MAYOR DE BLASIO on COVID-19 and the State of the City - June 8, 2020

  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, it is a very beautiful day today. It's a beautiful day out, but it's also a beautiful day for this city. This is a powerful day – day 100 of the coronavirus crisis and it is the day that we start to liberate ourselves from this disease, the day we move forward. Phase one of the restart begins today in New York City and everyone, all New Yorkers, should be proud that you got us to this day. This was a lot of hard work. Everyone who stayed home, everyone who was socially distanced, everyone who put on those face coverings – you got us to this day and it's a day to celebrate hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers coming back to work today, just the beginning of the restart. But it is literally because of every single New Yorker who worked so hard to get us here.

We're here in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is such a powerful place in the history of this city. It is a place of working people. It's a place where people fought for their country in tough times. It's a place where things have been created against the odds. And here again, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was a heroic place in the fight against the coronavirus. Here in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New Yorkers came together to create PPEs, to build things and produce things that weren't made in New York City just a few months ago, but they made them here to save the lives of their fellow New Yorkers. So, this is a great place to be today as we start the next chapter.

I want to thank all my colleagues from the administration who are here, who've all worked so hard through this fight. And every one of us has been together saying we knew we would get to this day, it would take a lot of work, but we are finally here. Now, what comes back today? Construction, manufacturing, wholesale, and nonessential retail now can do curbside and in-store pickup. And we're looking forward to the day in a few weeks where they can go back to their normal operations. Thousands of people are back to work here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This is a center of manufacturing, including some of the most dynamic companies in New York City, right here. Thousands are coming back to work here today. Remember hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers overall, coming back today to work in the five boroughs.

Now, as we begin the restart, it will not be business as usual. There's work to be done. We have to help businesses to do this right. We're not only going to do inspections and make sure they’re doing the right thing, we're going to help them do the right thing with the free face coverings, with the guides, with the help lines. We're going to help make sure working people are safe because nothing is more important than protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers. So, for every working person coming back to work today, we will watch out for you. And if you see something wrong, we want to make sure it is addressed immediately. 

But we also know that for the economy to restart people have to be able to get to those jobs. And this crisis has made that harder in so many ways. So, we have some announcements today that I hope will start to lighten the burden and help move us forward and help move New Yorkers around easier and easier. First of all, I announce today, 20 new miles of busways and bus lanes, 20 new miles. These 20 new miles of busways and bus lanes are going to help over three-quarters of a million New Yorkers to get around more easily – 750,000 New Yorkers will have a faster way to work, more frequent service, less crowding. Look, more service equals less crowding equals more health and safety. That's what we want to achieve. There will be five new busways in New York City. Just like the success we've seen on 14th Street, Manhattan, we're going to add five new busways. They will be launching on an urgent basis. I want to see this happen as quickly as possible because we need the help now given the crisis we're in. We have to make it easier for people to get around. They will launch between June and October. 

And then on top of that, four new bus lanes with signage and markings to make it possible for those bus lanes to achieve the goals we've seen. Every time we expedite bus service, more and more people use the buses, more and more people feel it's the right way to go. They don't need their cars. They can take mass transit. And, again, more frequency equals more safety too. These will be launching between June and August, starting this month on East 14th Street in Manhattan and 149th Street in the Bronx. And an important point, the 14th Street Busway, this has been a success by every measure. I said, we're going to do it, we're going to see if it works, we're going to see, do people ride the bus more? Does the bus go faster? Does it have any negative impact on the surrounding streets? And the jury is back. The answer is, it is a clear success. We are making the 14th Street Busway permanent.

Now let's turn to the subways. We have been talking to the MTA now over the last week or two, a lot of forward motion. I thank the MTA for increasing the service and for realizing how important it is to do things like have hand sanitizer in every station. We want to see more and more support for people who are using the subways, want to see the same kind of markings, the same kind of distance markers to help people know where to be. But we're going to help the MTA. We are sending approximately 800 school safety agents who will be in stations, educating New Yorkers, giving out those free face coverings, helping people to feel comfortable when they take that subway ride, that it’s going to be safe. And we're going to keep doing this work with the MTA throughout.

Now, I've got a few other things to talk about, and I think we're trying to find the location of our Commissioner because there was a little situation with his drive over. So, what I'll do is I'll finish everything I got. And when he comes in, he's going to speak, okay. Take a different topic now, one I always say brings up passion in New Yorkers – Alternate Side Parking. We have, obviously, this incredibly important moment where we're restarting. We want to try and make things as easy as possible for people. So, we are suspending Alternate Side Parking for two more weeks. Alternate Side Parking is suspended today through Sunday, June 21st. We'll be reassessing in the meantime whether to bring it back or not.

