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Giuliani, Once a Foe, Is Among First to Commemorate David Dinkins David Dinkins Remembered as ‘a Trailblazer’ by Political Leaders
(about 8 hours later)
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who defeated David N. Dinkins in New York City’s 1993 mayoral election, was among the first public figures to commemorate Mr. Dinkins in the hours after his predecessor died late Monday at 93. The death of David N. Dinkins, New York City’s first and only Black mayor, brought an elegiac outpouring from many of his contemporaries who proudly wore his influence, and recalled a leader and mentor whose tenure was pivotal for a city that, like now, was reeling from an economic downturn and social unrest.
Mr. Dinkins, a barber’s son, became New York City’s first Black mayor in 1990. He died at his home in Manhattan, less than two months after the death of his wife, Joyce. His death on Monday at 93 was mourned across the political spectrum, by politicians as disparate as Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who worked in the Dinkins administration and met his wife, Chirlane McCray, there, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican who defeated Mr. Dinkins in the 1993 mayoral election.
Mr. Giuliani was once among Mr. Dinkins’s severest critics. But early Tuesday morning, he said on Twitter that his predecessor had given “a great deal of his life in service to our great City.” “He simply put us on a better path, and he did it with heart and warmth and love,” Mr. de Blasio said on Tuesday. “He was animated by love for people, all people.”
On Twitter, Hillary Clinton said Mr. Dinkins was “a trailblazer, a gentleman, and my friend.”
Mr. Giuliani was once among Mr. Dinkins’s severest critics. But early Tuesday morning, he said on Twitter that his predecessor had given “a great deal of his life in service to our great city.”
“That service is respected and honored by all,” Mr. Giuliani added.“That service is respected and honored by all,” Mr. Giuliani added.
Mr. Dinkins won office on a pledge of racial healing, and he had plans to build housing, improve health care and respond to the concerns of marginalized groups. After his death, several prominent New Yorkers, including the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, praised those liberal instincts.
“For decades, Mayor Dinkins led with compassion and an unparalleled commitment to our communities,” Ms. James, who shattered racial and gender barriers when she was elected to her current post in 2018, said in a statement. “His deliberative and graceful demeanor belied his burning passion for challenging the inequalities that plague our society.”
Mr. Dinkins was a cautious, deliberate Harlem Democrat who climbed to City Hall through relatively minor elective and appointive offices. He liked to call New Yorkers a “gorgeous mosaic,” and he saw himself as a conciliator who might subdue the passions of multicultural neighborhoods with patience and dignity.Mr. Dinkins was a cautious, deliberate Harlem Democrat who climbed to City Hall through relatively minor elective and appointive offices. He liked to call New Yorkers a “gorgeous mosaic,” and he saw himself as a conciliator who might subdue the passions of multicultural neighborhoods with patience and dignity.
Ms. James nodded to that idea: “The voice that gave birth to the ‘gorgeous mosaic’ is now at rest,” she wrote. “He really, really truly believed that New York was a gorgeous mosaic and it could even become more gorgeous,” said Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist who, as a Dinkins campaign worker, shared an office with a young Mr. de Blasio. “That was his raison d’être.”
Dianne Morales, one of the candidates hoping to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio in the election next November, called Mr. Dinkins “a force to be reckoned with, and a strong advocate for a fairer city.” As mayor, he took a keen interest in reviving New York City’s economy, which was still suffering from the stock market crash of 1987. He took part in the revival of Times Square and paved the way for the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. He created the city’s economic development corporation and fought to retain corporate headquarters in New York City.
Several prominent African-Americans said Mr. Dinkins had been an inspiration to their careers. “That retention of our corporate tax base in the early 1990s ultimately became the foundation for the city’s economic recovery, resurgence and economic health to this day — or at least to the pandemic,” said Carl Weisbrod, the first president of the new Economic Development Corporation.
Many of Mr. Dinkins’s policy efforts were focused on children. “He believed that young children aren’t born with hate,” recalled Norman Steisel, Mr. Dinkins’s first deputy mayor. “So he devoted a lot of his time and his thinking to how to create safer, more cultivating environments for young people.”
His Safe Streets, Safe City program, which built up the police force and is credited with being the foundation for New York’s success in driving down crime, also included resources for youth enrichment, Mr. Steisel recalled.
After he left office, he visited the courtroom of a Family Court judge, Jody Adams, to observe the system’s inner workings.
“He had an instinctive interest in the fate of families being churned through the system, because he would ask me a lot about the specifics of the case,” recalled Ms. Adams, who is Mr. Weisbrod’s wife and is now retired. “Like, ‘What kind of benefits is the mother getting?’ ‘What kind of child care does she have for the child?’ ‘Where does the child go to school?’”
