Experts weigh in on Bill de Blasio, grade mayor on his successes and failures two years into his term

Experts weigh in on Mayor de Blasio's performance 2 years in to his term.
December 26, 2015
New York Daily News

Tangling with Cuomo

When you are mayor of New York City the question isn't whether you are going to fight with the governor but how often. And when the governor is Andrew Cuomo, the answer is apparently, a lot.

Like an overmatched mixed martial arts fighter, Bill de Blasio has tried a bit of everything. From rolling with the punches when it helped him win the funding for his signature universal pre-k program to lobbing rhetorical haymakers of his own that may have missed the mark when he complained about the governor's "transactional" way of doing things.

While the people of the city have been the losers in the peevish way that Albany has stood in the way of progress in our city, the mayor seems to be coming out on top in the joust with the governor. Cuomo, who governed as a moderate "third way" Democrat his first term, has become one of the leading progressive executives in the nation, advocating for a $15 minimum wage. De Blasio may have gotten the worst of the battles, but it seems like he is winning the war. Grade: B+

Anthony Weiner is a former Congressman from Queens who lost a Democratic primary race against Mayor de Blasio in 2013.

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Bratt hurts race progress

Let's start with just some of the positives. In de Blasio's close to two years in office, he has hired a diverse staff of commissioners and close advisers, implemented a pre-k plan that will help mothers of color across the five boroughs, and recognized Muslim holidays as worthy of celebration and inclusion. Unlike his predecessor, de Blasio actually campaigned on a platform that would hopefully decrease some of the inequities in NYC, both racial and economic. After 20 years of Bloomberg and Giuliani Republican control, de Blasio's recognition that poor people and people of color actually existed in NYC was refreshing, appreciated, and border line unprecedented.

Unfortunately, the stain on the de Blasio administration is his relationship and steadfast support of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. The mayor’s defense of the broken policy of broken windows policing continues to serve as a disconnect between the mayor and communities of color. Grade: B-

Christina Greer is an associate professor at Fordham University and the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”

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Policing is still unfair:

Mayor de Blasio pledges to "end the stop-and-frisk era" and ensure fairness in the policing of our neighborhoods have gone unfulfilled. While at first blush the diminished number of reported stops suggests reform, tens of thousands of law-abiding black and Latino New Yorkers remain disproportionately stopped and frisked, with over 80% of those stopped found to have done nothing. That's a lower total, but discriminatory policing persists.

Thousands more suffer through negative interactions with the NYPD because of an unjust broken windows policing policy that the mayor continues to defend.

Meanwhile, white neighborhoods are exempt from this treatment.

At the heart of this is a police commissioner who fights common sense reforms to make policing more transparent and publicly accountable, while insisting that the department be allowed to regulate itself.

The NYPD has even established a specialized unit designed to suppress protests with intimidation and brutality. And over a year after officers killed Eric Garner and misreported the incident, none have faced meaningful discipline.

That's not change.

The mayor can take two initial steps towards addressing inequalities in our justice system by firing officers who abuse their power, and by enacting the Right to Know Act. Grade: C-

Mark Winston Griffith is executive director of Brooklyn Movement Center, a member of Communities United for Police Reform

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He's become Mr. On-Time

Often in my business I am asked to comment on the failures, fuax-pas, and personal foibles of others. So it is with some delight that I note the remarkable and laudable improvement in Mayor de Blasio's timeliness. A year ago he was nurturing a reputation for perpetual oblivious lateness. No event was too solemn for a late arrival and the offense that he offered with this behavior was real.

He first interrupted his own obliviousness with a very public New Year's resolution to improve. These words were followed by actions. He has since made great strides in respecting his commitments. This is no easy task. To change one's ways can be difficult, to do it in the middle of the chaos that can be City Hall is praiseworthy.


No one is perfect and I am sure the Mayor would be the first one to tell you he still doesn't always get it right. But when it comes to being on time, it is undeniable, he has gotten much much better. For this, I give Mayor de Blasio a blue ribbon for most improved player. Grade: A

David Bloomfield is an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of "American Public Education Law, Second Edition.

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Schools still need help

Though he still has time to strengthen his education record, missed opportunities have put de Blasio in a hole. The mayor's big win and lasting legacy is city-wide universal pre-k for 4-year-olds. Otherwise, he's too often played defense against Gov. Cuomo on schools.

With pre-k success, it seems odd that de Blasio has disappointed on other fronts. His appointment of schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has not yielded the progressive educational transformation promised after the Bloomberg years and he has badly handled the politics of charter schools and mayoral control.

Fariña's greatest accomplishments so far are requiring principals to have seven years teaching experience while, in general, bringing greater respect to teachers and their union. But otherwise she has demonstrated little leadership in major issues like school diversity, special education, improvement of struggling schools, and management of the sprawling system with resulting disorganization at Central and principal micro-management by new district superintendents.

True, test scores and graduation rates have held steady. But more was expected of de Blasio than the status quo and so far, other than universal pre-k, he's yet to deliver. Grade: B-

Daniel Post Senning, is an author, Emily Post Institute spokesman, and the great-great grandson of Emily Post.

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First steps on homeless

The homeless crisis Mayor de Blasio inherited - many years in the making - has been exacerbated by skyrocketing housing costs and stagnant wages for low-income families. The Mayor did well in reversing the failed approach of his predecessor by increasing eviction prevention and giving homeless New Yorkers access to permanent housing. As a result, he stemmed the runaway increases in NYC's shelter population - moving 22,000 people out of costly shelters and into apartments of their own since mid-2014. Moreover, the Mayor's historic $2.6 billion commitment to fund 15,000 units of permanent supportive housing will give our homeless neighbors struggling with mental illness and other disabilities a proven pathway off the streets.

The Mayor must do better to fix conditions in the shelter system, especially at the front end, where large, chaotic and often unsafe shelters lead too many of the most marginalized people to take their chances on the streets. We hope his newly announced review of NYC's homeless system - from outreach to intake to service provision - will bring fundamental improvements.

But this crisis is too vast for the City to solve on its own. It's imperative that Gov. Cuomo commit significant resources towards solving this shared crisis, including matching the Mayor's supportive housing commitment, if we are ever going to see a significant reduction in homelessness. Grade: B

Mary Brosnahan is the executive director of Coalition for the Homeless. 

Topics: Broken Windows Right to Know Act Stop-and-Frisk