October 1, 2014[Video][Applause]Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, you just watched history being made, because this extraordinary development for our city, this is just on live now. You just saw the launch of something that is going to change the city for the better. It""s going to improve and strengthen the tech sector. It""s going to be a real change moment. And as of this moment, Digital.NYC is live, open for business, available to all, and it""ll be a huge difference maker for our city.I want to welcome everyone to Dumbo Heights, to this extraordinary facility. This is a key part of their growing tech ecosystem, and this building is an example of the growth we""re experiencing, the excitement, the possibilities – not only here in Dumbo Heights, here in Brooklyn, but here in the entire city, all five boroughs. And we said from the beginning, we intend to help this sector become truly a five-borough sector, and we""re well on our way.This building is an extraordinary success story. I want to thank the owner, and our host, Jared Kushner, who""s been a great friend and a contributor in so many ways to the good of New York City. This building is something that really is going to be a difference-maker. We already have major companies like Etsy, and WeWork signing leases here. This is going to be one of the cutting edge developments in this city for the tech community.A lot of people are here because they""re excited about what Digital.NYC means, about what the growth of this community means in this city, and a lot of the people who are truly excited, and putting time and energy in, are our elected officials. I want to welcome our borough president of the ever more tech-centered borough of Brooklyn, Eric Adams, thank you so much.[Applause]I hope everyone appreciates that Eric has one of the best jobs in the United States of America, because he personifies Brooklyn in all its glory, and Brooklyn continues to get better and better all the time. I want to welcome one of our council members who’s been particularly focused on tech issues in the growth of the tech community, but also how tech can improve transparency and effectiveness in government. I want to welcome Council Member Ben Kallos.[Applause]And a newly-minted elected official, in the 52nd Assembly District – in which we are this very moment, correct, Jo Anne? – just elected to the New York State Assembly, and she’s going to be a great member of the Assembly representing this part of Brooklyn – Jo Anne Simon.[Applause]Our administration has so many people who care deeply about developing this community and deepening the connection between the tech community and government. You’ll hear from a few of them, but I want to mention some others who are here, and are going to play leading roles. Obviously, we are thrilled that for the first time New York City has a chief technology officer and that is Minerva Tantoco. Minerva, welcome.[Applause]It’s really wonderful if you’re initiating a brand new concept, a brand new role, you need someone with extraordinary ability and energy, and Minerva will blow you away with her vision and energy. So, Minerva we are so happy that you’ve taken on this role. My counsel Maya Wiley, who’s been a leading force in the administration on equity issues related to tech, on broadband access for all, in every neighborhood, in all five boroughs. I want to thank Maya Wiley for her tremendous efforts.[Applause]So, you’ve seen the beginning of Digital.NYC. You’ve seen, truly, a moment in history, something that’s going to change this city. We know that, as we are already, we’re one of the world’s fastest growing tech hubs. There are so many organic reasons for that. We have the talent. We have the creativity and a sense of innovation in the DNA of this city. We have great universities, great hospitals; we have the – we are the global center of communications, the global center of finance; corporate entities of every kind represented here. There are so many reasons why we are a natural and strengthening tech hub. That happened largely due to the sense of innovation and entrepreneurship and energy and risk taking of so many people in this room in the sector, who believe that New York could be a great location for their businesses, and for the growth of the community. Government played an important role. And I credit the previous administration of this city, the administration of Michael Bloomberg, for their great efforts to support the tech industry. And we want to build on those efforts because we have a lot more to do.This industry can grow a lot more in this city. It can be even more intrinsic to the future of the city. Again, it has to be more of a five-borough industry. We’re thrilled at the deepening presence here in Brooklyn. It has to be an industry that we work with to open up opportunity for all – particularly, New Yorkers who come out of our public school system.And I see tremendous possibility here, just based on what we’ve done before. But now, with Digital.NYC, we have a tool that we’ve never had before. And this is the first of its kind anywhere in the world – a public-private partnership to really bring all of the aspects of the industry together to help people navigate, to speed up their efforts, to find each other, work together, network, create solutions, create partnerships. When you look on this site – and you’ll see the demonstration in a moment – I was gratified to see that this is not a site that uses mystical and complex language. There are straightforward phrases like “Get Funding” – something we can all