Bill de Blasio

I think small business is struggling in New York City. It's a fantastic market, it's a very appealing market, there's lots of opportunity, at the same time it's a very difficult place to build a small business.

I have an activist's desire to improve people's lives.

I've spent my life at public work, and I've spent many a day on a good cause that didn't have any lift, didn't have enough support, didn't have enough resources, and you could only get so far.

I have my loyalty to the team of my youth. Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. The team that I grew up with was constantly the underdog but managed to prevail.

My parents were divorced when I was young. I was really brought up by my mother's side of the family.

There are families of every kind. I think a lot of people are struggling to make sense of their identity in a very complicated world.

I come personally from a broken family, divorced very early in my childhood, a family with its own share of troubles, so I think that was very influential in both me believing that someday I would consistently devote myself to my own family that I created, but I think it also really affects my view of the world.

The common belief is that you are either a dreamer or a realist. But idealism and pragmatism aren't as far apart as one might think.

For New Yorkers, late October 2012 was a moment when something fundamental altered. If there were any climate change deniers in the five boroughs before Hurricane Sandy, I don't think there were too many left afterward.

Preparing for climate change has to be a national priority backed by tens of billions in federal investment. Lives are on the line.

This country has wasted too many years pretending it had the luxury of debating climate change.

I think Bloomberg's broad vision of the environment in New York City is something I agree with. I broadly stand with his vision for how to deal with climate change and prepare for future weather events.