TAKING ‘ISSUE’ WITH HOPEFULS
Those who would be mayor lay out their top
The Daily News posed the following question to eight leading candidates for mayor: What is your biggest idea to help the people of the city?
Their answers follow, edited for length.
DELIVERING REAL-TIME GOVERNMENT SERVICES
NewYork City’s government is dysfunctional — and its inefficiencies created inequalities and injustices that existed long before COVID-19. Now that we face a dangerous public health crisis, widespread unemployment, and spikes in crime, hunger and homelessness, it is essential that city government be overhauled to deliver for those who need it the most.
Instead of going from crisis to crisis, I would institute real-time governing by putting every agency on one digital platform and creating a regularly updated score to monitor the city’s performance. Boston does this through its CityScore program, and it has revolutionized their government. Here in New York, a real-time system will reduce inefficiencies, saving us billions that can be reinvested in New Yorkers. Our government will also become much more proactive, improving quality of life. And, eventually, predictive, identifying problems before they become problems.
One platform for all city services would also allow us to launch my MyCity plan — a single portal for all city benefits and services that will be accessible through the web or an app. Right now, it is a full-time job to be poor in New York. By streamlining services and creating one common application for all benefits, we will be able to ensure that every New Yorker who qualifies for public assistance gets it. MyCity will also make it far easier to own a business, apply for a permit, manage your child’s education, and to deal with the city in hundreds of other ways.
Adams is president.
15-MINUTE NEIGHBORHOODS
SBrooklyn borough ince we’ve launched our campaign, we’ve introduced some of the most innovative and detailed policy proposals, totaling over 45,000 words on many topics, all of which to ensure that we create a city that works for all New Yorkers.
That said, my plan to create 15 Minute Neighborhoods across NYC is where all of our investments come together, and will have the largest impact on changing New
York for the better.
If you live in a wealthy neighborhood, you already know what a “15 Minute Neighborhood” is — where everything is easily accessible to you, from good schools and grocers to great doctors and transportation. However, 15-minute neighborhoods should not only be available to the privileged. Every New Yorker deserves to have access to a great public school, fresh food, rapid transportation, a park, quality health care, and a chance to get ahead, all within 15 minutes of their front door.
This proposal would have a profound impact on the health and wellness of all New Yorkers, by making sure they have access to fresh food and quality healthcare. My plan will also bring affordable, high-speed internet access everywhere in New York City. This plan will build thriving neighborhoods across our city, and will make our city the safest and most connected city in the world.
Donovan was housing commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, and federal housing secretary and budget director under President Obama.
The next mayor will be managing multiple crises at once, none bigger than the economic recovery and reopening of New York City. My comprehensive recovery plan will support families and create new jobs and stable housing for New Yorkers, so that we can achieve greater equality and bring back our city’s vibrant culture. The job of mayor is to be more than just visionary. It’s to execute plans so that New Yorkers see relief immediately.
We have to take care of families. Our caregivers have been pushed beyond acceptable limits during this pandemic.
Women are often primary caregivers, and they have shouldered the brunt of pandemic-related unemployment. My recovery plan will deliver free childcare to children ages 0-3 for families making under $70,000 a year. We must give our families the support they need and every opportunity to achieve economic growth.
My recovery plan also includes a city jobs guarantee for graduates of CUNY and NYC trade schools. Our city government can be the launchpad for a stable career and economic mobility.
My recovery plan addresses subpar housing, which can be an impediment to success. NYCHA needs $40 billion dollars in repairs urgently — $1 or $2 billion will not cut it. I have proposed enacting our emergency plan for NYCHA on day one. That means executing on the plans we have in front of us immediately. Our neighbors deserve housing with dignity now.
Garcia was sanitation commissioner under Mayor de Blasio.
BRING BACK JOBS
As a successful businessman, I understand how difficult it is to stay profitable, but I also know that the only way to do it is by taking care of your team. That’s why my plan for generating the greatest economic comeback in our city’s history begins by helping both workers and small businesses.
My Comeback Job Accelerator will bring back 50,000 jobs by covering 50% of a worker’s salary for one year at small businesses that were hardest hit by the pandemic. They could apply for the subsidy for multiple employees, but the program would likely be capped at 50% of a business’s January 2020 headcount. Workers could be fullor part-time.