So, there's a lot to do. There's a lot to do, but we are moving forward in this city. Everyone should be proud of the fact we're moving forward. Let's get this next part, right so we can move forward even more. And this is an appropriate time to talk about our indicators and thresholds. And the news today is very good. So, this is such an important day for the city. I'm happy to say we also have the health data to continue to give us hope that things are moving in the right direction. Let's go over the indicators today. First, the daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19, that threshold again, 200 patients. We are well under it today at 67 patients. Second, daily number of people in Health + Hospitals ICUs, that threshold is 375 – today, a good number, continues to go down, 326. And number three, percentage of people tested citywide who are positive, tested positive for COVID-19. That threshold is 15 percent. This is the biggest measure in terms of showing us where things really are at in this city, how things are going in this city, the lowest number we have seen – thank you – the lowest number we have seen – three percent. So that is a great, great sign. But, again, we know that the reopening means more and more people will be close to each other. We need to get it right. So, if we would like reopening, we got to stick with it and make sure we do it right so we can get to the next phase.

BETTER BUSES RESTART: MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES MAJOR PROJECTS TO SPEED BUSES DURING CITY’S PHASED REOPENING

Renowned 14^th Street Busway to be made permanent; 20 Miles of transformative projects to benefit hundreds of thousands of daily riders in South Bronx and Flushing

  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced nine major bus lane projects to give New Yorkers safe, reliable, and fast public transit options as New York City begins its phased reopening. The new busways and dedicated bus lanes will increase bus speeds and reliability along major corridors in all five boroughs and address concerns over the growth in vehicular traffic.

After a successful pilot last October, the popular 14^th Street busway will be made permanent and bus lanes extended eastward. The City will also add a bus and truck priority treatment along Flushing’s Main Street in Queens, and new bus lanes to serve critical transit connections along 149^th Street in the Bronx. The nine projects combined will benefit nearly 750,000 daily riders.

“As New Yorkers head back to work, they’ll be relying on the bus more than ever – and I’m proud to offer them faster and more reliable options,” said Mayor de Blasio. “By replicating the 14th Street success story in other congested corridors, we can reduce traffic, increase mass transit service, and build a fairer and better New York.”

“As New York City emerges from the difficult days of COVID-19, our commitment to faster and more reliable bus service has never been more important, as buses serve a critical role — both in communities hit hard from the pandemic and by essential front-line workers,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “We are proud to undertake transformational work on some of the busiest bus corridors in the city, including 149th Street in the Bronx and on 14^th Street in Manhattan, where the busway has been such a tremendous success.  We look forward to working with our partners at the MTA to get these transformational changes finished this year.”

Projects beginning this month include:

1)    149th Street, Bronx: DOT will implement offset bus lanes for most of the 2.7-mile corridor from Southern Boulevard to River Avenue. 149th Street carries four bus routes with a total of 55,000 daily riders, and serves as a vital connection to 10 subway lines, the HUB, and Lincoln Medical Center.

2)    The 14th Street Busway, Manhattan: The 14th Street Busway pilot has received international attention, as it has successfully increased bus speeds by as much as 24% and ridership by as much as 30%. The City will make this pilot project permanent. The project, which serves approximately 28,000 daily riders of the M14, combines blocks of exclusive access and standard bus lanes to provide bus priority from 9th Avenue to 1st Avenue. DOT will add 0.8 miles of new bus lane from 1st Avenue to Avenue C.

3)    Main Street, Flushing: DOT will add a busway to a .3-mile northbound stretch of Main Street, where it meets the terminus of the 7 train. The street currently features bus and truck priority treatments in the southbound direction that have resulted in a 23% increase in bus speeds between 2017 and 2018. The enhancement will run along Main Street and Kissena Boulevard as it connects to Main Street and will continue to Northern Boulevard. Bus routes that travel along Main Street carry about 150,000 rides per day.

DOT, in collaboration with MTA, also announced that it will implement bus priority improvements on seven additional corridors in 2020, including bus lane or busway treatments at the following locations:

Busways:

• Main Street in Queens
• Jamaica Avenue in Queens
• 5th Avenue in Manhattan
• Jay Street in Brooklyn
• 181st Street in Manhattan

Bus lane projects:

• 14th Street in Manhattan (from 1st Avenue to Avenue C)
• 149th Street in the Bronx
• Merrick Boulevard in Queens
• Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island

DOT will engage with stakeholders on an ongoing basis to address issues in affected communities.

