge. That's why my Executive Budget will propose a new program to fund facility improvements and technology upgrades for healthcare facilities across the State.
Creating more long-term care options for our seniors.
Ensuring a healthy start for our children.
Improving and modernizing healthcare facilities for all New Yorkers.
This year, let's continue our great progress.
Let's ensure that our healthcare system remains the finest in the world.
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Every child deserves access not only to good health care but to a quality education that unlocks the door to a productive and rewarding future.
To that end, a decade ago, I called for bold, top-to-bottom change in how we prepare our children for that brighter future.
Over the past decade, we've indeed brought unprecedented change, benefiting students, teachers, and parents alike across our state.
Through our record investments, we've boosted overall school funding by 55%, more than double the rate of inflation.
New York City alone now gets $2.3 billion a year more than it did a decade ago, and New Yorkers now invest over $12,000 per student - more than any state in the nation.
But because we all know that money alone can't ensure classroom success, we didn't stop there.
Through our Teachers of Tomorrow program, we helped attract and retain thousands of good teachers.
Through Lt. Governor Donohue's Project SAVE - the most comprehensive safe schools initiative in America - we helped make our classrooms safer by making assaults on school staff a felony.
Through our School Report Cards program, we equipped New York's parents to compare their children's schools to others' -- and through our charter schools law, we let them remove their kids from failing schools and place them in those with less bureaucracy and more accountability.
To ensure that our kids were truly learning to read, write, and do math, we initiated testing for fourth-grade and eighth-grade students, and provided after-school help through our Advantage initiative.
And we've approved bold, historic governance reforms, providing the Mayor with direct control over New York City's schools.
The investments we've made are unprecedented.
The reforms we've enacted are indeed historic.
But we have unfinished business before us.
Last year I announced a set of principles which underscored the need to throw out the archaic school aid formula.
I said we needed a new formula for a statewide solution for New York City and other high-needs school districts.
I said we must never pit one school district against another.
And I said that more dollars must come with sweeping reforms to ensure greater accountability and performance.
This year, let's complete this unfinished business.
I will again advance a proposal to provide fair funding and real reform for school districts across New York State.
Let's not cede this task to the courts, or limit it to one school district in one part of our state.
Let's meet this historic challenge for the benefit of children all across our state.
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By improving education in the early years, we're preparing our students for college and beyond.
And at the university level, over the past decade, we have dramatically transformed our SUNY and CUNY systems.
Our public and private universities are attracting record numbers of top quality students.
At SUNY, we now have record SAT scores, record minority enrollment, revitalized campuses, and public-private partnerships fueling high-tech job creation across our state.
And at CUNY, despite fierce opposition from the naysayers, we brought back the high standards that had once empowered generations of immigrants to make it in America.
And already, we're seeing results.
For the first time ever, two CUNY students - Lev Sviridov and Eugene Shenderov, both immigrants from the former Soviet Union - are now Rhodes Scholars.
We're pleased to have Lev with us today.
Lev, congratulations on your wonderful accomplishment, and please tell Eugene we are proud of him as well.
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Just as we have with education, over the past decade we have applied our philosophy of bold, sweeping change to the preservation and protection of our environment and our state's natural treasures.
When I was a boy, I could admire one of these treasures - the Hudson River - from our family farm in Peekskill. I still remember how different the view was from my grandfather's porch, which was only a few feet from the riverbank. The tragic effects of a century's worth of neglect and abuse were all too apparent.
When I took office in 1995, we chose to take a fundamentally different approach to environmental conservation, and by working together over the last decade we've made New York a national leader.
In the decade prior to 1995, only six new parks were created. Over the past ten years we've created 19, and have committed to open or expand 20 more by 2009.
We've set aside an astonishing 800,000 acres of open space, adopted the nation's toughest acid rain standards, created new renewable energy programs, and enacted an historic Brownfields revitalization program.
We've reclaimed industrialized waterfronts across the State, transforming them from forgotten dumping grounds into the proud gateways of our communities.
We've dedicated more resources to cleaning-up and protecting the environment than ever before, including our $1.75 billion Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act.
Today, the majestic Hudson flows cleaner than it has in generations.
The bold, sweeping changes of the past decade have dramatically improved our environment and the quality of life for all New Yorkers -- and this year, we can do even more.
It is my great pleasure to announce to you today, that we've reached an agreement with Domtar Industries that will preserve another 104,000 acres of Adirondack forestland. This brings our total open space conserved to over 900,000 acres since 1995 - an area bigger than the entire State of Rhode Island.
And as we continue our efforts to conserve open space in the Adirondacks, let us do the same in our urban communities.
In Yonkers, the Nepperhan River has been flowing under a shroud of pavement for more than a century. I am pleased to announce that we will work with the City of Yonkers to uncover this natural treasure and once again make it the centerpiece of a vibrant riverside community.
Today marks a century since the National Audubon Society was founded, right here in New York -- let's give them a birthday present. We will add 20 new bird conservation areas to the 28 we've created since 1995.
We have already made great strides in reducing the amount of pollutants in our environment, but this year we'll take yet another step.
This morning I signed an Executive Order requiring all state agencies and authorities to begin using non-toxic cleaning products that are free of harmful chemicals. And later this session, I will submit legislation that requires all schools in the State to do the same.
