Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America s Tale of Two Cities - Hardcover

González, Juan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620972093 ISBN 13: 9781620972090

Publisher: The New Press, 2017

Synopsis

How Bill de Blasio’s mayoral victory triggered a seismic shift in the nation’s urban political landscape―and what it portends for our cities in the future

In November 2013, a little-known progressive stunned the elite of New York City by capturing the mayoralty by a landslide. Bill de Blasio’s promise to end the “Tale of Two Cities” had struck a chord among ordinary residents still struggling to recover from the Great Recession.

De Blasio’s election heralded the advent of the most progressive New York City government in generations. Not since the legendary Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s had so many populist candidates captured government office at the same time. Gotham, in other words, had been suddenly reclaimed in the name of its people.

How did this happen? De Blasio’s victory, journalist legend Juan González argues, was not just a routine change of government but a popular rebellion against corporate-friendly policies that had dominated New York for decades. Reflecting that broader change, liberal Democrats Bill Peduto in Pittsburgh, Betsy Hodges in Minneapolis, and Martin Walsh of Boston also won mayoral elections that same year, as did insurgent Ras Baraka in Newark the following year. This new generation of municipal leaders offers valuable lessons for those seeking grassroots reform.

About this title

From the Author:

Juan González is one of this country’s best-known Latino journalists. He was a staff columnist for New York’s Daily News from 1987 to 2016 and has been a co-host since 1996 of Democracy Now! He is the author of Harvest of Empire, News for All the People, Fallout (The New Press). Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, he was raised in New York City, where he now lives.

About the Author:

Juan González is one of this country’s best-known Latino journalists. He was a staff columnist for New York’s Daily News from 1987 to 2016 and has been a co-host since 1996 of Democracy Now! He is the author of Harvest of Empire, News for All the People, and Fallout. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, he was raised in East Harlem and Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1620972093
• ISBN 13: 9781620972090
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320