Aid Haitians, immigrants to help NYC economy -mayor

New York City

(Adds details on Haiti fund raising and comments in new paragraphs 5, 10-12)

Bonds

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - New York City can revive its economy by helping Haitians and other immigrants get small business loans, creating jobs and other programs for at-risk youths, boosting anti-foreclosure efforts, and setting up neighborhood credit unions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

Earthquake-stricken Haitian New Yorkers should be given the federal immigration agency's support of "Temporary Protected Status" so they can find better-paying legal jobs and send more money back home, Bloomberg said in a copy of his annual State of the City address.

New York City has the largest population of Haitian descent outside Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-torn capital city of this Caribbean nation.

Bloomberg, who won a third term by a slim margin, is an independent who has long campaigned for national immigration reform. He called on law firms, charities and community groups to form a new public-private partnership to help Haitians qualify for this legal status.

The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City has raised $621,001 to help Haiti.

New York City's tax revenues slid when Wall Street nearly capsized last year, and the city's resulting deficit makes it much harder for Bloomberg to pay for ambitious new programs.

Several of his new initiatives rely on the private sector, and he also promised to "stretch" every public dollar, by merging agencies and excising fat in the form of unneeded office space and car fleets. Duplicative functions, such as human resources, will also be combined.

"We will continue going full tilt -- full time," he said.

"And, even as we face difficult budget choices, which will require painful cuts, we will continue insisting that government remain on the side of every hard-working New Yorker," Bloomberg continued.

A PLEA FOR 'LIVING WAGE'

Local politicians, including Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Comptroller John Liu, both Democrats, largely praised the mayor's plans.

But a spokesman for the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank, said the "home-grown," untrained or undereducated residents, need more help learning new skills to avoid getting "stuck in low-wage jobs for years to come."

The Drum Major Institute said Bloomberg should boost salaries by enacting a "living wage" law to avoid increasing the ranks of the working poor who often need public aid. For example, city employers will hire 22,000 cashiers and 32,000 retail clerks in the next seven years -- but only pay them $17,000 to $22,000 a year, the research group said.

FOCUS ON LOANS AND JOBS

Another public-private program, a new loan pool, will give New Yorkers now "drowning in credit card debt at huge interest rates" a fresh start with the first-ever bank accounts that require no minimum balances and have no hidden fees, he said.

New "financing fairs" for immigrants will let them meet with lenders who speak their languages, he said. Some 5,000 more of the "newest" New Yorkers will offered English classes.

All business owners will benefit from a lighter paperwork burden, as license applications will be sped and coordinated among agencies, kick-starting new enterprises with a new business 311 telephone line.

Shifting $750 million to the housing marketplace rescue program from the capital budget will help protect tenants in "distressed" apartment buildings, he said. Landlords who own such buildings overpaid for their properties and overmortgaged them; upkeep and services can fall if foreclosures result.

Though New York City's foreclosure rates are lower than in some of the nation's other largest cities, 1,000 middle-class families will be able to refinance their homes at "reasonable terms" with a new $10 million mortgage assistance fund, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg, who has made improving public school education a signature issue, proposed new anti-truancy and anti-pregnancy initiatives, noting that black and Hispanic young men are twice as likely not to graduate from high school and "far more likely" to become fathers than their white and Asian peers.

Further, poverty rates for black and Hispanic young men are 50 percent higher than for Asians and whites, while their unemployment rates are 60 percent higher, the mayor said.

Using federal stimulus money, he proposed creating 2,000 public and private-sector jobs for young people. (Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Bloomberg Highlights Strategy of Savings for City Does anyone else feel enfuriated

New York City

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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg focused on the incremental rather than the innovative in his annual State of the City address on Wednesday, pledging to avoid any new spending, to consolidate government operations and to take modest steps in helping small businesses and minority youths.

It was a decidedly more low-key, less ambitious presentation than those Mr. Bloomberg has made in the past.

He promised to expand job training services and to organize financing fairs for immigrant small-business owners. He said five banks and five credit unions had volunteered to set up a program featuring bank accounts with no minimum balances or hidden fees. And in the city’s latest effort to help stanch the foreclosure crisis, he vowed to establish a $10 million fund that would help up to 1,000 families refinance their mortgages.

Mr. Bloomberg, who won re-election to a third term by a narrower-than-expected margin in November, said that a new interagency task force would “consolidate,” “centralize” and “reduce” government operations. Among the goals, he said, would be cutting the number of city vehicles, and shrinking the city’s office space by 10 percent — or 1.2 million square feet — over four years. The trim in office space would save $36 million in rent, and $4 million in energy, each year.