DOT will give bus priority to these corridors this year:

Busway Project	Borough	Streets	Length	Daily Rides
Main Street/Kissena	Queens	Sanford to Northern Boulevard	0.3 miles	150,000
Jamaica Avenue	Queens	Sutphin Boulevard to 168th Street	0.9 miles	225,000
5th Avenue	Manhattan	57th Street to 34th Street	1.1 miles	75,000
Jay Street	Brooklyn	Fulton Street to Tillary Street	0.6 miles	35,000
181st Street	Manhattan	Amsterdam Avenue to Broadway	0.6 miles	111,000
		Total:	3.5 miles	596,000
Bus Lane Project
14th Street	Manhattan	1st Avenue to Avenue C	0.8 miles	28,000
149th Street	Bronx	Southern Boulevard to River Avenue	2.7 miles	55,000
Merrick Boulevard	Queens	Hillside Avenue to Springfield Boulevard	6.4 miles	35,000
Hylan Boulevard	Staten Island	Lincoln Avenue to Nelson Avenue	6.6 miles	30,000
		Total:	16.5 miles	148,000
		Grand Total	20 miles	744,000

Partnerships for Parks - Deadline Extended on Grants up to $1,500

To provide needed additional time for community groups interested in applying for the NYC Green Relief and Recovery Fund, the application deadline for grassroots groups has been extended to Friday, June 19th at 11:59pm. The NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund was formed in response to the COVID-19 crisis to support nonprofits and community groups working to keep parks, gardens, and open spaces across the city safe and green. The Fund provides grants that support stewardship projects, emergency needs such as personal protective equipment and enhanced sanitation measures, and remote volunteer training. Community groups are eligible for grants up to $1,500. Apply now. For more information visit cityparksfoundation.org/nyc-green-fund or email NYCGreenFund@cityparksfoundation.org. APPLY NOW Partnerships for Parks is a joint program of City Parks Foundation and NYC Parks that supports and champions a growing network of leaders caring and advocating for neighborhood parks and green spaces. We equip people and organizations with the skills and tools needed to transform these spaces into dynamic community assets. Generous private support for Partnerships for Parks is provided by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Altman Foundation, Con Edison, the Greenacre Foundation, TD Bank, and the MJS Foundation. Public support is provided by the NYC Council under the leadership of Speaker Corey Johnson through the Parks Equity Initiative.

Publishing of Comments Rule - No Blank Profiles

  We have received comments on different postings from the people below, and we have deleted those comments which are the same and make no sense. The four profiles are blank with three created in March 2020, and the other in February 2020. No comments will be published from Blank profiles

william333344mason, pedrosuarez42069, igwekelvin443, and josear9893

Friday, Team Diaz 2020 Distributes 500 Boxes of Assorted Foods in the West Farms Area

  Friday Team Diaz 2020 distributed 500 boxes of assorted foods prepared by Fresh Direct outside Vidalia Park on East 180th Street in the West Farms area of the Bronx. Team Diaz 2020 is  Councilman and candidate for the 15th Congressional District Ruben Diaz, 87th A.D. District Leader John Perez and candidate for the 32nd State Senate, George Alvarez candidate for the 79th Assembly District and Wanda Negron Judicial candidate. Team Diaz 2020 was joined by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and dozens of volunteers from the Hispanic Clergy Coalition.

  The long line of people went around the corner and down Daly Avenue for two blocks. Councilman Ruben Diaz, and 32nd State Senate candidate John Perez went down the long line of people waiting handing out additional face masks before the food giveaway began. After they handed out the face masks Councilman Ruben Diaz and State Senate candidate John Perez joined Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, in handing out the boxes of food.

Above - Councilman Ruben Diaz and 32nd State Senate District candidate John Perez hand out face masks to the waiting crowd at Vidalia Park.

Below - Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. places thi box of food into this persons cart.

Above - State Senate candidate John Perez helps direct people to where they need to go to receive a box of food. 

Below - Councilman and 15th Congressional candidate Ruben Diaz helps his son Bronx borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, hand out the boxes of food. Also in the photo is 79th A.D. candidate George Alvarez

Above - A rather unique way of getting your box of food home. 

Below - After all the boxes of food were handed out there was a prayer for the people of the Bronx.

