Mayor Bloomberg spoke for eight minutes yesterday entirely in Spanish as he signed a law requiring city social-service agencies to provide translators in six languages.
Despite the mayor’s heavy English accent, the feat met with loud and sustained applause by surprised onlookers in the Blue Room.
“The Latino community has been waiting for a long time to hear a mayor who speaks Spanish in this place,” said City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez (D-Manhattan). “But I never expected he would be so sexy.”
That comment drew loud laughs and a “thank you” from the mayor.
Bloomberg said he believes all immigrants should learn English “because you will forever not be able to share in the great American dream. In the meantime, it is incumbent to make services available.”
The new law requires the Human Resources Administration, the Administration for Children’s Services and the Departments of Health and Homeless Services to provide translators in six languages – Arabic, Chinese, Creole, Korean, Russian and Spanish. The service is expected to cost $5 million over five years.
Bloomberg also signed 11 other bills, including an update to the fire code, an expansion of the East Brooklyn and East Harlem Empire economic zones, added protection for domestic-violence victims and a measure requiring ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel in cranes, bulldozers and backhoes.