I'd like to thank a great New Yorker who has devoted a tremendous amount of her time and energy to raising awareness of the hazards of chemical cleaning products. Deirdre Imus, thank you for joining us today, and for all your hard work to protect our environment and our children.
Last year, I announced that we were going to make New York State a leader in promoting renewable bio-fuels.
Today, at Syracuse's School of Environmental Science and Forestry, they're working to produce ethanol from renewable sources like wood fiber. At Clarkson University, they're already building refineries to make bio-diesel from agricultural products.
In order to assist this growing industry and farmers across New York State, I will sign an Executive Order requiring our state agencies to begin phasing in the use of bio-fuels to heat our state buildings and power our trucks.
And as we look even further into the future, let's prepare for a time when the only exhaust emitted from our automobiles will be clean water.
Clean hydrogen is the motor fuel of the future - a future we need to begin preparing for now. That's why I'm asking NYSERDA to work with our transportation agencies to install hydrogen refueling stations from New York City to Buffalo over the next ten years.
The fundamental changes we've made over the past decade have resulted in a cleaner environment and brighter future. This year, I ask you to join me in continuing this great record of progress.
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Over the past decade we have improved New Yorkers' lives time and time again by embracing bold reforms and sweeping change.
We took a broken criminal justice system and transformed it.
We took a failed welfare system and revolutionized it.
We cut over $100 billion in taxes, and unleashed our economy's boundless potential.
These are historic achievements, and proof-positive that New Yorkers can accomplish great things when we have the courage to embrace bold reforms.
But while there is much to be proud of, we still have more to do in terms of reforming the process itself.
New Yorkers want a more open, accountable, and responsive government.
This year, let's give it to them.
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This session, I will advance a comprehensive agenda that will make this government more effective, more efficient and more accountable to the people of New York.
As the State's Chief Executive, I have the ability to move forward with some of these measures on my own. And I will.
With others, I will need your help.
Together, I know that we can make history once again.
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Let's begin with seven major goals.
Number One: Let's reform our state's lobbying laws.
Last year, I signed an Executive Order requiring all State agencies and authorities to publicly disclose information on procurement lobbying for the first time ever.
This year, let's work together to enact legislation imposing a smart and effective ban on procurement lobbying.
Number Two: I will also advance legislation to impose a ban on all gifts from lobbyists.
This simple but vitally important step would help to reinforce public trust in the government process itself.
Number Three: Let's continue making bold reforms and improvements at our public authorities.
In 2003, I directed corporate governance expert Ira Millstein to develop new model principles to ensure greater efficiency, openness and accountability at our State authorities.
All of our public authorities are now working to comply with these outstanding corporate governance principles, but there are still remaining legal obstacles that prevent their full implementation.
This year, I will introduce an authority reform bill to put these model principles into law, and to remove any remaining barriers to full compliance for all of our authorities.
Number Four: I am also proud to announce that I will sign a new Executive Order establishing a new, broadly inclusive Commission on Public Authority Reform - and I've asked Ira Millstein to head this effort as well.
It will include leading private-sector experts who will be appointed by me, the Comptroller, the Attorney General, the Majority Leader, the Speaker, and both Minority Leaders.
The commission members will explore new ways to continue promoting greater openness and accountability at all public authorities, whether at the state or local level.
Ultimately, the work of the Millstein Commission will form the basis for additional reform legislation that we can enact to continue improving the operations of authorities all across the State.
Alan and Eliot, Joe and Shelly, Charlie and David… thank you for joining us in this vital, non-partisan effort.
Number Five: This year, we will also be moving aggressively forward with the elimination or consolidation of hundreds of commissions, task forces, boards and authorities that have been established over the course of many decades.
This effort will help to provide New Yorkers with a more streamlined and effective government.
Some of these steps I can take administratively. And I will.
With others we will need legislation that I will work with you to enact this year.
Number Six: As a former member of both the Senate and Assembly, I am extremely encouraged by the new commitment in both houses to make internal reforms… to give each of you a greater voice, to improve the day-to-day operations of the Legislature, and to help strengthen public confidence in our government.
It's a good start, and I encourage you to keep going, and to do even more.
And Number Seven: Let's finally topple the most notorious symbol of Albany's dysfunction…let's enact a real budget reform bill that opens up the process, empowers individual legislators and ensures balanced and on-time budgets.
We have made real progress in recent weeks on budget reform.
Now let's get it done. Let's pass a law that will open up the budget process and deliver on-time budgets for years to come.
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By getting these seven things done - procurement lobbying reforms, banning gifts from lobbyists, sweeping authority reforms, our new Millstein Commission, streamlining our government, bold legislative reforms, and real budget reforms - we will shatter the status quo, strengthen public confidence and change Albany for generations to come.
And once these seven goals are accomplished, let's move forward and embrace even more reforms…
From sweeping campaign finance reforms, to a ban on backdoor borrowing, to an Initiative and Referendum bill that will give New Yorkers a greater voice in their government…
Let's make 2005 the year when bold, innovative reforms revitalize and renew our government process, bringing a new sense of energy, non-partisanship and restored public confidence to Albany.
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If anyone ever doubted the spirit and greatness of this State, their doubts were laid to rest by New Yorkers' heroic response to the September 11th attacks.