Unlike other forms of financial assistance, my program allows subsidized workers to access additional federal funds via the earned income
FREE CHILDCARE FOR TOTS ZERO TO THREE
BY KATHRYN GARCIA
tax credit and child tax credit, since those are generally only available to employed people with incomes. It will also help keep small businesses alive since they can rehire employees at a reduced rate. I will work with small business leaders to tailor the program’s scope, but will prioritize businesses that lost more than 40% of their revenue compared to 2019 levels, and those communities hardest hit by unemployment due to the pandemic.
McGuire executive.
HOUSING SHOULD BE A RIGHT
Uwas a
Citigroup nder a Morales administration, dignified housing will be declared a right. My first 100 days will include a rigorous assessment of vacancies, abandoned commercial spaces and unoccupied territory to immediately get people in safer and healthier environments.
Housing people is not where it ends. Our NYCHA residents have endured subpar, inhumane conditions like inconsistent heat and hot water. Every dignified home will have the basics, which in addition to heat and hot water, include internet and accessible green space. As mayor, I will advocate for federal relief, but also for Albany to do its part to address this; it’s not only up to federal leadership.
I will work to do everything in my power to house everyone in long-term supportive, social and fully funded public housing. Even recent violent crimes spring from our city under-prioritizing housing, especially for Black, Brown and poor New Yorkers. Real safety comes with ensuring that all New Yorkers are seen as human and given this basic dignity and right. This would allow us to start envisioning the real needs of our city from there.
Morales was executive. a nonprofit
AFFORDABLE HOUSING, FOR REAL
New York City’s housing and homelessness crisis has been decades in the making. What’s missing is the leadership, experience and vision to tackle the crisis, head-on. As mayor, I will launch a sweeping program for Universal Affordable Housing — building deeply affordable housing that low- and extremely low-income New Yorkers need and can actually afford.
My plan for Universal Affordable Housing would harness the thousands of cityowned vacant lots currently sitting unused, and build tens of thousands of new 100% permanent affordable housing units in partnership with a new City Land Bank and community land trusts. These units would be targeted to the 560,000 New Yorkers in desperate need of housing justice.
In addition, I will require that every new as-of-right development across New York City set aside 25% of units for low- and very-low-income New Yorkers. This will help to desegregate New York’s wealthiest communities, and provide thousands of units of Universal Affordable Housing throughout the five boroughs.
And I have a plan to pay for it: realigning our property taxes to be less regressive on middle-class New Yorkers with mortgages, and more progressive overall. In total, my vision for Universal Affordable Housing will begin a paradigm shift in this city. The entry fee to New York cannot be a $2 million condo, and my plan will create a city where everybody has a fair and fighting chance to make it.
Stringer is the city’s controller.
ASSISTING FAMILY CAREGIVERS
New York is in an economic crisis and women are shouldering the burdens — from ditching jobs to help children struggle through on-line learning, to caring for family members while working in the care economy for low pay in dangerous conditions. That’s why I have a Universal Community Care plan to give at least 100,000 of New York City’s most in-need family caregivers a $5,000 yearly grant to help them give that care. I will also create neighborhood care centers that provide childcare, eldercare, and other critical services.
We have to make New York a city where everyone can live with dignity, and that means caring for those who care for us. New York City has always recovered from crisis, but this time, care workers will get what they have earned. The cost will be paid for by trimming the NYPD cadet class by 2,250, and redirecting that money to New York’s caregivers.
My Universal Community Care plan builds off my New Deal New York plan — a bold plan that helps us grow, solve problems and invest in hard-hit communities. I will invest $10 billion to build affordable housing, invest in Green New Deal projects, invest in NYCHA and more. It will put residents back to work, creating 100,000 new jobs while addressing our city’s deepening inequities. Even better, this is a plan New York City can enact entirely on our own.
Wiley, who served as counsel to Mayor de Blasio, is a civil rights attorney.
A MINIMUM BASIC INCOME
Our boldest pledge is to end deep poverty — and the crime, homelessness and mental health issues that inevitably stem from it — by providing a minimum basic income to those who’ve been overlooked in our city for too long. We can’t rebuild our city if we neglect those who’ve suffered the most during the pandemic. I was proud to transform direct cash relief from a fringe, progressive idea into the centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s national economic recovery plan, and I’m going to bring that same energy to City Hall so our people, our businesses, and our institutions can fully rebuild stronger than ever before.
Yang is a tech entrepreneur and was a Democratic candidate for president.