New York City opens De Blasio era

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor dropped a large ball on countdowns at New York’s Time Square at 0:00 a.m. on Wednesday, crowds packing the street welcomed the New Year with enthusiastic cheers.

At the same hour, incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who begins his term on Wednesday, took oath by putting his hand on the Bible in the presence of New York State Attorney General at the former’s residence in Brookline. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg had celebrated in peace the New Year’s Day with his family at his residence on 75th Street in Manhattan for the first time since 2001. The chief executive of New York has been replaced for the first time in 12 years, and the De Blasio era has ushered in.

Soon after taking oath, De Blasio stepped outside of his residence, and declared that “To everyone, this is the beginning of a road we will travel together.” New York media analyzed that his taking oath at his own residence symbolizes that he clearly differentiates himself from former Mayor Bloomberg who put priority on Manhattan among the five boroughs in New York. For his first official assignment, he signed an executive order suggesting that existing New York City rules will remain in effect, before paying nine-dollar filing fee to register as mayor.

Visiting the mayoral office the previous day with his family, De Blasio got emotional. It is because he met his wife Chirlane McCray, then mayoral speech writer, in the office for the first time in 1991 as deputy aide to the then Mayor David Dinkins. McCray uploaded on Tuesday a Twitter post reading, “Everything started right here.”

Mayor De Blasio will hold an official inaugural ceremony with more than 5,000 people in attendance in front of the City Hall at noon on Wednesday. Former President Bill Clinton will preside over the inaugural ceremony to celebrate the Democratic Party’s takeover of the New York Mayor post for the first time in 20 years. Experts say that the new mayor’s first tasks would be to properly cope with snow storm that hit U.S. northeast on the first days of the New Year, and find ways to implement a tax hike on the rich, one of his election pledges to ease disparity.

Michael Bloomberg who spent his last day in office on Tuesday left the City Hall amid cheers and rounds of applauses. Shaking hands with the outgoing mayor, citizens commended Bloomberg, saying, “We thank you for your serving as our mayor over the past years.” Critics have said that as the billionaire mayor was overly self-righteous, but people in the media, religious and business community generally spoke highly of his achievements. He transformed New York by lowering the city’s crime rate, implementing strong anti-smoking policy and public health policy, and introducing citizen-friendly urban designs.

On the final day, Bloomberg posted a Twitter message, reading “On my first day in office (January 1, 2002), I visited the World Trade Center site and vowed NYC would rebuild stronger than ever. Today I can say we have.”