For Immediate Release

October 28, 2009

New York needs new direction, new leadership, says Bill Thompson

Democratic candidate for the office of New York City Mayor Bill Thompson addressing New York's ethnic and community media at a press conference organized by New York Community Media Alliance on October 26. – Photo by Aleksandra Slabisz

NEW YORK: Democratic candidate for Office of New York City Mayor, Comptroller Bill Thompson says the city is going in the wrong direction under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, becoming less and less affordable.

At an October 26 conference organized by NYCMA, the candidate addressed members of the city's ethnic and community media and said:  "It's becoming harder and harder to live here. The cost of living is going up. The cost of living in the city is prohibitive." He stressed that New Yorkers are being squeezed out of neighborhoods by higher taxes and people's ability to come here and make a living was decreasing because of high cost of living.

"I could have run for the Comptroller's office again, but I rose up because I thought it [the city] needs to be taken in different direction. We need to focus on job creation and more economic activity." Mr. Thompson said the city needed new jobs and diversified economy. "It needs a balanced approach to economic development and it must deal with the small businesses differently." Observing that small businesses provide half of the jobs in the city, he promised to work hard to protect and promote them, if he was elected Mayor on November 3.

Thompson declared the city's economy must have the ability to provide jobs to young people who are in school as well as those out of the school, while addressing the city's education system, which he assesses is underperforming. He was critical of standardized testing that, he felt, wasn't preparing children for the future.

Comptroller Thompson said the development process for the city needs to be more inclusive, saying communities should be involved in the process. As a mayor, he said, he would ensure community involvement in planning projects and would always listen to their opinion. He criticized his opponent charging that community development was non-existent in the Bloomberg administration. New York, he said, needed a mayor who represented all the five boroughs and spoke for all of its people and faulted the Bloomberg administration for a lack diversity.

Photo by Mohsin Zaheer

Thompson pointed at the communication gap between the city government and the communities, saying immigrant communities didn't know what's going on in the city. He said things could be changed by translating critical information on important issues such as health and education, into the languages of the immigrant communities; he pointed to the need to work with immigrant groups, meet with community media from different neighborhoods and provide information on regular basis, not just during select months.

Mr. Thompson, who has been critical of Mayor Bloomberg's bid for a third term for ignoring the people's vote for a two-term limit, believes he can unseat the incumbent on November 3rd if people came out and exercised their vote.

At the close of the press conference, Thompson recognized the importance of ethnic and community media, terming it an important source of information for a large portion of city's population, and promised to keep in close contact.