“Good Morning.  This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. 

“Cleaner and safer streets, faster ambulance response times, higher student test scores and graduation rates, answers to your questions about City government now available at one phone number, 311, around the clock – by just about any important measure, essential City services keep improving. But can they be better? You bet. And the best way to find out how is to do what businesses do: ask the customers, in this case, you, the people of New York City.

“That’s why, in partnership with Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, we’ve developed NYC Feedback. It’s the most extensive survey of municipal services ever conducted by any American city.  This month, we’ll start mailing NYC Feedback surveys to more than 100,000 randomly chosen households in all five boroughs; that means that roughly one in every 30 homes in the city will get one. 

“The surveys will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. And they’ll ask questions like: How safe do you feel walking the streets of your neighborhood alone at night? What do you think of your local library, or senior center? How do you rate garbage pick-up and other basic services?  The deadline for responding to the surveys is August 15th. They can be answered on-line at the City’s website, nyc.gov, or filled out by hand and returned in a postage-paid envelope that we’ll provide. Individual answers will be kept strictly confidential. But we’ll publicly announce the statistical results in September, because that’s the best way of ensuring that we fix any problems that the survey points out.

“Last week, we also took aggressive steps to continue to improve safety at construction sites throughout the city. Along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn and leaders from building trades labor and management, we announced a package of tough new proposed City laws. They’ll give the Buildings Department the tools it needs for its number one job: enforcing safety. They’ll also enhance the industry’s own safety practices, because only by working together can we prevent more tragedies of the kind we’ve recently seen.

“Our reforms would tighten regulation of construction general contractors and concrete and demolition contractors, who do the most hazardous construction procedures. They would set new operating and training standards concerning construction cranes. And because openness and accountability are crucial to everything City government does, the Buildings Department will also start publishing an annual report, available at nyc.gov, on construction-related injuries and fatalities.

“Our City is growing, and it needs to continue to grow, but we’re not about to compromise the safety of construction workers, or the public, in the process.  We’re also going to make sure that we constantly do a better job of providing every important service that every New Yorker relies on.

“This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.  Thanks for listening.”