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 Before the speech at a Manhattan college, de Blasio's office
released short videos online of the mayor drafting his remarks in
his office with his advisers, describing the points he wants to
make.
"Affordable housing will grow, pre-K will grow, police-community
relations changes will grow," he says in the video, turning a
baseball in his hands as aides type on their laptop computers and
shuffle papers.
De Blasio launched an ambitious expansion of pre-kindergarten, or
"pre-K", for more than 50,000 young children last year, fulfilling
one of his main campaign pledges.
 But his greatest immediate challenge has come with his promise to
mend frayed relations between police and black and Latino New
Yorkers, who were stopped and frisked by the police in
disproportionate numbers under the previous administration.
After an unarmed black, Eric Garner, was killed by police who put
him in a banned chokehold on a Staten Island sidewalk in July,
police union leaders railed at the mayor, saying he was too
supportive of the force's critics.
The rift between City Hall and rank-and-file officers only deepened
in December after a man, described by authorities as unstable and
suicidal, shot two New York police officers to death in an ambush.
The man, who killed himself soon after, had written online that he
wanted to avenge Garner's death.
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Many police officers took to turning their backs on the mayor at
public events, including at the slain officers' funerals. Arrest
numbers plummeted for a few weeks beginning in December in a work
slowdown, although policing activity has since begun to return to
normal levels.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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