MAYOR DE BLASIO on COVID-19 and the State of the City - June 7, 2020

  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Yesterday, we had a powerful expression of peaceful protests all over New York City. People speaking up, calling for change, calling for a different approach to the work of this society – doing it peacefully, doing it passionately. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers coming out, working for a better city, a better nation. I want to thank everybody who has expressed their views peacefully, who has worked for change in this long, complex week in this city, in this nation. I can tell you it is making a huge difference. 

It was peaceful throughout the day, the entire day in the entire city related to the protests. Again, tens of thousands of New Yorkers participating. There were four arrests and 24 summonses in the entire day. We've had five days in a row, thank God, where we see peaceful protests predominating an end to the property damage we saw earlier in the week, which has no place in this city. Because we got, each day, a better and better situation, more and more peaceful protesters coming out, better situation overall each day, fewer and fewer arrests, I made the decision to end the curfew. And honestly, I hope it's the last time we will ever need a curfew in New York City. So, the curfew has ended. Tomorrow something very, very important happens in the city, the beginning of phase one, the restart of the city, the restart of our economy, the restart of the people's livelihoods, and we should all feel that this is a moment that every New Yorker should celebrate as our achievement together, your achievement, because you did the hard work to fight back the coronavirus so we could get to phase one and tomorrow morning will be a very important day in the history of this city. 

Now this week has been a very long week, a tough week in many ways, a powerful, meaningful week as well for sure, a week where people called for change, and change will happen. And we'll talk about that today, but I first want to talk about the week and the reality we faced. Again, a thank you to the tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, a thank you to the tens and thousands of members of the NYPD who protected that right to peaceful protest. Everyone worked hard. You can always talk about the exceptions and the problems and we will, but overall, it is important to say thank you to the men and women of the NYPD who worked to protect people's democratic rights and their safety.

Now, I had four fundamental ideas, fundamental standards that I've been holding throughout this week and we've had to make decisions based on many, many factors. Obviously paramount was protecting the right to peaceful protest and hearing the voices of our community calling for change. But the four things I was focused on as the leader of this city, as the steward of this city, was avoiding the loss of life across the board, avoiding serious injury to anyone and everyone involved, whether they be protester or police officer or anyone in this city, avoiding property damage, never allowing a repeat of what we saw so troublingly at the beginning of the week, and something I've talked about many times, making sure that the National Guard did not come into New York City, which I think would have caused much greater problems and much greater potential for misunderstanding and inadvertent violence. I made clear throughout the week that the NYPD was going to use a restrained approach. I know there are deep concerns about specific situations, and I respect that. But in this city, the NYPD did not use many of the approaches that were used in other cities. In this city, the NYPD avoided the use of some of the policing tactics, the more militarized policing tactics that we've seen around this country that I oppose and I think don't have any place in New York City. And again, it was crucial to keep out a military presence in the National Guard. And I'm happy to say that we all work together in this city to avoid that situation. 

Now, the real work begins in this city. And to say to those who protested, ‘I hear you,’ is simply not enough. I do hear you. I feel it deeply. I literally heard the protest. I saw them. I went all over the city watching very, very up close, but hearing is just the beginning. There has to be action. So, people have to see deeds. They have to see change. First, we have to address the issue of officer accountability – 36,000 members of the police force, the vast majority of whom do the right thing every day, answer a noble calling, keep us safe, and a few who do the wrong thing – and those few have to experience consequences, and we have to see it. We have to feel it. We have to know it's real. It takes, in New York City, too long for there to be accountability for officers who do the wrong thing. That is something we can and must change. That is a tradition that must change. You are starting to see that change. It is not enough yet. I want to be clear, but you're starting to see it even in the first days of this protest. And it might have been the lost in the first days of this protest, the decision by Commissioner Shea to move on additional discipline, a discipline trial, for officers involved in that very troubling incident in the Lower East Side a few weeks ago, that trial will proceed shortly, but also the announcement by the Commissioner just a day or so ago regarding some of the incidents that happened this week.

And I want to make very clear. I'm going to talk about, very quickly, a few of the incidents, there are more under investigation. Each investigation will follow the facts and where discipline is needed, it will occur. Last Friday an officer in Brooklyn shoved a woman to the ground, shoved a protester to the ground in a very inappropriate fashion, in a dangerous fashion. That officer has been suspended without pay, further disciplinary action will commence. Last Saturday, an officer pulled down the face covering of a protester and sprayed pepper spray at them. That officer has been suspended without pay, further disciplinary action will commence. There was an NYPD supervisor, a senior level officer, who was supposed to be supervising the officer who pushed the woman to the ground and did not. That supervisor has been reassigned and further disciplinary action will commence. Those are three examples. There are more investigations underway, both within the NYPD and then the independent review being done by our Corporation Counsel and our Commissioner for Investigations, and, of course, the State Attorney General's review as well.

