Release # 009-01

 

Contact:

Sunny Mindel / Michael Anton (212) 788-2958

Launches Public Safety Programs to Target Career Criminals

Creates Weekend Science and English Courses for Students Who Need More Help

Announces Plans to Provide Jobs For Welfare Recipients Facing Five-Year Time Limit

Announces $1.2 Billion Housing Initiative Contingent on Construction Industry Reform

Announces July 4th Date for Fresh Kills Closure

Major Economic Development and Cultural Plans outlined for All Five Boroughs

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani yesterday delivered his eighth and last "State of the City" address. During his speech in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, the Mayor outlined the initiatives his Administration will pursue during its last year in office--initiatives aimed at making New York City's extraordinary progress over the past seven years permanent.

PUBLIC SAFETY

To build on New York City's historic record of crime reduction, the Mayor proposed to:

• Target career criminals: A great deal of crime is caused by a relatively small number of career criminals. To get these criminals off the street, the Police Department is targeting individuals with outstanding warrants (currently, there are 111,000 outstanding warrants in our City, 26,000 of which are for felonies) and also those who have violated the terms of their parole.
  
  • Operation Discover will commit $4 million to add 600 new Police Officers over the next six months--doubling the size of the warrant squad--with 300 of these officers assigned to the task immediately.
    
  • The Parole Violator Task Force will address parole violations by expanding our Joint Absconder Warrant Squad (JAWS) citywide. The Task Force will also work to improve communications between City and State law enforcement officials to speed up the apprehension of parole violators.
• Property Crime Task Force: As property crime remains nearly 70% of index crimes, the NYPD will target precincts with the highest levels of grand larceny, auto theft, and burglary in the City to drive down property crime.
  
• Build the largest DNA laboratory in the nation: To more effectively convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent, the City will construct a $162 million, 11 story laboratory on the campus of Bellevue Hospital.
  
• Operation Gun Stop: The NYPD will immediately begin offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the seizure of an illegal gun and the arrest of the gun's owner. The new hotline for this initiative is (866) GUN-STOP.
  
• Further reduce drugs in our streets and housing developments:
  
  • Expand Operation Condor, which was crucial to last year's crime decline, from more than 800 tours per day to about 1,000 tours per day.
    
  • Model Development Program in NYCHA, based on the successful Model Blocks program, the NYPD will work to rid public housing developments of entrenched drug trafficking. Starting out in five developments, the initiative will include 24-hour uniformed patrol of housing grounds and increased buy-and-bust operations by narcotics personnel.
    
  • Expanded use of closed-circuit video cameras from eight NYCHA developments to 13.
• Improve police/community relations and officer morale:
  
  • Neighborhood Survey: The NYPD will hire an independent firm to survey neighborhood residents about the work of the Police in their communities. The Department will use this information to address neighborhood concerns.
    
  • Precinct Modernization Campaign: The City will work to improve the physical condition of our police precinct facilities to make them more user-friendly places for City residents and police officers alike, starting with the Central Park Precinct House, a landmark building in serious need of repair.
• Improve emergency preparedness
  
  • Make OEM a charter agency: The Office of Emergency Management has dramatically improved the way the City deals with weather emergencies, infrastructure-related problems, power crises, public health emergencies, and a wide range of other situations. It should be made a permanent agency.
  • Host international conference on Emergency Management: So that New York City's Office of Emergency Management can share its successful strategies and learn from other agencies throughout the world, New York City will host a major international conference in October of this year.
    
  • Purchase and distribute defibrillators throughout the City: The City will invest $4 million to purchase 2,000 "smart" defibrillators, which do not require medical training to operate. These will be placed in public places like city office buildings, courthouses, performing arts centers, train stations, theaters, museums and stadiums.
    
  • Expand CompStat: The City will establish within the Mayor's Office a CompStat Implementation Office to coordinate the introduction of sophisticated statistical analysis into the Fire Department, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Probation, and other agencies.
    
  • 311 line for non-emergencies: The City will begin to establish the creation of a 311-line that will receive requests for non-emergency services.

The Mayor proposed several initiatives to improve the current system of public education in New York City:

• Enhancing Instruction
  
  • Weekend classes: The City will work with the Board of Education to establish for the first time programs of weekend instruction, beginning the first week of February, for students who need extra help.
    
