Halfway through our first term, it is time to look back on and celebrate all we have accomplished together.
Four years after COVID-19 forced our city to a standstill, New York is back. With crime down, jobs up, a historic boom in tourism, and an economy firing on all cylinders, we are having one of our best years ever.
Even for a city as resilient as New York, recovering from the pandemic was no simple task. But with strategic thinking and supportive programs, we created the right conditions for the economy to flourish and for New Yorkers to succeed.
Over the past two years, we not only recovered all of the private-sector jobs lost during the pandemic but set the all-time record for the highest number of total jobs in our city’s history. We have raised wages for working people — including our municipal workers, delivery workers, for-hire drivers, and non-profit workers. We have negotiated contracts with 95 percent of the unionized city workforce, including 100 percent of the city’s uniformed workforce, to give our public servants the pay and benefits they deserve. And we are not stopping there — we are bringing jobs directly to the people with our “Jobs NYC” initiative, connecting New Yorkers with well-paying job opportunities in both the public and private sectors at hiring halls across the five boroughs.
In addition to the robust economic growth we are seeing, we are helping more New Yorkers connect with affordable housing. Thanks to our partners in Albany, the state budget this year delivers EVERY single piece of the housing agenda we have been fighting for, giving us the tools to build the affordable housing New Yorkers need and deserve. These new programs and incentives will get us closer to our moonshot goal of building 500,000 new units of housing in the next 10 years.
We have also launched major legacy projects, including the city’s largest all-affordable housing project in Willets Point, Queens. This project will transform an entire neighborhood by building 2,500 units of housing and the city’s first-ever soccer stadium, so 25,000 fans can go crazy when the New York City Football Club brings home another trophy.
And just last week, I was proud to announce another dramatic new addition to our city’s skyline— a new 62-story office tower in Midtown. This building, alone, will house 6,000 workers, and it will be the New York City headquarters of one of our leading financial firms, Citadel and Citadel Securities.
There is much more to come in Midtown Manhattan, including our “Broadway Vision” plan to create new public spaces and make streets safer between Madison and Herald Squares, as well as a $10 billion expansion of the Midtown Bus Terminal.
We are also re-imagining our city’s most famous retail mecca for the first time in over century, with plans to create a pedestrian-focused boulevard that will welcome more New Yorkers and visitors to Fifth Avenue. This plan will create more green space for our city and burnish the glamour of the midtown district as the world’s ultimate shopping destination.
These are big, visionary public projects that will define our city for generations to come. We’re investing in our city, our future, and every hardworking New Yorker who loves this town.
We achieved all this by focusing on the fundamentals, especially when it comes to protecting public safety. This year, crime is down across the five boroughs, with month after month decreases. In the past year, homicides and shootings have plummeted by double digits — that’s after they dropped by double digits last year and after they dropped by double digits in 2022.
Transit crime was down 15 percent in February, and nearly 24 percent in March — bringing transit crime down through the end of the first quarter of this year.
But it is not just about the numbers. It is also about making sure that New Yorkers feel safe in our city and are confident that we are moving in the right direction. That is why our administration intends to invest even more in upstream solutions, creating conditions that improve outcomes for all New Yorkers — especially our young people.
We’re investing in our Fair Futures program to support kids in foster care, which has boosted college enrollment by 50 percent since we took office, and the ACS College Choice program that makes sure they can afford college when they get there.
We have also expanded our dyslexia screening programs so that EVERY child is screened for dyslexia, and that those children get the support they need to read and succeed.
We’re proud of all we have accomplished in our first two years, but we know there is so much more to do going forward. We are going to continue to make the safest big city in America even safer, expand economic opportunity for all, and improve quality of life across the five boroughs. With two years of success to guide us, we intend to keep our success story going far into the future.
