I’m running for mayor of New York because we desperately need something different

On January 6th, an angry mob surged through Capitol Hill police barricades in a violent attempt to undermine a democratic election. The insurrectionists were not met with the military presence of the National Guard, nor the violence that peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters experienced in Washington this past summer. In fact, they were cheered on by the former president and even some members of Congress. 

For years, we watched Trump stoke the fires of racism and hatred. Those same fires flare right here in New York City. We saw them in the Proud Boys brawling in Manhattan in 2019 and the unconstitutional and unconscionable NYPD violence against Black Lives Matter protesters this past summer. And we can see them as people of color got sick, suffered and died at hugely disproportionate rates due to Covid. Sadly, for those who have been paying attention and have experienced racial injustice, these acts are not a surprise. 

I remember being a child eagerly looking out the Amtrak window, waiting for the New York City skyline to emerge. Today, I am running to be the next mayor of New York because none of us can sit on the sidelines while we miss the chance to look across this city and see the true miracles – the people who survive and find ways to help the rest of us get deliveries, care for elderly family members, and defy the odds to get a top-notch education. 

I, like many of the other women who made history and dared to step up to lead since the 2018 midterms, know we must all play a role in the battle for who we are and who we must be. We must be the city that confronts and transforms the very conditions that embolden white supremacists and cost us more than 25,000 loved ones, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and our housing security as hundreds of thousands face possible eviction. These conditions pre-dated Covid, though the pandemic deepened issues like hunger, gun violence, domestic violence, inhumane conditions in our public housing, and mental health challenges. Our city had already become so expensive that many long-term residents faced homelessness. And communities of color have experienced all of these issues at much higher rates than their white counterparts. 

In New York, our greatest pride and asset is our diversity. We live in a city that recognizes and celebrates the fact that its residents were born all over this country and globe. But it’s also important to acknowledge that the insurrection included some of our own residents. New York Times columnist Charles Blow made this connection explicit when he poignantly said that he moved to Atlanta because “Black New Yorkers were locked in perpetual oppression — geographically, economically, and politically isolated.” He calls Black neighborhoods “permanent refugee camps.” That resonates with me. For too long, we have lamented the losses of wealthy New Yorkers deserting the city in a time of crisis and failed to recognize the home health aides who are left homeless because rents outstrip essential workers’ wages. 

As mayor, my New Deal for New York will be a massive infrastructure, stimulus, and jobs program consisting of a $10 billion investment. It will provide a boost to our city’s economy, with an economic development strategy that prioritizes communities of concern. It will put New Yorkers to work fixing our broken bridges and building our solar and wind turbines to power us cleanly into the future. It will help us make New York City a more livable place and it will do so by fast-tracking construction, renovation, and rehabilitation projects while identifying new ones to help our neighbors now. 

We will lift up small businesses that desperately need help. It will focus investment in communities that have the greatest need and are usually overlooked – from the South Bronx to the North Shore of Staten Island; from southeast Queens to central Brooklyn. For too long, communities with unsafe roads, inconsistent trains and buses, crumbling sewage systems, and uninhabitable housing have sat waiting for City Hall to make them a priority. I will change that. In this crisis, we need a government that protects our beloved arts, restaurants, and nightlife. We need a city that not only celebrates our diversity, but invests in it. 

The democracy we seek to protect includes a government that ensures that we all live together in dignity. New York needs a steward to guide our city through these turbulent times, beyond recovery, and into a brighter, reimagined future – we need a New Deal for New York.