DeB vows to fight 'affordability crisis'

Mayor de Blasio returned to campaign fighting form Monday as he made the city’s “affordability crisis” the centerpiece of his annual State of the City speech while criticizing his predecessor’s lack of action on that front.

“Our city and who we are is threatened by an affordability crisis,” he said in the address at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, which was rented out for the occasion at a cost to taxpayers of $35,000.

“My message to all New Yorkers tonight is very simple and, I hope, very clear: This is your city . . . You made it what it is. And it’s our job to protect that.”

He made a number of major policy proposals, including:

A “mansion tax” to be passed in Albany on the sale of homes valued at $2 million or more. Proceeds from such a tax, which the city estimates at $336 million per year, would go to lower the cost of rent for 25,000 seniors.

A legal-services initiative that would have the city hire lawyers for all low-income tenants fighting cases of eviction and harassment in Housing Court. The effort would gradually grow to cost $93 million per year.

A job-creation push that would include a $136 million investment in an industrial campus in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, that would produce films and televi- sion shows starting in 2020.

The mayor said the campus would bring 1,500 new jobs and be part of a larger effort to create 40,000 jobs over the next four years and 100,000 over the next decade — extending well past a potential second-term in office.

“This new initiative, this new focus on creating more and more good-paying jobs, will be the new front line in the battle to keep New York City affordable,” he said.

The mayor also took a few jabs at his predecessor, Mike Bloomberg — something he has largely avoided doing since early in his tenure as mayor.

“The Great Recession hit New York hard, and there weren’t enough answers,” said de Blasio, who is up for re-election this year. “When I took office, we had 370,000 city workers who didn’t have a contract . . . We weren’t making, as a city, investments in so many of the things we needed to keep.”