Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Details Tech Investments in City Schools to Close Achievement Gap and Better Prepare all Students for The Workforce

May 21, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: All right, welcome everyone. It is such a pleasure, real pleasure to be at the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering. This is such an extraordinary school, and the chancellor and I just had the joy of talking to some of the students and seeing them in action – and it’s absolutely inspiring. I want to talk about what this school means, and it’s great example of areas we’re focusing on going forward. But right here we have an example of what you’re going to see more of in New York City in the coming years. I want to thank the chancellor as always for her leadership. I want to thank our host, the principal of BASE Benjamin Grossman, thank you so much for all you do. And I want to thank the man who had so much to do with creating this extraordinary school, Fred Wilson, who is one of the co-founders of the Academy for Software Engineering, but in addition is known for his extraordinary work in the private sector as a Managing Partner for Union Square Ventures. I just want to say at the outset, Fred and I talked a few months back about what kind of education our kids are going to need for the future in this city. And I appreciate deeply his passion and that he puts his energy, his time, his money where his mouth is to help us achieve that, because yesterday’s education simply won’t work for today’s and tomorrow’s economy. And this is an example of actually getting ahead of the situation and starting to change our educational system to fit the world we live in. so it’s an incredible success story that we want to build on.

I want to thank all the parents who are here with us today, who are part of what make this great school works so well. I think everyone knows that we are focusing a lot of our energies on deepening parent engagement.

[Phone rings]

Nice ringtone.

[Laughter]

You know that can be embarrassing, but at least he has a good ringtone. You know not like one of those 1950s hits or something. That would embarrass you in front of your children.

So the parents are crucial to what makes this school great. We’re going to talk about it today and we’re always going to talk about how so many of our strategies are focusing on deepening parental engagement and involvement in their own children’s education. Because that’s one of the great x-factors in the future of New York City education, is how deeply and strategically we engage parents.

I want to thank all the other high schools who are a part of this campus: the High School for Energy and Technology, the Crotona International High School, and the Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School. I want to thank Council member Inez Barron who is someone we are working with very closely on many fronts, including through her role as Chair of the City Council Committee on Higher Education. And I think everyone knows, we’ll talk about it today, everything we’re doing is trying to create a deeper continuum for our public school system and our higher education opportunities for our young people – particularly through CUNY. Council member Barron is leading the way on a lot of these efforts and focusing on the kinds of investments we need to make in CUNY, and we thank her for that.

Now, we’re here at this great school for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is, this is Internet Week and it’s a great time to focus on what’s going on in this, in the city’s economy, where we’re going technologically, what our young people will need to be able to succeed going forward. I’ll issue a statement you make have heard me say before, I think Fred will appreciate it in particular. I have said at this point education determines economic destiny more than any other time in human history. And our friends in the technology community are particularly fervent about remind all of us in the public sector that we have to catch up and realign. Because they understand we’re not even teaching our children – in so many cases – to have the tools, have the language, have the understanding so they can succeed.

When you think about the history of public education – and I’ve got one of the world’s leading experts here with Chancellor Fariña – public education was a response to the reality that the world was changing. It wasn’t so long ago that that was not a given in society that a child had a right to education – a right to a free education. It wasn’t so long ago even in this city that child labor was a normal reality. Society evolved rapidly. We understood the value of an education. We made it free, we made it available universally, but we still have so much farther to go. Obviously we’re focused on things like full day pre-K, we’re focused on expanding the learning day through after school, but let’s talk about the substance of education too. The curriculum, the focus, this is where this school is such a powerful example because this school is teaching the actual skills that our young people will need. This is the kind of place where they literally touch the future in their studies.

So just like we had to learn as a society to embrace education – to make it free, to make it universal – now we’re still working on reaching children young, we’re reaching them with a longer day. We have to get to the qualitative. We have to get to the curriculum part of the equation, and move more and more of our efforts towards technology.

Let me emphasize: BASE is a career and technical education school, a CTE school. It’s a very important point. There is a bias – I certainly heard it when I was growing up, I think it pervades our society, the way words used to be used, ‘vocational high schools’ – different phrases that suggested something not maybe as good as it could be. Or the kids on those tracks were somehow not getting as much opportunity or didn’t have as much to offer. That’s a fallacy. That’s wrong. By the way, in some other countries in the world, there’s an absolute respect and equivalency – whatever path you’re on, whatever kind of education you’re getting – it’s seen as preparation for a productive life and preparation to be a productive citizen.

