New York Mayor Bill de Blasio begins 2nd term at City Hall
NEW YORK (AP) — Bill de Blasio began his second term as mayor on Monday at a swearing-in ceremony outdoors in freezing temperatures, taking the oath of office administered by Brooklyn native and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"By Vermont standards this is a warm and pleasant afternoon," Sanders joked to the crowd at City Hall Park.
De Blasio won re-election handily in November, becoming the first Democrat to return to City Hall in New York since Edward Koch won a third term in 1985.
He boasted about the city recording the lowest number of annual homicides since the early 1950s. The police department's preliminary count is 290 homicides for 2017, a 14 percent drop from the year before.