appreciate. Or, here’s my personal favorite – “Find A Job.” [Laughs] To everyone who was part of creating Digital.NYC, I give them extra credit for accessibility and clarity of language.This is going to be a main street for the tech community. It’s going to be a crossroads where people come together and find each other easier – in an easier and quicker way. And that’s going to open up tremendous potential for an even faster growth of this community, here in New York City.So, we know why we are strong organically. But we never rest on our laurels. We have to constantly do better at building this community, and Digital.NYC is going to play a crucial role. No one in the world has managed to do something like this before. It does not shock me that some people in this room took the initiative and made it happen. It does not shock me that those people happen to be in New York City, because we are a place that innovates, traditionally, ahead of much of the rest of the world and we’re very proud.If you want to think of this in very human terms, Digital.NYC is the ultimate tech matchmaker – helping someone who’s got the talent but needs the job find a job; helping someone who is looking for talent, a company looking for talent, find the right talent; helping an investor who wants to find the right place to invest, or a company that needs an investor, needs an angel, find that angel. It all can happen here in real-time and help us grow ever more quickly. Digital.NYC will be a unified search portal and database. It’ll have profiles of virtually every New York City tech company – virtually every New York City tech investor. It’ll have job listings. It’ll have news about the city’s tech economy, and also an interactive event calendar, since this is a community that gathers in so many ways to share ideas, to share innovations, to look for new partnerships. We’ll make it easier for people to find all of that.Now, this sector is creating jobs at an extraordinary level – good paying jobs, quality jobs, the kind we need more of in New York City – and doing it in all five boroughs. With– I think, fundamentally – with Digital. NYC, that process will improve and will [inaudible]. Again, why did it work? Because of an extraordinary sense of partnership – a public-private partnership of the best kind, private sector and government coming together saying we had a possibility of doing better here, we have something we needed to break through, something we needed to amplify. How do we find a way to do it? And there was a natural partnership and a tremendously successful one. I want you to hear from the people who get the credit from this innovation – how this was put together and what it means for our city. And first, from the public side of the equation, someone who works every day to secure the position of New York City as one of the great global centers for technology and innovation – the President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation Kyle Kimball.[Applause]Kyle Kimball: Great, so this is a really exciting time. My name is Kyle Kimball from the New York City Economic Development Corporation. And under the leadership of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Deputy Mayor Glenn, we spend every day strengthening the engines of New York City’s economy globally, while really working to connect all New Yorkers to economic opportunity. And while we were very proud to be an over trillion dollar economy, and a global capital of many industries in terms of fashion, finance, media, as the mayor mentioned, and now tech – it’s not lost on us that we are in a day-to-day global competition for talent and that we cannot rest on our laurels.And tech is vital to diversification of this city’s economy – producing 300,000 jobs, $125 billion of annual output, $50 billion in wages, 45,000 jobs alone in the last 10 years added – and these are high-quality, good paying jobs. And in addition to capital, we’ve always thought that if you build it right, and compete for the talent, the capital will follow. And that’s really being seen in the venture capital community, with 116 deals in Q4/14 alone, resulting in one billion of EC funding, which is an 87 percent increase over the similar period over the last year.So, our role at EDC is really to cultivate the conditions the conditions where ideas become companies, those companies become jobs for all New Yorkers, but we also have to make sure, in partnership with our city partners, that we have a workforce that is trained for the jobs that we’re working so hard to create. And we work with a tech community to fill in the gaps that we see in the ecosystem. We needed an engineering talent, so we focused on applied sciences. We needed affordable real estate space, so we have launched a system of 15 incubators. We thought about how to leverage public data, so we had the BigApps competition.But as the mayor said, we have a lot more to do. So thinking about talent, we have the GenTech pipeline for middle school students. We’ve hired Kristen Titus from Girls Who Code, to help us think about through the tech talent, and cultivate the tech talent pipeline. We’re thinking about connectivity and the equity of connectivity around the five boroughs. So as the mayor mentioned, Maya Wiley thinking every day about how to make this a more equitable city in terms of its creativity and its WiFi corridors. But also, how can New York City be a tech innovator itself? How can we walk the walk? And the answer to that is of course Minerva Tantoco, our first chief technology officer.Our New York City ecosystem is unmatched