What’s happening in career and technical education school is kids are getting ready to be leaders in society, to be active, to be successful. And this school is a profound example of that, so we’re going to say – I know the chancellor feels this deeply – we’re going to talk about career and technical education. We’re going to talk constantly about the ways we can help our young people be better prepared for the future, whether it is that they go to a school that has a specialization that relates directly to the economy or they take certain classes as part of a college prep course. It’s all towards the same strategic goal, and it’s important that we start seeing things in those terms. So, this school really represents so much to us because it’s perfectly calibrated to the world as it is and the world as it is moving forward.

We had a joy of visiting a global studies class. The teacher, Stefina Fisher, was extraordinary. Ninth graders, and they were using web-based tools to develop their own projects. And I got stopped for a quick moment to talk about the fall of Rome. This is not breaking news. Rome fell. But I want to give you a sense, because I happen to have at home an expert on the fall of Rome – the well-known scholar Dante de Blasio, who talks about it incessantly. So I came upon a group of students, found out this was their topic – I could not have been happier. So I talked to Tatiana and Elaine and Gustavo and Joshua. And they were fantastic. What they were learning about research, about thinking, how all the tools, all the resources, all the sources that were available to them – it was extraordinary.

I just wanted you to know – very quick review here – Tatiana believes the fall of Rome was related to the Barbarian invasions, so that’s what sparked everything. Elaine believes it was the decision of the Romans to use slaves instead of free workers, that that led to the decline. Gustavo believes it was the greed and wastefulness of the emperors. And Joshua believes it was the overspending on military that took resources away from the civilian economy.

So, these kids were talking about Rome as if they were living in Rome at the time. They were so engaged. They were so energized in their studies. And I have to say that everyone in this school – you should be very proud, because I can tell you – this is kids in ninth grade? I guarantee you great futures for these kids. They felt such ownership of the material and of their academic challenges. And it was incredibly encouraging for the future of this city.

In this class, we saw what the constant focus on technology brings, how it opens up worlds for kids, how it empowers them, how it gives them a sense of limitless possibilities. We want that for every child in this city, regardless of background, regardless of neighborhood, regardless of zip code. This has to become the norm. And we’re going to do that on many levels. I mentioned pre-K, I mentioned afterschool efforts, I mentioned our effort strategically to engage and support parents.

By the way, the new teacher contract is crucial, because we’re putting more time – and this is something Carmen insisted on, to her credit – more time for teachers to work every week with parents, focusing on how parents can strategically help their kids, four parent-teacher conferences a year. It’s a whole new approach that’s going to open up incredible energies to help our kids. The contract also is going to give us the chance to experiment and create more flexible models of up to 200 schools where we’re going to suspend UFT work rules and chancellor’s regulations alike to create openness, flexibility to get the job done as the teachers and the school community sees fit. It’s a profound reform that’s going to allow a lot of innovation in schools all over this city. So all of these pieces together – with the emphasis on career and technical education on top of it – you’re going to see a transformation in this school system. We insist on a transformation in this school system, because I’ve said many times, we do not accept the status quo we received. It’s not a path that will lead us forward. We have to do things very, very differently.

Now, since I have Chair Barron next to me, I will note – the part of the equation, the link from our public schools to CUNY – we can’t simply say, ‘Hey CUNY, just make things happen with your limited resources and call us when it’s over’. We have to be partners in that. And particularly in helping CUNY to create a curriculum just like this one that helps kids immediately into the workforce thereafter, particularly in the tech field, which is growing right now with good quality of jobs, many of which our young people could reach, if they only had a two-year STEM degree. That’s all it would take in some cases to get on a pathway with good, high-paying jobs for New York City residents here in this city. We’re putting $20 million in this year’s budget into science, technology, engineering, and math programs at CUNY – $20 million for this year. It will grow to $50 million a year in the following years. And that’s the beginning of a process of investing more in CUNY in these areas, because we know they’ll be huge difference-makers for our kids.

And you’ll see more school like the Academy for Software Engineering being developed. You’ll see more six-year schools, early college schools, that will give us the ability to reach kids who are ready to achieve a lot quickly, including coming out of school with not just a high school degree but an Associate’s degree. This approach is being developed in partnership with SAT and with CUNY’s Queensborough Community College. A lot of great thinking, a lot of great energy is being applied. We’re going to make sure that resources are constantly put into the equation so we can go more, go farther.