    • Project Science: In collaboration with Chancellor Levy, the City will establish a new $25 million program which will offer special science instruction on every weekend during the school year, to 45,300 specially identified eighth grade and high school students in the five boroughs.
      
    • Project English: As part of an overall effort to reform bilingual education, the City will work with Chancellor Levy to implement a new, $9 million program providing high intensity English classes after school and on every weekend during the school year, reaching a total of 48,600 students in need of additional instruction.
  • Expanding summer school by 50,000 students: As part ongoing effort to eliminate social promotion, an additional $25 million will be provided to enroll 50,000 more students who are performing at low levels.
    
  • Creating 21,000 classroom libraries: The City will commit $31.5 million to create classroom libraries of 300 books each in all 21,000 K-8 classrooms, reaching 700,000 children.
• Improving school facilities and equipment, and reducing Board bureaucracy
  
  • Expand "Take the Field": Working with the private, non-profit group "Take the Field," the City will commit to renovating all public high school athletic fields in New York City. In addition to the 7 fields either completed or underway, we will renovate the remaining 44 fields in need of work.
    
  • Construct 12 new school buildings: The School Construction Authority will accelerate its schedule and begin building 12 new school facilities (7 new buildings, 5 additions), eleven of which are in Queens, and one in the Bronx. The City will accelerate $360 million in capital funding to complete these projects quickly.
    
  • Sell 110 Livingston Street and move Board of Education: With the issuance of an RFP, the City is moving ahead with plans to sell the Board of Education building, and move the Board into a smaller, smarter building in downtown Brooklyn, to be shared by a new high-standards high school.
    
  • Convert 114 remaining coal-burning boilers to gas or electric: The SCA will complete its conversions of all coal-burning boilers in schools by September 2001.
• Making our schools safe, orderly and drug-free
  
  • Hire additional School Safety Agents and crossing guards: The City will hire an 800 additional School Safety Agents, and also an additional 400 school crossing guards.
    
  • Create three new Second Opportunity Schools: The City and the Board of Education will create three new Second Opportunity Schools-one in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one in Queens-in addition to the one already operating in the Bronx, to serve students with severe behavioral problems.
    
  • In-school suspension centers: These facilities allow students who misbehave to stay in school when under suspension. The centers will be able to handle up to 45,000 students during the school year.

Recognizing that no new initiatives, however valuable, can fundamentally transform a dysfunctional system, Mayor Giuliani also proposed a complete overhaul of the New York City public school system, based on the principles of accountability, competition and choice:

• Pilot school choice program in one district: The Mayor renewed his call to offer poor parents one of the City's 32 public school districts a voucher that can be redeemed at any of the City's private or parochial schools. The program would be modeled after the successful choice program in the City of Milwaukee.
  
• Encourage federal vouchers: The Mayor also urged the incoming Bush Administration to increase federal educational aid to poor students, and to offer that money in the form of a voucher directly to poor parents in schools that receive federal Title I aid. The Mayor suggested that $2,000 vouchers be offered.
  
• Tax credit for education expenses: The Mayor called on the Governor and the State Legislature to support Assembly Republican Leader John Faso's proposal to create a State tax credit for educational expenses for families with adjusted gross incomes of up to $100,000.
  
• Abolish the Board of Education and replace it with a Department of Education accountable directly to the Mayor.
  
• Create a more accountable school system by ending teacher tenure, implementing merit pay, and making other essential changes.
  
• Increase private management of failing schools: At least 20 failing City schools should be turned over to private management companies.
  
• Charter Schools: The Mayor pledged that the City will work to increase the number of charter schools, and continue to help existing charter schools compete on a level playing field.

CUNY

The Mayor announced two initiatives to further improve the CUNY system:

• Expand "College Now," which offers college credit coursework as well as Regents Exam and SAT preparation, from 25,000 students in 150 high schools to 37,500 students in all high schools in 2002, at a cost of $5 million.
  
• Hire more full-time faculty: The City will provide CUNY with $5.5 million for 100 new full-time faculty at the community colleges, as part of a broader initiative to strengthen the University's full-time faculty.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES

• Make ACS a Charter agency: Now a national model for excellence, the Administration for Children's services should be made a permanent chartered City agency.
  
