Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces Opening of Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a privilege to be here, to celebrate the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in East Flatbush. Now, to begin, I want to first acknowledge a few people that I have with me here on this stage. We have our [Department of] Parks commissioner, Tricia Shimamura. We have a man that we all know now as the public advocate, Jumaane Williams. But for today, I think it is important to also acknowledge him as [a] former council member, because this idea has been a long time coming and I am thankful to stand on the stage alongside so many of those who ensured that not only was it dreamt, but that it was also delivered. And I want to also acknowledge Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Council Member Farah Louis, State Senator Kevin Parker, [and] our Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman. And I want to also thank representatives of the Shirley Chisholm and Roy Hastick families. Now, before we speak about all this extraordinary community space we'll have to offer, I want to first address the lethal cold front that gripped New York City this weekend. This weekend, we saw the winter's coldest and most dangerous temperatures thus far. It was colder in our city than in parts of Antarctica. Since Friday's press conference, one additional New Yorker lost their life on the streets of our city as a result of this cold snap. The total lives lost is now 18. Each life lost is a tragedy, and we will continue to hold their families in our thoughts. I want to thank our dedicated agencies and every city worker who has worked tirelessly through these conditions. Since Monday, January 19th, we have made approximately 1,400 placements into shelters and safe havens. We have involuntarily transported 33 New Yorkers who were deemed to be a danger to themselves or to others. As of Sunday morning, across Friday and Saturday night, 560 New Yorkers used H+H warming centers, and nearly 300 New Yorkers used a DHS warming vehicle. In preparation for this past weekend, I directed my team to take steps to bolster and extend our efforts to get people inside and off the streets. And on Friday, I announced an additional 64 hotel rooms of shelter capacity and new partnerships with organizations like ACE and CMS, as well as with DOE school nurses, to expand our outreach. Because of that work, we saw at least 150 additional outreach workers hitting the streets, supplementing and augmenting the efforts of the over 400 DHS outreach workers who had already been working around the clock, and dozens of additional nurses who were assisting our existing city clinical staff. We operated nearly 65 warming centers this weekend, including standing up additional facilities to outages in Brooklyn. And on Saturday, we expanded our capacity. Thanks to [the] partnership between the Department of Social Services and [the] Department of Buildings, we accelerated the opening of 48 additional safe haven shelter units in the Bronx. We also deployed a new tool on LinkNYC kiosks so that New Yorkers in need could find the warming center nearest to them, adding new, bigger signage to warming centers and vehicles, and worked to improve 311 to cut the time that it takes to report a homeless individual in need of help approximately in half. We have been working hard to keep New Yorkers safe, and we will continue to do so. Because it is not forecast to be above 32 degrees until tomorrow, and 35 degrees is hardly balmy weather. Until temperatures warm up, I ask all of you in this room and outside of it to please continue to take additional precautions. Stay safe, stay indoors, and please, New York, let's keep looking out for one another. We will get through this. Now, I'd like to turn to why we're gathered here together in East Flatbush today, the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center. The unbought and unbossed Shirley Chisholm was one of one. She was a proud daughter of Flatbush, a child of Guyanese and Barbadian immigrants. And as we mark Black History Month, what a joy it is to celebrate the first Black woman to serve in the United States Congress. She made history in the halls of Congress, but she was always striving to do more, to help the people of New York and our nation more. When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1972, she was the first woman to ever do so. And she did it on her own terms, without institutional support, endorsements from political kingmakers, or big-dollar donors. Congresswoman Chisholm didn't need billionaire backing, because she was backed by the people of Brooklyn and an unwavering belief that [the] American people were ready for a new kind of politics. Some 52 years later, I am eternally grateful for her example. And today, we continue to honor her legacy with this tribute, a space that is truly worthy of her name, her works, and the lesson that she left all of us. And looking around, it is easy to imagine the hum of activity that will soon fill these rooms. Teens cycling through these doors to play pickup basketball and volleyball, while children run around the plaza outside. Seniors getting their steps in at [the] pickleball courts, their laps in at the pool, then attending a cooking class in the brand-new teaching kitchen. And of course, men in their 30s, who will start the next great podcast in the state-of-the-art media center, who are always there. The Media Lab, in fact, is one of my favorite aspects of this new space. It is named after Dr. Roy A. Hastick — a Grenadian immigrant, [who] was a true pillar of this community. He founded the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, lifting up thousands of business owners who had long been marginalized. Shirley Chisholm liked to say, "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair." At this center, thanks to her work, there will be plenty of seats for everyone. This center will remain low-cost to all New Yorkers and free to anyone under the age of 24. So, allow me to correct myself, anyone of any age will be able to start a podcast here. When I speak of building a more affordable city for New Yorkers, I don't mean only necessities like rent and transportation. Making New York more affordable also means [the] government investing in spaces like this, where New Yorkers can learn, can grow, and can simply enjoy their time together. 