During his third inaugural address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke about successes throughout the city during the past eight years but also outlined areas he wants to focus on this year and during the remainder of his term as New York City mayor.
“But as we consider the bright promise of our future, we cannot ignore the hard times that exist around us,” Bloomberg said on Friday, January 1, from the steps of City Hall. “Many New Yorkers are struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage, to find a job, to feed their families. The road ahead will not be easy, but the journey we have taken together over the past decade fills me with optimism for the one that now lies ahead.”
Bloomberg, who won a closer than expected election in November 2008 against then-City Comptroller Bill Thompson, became the first Independent to take the oath of office. Bloomberg, who ran on the Republican and Independent Party ballot lines, became an Independent during his second term as mayor of New York City and was allowed to run for reelection this year after the City Council passed a law extending term limits.
“Conventional wisdom holds that by a third term, mayors run out of energy and ideas,” Bloomberg said. “But we have proved the conventional wisdom wrong time and again, and I promise you, we will do it once more.”
Bloomberg talked about creating more jobs for those currently unemployed, finding new ways to offer all children a first-rate education and continuing to drive crime down throughout the city as a few items on his agenda.
In addition, Bloomberg talked about the success against battling illegal guns – an issue that critics said could not be dealt with on a local level – and now the city would turn its attention to immigration reform. He spoke about how immigrants helped make New York City the world capital of opportunity and entrepreneurism, and he would work to get a “comprehensive immigration reform that honors our history, upholds our values, and promotes our economy.”
“No city on Earth – no city – should hold these principles higher aloft than this city of immigrants, because no city on Earth has been more rewarded by immigrant labor, more renewed by immigrant ideas, more revitalized by immigrant culture, than the City of New York,” Bloomberg said.
In addition, Bloomberg talked about how, during the first three weeks of the year, deputy commissioners of city agencies would go and work with commissioners of other city agencies in order to improve communication and performance – a similar strategy he utilized when he was running Bloomberg LP.
“We intend to break down the bureaucratic barriers that too often impede innovation, compromise customer service, and cost taxpayers money,” Bloomberg said.
At the end of his address, Bloomberg said that in addition to taking an oath to uphold the laws of the city, he made a personal commitment to each New Yorker to be their mayor.
“And I will not stop working for you – I will not rest – until every job seeker finds work, every high school student graduates, every child is safe from illegal guns, every family has an affordable home, and every New Yorker with a dream finds it within reach,” Bloomberg said.
