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There are thousands of places to get your morning cup of coffee in New York City, from sidewalk carts to the most elegant of cafes. But there’s probably one place you visit day after day, and let’s face it, it’s probably not just for the coffee – it’s the people who serve it. They recognize you, remember your order, and give you that “Good morning” nod. These folks are doing more than just serving you coffee … they’re taking care of you. That’s a lot like the people working at New York’s city agencies, who work all around us to make every part of your family’s daily life safer and more affordable!
NYC city agencies are taking care of us in our streets: In the last four years, nearly 25,000 illegal guns have been removed from our streets, 125,000 “ghost cars,” illegal mopeds, scooters, and all-terrain vehicles have been seized, and a new 15-mph speed limit for e-bikes was introduced to keep our record number of new protected bike lanes safe for both riders and pedestrians. These strategies have paid off: Shootings have plummeted by 55 percent, shooting incidents and shooting victims are at the lowest levels in the city’s recorded history for the first 11 months of the year, and serious bicycle accidents and traffic fatalities are all down by double digits year-to-date.
In our schools: New York City public school students now have evidence-based reading and math instruction with the “NYC Reads” and “NYC Solves” programs, which contributed to greatly increased reading and math scores for public school students in the 2024-2025 school year. More students can take advantage of these programs than ever before, as 33,000 new school seats have been established, including the most new seats in two decades in the last year alone! The new Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning makes certain that students with disabilities and multilingual learners are well prepared for the 21st century, and the historic “After-School for All” program is well on the way to offering free after-school programming to 184,000 young people in kindergarten through eighth grade – the first-ever comprehensive plan for universal after-school in New York City.
In our neighborhoods: cleaner streets are everywhere, thanks to New York City’s “Trash Revolution” resulting in 70 percent of trash bags being moved into container bins, with almost 11 billion pounds of trash taken off city streets over the last 12 months alone, resulting in rat sightings reported to 311 declining for 12 straight months. Sidewalks are also brighter due to a historic “Get Sheds Down” initiative, responsible for the removal of over 425 longstanding sidewalk sheds and unsightly scaffolding from buildings, and over $1.2 billion has been invested into anti-flooding efforts, with over 2,900 rain gardens and infiltration basins constructed on city sidewalks.
In our daily lives: In 2023, “HealthyNYC” was launched as an ambitious whole-of-government campaign meant to increase New Yorkers’ average life expectancy to 83 years by 2030. But, in 2025, the city announced that they had surpassed that goal, five years ahead of schedule. Over 10,000 teens have benefited from “NYC Teenspace,” a free tele-mental health service, and New York City has pursued litigation over concerns for our children’s exposure to e-vapes and the addictive nature of social media.
In the workplace: Since 2022, New York has shattered the record for the most jobs in city history 12 times, with nearly 5 million jobs across the five boroughs today, and the unemployment raterate unemployment down by nearly 40 percent. Over $350 million in financing has been dedicated for small-business owners, including $85 million through the Small Business Opportunity Fund, contributing to the current record high number of small businesses in city history. Jobs are more secure, with a first-of-its-kind minimum hourly pay rate for app-based delivery workers, pay and benefits secured with union contracts for nearly 99 percent of city workers, and over $24 billion awarded to minority- and-women-owned businesses (M/WBE). To give more young people good-paying summer jobs, the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program has been expanded to a record 100,000 slots per year. And at the end of the day, more of us will return to a home after a day of work as the passage of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” –– the most pro-housing legislation in city history –– will create over 80,000 new homes and invests $5 billion in housing and infrastructure.
Nearly every aspect of your life in New York City is enhanced and supported by the over 300,000 of your neighbors that work at city agencies. The combined efforts of this network of innovative and dedicated public servants are focused on ensuring your safety, offering support for students and entrepreneurs, creating business and employment opportunity, clearing paths for you to reach your full potential, and providing peace of mind to every New Yorker, with the goal of making New York City the best place to live and raise your family. New York’s city agencies make this city work, and are always delivering for you, every day, everywhere.
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