By Rich Bockmann
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio campaigned on a populist message the city was ready to hear, NY1 host Errol Louis told York College last week, and his transition to City Hall will depend on how the city helps him to turn that message into policy.
“And so a lot of the coverage you’re going to see is going to be about Bill de Blasio and his family and his party and his beliefs … but I think it’s really important that we not leave out the most important ingredients, which were not just the people who came to vote this week but the people all throughout the year who got involved,” the host of “Inside City Hall” told the attendees at the first executive leadership breakfast of the school year. “And it’s important that not simply fall off.”
“Believe me, what we have now is a mayor-elect who has some ideas and some input and a leadership team that got him through the election, but they are very much going to need more help, more ideas, more people,” he added.
There are just about six weeks until the inauguration of the city’s first new mayor in 12 years, when de Blasio will be greeted with a $2 billion budget gap and some 300,000 municipal workers looking for retroactive raises and new contracts — challenges that will require the ambitious progressive to be pragmatic.
But a lot has changed since Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped into the office in 2002, and in the digital age his successor is getting some help.
A coalition of foundations has organized a campaign dubbed Talking Transition to help bring the public into the transition process. With a tent set up in SoHo, the Twitter hashtag #TalkingTransition and mobile tents ready to pop up in places such as Flushing, Elmhurst and Jamaica, the campaign is asking New Yorkers to weigh in with their thoughts and ideas.
Louis is bullish on some of de Blasio’s initiatives — such as successfully lobbying Albany to raise the income tax on the city’s top earners — but said the new mayor will have to flesh out some of his campaign promises.
For example, the city Housing Authority currently has a $14 billion hole in its budget. When asked on the campaign trail how he would address the red ink, de Blasio said he would stop having NYCHA pay the Police Department to provide security on its properties, a solution that would save only $75 million.
“Well, when you’re in the heat of the debate, that’s a good enough answer and everybody claps and then you move on, but you know the election is over. The debates are over,” Louis said. “Jan. 1 he gets sworn in. That $14 billion accumulated debt is still there and you know you say you’re going to fire John Rhea, the head of the housing authority. OK, now he’s fired. Now it’s Jan. 2. Now what?”
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