41,000 people live a 15-minute walk or transit ride from this space. It is the first-ever recreation center in central Brooklyn and the first built citywide in the last 15 years. The Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center will be a true hub of community, and it will serve as an example of what's possible in New York City. And like its namesake, this center is a trailblazer, opening the door to a new era. After years of stagnation, this is the first of six new recreation centers currently under development by New York City Parks. And it serves as a model for a new kind of build, a commitment to public excellence. Thank you to all of the civil servants, the elected officials [who] are standing here alongside me, as well as those outside of this room, and faith and community leaders who pushed for this project. You fought tooth and nail to see this through, even when it seemed like the odds were against it. You never wavered in your fight for central Brooklyn, and because of it, thousands of people in this community will have the kind of public infrastructure that makes a tangible difference in their day-to-day lives. So, I want to say, before anything else, thank you to all of you for making this day possible. I also want to thank the Department of Design and Construction for getting this project done. And finally, I want to thank the Chisholm family themselves. Thank you so much for everything you have given this city and this country. Shirley Chisholm believed in a politics of the people. This space, in its lasting, finished form, will stand as a monument to her legacy. This is only the beginning. There is much more to come, and for that and everything else, I say thank you. And now we will hear from our Parks commissioner, Tricia Shimamura.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source We've heard her name, and now it's time to hear from her herself. Councilwoman Farah Louis.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Yes, absolutely. It is, frankly, a pleasure to be standing here alongside so many of my former colleagues who I served with in the State Assembly, and also who served in the additional chamber of the State Senate. And the conversations that we have had over the course, not just of the campaign, but even just in lead-up and now in this moment of governing, are conversations about how can we take care of the very New Yorkers who have so often been overlooked. I'll tell you one thing. When I speak about how we need to reset the city's relationship to the state, when I speak about how we need to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers — people who make a million dollars or more — by 2 percent, I'm often told about the prospect of people leaving this city, this idea of capital flight. And I push back with the facts, but also what I think about is the fact that we don't talk that much about the actual exodus that's already taking place. We have seen an exodus disproportionately of Black New Yorkers over the last few years. From 2010 to 2019, we saw a decline of our city's population of black children and teenagers by 19 percent. So, the conversations I have with my colleagues who are up here are also conversations about how the city and the state can be stepping up to make this an easier city to keep calling your home. And that's why today means so much, because these elected officials, these faith leaders, these community leaders, have done everything they can to make this a place where young people can come to and find a sense of self, where older adults can find, I think as Councilwoman Louis had said, leisure, not loneliness. And these are a lot of the conversations we're having, because what we want to build is a city government that can deliver on the needs of working class New Yorkers, and some of those working class New Yorkers are the ones in this very neighborhood that have been overlooked for far too long.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI wasn't able to make that event, but I do look forward to sitting down with the Cardinal, and I'm so excited, frankly, at his leadership in this city. And what we see so often, frankly, is that New Yorkers do not actually turn to elected officials in moments of need. They are turning to their faith leaders. They are turning to those who they have long trusted to help them make sense of a senseless world. And his predecessor was a man who did just that. I know that he will be the same, and I'm looking forward to the work we can do together to continue to not only know of the words of the scripture, but to live the scripture as well.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So I will get back to you. Actually, you know what? We have Erin who is here with us from our team. Before I pass it over, I think one thing I want to share is that when the city goes into below freezing weather, we enact something called Code Blue. Code Blue then creates new protocols for how the city engages with New Yorkers at large and also specifically homeless New Yorkers. And as part of Code Blue, which we have been in as a city since January 19th, we have had city workers conduct a relentless amount of outreach. And what they have been able to do is make more than 1,400 placements into safe haven sites and shelters. And I have had the privilege of visiting drop-in sites, safe haven sites, H + H warming centers, and I have told these city workers directly that they are doing the work that saves New Yorkers' lives. They are keeping people indoors in a moment of the kind of cold that you simply cannot imagine. And I'll just pass it over for this specific question.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces Opening of Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center.