Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul Announce First Four Communities to Receive Free 2-K Seats
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, my fellow New Yorkers. And what a good morning it is. It is not every day that we get to make history. It is not every day that we get to transform the lives of 2,000 children and thousands more parents across our city. And it is not every day that a movement by the people and of the people truly delivers for the people. Today, my friends, is a special day because we are gathered together to mark a monumental moment of progress on the path to universal child care across New York City. I want to begin by thanking my partner in this work, New York's Governor Kathy Hochul. Without her support and her leadership, we would not be here at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum today. And I would like to ask [you] to join me in a round of appreciation and applause for all of our City Council members who are here today, all of our state Assembly members who are here today, our state senators who are here today, and our borough presidents who are here today. And I say thank you to everyone who is here: all of the elected officials at every level, all of the parents, all of the children [and] all the organizers, because frankly, you all together have made this day a reality. As the old parable says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We are not taking that first step today, in March of 2026. Many of those first steps were taken back in October of 2024, more than 15 months ago, when people across all five boroughs put on sneakers with good lumbar support, wrapped themselves in layers to protect from the late autumn chill, and did their part to make the impossible, possible. Neighbors knocked on neighbors’ doors, [and] parents spoke to other parents. People spent their precious free time after work and on weekends gathering petition signatures on street corners and passing out literature at subway stops. And you did not do this work because anyone enjoys climbing up six-floor walk-ups. You did it because you held a vision of a city that worked differently, that worked better. You did it because you believed, just as I did, just as more than one million New Yorkers did, that we could make a dignified life in New York City a little easier to afford, and that raising a family didn't have to mean scouring Zillow listings in the suburbs. When a promise is made on a campaign, like the promise we made to deliver universal child care across the five boroughs, it often does not feel real to New Yorkers. Many expect promises made by politicians to be broken or abandoned, and for good reason— they so often have been. But, as the governor said in the rally where we announced the agreement that made today possible. The era of empty promises is over. Because what we are here together to announce today, my friends, is very real indeed. Beginning this fall, we will provide 2,000 free child care seats for two-year-olds in four different parts of our city. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Washington Heights, Inwood, and Hamilton Heights. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Fordham, Belmont, Van Cortlandt Village, Morris Heights, Norwood and Kingsbridge. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Canarsie, Remsen Village, Brownsville and Ocean Hill. And we are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach and The Rockaways. This is only the beginning of our efforts to deliver universal child care across every corner of the five boroughs. And as we roll out this program, we want to get it right, to ensure that every family can access child care, that providers are supported, and that when Fall 2027 comes around, we have the infrastructure in place to provide free 2-K to approximately 12,000 children. This first step will allow us to build the systems and the capacity we need to deliver exactly that. And it will allow us to reinvent our city as well. Universal child care will not just provide our kids with the quality education they deserve. It won't just lift stress from parents' lives, as they know [that] their child has a seat close to home where they will be well taken care of. And it won't just rewrite statistics like the ones that tell us that families with kids under six are twice as likely to leave New York City as those without kids. It will place at least $20,000 per child back in the pockets of parents across our city and will make it possible for countless parents to return to the careers they love. I stand here next to the first mom governor of New York State, someone who had to leave a job she loved when she had her children. No one knows better, or more personally, what this will mean to moms and dads who want to be able to both love their work and love their kids. And I stand before you as the mayor of the city that every business wants to be headquartered in, but where so often the top talent cannot afford to move. As we deliver universal childcare [and] as we launch free 2-K, we are also helping our businesses attract the candidates who want to move here but can't fathom spending so much of their paycheck on child care every month. And we're making what Wall Street would call a good investment. Researchers estimate that every dollar spent on early child care returns as much as $13. After Quebec began offering universal child care, the number of women in the workforce with young children grew by 16 percent. In a city that lost $23 billion in economic activity in 2022 alone because of parents who had to quit their jobs or cut back working hours, this decision today, this commitment [to] universal child care, has the potential to supercharge our economy. We will support and grow our workforce; we will grow our tax revenue and we will grow as a city. Now I wanna close with this: two things. The first [is] that I also