Mayoral hopeful Michael Blake: “The City deserves more. Tomorrow Begins Today!”

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large

He has not made matching funds. Yet.
He has no major endorsements.
As of yet.
But.
To hear the former state Assemblymember Rev. Michael Blake tell it, none of those facts are obstacles to his goal of becoming the 111th mayor of New York City.
“It’s non-stop,” Blake told Our Time Press of his campaign. “We have definitely been putting in the work of showing people that there is a new generation of Black leadership, and I can provide.”

He says his political history and proven programs qualify him for more than cursory consideration. These include Raise the Age legislation preventing 16—and 17-year-old teens from being tried as adults, tax breaks for middle-class homeowners, and support for universal childcare.
“We pay too much, and we get back too little,” is the focus of the campaign of the Bronx-born, proud son of Jamaican immigrants.
With a reported $287,000 raised by March, he’s a serious contender. A three-term state assemblyman, he’s a moderate Democrat who worked on both Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012 and was rewarded with a job with the Obama White House.
In 2019, Blake ran for public advocate. A year later, he gambled on himself and his Bronx 79th district seat in the Assembly by running for Congress.

Blake told Our Time Press, “I am excited. I love running. I love serving.”
His trajectory, he hopes, is from the state house to the White House to City Hall.
“That’s the plan,” he said.

With at least a dozen Candidates – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents running for the number one job at City Hall, Blake told Our Time Press, “Two things make me stand out in this race. Number one, I am the only one who has been a part of a team to beat Donald Trump when I was the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and then I am the only person with White House, state house and local experience, and when you are trying to decide who is best prepared immediately to give you a new vision, and a plan, and explain how we pay for it, I am the one laying that out for New York City.”

How do we pay for it?
“Unpaid fees and fines. Especially parking tickets,” Blake replied.
Working folk?
“The people who have incurred those fines. If you have outstanding parking tickets or other tickets, yes, those tickets must be paid. We have to recover that. It’s two billion dollars right there.”
Asked why such a considerable amount is unpaid? He replied, “The city has not focused on it the way it needed to. And an apartment tax for individuals who are not living in New York City as their primary residence.”

And what about the office buildings that have been empty since the pandemic, even though the city now plans to convert some of them to residential units?
“Yeah, same thing. You have to levy a tax on the individual who is clearly trying not to address that issue.”

Blake said that he is hitting the ground running. “Like every moment, you need change, and we’ve had individuals who could have fixed a lot of these challenges, from helping people keep money in their pocket to affordable housing, to quality of life. I am giving people a new vision, someone who has experience–local, to the state house and the White House, that is ready to lead immediately.”

Blake served as Vice Chair at Large of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2017 to 2021, with a key focus on mobilizing young voters. He was also the Associate Director of Public Engagement in the Obama-Biden administration he focused on outreach to African Americans, ‘minorities,’ and women business owners.

Proudly working-class, in his three terms in the state Assembly, Blake focused on his advocacy on behalf of small businesses, education, and social justice, as he worked on the extension of the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program; and reforming the criminal justice system exemplified by his efforts to pass the “Raise The Age” legislation.

The campaign touted how he secured “funding for lead remediation in public housing and pushing for more diversity in the medical field through scholarships for students of color.”

Blake is proud of his My Brother’s Keeper Program, which he said has “raised more than $74 million over four years to support young people of color and improve educational outcomes.”

He has been campaigning on his major key points, including addressing the ‘True Cost of Living,’ utilizing strategies like “guaranteed income and incentives to increase wages, especially for childcare and homecare providers, while creating job opportunities by investing in small businesses and creating a fairer economic landscape for all.”

His campaign proposes that he establish a Mitchell Lama 2.0 strategy to address the housing crisis and also “increase affordable housing construction, invest in support services for unhoused New Yorkers and people in mental health crises, and remove credit scores from rent and mortgage applications.”

Blake said that he aims to “invest more in public schools, particularly those in underserved communities, expand access to higher education, and skilled trades.

Does Blake feel the media is engaged in his campaign?
“We all need more press. A lot of it is conversations just around Cuomo. And the reality is that we want people to see that there are other options, and I can give them a new person to be proud of, and showing them all the opportunities like my work with President Obama, my community work as a reverend, as an Apha, as a Prince Hall mason, as a Hundred Black Men, my success as an assemblymember, and now my vision and plan to help the city.”

How does he pivot?
“By showing the experiences and knowledge that I have learned, I can apply it to help all communities, especially Black communities, to thrive.”
How would he calm the nerves of migrants and immigrants who feel that they may be a target?
“ICE has no business in our schools, our places of worship, our community centers.”
Asked if he would work in conjunction with the White House immigration deportation policy, Rev. Blake told Our Time Press, “Absolutely not. It’s unconstitutional. Immigrants are Caribbean, African, Latino, and Asian.

“If someone is clearly in a scenario committing a crime, that is very different. However, people trying to live their lives should not be living it in fear.
“We are not going to collaborate with unconstitutional behavior, so we are just going to deny it, unless there is a judicial warrant, you don’t have to comply. If Trump says he is going to cut off your funding, then we will take funding from our reserves so that we do not align with him.”

Presenting himself as the first choice, he noted that those voters with another in mind should see him as a “strong candidate to be ranked 2nd or 3rd on ballots.”
Blake said he is “Ready to lead New York City into a new era of opportunity and justice. Tomorrow Begins Today!”

Blake has over 15 clergy endorsements, including: Brooklyn’s Rev. Craig Wright – Peoples Institutional A.M.E. Church and Rev. George Haigler – Brooklyn, and the 3 Bridges Dem Club, Emgage Action, and celebrities; Wendell Pierce, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Israel Houghton.