Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces New NYU Quantum Fabrication Facility, First-of-Its-Kind Partnership To Give City a Stake in Emerging Industry
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
- 16 passages
- 3,618 words
- 2026-10-14
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is an honor to be here at NYU with so many friends and partners who have long worked to make our city a global center of innovation. We have leaders with us both inside and outside of our administration today. We have our deputy mayor, Julie Su. We have our EDC president and CEO, Tony Shorris. We have NYU President Linda Mills, NYU Tandon School of Engineering Executive Dean Juan de Pablo. We have NYU Board Chair Evan Chesler. We have Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal. "Hello, gorgeous," as he always says. We have Assembly Member Deborah Glick, who is welcoming us to her district right now. Council Member Harvey Epstein in his district. Assembly member and soon-to-be Senator Grace Lee. Council member and forever educator Rita Joseph. We have our deputy public advocate for education opportunity, Elizabeth Kennedy. And then, last but certainly not least, Community Board 2 Chair Valerie De La Rosa. Decade after decade, scientific greatness has been imagined, pursued and achieved here in New York City. In 1931, in a basement uptown at Columbia University, chemist Harold Urey made the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of deuterium, an isotope now used in everything from new medicines to potential renewable energies to smartphones and refrigerators. In 1944, at the Rockefeller Institute on the Upper East Side, Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty discovered that DNA is responsible for heredity, completely transforming our understanding of genetics. In 1961, right here at NYU, Cathleen Synge Morawetz proved what would become known as the first Morowitz inequality, fundamentally reshaping the modern understanding of how waves began. And in 2007, at 75 West 205th Street, between Paul and Goulden avenues in the Bronx, a 15-year-old scored a 91 on the biology regents. In case you're wondering, he's now the mayor. Now, not all of these scientific achievements are the same, yet we celebrate all of them in our city because these scientists and countless others were able to innovate in our city in no small part because New York shared their drive to question, to create, to push the limits of what is possible. A city that helped to provide them the support, the tools and the space they needed to push the boundaries of human knowledge, to go where no person had ever gone before. Today, City Hall is carrying on New York City's proud legacy of scientific innovation, providing our researchers with the resources they need to pioneer the technology of the future. I am proud to announce that, in partnership with NYU, New York City will invest nearly $30 million to bring a state-of-the-art quantum fabrication facility to life right here at 770 Broadway. While I, of course, understand the intricacies and latest advances in quantum technology, I'm going to snap my fingers and pretend that for five minutes, I do not. Right now, on a subatomic level, technologies are being developed that will revolutionize the way that we live. Technologies that will help us diagnose diseases and develop vaccines more effectively, that will help predict traffic patterns and ensure that our buses can run faster, and that will help us engineer the materials needed to build a greener future. The quantum industry is projected to generate more than $2.7 trillion in economic value globally by 2035. This fabrication facility, or QFab, will help to place our city at the forefront of this moment of opportunity. When it opens in 2030, it will be an epicenter of quantum innovation, offering researchers, professors, startups, companies and more than 5,000 students the resources they need to take these breakthroughs to the next level. It will feature 23,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing and testing space alongside specialized clean rooms, cryogenics and other equipment, the tools that are needed to develop groundbreaking quantum technologies right here in the city that we call home. However, we know that for too long, investments in institutions like these have benefited only the wealthiest among us instead of extending them, too, to the working people who helped to make them possible. At City Hall, we believe that when the public invests in new technology, the public should benefit from its success. That is why we have developed a first-of-its-kind governing agreement for QFab with our partners at NYU, one that will give New Yorkers both a stake in the future revenue of the technologies made here and a say in what those technologies are. First, when new technologies are developed in QFab with tools that the city helped to fund, the city will receive 15 percent of NYU central administration's revenue. And second, the city will have three seats. And second, the city will have three seats on the QFab executive advisory board — thank you, Harvey. Harvey's very passionate about board seats. To ensure that the voices of working New Yorkers shape quantum technologies for decades to come, this sets a new national standard, or, as we say in the industry, a standard model, for economic development in emerging industries. One in which the betterment of New Yorkers' lives is not a footnote and where economic justice and innovation go hand in hand. Thank you all so much for making this day possible and thank you for joining in making what will be a day that we will long remember in our city. Thank you. With that being said, I'm going to pass it over to our deputy mayor, Julie Su.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI didn't get a chance to watch it live, but I did have the chance to see the governor this morning. We met with a family who saved more than $27,000 because of the 2-K seat that their child had. And as we were helping AJ get ready to head out to 2-K and we headed outside, there was a woman who stopped the governor and congratulated her on a great performance. So, I think that's the general feedback on the debate. And to your first question, you know, I think you've heard it from the president of NYU, from the executive dean as well, which is that we're talking about an industry that is at the cutting edge of innovation. This is the perfect time for the City to be investing because what we're investing in is opportunity. And for the first time, we're developing a new kind of model that ensures that not only does it come with three board seats, not only does it come with a revenue-sharing agreement, but also it expands the benefits of this facility to CUNY students as well. And I think in many ways this is a model that we have been very excited about since the first day we've been in office. It's one that we are so happy to be partnering with NYU on here. And it also showcases what we want to bring to the rest of the city, which is the kind of economic development that will be felt by every single level of our city, because for far too long, we have both generated immense opportunity and still had a city where one in four are living in poverty.