Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a new website Monday that outlines his administration’s goals to help New Yorkers.
The NYC Digital Playbook was created following weeks of discussions with New Yorkers and various city agencies and lays out strategies and policies that will improve transparency in broad strokes.
De Blasio talked about the site with Arianna Huffington and said he hopes the site can make people push city government to be better.
“We want the information that people need to address the challenges of everyday lives and to be more accessible,” he said.
The site features slideshows on various government improvement goals such as translating agency websites into multiple languages and providing access to the IDNYC forms. The playbook also has case studies on the administration’s strategies that worked such as the online portal for universal Pre-K.
Christina Greer, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, said the launch of the site comes at a needed time for de Blasio who had a 35% approval rating according to an April Marist College poll. Recent scandals involving an investigation into his donors and staffers have also kept the attention off his policies, Greer said.
Although the playbook is filled with general strategies and policies, the professor said it could lead to something more tangible in the near future.
“I think he’s just trying to lay out ideas now so he can walk them through in the months to come,” she said.