• Foster parent recruitment drive: To encourage adults from all income levels to become foster parents, the City will launch a $6.3 million Foster Parent Recruitment Drive to recruit 3,500 foster parents in addition to the 24,000 currently in the City.
  
• New adoption goal: ACS has completed a City record of 20,000 adoptions since 1996. The Mayor announced a new goal of 4,500 adoptions for 2001.

HEALTHCARE AND HEALTHSTAT

Last June, the Mayor announced HealthStat, a comprehensive, Citywide initiative to enroll uninsured New Yorkers in existing healthcare plans. Thus far, more than 74,000 adults and children have been enrolled. To increase enrollment further, the Mayor proposed:

• Incentive plan for schools: The City will provide bonuses of up to $25,000 to public schools that enroll more than 70% of their Child Health Plus-eligible children in the program, and higher rewards to schools that enroll all their Child Health Plus-eligible children in the program.
  
• Immediate implementation of Family Health Plus: The State Family Health Plus program, which will cover adults with incomes of up to 150% of the federal poverty line, has been awaiting federal approval to go into effect since June of last year. The Mayor reiterated his call for federal approval, so that HealthStat can expand its efforts to cover adult City residents.
  
• Reform recertification process: Currently, enrollment in State health programs expires after only one year, causing significant drop-off from the rolls. The Mayor called on the State to extend recertification deadlines for children from one year to two years.
  
• Funding two major research studies: The City will fund a study to determine the effect of compliance-meaning a patient's consistency in taking prescribed medicine-on reducing death from cardiovascular disease. In addition, the City's Health and Hospitals Corporation City will work with CaP CURE (The Association for Cure of Cancer of the Prostate) to link men with a high risk for prostate cancer to clinical trials offering new treatments for the disease.

WELFARE REFORM

In December of this year, as many as 46,000 New Yorkers on public assistance-of whom roughly 38,000 are able-bodied adults--will become the first welfare recipients whose eligibility will expire due to the five-year limit established by the 1996 federal welfare reform law. The Mayor announced several initiatives to address this issue, and also to further advance the success of welfare reform in New York City:

• Five-year federal time limit: The City will provide able-bodied individuals facing the federal five--year time limit this December with public and private sector jobs--subsidized with existing federal welfare funds--for up to six months, beginning immediately. If after six months a person has not found permanent employment, as a condition of applying to the State Safety Net program, he or she will be required to engage in an appropriate work activity.
  
• New goal of 125,000 jobs: In 2000, the Human Resources Administration found 119,340 jobs for people currently or formerly on public assistance, exceeding its goal of 100,000 jobs. The Mayor announced that this year, HRA's new goal will be 125,000 jobs.
  
• Merge HRA and DOE into new "Department of Employment and Support Services": The new department will place a coordinated focus on increasing self-sufficiency by moving people into work, while keeping the City's strong and generous commitment to those in need of assistance.

HOUSING

The Mayor proposed a major $1.2 billion investment to build, renovate and preserve housing units, contingent on several key reforms, including:

• Reducing the cost of construction and reforming the industry: The cost of construction in New York City is heavily inflated-between 21 and 55 percent higher than cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's investigation of the interior construction contractors suggests that as much as 20% was added to the cost of projects undertaken in the 1990s. To create a favorable climate for housing construction for years to come, the Mayor emphasized that the City must work to:
  
  • Remove organized crime from the industry by passing and updated and improved version of the reform bill introduced in the City Council in 1998;
    
  • Rezone vacant manufacturing land for commercial and residential use;
    
  • Reform the Building Code;
    
  • Reform the Buildings Department;
    
  • Reduce the number of "red tape" reviews a housing plan must go through, including zoning, environmental, and permitting and land use review procedures.

The Mayor pledged to the City Council that if it committed to working with the Administration to implement the above reforms, he would commit to an ambitious $1.2 billion housing plan, with $600 million in government funds leveraging $600 million in private investment, that will create or preserve more than 10,100 units of affordable housing. Specifically, the Mayor proposed to:

• Return remaining "in-rem" housing to the market: The Mayor pledged to rehabilitate the remaining 1,100 units acquired by the City due to tax foreclosure, and then return them to responsible private ownership.
  