And we’re going to do more to integrate technology into schools across the city that are not singularly focused on tech. We’ll be partnering with the New York City Foundation for the Computer Science Education to double the number of students participating in our software engineering pilot. Comprehensive computer science education. 18 middle and high schools across all five boroughs. And on a holistic universal, we’ll be investing $650 million over the next five years from our capital budget to help schools upgrade their broadband internet access and purchase new hardware. There are many other elements of the budget that will support these efforts, but as you can hear, a lot of the big pieces of the budget come together to achieve these goals.

Finishing – it’s so important to remember what this means in human terms. I gave you a little glimpse of that from the ninth grade classroom. But let’s talk about someone who always inspires us. Justice Sonya Sotomayor grew up just a few miles from here, in the Bronxdale Houses, which, by the way, have recently been named after her. It’s an extraordinary thing – a young lady grows up in a public housing development, becomes a Supreme Court justice, the same place she grew up is now named after her. She had a very tough childhood. She was diagnosed with diabetes as a child. She lost her father at the age of nine. And she struggled, and her family struggled. And she said in her memoir that the only way she made it through was education, that it was encouraged in her family, and it was her pathway, and she knew it. And she stayed focused on it. And that is more true today even than when Justice Sotomayor was growing up.

In today’s knowledge economy, the path ahead is education first and foremost, but it has to be a 21st century education for a 21st century economy. And that is what we strive to do.

A brief moment in Spanish before I introduce the chancellor, who will speak in English and then will speak better than me in Spanish.

Cada niño merece recibir una educación de calidad que lo prepare para el mejor futuro posible. 

With that, a woman who is doing an extraordinary job leading our public schools – Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Department of Education: First of all, it’s a pleasure to be here today. The one thing I can tell you is that every single child in the classroom we visited – actually, not so much child, they’re almost grown up – was actively engaged in learning. There wasn’t one child who was doing something off track. And there wasn’t one adult in that room who wasn’t somehow assisting what the kids were doing. So that’s something you don’t see just anywhere.

But I want to tell you – you know, I’m an abuela, a grandmother, and I have an eight-year-old and ten-year-old. I have a two-year-old, but he’s too young for this. And they are so – both of them – so proficient in technology that they put me to shame. And whenever I need any help on the computer, Denny, who is the younger one, says, ‘Abuela, don’t worry about it. I know you’re just too old for this. Let me do it.’ So now I’m embarrassed. So one of the things that I’m actually doing this afternoon is learning how to code, because the reality is, it is the way of the future and it’s not just for our kids. If we’re going to be competitive, we also, as adults, have to put ourselves out there.

And I want to be clear for parents who are listening that one of the things we also have to get over is that CTE schools are somehow not as good as academic schools. In CTE schools, we very clearly state that we expect kids to go to college. They just – we just expect them to be more focused on how technology can help them. At the very least, there isn’t anyone who learns technology who doesn’t help in their own personal world. It doesn’t have to be all about jobs, although we definitely want them to get jobs.

And I think also what people need to understand is that we’re seeing technology not as something separate but as tools for all kinds of learning. We call it blended learning in the academic world. And that means that we use all the subjects, [inaudible] you can learn math. You know, think about this – every child I saw in that class was working on the same project, but individually. They weren’t giving the same answers, they weren’t looking at the same materials. They were looking at the research based on whatever hypothesis they were trying to resolve. So technology also allows us an opportunity to individualize our instruction.

And the one thing I want to say again to parents is that if you really want your children to succeed and they’re girls, technology is for girls too. We really need to get more girls applying to CTE schools that have a strong technology, because the reality is that in the world we live right now, they will have major, major advantage in the workforce. And for parents who are saying, “Well, where should I send my children next year?” – we’re going to do a big education course on what a CTE school is. It is not the old-time vocational school. It’s a very heavy learning. All the requirements that all other schools have, and I think we just need to rebrand it in ways that people understand.

So I am thrilled. And to the degree that the mayor’s talking about the parents – one of the things he’s talked about – because as we move forward for next year, that some of it – and I’ve been saying this to high schools in particular – that some of the workshops that they should be doing for parents is in technology, working alongside the kids, and let the kids become the teachers to the parents in ways that make sense for everyone. Thank you.

Mayor: Español!

