New York City has recently elected their first new mayor in twelve years. The fresh new face on the scene is Bill de Blasio, the first white politician in United States history elected to a major office with a black spouse by his side. The first left wing Democrat holding power over the city in a decade. The first mayor to come from a small neighborhood in Brooklyn. The fist mayor who actually seems to represent everything the city is today: progressive, changing, and diverse.
Not only is de Blasio making history, he’s changing New York. While Bloomberg was a mayor for the 1%, Bill de Blasio is a mayor for the 99%. He wants to tackle the widening gap between the rich and the poor within the city, which is the largest gap in all of America. He wants to create a New York that encompasses all of its diversity and levels of class. In order to do this he wants to tax the rich and revamp the affordable housing system. Currently, 30% of New Yorkers spend more than half their income on rent. De Blasio is set on changing that. He wants New York to be affordable to the people who deserve to live there. He’s also set out on revamping New York’s education city, which has been steadily decreasing over Bloomberg’s reign.
As a native New Yorker I have hope in de Blasio. While New York will always be my favorite city, I can’t help but acknowledge that it has become a real life Gossip Girl. Rent downtown is unaffordable, rent uptown is unimaginable, even Brooklyn has become untouchable. New York is supposed to be the city that holds a place for every class of every gender of every race. De Blasio is set on recreating it, and I hope he succeeds.