THE CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
NEW YORK, NY 10007
Mayor de Blasio believes all New Yorkers deserve a chance to succeed in the greatest city on earth. That means every child gets a quality education, every community is safe, and every New Yorker has an affordable place to call home. In 2016, we built on our record of progress.
ü Equity and excellence in all schools, preparing our students for the 21st century economy.
o About 70,000 kids enrolled in Pre-K, more than triple the 20,000 children who attended before the Pre-K for All expansion.
o 103 reading coaches hired, trained, and on the job to get our students reading at grade level.
o City students scoring much higher on English exams, now in lockstep with NYS peers.
o Dedicated counselors called “Single Shepherds” for 16,000 students from middle school to college.
o 100 schools selected to receive over $3.5 million in new direct funding to build school-wide college and career readiness culture.
o High school graduation rate over 70 percent for the first time ever.
o Eliminated CUNY application fee for qualifying high school seniors.
o Lowest-ever high school dropout rate, and the highest-ever rate of students enrolling in college.
ü Modern approach to public safety – safer streets, safer every day.
o January was the safest January on record – followed by the safest summer, safest September and safest October.
o Expanded neighborhood policing, launched force-wide trainings on implicit bias, alternatives to physical force, and conflict de-escalation à Stop-and-Frisk has declined by 97% from an all-time high in 2011.
o Arrests are down, murders and shootings at historic lows, record low numbers of robberies, burglaries, and auto thefts.
o Vision Zero efforts made 2015 the safest year on New York City streets since 1910, and 2016 is on course to be even safer.
o Opened a state-of-the-art, fully redundant 911 call center to protect the city’s essential emergency response system in the event of disaster.
o Distributed more than 7,000 kits of naloxone, a lifesaving medicine that reverses opioid overdose.
ü Easing financial burden, tackling the affordability crisis, and creating opportunity.
o Fought for New Yorkers struggling to make the rent or find affordable housing.
§ Two consecutive rent freezes (2015 and 2016), keeping rent stable for 2.5 million tenants.
§ 150,000 people benefited from the expanded use of emergency rent assistance.
§ Stood up to bad landlords using all available tools – such as withholding rent and increasing funding for New Yorkers to access legal services – to hold landlords accountable.
§ Evictions down by 24 percent, meaning 21,000 people are still in their homes.
§ Replaced voluntary rules with a mandatory affordable housing requirement in new buildings.
§ On track to build and preserve 200,000 affordable housing apartments over the coming decade, benefitting half-a-million people. This year, the Mayor has secured 15,105 apartments to date. We’ve secured 55,309 affordable apartments since taking office, an all-time high for new, affordable construction.
o Fought for New York City’s homeowners.
§ Proposed a $183 water credit on the water bills of over 664,000 homeowners, in keeping with the City’s past efforts to ensure bills stay as low as possible.
§ Saved 35,000 homeowners tens of millions of dollars in flood insurance premiums by working with FEMA.
o Bolstering an economy with good-paying jobs, creating opportunities for people to get ahead.
§ Created 60,000 new jobs in 2016 so far, and nearly 277,000 jobs since the Mayor took office.
§ Unveiled a $500 million initiative, LifeSci NYC, to spur 16,000 new, good-paying jobs and establish New York City as a global leader in life sciences research and innovation.
§ Prohibited City agencies from inquiring about salary history as part of the hiring process.
§ Signed a personnel order to provide paid parental leave to approximately 20,000 New York City employees – putting the City at the forefront of city and state policies around the country.
§ Ensured all custodial workers in public schools make the prevailing wage.
o Fought for New Yorkers who need to get to work on time.
§ Eligible workers can now use pre-tax income to pay for their commuting costs, saving commuters $800 to $1,000 dollars a year.
§ Added 18 miles of new protected bike lanes.
§ Expansion of CitiBike to more New Yorkers, adding thousands of new bikes and hundreds of stations in 2016 across Red Hook, Brownstone Brooklyn, and Harlem.
§ Filled the administration’s one-millionth pothole and made a historic investment in repaving, reducing the need for future pothole repair.
§ Repaved city streets equivalent to the distance between New York City and Miami, Florida.
o Committed to holistic investments in NYCHA communities, home for 400,000 New Yorkers.
§ Across-the-board improvements for safer, cleaner, and more connected communities throughout New York City.
§ Comprehensive roof repairs.
§ Security enhancements, including lights, cameras, and new doors.
§ Technology investments such as broadband and Wi-Fi.
o Fought for the city’s most vulnerable.
§ HOME-STAT fully operational: outreach workers are identifying, engaging, and transitioning homeless New Yorkers to services and, ultimately, permanent housing.
§ Nearly 48,000 New Yorkers moved into permanent housing and avoided or exited shelters through permanent housing programs.
§ About 12,000 more households have been able to receive services from the HomeBase homelessness prevention program in each of the past two years.
ü Launched NYC Well, a 24/7 phone, text, or chat connection to mental health and substance misuse services.
o Convened 1,000 houses of worship to talk about mental illness and addiction, reaching 250,000 New Yorkers.
o Created a system to screen and treat 80 percent of pregnant women and new moms, with a goal of screening and treating ALL pregnant women and new moms for maternal depression.
o Mental health support for every school in the city.
o Placed over 100 Mental Health Service Corps (MHSC) members in neighborhoods with the highest need across the city.
o Launched the first, city-based movement for mental health – Cities Thrive. More than 80 cities have committed to mental health as a municipal policy and programming priority and to federal advocacy.
ü Progressive Governance.
o For three years running, added to the City’s financial reserves, preparing us for any potential shocks to the system.
o Defended New York values. We are #AlwaysNewYork.
o Stood up for the 65,000 hourly employees in the fast food industry who deserve fair notification on their work hours.
o Funded major improvements in city parks and purchased the last site needed to complete the 28-acre Bushwick Inlet Park, fulfilling a promise made to the families of North Brooklyn.
o Expanded graffiti removal, introduced sidewalk power washing in commercial corridors citywide, expanded Sunday and holiday litter basket service, and expanded highway shoulder and ramp cleanup.
o Shattered enrollment expectations for the country’s most ambitious municipal identification program, IDNYC.
o Opened the Damian Family Care Center in the Bronx to serve 10,000 community residents.
o Launched the nation’s first government-led citywide ad campaign affirming every New Yorker’s right to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity.
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Sarah Sayeed, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor
NYC Office of the Mayor, Community Affairs Unit
Tel: 212-676-4939 (o)
Tel: 929-270-6542 (m)
Follow us on Twitter: @MayorsCAU
