Mayor De Blasio's concerns about getting New York City back to work
'It's so important we get another stimulus action,' says New York City mayor Bill de Blasio discussing what it's going to take to slowly get back to work
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Reopening the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic must be done conservatively and in stages, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with host Steve Doocy, de Blasio said that while the Big Apple needs to get back to work as soon as it is safe, officials must take a cautious and intelligent approach to do so.
"Because, if we act the wrong way, we jump too soon, then you could see a resurgence of this disease," he stated. "That's something we should all be really mindful of."
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"And, we have seen that in some parts of Asia," de Blasio noted. "They opened up a little too quickly and then bang, here is the disease coming back and growing again. We cannot allow that, so we have one chance to get it right."
The Democratic mayor and former 2020 presidential candidate said that, in this case, he considers himself a conservative.
"I think we have to be smart about doing it in stages, making sure we can confirm that we're containing the disease more and more, getting it back to where it was, you know, a month or two ago, before you really start to open up a lot," he explained. "And, look, I want to see people back to work as much as anyone. I feel it urgently. But, we have got to secure the health and safety first of all New Yorkers and obviously all Americans. So, do it smart. Do it in stages."
"And then," he continued, "if we're going to get our economy up and running, we have got to make sure that our cities can function, our states can function again, because I'm concerned about [the] need to make sure that I have a city that works. That police, firefighters, sanitation – all of the things that we do all the time – are working to have a vibrant economy."
"If we can't provide those basic services, we are not going to be able to restart our economy," he remarked. "And, that's why it's so important that we get another stimulus action from the Congress that focuses on making local governments and state governments whole so we can get us back where we were, provide those services, and actually have a normal economy again."
De Blasio told Doocy that sustainability is what the city needs to return to a sense of normalcy.
"If in September schools are open again and more and more people are going back to work, even if we still have to keep a lot of social distancing in place or other measures, then I could see us sustaining," he added. "Because that's what I think we want to think about, getting it right the first time and then from fall on actually resuming more and more being a normal country."
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"What I would hate to see is, you know, jumping too soon in May or June the wrong way, having that boomerang effect, the disease comes back, [and] then you are delaying potentially well into the year anything like normalcy," de Blasio pointed out.
"We have got to have stability. There's no way we are going to be able to make up that money on our own. That's where the Congress has to step up and say we have got to get this Congress back to work," he concluded. "But to do it, our other cities and states have to be able to function properly and support a strong economy and give people the services they need. If they act soon, if the Congress acts, that's a pathway to a real recovery."
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