Bill De Blasio's New New York City

New York’s mayor-elect Bill de Blasio won on a strong progressive platform. We’ll look at New York and the inequality he’s vowed to take on.

When Americans talk about inequality, minds go quickly to Wall Street in New York City and the lords of finance there.  Now, New York City has a newly-elected mayor who campaigned above all on knocking down inequality.  Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio won in a landslide as a no-apologies progressive.  He talked non-stop about a “tale of two cities,” rich and poor, and his determination to narrow the gap.  Three-term mayor Michael Bloomberg warns de Blasio may kill New York’s golden goose.  The whole country’s watching.  Up next On Point:  Where Mayor de Blasio takes New York, and maybe the country.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Chris Smith, contribution editor at New York Magazine. (@ChrisSmithNYMag)

Ellis Henican, columnist at New York Newsday. (@Henican)

Mitra Kalita, ideas editor at Quartz. (@mitrakalita)

New York: The New Mayor's Frenemies — "[De Blasio] rose from an obscure public office to handily defeat a better-known, more experienced front-runner in the Democratic mayoral primary and then won the general election by the biggest open-seat margin ever. All very impressive. The reward is four years of nonstop headaches that will make being mocked as a socialist by Joe Lhota seem like happy hour. There is no shortage of major problems on the horizon: a $2 billion city budget deficit, more than 100 municipal labor unions clamoring for raises, the need to maintain public safety while easing up on stop and frisk."

Quartz: These 4 charts explain why Bill de Blasio won over New Yorkers — "While New York City rebounded from the recession faster and stronger than the rest of the state and country, a stubborn wealth gap persists. Granted, much of the city looks richer, cleaner, safer than 20 years ago before more moderate mayors took its helm. But there’s clear discontent over the concentration of that progress and those riches at the top of the income pyramid."

New York Times: In New York City’s Sharp Left Turn, Questions of Just How Far — "[De Blasio] talked repeatedly of a gilded world capital rived by class divisions and inequality, where the children of the middle and working class struggle to find jobs and apartments. His vows to tax the rich in service of universal prekindergarten and to rein in police stop-and-frisk tactics that inflamed young black and Latino men became twin pillars of his campaign. Such talk worried some business leaders, who had grown accustomed to attentive treatment from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But in a post-Occupy Wall Street world, the mayor-elect’s message resonated with voters."