wanna recognize that there are so many New Yorkers who have grown up in this city and have had to leave this city because of the cost of living across these five boroughs. Our dream is not only to make this a place where every New Yorker can stay, [but] also a dream where every New Yorker can come back home. And I actually just want to take a moment to recognize one of our teachers, who's here today, who grew up in the Bronx, moved to Atlanta, and made the decision to come back home and teach the children here in our neighborhood. And we welcome her, and we welcome every New Yorker across this country who dreams of wearing Timbs in the cold. Once again, this is a city for you too. Because someday, many years from now, a generation of New Yorkers will raise their children here, in this city we all love. They will worry about all the things that new parents always worry about: where they should buy their stroller or their crib, whether there's too much noise from the street and the nursery, [and] whether they'll ever get a full night's sleep again. But they won't ever worry, not even for a moment, about whether their child will be able to access quality care or whether they'll be able to afford it. They will return from jobs they never had to give up to homes in the neighborhoods they never had to consider leaving, and they'll never even imagine that for many years it wasn't this way. As we delivered free 2-K across New York City, we are writing a better chapter together for all those who come next, and it is thanks to the movement that we built, the hard work you all did, and the courage many of you had long before I stood before you as a candidate or as an elected official to envision a future that was more hopeful than the past. On behalf of all those New Yorkers who come next, thank you to everyone in this room, to everyone who fought for this moment, for all that you have already done, and for everything that we will do together. Thank you all so much. And it now gives me great pleasure to introduce our partner in this work, a person who ensured that this day could truly arrive, and the first mom governor of New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI'll just start by saying that we are incredibly appreciative of the commitment from the governor not only for the first year of funding, but also for the second year. And what that funding does is it doesn't just allow the city to roll out the first step of universal childcare for two-year-olds — free 2K across the city, 2,000 seats this year. It allows us to also ramp up to 12,000 seats next year and make the fixes necessary for 3K. Because as we've heard, there have been a number of parents who've long been concerned about the city's ability to meet demand across the city by providing seats closer to home. And the governor and the $1.2 billion that she committed to the city, more than a hundred million is allocated to those fixes. And as the governor said today, the state is committed to this as something we deliver to New Yorkers, and I'm incredibly thankful for that. And I have to also say that we have long known that childcare is a priority for the governor. It's a priority for parents here in our city, and now it's a priority in what we're delivering.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, you know, Senator Elizabeth Warren talks about childcare as infrastructure. And part of that is that to deliver on the scale that we are speaking about also means we have to build up infrastructure that is durable, that is sustainable, and that can deliver high-quality care. We are able to deliver 2,000 seats in this first year thanks to partnering with existing childcare providers. These determinations were made in part on a reflection of which neighborhoods had those providers ready to go before the end of this year and also as a reflection of economic need. That will continue to be some of the ways in which we make the determinations for the 12,000 seats next year. But then by the end of year four, it's every single two-year-old in the city of New York. I don't know, Emmy, if you'd want to add anything to that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, what we are rolling out today is for parents of two-year-olds in the neighborhoods that we have listed. It covers the neighborhoods that I've said, as well as parts of other neighborhoods that are covered within the school districts the chancellor said. All that is required is that parents live within that school district, no matter the amount of money they make, the occupation they have [or] their immigration status. So long as they live there, they can apply. The application process will become open sometime in early summer, and then next year, we will be announcing additional neighborhoods and school districts that this will apply to. It will extend beyond these sets of districts, and one thing that I can tell you for certain is that it will also extend into Staten Island. Thank you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThis does apply to families of all income levels, of any occupation, of any immigration status. We are starting with the 2,000 seats in these school districts, then going to 12,000. I don't know, Emmy, if you want to add anything to it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I've said before that the Iranian government has engaged in systematic repression of its own people, even killing thousands of Iranians who were seeking to express the most basic forms of dissent earlier this year. It is a brutal government. And I've also said that while I may be a young mayor, I am old enough to remember the devastating consequences of our country pursuing a war with the intent of regime change in that very same region not that many years ago.