Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his State of the City address yesterday at the American Natural History Museum, framing his points that centered around the theme dubbed “save our city” in a town hall style format. That included promises to expand education, spur small business reform, and create greater affordability. 

Under the enormous blue whale model inside the American Natural History Museum, de Blasio also focused on creating stronger bonds between the NYPD and young people. Last year, there was an increase in the number of youth-on-youth robberies, with 29 percent of those arrested falling under the age of eighteen, compared to 23 percent the year before. 

“Our young people do not need to be policed. They need to be reached,” de Blasio said in his speech. This attempt at connection includes 300 more youth coordination officers, who use a gentler hand and inspiring intellect as a way of “stopping crime before it even happens.” 

Another element in his strategy is to open seven new community centers across the city, with two in Tremont and another in Soundview. This is an effort to revitalize the areas that need it most, giving young people a community space of their own.

When it came to education, the mayor was all about expansion. He boasted of the success of 3K, an expansion to one of his signature achievements. Toddlers in the Bronx’s School District 12 can expect their own slice of 3K starting this September. More broadly, de Blasio spoke of increasing student literacy, touting the rising number of reading coaches, and emphasized the importance of role models, stating, “[students] don’t just need textbooks, they need role models. We have already hired a thousand more men of color teachers. We’re going to do a thousand more on top of that.” 

He also segued into safety around schools with the installation of 1,000 new stop signs, stop lights, and speed bumps for schools and neighborhoods that need them most.

Another element of de Blasio’s effort to save the city was small business reform. Using the crowd as a sample population, he asked how many people have a particular store they were sad to see priced out of their neighborhoods. The hands went up, with de Blasio emphasizing the city’s vacant storefronts–now at 12,000, according to a study he cited–as a sign of a small business crisis. 

Among efforts to bolster the small-business community, which included vacancy fines for landlords with empty storefronts, the mayor also teased commercial rent control, saying that if a legal way exists, “we should go to Albany and get it done in 2021.” 

As his address flowed into housing policy, de Blasio’s to-do list got longer. He stressed affordability. His hopes included rehabbing 62,000 existing NYCHA apartments, ensuring 25 percent of new apartments would be affordable to families making under $30,000, and alluding to universal renter’s protection and the elimination of security deposits, with those costs passed onto the landlords who hire brokers. 

The mayor also mentioned community land trusts (CLT)–an increasingly popular way a community-based nonprofit leases land as a way of keeping rents or mortgages stable while fostering community wealth–as “one of the most promising ideas” of housing reform. This gives the community agency over their housing and freedom from outside speculation. CLTs ensure a long-term solution to affordable housing, creating enclaves of community owned neighborhoods.

Finally, de Blasio stressed the importance of New York City’s role in the fight against climate change by signing three executive orders on stage. “We are leaders on this earth. Are you proud as New Yorkers to be leaders on this earth?” de Blasio asked an applauding audience after outlining how the city plans to achieve sustainability. 

These executive orders include eliminating fossil fuels from New York City use by 2040, banning plastic bottles from city buildings, and adding electric buses to New York public transportation arsenal. He also promised to implement solar power at no upfront cost, wind power in Brooklyn, and hydro-power city-wide. All in two years time. 

With two years left in his term, Mr. Mayor has a lot he wants to do. Whether or not he does it is another question.