He delivered his address — his ninth since taking office in 2002 — at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens. And in a nod to “New York, New York,” which was played over a loudspeaker before and after his 45-minute speech, Mr. Bloomberg borrowed liberally from the lyrics: “As someone once said, ‘We’re going to make a brand new start of it. We’re going to do more than ever — more than any city has ever done — to find innovative ways to improve people’s everyday lives.”

In some ways, the speech was a bit of a departure for the mayor. He largely steered clear of anything controversial, unlike earlier addresses, which dealt with subjects like education, property taxes, ground zero, homelessness and term limits.

There was no slick video narrated by Ric Burns or a marching band, as was the case last time. He made no part of his speech in Spanish, as had been his habit when he was running for a third term last year.

Instead, Mr. Bloomberg offered a menu of grind-it-out ideas designed to help New Yorkers, against a backdrop of a $4 billion budget deficit and a national recession. “It was a different kind of speech,” said Bill de Blasio, the city’s new public advocate. “It was definitely incrementalist. A lot of the big-picture issues were kept to a minimum.”

Perhaps the most notable proposal was Mr. Bloomberg’s plan to combine the Department of Juvenile Justice with the Administration for Children’s Services.

“Make no mistake: there will be no coddling,” Mr. Bloomberg said, referring to youngsters in the juvenile justice system. “This is an anti-crime strategy based on real data, and we’ll measure results carefully.”

Two small agencies — the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, and NYC TV — will also be merged. And at the Human Resources Administrations, two back offices will be combined, Mr. Bloomberg announced, resulting in an expected annual savings of $3.9 million.

And, in the kind of language that was typical of his tenure building his financial services firm, Bloomberg L.P., the mayor — who is the wealthiest person in the city — said that technology could improve government efficiency and customer service. He plans to start a pilot program to install GPS devices on city school buses. He also said the city would hand out bracelets that would enable families to locate the elderly or children.

Mr. Bloomberg, who toyed with the notion of a presidential run in 2008, and was later reported to be on Senator John McCain’s short list of vice presidential contenders, did not completely confine himself to local issues.

Citing President Obama’s announcement that undocumented Haitians who were in the United States before the Jan. 12 earthquake would get temporary protective status and be allowed to remain legally for 18 months, Mr. Bloomberg said that the city would lead an effort to help Haitian New Yorkers get legal and administrative support to apply for such status.

“That will allow them to find legal employment here, and allow more money to find its way back home to their loved ones,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Afterward, city officials offered mixed assessments. Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, praised Mr. Bloomberg’s commitment to small businesses, and his attempts to deal with foreclosure problems.

John C. Liu, the new city comptroller, commended Mr. Bloomberg for focusing on small businesses and immigrants, but said that the foreclosure plan sounded like “rhetoric we’ve heard before.” Mr. Bloomberg should have been more critical of Wall Street, Mr. Liu added.

Meanwhile, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, and Rubén Díaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, expressed surprise and disappointment that Mr. Bloomberg did not say anything about establishing a commission to overhaul the City Charter — a commission that is expected to change the term-limits law.

Of course, Mr. Bloomberg being Mr. Bloomberg, a few verbal miscues were on display, as well. Beyond botching a couple of names, Mr. Bloomberg may have committed a bit of a Freudian slip when he summed up his speech as the “State of Our Union,” and not the State of the City.

Mondays headline story Daley and Bloomberg heap praise on each other

New York City

Posted by Hal Dardick at 8:07 p.m.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had nothing but praise this afternoon at a South Side school for his Chicago counterpart, Richard Daley, as Bloomberg announced a grant to help the Daley administration promote volunteerism.

“Chicago is a role model,” Bloomberg said, singling out Daley’s efforts to reform education. “I’ve always thought if you called central casting and said send me a great mayor, Richie Daley would be the person that they would send.”

Daley, in turn, praised "my good friend Mike Bloomberg" and called his East Coast colleague someone who “brings mayors together.” He praised Bloomberg for championing tougher gun-control laws.

Mayor Bloomberg's House Is Fair Game for Protest, Fans of Public Schools Say: I'm sure we must all feel sulky

New York City

     MANHATTAN (CN) - Activists say New York City unfairly denied them a permit to demonstrate in front of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's house to protest his support of a policy that could close 22 public schools.

     Bloomberg declared himself a "strong supporter" of charter schools, which the students, parent and teacher plaintiffs say "have generally denied parents meaningful involvement in their children's school affairs, denied teachers the right to unionize and often have worked to the detriment of the education of students."