Chancellor Fariña: Oh, español. Es muy importante que los padres de hoy entiendan que las escuelas que están enseñando tecnología no son las escuelas bajas, que son las escuelas muy altas que también esperan que los chiquillos sigan adelante al colegio mayor. Y yo creo que eso es una cosa que muchos padres a lo mejor no entienden, y que es muy importante que cuando estén mirando a las escuelas donde van a ingresar sus hijos que una escuela que dice que es CTE es una escuela que los va a preparar para trabajar. Y para tener sueldos, y para poder seguir en esta vida de otra manera. Y también si sois padres de hijas, [inaudible] es una cosa que pues va a ayudar mucho a coger trabajos en el futuro. Y esto también puede decir que para ir al colegio, va a ser una cosa – mejor manera de entender. Y es una cosa también que toda la gente que hoy ofrece trabajos quieren que los estudiantes conozcan y sepan. Gracias.

Mayor: In a moment I’m going to call up Chair Barron and then I want to call up Fred Wilson. But let me just note, I forgot to introduce formally the parents who are with us and to thank them. So I’d like to introduce each of them: Magdalena Pagan, Jason Rivera, Alex McCaskey, and Suhail [inaudible]. Thank you so much for joining us. And now, Chair Inez Barron.

Council member Inez Barron: Thank you Mr. Mayor. It certainly is a privilege and an honor to be here today to celebrate what’s going on in this school. I want to commend Fred. He had the idea to make this happen, and this I understand is the second model that he’s working with. And it’s growing certainly, exponentially – although it has taken a little time – it’s growing exponentially. And he shared his idea of having programming in every school in the city, so it’s a great idea and we hope to make that happen. I want to commend the principal, as you know, I was an elementary school principal so I know some of what it is that you’re going through, especially as a starting person. I want to commend you for the work that’s going on here.

As has been said, education is so important, and it’s education that’s a continuum from pre-K through college. It doesn’t stop at the 12th grade, it continues, with so many expressions and [inaudible] at how we can become educated, both by ourselves and in formal education settings as well. So I look forward to being able to see how this is going to move forward, making sure that not just our girls are encouraged, but all of our ethnic groups are represented – proportionally going forward into this tech world. And I want to commend the mayor for putting money aside in CUNY to make sure this happens. And who knows, as time goes on, we may get money for the awards scholarships for students who graduate in the top ten – ten, twenty percent of their class that move onto CUNY. But thank you so much for the opportunity, and I look forward to continuing to work in this regard. Thank you.

No Spanish – let’s see, let’s try this. I didn’t study Spanish.

Mayor: You can do muchas gracias.

Council member Barron: Muchas gracias. Educación es muy importante. Okay? Okay good. Thank you.

Mayor: I want to thank the Chair for her subtle lobbying efforts on the scholarship issue. Very nicely done. Thank you, and again, a deep appreciation to Fred for having been the spark plug here, and the guy who felt so deeply it had to happen – and that is the way the world turns. When someone cares deeply enough and has the passion to make it happen, what we saw today is something you should be very proud of. Come on up Fred Wilson.

[Applause]

Fred Wilson: I, too, am not going to speak Spanish. Instead of taking Spanish growing up, I learned languages like Java, and C++, and Ruby on Rails. And I want the children of New York to know those languages too. And before this conference started, we had the opportunity to sit with the parents and talk about this school. And one of the parents asked me to explain coding, and what I said was that coding is instructing a machine to do something that you want it to do. Can be any kind of machine actually, because every machine in the world today has a computer inside of it. And it is critical that our children, the children of New York City, learn how to tell machines what to do; because – as my friend Mark Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and the inventor of the Internet browser said, ‘In the future, you’re either going to know how to instruct the machine what to do, or the machine is going to instruct you what to do.’ And I do not want the children of New York City to be in the latter camp. They should be in the former camp. And I’m very excited that Ben and all the people here at BASE are well on their way to making that happen here in the Bronx, and I’m very excited to hear it. Thank you.

Mayor: All right, let's take question on this topic first, then we'll do some off-topic. On topic, first. Jennifer.

Question: This school is a vocational school, is that…?

Mayor: You want to speak to it? CTE, I gave you the whole wonderful lecture on the terminology – Career Technical Education.

Chancellor Fariña: In the olden days, vocational was something that you did with kids who did not expect to go to college. And it was basically making something with your hands, and just making you feel good, and it did not really have a very rigorous academic program. A CTE is totally different. It has a lot of the same rigorous programs, but it adds the technology as one of the expectations of all children will have graduating, and we still expect many of our CTE graduates to go on to college. So, it's a very different thing, and this is why I'm saying, we need to have a really rebranding in education about what we mean by CTE, because I think people do have a lot of misunderstandings around it.

