NYC business leaders call on de Blasio to crackdown on crime, quality of life issues

Business leaders urge De Blasio to fix NYC

A group of business leaders in New York City wrote a letter Thursday urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to deal with the city's crime and quality of life issues.

NEW YORK - In an open letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, more than 160 CEOs from major corporations based in the five boroughs urged the mayor to crackdown on New York City’s crime and quality of life issues, or else the Big Apple may not rebound from the pandemic shutdowns anytime soon.

“The business community is deeply concerned that there is not a clear, united vision for how New York is going to rebuild our economy, reopen our small businesses, ” said Kathryn Wylde, the CEO of Partnership for New York City, the city’s business leadership organization.

The letter to de Blasio, which was signed by CEO’s from companies like Macy’s, Mastercard, JetBlue, and Goldman Sachs, pleaded for some kind of cohesive plan for how New York City will move forward.

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“There is widespread anxiety over public safety, cleanliness, and other quality of life issues that are contributing to deteriorating conditions in commercial districts and neighborhoods across the five boroughs,” the letter reads. “We need to send a strong, consistent message that our employees, customers, clients, and visitors will be coming back to a safe and healthy work environment.”

“People are not coming back until they feel confident that there’s something positive to come back to,” Wylde said.

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Since the pandemic began, Mayor de Blasio has fended off criticism about a lack of planning for the reopening of schools, a rise in homelessness, an uptick in gun violence, and concerns over sanitation. At each turn, de Blasio has said that New York City requires assistance from Washington, D.C.

Thursday night, he tweeted “We’re grateful for our business community and are partnering to rebuild a fairer, better city. Let’s be clear, to restore city services and save jobs, we need long term borrowing and a federal stimulus, we need these leaders to join the fight to move the city forward."

The partnership says that outside of the tweet from de Blasio, they have not heard back from the mayor yet.