‘Rebirth’ vowed
Blaz sees big moves in post-bug city
Mayor de Blasio served up lots of soaring rhetoric but few details in a Thursday speech announcing his vision for the city’s recovery from the ravages of coronavirus.
“New York City has a long history of being a beacon to the world. We must be a beacon to the world again as we face these new challenges,” he said at a Manhattan press conference. “There will be a rebirth. There will be a renaissance for New York City.”
He went on to outline four areas of focus for the recovery: greater investment in the city’s public health infrastructure, creating “high-quality” jobs and continuing to fight COVID, all while focusing on “historically underserved” communities. “We’re going to prioritize these investments in health care as the core of our economic development strategy,” Hizzoner said.
“We’ll make smart and targeted investments, but I believe there’s going to be a lot of other resources that will go where the action is and we have to make this that place,” he continued, adding that he believes the federal government and private sector are going to pour lots of funds into public health.
He pointed to Cornell University’s tech campus on Roosevelt Island — which was championed by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a frequent target of de Blasio’s criticism — as a “great example” of the kind of project he wants to encourage.
Earlier this month, a small army of CEOs wrote de Blasio urging him to address a host of problems stemming from the pandemic, which had claimed 23,785 lives as of Thursday, according to the city Health Department.
Asked for further details of his plan, Hizzoner repeatedly kicked the can down the road.
“You’re going to see a bigger plan,” he said. “We’re going to lay out specific plans. We’re going to go from there.”
Hizzoner also announced a competition to design “rapid, reliable and inexpensive testing.” He spoke outside a special Pandemic Response Lab in the Alexandria Center for Life Science on E.29 th St ., which officials said will be able to process 20,000 tests per day by November.
“Rapid testing will be one of the keys to overcoming this crisis,” de Blasio said.