Mayor: And let me amplify, the young people here, obviously, are gaining extraordinary technology skills that will serve them in college, will serve them in the workplace, but as I mentioned, they're talking about what caused the fall of Rome, and they're talking about it in an academic, intellectual fashion already, in the ninth grade, the critical thinking, obviously, deeply steeped in the humanities. So this is – this is a whole package, but providing skills that also will be immediately applicable in the work environment. Yes.

Question: 14 percent [inaudible] referrals, and I know [inaudible] encouraging parents, but beyond that, is the city going to do anything actively to try to get more [inaudible]?

Mayor: Well, we have to – I'll turn to Carmen, but we have to. And I think we found many things we do, this is about communication at the grassroots, this is about talking to parents, this is about community leaders, and clergy, and you name it – going out and helping parents understand what their children need for the future. And I'm someone who believes – I have endless faith in parents. Some have not necessarily been exposed to the technology. Some may not understand the pathways to education and employment, but their hearts demand the best for their children. They will fight so hard for their children. Sometimes they just need to be shown an open door. So that's our job to do that. Let me have Carmen expand on that. 

Chancellor Fariña: I think, actually, Fred and I discussed this at the other school, the Software and Engineering School. And there are several things. I think first of all, we have to get more proactive in going to middle schools, and having the girls who are presently here become the spokespeople, and going to the middle schools and saying, this is the kind of experience I'm having, I can't wait for you to join us, and we need to make that very clear. I think we also need to make parents understand that this is really a major way to have a really good job, and that also, it's kinda sexy, if you think about it, and I think we need to make it the kind of program that kids understand is not only educationally sound, but also has a lot of other things…okay. I don't mean sexy in [inaudible] way, [inaudible]. The reality is, it's still something that I think a lot of girls, unfortunately, just shy away from, and they shouldn't. It's something that's really, really going to be productive for them. I think the other thing we have to do is really start thinking, is there a way, to – in schools – to have classes where you might want to just have, you know, several girls and several boys classes for a peak part of the day. And I do think that that's something, having come from an all-girls high school, to have a place – we really need to get a think tank and we actually started talking about it in the other school I went to – how do we make it something that both girls and boys want to do. But I do think that having the kids who are in these schools going out and selling it to the kids who might apply is something that we need to do more actively.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Come to the microphone, so the world can hear you. 

Wilson: That's a great question. And the problem is, that the applicant pool going in is what's represented by the acceptance pool coming out. So, the fact that we only have 15 - 20 percent of our students in these schools as girls, means that we're not getting the girls to apply. And we need – it's really an education of the parents, and the young women, that coding is for everybody. We did a hack-a-thon at one of these schools, and two 9th grade girls won. They beat all the boys. They competed just as well, maybe better, than the boys. And we just need, as a society, to education young women that coding is for them too. And if we solve that problem, then we'll solve this problem.

Question: At schools that aren't software engineering or technology [inaudible], how is the city going to make sure that there's still tech education [inaudible], and also, how are teachers who might not have that background going to be prepared?

Mayor: Well, part of it, I'll start, and over to Carmen again. I want to emphasize the investment we're making over five years. This is real money, $650 million dollars, to help schools upgrade their broadband access, but also to purchase hardware. Look, there's a lot of efforts in teacher training, focus on technology – you know, this is something that has to pervade the school system. But let me let the expert speak to it.

Chancellor Fariña: Well, first of all, step one is to make sure we have the right professional development, and we now have, or we'll have in a couple weeks, people, under the professional development office, who are going to be specifically training other people in STEM. We have several schools that we've highlighted in our learning partners, so we're doing great work on this, and we expect schools who want to replicate that work to go visit those schools. And we're also going to have some professional development over the summer, for teachers who want to take advantage of this, and to be able to get more proficient in these areas, so I think we're trying many, many different things. We're also probably going to be doing something with adults, just like this, who really want to know more about what CTE means, and we're doing, kind of, workshops with them as well. So it's going to be an all-out effort, to make sure people understand what CTE means and what benefits the kids have.

Mayor: Okay, on topic. Yes.

Question: Can you just talk about the importance of private investment? [inaudible] relationship with Google, and the general assembly [inaudible]?