Faced with one of the worst tragedies in our history, New Yorkers showed the world that our greatest days are ahead of us. That's why rebuilding Lower Manhattan is not merely a choice to make, but a solemn obligation to keep.
Over the past year, we've continued to rebuild, revive, and remember.
We began by selecting a Memorial design to honor those we lost.
Then, on July 4th, Mayor Bloomberg and I laid the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower.
This past fall, we raised the last beam for 7 World Trade Center to ensure that the last building to fall will be the first to rise and reopen.
And just yesterday, Morgan Stanley demonstrated its confidence in our rebuilding efforts by announcing that it is moving over 1,400 jobs back to Lower Manhattan.
Now, as we begin a new year, we look forward to key milestones in the transportation portion of Lower Manhattan's revival.
This summer, we will break ground for our new World Trade Center Transportation Hub, and we will move forward on linking Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport and Long Island.
In all that we do in Lower Manhattan, nothing is more important than building a dignified and fitting Memorial to honor the brave heroes we lost.
Last month, we unveiled a completed Memorial design.
A model of that design is in the War Room for you and the public to see.
The memorial will be a three-level experience bringing visitors all the way down to the very bedrock of the site where they can see the original box beams of the Twin Towers and the slurry wall which held back the Hudson during the attacks.
In addition, I'm pleased to announce that we will light the Memorial at night so that visitors will be greeted by a welcoming glow throughout the Memorial Plaza.
Our state, our nation, and over 92 countries lost family, friends, and neighbors on September 11th.
Indeed, this is a memorial not just for New York and our country, but for the entire world.
I urge you to take the time to see and experience for yourselves this inspiring creation.
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To raise funds to build the Memorial, we've put in place the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. All four living former Presidents of the United States serve as honorary members of its Board of Directors.
To this day, generous New Yorkers want to know what they can do to pay tribute to our heroes. In response, I will send you legislation to add an income tax checkoff on our State income tax forms, so we can all give from our hearts to build the Memorial.
I am pleased that Senator Bruno and Speaker Silver, whose district includes Lower Manhattan, support this important legislation.
And I would like our entire nation to have the same opportunity to honor those we lost.
To that end, I'm pleased to announce that Staten Island Congressman Vito Fossella has agreed to shepherd a bill through Congress providing the same donation option on our federal forms.
This way, Americans everywhere will have the chance to help honor the memory of our fallen heroes.
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All of us who are here today have chosen to dedicate ourselves to public service and to helping others.
As you serve others, you touch their lives, and if you touch enough lives, you can truly make a difference.
That might sound idealistic, but it tells the story of what I have related today.
You and I have made a difference, and so have our fellow New Yorkers.
Our decade of change has unleashed the ingenuity, creativity, and character of the most extraordinary people in the world - the people of this state, who come from every corner of the globe.
They are the real heroes of New York's rebirth and revival.
It hasn't been easy. We've weathered many storms along the way.
But to quote a great New Yorker, Al Smith, "The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in the eternal sunshine."
Today, the storm clouds are dispersing, and the sun is breaking through.
And as it does, it will shine ever brighter upon our Empire State.
John Winthrop once saw America as a shining light to the nations.
Now, more than ever before, it is our state and its people that bear this light for America.
We've led our nation in many areas.
We've led it through the painful aftermath of one of the worst attacks in its history.
Let us continue to lead in the coming years -- building on this dramatic decade of progress.
And so, with high hopes and well-grounded optimism, let us walk confidently into the future - leading New York, pointing the way to an even brighter and better tomorrow.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless New York.
Every two weeks the New York City Council meets for its Stated Meeting to introduce and pass legislation. As a regular feature, Searchlight covers these meetings and posts a summary of the bills passed.
Quote of the Day:
"The saying goes 'guns don’t kill people, people kill people,' and I buy into that. Guns just make it a whole hell of a lot easier. But frankly I am compelled by the argument... that there are a certain few gun manufacturers and dealers who continue to do the same thing knowing that their guns lead to crime, violence, and death. I represent an area with a lot of gun owners who expect me to protect their rights. But I also represent a lot of police officers. So if I am making a mistake on this bill, I am going to err on [the police officers'] side." - Republican Councilmember James Oddo voting in favor a bill that allows lawsuits against irresponsible gun makers.
Meeting Summary:
At the first Stated Meeting of 2005, the New York City Council approved a package of legislation to strengthen the city’s gun regulations.
New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, and in 2004 had the fewest murders since 1963. But in absolute numbers, New York - with its 570 murders last year - remains the murder capital of the United States. According to officials, 85 percent of the guns used in the city’s 2,000 annual gun-related crimes come from other states with more lenient laws.
One bill (Intro 365-A) creates a “code of conduct” for gun manufacturers and dealers which requires that they perform background checks at gun shows, limit buyers to one gun a month, and maintain inventories of all guns and records of all sales. Any company that does not voluntarily adopt these practices is subject to civil lawsuits from victims or families affected by gun violence.
A second bill (Intro 144-A) prohibits the sale of a rifle or shotgun to anyone under the age of 21.
A third bill (Intro 490-A) limits the sale of rifles and shotguns to one per 90-day period.
And the last bill (Intro 469-A) increases civil penalties for those who violate the city’s existing assault weapons laws.
