Example Of Essay On Melissa Mark-Viverito's State Of The City Address

Mark-Viverito wants to make New York City a safer place by adding more police officers to the force. That way, there will be more first responders available, and officers who are already busy with other work (like counterintelligence work) won't need to be distracted from their task. She wants police to be involved in community partnership efforts to build trust between the police and New York's citizens, so that they can work together to combat crime. She also wants to put more money toward funding for bulletproof vests in the next fiscal year.
Although she wants to increase the number of police officers on the street, she also wants to see fewer court convictions. Mark-Viverito outlined a plan for criminal justice reform which will see the penalties reduced for nonviolent crimes. She wants to work with the NYPD to reevaluate the punishments for minor crimes. She believes that a young person's life should not be thrown off course by having a nonviolent criminal offense in their background. For example, jumping over a turnstyle can result in being put in handcuffs and charged with a felony. She believes that offenses such as these are minor and should be treated as civil, rather than criminal. She also wishes to organize a citywide bail fund for people who are too poor to post their own bail. A person who cannot afford to put up 500 dollars for their bail ends up spending the night in jail. This not only has an impact on the individual's and their family's well being, but it affects society as well. These measures will help reduce inequality based on economic disadvantage and will make New York City a more egalitarian city.
Mark-Viverito emphasized the importance of cooperation in solving the city's problems. She believes that these goals can be accomplished if people learn to work with and listen to each other. Respecting other people's beliefs and valuing their contributions to the conversation will make collaboration a fruitful endeavor.
Mark-Viverito states in her speech, “we will tackle systemic issues in human rights, workers' rights and civil legal rightswe will take on long-standing challenges in housing, criminal justice, small business and educationand we will do it together.” I believe that her ambitions of overcoming these challenges are laudable. Each of these areas are in serious need of reform in New York City. Mark-Viverito has her priorities straight. If even only half of her goals are met by the time she delivers her next state of the city address, it will still mean that a great deal of progress has been made.
I am especially affected by her vow to reform New York's criminal justice system. Especially in light of the recent case of Eric Garner, in which an unarmed, black man was killed by police, I believe that police retraining is one of the most important issues affecting us today.
I am also impressed by her effort to help the homeless. Mark-Viverito wants to increase funding for homelessness prevention legal services in the next fiscal year. Over 58,000 New Yorkers, including 24,000 children, are homeless. Homelessness is a terrible and life-threatening problem. Providing homes to the homeless will increase the lives of everyone, and will ultimately reduce the amount of spending per each homeless person.

Works Cited

“Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Delivers 2015 State of the City Address.” The Council of the City of New York Office of Communications. New York, NY. February 11, 2015. Web. February 20, 2015.