Bloomberg Orders Agencies to Speak Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and Creole

Michael Bloomberg just signed an executive order requiring all city agencies to provide services in the city's six most commonly spoken languages: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.

Each agency will also designate a language access coordinator to develop a plan to implement the policy.

While some agencies, like the department of education, already offer translation of documents, this is being presented as the most comprehensive citywide effort to date to expand language services.

UPDATE: Shortly after this announcement, State Senate candidate Simcha Felder unveiled a Spanish-language part of his campaign web site. The site (www.VotaFelder.com) directs readers to the Spanish-language section of his campaign web site (which also features a photo of Felder with Bloomberg.)