Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang has thrown his hat into the crowded race for New York City mayor - and Yang says he is ready to help the city he calls home.

“It’s my city,” he says. “I’m a public school parent. I want to help our city recover as quickly as possible. That’s why I’m running for mayor.”

Yang says that the coronavirus vaccine needs to get out quickly and broadly and then give those people the ability to confirm that they’ve been vaccinated on their smartphone.

He says that will allow people to have confidence in going to the theater, restaurants and bars.

The mayoral candidate also says they have a plan to give $1 billion a year to alleviate extreme poverty for around 500,000 of the poorest New York City residents.

Yang says that New York City has “not been the landlord that it should be” for hundreds of thousands of NYCHA residents.

“We can do multiple things at once,” he says. “We can reform a culture ,and we can see to it that police officers are resolving violent crimes at higher rates, not lower rates.”

New York City residents have to register in person by May 28 or have a mail-in application postmarked by then.

Anyone who needs to change their address needs to do so by June 2. Election Day for the primaries is June 22.