In recognition and celebration of New York’s great diversity, I include here additional web pages in Chinese, French Creole, Russian and Korean, which after Spanish are the largest language groups among New Americans, who have arrived in our City and State in recent years. Along with so many other New Americans, who enrich our culture and strengthen our economy, you have made tremendous contributions to our City and State and these deserve to be recognized.
On the pages below, I include a summary of my views on the issues that I believe are important, as well as information about myself and my background. I thank you for visiting my website and look forward to working closely with you and your community in the coming years, as you pursue the American Dream, and all of us work together to make New York a better and more prosperous place to live and raise our families.
My fellow New Yorkers,
Here in your native language, I offer a summary of my views on the issues of the day, while also letting you know a little bit more about who I am and what my qualifications are. As I mention elsewhere on this website, I believe that we should be guided by five basic principles in our effort to create what I call a New New York.
The first of these principles is freedom, economic and political, because freedom is what creates prosperity, and freedom is what allows people to change themselves and change the world around them. As a former foreign correspondent for CBS news, and someone who has travelled to more than 100 countries, I have seen the difference that freedom makes.
Closely related to freedom is opportunity, which I see as the second, key principle. Every person in our State, whatever their background, must have the right to rise as far as his or her ability will take them.
Economic growth is the third, key principle. In a competitive world, those who do not move forward, fall back. Government must pursue pro-growth economic policies. There is no alternative.
A fourth key principle is quality of life. I am convinced that much of what we have in life is what we share. We must keep our streets safe. Parks and clean neighborhoods, an environment to inspire us, all of these are essential.
And finally, educational excellence is a fifth, key principle. We must continue to invest in education at all levels of our society. As we do so, we also must demand accountability. I am a firm believer in standards. If you set them high, people will meet them. If you set them low, people will meet those too. Excellence must be our educational North Star.
In the many positions, where I have the privilege to serve our great Governor, George E. Pataki, I have sought to apply these principles. As Senior Vice President for Economic Revitalization at the Empire State Development Corporation, I pushed hard to change the way we pursue economic redevelopment, insisting that we bring for-profit development into poor and underserved neighborhoods.
As Vice Chairman of the State University of New York (SUNY) I have been empowered to fight hard for charter schools to give children in all neighborhoods and from all backgrounds access to a superior education. I believe strongly that people who are free to choose will use that freedom wisely and do what is best for themselves and their children. For this reason, where appropriate, I support the use of vouchers, which would let parents choose the school they want their children to attend.
At SUNY, I also fought hard to raise educational standards. I have no tolerance for the argument that some children, by accident of birth or circumstance, should not be expected to excel. I am very pleased that our decision to increase standards at the State University has increased the quality of education, and therefore the value of a diploma from our many great colleges. New York’s public universities are a great resource and an unparallelled bargain. We are justifiably proud of them.
At the Department of State, I am pleased to have to have had the opportunity to fight for a cleaner and safer environment. I have approved millions of dollars in assistance to communities to protect and enhance waterfronts as well as environmentally important habitats. I also worked hard to bring reform to our State’s antiquated brownfield laws in order to spur redevelopment, especially along our valuable waterfront. In my vision for a New New York, we will transform these formerly industrial sites, restoring access to our rivers and lakes, creating new jobs and new places to live.
In order to make New York more attractive and a better place to do business, I firmly believe that we must reduce taxes and reduce the excessive regulation that makes running a business far more difficult than it should be.
We also have to reduce the regulation that leaves New York City chronically short of housing among people of all income levels. On the political front, I firmly believe we have to create greater competition. Legislative reform will never occur without re-invigorating the two-party system, and that is why I am such a champion of Governor Pataki’s successful efforts to seek out votes in all communities and all ethnic groups throughout our State. Political monopolies are no more effective than economic monopolies. They stifle innovation and discourage initiative.
In my vision for a New New York, people from all backgrounds and communities will have an opportunity to share in the American dream, guided by a strong commitment to values, fairness, and equality. I invite you to read through my site and stay in touch with me over the coming months, as we begin to spread our message of expanding economic opportunity, standing up for what we believe, and putting our ideas into practice. The journey has just begun. Please join me on this journey, as we set out on a new path towards a New New York.
Sincerely,
Randy A. Daniels.
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