But most importantly, each and every incident that is brought to the attention of the NYPD and the Civilian Complaint Review Board will be investigated. I want to see where it is appropriate that there be disciplinary action that it happens swiftly. I want the public to see it, know it, and have confidence in the disciplinary process of the NYPD. That is one type of change we have to make, but there are much bigger, deeper reforms that have to happen beyond that. And this is directly related to the disparities that are so painfully evident in the city and the disparities that were made so clear by the coronavirus. 

When we published the information, and this city was one of the ones to be most transparent and blunt about the fact that there were profound disparities in the coronavirus crisis, we said that we would do a number of things differently. One of the things I did was to name a task force of City government leaders, the Task Force on Racial Equity and Inclusion, to immediately determine steps that the City government must take to start addressing disparities right now. There are many bigger things we must do over the next 18 months of this administration, but my charge to this task force was, figure out what could happen right now and then in the next 18 months ahead, continue that work. You're going to hear from the leaders of the task force, everything that we're going to talk about today, the announcements we're making today directly related to their work. And then you'll be hearing much more from them in the next week or two on issues beyond policing, a whole set of specific changes that will be made to address disparities in terms of economics, health care, and other issues.

Now, let's start with the things we're going to do right away. And I want to be clear that in this administration, we have focused on young people. We focused on young people with initiatives like pre-K and 3-K. We focused on young people with afterschool for free for every middle school child. We focused on young people with beacon programs, cornerstone programs, so many initiatives to reach young people, and with close cooperation and partnership with the City Council to focus on summer youth employment, which has been roiled this year by the coronavirus. We need to do a lot more for our young people. At the time of my State of the City address in February, a time that seems a long time ago, we talked about adding support for our young people. We talked about Commissioner Shea’s new focus on NYPD officers working with young people to address their concerns and issues, to help them rather than simply deal with a problem after it's already begun, to address it at the beginning, at the root. I said in our State of the City speech, “Our young people don't need to be policed, they need to be reached.” And that is the spirit of the reforms we're going to talk about today and beyond. 

Yesterday, I was in Southeast Queens at Deliverance Baptist Church in Cambria Heights. I had the opportunity to talk to community members, and I was very, very struck by a conversation, a lengthy conversation, with two young African American men, Paul and Benjamin. And they talked about their experience and they talked about their community and, yes, they want their community to be safe and yes, they understand the jobs of police officers are difficult, but they just wanted things to be different. They wanted a different attitude. They wanted a different respect. They wanted their personhood and their value to be seen and felt by every single police officer and by our society as a whole. And they are correct. That's what we must do. That is a good example of why when I turned to our task force and said, what should we do – and we talked over these last few days and we had a series of meetings – the task force said it was important to address, on a budget level, the need to focus more on our young people, the need to make a clear statement that our investments in our young people are our future. Policing matters for sure, but the investments in our youth are foundational. I further had lengthy conversations with the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus of the New York City Council. I want to thank the co-chairs of that caucus, Council Member Daneek Miller and Council Member Adrienne Adams. I was with Council Member Miller at that church in Cambria Heights yesterday. And it was a very moving experience.

And the Black, Latino, Asian Caucus has called repeatedly for reconsideration of priorities. Now we're about to go into a budget process over these next few weeks to make the final decisions on the City budget. But I want to make a statement of principle right now that based on the suggestions of the caucus, based on the work of the task force, that we will be moving funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services. The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead, but I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people. And I also will affirm while doing that, we will only do it in a way that we are certain continues to ensure that this city will be safe. 

Now, the second point, something we've talked about for a long time, we finally see action on, you know, for years I have said we could do so much more to create trust between community and police if we got support from Albany in changing State law to allow more transparency in the police disciplinary process, the 50-a law that has stood in the way of transparency. I've had three police commissioners, all three police commissioners have called for change in that law. There's always going to be differences on specific wording and specific ideas, but one thing that has been absolutely consistent, I felt it, my commissioners have felt it, that the current 50-a law is broken and stands in the way of improving trust between police and community. I'm waiting to see the final wording that has just been issued in Albany by the Legislature of the bill that they will review in the next few days. But based on what I've seen so far, I want to support that legislation clearly, and what the Legislature is looking to do, I hope they will do it as early as Monday or Tuesday, is take away the provisions in 50-a that held back transparency while still protecting the valid security, personal information of our police officers. That is the right direction. I commend the Legislature. I call on them to get this done this week. Let's make 50-a, as we knew it, a thing of the past so we can have transparency in our disciplinary process and give the public confidence. 

