[ad_1]
Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, a former presidential candidate, has officially declared his candidacy for mayor of New York.
In a campaign video posted Wednesday night on Twitter, Yang proposed a program that included a guaranteed minimum income, the establishment of universal broadband Internet access, the creation of a “people’s bank” and the “smart reopening.” Of New York after the pandemic.
“I moved to New York City 25 years ago,” he said in the video. “I came of age, I fell in love and I became a father here. Seeing our city in such pain breaks my heart.
Its program includes a focus on New York nightlife. At his campaign site, Yang pledges to make permanent alfresco dining, “take-out cocktails” and other temporary measures put in place during the pandemic. He also says he wants to attract the so-called TikTok hype houses, where social media influencers live together in big mansions and shoot videos together.
I moved to New York 25 years ago. I came of age, I fell in love and I became a father here. Seeing our city in such pain breaks my heart.
Let’s fight for a future New York we can be proud of – together. Join us on https://t.co/TGnxwuBiHB pic.twitter.com/n9zxPybgbh
– Andrew Yang???? (@AndrewYang) January 14, 2021
Yang’s basic income program would start by providing $ 2,000 a year to half a million New Yorkers living in extreme poverty. Participants would receive the money by monthly transfers to a bank account opened in their name at a newly created “popular bank”.
Its most detailed policy focuses on reviving the city’s small businesses. He pledged to open 15,000 small businesses by 2022 and also came up with a host of unconventional ideas, including buying radiators in bulk and then selling them to restaurants that serve customers in the freezing spaces. , because the restaurants inside remain closed. He also suggested that the city make an investment in Cinch Market, a Brooklyn startup that brings small businesses together on a single online platform, whose slogan is “Shop Brooklyn Not Bezo $.”
Yang, 46, whose two children attend the city’s public school, also said he wants to subsidize broadband for schools, expand the city’s universal preschool program, and reform the system’s admissions process. school. “There will be no recovery without schools being open and teaching children safely every day,” he said.
Yang had filed papers with the city last month to explore a race. He joins more than two dozen candidates for the seat, including Ray McGuire, the former vice president of Citigroup Inc .; Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Comptroller Scott Stringer and former US Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan. Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio is barred by the term limit from running again. Some initial polls show Yang will debut as one of the early pioneers in the race.
His campaign has already got off to a rough start. Yang has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for his decision to flee the city during the pandemic and travel to his home in the Hudson Valley, and for comments he made on virtual schooling who critics have come across as deaf. In an interview with The New York Times, he asked, “Can you imagine trying to have two kids in virtual school in a two bedroom apartment, then trying to work on your own?” Its competitors have jumped. “Yes, actually I can,” city comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott M. Stringer wrote of his two children.
Yes, actually I can. https://t.co/0ApSoJGIV8
– Scott Stringer (@scottmstringer) January 11, 2021
New York’s next mayor will face a number of economic and health challenges. More than 25,000 New Yorkers have died from Covid-19. The city also faces a deficit of $ 3.8 billion for the budget year in early July, according to state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Until October, New York City only recovered 37% of the 944,100 jobs lost in March and April, when authorities imposed an economic shutdown on non-essential businesses. The election is expected to take place in November, with primaries in June.
Born in Schenectady, New York, to immigrants from Taiwan, Yang worked for several startups before becoming CEO of a Manhattan test preparation company that was sold to Kaplan Inc. in 2009. In 2017, he said his candidacy for the presidency.
Yang built this campaign on a pledge of $ 1,000 per month to every adult, with a tax on tech companies. He ended his candidacy in February 2020, but a longer-than-expected run throughout the Democratic primaries gave him a national platform that he used to campaign for President-elect Joe Biden and the Democrats who took control of the Senate.
(Updates with Yang’s comments on ninth paragraph education)
– With the help of Henry Goldman.
[ad_2]
