De Blasio Leaves Promises Unfulfilled, Kisses City Hall Goodbye

NEW YORK CITY — All New York City mayors have run on the unstated but implicit promise that they have not, and will not, cause the death of a groundhog.

All have kept that promise, except one.

Mayor Bill de Blasio — New York’s workout-loving, Cuomo-ripping, White House-dreaming hizzoner of the past eight years — leaves City Hall New Years Day and, with it, a legacy of promises made and kept, he says.

"You know, we really got to a lot of the things we wanted to the most," de Blasio told NY1. "If you take the initial platform from 2013, and you follow it through, there's a really good hit rate there.”

Among those promises are universal pre-K, a $15 minimum wage and a deep respect for composting.

But a Patch review of the de Blasio administration found many promises left unfulfilled. The NYPD's budget was not cut by $1 billion, Vision Zero did not achieve its zero traffic deaths goal and Juneteenth was not made a city holiday.

And New Yorkers preparing for yet another COVID-19 outbreak, watching carriage horses clop down Fifth Avenue, or worrying about loved ones alone on Rikers Island can tell you of the promises he did not keep.

But if de Blasio’s broken promises have outraged New Yorkers, what bothered spokesperson Mitch Schwartz was Patch’s request for comment on them.

"Wait really? This is all going in one story?" Schwartz said in an email. "I mean we will happily go through these one at a time at great length if that’s what you want. But to throw all these extremely complex issues together … is maybe a little bit rich for our taste."

'Day One'
For Christine Quinn, former City Council speaker and de Blasio’s main opponent in the 2013 mayoral race, the carriage horses leave her feeling let down.

“He said, ‘Day one, I’m going to get rid of them,’” Quinn said. “All he did was take those peoples’ money and take them for a ride.”

De Blasio began the 2013 mayoral race as a long-shot candidate but when Quinn ran afoul of animal rights advocates for refusing to back a ban on horse carriages in Central Park, he seized an opportunity.

“We have a pro-animal Mayor,” the well-funded group NYClass declared. “Bill de Blasio is one of us.”

But eight years later, and despite a recent pledge to pass the ban, the animal activists are still waiting to see the carriage horses freed from their reins. The mayor's officials argue the ban has always required City Council support.

Quinn, now CEO of the homeless shelter operator Win, says de Blasio’s horse carriage ban promise reflects a politician more interested in press releases than people.

Or horses.

“All they care about is what’s on Twitter and what’s in the paper,” Quinn said. “We’ve seen a lot of that over these past eight years, and a lot of that during a terrible pandemic.”

Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the proudly progressive promise at the core of de Blasio’s platform.

“City Hall has too often catered to the interests of the elite rather than the needs of everyday New Yorkers,”de Blasio said at a 2013 campaign kickoff event in Park Slope. “This is a place that in too many ways has become a tale of two cities.”

The "two cities" was de Blasio's lodestar— a worldview he said would inform his administration’s economic policy, the fight against homelessness and police reform action.

And when de Blasio’s office released a report this month touting his success combatting income inequality, it was entitled “The Tale of a More Equal City.”

Among its findings, from 2013 to 2019, New York City’s poverty rate dropped nearly 13 percent, the median income for Black families increased 27 percent and wage share increased 15 percent for the least wealthy half of city workers.

“The de Blasio Administration has led one of the most concerted civic efforts in modern history to redistribute wealth,” the report states.

“Progress has occurred not in one single area of focus, but by addressing inequality wherever it existed in the lives of everyday New Yorkers.”

But Census Bureau data contradict the rosy picture painted in the mayor’s report, according to an analysis from the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York.

The analysis notes median income grew in 2019 but poorer New Yorkers saw modest increases while the wealthier saw incomes increase more than 20 percent.

“The consequences of rising inequality hit families of color and single mothers hardest,” the report notes. “Exacerbating deep vulnerabilities for children from low-income households.”

These are the communities Quinn’s nonprofit works to support and which she argues de Blasio failed to help.

“Nobody can bat a thousand,” Quinn said. “But Mayor de Blasio as it relates to homelessness and promises, he’s not breaking .250.”

De Blasio’s administration achieved historic victories — such as establishing the right to legal representation in housing court — and, according to City Hall estimates, decreased the city’s homeless population from 53,000 to 46,000.

Mayor's officials argue de Blasio's administration built more affordable housing than any other mayoralty in the city's history, including those that went on for three terms — a jibe at his predecessor Michael Bloomberg.

But Quinn notes de Blasio struggled to create supportive housing units promised and homeless advocates told City Limits the administration held back on resources badly needed during the pandemic.

Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership For NYC, argued de Blasio’s inability to get resources where they were needed stemmed from a phrase the mayor used to prove his progressive bona fides.

As de Blasio declared New York should “tax the rich” to fund MTA fixes, improve universal pre-K and, when the pandemic ravaged the economy, to close budget gaps, he pointlessly antagonized the business community, Wylde said.

"That’s a kind of disrespect of folks who represent a huge part of the tax base,” Wylde said. “[And] as mayor, he has no ability to raise income taxes.”

Mayor's officials acknowledge raising taxes on the rich required help from the state — a tall order when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was at the helm.

Still, fueled by a global pandemic de Blasio did not cause, the MTA stumbled into an economic crisis, universal pre-K faltered in low-income neighborhoods and the 2021 budget potentially created billions in future deficits.

This battle to create a balanced New York City budget and rescue the city from an impending financial crisis brought to the forefront a “Two Cities” promise New Yorkers marched in the streets to demand de Blasio keep.

Chanted protesters who wanted police reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death, “Defund the police.”

De Blasio’s administration struggled over the years to balance the progressive promises he made as a campaigner with his obligations to work alongside police leadership and unions as mayor.

After years of mounting tension as frustrated cops turned their backs on the mayor and reformers demanded justice for Eric Garner, Deborah Danner, Saheed Vassell and more, violence erupted during the 2020 protests.

De Blasio responded to these demands in part in 2020 when he cut the NYPD budget by $1 billion.

“It's time to do the work of reform, to think deeply about where our police have to be in the future,” de Blasio said. “We have done that with neighborhood policing and we need to go farther now in new directions that will keep the City safe.”

But critics argued the moves only shifted NYPD funds to other departments — a "shell game," in Quinn's words. A Politico report a year later showed very few proposed cuts materialized as police received funding for a new Queens precinct, school safety agents and crossing guards.

'Grade Him On A Curve'

New Yorkers aren't kind to their mayors.

They boo, heckle and jeer them at public appearances. They cry "good riddance" when the mayors leave office.

“I think that’s kind of par for the course,” former Council Member Costa Constantinides said. “Being New York City mayor is a really hard job.”

But Constantinides, who left his Council seat in April, said de Blasio also took action that made life better for New Yorkers, including an emissions reduction bill, upgrades at Astoria Park and an increase in affordable housing.

He also noted any critique of de Blasio’s tenure must acknowledge he faced one of the greatest challenges a city mayor can — a global pandemic.

"I’m of a mind to grade him on a curve,” Constantinides said. "There’s a lot of big picture stuff that I feel were real wins.”

Patch writer Kathleen Culliton contributed to this report.