in its scale and scope, and its diversity and creativity – which in many ways is the greatest strength. We are the global capital like no other. And this tech ecosystem that’s here really reflects the unique character of New York City. You can be in tech and feel the influence of people who have nothing to do with tech. You can be a tech person and be disrupted by people who don’t understand technology. But this strength is also a challenge. And we’ve heard that from the community.We saw the need to bring this community together to find the companies, the capital, the talent, the resources, to bring light to all the connectivity – connective tissue that actually exists in this city, as the deputy mayor mentioned in the video – all with the goal of making the tech community greater than the sum of its parts. And this administration saw the need to build a front door for all New Yorkers to access the New York City tech community. And that’s why we’re so excited today to launch Digital.NYC – really a one-stop shop, a front door for everything start-up related – for the tech entrepreneur seeking incubator space, early-stage company ready to raise their first round of capital, mature company expanding its job base or posting a job, a middle school student looking for a coding class, or to become more ready for the next class in their school, or a community-based organization seeking support to redesign a website or to grow their presence.So in capturing all of these diverse elements, our tech ecosystem, and putting in place in one easy, accessible place, we’re very excited about this public-private partnership between EDC and Gust and IBM that brought us here today to ensure that whatever happens next in New York City tech, happens right here in New York City.I want to thank Deputy Mayor Glen in particular, for her challenging us to think of ways we can disrupt ourselves, and think differently about this industry and to keep up the momentum – of course, our partners at Gust and IBM for working with you; the companies and civic organizations that gave us the feedback and the process at [inaudible], namely Jessica Lawrence at Tech Meetup, who really inspired us; really, the talented city and EDC team, Kat Lau, [inaudible]; as well as our city partners, Jeff Merritt and Jess Singleton, who have been great partners in making today possible. And all of the companies, investors, and educators, and organizations that make our tech ecosystem what it is today – I thank you in advance for the ways you’re going to interact with Digital.NYC and make it a fresh and relevant website. Thank you very much.[Applause]Mayor: So that was the public side of the equation. I want you to hear now from the private side of the equation – this extraordinary partnership. And it makes sense that David S. Rose was a driving force here because he has helped so many people in this sector, in this city, to find the funding they need, help them pitch their ideas. And he’s lived it already. He’s lived the process of helping this community grow, company by company. In fact, he was so moved by the process, he wrote a book, Angel Investing, to give guidance to investors and how to engage start-ups and help them to grow. So, he’s walked the walk in every way and was a natural partner for us in figuring out how to make Digital.NYC the most powerful platform it could be. I’d like to welcome the CEO of Gust – he will also provide us with a wonderful demonstration of this extraordinary new development – David S. Rose.[Applause][David Rose speaks]Mayor: That was a smoking hot presentation. I""m impressed by your powers of persuasion. I think we could say about you the classic American phrase "He could talk a dog off a meat truck." [Laughter] Very compelling, thank you and thank you for the incredible creativity and energy that went into this, because – I just want to say, it""s interesting, in my journeys over the last couple of years, talking to people who were either a part of the tech community, or wanted to be more deeply a part of the tech community – one of the things I constantly heard was that there was a vivid intimidation factor about New York City – big and complicated place, especially if you were coming from outside. But if we could demystify, we could simplify, the whole world would want to be here. And I think Digital.NYC is doing that as we speak. Let""s thank him for all he""s doing. [Applause]Another great thing about Digital.NYC is it amplifies the point, that again, we want it to be a five-borough industry, we want to reach into neighborhoods all over this city, we want it to benefit people of all walks of life in all neighborhoods. And that means also having a portal where community-based organizations can play a key role connecting with the community, connecting with investors, connecting folks looking for a job to where the jobs are or the training is. That community component has been area where we needed a lot more progress, and Digital. NYC gives us a great opportunity to do that. And to speak to that point, a woman who has been focused throughout her career in empowering the community she grew up in, in the South Bronx. She’s focused particularly lately on getting folks from the community to enter the tech ecosystem. Majora Carter started Start-Up Box South Bronx –[Cheers]– there appears to be a contingent here from Start-Up Box South Bronx – to bring together community members, and students, and start-ups to learn from each other, connect to each other, work together, inspire each other. And that’s a hugely important model for the whole city. I’d like to welcome, Majora Carter.