Updated 01/15/2009 08:45 PM
Mayor Unveils Job Initiative During State Of City Address
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Delivering his State of the City address Thursday from Brooklyn College, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sounded a note of hope for the future of New York and unveiled an ambitious plan to create 400,000 new jobs over six years. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.Election day is months away and Mayor Michael Bloomberg already sounds like a candidate on the stump.
"We will get New York City through these hard times with the same approach that has always worked for us. Independent leadership based on facts and pragmatism, not politics and ideology. Innovative thinking that embraces new solutions to old problems and an insistence on accountability, always," said Bloomberg.
This was no official campaign speech, but the mayor's eighth annual State of the City address.
Despite the economic doom and gloom bearing down on the city, he struck an upbeat note, saying New Yorkers have faced tough times before and will overcome them yet again.
"There's just no question that the temporary state of the city is shaken. But I'm here to tell you it's not broken," said Bloomberg.
He presented a nine point plan to create 400,000 new jobs over the next six years and trumpeted his record on crime, education and public health.
Bloomberg promised to fight graffiti vandals and New Yorkers who hop subway turnstiles. He also announced that parents of school children will soon be able to call 311 to get education information
and said he's asking nonprofit and private sector leaders to come up with a plan to encourage New Yorkers to do more public service work.
But as soon as Mayor Bloomberg left the stage, one of his chief opponents in the mayoral campaign criticized his speech.
"Someone asked, was this looking at where we are now in the state of the city or was this the beginning of a campaign? And it felt more like the beginning of a campaign than it did a dose of reality about where we're at right now," said City Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Others questioned his ability to carry out the plans.
"I would love to hear how some of these things are going to get done and at the same time we are going to be downsizing government in so many ways. Great platitudes, like I said, lots of mom, heaps of apple pie. Let's see how we're going to do it," said Brooklyn Councilman Lewis Fidler.
Not included in the speech were grim details about the city's financial outlook. Those will come at the end of the month, when Bloomberg presents his preliminary budget on the end of the month.