Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces City to Complete Redesign on McGuinness Boulevard
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good afternoon, everyone. It is a privilege to be back in Greenpoint with so many friends and partners who I have mourned alongside, marched alongside, and vowed to improve McGuinness Boulevard alongside. I am grateful to the elected officials who have carried this effort forward. And I am especially thankful to the community members who have never given up on the hope that a people united and organized can both demand and deliver the change that they know is necessary. My friends, because of you, we will complete the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. Before we speak of what the future will hold, I want to speak of the past that we all endured to arrive at this day. As trucks and cars fly by at high speed, I am reminded of the words of the man who thought a four-lane highway was worth destroying homes, displacing residents, and scarring this neighborhood. Robert Moses said, “When you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat axe.” There are few places in this city where that axe was sharper, or where the hacking left such deep injury. Since three-year-old Jimmy Battaglia died here in 1956, the first casualty of McGuinness, some estimates say that more than 200 New Yorkers have been killed on this asphalt. To this day, countless Greenpointers still mourn Matthew Jensen, who we will mark five years without in May. The students he taught, the parents who adored him, the community that cherished him. I want to recognize his cousin John, who is here today, who was at the very first Make McGuinness Safe ally and has helped this community take its pain and turn it into purpose. Thank you, John. The consequences of Moses' axe have been measured in the human toll that this four-way highway has incurred, and in so many other unseen but deeply insidious ways. It is felt when parents don't feel safe letting their children out of the house to play. It is felt when cyclists go on long detours, because McGuinness is simply too dangerous to take the risk. It is felt when people dread going to the grocery store, or getting a cup of coffee, or just going on an afternoon walk, because they fear that they will have to cross the street. For too long, those in power have ignored Greenpointers' calls for help. As a result, what was understood solely as a road became something much larger, an embodiment of political choices, a physical piece of evidence of city government that listened to the well-connected at the expense of working people. But thanks to parents, neighbors, and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, the city committed to a redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. That commitment promised to deliver the safety and improvements that residents had been asking for, until the prior administration bowed to big-money interests, leaving the project incomplete and Greenpointers still at risk. Today, however, there is a new mayor in City Hall. I am so proud to have stood with this community, and I am even prouder to be able to use the power of City Hall to deliver a better, safer future for the people of Greenpoint. My commissioner, Mike Flynn, will lead the DOT in installing parking-protected bike lanes along the length of the entirety of McGuinness Boulevard from Meeker Avenue to the Pulaski Bridge. Once the project has been completed, there will be one travel lane in each direction, one parking-protected bike lane in each direction, and one vehicular parking and loading lane in each direction. We will begin this process as soon as the weather warms. Many of the materials required for this kind of work cannot be used when the ground is wet or when temperatures are below 40 degrees. And while this is just the beginning of our work to deliver street safety across this city for pedestrians, for cyclists, and every person who calls the city home, I want to remind New Yorkers that none of this was inevitable. A little over four months ago, I stood with many of the same people I see today after walking up McGuinness. I stood with this very pin that was given to me by those New Yorkers. Many had known Matthew Jensen. Many had dedicated years to asking for change, for attention, for empathy from politicians who couldn't even bother to care. Standing together on that hot August day, we felt like we were on the cusp of real improvement, of actually achieving what we had set out to do. Thanks to so many who went out and pounded the pavement, that pavement now will change. If today is nothing else, it is a celebration of a city created by all who live in it. Thank you all very much, and please welcome Bronwyn Breitner.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Just before we begin questions, I would like to invite everyone who has lost a loved one to please join me here at the lectern. You can come down. I want to make clear to New Yorkers that we are not speaking in the abstract. We are speaking about New Yorkers whose lives have been torn apart by inaction for far too long. And the New Yorkers you see alongside me are those who have lost the very people that they built their lives around. And sometimes you may not even know those in your life have been affected by this. This is a photo I was just given of me in high school, standing alongside a friend and a leader of our then soccer team, Asher Kelly Knott. It was given to me by his mother, who is here with us. I did not know then what I know now, which is that Asher's father was killed while riding a bicycle by a reckless driver. And I say this, because too often in our city, in our politics, we lose sight of what this actually means in people's lives. We start to understand these stories as if they are purely statistics. We start to think of traffic violence as something that can be measured in numbers year after year. We forget that this inaction has forced the very New Yorkers who have felt the brunt of this violence to traumatize themselves day after day, telling elected officials about the worst moment in their life. And today we are here not just to announce that we will complete this redesign, but also to announce that those days have to come to an end. That instead, what we must do now is build for a new future. One that understands safety as something that is paramount, not as something that has to be negotiated. One that understands the worth of its people, the worth of this place. It all, as the assemblymember said, comes back to the New Yorkers that are around us today and around us each and every day across the five boroughs. So, to these families, to these New Yorkers, I am so sorry that we could not have done this earlier, years and decades ago, to have saved the loved ones in your life. But I thank you for the work that you have done to ensure that we can save those New Yorkers today, tomorrow, the weeks, the months, the years to come, to ensure that this pain [will] not be felt by others who call the same city home. Thank you so much.