[Majora Carter speaks]Mayor: You’re hearing a tremendous spirit of partnership. One of my previous employers used to borrow from an African proverb line, It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to build this economy. It takes a village to provide economic opportunity to all. It takes a village to build the tech community to all it can be. And this public-private partnership is exemplary of that. We’ve got tremendous partnership from IBM in this effort. And Digital.NYC was developed using IBM’s cutting-edge Bluemix open cloud platform. So, you’re going to see again and again in this process, private sector, government, non-profit, community, all working together for a common goal. I want to introduce Robert LeBlanc of IBM. And I want to say, Robert, you have one of the most interesting titles of anyone I’ve introduced ever. Robert LeBlanc is the IBM Senior Vice President – that’s kind of mainstream – the Senior Vice President for the Software and Clouds Solutions Group. I think the Clouds Solutions Group is a great – I just love that vision. Please solve my cloud for me. Robert LeBlanc, ladies and gentlemen.[Robert LeBlanc speaks]Mayor: And Robert, I want to thank everyone at IBM. I think you’re exactly right. P-Tech has been an extraordinary step for our city as well in terms of education. And there’s going to be a lot more like it coming because of the work you and others at IBM did to help us innovate a great new model. So, thank you deeply for your commitment.You know, Robert made a key point from a business point of view. Well, why be here? Because the brains are here. The talent’s here. The innovation is here. The creativity is here. We love and respect our brothers and sisters in California. But I note, that if you have to go from a meeting in San Francisco to a meeting in Mountainview or drive over to Palo Alto or San Jose – as opposed to here in Dumbo Heights – you walk across the aisle of the building, walk across the hallway to find the best talent of your generation, walk down the street, cross the street, go to the café. We have an extraordinary concentration of talent. But people can find each other so humanly, so immediately and now with Digital.NYC, even faster and better. I think that’s going to be the great competitive advantage of this city. So, everyone is here and everyone can connect so powerfully.I mentioned before, a lot of the best is happening in Brooklyn. I love all five boroughs, but I come from Brooklyn. A lot of the best is happening in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a place that literally all over the world, people want to come to, want to be a part of, want to contribute to. I traveled to Italy back in July, and when I said I was from Brooklyn, people’s faces lit up. I know you’ve had the experience all around the world. Well, again, the man who gets to lead all of Brooklyn and has been a tremendous support in all of the efforts to build this community but also to make sure it’s a community that reaches deep into the borough and creates opportunity for all, is our borough president, Eric Adams.[Borough President Eric Adams speaks]Mayor: I""ll conclude with one thought. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, said something very powerful. He said "The web, as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is somewhat bigger than the past." That""s a powerful quote, and it""s powerful of the capacity of the internet – for all of us, it""s powerful regarding the role that tech plays in our lives, and will play in the future. It""s certainly a powerful commentary that could be applied to the tech community here in New York City. Before this day, the future of the tech community here was bright. Because of Digital.NYC, the future of this community is immeasurably brighter, and this is a great day for this city. So, with that, we will allow our friends in the media – go ahead? Frankie Martinez-Blanco: [inaudible]Mayor: They""re right there. Yes, I see them. [Laughter] They""re never far away, Frankie. We will – our friends in the media, first ask questions on topic, and then off topic. On topic. Come join us. Yes. Join the firing line with me. You can also take the off-topic questions, David. That would be great. I""d appreciate that. Can we have, like, guests take the off-topic questions each day? Okay, on topic, yes. Question: [inaudible]David Rose: This has been an EDC project [inaudible] both administrations. So, this has been in the works at varying levels for a number of years. The city has had a long history of trying to help support the tech community here, with multiple attempts, and then the idea from the private sector getting together –which is a very cohesive world here in New York – was saying we all this data and all this information, can we work with the city in a way that we""ll come up with something that is live and innovative. And so then, working with the city, with EDC, in the last administration, and then picking up real steam with real support from this administration, and then bringing IBM in, and all working together – this was a true partnership. Question: [inaudible]Kyle Kimball: So, the RFP that was done originally was done in 2012, but the process that ended up in the last administration was a completely different website, which was the Made in New York website, that came out of the Mayor""s Office of Media and Entertainment. So, in many ways, the idea of having a more centralized site has been around for a long time. What""s different about this is that this City Hall really