6 The QUEE NS Courier • JANUARY 9, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com inauguration watch. He also vowed to create more trust between New Yorkers and the NYPD. Photos via NYC Mayor’s Office Flickr/Official Photos by New York City Mayor’s Office OPEN ARMS de Blasio greets guests as city welcomes new administration BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA ctumola@queenscourier.com Just days after taking office, Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed thousands of New Yorkers to Gracie Mansion, giving them a tour of the historic building he called “The People’s House.” “It’s been a pleasure sharing the inauguration with residents from all five boroughs,” the mayor said on Sunday, January 5, “and I can’t think of a better way to end the week, than by spending it with New Yorkers.” Guests were greeted with tunes from Make Music New York— a nonprofit group, featuring Grammy-nominated opera singer Christopher Dylan Herbert — and the New York City Housing Authority Youth Chorus. Tickets for the open house, distributed online, were gone quickly. Days earlier, as the crowd watched the ball drop in Times Square, across the East River in Brooklyn, the city’s 109th mayor was officially sworn into office. Bill de Blasio took the oath of office with his wife Chirlane McCray, daughter Chiara and son Dante by his side, in a midnight ceremony in front of his Park Slope home on January 1. “From the beginning, this has been our family together reaching out to the people of this city to make a change that we all needed. I want to thank you for having brought us to this moment,” de Blasio said, after being sworn in by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Later that day, a public inauguration for the mayor was held on the steps of City Hall. De Blasio took the oath of office once again, this time administered by former President Bill Clinton with a Bible once owned by another former president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During the Clinton administration, de Blasio served as a regional director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also managed Hillary Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate campaign. Both endorsed de Blasio for mayor in the general election. “Let me be clear: When I said I would take dead aim at the tale of two cities, I meant it. And we will do it.” de Blasio said in his inauguration speech. Letitia James, who is succeeding de Blasio as public advocate, was also sworn in at City Hall Wednesday. The councilmember is the first woman of color to hold citywide office. Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President since 2006, was sworn in as city comptroller, replacing John Liu. The city’s Police Department also officially changed hands. De Blasio publicly administered the oath of office to Bill Bratton, 66, at Police Headquarters on Thursday, January 2, after he was officially sworn in as NYPD Commissioner during a private ceremony at Police Headquarters just after midnight on January 1. This is Bratton’s second time as the city’s top cop. He previously led the NYPD from 1994 to 1996. “Who says you can’t come home again? And it is home and it’s great to be back,” Bratton said after taking Thursday’s oath. Bratton promised that policing in the city would be done constitutionally, respectfully and with more collaboration with the community, under his FOR MORE POLITICS, SE PAGE 14 AND OUR NEW POLITICAL COLUMN ON 32
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