De Blasio's Back: Here Are 5 Major Problems He's Facing

But as de Blasio returns to New York, he still has more than two more years in office to build on the progressive track record he promoted in states far from Gracie Mansion and tackle problems confronting his constituents.

Here are some of the most prominent issues that await de Blasio.

Police

The mayor was frequently criticized on the national stage over his handling of policing in the city, from criminal justice reform advocates and officers themselves.

As he returns full-time to City Hall, de Blasio will need to address a restless rank and file.

Central among them: a number of recent suicides that have left the Police Department reeling. Officials want de Blasio to push through a proposed bill that would direct the department to make more mental health resources available to officers.

Throughout his presidential bid, de Blasio was criticized for his handling of the case involving Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death in 2014.

When de Blasio declined to support calls for firing Pantaleo, the mayor was criticized for failing to take responsibility after he said he would let the disciplinary process play out.

At the same time, officers were furious when de Blasio promised justice for Garner on the debate stage just weeks before Pantaleo was fired by the police commissioner, James O’Neill. — Edgar Sandoval

Education

The mayor sought to anchor his brief campaign with the city’s universal prekindergarten program, his signature and arguably most successful initiative.

But while de Blasio traversed the country, the conversation at home began to test the limits of his willingness to tackle inequality.

A simmering conversation about desegregation boiled over, and a mayor who pledged to “shake the foundations” of the nation’s largest public school system has instead watched activists on the left and his own schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, call for more sweeping — and polarizing — changes than de Blasio appeared willing to support.

De Blasio now faces questions about structural inequities, particularly a two-tiered system that allows families with means to escape poor-performing traditional schools by enrolling in more selective schools and gifted and talented programs.

A panel the mayor commissioned recommended eliminating gifted programs, along with selective admissions policies for some middle and high schools, and instead create more magnet schools and enrichment programs.

A debate over that proposal is sure to dominate the conversation, but de Blasio has said he will not make any decisions about it this year.

The mayor has also not announced a replacement for his $773 million school improvement program, known as Renewal, which did not achieve the results that had been promised. Education officials said there may be no replacement, which is sure to prompt questions about how de Blasio intends to help students mired in low-performing schools. — Eliza Shapiro

Transportation

For years, de Blasio and New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, have been at odds over who should take responsibility for the problems afflicting the city’s aging transit system.

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority called on the mayor this week to help fund the agency’s ambitious $54 billion plan to fix the subway. They want him to write a check for $3 billion to pay for new elevators at 70 stations to improve accessibility.

New York City’s taxi industry is also in crisis, particularly after a spate of driver suicides. De Blasio and the City Council are deciding whether to assist hundreds of taxi drivers who have faced bankruptcy, even as the city profited from the sale of taxi medallions, the permit required to drive a cab.

De Blasio must pick a new leader for the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency that oversees the industry. But he recently withdrew his nominee after the Council objected to his pick. — Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Safer streets

De Blasio has struggled to respond to a growing street safety crisis in the city, and there is a sense that his signature policy to reduce traffic fatalities is faltering.

The policy, known as Vision Zero, aims to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024. But bicyclist deaths are up this year, and there have been a series of high-profile crashes in the city.

Two children were killed this month, including a baby in a stroller who died after a driver jumped the curb in the Bronx.

After the baby’s death, transit advocates urged de Blasio to show that he cared.

“This crash represents a chance for Mayor de Blasio to demonstrate real Vision Zero leadership: Go to the scene of the crash, stand with the child’s family, and tell New Yorkers that he will do whatever it takes, right now and for the remainder of his time in office, to bring an end to the carnage,” the group Transportation Alternatives said in a statement. — Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Public housing

De Blasio faces an uphill battle turning around living conditions in the nation’s largest public housing system, which is home to one in 14 city residents.

The underfunded agency that oversees public housing, the New York City Housing Authority, needs more than $32 billion to repair unreliable elevators, outdated boilers and faulty roofs, which have left the city’s 176,000 apartments with leaks, mold, and widespread heat and hot water outages.

The situation grew so dire that the federal government threatened to take over the agency and intervened earlier this year, appointing an independent monitor to supervise the agency, known as NYCHA.

But the city recently admitted it still was not in compliance with a number of federal regulations, including lead paint rules meant to protect young children.

De Blasio’s contentious plan to raise money for repairs by partnering with developers to build mixed-income housing on underutilized NYCHA land, like parking lots, has largely stalled. — Luis Ferré-Sadurní

Homelessness

The city has nearly 79,000 people who are homeless, including an estimated 5% who are living on the street and sleeping in parks and subway cars.

His plan to open 90 new shelters over five years has fallen considerably short. The administration has been slowed by neighborhood opposition and, in some cases, lawsuits.

Only 26 new shelters have opened, leaving thousands of New Yorkers in hotel rooms and private apartments that the city is using as shelters.

Advocates for homeless and low-income people say the solution is housing, but de Blasio has resisted calls to change his housing plan to better target the city’s most vulnerable households.

Last year, Nathylin Flowers Adesegun, a 73-year-old woman who is homeless, interrupted one of de Blasio’s regular morning workouts at the Park Slope YMCA to urge him to build more housing to get people out of shelter.

The confrontation, captured on video, helped galvanize a growing bloc of advocates and elected officials, putting more pressure on de Blasio.

“The mayor has been really stubborn on this, really ignoring the fact that the housing crisis is concentrated particularly among people who are literally homeless and low-income New Yorkers,” said Giselle Routhier, policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless. — Nikita Stewart

This article originally appeared in

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De Blasio's Back: Here Are 5 Major Problems He's Facing

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