BE OUR GUEST
What would New York City be like if the government just worked for everyone? Parents would enroll their children in the neighborhood school — no navigating a byzantine admissions process or tests for 4-year-olds. Entrepreneurs would focus on building their business, not filing paperwork with seven city agencies. We would have the lowest rates of urban homelessness and maternal mortality in the world. You’d take the subway to work and it would be safe and run on time. No matter your zip code, immigration status or skin color, you’d be treated with respect by our police officers. Everyone would have an apartment they could afford. Your mayor would show up to work on time.
I believe the most progressive thing we can do is to make the government work for everyone. But especially for those who need it most.
We face overlapping crises and a public that has lost confidence in the government. I know that these challenges will not be solved by one big policy idea or catchy hashtag. We have to unstick the gears and do the painstaking, unglamorous work of repairing a fractured, bloated bureaucracy.
My career has been about showing up for New Yorkers. Spanning two mayoral administrations, I have served New Yorkers’ everyday needs, from clean drinking water, getting trash picked up and snow plowed — to our greatest challenges.
As incident commander during Hurricane Sandy, I got more than 40 pumping stations and a waste treatment plant back online in 72 hours. During the height of COVID-19, while still commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, I was tasked to ensure no New Yorker would go hungry. We put together a team that has now delivered more than 230 million meals to New Yorkers.
When lead poisoning threatened our children, I stepped up to put in new protocols that would reduce childhood lead exposure by more than 20%.
It’s time to tackle the rise in gun violence ripping through our streets with solutions that work and an eye on the future. It’s time for actual police accountability and a mayor with the courage to do it, not just say the words. It’s time for free child care for families making under $70,000 a year. It’s time for more schools, better schools and putting taxpayer dollars where they belong — in the classroom. It’s time to have the political courage to build more affordable housing and fully repair our public housing. It’s time for a city that leads the world on climate change.
It’s time for a woman in that chair. But more importantly, it’s time for a leader in that chair.