Progressives Should Be Selling the Successes of DeBlasio's New York
We Don't talk About Policy by Local Democratic Leaders Enough- We Need to Do It Far, Far More
When conservatives talk about their policy program, they rarely have talked about the federal government, even when Trump was in power. They talk about anti-mask mandates by governors, they talk about state anti-abortion laws passed, they talk about anti-”Critical Race Theory” laws. All of this is done to excite the base and tell them what conservative governance does.
And what do progressives talk about? Mostly attacking those same GOP state politics while talking about Democratic federal policy. This inevitably means focusing on the frustrations of the filibuster and compromises to deal with a malformed US Senate, which generally demoralizes the base. I’ve argued that Dems have a lot to brag about on federal policy despite those frustrations, but the frustrations are real.
This is why it is so strange Dems so rarely talk about the successes of places where Democrats are in full control, where they can highlight exactly the priorities of Democratic governance without the compromises imposed by the filibuster and the Senate. Highlighting those gains points the way to where policy could go if we make the gains in the long-term to overcome all the political obstacles to federal policy change.
This is why progressives should be talking about the successes of the last eight years of New York City governance, the fourth largest jurisdiction by population in the country under complete Democratic political control. Backed by a progressive City Council, the Bill DeBlasio years should be promoted to excite Dems on what can be done on climate change policy, on policing reform, on immigration rights, on strengthening labor power, on remaking early education, and on building power for progressives.
Three Graphs that Capture DeBlasio’s Success
Before going into details of NYC policies, look at three key areas to highlight what progressive policy has delivered in the City. Given the endemic rancorous political culture in NYC, there is inevitably lots of debate on what else needs to be done, but these are impressive gains unto themselves, especially compared to other jurisdictions around the country..
After the initial horrific numbers in March and April 2020 as New York City was hit as the international gateway for Covid’s entry to the country, tight mask protocols and then tough vaccination mandates meant last winter’s surge was far more restrained in NYC than most places and Delta was barely a blip in summer and fall this year - and while Omicron cases have surged, it so far it has not translated into a commensurate surge in hospitalizations or deaths because of those tight rules.
And unlike other major cities, NYC parents had the option of in-person classes since Fall 2020, avoiding much of the backlash some other liberal areas faced from parents frustrated at only having remote learning available.
A core campaign pledge of DeBlasio in 2013 was to challenge economic inequality and according to this analysis by the Independent Budget Office, the DeBlasio years saw the first significant reduction in economic inequality in the City since the 1960s- the result of a wide range of NYC policies over the last decade from investments in preK to an increased minimum wage to tighter rent control.
While many activists have been frustrated at the slowness of policing reform across the country, De Blasio did swiftly deliver on his promise of ending “stop-and-frisk”, the Giuliani and Bloomberg policy that had conducted millions of illegal stops of disproportionately non-white New Yorkers. And despite rightwing claims, crime kept dropping even as the practice was eliminated. Notably, even with the bump in some violent crimes during Covid, crime rates are still below those a decade earlier and still far, far lower than those three decades ago.
Key NYC Policies Worth Highlighting
Many New York City policies are either pathbreaking in their innovation or unprecedented in their scale of implementation- and show what other states or the federal government could do at an even greater scale.
PreK for All- De Blasio’s preK program is undoubtedly his signature accomplishment, a program that before Covid had enrolled 68,000 4-year olds in the program and is aiming to have 40,000 3-year olds in its companion 3K program. Not only does preK deliver massive social benefits in greater early learning and long-term reductions in criminal justice costs, it also saves families in the thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars annually in day care costs.
New York City has been a model program, cited by the National Institute for Early Education Research as one of a handful of cities earning a gold star rating for both quality and access- and highlights what other cities could build, particularly with funding help from the Build Back Better plan.
Climate Change Policies- New York City has become the almost unquestioned leader in the fight against climate change over the last eight years, and as Pete Sikora, who leads climate change policy at New York Communities for Change, argues, it isn’t even close.
The 2019 Local Law 97 requires 50,000 of the Citys largest buildings, responsible for one-third of total NYC emissions, to slash those emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. New York City also divested its city pension funds from fossil fuel companies in 2018, sending a signal worldwide that encouraged similar actions by government-controlled funds worldwide. Just this month, NYC became by far the largest city to ban natural gas installations in new building construction.
And when congestion pricing is finally implemented, New York City will be bringing a policy to the US that has been critical in other countries in reducing emission-spewing driving and provide a dedicated new source of funding for mass transit, itself a bedrock of low-emission living.
