Just a few hours into his first official workday on the new job, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio announced that he is creating a new community organizing department within the office to help New Yorkers play a more meaningful role in government -- and to organize them to help solve problems.

The plan seems to be a clear sign that de Blasio is going to try and take on Mayor Michael Bloomberg much more forcefully than his predecessor, former public advocate Betsy Gotbaum, by challenging policies and practices that de Blasio and other New Yorkers dislike.

"Government has an almost reflexive instinct to hold the public at arm's length to assume that the people inside the walls of government have all the best ideas and solutions," de Blasio said.

The idea is to use the new department to teach interested New Yorkers how to be better organized, while also connecting New Yorkers concerned about a particular issue with organizations already working on those same problems.

De Blasio says this new approach will make the government more Democratic and responsive. He launched the new department at a press conference in his new office, where he was joined by a number of new City Council members, who have experience in community organizing. He told community organizers on hand for the announcement that his office is now their home away from home.

"I am confident we have a great team and we understand from the beginning that this work will succeed because we will constantly be partnering with others. Because the doors to this office will be open to all these great activists we will be able to do a lot more with less because we are going to have folks all over New York City we are working in common cause with," de Blasio said.

"There is no initiative, nothing that we can think of in this city or this country or in this world -- from civil rights to a lamp post that you need in your district. None of that has been doing without organizing," said City Councilman Jumaane Williams.

De Blasio tried to push back against the idea that he is going to be a thorn in the mayor's side. He said that while his position is to be a check and balance on the mayor, he noted that the relationship is a complex one. He anticipates that sometimes he will be able to work with city agencies to solve problems. But when that doesn't happen, he says he's prepared then to take a more activist approach to push to get things done.

Many political observers expect de Blasio to push back hard when he hits a wall at the city agency level. Like new city comptroller John Liu, de Blasio is an ambitious politician who many feel is eager to make a name for himself over the next four years.