NYC mayor pushes cheaper housing to bridge economic divide

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promised a renewed commitment to affordable housing to push back against growing economic polarization in the nation's most populous city, but made no mention during his annual state of the city speech Tuesday of the racial tensions that flared after the deaths of an unarmed black man and two ambushed police officers.

"We face a profound challenge," de Blasio said as he unveiled his plan for construction of 80,000 new affordable apartments and houses in the next decade. "If we fail to be a city for everyone, we risk losing what makes New York, New York. We risk losing the very soul of this place, if it isn't a place for every kind of person."

De Blasio said his administration would push to raise the minimum wage, create new ferry and bus routes to underserved areas of the city, and require new housing developments in gentrifying neighborhoods to include affordable units in an effort to avoid what the mayor describes as the "tale of two cities."

"If we do not act, and act boldly, New York risks taking on the qualities of a gated community," De Blasio said. "A place defined by exclusivity, rather than opportunity."

Neighborhoods now slated for mandatory affordable housing are East New York in Brooklyn, Long Island City, the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx, Flushing West in Queens, Staten Island's Bay Street corridor and East Harlem.

In 2014, 56% of renters in New York spent more than 30% of their income on housing, a 10% increase in a little more than a decade, he said.

The mayor praised the police department for making the city safer, but did not mention Eric Garner, who died after an officer put him in a chokehold on Staten Island, or NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, who were shot to death while sitting in their patrol car by a man who ranted on social media that he planned to kill cops to avenge the deaths of Garner and Michael Brown, 18, of Ferguson, Mo.

De Blasio has faced mounting criticism from some police union leaders and members who claim the mayor has failed to fully support officers amid nationwide protests against police brutality and racial profiling.

"Thanks to our courageous men and women in uniform, we've not only kept New York City safe — we've made it even safer," de Blasio said. "Our NYPD officers helped bring the city's crime rate to an all-time low — with the smallest number of murders, robberies and burglaries on record."

The city reduced controversial stop-and-frisk stops by more than 75%, de Blasio said. Arrests are also down 65% after the police began issuing citations rather than arresting people with small amounts of marijuana, he said.