• Stop the cycle of abandonment: To ensure that the City never again becomes a major landlord of properties that should be in private hands, the City will expand a Third Party Transfer program to take approximately 6,000 deteriorating units that are currently at risk of abandonment away from tax-delinquent landlords who can't maintain them. The City will then transfer the buildings to responsible owners who will rehabilitate and maintain them.
  
• Build on success of ANCHOR program: The Department of Housing Preservation and Development will build on the existing ANCHOR program to add more than 3,000 units of affordable housing throughout the City, as well as 875,000 square feet of newly-constructed commercial space. In addition, the Mayor pledged that cost savings from the reforms outlined above will be applied to building additional mixed use ANCHOR units, which could fund an additional 2,000 units, bringing the total to 12,100.

MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE ACCOUNTABLE, RESPONSIVE AND EFFECTIVE

To help institutionalize the progress New York City has enjoyed over the past seven years, the Mayor proposed several key government reforms.

• Charter Revision Commission: The Mayor announced the formation a new Charter Revision Commission to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government, and pledged to ask the Commission to study the following proposals, among others:
  
  • Requiring semi-annual reporting of police statistics: At least twice a year, the New York City Police Department should be required to publicly report citywide levels of the seven index crimes designated and tracked by the FBI.
    
  • Making OEM a charter agency.
    
  • Making ACS a charter agency.
    
  • Requiring a budget-stabilization account, so that the City can sustain economic downturns with balanced books and a healthy economy.
    
  • Streamlining contracting procedures, which are currently cumbersome, to allow government to enter into contracts with less red tape and more performance incentives.
    
  • Merging HRA and DoE into the Department of Employment and Support Services to make permanent a government structure that encourages self-sufficiency.
    
  • Merging the DoH and DoMH to deliver services in a more coordinated and efficient way.
    
  • Creating the position of Domestic Violence Coordinator in the Mayor's Office of Operations, to institutionalize the progress we've made in domestic violence.
• Buildings Department reform: In September of last year, the Mayor announced a task force to perform a top-to-bottom review of the Buildings Department. Today, the Mayor announced a set of recommendations based on the Task Force's study, and based on the concept of separating building plan examinations from inspections. The chief recommendations are:
  
  • Inspections will be transferred to the Fire Department and will be performed by civilian members of the FDNY.
    
  • The Buildings Department will retain responsibility for architectural plan approvals.
• Making the best use of technology
  
  • E-government: The Mayor discussed ongoing efforts to streamline City services through the use of the Internet.
    
  • Laying fiberoptic cables in abandoned watermains: The Mayor announced that the City will soon be issuing an RFP to transform an unused water main system that reaches under large parts of Lower Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn and Coney Island into a conduit for high-speed telecommunications cables such as fiber optic lines.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

To build on the City's record job growth, the Mayor outlined several economic development projects in all five boroughs.

Brooklyn:

• Coney Island Redevelopment: The Mayor's comprehensive plan to revitalize Coney Island includes:
  
  • The Brooklyn Cyclones Minor League Stadium;
    
  • The creation of a Coney Island Local Development Corporation;
    
  • A Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Fame or New York Sports Hall of Fame, depending on the best response to a RFP for a site near the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium;
    
  • The Coney Island Summer Nights Film Series--an open air event held at various venues throughout the neighborhood;
    
  • Improving and expanding the New York City Aquarium with a major $25 million rehabilitation;
• New Brooklyn Bridge Park: Brooklyn Bridge Park will create nearly 70 acres of open parkland space along the underutilized and derelict commercial waterfront property in downtown Brooklyn. To jumpstart the project, the City will transform the Main Street parking lot into parkland and link it to the Fulton State Park to create an uninterrupted expanse of parkland between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
  
• Commitment to improve Fulton Mall: The Mayor announced a $2 million effort to revitalize one of Brooklyn's most important thoroughfares, Fulton Mall, in cooperation with Congressman Edolphus Towns.

Queens:

• Re-Zone Long Island City from Manufacturing to Residential and Commercial to encourage the creation of jobs and home ownership.
  
• Urban Renewal for Willets Point: The Mayor announced a plan to work with Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, the City Council and others to implement a major urban renewal plan for Willets Point, in order to give the neighborhood the tools to put itself on sound economic footing.
  
