Coronavirus News: NYC Mayor de Blasio promises road map to recovery by June 1

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Sunday, April 26, 2020

De Blasio promises recovery plan by June 1

NYC Mayor de Blasio says advisory councils, task forces will create the plan

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he hopes to have a roadmap by June 1 on how to rebuild the city after the coronavirus threat subsides.

He has invited city leaders to help plan the recovery. He said a full rebuild will take about 20 months.

"We don't just need a recovery, we need a transformation," de Blasio said. "We need to build a better and more just society than the one we left behind," de Blasio said.

He outlined the advisory councils will work on the recovery plan:

Large Business

Small Business

Public Health and Health care

Education and Vocational Training

Arts, Culture, Tourism

Labor

Nonprofits and Social Services

Faith-Based Community

The Mayor stressed that it is imperative that the city's approach to recovery must address the "structural racism," "painful inequalities" and disparities that have been "laid bare" during the coronavirus crisis.

He announced that city would also create a "Fair Recovery Task Force" to help New Yorkers recover from the coronavirus crisis, and a charter revision commission, to apply "structural changes to foster a fair recovery."

"Recovery means to me getting back not just to a point where life feels more normal but getting back to a point of strength, additionally addressing the underlying issues we still need to address in the city," de Blasio added.

The mayor said most key COVID-19 indicators remain on a downward trend, but that must continue for 10 to 14 days consistently.

"We restart when we have evidence," he said. "Anybody, any state, any city that doesn't pay attention to those factual health care indicators that evidence is endangering themselves and their people and the whole idea of having a restart to have an economy again, recover, it could all backfire because the disease reasserts.

He later added, "We have to get people back to work. This is central to everything. So many people are clamoring to get back to work. It's safe. I want people back to work. I want to restart our economy. I want to see people back to work whether they work on Wall Street or a bodega. We need everyone to go back to work. We have to do it in the right way."

De Blasio added getting people back to work is central to recovery and that there are a number of outstanding questions that his administration is working to address.

"How do you reopen a restaurant and still do it in a way that protects the customers and protects the people that work there? What kind of protection will people need? What kind of PPE's will people need to wear in different parts of the city, a lot of different work they do to make sure they are safe. When will they need more? When will they need less? We've got to start filling in those blanks," he said.