"The dirty secret of the gun industry is that gun manufacturers know exactly what to do to stop the flow of guns to the underground market and they refuse to do it," said Councilmember David Yassky, who drafted the legislation.
Since the city can only regulate rifles and shotguns (the state has authority over handguns) the council also passed a series of resolutions that call on the governor and the State Legislature to enact similar legislation.
The gun control legislation passed overwhelmingly; only the three Republican members – James Oddo, Dennis Gallagher, and Andrew Lanza – voted against various measures. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign the legislation into law. Gun manufacturers have said they may challenge the laws in court.
The council also overrode two vetoes from Mayor Michael Bloomberg with more than the required two-thirds majority votes.
Against the mayor’s wishes, the council enacted legislation (Intro 266-A) that requires the Department of Education to make more information about school crimes available to the public. The city must create a specific listing of each serious, minor, and criminal instance and put the data online. The council also enacted a bill (Intro 322-A), which requires the city to give the council a quarterly report on the number of school safety agents assigned to each school.
But the council also helped Mayor Bloomberg by granting his request for an 11-day extension for submitting a new budget, which was January 16.
The mayor reportedly wants to wait until December revenue can be counted. The city is expected to have a deficit of between $2.2 and $2.9 billion. Waiting until after Governor George Pataki releases his budget on January 20 would also allow the mayor to take state funding plans into consideration.
The next Stated Meeting is scheduled for January 19, 2005.
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When the State Legislature convenes for a new session this month, it is likely to face the task of determining how much money will be spent on public schools across the state, how to reform the state’s lobbying laws, whether to regulate more closely the plethora of public authorities, and many other legislative issues of concern to New Yorkers.
But in order to tackle these issues properly, lawmakers in Albany will also have to consider changing the way they do business to make the legislative process more effective, more transparent, and more democratic. As New Yorkers, it is our task to ensure that our representatives make a New Year’s resolution to enact meaningful improvements in the legislative rules.
Specifically, each chamber - the Senate and the Assembly - will vote separately to adopt new rules that govern issues such as how committees function or how legislators vote.
Good government groups have long been interested in these issues. But until recently the Brennan Center, and other groups like us, have focused primarily on reforms that were less attainable than rules reforms: constitutional changes, redistricting, and campaign financing, to name a few.
While critically important, those reforms require legislation to be passed (and, in the case of constitutional changes, repeated legislative action). By contrast, rules changes require less sweeping action. In the immediate future, therefore, rules reform is our best hope for substantive changes in the legislative process.
Rules reform has long been seen as a "good government" issue only of interest to those few advocates concerned with questions of process, rather than with bread-and-butter issues like education or jobs. But, as the last few months have demonstrated, voters do in fact care about how and whether their government works.
The Brennan Center chose to focus on the legislative process in Albany as the result of a rare pattern we noticed in our own work. In discussions with people and organizations across New York State - regardless of which area they were working in or what their ideological bent was - virtually everyone agreed that the current legislative process was standing in the way of real progress in pursuing their own policy agendas whatever they might be.
So we set out on an 18-month research project to understand precisely what, if anything, was "dysfunctional" about New York’s legislative process and to develop recommendations for reform. We interviewed sitting members of the legislature and scores of staffers; we reviewed the transcripts of floor debates, the committee reports, and the committee votes; and we investigated the history of the legislative process over the last century. We also looked at the rules in New York and in every state across the nation, in each chamber, and interviewed people in each state about certain aspects of each state’s legislative process. The result was a report entitled "The New York State Legislative Process: An Evaluation and Blueprint for Reform." That report identified rules changes that together would make the New York State Legislature more representative, more deliberative, more accessible and accountable to the public, and more efficient.
Specifically, our research allowed us to identify at least four major areas in need of reform:
Committees
In most legislatures, of course, committees are where the action is. It is in committees where momentum develops for a bill, and this momentum - and not just the will of the powers that be - decide whether a piece of legislation will make it to the floor: Has enough momentum developed through public hearings, though press attention for a bill etc., for it to go to the floor? Or is the issue not ripe yet?
These sorts of questions do not often arise in New York, because committees rarely perform that function. There is a remarkable lack of sustained discussion on bills in committee in New York’s State Legislature, particularly in the Senate. True, there are public hearings on major issues - though even these are more rare than they should be. But on specific bills there are virtually never hearings - they were held for only 0.5 percent of major bills passed by the Assembly and 0.7 percent of those passed by the Senate from 1997 through 2001. There is little focus on parsing language and on determining from testimony and research as a committee what is the best solution to a problem.
Committees in New York do not produce reports on each piece of legislation. This not only hinders consideration of a bill when and if it reaches the floor; it also robs state courts of invaluable legislative history to interpret laws that are passed.
In the Senate, committee members can (and do) cast their votes on bills by proxy given to the committee chair, i.e., they can indicate how they wish to vote, but are often not even in the room to debate the bill or cast their vote.
In short, committees do not provide the incubation for a bill, opportunities for public and member input into a bill, or the public momentum for a bill that they should.
The sheer number of committee assignments may explain part of this failure: in New York, the number of committees to which each member is assigned dwarfs those of any other state. The average in the Senate is eight committees per member; in the Assembly it is three to four per member. There is simply no way for legislators to perform the work they should if they are required to serve on so many committees.