challenged us to be – to create a website that was a lot more inclusive, that had more to do with just not where companies are located, but where the jobs are, how to access those jobs, how to get trained for those jobs, how to get training, how to find capital. But then also, I think the biggest innovation in this particular piece is that the voices – making sure that the website brings in voices from all the communities in terms of the five-borough approach, that the website looks like New York City, in terms of the people on the website. So, the idea of having a centralized website has been around for a long time, but this particular website – in terms of what it looks like, the information it provides, and how it""s delivered to New York City residents – is fundamentally something that started in January. Mayor: Okay, we""re going to take, again, media questions on topic, and then we""ll go to off-topic.Question: Besides the traffic [inaudible] other reasons [inaudible]?Mayor: I""ll start, and Kyle, feel free, or anyone else who wants to join in. We respect California greatly. We just have some attributes that I think are superior for where this community is going. The traffic is not the issue alone, meaning I think there""s a lack of proximity that means a lot of drag, a lot of time and energy lost, and here again, people can connect with this, effortlessly, and the physicality is just so much better, so much more natural and organic, how people connect with each other. But it""s also what I said a little earlier on – the talent that""s here. The history of New York City is particular –a global center for talent, innovation, for generations, a global center of creativity. We are synonymous with creativity in every sense – in business, in culture. And so, if you have a wellspring of talent, innovation, creativity that""s natural, that""s historic, that""s organic – you have some of the greatest universities in the world, all in close proximity to each other. You have some of the greatest hospital and health care facilities in the world, all in close proximity. You have literally the center of global communications; the center of global finance; the center of global government, in terms of the United Nations; the presence of every business sector. We – as New Yorkers, we sometimes forget, because we""re so used to everything being around us, but there""s no major corporation on earth that doesn""t have a presence here, effectively speaking. So, for entrepreneurs, that combination – I can""t think of anything more propitious. If they""re looking for funding, if they""re looking for opportunity, if they""re looking for clients – it""s all so accessible. And I think it was only a matter of time before that all gelled, and we reached that critical mass. I think it""s happening now faster and faster. This is a sector that""s going to grow a lot more in this city, and I think this is going to be a big part of it. Anything to add?Kyle Kimball: Yeah, the only thing – I think that""s right, and the only thing I would add is that when I talk to people who have started companies here, or when we get feedback about what is working well here, or what needs to change – the biggest point of feedback, I think, that I have taken from that over the years, is that you can work so hard in your garage, or starting up a company, and when you""re done, at the end of the day, the good news, you""re in New York City and you are [Laughter] – you are surrounded by people who have nothing to do with anything that you were doing, that you can be surrounded by people who have nothing to do with the technology. You can be disrupted, your thoughts, your inspiration can be driven by people who are not thinking about the things that you""re thinking about. And so, I think it""s holistically the well-roundedness of New York City, in terms of culture, innovation –Mayor: Well said.[Applause]Kyle Kimball: I""ll stop there. David Rose: And to bring it back completely on topic, because as we""ve said, Digital.NYC is where you can find everything about New York City – you can actually indeed find a specific answer to your question right over here –[Laughter] [Commotion]How do you decide between San Francisco and New York as a place to start your tech startup? Right there.Mayor: It literally says, "How do you decide between New York and San Francisco?"[Laughter]I mean, I’ve got to say –[Applause]David, you""re my new communications director, because this is – this is like, if you""re sitting there, you""re just musing on that question, you go – and it speaks to you. It""s the exact question you wanted to ask. On topic. On topic. Going once. Where? Where? Where? Ah. There. Question: There""s a variety of startups and other companies that have business models built around providing some of this information, one way or the other. Did it come up [inaudible] about whether you""re undercutting some of the members of this community by adding such an expansive website?David Rose: The question was, there are other companies, commercial companies, that do some or all of these things – or some of these things. Nobody does all of these things – and was the – taken into account when we did this, and the answer is absolutely yes. And this is actually non-competitive with anybody. The other ones who were in the space are all the partners, so you""re looking in terms of classes – CourseHorse, which has aggregated, all the courses in New York City – it""s supplying data here. PivotDesk, which aggregates all the workspaces, is supplying data here. AlleyWatch, which is the news about