Bill de Blasio now stands (potentially) poised to move into Gracie Mansion as the new mayor of New York City, triumphing over the underdog, Republican candidate, Joseph Lhota, in Tuesday’s election.
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De Blasio is the first mayor elected in 12 years and the first Democratic mayor since 1989.
He expressed a need to divert from the methods used by our soon-to-be former mayor, Michael Bloomberg, during his campaign. 73.3 % of New Yorkers were intent on giving him the chance to do so, compared to Joseph Lhota’s 24.3% of votes, lagging significantly behind the Democratic front runner.
Among a series of pressing issues, de Blasio is particularly being asked to address taxes, full time job prospects, and the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy during his mayorship.
De Blasio says he will stop giving tax breaks to companies in the city. In addition, he envisions a process that includes opening vocational schools outside of the public high school system to lead students to a City University of New York. He would like to improve CUNY in order to provide an affordable institution of higher education to graduating high schoolers in NYC. CUNY graduates will then have the opportunity to obtain jobs with sufficient incomes.
De Blasio wants to ultimately raise wages and benefits for workers collecting low salaries. He advocates for a universal prekindergarten and after school programs for middle school students, paid for by increasing taxes of those making $500,000 or more annually, to solve the issue of wage inequality.
Our newly elected mayor would like to shape a city that is accepting of the LGBT community. De Blasio expresses his own commitment to equality for all New Yorkers through programs that he intends to initiate for LGBT youth services, through housing for LGBT seniors, and through expansion of health insurance coverage in the LGBT community with a focus on those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.
In NYC schools, de Blasio agrees to maintain sexual education classes in public middle and high schools in addition to continuing to distribute birth control pills and morning-after pills in city schools.
De Blasio believes that the stop and frisk practice, “disproportionately target[s] people of color and create[s] anger and distrust toward officers when we need more cooperation between cops and communities. Innocent New Yorkers should not be subject to invasive and baseless searches strictly on the account of race.” Bill de Blasio will reportedly sign legislation to end racial profiling.
De Blasio’s portrayal of his own biracial family in his campaign may have gained him votes in the Black and Hispanic communities of NYC. He ran ads featuring his daughter Chiara and his son Dante who sports an afro. Jadeen Samuels ‘16 responded to the ad by saying, “I think it was bold and shows his desire to move away from the idea of a ‘traditional’ family.” According to exit polls conducted by the New York Times, de Blasio attracted voters of different genders, races, ages, sexual orientation, and religion. The majority of his votes came from Black and Hispanic men and women.
De Blasio delivered his victory speech at the Park Slope Armory in Brooklyn surrounded by his family and a bursting crowd of enthusiastic supporters. The newly elected mayor who will take office on January 1st declared, “So I say to you tonight: The road ahead will be difficult, but it will be traveled. Progressive changes won’t happen overnight, but they will happen. There will be many obstacles that stand in our way, but we will overcome them. And know this: I will never stop fighting for the city I love, and we all love, so much. And I will never forget that, as mayor, I work for you.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYb_Q7zUAws