Now, one of the things that our task force has talked about is the very important question of what the NYPD should be working on and what it shouldn't be working on, what type of enforcement is only the type of thing that fits the NYPD, obviously, when it comes to fighting crime, but then there's other types of enforcement that may not work in today's society the same way where we need to make bigger, real change. The task force is going to be working on this issue, going forward, working with the whole administration to determine which areas that change should come in. But one that we can announce today is in the area of street vendor enforcement. Street vendor enforcement should no longer be the responsibility of the NYPD. A civilian agency should handle that. And the street vendors, it's an area that New Yorkers feel passionately about, it is an example, what street vendors do, of so many people creating their own business, so many people trying to experience some version of that American dream that often feels elusive lately, but still is there. For so many people of color, for so many immigrants street vending is their opportunity to move forward. They should not have to engage the NYPD as they're trying to make their livelihoods. Civilian agencies can work on proper enforcement and that's what we'll do going forward. 

Finally, one of the things the task force heard – and you'll hear from the First Lady and Deputy Mayor Perea-Henze in just a moment on their work and as well on the line with us, we have Deputy Mayor Thompson and the Executive Director of our task force, Administrator Grace Bonilla – one of the things they heard as they reached out to stakeholders and communities of color all over the city, was they heard people wanted to believe and know and feel that their voices were being heard. And so we will take an action in the NYPD at the patrol borough level, we will hire community ambassadors, people from the community, civilians, deeply steeped in their communities with the ability to bring the concerns of the community to the highest levels of NYPD, to bring back answers including on the status of disciplinary cases and changes in policing that need to be done to allow better policing, fairer policing, to make sure there's a truer deep connection between police and community. It compliments all we've done with neighborhood policing but it’s another step that we need to take.

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES NEW POLICING REFORMS

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  Mayor de Blasio today announced a series of new reforms to the New York City Police Department to strengthen trust between New Yorkers and officers. The City will shift funding from the NYPD to youth and social services for communities of color, move vendor enforcement out of the NYPD, and establish a community ambassadors program within the NYPD. The Mayor also announced his support of the new 50-A reform bill introduced in Albany. The Mayor also lifted the citywide curfew effective immediately.

“While we have taken many steps to reform policing in this city, there is clearly more work to do to strengthen trust between officers and the New Yorkers they serve,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “These will be the first of many steps my Administration will take over the next 18 months to rebuild a fairer City that profoundly addresses injustice and disparity.”

The de Blasio Administration has made unprecedented effort to change how the city is policed, and the are deepening this work with the following reforms:

1 - Shift Funding from NYPD to Youth and Social Services:  The City will find significant savings in the NYPD budget. This funding will go towards youth development and social services for communities of color. The amount will be finalized with the City Council during the budget process.

2 - 50-A Reform: The Mayor announced that he supports the State Legislature's efforts to take away the provisions in 50-A that prevent transparency while still protecting the personal information of police officers. The Mayor also commended the Legislature for taking this step to ensure more accountability in the Department's disciplinary system and give the public confidence.

3 - Move Vendor Enforcement Out of NYPD: The City will shift enforcement for street vending out of NYPD so our officers can focus on the real drivers of crime instead of administrative infractions. This will further the Administration’s de-escalation agenda by reducing interactions between uniform officers and New Yorkers, particularly immigrant communities and communities of color.

4 - Real Community Ambassadors within NYPD: The City will bring community voices into senior levels of the NYPD by hiring community ambassadors. These ambassadors will reflect the diversity of the five boroughs and serve as liaisons between officers and New Yorkers. This new initiative will provide a venue to address complaints and concerns, and ensure NYPD leadership hears New Yorkers.

These reforms build off the Administration’s commitment to fundamentally changing how the City is policed and strengthening the bonds of trust between New Yorkers and officers. The Mayor announced last week that Corporation Counsel Jim Johnson and DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett would be conducting an independent review into the protests and the NYPD’s response. The goal is to ensure accountability for both officers and protestors who acted inappropriately during these protests, and help deepen trust between community and police.