Mayor: Fred or Carmen, who wants to go first. 

Wilson: Thank you.

Mayor: We have a volunteer.

Wilson: I think the private sector has to help the public sector do this. People in the technology industry know what skills these students need to have. We have resources we can bring, it's not just dollars. Although it is dollars, it's also mentorships, and internships, and giving the students role models, and also work that they can do in the real world. So, I think whether it's technology, the tech sector, or other sectors, I think it's critical that the public sector and the private sector work together on this. 

Mayor: Hold on. I'm your roadie here. Here you go.

Chancellor Fariña: The other thing we've done, is I've started speaking to the Partnership for New York City, to a lot of CEOs. I just did one last week, and one of the things we're asking the CEOs to think about, is how many of them were willing to become partners, based on their businesses, and our teams for CTE. So there's a certain team in the CTE school – what might be the right CEO to help us? Because the other thing we know, in terms of CTE, that if kids have internships, and they work, and they get some money, while they're in high school, they're much more likely to learn work habits, and being able to move and study that profession in college. So we're actually working already with the business community, and we have several people who have come forth and said we'd love to be partners on that. And I know Fred is part of that group as well. 

Mayor: On topic? Last call on topic. Going once. Going twice. Okay, off topic.

Question: The Daily News did a story today about the party last night at the 9/11 Museum, and some first responders weren't allowed in. I'm just wondering if you had any thoughts about whether there should be parties, there are people saying it's not an appropriate place.

Mayor: I'll say, and you know, some other people have asked me related questions, and I'll say the same thing. I think the museum – first of all, the museum itself is an extraordinary tribute to the people we've lost and to the first responders. And it was a very complicated endeavor, but I think they did an incredible job of the foundation, and putting it together. What I'll also say, though, is my advice to the foundation is to always be very sensitive, particularly to the concerns of the families, first and foremost, and of course of the first responders. So, I don't want to ever get into the habit of critiquing or assessing one choice or another, I just want to give you my broad – my broad view is, very much in the forefront of their minds, should be that sensitivity to the folks who were a part of that day.

Question: [inaudible] students attempting to poison the teacher?

Mayor: Now, let me start, before – yes. I just want to emphasize, we are the process of investigation, and one of the things that's very clear during an investigation is, do not assume yet, until we have actual results of the investigation, so we only have very preliminary information. We take it very, very seriously. Thank God the teacher is okay, and from everything we're hearing, will make a full recovery. But we'll speak to that when we have the results of the investigation.

Question: [inaudible] health plan? [inaudible] Do you think 13 is the right age for a mandatory screening?

Mayor: We haven't seen – we haven't looked at the details of the plan. So that's – we have to look at that plan more closely before we can give you something formal on that. 

Question: Do you have a freeze on spending on the 911 system, and if – 

Mayor: Yep.

Question: [inaudible] 

Mayor: Of course. Of course. Absolutely. And we would never take any action that we thought didn't, first and foremost, guarantee the safety of New Yorkers. That's what we're here to do. This is our job, if there's one thing that – I can say this for me, I can say this for Carmen, I can say this Inez – the first thing we do is we focus on people's safety. The fact is there is an existing 911 system. It does not have enough redundancy, it is not as sophisticated as it could be, it's not as well-integrated as it could be across agencies. That's what this contract, in theory, was supposed to address. But remember, the contract was supposed to lead to results by the end of next year, and as we looked more deeply into it, we found it was years behind in its timeline, it would be much longer than that. It had already had extraordinary cost overruns. We, on behalf of both the safety of the people of this city, but also on behalf of the taxpayers, were not about to throw good money after bad, unless we knew it could be fixed. So, what this 60 day review, led by our DOITT Commissioner Anne Roest, will allow us to do, is ascertain if the contract as it's currently designed can be amended and improved to actually get us to the result we need – a better, more integrated 911 system, with redundancy – if that can be done in real time, in a cost-efficient manner, under the current rubric. Or alternatively, if we bluntly have to start over, and find, you know, other firms, other expertise to get this done properly. 

That’s what we’re doing. In the meantime, the same 9-1-1 system as was operating yesterday, the day before, a month ago, a year ago, that continues unabated. That is our same 9-1-1 system that, thank god, in the overwhelming majority of situations functions very, very effectively. So that continues. Nothing will change on that front.

