Speaker Quinn Gives State of the City Address Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, delivering the annual State of the City address. In an address that was scrutinized as much for its political value as its policy proposals, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, mapped out a series of classic Democratic proposals on Thursday intended to help working- and middle-class New Yorkers with housing, health care and education. Ms. Quinn is a leading candidate in what is expected to be a wide open Democratic primary to succeed Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2013. And in her annual State of the City speech on Thursday, Ms. Quinn, a onetime housing activist who has become a centrist ally of Mr. Bloomberg, offered what her colleagues and likely rivals described as a populist and progressive platform that could appeal to many constituencies. She proposed, for instance, legislation that would give the city the power to require landlords to fix the underlying problems that lead to code violations, and not merely to address the violations themselves. To that end, she promised to allocate $10 million to the New York City Housing Authority so 175 residents could be hired for union jobs to tackle a backlog of 100,000 repair requests. She also proposed that the Council provide $100,000 for the Freelancers" Union to start a health clinic in Brooklyn, along the lines of the clinics operated by the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council. She vowed to ask the State Legislature to require that all 5-year-old New York City children attend kindergarten, which is currently optional. She vowed as well to create a program that would provide low-cost loans to families earning $40,452 to $111,750 annually to pay for up to half of the cost of child care. "We need to tap into the power of our communities," she said in her address, in the Council's chambers at City Hall. We need to restore the promise that everyone can succeed in New York, no matter how humble their origins, with a bit of help and a lot of hard work. Ms. Quinn seemed to relish the occasion, tossing in an abundance of ad-libbed asides, and looking frequently over her left shoulder, where many of her colleagues were assembled. She took care to mention by name more than half of the Council's 51 members. She even mentioned three people who are considered possible rivals in the 2013 election, and were all in attendance: Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president; Bill de Blasio, the public advocate; and John C. Liu, the comptroller.