De Blasio says NYC has made progress in reaching goals on jobs, resiliency

Three years after the release of One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City, the city has made significant progress in addressing the challenges of population growth, aging infrastructure, increasing inequality, and climate change, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday.

The release of the OneNYC 2018 Progress Report, was an update on what the city has done since the release of the original plan in April 2015.

“Today, we recognize that OneNYC is working: Jobs are up and crime is down. Our air and waterways are cleaner than they’ve been in decades, and our city continues to lead in the fight against climate change. These achievements don’t happen by accident. They are the result of an engaged government, an active citizenry and shared vision of a city that works for all New Yorkers,” de Blasio said.

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Highlights of the report include:

  • The city saw record job and wage growth and record low unemployment, with gains in all five boroughs;
  • Affordable housing hit a 30-year high in 2017, with over 87,500 homes financed since 2014;
  • The jail population fell to the lowest in decades alongside record low crime rates;
  • The city tripled the number of children in free all-day Pre-K and launched 3-K for All;
  • Through Vision Zero, the city achieved its safest roads since the dawn of the automobile;
  • NYC was the first major city or state in the nation to commit to divesting pension funds from fossil fuels;
  • The city filed lawsuits against five fossil fuel companies most responsible for climate change;
  • The city was the first city to align with the Paris Agreement;
  • The city has over 1,000 electric vehicles in use by agencies and installed over 500 charging stations;
  • The city instituted new Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines will institutionalize climate-smart construction across the city; and.
  • The city secured a commitment from FEMA to redraw its flood maps to better account for flood risk; and
  • The city said project milestones continue to be met in its $20 billion resiliency program.

OneNYC was the first resilience strategy released by any U.S. city and it was done in partnership with 100 Resilient Cities pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.
"This administration made a commitment to New Yorkers in the early days to determine the biggest challenges facing this city and lay out a plan to solve them, and that's exactly what we're doing," said First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan. "We have record job and wage growth; we're shrinking our carbon footprint and holding those we invest in accountable; and we've gotten our jail population down to the smallest it's been in decades - all with three more years to improve upon these successes."

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New York City is one of the biggest municipal bond issuers in the United States. The city has about $38.7 billion of general obligation debt outstanding. Moody’s Investors Service rates the city’s general obligation bonds Aa2, while S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings rate them AA. All three assign stable outlooks.

"Our economy is stronger. The air and surrounding waterways are cleaner than they’ve been in decades. Our neighborhoods are safer, more affordable, and more environmentally just. And we have raised the bar on climate leadership by taking the fight straight to the fossil fuel companies that have created our climate crisis,” said Daniel Zarrilli, New York City's Senior Director of Climate Policy and Programs and Chief Resilience Officer.

"The Department of City Planning is proud of our ongoing efforts to make New York City more resilient. Over the past year, we have engaged with over 2,500 New Yorkers at over 100 public events, providing residents with information on flood risk and resiliency, discussing the challenges of building-scale resiliency, and underlining the importance of updating our zoning to address the resiliency issues that we anticipate in the decades to come,” said City Planning Director Marisa Lago.

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