“I don’t want any New Yorker to leave.” Scott Stringer Formally Enters Race for Mayor.

Brooklyn showed up for Manhattan neighbor and current City Comptroller Scott Stringer as he formally announced his run for the Mayor in the 2021 local elections yesterday.

State Senators Julia Salazar and Brian Kavanagh, as well as Assemblyman Robert Carroll endorsed him and were there to speak to Stringer’s character and record, arguing that he is the one the city will need as its leader to recover from the current crisis.

Former Manhattan Borough President and State Assemblyman, Stringer has been the comptroller for the last 8 years.

Sen. Kavanagh, who is the State Housing Committee chair praised Stringer’s housing record and said that to recover from COVID -19 “we will need innovative, creative, progressive leadership on housing,” and ideas along the lines of what Stringer is outlining as part of his campaign promise of a Universal Affoordable Housing.

Senator Salazar praised Stringer for consistently fighting for economic and social justice in the city, and said she would trust him to be the “People’s Mayor.”

Assemblyman Carroll praised Stringer’s “thoughtful, independent, progressive leadership,” and record on political reform, as well as role in stopping the Williams Pipeline.

Stringer announced his candidacy from Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan, near his childhood home. He spoke of working-class New Yorkers struggling to remain in their neighborhoods, struggling to survive the pandemic, which claimed his mother’s life among the more than 20,000 neighbors who have so far died from the disease.

He promised to be a strong leader and a good manager, throwing some shade on Mayor Bill de Blasio who famously ran to be the mayor of the two cities.

“The fact is, we never closed the book on the tale of two cities. If anything, over the last eight years, we’ve written more chapters,” he said, adding that “we must acknowledge that we have a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and a social justice crisis raging all at once,” before focusing on the city’s need for leadership that is “as tough, as creative, and as determined” as its people.

What exactly is he planning to do?

On Finances:

“I’ll root out waste at every agency. I’ll rein in outside contracts. I’ll make sure that when we invest in programs, we measure the results. And I’ll bring financial management and accountability back to government.”

“We will ask the most fortunate to pay a bit more in taxes. We asked our frontline workers to be heroes, and we are going to ask the wealthiest among us to do their part, as well.”

But he also made sure to say that “I don’t want any New Yorker to leave.”

On Jobs:

Stringer plans to invest in small businesses, and underinvested communities and focus on training New Yorkers for jobs in healthcare, design and engineering.

He belives “the measure of our success in recovering from this pandemic cannot be whether the Dow Jones continues to rise. The measure of our success must be, instead, whether we finally build a city for everyone.”

On Housing:

Stringer proposes a plan for Universal Affordable Housing that would “require that 25% of new units in every new development — in every neighborhood — be permanent, affordable housing. We will triple the number of new apartments built for homeless families. And we will create the city’s first-ever land bank, and leverage more than a thousand city-owned vacant lots, to build housing that working people can actually afford.”

On Education:

Stringer’s NYC Under 3 proposes to “extend child care assistance to all families making less than 100,000 dollars a year and more than triple the number of children in city-backed child care,” and he plans to “confront the failures of a segregated public education system that too often metes out quality and opportunity along lines of race and class.”

On Climate:

“As Mayor, I’ll put in place a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure in the city. We’ll spend the city’s capital dollars on projects that protect the environment and boost sustainability. And we will implement a resiliency plan that protects every waterfront community, not just lower Manhattan.”

On Police:

“As mayor, I will say to the NYPD what Bill de Blasio has not: “You work for the people of this city, and you are not an independent agency.” We will move substantial responsibility for non-criminal and social issues away from the police department, and invest resources in communities that have been criminalized and victimized for generations. We will overhaul how police officers are disciplined. And, working with Senator Salazar and Assemblymember Niou, we will abolish mandatory surcharges and forgive outstanding debt in the criminal justice system, to end the criminalization of poverty that fuels mass incarceration.”

And he promised “to the men and women of the NYPD is that when I am mayor, I will honor their service — while working to ensure that their service is worthy of honor.”

He ended with this:

“For the neighborhoods that have been knocked down, for the people who have been priced out, for the children who are this city’s future — I will bring leadership back to City Hall, and together, we will build a city for everyone.”