Mayor Bill de Blasio is breaking from tradition and delivering his annual State of the City address at night in hopes of broadening the traditional audience for his speech. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.
It's never been like the State of the Union, with Americans tuning in at home to hear from the president. Instead, the State of the City speech in New York has been closely watched by insiders but less so by regular New Yorkers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is hoping to change that. As first reported on NY1, he is going to be giving the speech at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 4 at Lehman College. Historically, mayors have given their annual assessment of how things are going in the city during the day.
A source close to the mayor says the speech will focus on improving the quality of life for New Yorkers. It is also expected to emphasize his agenda for working families.
The mayor recently announced plans to raise the minimum wage for city workers to $15 an hour, and he signed a bill earlier this month to give many city workers six weeks of paid parental leave to care for a child.
The effort to engage more New Yorkers in his plans comes as new poll numbers show voters warming up to the mayor.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 50 percent of city voters approve of the job he's doing. That's a five-point jump from late October, when 45 percent of the electorate approved of the mayor's job performance. 48 percent say de Blasio deserves a second term. In October, 42 percent of voters said they felt that way.
Earlier in the day, the mayor strolled down Queens Boulevard, checking out a new bike lane. It's part of his Vision Zero plan to end traffic fatalities in the city.
"We are not going to allow any street in our city to be called the Boulevard of Death anymore," de Blasio said.
De Blasio says 2015 was the safest year for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians since the city began keeping records in 1910.