Denis LoofCivil and Political Speechmaking8/3/2015

A Victim of Circumstance

New York City in the 1990s was, in many ways, a very different city than it is today. When David Dinkins was elected Mayor in 1989 he inherited a situation that was dire by all definitions of the word. Similar to 2008, a major recession devastated the local and national economy. Due to this, the city was facing severe economic pains, which showed in the harsh cuts that were forced upon the city due to declining tax revenue. Crime had been a major issue that plagued the city for at least a decade, with a murder rate over 2,000 per year and over 500,000 instances of crime in the seven major categories.

Yet Mayor Dinkins did what he could with the sparse resources he had to work with. By the end of 1993, his last full year in office, the city experienced a 36-month period of declining crime across the seven major categories, including a 14 percent drop in the murder rate. On top of this, Dinkins expanded the NYPD despite the financial hardships that the city faced, showing a strong commitment to pushing back against the decade long slide into lawlessness that New York City experienced during the 1980s. (Barrett)

While at the time of his State of the City address, crime had not fallen as much as referenced above, Dinkins touted the fact that the city had seen crime reductions in 25 out of 26 months. He also stated that his administration had increased the number of police officers “walking the beat by 300 percent, from 786 to over 3,000.” (Text of Dinkins’ State of the City) He also mentions the fact that they were experiencing the first decline in the seven major crime categories in 36 years, and that it wasn’t just happening on the streets, but in the subways as well.

In conjunction with adding officers, Dinkins spoke of the strides that had been made to restore faith in the NYPD as an organization. A major advocate of community policing, Dinkins spoke more about cops “walking the beat” as mentioned above, which many claim increases trust between the police officers and the communities they work in. On top of this effort, Dinkins worked to “ensure the reputation of New York’s Finest is never marred by a few bad apples.” This is an allusion to his efforts to reform the police department by recruiting more black men and creating the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which was completely independent of the NYPD. (Text of Dinkins’ State of the City)

Dinkins also acknowledged the budgetary issues he faced when taking office, stating that when he took office “the words Financial Control Board…dominated discussions of our budget.” This is a reference to the Emergency Financial Control Board that was created by the State of New York to ensure New York City’s finances were in order after the city nearly went bankrupt in 1975. While the role of the

Financial Control Board changed drastically in the decade following the near bankruptcy, by state law if the city budget was not balanced the board would assume control of the process and balance the budget itself. In the face of the financial crisis of the late 1980s, many assumed that the city would return to the days of fiscal insolvency and require this type of drastic intervention. Luckily, due to strong actions taken by the Dinkins administration and city government as a whole, these fears never materialized. (Text of Dinkins’ State of the City)

On top of sharp declines in crime across the city and increasing the size of the NYPD in the face of falling city tax revenues and a fledging economy, Dinkins also made strides in a program that kept young people off the street and in schools. Dinkins championed Beacon Centers that turned public schools in neighborhoods with high crime rates and little economic opportunity into what are today being called “community schools.” These centers provided a wide range of services from tutoring to health education. These Beacon Centers undoubtedly had an impact on the families and communities they served. (Richardson)

Dinkins spoke at length about the Beacon Schools in his State of the City address, stating that at the time of the speech ten were open across the city in areas such as Red Hook, and that eleven more would soon be open. On top of this, he announced in this speech that fifteen more would open in the coming fiscal year. Stressing the importance of keeping young people busy and off the streets, Dinkins also spoke about his restoration of library hours across the city. Again, in the speech, Dinkins announced that libraries would be open six days a week for the first time since 1947. Similarly, he spoke of expanding parks by turning vacant lots into recreational spaces and expanding pool hours in the summer. (Text of Dinkins’ State of the City)

In relation to the economy, Dinkins also talked about his record of aiding New York City’s small business community. He did this by freezing property taxes and corporate taxes, attempting to reduce the amount of regulations that were barriers to entry to opening small businesses, and reducing the amount of summonses issued to them. This is echoed in the New York Times piece that detailed many of the achievements and initiatives of the Dinkins administration. (Text of Dinkins’ State of the City) (Powell)

While I was unable to find many articles about the State of the City speech, the Times did cover the event. The Times did not add much spin in their account the event, however they did mention a number of issues that the city faced that Mayor Dinkins was less substantiative in dealing with in the speech. An example of this is homelessness, which the Times states that advocates for the homeless stated the Dinkins administration was unable to adequately fund and manage the shelter system. (McKinley Jr.)

Similarly, the responses from political allies and foes are detailed with little spin. Council Speaker Peter Vallone raised concerns about the reality of funding new

initiatives in the midst of a weak economy. Similarly, his opponent in the next election, Rudy Giuliani, criticized the Mayor for stating that he’d saved thousands of jobs from leaving New York City while, overall, 400,000 had been lost. Dinkins also faced criticism from a Democratic challenger, Andew Stein who was the City Council President at the time, implied that all the fanfare over keeping libraries open longer was for naught in the face of cuts to the education budget and overcrowding in schools. (McKinley Jr.)

If much of the speech sounds a bit like the start of a campaign, that’s because it was. Giuliani was the assumed challenger on the Republican ticket, as he had nearly beaten Dinkins in the 1989 election. Andrew Stein was also looking to primary the incumbent Democratic Mayor, and with challenges from both sides Dinkins was threatened. Public perception of crime and the economy had not strengthened enough as of this time, and this certainly played a role in this being Dinkins last State of the City address. While not completely his fault, Dinkins did all that he could with the situation he inherited. In retrospect, many have stated that his administration put the city on the path to where it is today with his strong policies regarding crime and increasing the police force. Regardless of what one may think of his tenure, he most certainly did significantly more good than he gets credit for today.

Works Cited

Barrett, Wayne. “Giuliani’s Legacy: Taking Credit for Things He Didn’t Do.” The Gotham Gazette. Web. 3 August 2015.

McKinley Jr., James C. “Defending Record, Dinkins Sees City As A Safer Place.” The New York Times. 5 January 1993. Web. 3 August 2015.

Powell, Michael. “Another Look at the Dinkins Administration, and Not by Giuliani.” The New York Times. 25 October 2009. Web. 3 August 2015.

Richardson, Lynda. “Dinkins to Propose 15 More Beacon Centers.” The New York Times. 3 January 1993. Web. 3 August 2015.

“Text of Mayor Dinkins’ State of the City.” Office of the Mayor. 1993. Web. 4 August 2015