• Pool and Skating Rink in Flushing: The Mayor announced $30 million in funding for a new pool and skating rink in Downtown Flushing, which is now the fifth largest commercial district in the City of New York.

Staten Island:

• Concerts at Staten Island Yankees Stadium: The Mayor announced plans for a summer concert series in the magnificent setting of the Staten Island Yankees Stadium.
  
• Renovation of St. George Theater: To ensure that this revitalization reaches into the St. George neighborhood, the City will commit resources to renovating the nearby St. George Theater into a performing arts center.
  
• Closing of Fresh Kills: The Mayor announced that the Fresh Kills Landfill will be closed by July 4th of this year.

The Bronx:

• Moving Fulton Fish Market to Hunts Point: The Mayor announced that the Fulton Fish Market will be relocated to Hunts Point, moving 1,000 jobs to the Bronx in a brand new 300,000 square foot, fully enclosed, refrigerated facility that will centralize the City's food distribution system.
  
• Commitment to Greenway along the Bronx River: The City will commit $11 million to the restoration of the Bronx River and the establishment of the Greenway.
  
• New Willis Avenue Bridge: The Department of Transportation is moving forward on a design that will build a new bridge near the existing one.

Manhattan:

• Proposed terms for West Side development: New York City needs a major convention center. Over the last two years, the Jacob Javits exhibition hall turned away 43 conventions that wanted to come to our City, a $200 million loss to our local economy. In fact, New York City is automatically excluded from hosting the 25 largest conventions in the nation.
  To correct this problem, the Mayor proposed that the City, the State, and private sector partners commit to building a first-tier convention center on the West Side of Manhattan. The Mayor emphasized that this center ideally should also serve as a domed football stadium, and suggested that a new Madison Square Garden could be located across the street. He reiterated the City's commitment to work with the MTA to extend the Number 7 Subway Line to the west.
  
• Update on East River Park: The Mayor announced that this July, the City will break ground on the $5.6 million reconstruction of this 57-acre park, which will extend from the FDR Drive to the East River, and from 12th Street to Montgomery Street. He also announced that the park will be renamed for the late Mayor John V. Lindsay.

Airports

• Privatize management of City airports: In a major 1997 survey comparing 36 American airports in passenger satisfaction, LaGuardia ranked 31st and JFK ranked 35th. And in a 1999 IATA study, JFK ranked 59th out of 65 international airports in overall passenger convenience. To rectify this situation, the Mayor announced plans to end Port Authority management of Kennedy and LaGuardia airports by issuing a letter of intent for a performance-based agreement with airport management company BAA.
  To ensure that the airports are run in the City's interests, the Mayor also announced that, in conjunction with City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the City will create the New York City Airport Improvement Corporation, which will hold the lease of the airports, and will then enter into contract with a private management company to run them. The NYCAIC will have a board made up of appointees of the Mayor and the City Council.

CULTURAL PROJECTS

• Downtown Guggenheim Museum and formation of Citizens Committee: The Mayor reiterated his support for building a new Guggenheim Museum on the East River in Lower Manhattan. He also announced the formation of a committee made up of prominent New Yorkers from a variety of backgrounds to help complete the project. Committee members include Theodore Roosevelt IV, artist Robert Rauchenberg, and architect Robert A. M. Stern.
  
• BAM Cultural District: The Mayor announced that the City will make a substantial commitment, similar to the City's support of MoMA and Lincoln Center, to help the Brooklyn Academy of Music establish a unique cultural district in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. This will include the Mark Morris Dance Center, a renovated Strand theater, and a wide variety of other exhibition space to augment BAM's existing core.
  
• New York Public Library: The Mayor announced that the City will contribute to the New York Public Library's plan to add an additional eight floors and 139,000 square-feet of library space to its existing 139,000 square-foot site on Fifth Avenue at 40th Street. This space will include computers, a state-of-the-art job information center, a health information center, and a 24-hour on-line reference services. The expanded facility is projected to serve 2.5 million people annually.
  
• New Museum of the City of New York in Tweed Courthouse: The Mayor reiterated plans to relocate the Museum of the City of New York to the soon-to-be renovated Tweed Courthouse in historic City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan. He also announced that the City will issue an RFEI to explore creative uses for the Museum's existing site on upper Fifth Avenue.