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I think, Liz, I would say that the term "deal" is an overstatement of what the prior administration left us with. They announced something — I think it was on Dec. 30 of their term. It was a framework they put forward that would also have the city lose a significant amount of its leverage for negotiating what the next stage of this plan would be, because it stated that if this deal was not accepted, then the current lease would be renewed for additional years. And so, I think that not only did that framework fall apart, [but] it was also a framework that I am not sure many people ever had confidence that it could sustain itself. Now, we are incredibly concerned by both the falling apart of that framework — what they had put together — and now, the work that we need to do to ensure that we actually create a new path forward. It's a path that will be charted in partnership with all of the co-ops that are there, and also one that addresses the question of emissions. Because what we are also talking about is a neighborhood that we are so incredibly thankful for, the fact that if it wasn't for Hunts Point, a lot of New Yorkers wouldn't have food on their table every single day. And yet we also know that there's too much of a cost that comes with that food distribution for many in that same neighborhood. So, alongside the development of what will be the first city-run grocery store that will open up in that neighborhood to ensure that food access is also something that is true for those who live there, one of the next priorities for us is charting a new course on efficiencies. I'm going to pass it over to our deputy mayor as well as our EDC director to add some additional details to that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, initially I was worried you were gonna ask about Schrödinger's cat, and now I'm like, maybe we should have gone there. To your first question, one of the key things here is about how we can expand the use of this lab space to CUNY students. In terms of the exact number of CUNY students that would have access to [it], I will get back to you on that number, unless anyone up here — de Pablo: Over 3,000 students.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd then, with regards to your question on the Repair Act — you know, conversations that we're having right now are about changing our property tax system and reckoning with all the different inadequacies of it. And as soon as we have updates on that, we will share them.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think when we're talking about the property tax system, we have to be talking about the fact that the inadequacies are not only at a residential level. There are a lot of different classes that have been set up for many years that, quite frankly, they are not coherent in the way that many New Yorkers would expect. And so, what we're doing right now is a full review of the entire system.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI will leave it to NYU to make the decision of what they would like to do with the rest of this building. What I will say is that the reason we are so excited about today's announcement is precisely because we are working together to advance a shared vision of what economic justice can look like in this city. And in providing nearly $30 million of support, what we're also doing is unlocking an opportunity for far more students across multiple campuses and also ensuring that the city isn't simply a spectator to the creation of an entirely new industry, but it's helping to shape that industry and also potentially benefiting from that kind of an industry. And I think that's critical in a city like ours where we are so proud of all the scientific discoveries that have been made here, and now we also want to answer the question of: how can we ensure that those advancements go back to helping working-class New Yorkers also afford to dream that maybe they themselves could also be at the forefront of that scientific discovery? [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, on your first question, no, he's not the inspiration. On your second question, we have stated our commitment before, and I will continue to echo it, that it is a commitment to ensuring that we are protecting the workers in this industry, the owners in this industry. And every single day over the course of the negotiation — of both this legislation as well as the broader framework around it — is one that we're spending to advance that kind of an agenda. Because we want to ensure that this is a resolution that also comes with a measure of a just transition for those who have earned their livelihood from this kind of work. The idea around ensuring that the city has a stake in future revenue is one that is driven by a larger conversation around what public subsidy should generate. So often, public subsidy is just put forward as an incentive without a question of whether the city should also be a part of the revenue that it often creates. And I'm answering this question for you, Jeff, in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And yet we know that oftentimes that wealth does not come back into the lives of working people who keep the city running. And so today, what is so exciting about it is [that] in that revenue agreement of 15 percent of what would otherwise be going to NYU central administration, it is revenue that will continue to ensure that we can create the next generation of scientists as well, not just celebrate this one. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, I'll start with your second question, and then we will go to your first. There's no one in my administration that I'm keeping in their position that has a time clock. When I have — when there is somebody in their position, I've made clear there are no plans to change that, whether it's with respect to the police commissioner as well as with respect to any other leaders, agencies and departments across our city. And I think I also just want to take a moment to say that a lot of the anger that New Yorkers are feeling, it begins with the horrific ICE shooting of Oscar Belgal on Thursday afternoon. Again, this is a shooting of a moving vehicle in which there's Oscar and his 5-year-old child in broad daylight during school hours, where ICE agents were dressed up as construction workers wearing vests and carrying long guns. And New Yorkers were terrified, and they continue to be terrified, and I understand that. And as it pertains to our Police Department, I have directed a full review of the 24-hour period that starts with the horrific ICE shooting, that extends to the Police Department's response to that incident as well as to the ensuing protests. It also extends to ICE's use of privately owned parking lots as staging locations, and then to a broader review of what more the city can do to protect immigrant New Yorkers across the five boroughs. Because I can tell you people are in a real sense of fear around what ICE is doing across the city. And we know that as much as we are focused on Thursday, that it is a microcosm of what ICE does on a day-to-day basis. And then on your first question, and I was saying this earlier to Jeff, that our focus is on providing real support to the workers and the owners in this industry. That support can look like equipping them with skills for a new kind of job. It can also look at the importance of compensation when it comes to medallions. We are having a broad conversation about what that can look like so that none of these workers and owners are the ones that are made to pay for the sunsetting of an industry.