Happy New Year, John!

I kicked off 2023 with one of my favorite rituals: running into the frigid Atlantic Ocean alongside thousands of other intrepid New Yorkers on Coney Island Beach.

This first year as comptroller has felt a lot like the polar bear plunge–taking big exciting new steps with a team of amazing New Yorkers, overcoming challenges, and staying focused on a shared goal of bettering the city we love.

In this first year, we:

• Led the charge to fully fund New York City public schools and fought back against budget cuts that harm our childrens’ education
• Leveraged our role as institutional investors to push companies to treat workers better, set emissions reduction goals, and hire more diverse talent
• Used all our tools to put the focus on confronting climate change, from calling out BlackRock (our largest asset manager) to follow through on climate commitments to policy analysis to help the city respond better to heat waves and flooding
• Held town halls in every borough to connect with New Yorkers across the city about reforming our broken and unfair property tax system, and convened public housing residents to take part in our oversight of NYCHA operations
• And a heckuva lot more

I’m proud of what we accomplished this year, and couldn’t be more excited to build on this work in the year ahead.

For 2023 we’re focused on improving our city’s ability to deliver services, making our economy thrive and advancing its inclusivity, and focusing on long-term risks to the city’s wellbeing.

Here are some of our goals:

• Address the vacancy crisis in city employment to ensure agencies can get stuff done
• Work with trustees and our asset managers to advance our plans to reach net zero emissions in our investment portfolio
• Improve oversight of city departments with persistent operational and management challenges, such as NYCHA and the Department of Correction
• Support our economy as it continues to recover from the pandemic
• Confront the affordable housing crisis
• Create opportunities for minority and women owned businesses to thrive
• Ramp up emergency preparedness
• Focus on infrastructure planning, investment, delivery, and maintenance to get our city ready for the future

The year ahead holds many challenges, including many we cannot yet foresee. But I am confident that together we can tackle them head-on–to build the kind of New York City that we are proud to call home.

Wishing you all a healthy and energizing start to 2023, whether you prefer starting off with a polar plunge or a cozy, restful afternoon.

Brad