He said he will put a particular focus on housing and child care.
"I mean look at how great this city is, it's the most hard-working, diverse, cultural, thriving, interesting place on the planet. But it's got to be run better," Lander said.
And to Lander, running the city better primarily means three things.
"We need safer streets, we need more affordable housing, we need schools that work for all of our kids," he said.
Lander says he has a plan to create half a million new homes over the next 10 years, including converting some of the 2,500 acres of city golf courses into 50,000 affordable homes with new parks and schools.
"The other thing I'm really focused on is ending street homelessness for people with serious mental illness," Lander said.
He explained how he would do that.
"With a strategy called Housing First, which takes people straight from the subway platform into a supportive housing unit with services," Lander said. "It's working in Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City -- it will work here."
Lander believes growing private-sector partnerships will help.
"Probably the best thing I did in the City Council was the redevelopment of the area around the Gowanus Canal," Lander said. "That's now 8,000 homes going up, 3,000 of them genuinely affordable to low-income and working-class families. It's an amazing public-private partnership."
As comptroller, Lander handles the city's money.
"I've audited every single agency, so know where the waste is, I know what's working, what's not working," he said.
He says this experience informs his plan to make the city's budget's biggest line item - education - benefit families.
"For childcare, we should by next year, have every 3-year-old in an affordable free seat the city offers, and then start working on 2-year-olds as well, that could save a family $25,000 a year, right as their family is growing," Lander said.
Lander raised his own family in Brooklyn and sent his two kids to public schools.
He says his deep love of the city and his decades of experience inform the kind of mayor he will be.
"A no-nonsense, no-scandal leader, who wakes up every day and tries to make the city safer, more affordable, and make it run better," Lander said. "What I also have, that others in the field just don't, is a real track record of making city agencies work for New Yorkers."
Lander is urging supporters to put him first on their ranked choice ballots and then include others who are "not Andrew Cuomo."
As the highest-ranking Jewish New Yorker in city government, Lander says he will fight the rise of hate crimes and work to protect all New Yorkers, including the city's immigrants.
Lander is also committed to keeping Jessica Tisch on as police commissioner.
NYC PRIMARY ELECTION RESOURCES
Up Close Election Special: Closer look at the candidates for New York City mayor
How to register to vote in NY, NJ, and CT
How to vote early in the NYC mayoral primary
Ranked-choice voting explained: What to know for NYC mayoral election
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