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWhat I would say to Jewish New Yorkers, to Iranian American New Yorkers, to any New Yorker, frankly, is that my primary responsibility is to keep you safe. And as much as I have shared my thoughts when I've been asked about the federal government's actions as well as the actions of the Israeli military, I've also focused my time and efforts in being in constant communication with our police commissioner, as well as emergency management officials. And so, what we have done is taken the decision to increase agency coordination, as well as increasing patrols of sensitive locations across the city out of an abundance of caution. And what that means is we also know that many Jewish New Yorkers are celebrating Purim in this moment, many Muslim New Yorkers are celebrating Ramadan in this moment. And this is also a time when there is a sense of anxiety about whether New Yorkers can celebrate themselves, their faiths in a moment of such anxiety and tumult across the world. And we are taking the steps to ensure that our police officers are present, [and that] they are visible and reassuring New Yorkers that they do not need to sacrifice an ounce of themselves to be safe in this city. They can be the fullest versions of themselves. And I'm thankful of the work of the men and women of the NYPD in making that the case.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, when it came to the meeting with the president at the White House, we followed the White House's lead. They made the decision to not share the meeting on their public schedule, and so we followed suit accordingly. However, the top members of my administration knew of the meeting, and no matter where I am, I am always the mayor of our city and able to respond to anything of urgency. As soon as the meeting concluded, we shared that information publicly, as well as with the results of that meeting, including the release of the Columbia student who had been detained by ICE earlier that morning. I can tell you as it pertains to Signal, I use Signal for personal and campaign purposes. I do not conduct City government business on Signal as a matter of practice. I am committed to transparency, I am also committed to all applicable rules and regulations governing official communications and record keeping, and that includes the Freedom of Information Law. And that practice means to use city-appropriate channels for city business, and I've also ensured that my staff knows the same.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYes. If I'm out of the state, that is the practice, yes. But I knew that I would be back before the end of the day.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, I'll have to get back to you on that. I haven't thought as much about the video. I've thought more about what role we can play in ensuring that New Yorkers are not being unlawfully detained. And so when I sat with the president in the Oval Office, I brought up to him the fact that ICE had detained a Columbia student just that morning and that there were actually five people who had been detained either as Columbia students or for activities on Columbia campus, and that I believe that all of their cases should be dropped. After the meeting concluded, shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from the president informing me that he was taking the decision to release her imminently, and that we could share that publicly.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, at this time, there are no threats to share with the public. Everything that we are doing is out of an abundance of caution. And I'm appreciative of what the NYPD is doing because it is both reassuring New Yorkers who are understandably concerned at this time, and also ensuring that we are taking every single step we can to be prepared in light of anything resulting from the actions of the federal government and the Israeli government. And I have not spoken to the president since our meeting in the Oval Office.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, we are going through the regular security clearance process. It takes months and everything is going according to that routine. I'm also thankful of the fact that there are a number of members of my senior staff that do have that clearance. This has in no way impeded our abilities to respond both to the day-to-day needs of New Yorkers as well as to respond to the current crisis at hand. And what we are doing is taking every step that we can to ensure that we are keeping New Yorkers safe. And I am thankful once again to the hardworking members of the NYPD for doing exactly that across the five boroughs, both in times of celebration for New Yorkers, and in times of anxiety.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, Muslims in this city, for almost as long as we have been in this city, have had to deal with those with power and platform dehumanizing us. And to be called animals, insects; to be called a jihadist mayor; to be called a cockroach; this language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker but also as someone who was born in East Africa. And, it is difficult to hear, there's also a reminder that the silence that often greets this kind of bigotry, this kind of Islamophobia, is what allows it to fester. The temptation to treat it as politics as usual. And I want to be very clear that I have far more urgent work in front of me than indulging the provocations of a man who trades in outrage and frankly fears the city that we are looking to build, which is one where every single New Yorker who lives here can call it their home. I am not ashamed of who I am, I am not ashamed of my faith, I am not ashamed of being the first Muslim mayor in the history of our city, and there is no amount of racism that will change the way in which I lead or the commitment that I hold to each and every New Yorker in this city. Thank you so much. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul Announce First Four Communities to Receive Free 2-K Seats.