the Alley, is incorporated here. There are links here to things like Gary""s Guide, which is a calendar on curated works from Charlie O""Donnell and Startup Digest. So absolutely, this is non-competitive, this was designed specifically to not step on anybody""s toes, but instead incorporate them and be greater than the sum of the individual parts. Question: [inaudible]David Rose: No, this is not, this is not – they""re trafficked back and forth. So, for example if CourseHorse supplies a course listing here, it""s listed here, you can find it here, and then you go back to them. So, this actually works cooperatively with the entire tech industry. This – as I said – this is a remarkable public-private partnership, and it really works.Mayor: I""m tempted to play the song "Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof to illustrate that the great power here is to provide that connection point. And I think, as David said, people will follow through with each other, and all of these individual companies will benefit in the process, but the notion is to make it easier for each to find each other. On topic, on topic, going once. On topic. Rich.Question: How much traffic do you project [inaudible] and is anybody making money on it?David Rose: Sure. In terms of traffic – we""ll see. Hopefully, millions of people will come in starting as of an hour and a half ago. But we don""t know yet. So, the answer is, we – logically, based on similar websites – you""re looking at millions of page views, and maybe even more than that. So, the city and IBM are actively supporting it, so you will see a whole campaign, you will see bus stop shelter ads, you""ll see lamp post banners, you""ll see TaxiTV videos – you""ll see a bunch of things in support of bringing everybody to the site.Kyle Kimball: But just to be clear, this is not financially driven. There are no financial tractions that will take place on the website. You won""t be able to pay to have your job listed higher. There will be no banner ads. So, this is not about the finances, this is about purely information getting out the door.Mayor: On topic, on topic, on topic, going once – wait, where? Why are you guys seeing people I can""t see? I need a portal that will show me where the question is coming from.Question: Given the demographics of New York City, is there any plan to include Spanish?Mayor: Good question.David Rose: The answer is yes. And that was Ana Roca-Castro, the head of Latinos in Social Media. So, the answer is yes, absolutely. Right now, as an interim launch, there is a translate button so you can translate the site literally on the site, but we absolutely plan to add multilingual support.Kyle Kimball: And just to add to that, it""s being launched as a minimally-viable product, and so, throughout the course of its life, we are really looking for ways to improve the site, to get feedback, so it""s really being launched today as an MVB – MVP, but it""s something that we""ll grow over time, and diversify. There""s one.Mayor: Thank you, you""re already ahead of me to the next one. Go ahead.Question: [inaudible] provide feedback about the website going forward [inaudible]?David Rose: There are links on the site itself. Go to the About page, and there""s comments, there""s the links to the editor, there are links to partners, if you want to join as a partner. The links are right there.Mayor: On topic. Where – someone""s going to be behind me, asking the next question. On topic. On topic. Going once. Going twice. Off topic….Way in the back.Question: Mayor, this is about the five-year-old who was handcuffed in his Bronx school. What is the city""s official policy on restraining students in school for bad behavior, and generally are you in favor of using handcuffs on a five-year-old for acting out.Mayor: I""m a parent. Chiara and Dante went to public school, and obviously I am tremendously sensitive to the fact that we want to treat our kids with great care. There are some really tough situations, but we want maximum care, maximum flexibility, maximum restraint, when it comes to how we treat our youngest kids, in particular. The policy that we inherited, we""re not satisfied with. A new policy will be announced quite soon, clarifying the kind of restraint we expect in these situations. We clearly want to have it be a very rare situation where a child needs to be restrained in the manner of this incident. I don""t have all the facts on the incident, so I can""t speak to all the details, but from what I have heard, this would be a rarity under our new policy. There may be some very exceptional moments when something like this is necessary, but our goal is make it very, very rare.Question: [inaudible]Mayor: Yeah, we had a meeting for last night. Something came up in terms of the work that he does, which is not a shocking development – he has a lot on his plate. And we agreed that it would happen in the next few days.Question: The comptroller this morning raised [inaudible] living wage bill, and it had to do with politics [inaudible]?Mayor: No. Look, the bottom line here is, we""ve had tremendous unity with the City Council on this issue. We had a lot of communication with the council leadership on where we needed to go. Obviously, this was a vision I announced back in February in the State of the City Address. So, it""s been a well-known fact for months that we intended to do this, but as I said yesterday, we found, along the way, ways to reach farther and improve the wage levels for what will be ultimately as many as 18,000 New York City families. So, this was the right thing