Closing arguments: Wiley and Yang

My 16-year-old son: He needs a future. Please. Please.” Those are the words that have been ringing in my ears since I heard them last week. They are the reason I am running for mayor, though I don’t know the name of the woman who spoke them to me and may never meet her son.

I went to vote early last week at Erasmus High School. After I was done, a volunteer came up to me. She was an older West Indian woman with a thick accent.

I did not know this mother but I know it is her hopes and fears that called me into this race. My campaign has proposed bold, progressive ideas that will transform our city and ensure New York City doesn’t just recover, but rises. We have put forth plans to create 100,000 jobs in the neighborhoods that actually need them most — in the South Bronx and Brownsville and Southeast Queens, the neighborhoods that have always been hit hardest by past recessions but never been centered in past recoveries.

We have a plan to invest billions in city projects and housing; to invest in our beloved local small and minority-and women-owned businesses; to provide $5,000 grants for the 100,000 most in-need families; an education plan that hires 2,500 teachers and improves our schools; big investment in the fight against climate change, and much more. Every single one of these plans is paid for and doesn’t require Albany approval.

I also have a plan to keep us all safe — from crime and police violence — by creating a balanced approach that shifts $1 billion from our bloated police to our communities to respond to crises and problems that don’t require a badge and a gun with the right responders. I will focus our officers on responding to violent crime, and partnering with communities on preventing violent crime from happening in the first place.

This Tuesday, New Yorkers face a tough choice. Over the past few months, they’ve heard from candidates who want to return to old ideas that never worked, like stopand-frisk. They’ve heard from candidates who want to bring us right back to the status quo we had before COVID, and then maybe tinkering with it a bit, seeing if it can work slightly better. I don’t think this is a moment for tinkering. I think it’s a moment for fixing what’s broken and what’s been broken for a long time. What’s broken for that 16-yearold boy and his immigrant mother who worries that this city won’t give him a chance.

Wiley is a Democratic candidate for mayor.

Ilaunched my campaign in January to transform how our city functions. I’m not a product of the city’s bureaucracy and I haven’t cut deals or made promises to special interests to work my way up the ladder of local politics.

My plans start with tackling the gun violence epidemic. We can’t expect people to get back on the subway, tourists to visit, or businesses to reopen at pre-pandemic levels if the murder rate is steeply rising.

Specifically, my public safety plans include doubling funding for the Gun Suppression Division, which focuses on getting illegal guns off our streets and creating a new Anti-Violence Division that will be staffed by experienced and well-trained officers.

We’re also going to have officers visually inspect each subway train twice during its route. I called for more officers in our subways back in February, and the city and MTA finally listened months later.

Second, I’ll make sure prosperity reaches every New Yorker. We’ll start by launching a $1 billion cash relief program to get the poorest New Yorkers $2,000 checks every year.

The recent $1,400 checks helped Black and Brown neighborhoods in particular. A study just revealed that new business openings surged in these communities after the checks were distributed.

My administration will launch a public bank known as the People’s Bank. The city will initially give out $100 million in loans a year to small businesses overlooked by corporate banks who are more interested in profit than supporting the community.

And third, we are going to cut street homelessness in half and build or produce 30,000 units of affordable housing a year — the most in a generation. It’s not a coincidence one in 10 kids experience homelessness while our city had some of the lowest rates of housing construction of any city in the country.

In addition, we’re going to get rid of the local filibuster known as member deference. Right now, a single Council member can block new affordable housing or a new rezoning that can benefit the entire city. That isn’t right. Sticking to the same playbook and the same bureaucrats and politicians who got us into this mess won’t cut it. New Yorkers deserve a better city, not the one we’ve been forced to settle for.

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