Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces Opening of Upper East Side Early Childhood Education Center This Fall, Meeting Critical Demand in District
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, neighbors. We are gathered together to open a 30,000 square foot early childhood education center inside of what was once a parking garage on 403 East 65th Street. This is a reflection of our commitment to transforming our city, and we are only here thanks to the hard work and the advocacy of so many. I want to say thank you to the community members and childcare advocates who have long called for this project, and thank you as well to the elected officials who are here alongside me, our Speaker Julie Menin and our Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, as well as our Community Board 8 Chair Valerie Mason. For too long, parents across the city have faced a shortage of 3K and pre-K seats in their neighborhood. The lack of early childhood education centers left families with two bad choices: either claim a seat in a neighborhood far away or pay out of pocket for childcare. Upper East Siders have long called for the early childhood resources the neighborhood needs, and yet year after year, those calls were ignored. While this building was completed last summer, its classrooms have continued to sit empty for months. And so, while parents were forced to look elsewhere for childcare, they would walk past a solution to the very challenges that they faced, wondering why its doors remained closed. As one mother said at the time, “It's like a slap in the face every time we walk by.” Today, we are righting that wrong, as we open the first standalone city-run early childhood center in the 10065 ZIP code. By opening this center, we are more than doubling pre-K capacity and fully quadrupling 3K capacity within this ZIP code. In total, this center will serve 72 four-year-olds in pre-K and 60 three-year-olds in 3K. If you have a child turning three or four this calendar year, and you live in this neighborhood, there are several ways for you to apply. You can go online to myschools.nyc. You can call 718-935-2009. And if you've already applied, as I know more than 50,000 families have across our city, and you look at the news of this center and you're excited, know that you can go back to your application and edit it to include this center within your preferences. And for those of you who are the kind of New Yorkers who tune into a midday presser, first, thank you. Second, I want to ask for your help. Please spread the word to those New Yorkers who might miss this announcement, to those who do not yet know that this city is taking a step forward in ensuring that 3K and pre-K is a reality for all who call this city home. And I want to be clear. Expanding access also means expanding our partnerships with existing childcare providers who want to partner with the city, working together to ensure that they can reliably fill their classrooms. Because it is actions like these where we meet the needs of New Yorkers, where we will make universal childcare a reality and drive down the monthly costs so many New York parents are forced to face. Together, we are going to make this a city where parents are no longer forced between the choice of raising a family and staying in the city that they love. We will build a New York where working families can feel the benefit of more than $20,000 saved per year. And in so doing, we will build a city from the Upper East Side to Parkchester to Brighton Beach, where every New Yorker can afford a life of dignity and imagine a future here for their family and for their children. This is only the beginning. And I want to say thank you again to everyone who helped us get to this point. With that being said, I'm going to now pass it over to our speaker, Julie Menin.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Thank you, Speaker Menin. And now we'll pass it over to our friend and our borough president of this borough we call home in Manhattan, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Segal.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Thank you to all of our speakers. And I will just say before we start our Q&A that, you know, I had a family member pull me aside who has a young child and say, “Can you please stop advertising about 3K and pre-K, because I want to make sure that we all actually get a seat.” And that's how so many New Yorkers have been engaging with this process, worried about whether they will have a city that can meet the demand. And what we are showing today, alongside elected officials, community advocates, and organizers and families is that this is going to be a city that can meet the needs of every single child that wants a seat. And we are going to do the work to ensure that we are bringing that seat closer to home. Thank you all so much.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source This is the deadline. We will keep it to the 27th to ensure that we can actually do the work after the deadline of meeting every family's request. Now, we also know that there are more than 50,000 New Yorkers who've already put in applications. They may see this news and say, “Well, this is a center closer to me.” They can go to their application and edit it and put this center at the top of their preferences if they so choose. After the 27th, families will have the option to add their names to wait lists. Until the 27th, however, it is an open application. And just one other thing to make clear to families: it's not a first-come, first-served process. If you apply on the first day of this timeline or the last day of this timeline, your application is treated the same. You just have to get your application in by February 27th.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, in the first fiscal year, we've put a goal of 1.5%. In the second fiscal year, we’ve put a goal of 2.5%. And what we found is that in prior administrations, when you set an expense goal of 3%, 5% — as we saw in the prior administration — that's the point at which the city has to start to change its service provision. That's the point at which garbage can collection is reduced. That's the point at which library service hours are cut. We do not want to put forward a City government that cannot meet the needs of New Yorkers. We do want to pursue any and all inefficiencies, eliminate any and all waste and do so in a manner that makes clear we have to bring the city back to firm financial footing.