De Blasio talks road safety, affordable housing, crime in 7th State of the City Address

NEW YORK - With two years left in his second term in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio highlighted his accomplishments and plans to make the city more safe and affordable in his seventh State of the City Address on Thursday.

To create affordable housing, De Blasio said he wants to change zoning rules to allow homeowners to convert their basements into apartments and is pledging $150M in loans to help.

He also wants to tackle teenage crime by expanding, reopening and building new community centers to give teenagers alternatives.

"Dozens and dozens of our parks, recreation centers, we're going to open them up, more hours, more days, and for young adults we're going to make their memberships free," De Blasio said. 

De Blasio also announced the creation of a new NYPD unit of over 100 officers as part of his Vision Zero Policy to help keep cyclists and pedestrians safe, along with committing money from the city’s pension fund to help small businesses and going after landlords who are forcing small businesses out by raising their rents.

"You've seen a storefront that's vacant for 2 years, 3 years, if a landlord leaves that storefront vacant... then that landlord needs to pay more in taxes," De Blasio said. 

He also issued an executive order to make all of the city's vehicles electric.