Workers Rights- In 2014 and 2020, de Blasio signed legislation expanding the reach of the City’s paid sick days policy to nearly every employee in NYC, allowing them to take time off when they or family members, including siblings, grandchildren or grandparents, are ill.
In 2016, De Blasio implemented a $15/hr minimum wage for all city employees and contractors and lobbied for statewide legislation raising the City’s minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2019.
NYC has launched key pathbreaking policies to protect workers in the fast-food industry, including a “Fair Workweek Law” to require that employees be given notice of any changes in work schedules and, most innovatively, created and enforced “just cause” rules requiring due process in any employee terminations.
Immigrant Rights- Even as immigration reform has remained deadlocked at the federal level, New York City has promoted multiple policies to increase access to services and social inclusion of immigrants, both legal and undocumented. One of De Blasio’s first actions as mayor was the passage of IDNYC, a city-specific identification card that gives immigrants without other ID the ability to access buildings, banking, and other institutions requiring ID. The program passed one million ID holders within two years of its start.
In 2019, de Blasio launched NYC Care working with the NYC Health + Hospitals public hospital system to provide low-cost health care services to New Yorkers, regardless of their immigration status. And as one of his last acts as mayor, De Blasio signed legislation giving 800,000 legal residents the right to vote in municipal elections.
Housing- De Blasio restrained growth in rents for the 2.3 million New Yorkers in rent-controlled units and through court reforms, he reduced formal evictions of renters by 30% from 2013 to 2019. He signed the nation’s first “right-to-counsel law” which gave eligible tenants free legal representation in Housing Court during evictions.
Through a combination of existing and new programs, De Blasio oversaw the financing of an estimated 200,000 new and restored affordable housing units by the end of his administration- the largest number by any mayor in over half a century.
Criminal Justice Reform- While De Blasio has fallen short in transforming the toxic internal NYPD culture, De Blasio and the City Council just this year passed a plan focused on decriminalizing poverty, creating systematic review systems of racialized policing, expanding accountability of police officers, expanding community involvement and changing recruitment practices. De Blasio ended the year signing a new law giving the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the NYPD watchdog, the ability to launch its own investigations into police misconduct without waiting for formal complaints.
Ending stop-and-frisk is only part of a broader program of decriminalizing a wide range of non-violent crimes, encouraging the issuing of fines and community service instead. Along with other measures to encourage early release, particularly during the pandemic, the city jail population dropped from 11,000 prisoners when de Blasio took office to 4,000 in jail in 2021, the lowest level since 1946.
Expanding Progressive Power and Democratic Practices- New York City just elected a city council with a majority of its members women of color, 97% of who ran using the City’s public financing system. This means they are unbeholden to the big money controlling most politics across the country, which made most of the policies enacted above possible. Just in 2018, the City increased the public match to eight government dollars for each small donation raised and further limited all other contributions. The City also launched a ranked-choice voting system to allow a greater diversity of candidates to run with voters feeling they can support their favorite candidate without fear of “spoiling” the chances of candidates they like but not as much.
One area where de Blasio serves strong personal credit is spending tens of millions of dollars on identifying residents and encouraging them to fill out census forms even in the middle of the pandemic. When census numbers came in, NYC recorded a net population gain of 629,057; while some of this as real growth, the NYC Dept of City Planning systematically identified missing housing units from a decade earlier for the Census and an estimated 500,000 New Yorkers were enumerated who may have been missed a decade earlier. Not only did this save a Congressional seat for New York State, but it will also add on the order of $10 billion in federal dollars to state and city coffers and has shifted representation in the state legislature to diverse NYC communities, which will strengthen progressive power statewide.
A Legacy Worth Celebrating and Copying Nationwide
This is a set of policies enacted over eight years that progressives should be celebrating as representing what Democrats could do locally elsewhere - and nationwide if our political institutions were not so deformed at the federal level.
Yes, there is plenty of grumbling in New York City over what de Blasio hasn’t done - and you can read infinite take on that from New Yorkers - but the point is that Democratic policy in NYC is infinitely better than any Republican state policy - and even most Democratic-led ones.
Anger at Trump and threats to democracy may motivate many to get to the voting booth but we also need to excite voters about what Democratic power is delivering TODAY. Highlighting what Democrats do in power where they actually have full control is the best way to deliver that message - something the Republicans know and practice every day as they highlight policies being enacted in Florida and Texas and South Dakota.
National progressives should be highlighting these gains to excite our base to demand these policies everywhere and hold it out as the reason for voters to support expanding Democratic power in Congress to make them possible there.