Dear Lucas
Campaigning in New York City is not easy. New Yorkers don't fall for platitudes. They want real solutions to the very real problems facing our city.
That's why my campaign is laser-focused on addressing the issues that matter.
Just this past week, we took on a misguided plan to use public housing property for luxury apartment units. Our city should be focused on building affordable housing for moderate and low-income families, not on siphoning NYCHA land for new luxury housing.
With the police force at its lowest level in nearly three decades, we're also continuing to push for more cops to be hired. When I'm mayor, I will hire at least two thousand more cops (taking the police force up to 37,000) and dedicate at least 1,000 of those cops to precincts with the highest crime rates.
Below, please take a look at a couple of news stories from the past week that cover my position on these important issues.
I look forward to communicating with you, and all New Yorkers, about the issues that matter, and build a campaign that addresses them in a smart, effective manner.
Very truly yours,
02.07.13, New York Daily News, Greg B. Smith and Erin Durkin
As Mayor Michael Bloomberg lauds NYCHA plan to build luxury high-rises on leased open space, contenders question the plan to generate millions
The Housing Authority's plan to lease its land for luxury housing won cheers from the mayor Wednesday, but some of the contenders to succeed him weren't so impressed.
Bloomberg called NYCHA's proposal to raise money by leasing land in eight Manhattan developments for 3 million square feet of market-rate apartments "a creative idea."
"If you want to have NYCHA buildings be improved and be great places to live, safe and clean and where things function, you're going to have to have money from someplace," he said.
He said the buildout of more than 3,000 upscale apartments on NYCHA land wouldn't happen until after he leaves office in 2014: "Our successor in City Hall will really have to carry that program through."
One would-be successor — former city controller William Thompson — immediately questioned why NYCHA should "play Monopoly with financiers so they can build more high-priced apartments in the city."
"When there's just a desperate need for affordable housing, this is just a bonehead move," Thompson told the Daily News.
If he was elected, he said, "This is something I would not move forward on."
Another mayoral wanna-be, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, attacked NYCHA, which intends to seek developers in just five weeks, for keeping its plans under wraps.
"For years, we've encouraged NYCHA to consult with the Council and residents on a plan — which they clearly haven't done," Quinn said.
Quinn, Thompson and mayoral candidates City Controller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio have vowed to replace the entire NYCHA board, including Bloomberg's appointee, Chairman John Rhea.
Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito — whose upper Manhattan district includes three affected developments — said NYCHA has given tenant leaders only vague descriptions of the luxury tower plan.
She also criticized the lack of affordable housing in the plan, which lets developers rent out 80% of the apartments at "market rate." Only 20% would go to families making $50,000 or less.
The luxury apartment plan also got panned by Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA workers: "This is a drastic plan that requires extensive public discussion and should not be done in the last few months of the mayor's term," Floyd said.
Rhea did not respond to written questions about the plan.
02.08.13, Newsday, Dan Janison
NYC mayor hopeful outlines plan for police
Every New York City mayor wrestles with public safety -- and its massive cost.
Staffing at the NYPD, the nation's largest municipal police department, shrank over the past decade. This year, one of the Democratic candidates, William C. Thompson Jr., emphasizes early on that he will try to increase the uniformed ranks to about 37,000 if elected.
Currently the force is authorized for about 34,500 officers -- down from more than 40,000 in 2001.
How to pay for an expansion? Thompson was quick to say: "Number one, you're talking eventually . . . It wouldn't happen overnight." Having pledged not to increase taxes in the five boroughs, he told Newsday this week he'd look to fund the increase incrementally, with savings from certain contracted services, internal efficiencies, and civilianization -- suggestions which, he said, "have never been embraced."
"Police are behind desks doing jobs civilians could do," he said.
Seeking his second mayoral nomination in four years, Thompson, the former city comptroller, also recently proposed in a speech before the Association for a Better New York that 1,000 of the newest police hires go to five police precincts with the highest crime rates.
"To take these actions we have to navigate choppy fiscal waters," Thompson told the civic group. "But the real question isn't whether we can afford to provide adequate security for our children and families, it's whether we can afford not to."
He said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he hears both from within the department and from various neighborhoods where, "particularly in the evening, that there's just very little coverage, with robberies and burglaries creeping back up again -- and a general sense that people are feeling a little edgier."
Nonetheless, he said, "I continue to applaud the department and the communities on what they've done with regard to pushing crime down."
The city forecasts total NYPD costs for the coming fiscal year will rise above $4.9 billion.
For Thompson, like any other candidate, the issue is far from exotic. The issue of thinner police resources also is relevant in Nassau and Suffolk. In Nassau, precincts were merged while formerSuffolk County Executive Steve Levy made a mission of civilianizing some police jobs.
For many years, critics in the City Council have pushed for more police on the beat. And for many years, civilianization, already in place to some degree, has been a battleground between City Hall and municipal unions over the line between civilian and police duties.
Like several other mayoral candidates, Thompson also says the controversial "stop and frisk" policy "is a tool . . . I will not eliminate it, but I want to see it used correctly and it must pass constitutional muster."
The controversial policy, and its racial and demographic implications, was debated in 2009 when Thompson challenged Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a race the incumbent won with barely 51 percent despite spending a record $102 million on the campaign.