Getting a Bill Out of Committee to the Floor
Even when a bill has the support of a majority of legislators within a chamber, New York’s legislature makes it more difficult than any other legislature in the country to discharge a bill from a committee for the full chamber to consider. Discharge motions are intended to allow supporters of a bill to obtain consideration by the full chamber despite the opposition or inaction of the committee to which the bill was referred or the chair of that committee. New York’s legislature places more restrictions than any other state legislature on motions to discharge a bill from a committee to the floor for a vote.
In addition, New York allows the majority leader and speaker, directly or indirectly, complete control over the legislative calendars to determine whether and when a bill that has been reported out of a committee will be considered by the full Senate or Assembly. The New York Senate and Assembly are two of only three chambers nationwide (out of 99) in which the leader of the chamber determines the order of bills placed on the second reading and special orders calendars; they are also two of only five chambers in which the leader determines the order of bills placed on the third reading calendar.
What are the results of this control? From 1997 through 2001, the Senate voted on 7,109 bills and, from 1997 through 1999, the Assembly voted on 4,365 bills. Not a single bill that reached the floor for a vote was rejected in either chamber. When a bill is brought up for a vote, there is no suspense. Many bills that should be debated and considered do not make it anywhere near the floor.
Voting
In both chambers of the state legislature a member’s vote is automatically counted as a "yes" vote the minute he or she checks in that morning. Members do not have to be in their seats to vote in the affirmative on any bill.
This may not be as great a substantive problem as some of the others mentioned here. But it profoundly undermines the public’s confidence in the process.
So-called absentee voting is rare across the country; it offends a citizen’s sense of what a legislator should be doing. People can differ as to its real substantive import, but it certainly offends many citizens. It should be addressed for that reason alone.
We also think it appropriate to focus on the "message of necessity." This device allows the legislative leaders to circumvent the constitutionally required three-day waiting period before a bill can be voted on. The constitutional intent was to use this tool only in cases of true emergency for swift action. But we found that over a quarter of major pieces of legislation are passed with messages of necessity on average each year. If you cannot wait three days to pass a bill, there should be a compelling justification for it. Besides the obvious need for substantive review by members, a bill needs to be checked for typographical errors that can make a big difference once a bill becomes law. Messages of necessity should be reserved for emergencies.
Conference Committees
Conference committees are widely used in the U.S. Congress and in other state legislatures to reconcile differences between the bills passed by the two houses of a legislature to produce a single law that can be passed by both. In New York, however, conference committees have been used only rarely since the first decades of the 20th century. Instead, to pass a bill into law, one chamber must move to substitute the other chamber’s version of the bill for its own, with the leaders of the two chambers working out any differences directly.
As a result, New York does not have any established mechanism to prevent legislative gridlock if the speaker and majority leader cannot resolve their differences directly in closed-door negotiations. The result, in too many cases, is a failure to pass even legislation that has garnered overwhelming support among legislators and the public. In addition, New York does not obtain the benefits of a conference committee’s review and airing for public scrutiny of the final version of a bill before it is voted into law.
The dysfunction in Albany has caused New Yorkers from all over the state, from all lines of work, and from different ideological perspectives, to come together in agreement. It is very rare to reach such a consensus on a problem, and it has allowed people across the state to reach a growing consensus on the solution.
We have tried to form a broad-based coalition of groups, spanning from business groups to environmentalists, and including all the other groups and communities that focus on work in Albany. Many do not necessarily have the resources to focus on process issues, but all are very much affected by them. Given the opportunity, they have agreed to mobilize to advocate for rules reform.
When groups from such different perspectives agree on an issue in such great detail, it makes for a momentous opportunity in New York’s history to reform our government. We have to take advantage of this momentum to give New Yorkers the legislature they deserve.
Jeremy Creelan is the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
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At a recent event in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered a list of reasons why New Yorkers should give him another four years in office. He talked about education reform, the rebounding economy, and his commitment to build 65,000 new apartments - but he focused most on the drop in crime, which is at a record low.
"As long as I am mayor," Bloomberg said, "we will keep crime down in the city."
There is no guarantee that Bloomberg will be re-elected. There is a crowded field of challengers, and the political landscape is different from 2001. (See "Will Bloomberg Be Re-Elected?" by Joseph Mercurio) But even if he is, larger questions loom: How much can the mayor (how much can any mayor) claim credit for improvements in the city? How much can a mayor really do for New York?
The mayor would like to take credit for improvements in the schools. Even if everybody agreed that the schools have gotten better -- and not everybody does -- the public school system relies on a variety of variables largely outside of mayoral control: things like the federal No Child Left Behind program, funding from Albany, state standardized testing programs, and the number of immigrant students trying to learn English.
On the economy, the mayor has virtually no control over job gains, unemployment rates, or Wall Street profits, and little influence over whether a company chooses to do business in New York.
On housing, the mayor's commitment to build 65,000 additional apartments over five years will not eliminate the city's housing shortage.
And even on crime, many experts point out that the decrease is nationwide, and single out the decline in the use of crack cocaine, more than the number of police officers or new techniques, as the major factor behind the falling murder statistics.
