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Mayor Mike Bloomberg visited Queens last Friday with a somber, yet hopeful message.

The mayor made his outer-borough rounds last week. He was in Brooklyn the day before, and spoke at the New York City District Conference of the African Episcopal Zion Church in Corona.

He began his speech by relating an anecdote that highlighted one of “his favorite aspects of the job.” He said that by visiting and speaking before so many culturally and religiously diverse areas of New York City before becoming mayor and during his two terms “gives you a great understanding of how wonderful and diverse our city is.”
He went on to say in his introduction that, “we have been blessed this year,” and “though the country is not perfect, through all our problems America is still wonderful.”

Welcomed by applause, Bloomberg spoke to the audience for nearly 30 minutes, touching upon three ‘E’ issues that have been keys to his administration: The environment, education and the economy.

He noted the historic drop in crime citywide, praising the declining homicide count as the lowest in 20 years. “If you don’t have low crime, you don’t have a tax base because no one wants to live here,” he said.

Regarding the primacy of education the mayor said, “education is a God-given right.”

Bloomberg sounded a hopeful yet somber note throughout the speech, but the audience was anything but subdued during the eminently popular mayor’s address – three separate standing ovations were given by the predominantly black crowd, in addition to prolonged applause and noticeable laughter following several of his honor’s witticisms.

Attending the two-day conference were religious leaders and parishioners from various churches around the city. Audience members heard church updates, participated in meetings and ate together from the prepared menu items made available during the day long conference.

The mayor spent the majority of his speech on education.
He struck an accomplished tone while speaking of his administration’s successes in raising test scores by ending social promotion, and reiterated the importance of public education to the city’s long-term health.

“Our education system is better,” he said. “Public education is the foundation…we have got to keep explaining to kids that if they don’t have a high school diploma they can’t share in the American Dream. College isn’t for everybody, but education is.”

The other focal points of the speech were the economy and the environment.

Bloomberg reported that the economy is slowing in many cities across America, and “probably in New York City also.”
He said a possible recession “hasn’t hit New York yet,” and that “we are going to have some problems that eventually are going to hurt us.”

According to the mayor, inexorably tied into economic issues are concerns around the environment. Bloomberg urged forward his congestion pricing initiative and said that “with [economic] growth comes problems, problems of success.”
“Three-hundred-fifty-four million for mass transit if congestion pricing is approved,” he said, “the danger is that we all want things, and we all need things at the same time the economy is slowing down.”