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Well, I think I would make clear that today is not and will not be the extent of the work that we will do to make this city safe. We will make it safe for pedestrians, for cyclists, for drivers, for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And I say that as someone who has at different points in my life been [a] different one of those things. And too often I have felt that my safety is in question depending on what street that I'm on. I live on 35th Street in Astoria. I would bike to 32nd and 24th Avenue. I had two options, and I would always take the option, not the one that was most convenient, but the one that was safest. That kind of decision making has to come to an end. And I'm excited, frankly, in having our commissioner here alongside me. Because when I was interviewing him, we did not simply ask him about fulfilling that which has already been put forward. We asked him, “What will it take to make this city the envy of the world when it comes to our streetscape and our public transit?” These are the questions that we are asking, and soon we will have the answers to those questions to deliver on that. Thank you to Streetsblog.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And I will just say, as someone who has been on the other side of DOT for many years, we actually mean this. And the point of announcing this today is also to ensure that we do the legwork necessary, so that when the weather is amenable to this construction, we are able to hit the ground running. This means that the policy designs that need to be finalized can start to be commenced at DOT. This also means that we can notify the community board in advance of that construction taking place. I know you had another question.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I was briefed by my first deputy mayor, my chief of staff, my chief counsel, the police commissioner, as well as other members of my team. I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act, and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal international law, and a desire to see that be consistent each and every day. I registered my opposition. I made it clear, and we left it at that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I am in constant communication with Commissioner Tisch, whether it be today or any other day, and the commissioner within the structure of our City Hall will be reporting to our first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan. That, however, does not preclude conversations from taking place with me. And at the heart of that is because of the fact that public safety is the cornerstone of our affordability agenda. And today is also an announcement of that public safety and delivering it to New Yorkers. That was just a reflection of the structure of City Hall.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source My administration will continue to monitor the developments in this situation and will also be sure to share anything relevant with New Yorkers. The president and I have always been honest and direct with each other about places of disagreement. I was honest and direct in the Oval Office. I will be honest and direct in the phone conversations we have, and New Yorkers have elected me to be honest and direct and always to do so with the understanding that my job is to deliver for the people who call the city home. And my job is to keep them safe and to ensure that they can actually afford to keep calling the city home.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source We are going to be pursuing every single safety measure that can deliver that for New Yorkers. And I am telling you that when I selected my commissioner, we spoke about what actual safety means. When I was elected to the assembly, before I took office, I saw what inaction looked like. When I organized with fellow elected officials, we sent a letter to DOT asking for physical infrastructure improvements to be made on the Crescent Street bike lane. I was told we could not expect that to take place. Soon after, Alfredo Cabrera Liconia was killed at one of those exact intersections. And the point that we had made in a letter was then a point that was made to New Yorkers, which is that we need to actually keep people safe, and the infrastructure does so. And I saw in my own district, too often daylighting is something that is delivered after someone is killed. We cannot allow for the story that happened to Dolma to happen again and again in order to see daylighting on an intersection. And so, that is the work that we are going to be doing with my commissioner, not just in thinking about one specific proposal, but frankly, how can we extend this to the work that we do across the city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source There are tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call the city home. Their safety is critically important to me, as is the safety of each and every New Yorker, and my job is to deliver for them. And we are also going to be making clear that if they are in need of assistance at this time, how they can interact with the city government, so that we can meet those needs, both in the immediate and the medium term. And we are going to make certain that for New Yorkers, we limit any of the impact on their day-to-day life that will come as a consequence of the actions the federal government has taken.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source As the mayor of New York City, it is my responsibility to ensure that whatever the actions the federal government takes, that they have a minimal impact on the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers. And so that will be a focus of my administration moving forward.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source On the first day as the mayor of New York City, you have to make the decision of which prior executive orders you will continue, you will amend, and you will revoke. And I made the decision to revoke all executive orders made by the prior administration following September 24th. And I made that decision because that was the date, for the first time in our city's history, when the mayor of this city was indicted. And it was a day at which many New Yorkers started to doubt, even more than they did, the motivations behind any executive order or executive action that was going to be taken. And so, I made that decision with regards to every executive order that was issued after that date. And that also included orders pertaining to Rikers, for example.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Absolutely. I have to say that I have deep respect for Polish New Yorkers who have made this neighborhood what it is, and a respect also for the fact that they have done so under difficult conditions over many years. And yet, what we see today is that this thriving, blooming, beautiful neighborhood is one that is also pricing out many who have lived here for decades. And while I served in the state assembly, I had the pleasure of getting to know and calling a friend, our Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, who would tell me time and time again of the plight of Polish constituents of hers, not just as tenants, but also as small business owners, and how they were being pushed out of this city. And we want to ensure that we do not only remember Polish New Yorkers through the names of a park or a street or the institutions that we know in the neighborhood, but through a vibrant, living, breathing community that can afford to stay here. That is going to be at the centerpiece of our work to make the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable. Thank you for your work. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces City to Complete Redesign on McGuinness Boulevard.