Bill de Blasio

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Bill de Blasio



109th Mayor of New York City
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 1, 2014
Preceded by Michael Bloomberg
3rd New York City Public Advocate
In office
January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2013
Preceded by Betsy Gotbaum
Succeeded by Letitia James
Member of the New York City Council
from the 39th District
In office
January 1, 2002 – December 31, 2009
Preceded by Stephen DiBrienza
Succeeded by Brad Lander
Personal details
Born Warren Wilhelm, Jr.
May 8, 1961 (age 52)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Chirlane McCray (1994–present)
Children Dante
Chiara
Alma mater New York University (BA)
Columbia University (MIA)
Religion Unaffiliated[1]
Signature
Website Government website
Personal website


Bill de Blasio (born Warren Wilhelm, Jr.;[2] May 8, 1961) is the 109th and current Mayor of New York City. From 2010 to 2013, he held the citywide office of New York City Public Advocate, which serves as an ombudsman between the electorate and the city government and is first in line to succeed the mayor. He formerly served as a New York City Council member representing the 39th District in Brooklyn (Borough Park, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Kensington, Park Slope, and Windsor Terrace). He was the Democratic Party nominee in the 2013 election to become Mayor of New York City. On November 5, 2013, de Blasio won the mayoral election by a landslide, receiving over 73% of the vote. He is the first Democratic mayor of the city since 1993.[3]


Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Early career
3 New York City Council (2001–2009)
3.1 Elections
3.2 Tenure
3.3 Committee assignments
4 New York City Public Advocate (2009–2013)
4.1 Election
4.2 Education
4.3 Housing
4.4 Campaign finance
5 Mayor of New York City (2014-present)
5.1 2013 Election
5.2 Tenure
6 Personal life
7 References
8 External links
Early life and education

De Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm, Jr. in Manhattan, New York, the son of Maria (née De Blasio) and Warren Wilhelm.[2] His father had German ancestry, and his maternal grandparents, Giovanni and Anna, were Italian immigrants[4][5] from the city of Sant'Agata de' Goti in the province of Benevento (where his mother's surname is spelled with a capital "D"—De Blasio).[6] He was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[7] De Blasio has stated that he was 7 years old when his father first left home and 8 years old when his parents divorced.[8] In an April 2012 interview, de Blasio described his upbringing: "[My dad] was an officer in the Pacific in the army, [and] in an extraordinary number of very, very difficult, horrible battles, including Okinawa…. And I think honestly, as we now know about veterans who return, [he] was going through physically and mentally a lot…. He was an alcoholic, and my mother and father broke up very early on in the time I came along, and I was brought up by my mother's family—that's the bottom line—the de Blasio family.[9]" In September 2013, de Blasio revealed that his father committed suicide in 1979 while suffering from incurable lung cancer.[10]

In 1983, he legally changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm, which he described in April 2012: "I started by putting the name into my diploma, and then I hyphenated it legally when I finished NYU, and then, more and more, I realized that was the right identity." By the time he appeared on the public stage in 1990, he was using the name Bill de Blasio as he explained he had been called "Bill" or "Billy" in his personal life.[9] He did not legally change over to this new name until 2002, when the discrepancy was noted during an election.[11]

De Blasio received a B.A. from New York University, majoring in metropolitan studies, a program in urban studies with courses such as Politics of Minority Groups and The Working Class Experience, and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.[12] He is a 1981 Harry S. Truman Scholar.[13]
Early career

De Blasio's first job was part of the Urban Fellows Program for the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice in 1984.[14][15] In 1987, shortly after completing graduate school at Columbia University, de Blasio was hired to work as a political organizer by the Quixote Center in Maryland. In 1988, de Blasio traveled with the Quixote Center to Nicaragua for 10 days to help distribute food and medicine during the Nicaraguan Revolution. De Blasio was an ardent supporter of the ruling Sandinista government, which was at that time opposed by the Reagan administration.[15]

After returning from Nicaragua, de Blasio moved to New York City where he worked for a nonprofit organization focused on improving health care in Central America.[15] De Blasio continued to support the Sandinistas in his spare time, joining a group called the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, which held meetings and fundraisers for the Sandinista political party.[15] De Blasio's introduction to City politics came during David Dinkins' 1989 mayoral campaign, for which he was a volunteer coordinator.[16] Following the campaign, de Blasio served as an aide in City Hall.[17]

In 1997, he was appointed to serve as the Regional Director for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for New York and New Jersey under the administration of President Bill Clinton. As the tri-state region’s highest-ranking HUD official, de Blasio led a small executive staff and took part in outreach to residents of substandard housing.[18][19] In 1999, he was elected a member of Community School Board 15.[20] He was tapped to serve as campaign manager for Hillary Rodham Clinton's successful United States Senate bid in 2000.[20]

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