Question: A pair of major financial firms said this week they would reduce their holdings of New York City bonds in light of your budget plan and the pending labor settlement [inaudible] concerns about making those future payments. Do you have a message to Wall Street about the city’s long-term ability to make good on those labor [inaudible]?

Mayor: Oh, absolutely. Look, we’ve said many times – and I want to emphasize to everyone here – there’s a difference between the financial firms you describe versus the rating agencies. You know, the rating agencies and the other fiscal monitors are crucial partners in the endeavor that we do in government. Individual firms will make individual firm decisions for whatever strategic reasons they have. That’s not an indicator of something bigger. There’s many other firms that are choosing to keep buying or buy more. So I would say – to answer the question the way you framed it – the big message is we came into office, all of us, facing extraordinary fiscal uncertainty – 152 open labor contracts, a huge amount of past bills that went unresolved. And we, in short order, have now clarified the city’s fiscal situation for years to come. We obviously have to go through the ratification process with the UFT contract. Individual contracts have to be struck. But I think we can safely say there’s a lot of momentum right now given the support we received in the UFT delegate assembly, given the support we received from the Municipal Labor Council in terms of the healthcare savings. So a simple message to all concerned would be, we now have certainty. And we have a fair contract, a contract that resolves issues that go back as far as 2008. And we have a lot of new cost-savings in the area that bedevils local government the most, which is employee healthcare. We found a way, with labor, to find extraordinary healthcare savings that over the full term of the contract will amount to $3.4 billion in and of itself, and then there’s another billion that was freed up in a related matter because of cooperation with labor. That is going to ensure our long term fiscal stability. And as you see more and more analysts weigh in, I think you’re going to see more and more of them say this is a plan that actually is very good for the long term health of the city. 

Question: [inaudible] we understand that there is a restaurant – a Danny Myer restaurant – that’s going to be going into the 9/11 Museum. And I was just trying [inaudible] –

Mayor: That’s news to me. I don’t know the facts about that.

Question: When you got a tour, did you feel hungry afterwards?

Mayor: Well, I did not. But I don’t know – I have not heard anything about a restaurant going in so I can’t comment. In the back first.

Question: [inaudible] homelessness problem?

Mayor: Yes. We are making a series of changes because we, again, we’re seeing the dynamic with the all-time highest number of our fellow New Yorkers in shelter in the history of –literally – in the history of this city. It’s an unacceptable situation. We are going to undertake a series of changes that will include what we’ve been able to achieve through Albany – a homeless prevention program – rental subsidies and anti-eviction legal services that will be applied to keep people out of shelter to begin with. We will make selective use of NYCHA units to help families who are already on the NYCHA waiting list, who have ended up in shelter for at least a year, to end up instead in a NYCHA unit. We are going to use Section 8 vouchers on a select basis. And, over time, what may the single most important is our affordable housing plan, because it’s 200,000 units over ten years. There’s a substantial supportive housing element of that. But we think that will both help some of the families currently in shelter to move out of shelter, but also it’s going to finally address the root cause on a substantial level. So all of those pieces together are going to be crucial to reducing the number of people in shelters.

Question: Do you have any plans to go to the state democratic convention?

Mayor: Yes.

Question: [inaudible] Andrew Cuomo?

Mayor: Yes. Well, I’m going to be one of the nominators. There’s a group of nominators – I’m proud to be one of them.

Question: [inaudible] long hearing about the NYPD’s budget. Many of the council members [inaudible] very impassioned arguments about why they feel like there should be more officers on the ground. You’ve said repeatedly that you are interested in the grassroots and the council members who know their districts best [inaudible] arguments sway you?

Mayor: Oh, I think their arguments are exactly what we’re feeling about the challenges we have to face. I believe with the troop strength we have now, with the resources we have now we can get the job done. And I think Commissioner Bratton’s testimony spoke to the same point. There are areas where, thank god, crime is down. The overall crime figures are down. Murders are down. There are other areas where we have a substantial issue that we must address. There are some public housing developments who are having serious problems. There’s some precincts who are having problems. Commissioner Bratton and his team are applying additional resources right now under our existing budget to immediately change and improve those situations. There’s a lot we have to do with NYCHA security in general that will help the situation. So the impulse is exactly right. I’m deeply concerned and deeply committed to improving security in NYCHA. We think we can do it with the tools we have now. And we’re going to take a lot of our existing tools and apply them more deeply to where the need is greatest.. And we think it’s going to make a huge difference. Thanks, everyone.