“The common belief is that you are either a dreamer or a realist. But idealism and pragmatism aren’t as far apart as one might think.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I am very much a Red Sox fan; I can name you more players than you could possibly imagine. It’s just part of who I am.”
― Bill de Blasio
“For decades, Big Oil ravaged our environment. They knew what they were peddling was lethal, but they didn’t care. They used the classical Big Tobacco playbook of denial, denial, denial, and all the while, they did everything to hook society on their lethal product.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I have my loyalty to the team of my youth. Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. The team that I grew up with was constantly the underdog but managed to prevail.”
― Bill de Blasio
“My professional life has been about public service. My personal life I define very intently through my family.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Our future is about investing in our own people.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I have an activist’s desire to improve people’s lives.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I didn’t set out with the notion of running for elective office; it sort of grew over time. And I honestly at times questioned if progressive change can be effected through elected office.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I think unionization is good public policy. I think when families secure their economic future, that’s good for everyone.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I’ve spent my life at public work, and I’ve spent many a day on a good cause that didn’t have any lift, didn’t have enough support, didn’t have enough resources, and you could only get so far.”
― Bill de Blasio
“My wife and family, to say the least, are the center of my life; they are my grounding. I don’t want to sound schmaltzy, but they are my inspiration and you name it.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I think small business is struggling in New York City. It’s a fantastic market, it’s a very appealing market, there’s lots of opportunity, at the same time it’s a very difficult place to build a small business.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I think a lot of the best ideas come from the grassroots; I’m someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I love the MLB app, because I’m a pretty obsessed baseball fan.”
― Bill de Blasio
“My parents were divorced when I was young. I was really brought up by my mother’s side of the family.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I think Bloomberg’s broad vision of the environment in New York City is something I agree with. I broadly stand with his vision for how to deal with climate change and prepare for future weather events.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I’m someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I come personally from a broken family, divorced very early in my childhood, a family with its own share of troubles, so I think that was very influential in both me believing that someday I would consistently devote myself to my own family that I created, but I think it also really affects my view of the world.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I have a bold plan to break from the Bloomberg years, and end the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ by providing real opportunity to all New Yorkers, no matter where they live.”
― Bill de Blasio
“There are families of every kind. I think a lot of people are struggling to make sense of their identity in a very complicated world.”
― Bill de Blasio
“As N.Y.C. Public Advocate, I released a report that showed that stop-and-frisks of African Americans in 2012 were barely half as likely to yield a weapon as those of white New Yorkers – and a third less likely to yield contraband. Despite this evidence, the vast majority of those stopped are young black and Latino men.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. Living up there in 1967 – the Impossible Dream season – that moment was incredibly compelling. I just naturally gravitated to the team. Nineteen seventy-five was arguably the greatest World Series of all time.”
― Bill de Blasio
“While this has been a private part of my family’s life, it is now clear a media story will soon emerge. My father tragically ended his life while battling terminal cancer in 1979.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Clearly, Mayor Bloomberg did some things right. I think he did a very good job on public health. He did a very good job on environment. I think he was right to achieve mayoral control of education. I don’t think he then applied it the right way.”
― Bill de Blasio
“At a certain point, particularly in his third term, Mayor Bloomberg lost touch with the people he was serving.”
― Bill de Blasio
“There is nothing wrong with listening. You can listen to people; you can hear people’s concerns. You can keep an open mind and still be perfectly strong.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I think you can be smart and directed and focused, without being obnoxious, and get plenty done.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I’ve always had a very positive relationship with the municipal labor unions – a respectful relationship.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Going back to high school and college, I believed I would be involved in public service. I literally could not conceptualize anything else.”
― Bill de Blasio
“There are a lot of different demands on the campaign trail, but what matters most is that you connect with voters and take the time to really hear their concerns.”
― Bill de Blasio
“This country has wasted too many years pretending it had the luxury of debating climate change.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Preparing for climate change has to be a national priority backed by tens of billions in federal investment. Lives are on the line.”
― Bill de Blasio
“We not only need a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy that prevents the most cataclysmic consequences of global warming, we need real dollars and real planning for coastal protection to combat the consequences that are already inevitable.”
― Bill de Blasio
“When a party loses a national election to someone such as President Trump, it’s time to rethink everything.”
― Bill de Blasio
“For New Yorkers, late October 2012 was a moment when something fundamental altered. If there were any climate change deniers in the five boroughs before Hurricane Sandy, I don’t think there were too many left afterward.”
― Bill de Blasio
“We need an inspiring vision of equality that resonates in the hearts, minds, and souls of all Americans.”
― Bill de Blasio
“We need to show the voters left behind by Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that our party represents them and that we’re beholden only to them. We’ve got to give them a reason to go to the polls.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Excessive stop-and-frisk divides communities. That’s why the New York City Police Department has moved away from it.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Our country has a painful history of mistrust between police departments and people of color. The overuse of stop-and-frisk has made those divisions much worse.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Rent-stabilized tenants face harassment. They face illegal evictions. They’re confronted with ceaseless ‘buy-out’ offers that promise a quick buck if they give up their homes.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I know the ugly history of corporate welfare, and that’s not New York City’s future.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Sometimes, history sneaks up on you. And sometimes you know it’s coming.”
― Bill de Blasio
“In a lot of ways, New York isn’t the city I moved to back in 1979. I’m old enough to separate my nostalgia for those days from the reality of how dangerous and uncertain they could be.”
― Bill de Blasio
“Part of how you grapple with intense opposition is by creating real, organic momentum: by actually doing something for people, and then they rightfully buy into it.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I, thank God, don’t engage in punditry anymore. That part of my life is behind me.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I came up in a time where the assumption was, in the ’60s and ’70s, where the federal government was a great agent of progressive social change, it was the intervener in the best sense, and it would come and address injustice forthrightly.”
― Bill de Blasio
“If you talk to a lot of people in government, they will talk about the pathway to getting something done rather than the thing itself. And I just talk about material outcomes.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I was always very detail-oriented, and in the time I spent in different roles – the elected official, the campaign manager – I had a tendency to want to push the creation of the product and really work on the critical path that would get to product.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I didn’t go to the Bob Marley and the Wailers show twice in my life, and I’ve regretted it every day since.”
― Bill de Blasio
“I want to ensure that the Democratic Party moves in a more progressive direction, substantively and message-wise. And goes out and reaches people all over this country.”
― Bill de Blasio
“There is a heavy-ego, solitary model of being an elected leader. We’ve certainly seen that in some other mayors of this city… I have much more of a Movement mentality. It’s much more of what I’m steeped in. I don’t think it is first and foremost about me. It’s about the ideas and the agenda.”
― Bill de Blasio
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