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Save Our City
Mayor de Blasio delivered his State of the City speech on Thursday, unveiling the agenda for his seventh year in office, in many ways the final chapter of his mayoralty. He called on New Yorkers to help him “Save Our City”: save it from the loss of neighborhood businesses, the continuing affordability crisis and the threat from climate change.
The forces the mayor described are, to many New Yorkers, very old news. People have been shouting for a long time that the mayor's moves on housing development and homelessness were inadequate, and perhaps even harmful. There've been years of pressure for action to protect small businesses. Others have sounded alarm over the need for more resiliency against the inevitable impact of climate change. One wonders why it took the mayor so long to listen.
However, if there's a chance to get it right now, that might be more valuable than the satisfaction of hearing the mayor admit that his aim was slightly off over his first six years. The agenda de Blasio outlined yesterday includes a lot of common-sense steps. But is it bold enough to meet the challenges the mayor described?
“Save Our City” obviously evokes “Save Our Ship,” the universal maritime distress call. When that call is sounded, every vessel large and small is supposed to race to help. If the city is going to weather these storms, it might borrow something from that metaphor and make sure there is a way to engage the public in shaping the policies we pursue—a place for all New Yorkers, not just in the city, but in the saving.
- Jarrett Murphy, executive editor
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