Press Release
CSS Statement on the Death of David N. Dinkins, New York’s 106th Mayor
The Community Service Society joins the entire city in mourning the death of David Norman Dinkins, New York City’s 106th Mayor, CSS Honorary Life Trustee, and a historic figure in our city.
David Dinkins endured countless indignities as the city’s first Black mayor. He took office during a time of unprecedented racial strife, rising crime, and huge budget deficits. To his staunchest supporters, he was held to a different standard by the media and the city’s powerful financial interests because of his race.
He once told a reporter that when they write his obituary, “the first line will be, David Dinkins, first Black mayor of the City of New York. And the next line will be about Crown Heights.” While that may be true, we remember him for his efforts to improve relationships between police and communities, increase city funding for affordable housing, health care, and critical services to the homeless, and for bringing together a coalition of Black, Latino, and white progressives to advance policies that made the city more responsive to the needs of marginalized communities.
One of his most enduring achievements was the launch of the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), which was based on a Community Service Society report chronicling the dearth of primary care access in the city’s most underserved neighborhoods. Since its inception in 1993, the PCDC has invested more than $1 billion to expand primary care practices in 40 states.
Mayor Dinkins was also credited with averting a fiscal takeover of the city’s finances by the state, opening up “Beacon Schools” across the city to provide activities and after-school programs for children and youth, and dedicating more city resources to building affordable housing, funding public hospitals, and solving the city’s homeless problem. Most notably, during his administration the city added a record number of new police officers to the force thanks to the mayor’s signature “Safe Streets, Safe City” program.
In a 2017 interview Mayor Bill de Blasio, who served in the Dinkins administration, said his former boss “got a raw deal because he was not a loud, showy personality and he wasn’t always trying to claim credit . . . . The fact that we’re the safest big city in America today directly links to his actions with getting resources from Albany to get us the size of the police force we needed. I’m not sure his successor, who took a lot of credit for work done with resources Dinkins got—I’m not sure his successor could have pulled it off.”
David Dinkins was an inspiration for many of today’s elected leaders, who represent our city’s diversity, and who saw in him the potential political office held to improve the lives of New Yorkers who lacked a voice in government. He was a gentleman and a towering figure in city politics. CSS salutes his legacy and extends our deepest condolences to his family.