to do, and it needed to take immediate effect, and the executive order allowed us to literally have – by the stroke of a pen – a new policy that can now be used by Kyle, and Alicia Glen, and the team that puts together economic development deals, to ensure that more of our workers will be better paid. The bottom line is that we""re very cognizant of the different roles that each agency plays, and under the charter and under the executive order, the comptroller""s office will investigate complaints related to any violations of the executive order, and we""ll respond to the complaints in the first instance – but the Department of Consumer Affairs has the enforcement capacity. It is an organization that literally reaches out across the city every day on a variety of issues, and has the enforcement capacity to act on any complaints, and that""s the natural division of labor.Question: There was a report today that gave New York City a D on performance MWBE contracting [inaudible]?Mayor: It""s another example of taking primarily older data, and assessing it, and I would agree that the past performance was unacceptable, but I think if you""re talking about January 1st to present, you see the beginning of a new approach. We have 641 MWBE firms that have been certified in the first nine months of the year. That""s a much faster pace than before. You""re going to see a lot more of that happening. Maria Torres, our Small Business Services commissioner is particularly devoted to this mission, and plays a crucial role in that certification process. Maya Wiley, my counsel, is leading our overall effort to update and strengthen our MWBE policy. So, we are very confident you""re going to see a sea change when it comes to the approach to MWBE compared to not just the previous administration – the previous two administrations. Question: Mr. Mayor, [inaudible] the previous two questions about –Mayor: All right, one sec. I just want everyone in the room to help me out with your conversations for a few minutes, because I""m having a little trouble hearing our friends in the press. So, just give us a few minutes so we can get through this. Go ahead.Question: Just to follow up on those previous two questions about the comptroller""s words today – I""m just wondering, kind of, what do you think about your relationship with the comptroller, you know, if you could describe that, this is not the first time that he""s been critical of something that you attempted to roll out –Mayor: This is never about personalities. We have a job to do. We have to ensure more of our people get better wages and benefits. I think that is about as clear a message that I put forward last year and this, as any – we have a way to do it. We""re doing it. I don""t worry about personalities. I don""t worry about political dynamics. I just want to get something done, and we""ve done it in a way that was the fastest, most effective way. Phil: One or two more, guys.Question: I was wondering if you""d had a chance to visit the newly opened third phase of the High Line, and if not, do you have plans to go before the weather gets cold.Mayor: I have not. I look forward to it. I don""t have an immediate plan, but I""m sure I will.Question: Are you a fan of the park? Have you visited before?Mayor: I have not visited. I am a fan of it. I think it""s done a lot of good for the city, but I haven""t visited.Phil: Last call, guys.Mayor: Rich.Question: [inaudible]Mayor: Second one – it""s disgusting. This is someone who clearly should not have been a teacher, and I guarantee you he will never teach in a classroom again. And it""s absolutely unacceptable, and he will suffer plenty of consequences for it. On the question of the grading system, we said all last year, and into this – that the previous system was arbitrary, ineffective, misleading. Parents hate it. I can tell you, as a public school parent myself, looking at schools in my neighborhood and how they were graded and how it varied from year to year was incomprehensible, misleading, unhelpful, often really unhelpful to schools that were making great progress, but somehow, to the mysterious algorithm that was being used, were portrayed as failing schools. So, we want a system that allows our parents and our community members to understand what""s going on in this school, to multiple measures. Again, this all goes back to a sea change in how we""re approaching education. And you""re going to hear a lot from the chancellor on that. You""re going to hear a lot from me. We do not believe in over-reliance on high-stakes testing. And when you break this down, you had a high-stakes-testing-based system that produced very arbitrary grades that misled parents. We instead are going to use multiple measures. We""re starting already this year, but you""re going to see a lot more change in the next year or two. We""re really going to use multiple measures, which leading educators across the country acknowledge are the only way to get a true imprint of what""s happening. The Secretary of Education of the United States has said that too. It""s the only way to truly understand what""s happening. We use multiple measures to give parents a full view of the school – its strengths, its weaknesses, where it""s making progress, where it""s not making enough progress, so they can actually make choices about their child""s education. They deserve better, clearer information, and you""re going to see, in the coming days, a much better system for actually helping our citizens to know what""s happening in our schools.Phil: Thank you guys.Mayor: Thanks, guys.