????Bill de Blasio overwhelmingly was elected mayor Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat to lead New York in 20 years and ushering in an era of activist liberal governance in the United States’ largest city. ????BILL DE BLASIO, who in three months catapulted a floundering fourth-place primary campaign into a smashing 50-point general election win, became the towering figure of a resurgent urban liberalism Tuesday, taking the New York City mayor’s office in resounding fashion. ????Running on an unabashedly liberal platform from the start, de Blasio, the city’s public advocate — a small-budget and relatively obscure position that helps residents navigate the city’s public services — promised a radical departure from the Wall Street ethos of his predecessor, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg. ????De Blasio campaigned on a mantle of progressive change following Bloomberg’s 12 years in office, highlighting what he saw as “a tale of two cities.” The moneyed Manhattan elite have had their mayor, he argued, and now the 46 percent of New Yorkers living at or near the poverty level need one of their own. ????De Blasio defeated the former transportation chief Joe Lhota, winning 73 percent to 24 percent — a landslide exceeding the 30- to 40-point win predicted by most polls. ????De Blasio railed against the aggressive policies of Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, promised to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund early childhood education and after-school programs, and directed attention to the lack of affordable housing and the closings of hospitals in poor neighborhoods. ????New Yorkers were also charmed by the multicultural de Blasio family — especially the candidate’s charismatic son Dante, whose ‘70s-style Afro and frequent campaign presence electrified the race and helped draw support from a broad and diverse section of the nation’s largest city. ????But mostly, voters resonated with his theme of a tale of two cities. “That inequality — that feeling of a few doing very well, while so many slip further behind — that is the defining challenge of our time,” de Blasio said. “Because inequality in New York is not something that only threatens those who are struggling.” ????De Blasio’s administration will be a laboratory of sorts for modern progressivism — testing whether an anti-establishment activist can effectively manage a sprawling municipal government and lessen growing inequality between the rich and poor. ????“Tackling inequality isn’t easy. It never has been, and it never will be,” de Blasio said in a victory speech at the YMCA gymnasium in his Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. ????“The challenges we face have been decades in the making, and the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. But make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path. And tonight we set forth on it — together, as one city.” ????But de Blasio also faces a series of immediate challenges as he takes charge of a city government with some 300,000 employees, a US$70 billion budget and a dizzying web of intersecting interests. He will have to negotiate several city labor contracts that are due for renewal and overhaul the leadership of agencies, including the New York Police Department, which he has sharply criticized for the anti-crime policy known as “stop and frisk.” ????De Blasio also confronts serious obstacles to his tax policy agenda beyond the borders of this overwhelmingly Democratic city, including potential opposition from Democratic Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers in Albany. ????De Blasio, an untested manager with virtually no executive experience, will have to navigate this municipal minefield — and keep crime low, and avoid big gaffes — as he tries to placate an energized electorate expecting big results. ????“Having encouraged people to think of a city that is closer and closer to their notion of justice and fairness, Bill must explain that a mayor can’t wave a magic wand and bring about the changes they want,” said Kenneth Sherrill, professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College. ????“It is going to be very hard to explain to your friends and allies that you can’t move at the pace they would prefer,” he added. ????In January, de Blasio will become the first mayor in a generation to inherit an overwhelmingly calm city — the safest big city in the nation, in fact — where runaway crime rates have receded to a memory. ????That could be a blessing and a curse. With crime so low, even small upticks could easily cause a political headache for the new mayor, distracting from loftier parts of his agenda. ????“The public perception would be that this mayor is soft on crime,” said Sgt. Edward Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association. ????“If you’re the manager of the Yankees and you win eight World Series in a row, and the next year they lose, the manager still gets blamed for it,” Sergeant Mullins added. ????De Blasio has relentlessly attacked the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactics and is almost certain to replace Kelly as the department’s commissioner. His enemies will seize on any sign that crime is rising. Murders and shootings reached record lows in 2012, and are on track this year to be down an additional 25 percent. ????De Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm, Jr. in Manhattan, New York, the son of Maria and Warren Wilhelm. His father had German ancestry, and his maternal grandparents, Giovanni and Anna, were Italian immigrants. ????De Blasio has stated that he was 7 years old when his father first left home and 8 years old when his parents divorced. In an April 2012 interview, de Blasio described his upbringing: “[My dad] was an officer in the Pacific in the army, [and] in an extraordinary number of very, very difficult, horrible battles, including Okinawa. … And I think honestly, as we now know about veterans who return, [he] was going through, physically and mentally, a lot. … He was an alcoholic, and my mother and father broke up very early on in the time I came along, and I was brought up by my mother’s family — that’s the bottom line — the de Blasio family.” ????In 1983 he legally changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm, which he described in April 2012: “I started by putting the name into my diploma, and then I hyphenated it legally when I finished NYU, and then, more and more, I realized that was the right identity.” By the time he appeared on the public stage in 1990, he was using the name Bill de Blasio as he explained he had been called “Bill” or “Billy” in his personal life. ????De Blasio began his work in the New York City government as an aide to Mayor David Dinkins. During the Clinton Administration, he was appointed Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he served under former Secretary Andrew Cuomo to expand affordable housing for New Yorkers. ????In 2001, de Blasio joined the New York City Council where he represented District 39 in Brooklyn for eight years. As a member of the New York City Council, de Blasio helped secure more than US$100 million in funding for early education programs, and wrote landmark tenants’ rights legislation to protect affordable housing and end landlord discrimination. ????De Blasio holds a Bachelor’s degree from New York University and a Master’s in International and Public Affairs from Columbia University. De Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, met while working in the Dinkins Administration. They are the proud public school parents of Chiara, a college freshman, and Dante, a high school sophomore.(SD-Agencies) | 