Measuring Mayor de Blasio’s First Year by a Broken Toe and a $360 Check - NYTimes.com

"The mayor faces serious challenges, among them a deep rift with the Police Department. But on this question, the answer is clear: Step by step, initiative by initiative, Mr. de Blasio has begun to make concrete, tangible improvements in the lives of tens of thousands of ordinary working New Yorkers.

Just ask Ms. Cagle, a 35-year-old mother and a beneficiary of Mr. de Blasio’s first major policy move, the expansion of paid sick leave. “Oh man,” said Ms. Cagle, who until this year went without pay whenever she was too sick to work. “This gives me the support that I need.”

She is one of about 1.2 million workers who now have paid sick leave for the first time, according to the Community Service Society of New York, which works on behalf of low-income people. That is about 240,000 more people than would have received the benefit if the mayor hadn’t broadened the law.

Or consider the mayor’s universal prekindergarten program. This fall, the city offered seats to 53,230 4-year-olds — up from 20,000 last year — a boon to working parents unable to afford private nursery schools."