As the 2005 campaign for mayor gets underway in New York, candidates will make extraordinary promises. But in truth, the next mayor -- as previous mayors -- will have a limited amount of control over many of the most critical issues facing the city.
For example, mayor cannot:
- Raise taxes (except the property tax) without permission from the state
- Set the minimum wage
- Determine the amount of funding schools get from the state
- Extend rent control
- Determine how much to spend on Medicaid
- Or set mass transit fares or build new subway lines.
When David Dinkins was once asked if a mayor could make a difference in the city, he offered a philosophical answer.
"If nothing else, I can change the climate, the atmosphere," he said. "If a mayor can’t make a difference, who can?"
EDUCATION
When Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, he argued that if given the power he could improve the city’s schools.
And within seven months, Bloomberg had succeeded in doing what his three predecessors tried and failed to do: He convinced the governor and State Legislature to give him control of the school system, and he abolished the Board of Education.
Then in a 2003 address, Bloomberg outlined three goals of his education reform:
- Cutting bureaucracy to put funds in classrooms
- Ensuring that all students acquire skills in writing and math
- Giving parents the tools to be active partners in their children’s education.
So far, Mayor Bloomberg has received mixed reviews .
Some complain that the old bureaucracy has just been replaced with a new one. Some test scores have risen, but city students still lag behind the statewide averages and more than half of eighth graders failed to pass recent standardized math test. And many parents feel left out of the process without community school boards.
"On the one hand, the Board of Education was a widely loathed institution," said John Mollenkopf, professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. "On the other, one hears as many stories that reforms have created chaos as stories of success or even measurable progress."
Whoever becomes the next mayor must convince the governor and the State Legislature that the system is working. The current governance system will come up for a vote again in 2009.
Another major issue facing the city’s schools is the result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.
In November, a court-appointed panel recommended that city schools should receive an additional $5.6 billion a year phased in over the next four years. Next year, the panel recommended an increase of $1.4 billion, but did not say how much should come from the state and how much should come from the city. If the city’s funding equals nearly a quarter of the money, it will have to pay an additional $330 million next year and a total of $1.4 billion by 2009.
The next mayor will have to lobby for education funding in Albany, the largest source of money for schools and figure out how to pay the city's share.
ECONOMY AND JOBS
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is often credited with one of the city’s greatest economic transformations. And cutting taxes, Giuliani said, was key.
Giuliani claimed he created 180,000 jobs and stimulated tourism by eliminating the Commercial Rent Tax in most areas of the city, reducing the Hotel Occupancy Tax, and eliminating the Unincorporated Business Tax.
But many believe the national economic expansion fueled the city’s expansion.
"There is almost no Giuliani policy that has anything to do with the economic boom," Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett wrote in an essay for Gotham Gazette. "Wall Street drove the boom."
After September 11, 2001 the city went into a recession and lost thousands of jobs. Now three years later, the city is beginning to recover. The city is expected to gain 23,000 jobs this year and analysts are projecting more job growth in the years to come.
Still, the city will not fully recover all of the jobs lost in the recession until 2008, according to one report.
And there are reasons for concern as the high cost of real estate and taxes, outsourcing and security concerns make it more difficult to attract and keep jobs in the city.
Verizon, for example, recently announced it will be leaving Manhattan for New Jersey and taking 500 jobs with it.
THE BUDGET
In the late 1960’s under Mayor John Lindsay, the city faced difficult times. Unions went out on strike, crime increased, poverty devastated many neighborhoods, an economic recession set in, and many people left the city.
Tax revenues declined and city expenses increased. Lindsay, without the power to raise taxes himself, resorted to borrowing (as had his predecessor Robert Wagner). By 1975 the city was nearly bankrupt.
To resolve the crisis, the state created the Emergency Financial Control Board to monitor municipal spending and tell the city how to manage its money. Lindsay’s successor, Mayor Abe Beame was forced to make massive cuts in the city's capital budget and to lay off 65,000 city workers.
It was not until 1981 that the city’s budget was balanced and even today, the city pays $500 million a year in interest on the money borrowed in the 1970's.
In the last three years, operating under a set of rules that the state imposed after Lindsay, Mayor Bloomberg has balanced New York City budgets by cutting expenses and raising taxes, but also by taking on additional debt. Even though the city’s economy has improved, the city still faces difficult budget problems in the future. Next year, the city will have another deficit of $2 billion followed by a $3 billion deficit the year after.
Still, all of the debate between the mayor and City Council over issues such as fire house closings, library hours, city university scholarships, and youth job programs only affects about $750 million out of the city's $47 billion annual budget.
In contrast, budget items like debt payments, labor pensions, and funding for Medicaid – all of which the city cannot control - cost about $17 billion a year.
Future budgets will also be harder to close with less tax revenue.
This year, the mayor and the City Council voted to give $400 rebates to homeowners. Two other current taxes - the personal income tax surcharge and the sales tax increase - are set to expire in 2005.
Not only must the mayor and the City Council pass a balanced budget, they must lobby in Albany and Washington D.C. for aid for housing, transportation, and schools. And the power to raise all taxes in New York City, with the exception of the property taxes, resides in Albany, not City Hall.
And candidates are reluctant to make radical changes to the way things have been done in the past.
"Addressing the city’s fiscal problems is hard," said Marcia Van Wagner of the Citizens Budget Commission. "And most people don’t run on things that are hard."
