Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at State Innovation Exchange Conference Via Skype

December 12, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. Thank you so much, Nick. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you to everyone at SiX and to the team at SiX who put this together.

Technology should be a friend of the progressive movement, so we have a good example here of how we can connect in common cause. And I would have loved to have been with you because I'm so excited by what everyone is doing there.  But I'm giving you the next best thing electronically.

I'm excited by what you're doing because I think this is the shape of things to come. I think this is our time. I think this is a time for progressives to have a much greater impact because our people, the people we represent, demand it. And all of the things that happened, particularly in recent years, economically in this country, but on many other issues as well, demand progressive solutions. They demand progressive organizing. They demand a much greater role for local progressive leaders. Because no matter how difficult things have been in the context of Washington, DC, we have seen constant movement, constant progress from progressive leaders on the ground in our cities and states. So I think your organizing effort is incredibly timely. And to bring together so many strands of progressive activists with the state level into one powerful, focused organization is going to have a huge impact.

I am an optimist by nature. But I've been at this work a long time – and so my optimism continues to be sustained and built upon through experience. I obviously am an optimist after my own experience last year running as an underdog, running as an unabashed progressive, running against a lot of powerful institutions, but finding a way to connect at the grassroots and to organize people. It's the same formula over and over again that works for us. Having the right ideas that actually respond to the times we're living in –and organizing the people around them.

I see this, obviously, on the issue of income inequality. The fact that progressives are going to take this head on – and acknowledge what's broken in America and has to be addressed – is only going to strengthen the hand that progressives making changes state-by-state and locality-by-locality.

The immigration issue, which we organized mayors on here in New York City just a few days ago. The President's executive action on immigration is another example of an opening. An opening we've been waiting for for a long time, and as progressives, we should grab onto. Again, the people are demanding this kind of change to recognize all of our fellow Americans who are immigrants, including those who are undocumented. Come up with a real plan. The President's opened the door. And that gives us a platform for organizing and tapping into communities that are looking for our leadership.

This is a moment I think will prove to be decisive. I think this is the moment that will break open the immigration debate. The President's bold action was necessary. We now have to use it as an organizing moment – to take that momentum and build upon it.

Obviously, something we're dealing with deeply here in New York City, trying to repair some of the painful history between police and community and work towards a real unity – a real partnership between police and community. This is a moment for progressive action. We, here in this city, we moved away from stop and frisk. We're reforming our police department in a variety of ways – creating real oversight, retraining our police on how to work more closely with communities, pioneering body cameras. Real things are happening here because the people demanded it. The people demanded it over the last few years in New York City – and we are taking these ideas back to the people and showing them that their organizing, their energy, led to these results.

So, it's a straightforward formula for progressives.  And it's our moment. It's a time when our voices are more pertinent than ever. And it's going to have to work, so much of the time, at the state and local level. And then if we knit together those efforts, bubble up.

I met last week with Local Progress, an organization doing some of the same great work you are, knitting together, in this case, cities. And what's so amazing is, when you see what one city's action did to then help the next one do it. We saw it on paid sick leave, which we ultimately adopted here in New York City. We reached a million more people with paid sick leave coverage this year because cities before us moved that agenda.

We're going to start in January an identification card for all New Yorkers. A municipal ID card that's going to empower and respect undocumented immigrants and everyone. We only were able to do that because other cities started that movement to show a new way to support all of our people.

So cities are trading these ideas and building upon them energetically. States can do the same. And all of you who are involved at the state level and are involved in creating the ideas that can become catalytic at the state level. We've seen this pattern over and over again. The power of a good idea. The power of organizing around a good idea. I have great faith that you're generating those ideas right now and creating those networks that are going to have an impact.

I also think – one other point I want to make. As progressives, I think it's really important to take stock of our victories. I have a critique – a loving critique of all of us as progressives. We are so concerned about what needs to be fixed, and what's wrong, and what needs to be reformed, that we often do not take full stock of our victories. The progressive movement continues to build and grow on so many fundamental levels.

I used the point this week when some people said to me there were things that couldn't change on immigration – it was an intractable issue, we'd never get to reform. I used a very different issue to make the point. I said, "Look at marriage equality. Look at where we were a decade ago on marriage equality. And look at the organizing and activism that literally changed the mind of this nation." It was city-by-city, state-by-state, but it changed the mind of this nation. We have to take stock of that. And a lot of people in the room I bet were part of that. None of these changes happen instantly, but they build one upon the other.

And the people so often are with us. Sometimes it's obscured. Certainly often obscured by mainstream media. But when we speak to our own truth – what we know on the ground, what we see in our communities – the people are so often with us. It's about our own ability to crystallize an idea, to organize around it, to build momentum, city-to-city, state-to-state. And I've seen it happen time and time again – and it gives me a core optimism.

So I just want to say to you, history is on our side. The issues you're working on are issues that people want answers on – and you're going to help to provide them with your work. I hope you see in New York City an example of not only the fact that underdogs can win, but that progressives can take the results of an election and turn it into a comprehensive plan for progressive change. I think that's equally true of taking a great legislative idea and finding that pathway to passing it, even when people say it can't happen. I think it's true of winning a referendum. And we've seen that happen time and again. Referenda that were supposed to be not viable at all – and we still were able to win them in states.

There's so many tools at our disposal, but the bottom line is our faith that the people want progressive change. We're going to give it to them. We're going to organize them. And we're going to break through. I've seen it happen time and time again. I'm convinced a lot more will happen because of your efforts.

And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you're doing. This is a truly momentous gathering. I'm honored. Even if it's electronically, I'm honored to have been a part of it. And i look forward to working closely with you. I look forward to hosting you in New York City, and being a collaborator with you for progressive change. Thank you so much.