Good Government

The City for too long has given tax breaks and subsidies to big businesses which do not live up to their promises and which do not provide economic growth. For example, just in the past few years the City has given hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to the Mets and Yankees to build stadiums which will not stimulate the economy nor create many jobs. Instead of putting all of our eggs in just a few large, corporate baskets, we should focus on giving tax breaks and subsidies to small businesses, spurring innovation and diversity. We should also hold the New York City Industrial Development Agency and Economic Development Corporation more accountable by forcing them to make available more detailed materials on the promised benefits and potential drawbacks of proposed projects. We should make all future subsidies come with strict rules about complying with promised job creation and retention numbers with oversight as the project develops to ensure that promises are kept and remediation options are available if the promises are not kept.

The City of Baltimore has successfully implemented CitiStat, which requires many City agencies to produce regular reports on performance data. This data is then discussed by the mayor and officials from the agency. In addition, the data allows analysts to identify problematic trends and determine geographic areas with the greatest need for City services. CitiStat is similar to the New York Police Department’s CompStat program, which has made it more effective and responsive. While the City currently has NYCStat, which compiles data, reports and statistics on every City agency, we should take the process to the next step by making the underlying data used to generate the statistics available and to use it to improve agencies and hold government accountable.

With people from over 200 countries living here, New York City’s diversity is a great asset, economically and culturally. Film-maker Ric Burns, in his public television series "New York," has written that “New York City is a continuing experiment to see if all the peoples of the world can live together in one small place.” Though we may all live together, we don’t all speak the same language. The 1990 census reported that 35 percent of New Yorkers’ native language is not English. City government has an obligation to serve these residents, and should do it in a language they understand. That’s why we must expand the availability of City services and information, both printed and electronic, in multiple languages.