Beyond NYPD crisis, New York mayor's first year marked by innovation (Christian Science Monitor)

[inanna]

On Monday, Mayor de Blasio launched the nation’s largest municipal ID program. In his first year, he also rolled out universal pre-K, an affordable housing initiative, and launched a program that has reduced traffic deaths.

New York — Despite a tumultuous first year and the ongoing crisis with the New York Police Department, the city’s first liberal mayor in 20 years has nevertheless begun to lay the foundations for the significant changes he promised New Yorkers a year ago.

While the tensions with the police department promise to reverberate well into the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, his first year was not without significant and potentially lasting accomplishments, many observers say. From the virtually seamless rollout of his signature universal pre-K education plan, to his new long-term affordable housing initiatives, as well as his focus on public health and safety issues and his deft handling of the Ebola crisis, the mayor has made his mark.

On Monday, Mayor de Blasio launched one of his smaller initiatives, the nation’s largest municipal ID program. The new city-resident-only IDs are designed to help New York City’s estimated 500,000 undocumented immigrants, as well as the elderly poor and homeless, to open bank accounts, sign leases, and utilize a variety of the city’s services.

“This is a historic day because for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers this’ll be the first time they could get any kind of ID,” de Blasio said Monday morning at a library in Queens. “This is the launch of something that will make life better in this city, and it fulfills a promise that we made ... It will mean people can lead fuller lives, better lives – lives full of respect and recognition.”

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Link: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0112/Beyond-NYPD-crisis-New-York-mayor-s-first-year-marked-by-innovation

[Stellar]

1. Bill de Blasio is a good Major and a good guy.

I wish That I could trade him in for our major...Emanuel.