LABOR
New York City teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other municipal employees are currently working without a contract. Contracts with DC 37, which represents about 125,000 municipal unions, expire next summer.
Mayor Bloomberg has said there is no money for raises unless unions make concessions to work longer hours and implement other ways to save money; the unions argue that they are already paid less than workers in the suburbs and are losing their best employees.
Still the cost of labor is largely out of control of the current mayor.
Despite cuts in recent years, the city's overall labor costs have risen 20 percent. Part of the reason is that New York's overtime, benefit and pension packages are more expensive than elsewhere in the country and the costs continue to rise.
Pension costs are the fastest rising share of the budget. According to the mayor's office, pension and fringe benefit costs rise five percent each year; by the year 2008, the city will pay $10 billion a year in pensions or about 20 percent of the annual budget. In addition to the city's active workforce, New York also supports 180,000 people who have already retired.
While the mayor negotiates issues like pay and work hours with municipal workers, the terms of pensions are decided in Albany.
HOUSING
In 1986, Mayor Ed Koch promised to build 100,000 new homes. It was the largest commitment to city housing since Mayor Fiorella La Guardia established the city’s public housing program.
Housing remains one of the most critical issues facing the city.
A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that the fair market rent for a two bedroom apartment is $945 a month. In order to afford such an apartment, a full-time worker must make at least $18.18 an hour.
Although rents in New York City's controlled and stabilized apartments are set by a city body, the Rent Guidelines Board, the state determines whether rent control should exist at all. Federal subsidies for housing are also shrinking and there is a long waiting list for public housing and Section 8 vouchers.
Mayor Bloomberg has outlined an ambitious proposal to build 65,000 new homes over five years. In order to afford such an ambition plan, Bloomberg is also helping allowing developers to create market rate housing, which is unaffordable to many New Yorkers.
In lower Manhattan, for example, of the 6,000 of the apartments that have been authorized or financed, only about one percent are affordable.
HEALTH CARE
There are two major government health care programs: Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare affects people over 65 years old regardless of income and is funded by the federal government. Medicaid offers medical coverage for low-income people and is funded by federal, state, and local governments.
Unlike most states, New York requires local governments to pay a major portion of the Medicaid bill. New York City's costs have risen dramatically in recent years. Over the next two years, the city’s share of Medicaid spending will grow from $4.7 billion in 2005 to just over $5.0 billion in 2008.
The mayor does not have the power to change the Medicaid funding formula and must lobby lawmakers in Albany in order to ease the growing financial burden it puts on local governments.
WEST SIDE DEVELOPMENT
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has outlined an ambitious plan for redeveloping the 360-acre area in Manhattan west of Eighth Avenue from 30th to 42nd Streets, which he calls the Hudson Yards plan.
The $2.8 billion development proposal would nearly double the size of the Jacob Javits Convention Center and include a 75,000-seat stadium for the New York Jets. Officials says the expanded convention center and new stadium as well as office buildings and residential high-rises would help create more than 15,000 jobs for the city and provide more than 500,000 days of additional hotel stays per year.
The big question is how the city will pay for it.
The stadium would be financed with $600 million from the city and state, which would pay for the retractable roof and the platform over the rail yards. The Javits Center expansion would be financed by $600 million from the city and the state, and $500 million from a $1.50-per-night hotel tax. The extension of the number 7-subway line from Times Square to the far West Side would cost about $2 billion, which would come from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
But some predict the stadium will cost the city more than just $300 million, because of debt, additional tax breaks on construction bonds and property taxes, and cost overruns.
City Comptroller Bill Thompson called it an "extremely risky" strategy that could jeopardize the city finances.
The state legislature has already approved the expansion of the Javits Center and will vote on the stadium proposal in early 2005. Even if the stadium is approved, there will still be many unresolved issues. Several lawsuits have already been filed to stop the plan.
Others warn the Jets stadium could also set a dangerous precedent. The Yankees and the Mets also want new stadiums and will likely want taxpayers to help pay for them.
Many believe the Yankees got the best of Mayor Ed Koch, who negotiated their current deal on Yankee Stadium. The city owns the building, but the Yankees pay a relatively small amount in rent. David Dinkins, in contrast, is credited with making a more lucrative deal for the city on the U.S. Tennis Center in Flushing.
TRANSPORTATION
In December, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to raise fares on weekly and monthly Metrocards and commuter rails, increase tolls on bridges and tunnels, and close 164 token booths. The fare hike came just 19 months after the base fare for a subway ride increased from $1.50 to $2.00.
Mayor Bloomberg, who opposed the fare hike, instructed his appointees to the MTA board to vote against it. But it did not affect the outcome of the decision.
Such fare increases and service cuts are needed, the MTA maintains, because the authority has a millions of dollars in deficits; it estimates a $586 million deficit in 2006, rising to $988 million in 2008.
In addition, the MTA’s is unclear how it will pay for $17 billion of the projects outlined in its five-year capital plan to build new projects like the Second Avenue subway, a rail link from lower Manhattan to JFK airport, an extension of the number 7 subway line to the west side of Manhattan.
The state legislature determines how much taxpayer money the MTA will get each year.