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThat is a lot of the work that will now come, is ensuring that we are putting forward, over the course of this year and next year, because, again, what this legislation does is set a sunset date of 2028. And we have to both protect the workers, protect the workforce that has found their livelihood from this job. And then, when it comes to the horses, I don't think the vision is that the horses would then continue to perform this kind of work elsewhere. There have been a lot of different proposals that have been [put] forward; whether it's sanctuary, whether it is then being taken in by farms, things of that nature. That's everything we're going to be investigating. But I want to be very clear that our commitment to the workforce is going to be one that will become more explicit than what is broadly gestured at in the legislation.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that we have a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry. And that, to me, is why over the course of this entire conversation, I have always spoken about the importance of taking care of the workers in this industry, because they have earned their livelihoods from this work. They should not be ones that are simply left as an afterthought of what comes after this. I think that's also why it's important that here we are on Oct. 14, 2026, and we're talking about legislation that will come into full effect in 2028. It is the kind of runway that's required to ensure that we can fulfill all of these different obligations.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that — I think that's still an open question. We'll get back to you. Thank you. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI welcome the comptroller's decision. It is something that I've said in the past, that I don't believe that our city should purchase Israel bonds. We don't purchase the bonds of any other sovereign nation. I don't think that we should make an exception when it comes to Israel. And also, this is the decision that the comptroller is making, and it's one that I support.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI meet with Jewish leaders, some of whom agree with me, some of whom have criticisms, and frankly, the meeting is never contingent upon agreement. I think if we were to do that, then you would just end up building a mirror for yourself, and that's not the way to lead a city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, I think, you know, it is hard for anyone to keep up with all of the bigotry and racism that Bruce Blakeman exhibits on a regular basis. So, I think that the governor did a good job, and I'll never fault someone for not being able to catch all of it, because that is a fool's errand when it comes to Bruce Blakeman. And I think the governor also made clear — you know, I said that I didn't watch the debate beyond the clip — but I think that the governor has made clear time and time again what her vision is. It's a vision of a more affordable New York. And when it comes to Bruce Blakeman, his vision seems to be making life harder for working people. When the governor and I announced putting our city on a pathway to universal childcare, Bruce Blakeman went on television and said this was rewarding lazy parents who would sit at home and watch "The View." When we were speaking about concerns about what HR 1 was going to do with regards to health care access across the state, Bruce Blakeman went on TV and said that he would cut Medicaid in half. When it comes to — even just kind of to Jacob's question — keeping New Yorkers safe at large, just yesterday evening, I had the privilege of seeing our soon-to-be congressman, Brad Lander. And Bruce Blakeman went on television and smeared Brad in a way that is just completely unacceptable, saying that he would be a prison guard for the Nazis during the Holocaust. That's who we're talking about with Bruce Blakeman. And so, I'm not surprised that he would try and incite a real sense of fear by engaging in this kind of — it's not even a dog whistle. It's just directly racist to say that I would not respond to Jewish New Yorkers being killed and raped. That is what Bruce Blakeman would like New Yorkers to think this election is about. What the election is about is, how can we make the city a little bit easier for working people? The governor is doing a good job in making her case. I think he doesn't have much to say to that end.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think the work that we're doing is an asset because the work that we're doing over 10 months has been to make the city more affordable for working families. And I think that the reason that Bruce Blakeman didn't bring me up for much longer in the debate than he had telegraphed to others was because it's hard to attack universal childcare for parents. It's hard to attack $131 million in back pay for 260,000 delivery workers. It's hard to attack more than 220,000 potholes being filled. It's hard to attack that kind of a record. It's easier to engage in bigotry on the basis of someone's faith. And that's what he does. And I think, you know, earlier we were being asked the question — I think Kelly was asking about ICE. Bruce Blakeman is somebody who has said that he likes working with ICE. He says he has a successful relationship working with ICE. He created a private militia in Nassau County. We're talking about the same force that New Yorkers want to see expelled from this city is what a gubernatorial candidate wants to bring across the state. And I am not surprised to see that he is struggling in polls. I'm not surprised to see that he doesn't have much policy. And I'm not surprised to see that he couldn't answer a question as to how he was actually going to cut utility rates in half because he doesn't have plans around them. He's just looking for different ways to try and make himself relevant. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces New NYU Quantum Fabrication Facility, First-of-Its-Kind Partnership To Give City a Stake in Emerging Industry.