After his death, several prominent New Yorkers, including the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, praised Mr. Dinkins’s liberal instincts and earnest humanity.
“For decades, Mayor Dinkins led with compassion and an unparalleled commitment to our communities,” Ms. James, who shattered racial and gender barriers when she was elected to her current post in 2018, said in a statement. “His deliberative and graceful demeanor belied his burning passion for challenging the inequalities that plague our society.”
Dianne Morales, one of the candidates hoping to replace Mr. de Blasio in the election next November, called Mr. Dinkins “a force to be reckoned with, and a strong advocate for a fairer city.”
Several prominent Black New Yorkers said Mr. Dinkins had been an inspiration to their careers.
Jamaal T. Bailey, a state senator from the Bronx, called Mr. Dinkins “a true trailblazer and legend.”Jamaal T. Bailey, a state senator from the Bronx, called Mr. Dinkins “a true trailblazer and legend.”
“People like me follow in your footsteps,” he wrote on Twitter. “Representation matters. Thank you for paving the way for us.”“People like me follow in your footsteps,” he wrote on Twitter. “Representation matters. Thank you for paving the way for us.”
Patrick Gaspard, who was the United States ambassador to South Africa during the Obama administration, said that Mr. Dinkins was “grace itself” and “always went high when they went low.”Patrick Gaspard, who was the United States ambassador to South Africa during the Obama administration, said that Mr. Dinkins was “grace itself” and “always went high when they went low.”
"He taught me that you don’t need to be loud to be strong,” Mr. Gaspard wrote on Twitter. “He taught me that you don’t need to be loud to be strong,” Mr. Gaspard wrote on Twitter.
A few journalists shared tales of covering Mr. Dinkins in the 1990s. Several journalists shared tales of covering Mr. Dinkins in the 1990s, including Melissa Russo, a WNBC-TV reporter who recalled how the mayor gave her a one-on-one interview when she was just a journalism student, because she wanted the mayor’s thoughts on what he considered an underreported topic: the homeless.
“Got to cover Mayor David Dinkins for @AP when he traveled to the Dominican Republic,” David Beard, a former Associated Press writer, tweeted. “The people treated Dinkins like a rock star, like their own president.” Similarly, the filmmaker Ken Burns recalled how Mr. Dinkins “gave an impossibly young filmmaker his genuine attention,” when Mr. Burns was working on his documentary “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Jane McManus, a longtime sports reporter, recalled that Mr. Dinkins was beloved by many people who worked at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Mr. Dinkins was rejected by voters in 1993 after one term amid criticism over his handling of four days of racial violence in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn; Mr. Giuliani also was effective in pushing a narrative that Mr. Dinkins was anti-police, and spoke at an infamous rally of police officers that began at City Hall and then spread to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“I was surprised to see a person I knew as a sober politician be so friendly and such a tennis fan, seemed like he always had that warm half-smile for people he knew,” wrote Ms. McManus, who now directs the Center for Sports Communication at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. In later years, Mr. Dinkins became an elder statesman, teaching at Columbia University, hosting a radio talk show and attending receptions, dinners and ceremonies.
“He and Bud Collins are probably up there now debating the best matches they ever saw,” she wrote on Twitter, referring to a legendary tennis reporter who died in 2016.
Mr. Dinkins was rejected by voters in 1993 after one term amid criticism over his handling of four days of racial violence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. His aides said he insisted on conceding to Mr. Giuliani despite a close result because he did not want to risk inflaming passions in a city that was starkly polarized along racial lines.
Mr. Giuliani, who beat Mr. Dinkins by sweeping the white ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island that were his political base, went on to become, arguably, one of the city’s most dominant mayors of the 20th century, alongside Fiorello H. La Guardia.
He is now President Trump’s personal lawyer and has led failed attempts in court to reverse Mr. Trump’s defeat in the presidential election. Critics have characterized Mr. Giuliani’s work for the Trump administration as a decline into farce by a once-respected figure.
Mr. Dinkins, by contrast, became a quiet elder statesman after leaving office, teaching at Columbia University, hosting a radio talk show and attending receptions, dinners and ceremonies.
“He took a quiet pride in the small kindnesses,” Mr. Gaspard wrote on Tuesday. “He accomplished much with humility and more strength than the world knew. Rest in our hearts.”“He took a quiet pride in the small kindnesses,” Mr. Gaspard wrote on Tuesday. “He accomplished much with humility and more strength than the world knew. Rest in our hearts.”