Peter Kalikow, the head of the MTA, said recently he would abandon transit expansion projects such as the Second Avenue subway, if the authority does not get funding from the state. Kalikow warned that without new tax revenues the subways could enter a period of decline similar to that of the late 1970s.
While riders are being asked to pay more, the city and the state government want to chip in less for mass transit. Both Mayor Bloomberg and George Pataki have cut funding in recent years.
It has been more than 60 years since any new subway line has opened in the city. But in 2005, mayoral candidates will once again promise that, if elected, they can get it done.
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"Tonight is not about Republicans or Democrats. It's about New Yorkers," Michael Bloomberg told cheering supporters chanting, “USA, USA” on election night of 2001. The photograph on the front page of The New York Times was the city’s new mayor standing beside the new “Mayor of the World” Rudy Giuliani. No one expected Bloomberg to win that election. Six months earlier, in May 2001, Fernando Ferrer had been ahead of Bloomberg by two to one and Mark Green had been beating Bloomberg by three to one.
The terrorist attack on the city changed everything. Giuliani, whose polling numbers were in the toilet before he dropped out of the US Senate race, was now enjoying his highest approval ratings -- 79 percent in the Quinnipiac poll just after the attack. The city’s voters wanted to pull together, not separate along partisan lines. An innocuous businessman who was not caught up in a partisan battle or a tribal political fight typical of the Democrats, seemed like the person to pull us together while the city rebuilt. And he was also supported by Giuliani, who left the impression that Bloomberg would carry on his good works and be able to consult with the master who won his last race in a landslide. Bloomberg promised to carry on what Giuliani started and to expand into areas Giuliani had more or less ignored – he would rebuild the city, keep crime and taxes down, build affordable housing and improve the public schools.
Ferrer that year came from behind, raising the money needed to close the polling gap. He went on to win the primary, but Green rebounded to win a close runoff. Hispanic voters were upset at this loss by their favorite son, and at the tactics used to defeat him. There were also virtually no other contested elections citywide or in minority neighborhoods. All this contributed to a lower than normal Democratic turnout -- about 400,000 votes shy of the turnout in Giuliani’s first two races. Still, the new mayor won with less than fifty thousand votes, less than the margin he received on the Independence Party line, even though he spent almost 75 million dollars of his own money on the campaign.
As we begin the 2005 election, conditions could not be more different. If crime has stayed low, and worries over terrorism have abated, Bloomberg
Also, over the past decade the non-Hispanic white population had decreased by more than ten percent, while the black population has gone up ten percent and Hispanics have gone up 20 percent. When Dinkins first ran for mayor in 1989, the general election was 61 percent white and 28 percent Catholic; in the 2001 election, the white vote was down to 52 percent and the Catholic vote was down to 20 percent. Over the last four elections, the exit polls also showed that self-described conservative voters declined by almost ten percent in each election. The city has also enrolled 13 times as many new Democrats as it enrolled new Republicans. (In the past, enrollment was only five to one). Add to that the increased partisanship in the city following the Bush-Kerry election, and Bloomberg is at a disadvantage.
Public polls have shown him scoring poorly on diverse issues like taxes, budget priorities, public schools, mass transportation, unemployment and poverty. Voters consistently say that he works hard and fights for the city, but that he does not care about people like them. They approve of him as a person a little more than before, but significant majorities still disapprove of him and more importantly think it is time for a new mayor to take office.
In the last election, conventional wisdom said Ferrer would not be able to raise all the money allowed. Not only did he accomplish this task, he was quick enough on his feet to raise it again after 9/11 to be competitive in the runoff. One would expect that all the Democrats will raise the money this year, though conventional wisdom will question the fundraising ability of Fields, because she is a woman candidate and because she entered the race late; her January fundraising and cash-on-hand figures will probably be the weakest. But I believe (and not because she has hired me as a consultant) that conventional wisdom will turn out to be wrong.
Ferrer needs to keep at least some of the black voters he had in the last election, and again get the unusually high favorite-son vote out in the Hispanic community. He will also have to improve his position with the Catholic and Jewish voters he failed to get last time, which might be a challenge since there are two non-Hispanic white candidates in the race. Fields will have to increase turnout among black voters and women in general. She will need to get a disproportionate share of the black votes, and also enjoy a favorable gender gap against her male colleagues.
With Congressman Anthony Weiner in the race, Speaker Miller will have even more trouble getting into the runoff than Speaker Vallone did in the last race, since Fields comes from the same borough as Miller, Manhattan, and Miller does not have Vallone’s access to Italians or Catholic voters. Weiner for his part needs to be the more conservative outer borough Jewish candidate -- conservative in the Koch-for-the-death-penalty sense (Outside the city, Weiner would be considered a left-wing Democrat). Weiner’s problem, shared by Miller, is the decline in the non-Hispanic white population since Koch ran for office.
Bloomberg can win reelection, but he is more vulnerable than past incumbents. Current polling shows two Democrats, Ferrer and Fields, tied or ahead of him at the start of the year, which was never the case at any time during the last mayor’s reelection campaign. A spirited Democratic primary will result in a unified Democratic Party bent on change and an electorate willing to give them the win.
Joseph Mercurio, a political consultant for more than 30 years, is acting director of New York University’s M.A. program in Political Campaign Management. His clients include C. Virginia Fields.