The city will invest $136 million to launch an industrial campus in Brooklyn that would produce food, fashion, TV shows and films, Mayor de Blasio announced in State of the City speech Monday.
In the address at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, de Blasio was set to provide a list of investments and progressive policies that he intended to pursue with his re-election approaching.
Among the plans previewed by the mayor’s office was the Sunset Park industrial campus to be completed by 2020.
Officials said it would produce 1,500 jobs as part of a wider commitment by the de Blasio administration to create 40,000 jobs over the next four years.
“The State of the City address takes direct aim at the city’s affordability challenge, with a focus on preserving and creating affordable housing and good-paying jobs in sectors of the future economy,” said City Hall press secretary Eric Phillips.
Other initiatives announced in recent weeks included providing low-income tenants with lawyers for eviction cases; pushing Albany to pass a so-called “mansion tax” of 2.5 percent on home sales that top $2 million; and earmarking 10,000 additional units in the mayor’s 2014 affordable-housing plan for those earning less than $40,000.
A preview of the annual address provided to the media made no mention of the issues that have bedeviled the administration over the past year — including damning reports of failings at the Administration for Children’s Services, and a record-high homeless population at the city’s shelters that was at 60,111 as of Sunday.
The mayor has been fending off questions for months about probes of his fund-raising practices by the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office and the Manhattan district attorney — and recently raised new questions by announcing that he would create a defense fund to pay for his lawyers.
Hizzoner said on Friday that he hasn’t paid any bills to the criminal-defense lawyer representing him — Barry Berke, of Kramer, Levin — even as the firm lobbies on a number of projects that require city input.
“The mayor is entitled to criminal-defense counsel, but he needs to live up to his promises of a transparent administration and immediately disclose the terms and amounts involved,” state Republican Chairman Ed Cox said Monday.
The preview also didn’t list the items de Blasio has been touting as major wins for the city — including the expansion of universal pre-kindergarten.
Hizzoner is currently facing no big-name challengers to his re-election, but a number of contenders have thrown their hats in the ring — including Republican real-estate mogul Paul Massey, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) and former City Councilman Sal Albanese.
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