New York – NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Begins 2nd Term At City Hall

New York – Bill de Blasio began his second term as New York City mayor Monday at a swearing in ceremony outdoors in freezing temperatures, taking the oath of office administered by Brooklyn native and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“By Vermont standards this is a warm and pleasant afternoon,” Sanders, joked the crowd at City Hall Park.

De Blasio won re-election handily in November, becoming the first Democrat to return to City Hall in New York since Edward Koch 1985.

He boasted about the city recording the lowest number of annual homicides since the early 1950s. The city was on pace in mid-December to record fewer than 300 homicides, a 14 percent drop from the year before.

“We have brought police and community together like never before,” De Blasio said. “We have dedicated ourselves to a vision of true neighborhood policing and it works.”

As a national leader in progressive politics, de Blasio said he envisions a city that serves more than the elite and Wall Street titans.

“The deepest, truest stakeholders of this town are the people who do the work, who every day make this city come to life but have too often not reaped the rewards,” he said. “We have a responsibility, every one of us, to ensure that New York remains a beacon to our nation and to our world.”

Sanders, an independent who made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, praised de Blasio’s work on providing pre-kindergarten education and other progressive issues.

“In this city, the largest city in our country, the people of New York under Bill de Blasio have chosen to move government in a very different direction than what we’re seeing in Washington,” Sanders said. “Instead of pandering to billionaires, we have a government here which has chosen to listen to the needs of working families.”

Also sworn-in for second terms were fellow Democrats, Public Advocate Letitia James and Comptroller Scott Stringer.

The ceremony came on a frigid New Year’s Day; it was about 14 degrees (minus 10 Celsius) by early afternoon.

While nearly everyone in attendance was bundled up in multiple layers to ward off the Arctic chill and taking advantage of the hand warmers distributed by City Hall, 18 year old Manhattan resident Harry Kile showed up to the inauguration in shorts, insisting he wasn’t cold and had come to “see the mayor and Bernie.”

Independent freelance writer Marc Hermann, who serves as the secretary and historian of the New York Press Photographers Association showed up with a vintage camera, tucking his yellow press pass into the band of his fedora, a la Dick Tracy. Hermann is on a quest to cover contemporary stories using vintage equipment.

“I am a regressive photographer covering a progressive mayor,” quipped Hermann.

Eddie Rogan, a member of IBEW Local Union No. 3, is one of 1,800 workers who have been on strike against Charter Communications/Spectrum for the last ten months and one of the few at City Hall who had a beef with Mayor de Blasio.

“Spectrum wants to take away all of our benefits and our 401K but no one wants to talk about it because Spectrum owns the media,” Rogan told VIN News. “This gentleman who is about to be inaugurated has turned his back on us. It’s been promises, promises, promises and nothing, him and the governor. I just want to ask him why. How many faces can one man actually have?”

But it was clear from the cheering crowds, despite the excruciatingly cold weather that de Blasio was the man of the hour.

“The mayor is someone I supported from day one,” said Richard Iyasere, a member of Community Board 1 in the Bronx and a community liaison at the African Advisory Council of the Bronx under Borough President Ruben Diaz. “Mayor de Blasio, thank you, thank you for your service.”

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