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, right now, we are currently in line with prior years, and we are also anticipating that, as is typically the case, the closer we get to the deadline, the more families will take that final step. We are looking to use every single tool at our disposal to reach out to families, whether that be LinkNYC kiosks, whether it be in the back of a taxicab, whether it be robocalls to families across the city. We want to make sure that every New Yorker knows, in whatever language they speak, that this is a city that wants them to enroll their child, whether they're turning three or four this year into our 3K and pre-K. They can do so by going online, by making a phone call, and also by going to more than ten welcome centers. And I can tell you that I had the privilege of being with the [New York City Public Schools] chancellor and watching a navigator assist a mother and her young child in doing this enrollment process. It is far more straightforward than many of the other processes we've seen.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source All the endorsements that I've made are the ones that I am speaking about publicly at this time. When I have any additional information on that, I will be sure to share it. What I can tell you is I'm looking forward to this meeting and the opportunity to speak with our Congressional Delegation about what this city needs and how we can work together to deliver for the constituents that we all call our own.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, we have sought to use every single tool at our disposal. We also had a roundtable with ethnic and immigrant media to specifically speak to constituencies that may be receiving their news through other means. And within our phone number that New Yorkers can call, there are a number of additional languages. I think over 200 languages are offered so that New Yorkers can actually enroll in this and that language access is not a barrier to that end. And we have been heartened, frankly, by the results we've seen thus far and also the realization that this is a program for everyone. And what we want to also do is show that we are going to be able to meet the needs of New Yorkers who want to apply to this program. Because I think as we've heard from both myself and a number of other speakers, we've quite literally had an empty building that was ready to be opened just sit vacant for months. And that is the kind of example where New Yorkers look at it and they ask themselves, is this City government doing anything towards the need that we've been speaking about? And we're excited to be delivering on a new era where we not only do the obvious things like opening up a childcare center that is ready to go, but also do the work of reaching out and working with childcare providers to make sure that we are building on that relationship. And to your second question, you know, we have laid out the facts of our preliminary budget, facts that include our city facing a generational fiscal crisis, the likes of which we haven't seen since the Great Recession. And unlike the Great Recession, this was not caused by external factors. This was entirely man-made and within the control of City government. Now we are inheriting this crisis, and we are required by law to balance the budget of our preliminary budget for this fiscal year and the next one. And we've showcased that in order to do so, the path that we want to pursue is working with Albany to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, the most profitable corporations, by that little bit more, while ending the drain that has characterized the relationship between the city and the state, so that we can balance that budget. If we do not have that state action, then the only tools that the city has at its disposal is a property tax increase. That is not a pursuit that we want to follow through on.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I've shared that when it comes to these proposals and others, that I care deeply about ensuring that New Yorkers can worship freely in their own city, and that we also protect the First Amendment rights to protest all at the same time. And that's why I directed my Law Department and my NYPD to conduct a review of the legality of this proposal as well as others. And I can tell you that my police commissioner has expressed concerns about that proposal. And on the first question that you put forward — as you've said, this is a preliminary budget. We have an Executive Budget, and then we have an adopted budget. It'll continue to be an active process. What I can tell you, however, is that we are expanding the amount of funding for our office to combat antisemitism, and we are also looking to utilize every tool at our disposal to ensure that we root out bigotry from across the five boroughs.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I'll say that we've seen an issue with retention in our Department over the last few years. And I've said time and again that for too long, the city has added additional responsibilities onto the NYPD. We see at this point the NYPD responsible for responding to about 200,000 mental health calls a year. And part of our vision in establishing a Department of Community Safety is to start to take that responsibility of mental health crises and task mental health responders with that work, and to ensure that police can focus on the work that they signed up to focus on, which is tackling violent crime across the city. And I'm also appreciative of the work that's already been done by my police commissioner within the Department of starting to bridge that gap. We're seeing larger and larger classes also being hired towards that end.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think it's absolutely a critical part of this. And I think too much of that forced overtime has also come from a result of the ever-expanding number of responsibilities we've given to those officers.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, this is currently the subject of an active NYPD investigation, and I can't provide comment while that is underway, but I will be sure to update you as we have anything to share.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, this is very much a first step in our budget process. We have an Executive Budget and then an Adopted Budget before the end of June. And I continue to believe deeply in the importance of making public transit more affordable, and Fair Fares is a critical tool in that. And I appreciate the organizers and advocates who have always ensured that it's top of mind, because we have to make this a city where working people can get around. We also have to put forward a budget that not only charts the course of our first year in office but frankly charts the course amidst the kind of fiscal crisis we haven't seen here in more than a decade.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I continue to have conversations with the governor around the importance of making public transit more affordable, and I appreciate the partnership that we've developed. Thank you all so much. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces Opening of Upper East Side Early Childhood Education Center This Fall, Meeting Critical Demand in District.