NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg was inaugurated for his third term in office on Friday Jan. 1 on the steps of City Hall. The morning, with temperatures milder than in the previous frigid days and last week’s snow having been cleared away, saw several thousand people attending the morning ceremony, which also included the inauguration of Bill de Blasio as public advocate.
The morning ceremonies included musical performances by the Queens Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn College Brass Ensemble, introductions by students from the Newcomers High School in Long Island City, a presentation of colors by the NYPD, NYFD, Sanitation Dept., Corrections Dept., and the sherriff’s office.
Clergy from four city offices read invocations: the Dept. of Corrections, the FDNY, the NYPD, and the Dept. of Sanitation.
The chief judge of the state of New York, Jonathan Lippman issued the oath of office to Mayor Bloomberg, who was joined by his daughters Georgina and Emily.
The mayor gave a brief speech of less than 15 minutes in which he thanked former Mayors Edward Koch and David Dinkins for attending, and welcomed others to office including Public Advocate de Blasio and 12 incoming council members.
At the top of his speech Bloomberg acknowledged that many New Yorkers are having a hard time, “We cannot ignore the hard times that exist around us, many New Yorkers are struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage, to find a job, to feed their families. The road ahead will not be easy,” said the mayor. He followed this with optimism based on the past decade in which New Yorkers have overcome many obstacles and other tough times, including the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The mayor touted gains in education, affordable housing, and lower crime rates as successes of his previous terms in office, as well as his green initiatives, “We made the safest big city in the nation even safer. We have adopted bold education reforms that President Obama’s administration has hailed as a national model. We have built the country’s largest affordable housing program and adopted its most sweeping health agenda. ... We have the pursued the boldest sustainability agenda on the planet,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
Bloomberg also discussed his war on illegal guns, which has now spread across the nation to include over 500 mayors from other cities.
The main focus of his next term in office will be immigration reform “another national issue that affects New Yorkers in profoundly personal ways,” stated Bloomberg.
“No city on earth—no city—should hold these principles higher aloft than this city of immigrants, because no city on earth has been more rewarded by immigrant labor, more renewed by immigrant ideas, more revitalized by immigrant culture, than the city of New York.”
Bloomberg also promised to help small businesses grow in the coming term. Bloomberg said he would work with Speaker Christine Quinn and the City Council to transform the relationship between business and government, “making it possible for entrepreneurs to open their doors more quickly,” saying the government can do more to help.
Bloomberg ended his speech with a promise to not have a lackluster third term devoid of energy and ideas, saying that he will again defy conventional wisdom.
The ceremony closed with a performance by students from PS 22 in Staten Island singing Jay Z’s song “Run this Town.”