     In their federal complaint, the plaintiffs say that under Bloomberg's plan, "There are approximately 22 schools currently slated to be closed, at least in part to make way for charter schools, including secondary schools with longstanding ties to the communities in which they are located."

     The Department of Education will convene a 13-member Panel for Educational policy to vote on the 22 closings on Jan. 26.

     The activists say they planned to protest in front of the mayor's house before the vote, on Jan 21, but the city denied them a permit.

     "Unlike previous New York City mayors, Mayor Bloomberg lives in a five-story townhouse on the north side of East 79th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, rather than the Gracie Mansion," according to the complaint.

Though there is a space near Gracie Mansion commonly used by protesters, the city has barred the plaintiffs from gathering near Bloomberg's house. The students, parent and teacher say that Bloomberg's house is fair game because it has been used for fund raisers, meetings with political leaders and receptions for visiting dignitaries.

     They say the NYPD allowed people to protest the closing of a firehouse in front of Bloomberg's house in the summer of 2003. And they add that demonstrations have been permitted in front of the homes of former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, former New York City Fire Department Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and State Senator Carl Kruger.

     The plaintiffs say New York City has violated First and Fourteenth Amendments.

     They are represented by Norman Siegel, formerly of the NYCLU.

Mondays crazyness New York City Reigns as Number One Tourist Destination

NYC

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — It looks like New York City just showed Mickey Mouse who's boss.

The city that never sleeps overtook Orlando, the house of mouse, as the most popular city destination in the United States for 2009.

A total of 45 million visitors boosted the local economy in 2009, bringing in close to $28 billion to the city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Monday.

"Last year, while tourism declined significantly in cities across the country, we fared better than most," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Travel to the city dropped by just 3.9 percent from 2008, a smaller percentage than expected.

New York City also knocked out Los Angeles as the most popular city favored by international visitors. The Big Apple attracted 8.6 million visitors from abroad, more than double the amount that visited Los Angeles.

While New Yorkers may complain about the tourists, visitors from abroad spent five times as much money in the city as their American counterparts.

Apart from the cash boon to the city in the middle of the recession, the visitor influx has brought employment numbers in the hospitality industry to pre-recession levels, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber credited an aggressive tourism marketing campaign for the visitor numbers.

Plans to stretch the welcome mat into 2010 include weekend promotions, hotel specials and a new round of restaurant week highlighting the city's cuisine.

Bloomberg begins 3rd term in NYC

NYC

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought to strike a humble tone Friday as he began his third term by promising "to listen and to lead" and to take a fresh look at the challenges facing the city.

The 67-year-old billionaire acknowledged the unusual circumstances that landed him on the steps of City Hall to take the oath of office for another four years. A city term-limit law had barred officeholders from seeking a third, consecutive term, but he orchestrated a last-minute law change that let him run again in 2009.

"This term is a special opportunity, one that comes with extraordinary responsibilities," Bloomberg said. "I realize, too, that the building behind me is yours, and the job in front of me is to listen and to lead."

The former CEO first took office as a Republican in 2002 and was re-elected by a landslide in 2005. Now an independent, his most recent re-election was more difficult as he faced voter resentment for the way he went about changing term-limits law. His margin of victory over his Democratic challenger was far narrower than predicted — he won by slightly less than five percentage points.

Bloomberg heads into a third term with a little less political capital and a changed City Hall landscape. Twelve of the City Council's 51 members are new and two citywide officials who took office Friday, Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, have warned they are not afraid to stand up to the mayor.

About 2,000 invited guests, given mugs of hot cider to stay warm during the outdoor program, watched Bloomberg, Liu and de Blasio take the oath of office.

Bloomberg said he would take on the national issue of immigration reform similar to the way he focused on gun control in his second term. The mayor established the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which has pushed its agenda on Capitol Hill and in local political races throughout the nation.

Bloomberg did not give specifics on what he was planning to do, but said he would seek a bipartisan coalition to "support President Obama's call for comprehensive immigration reform."

In the past, Bloomberg has called for giving all undocumented immigrants the opportunity for citizenship. He also has advocated the idea of a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify legal immigrant workers.

He said the city's future depends on honoring "the ideals that have lit the lamp of liberty in our harbor for more than a century."

Liu, the new comptroller, noted in his speech that "economic misery cuts ever deeper into families across the city."

The first Asian-American in citywide office also thanked his parents, who he said "could have had a lot in Taiwan but they gave everything up so their kids could grow up American."

The mayor, whose fortune is estimated at $17.5 billion by Forbes magazine, spent more than $102 million on his re-election campaign. But he clamped down on lavish spending for the inauguration, foregoing a traditional party and instead spending the day visiting people doing volunteer work throughout the city.