Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Creates New Business Improvement District in Coney Island
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good afternoon, everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here alongside old friends and new. And you know, there's always the saying of, “The best thing since sliced bread.” So, for those who don't know, sliced bread was invented in 1928. Coney Island Cyclone over there was invented in 1927. So, Coney Island is actually better than even what we think of when we think of the best in the recent past. It is a true pleasure to be here at the People's Playground, the one and only. And the last time that I came in here in weather like this, I plunged into the ocean in a full suit, so it's a pleasure to be here in a different capacity. And I very firmly have my feet planted on the boardwalk today, and I'm so excited to be celebrating the formation of the Coney Island BID. The launch of the Coney Island Business Improvement District marks a new era of investment in this beloved community. An era where the small businesses that make Coney Island so vibrant and inviting have the support that they need to thrive. It took eight years of community organizing and advocacy to make this BID a reality. It took local merchants, property owners, and city workers at the Department of Small Business Services coming together to mobilize for this community's future, knocking on doors, talking to their neighbors. And many of the people who led that slow, steady work are here today. I want to say thank you to each of you alongside me and in front of me and beyond, for believing in this project. I want to say thank you to a dear old friend of mine, who I now have the privilege of serving alongside, our Council Member Kayla Santosuosso, my former boss. I want to say thank you to Dennis Vourderis of Deno's Wonder Wheel. It's truly — I feel, I do feel a little bit starstruck. I'm being honest, I've been on the Wonder Wheel many times, I never thought I'd meet you. And then I want to say thank you as well to Sophia Harrison of Art’s House Schools of Music [Dance, and Fine Arts]. We have Daniel Murphy from [the] Alliance for Coney Island. And then we also have the former council member whose legislation this was, who ushered this through so many different passages and challenges, former council member, Justin Brannan. Finally, Pam Pettyjohn of Coney Island Beautification. For a time in the late 19th century, it was not the Statue of Liberty that immigrants first glimpsed when they entered our harbors. It was instead Coney Island. Specifically, the Coney Island Elephant, a 122-foot colossus of a hotel built in the shape of an elephant. And though it burned down in 1896, that playful spirit has defined Coney Island for generations of New Yorkers. When New Yorkers think of summer, we dream of escaping the city heat to roam this boardwalk, to ride the Deno Wonder Wheel, to load up on candy at Williams, and split some Nathan's cheese fries with friends. This has always been a haven for working New Yorkers. And while seasonal traffic accounts for much of Coney Island's economy, there is another Coney Island as well. This is the Coney Island made of Black and Latino families, of Italian and Jewish small business owners who built storefronts here decades ago. The Coney Island of Russian, Ukrainian, Caribbean, Central Asian and South Asian neighbors who now pray, shop and build their lives along Mermaid Avenue. And yet we know for far too long the city and state have failed to invest in Coney Island in a meaningful way. That's true for both the colorful shops that cater to beachgoers and the mom-and-pop pharmacies that sustain those who call this home. As Coney Islanders contend with the challenges of life here, whether it be the damages of Hurricane Sandy or the increasingly untenable cost of maintaining a business. They have too often been left to fend for themselves. No more. The Coney Island BID will invest an initial $1 million in the small businesses that power this community, ensuring the people's playground remains a welcoming place all year for visitors and residents alike. That means a variety of sanitation and beautification efforts, from the development of marketing materials to power wash shared spaces, to touches like potted plants and festive lights lining Mermaid Avenue during the holidays. The simple truth is that it has become too hard to run a business in this city. That is why I signed Executive Order 11 last month so that we not only identify ways to cut fees and fines for small businesses but start to deliver these reforms within the next six months. As we work to transform the lives of working Coney Islanders, City Hall remains laser-focused on passing our affordability agenda. Because the New Yorkers who give Coney Island its character are the same New Yorkers who stay awake at night, wondering how they are going to cover childcare costs every month. They are the same New Yorkers whose rents keep rising even as their paychecks don't, who are sick of hidden costs and junk fees making it harder to make ends meet. And they are the same New Yorkers who lose precious time with their families every week as they ride the slowest buses in America to and from work. The Coney Island BID is the first step of many as we redouble our commitment to a prosperity shared among all New Yorkers. Thank you to everyone here who believed in this project, who ushered this project to this moment. Coney Island, and all of our city, will be better for it. Now it is my honor to sign the Certificate of Incorporation for the Coney Island Business Improvement District. I would like to invite Council Member Santosuosso to join me in doing so. [Signs Certificate.] We will now hear from our Council Member Kayla Santosuosso.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And now, of [Deno’s] Wonder Wheel fame himself, Dennis Vourderis.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And now, please join me in welcoming Pam Pettyjohn.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Absolutely. Well, I think first and foremost — and you've heard this also from prior speakers — this BID will also bring a regularity and a sustained commitment to some of the services that are so critical in maintaining Coney Island, maintaining the boardwalk, maintaining the surrounding area. And it supplements so much of the work the city is doing. And what I'm so thankful to be here for is to follow the lead of businesses in this community. Because a BID can only be established when you have a majority of businesses making that decision themselves. And today is the opportunity for the city to join hands and say that not only will we establish this BID, but that we are so excited for everything that it will bring.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I love roller coasters. I was on the Phoenix like four months ago. I'm a big fan of Coney Island. Big fan of roller coasters. Also, a big fan of the bumper cars that you can go on, just not too far from the boardwalk. Many a memory listening to Pop Smoke while being in those bumper cars. I would say 10 out of 10 recommend Cyclone — also incredible — all of these things around me are great. Slingshot is a little too much for me.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Well, you know, running for mayor got me to do the polar plunge. And I was not too far from here, just dripping wet in my suit, talking about the importance of the rent guidelines board. So thankfully, I think the days of the polar plunge are over for now. Maybe one day. Maybe when we're doing the 10-year anniversary of the BID, who knows?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, we are going to be approaching the housing crisis in a wide variety of ways. One of those are these rental rip-off hearings, which will be taking place in every borough of our city to give New Yorkers an opportunity not only to attest to the conditions that they are living through, but also to help inform what city policy should be in following through on those conditions and holding bad landlords to account. And we will also continue to work with NYCHA residents to ensure that they are being delivered the quality of service that they've long been denied. And while we know that so much of the reason that NYCHA residents are living through a system that requires around $80 billion of capital improvements by last count, is a lack of commitment from the federal government, the city also has to make clear what we will be doing. And so I was proud to be in the Rockaways not too long ago to announce the investment of heat pumps at a NYCHA development because these are the kinds of investments we can make that not only address the systems of heating and cooling that have long outlived their useful life, but also to ensure that we can deliver a quality of life as well as taking on the climate crisis simultaneously. We will continue to do so in our work.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, we mourn the loss of lives of New Yorkers, and we keep their families in our thoughts. And at this time, what we know about their deaths is that they were within private residences, that preliminary indications point to hypothermia. Beyond that, there's no additional information to share. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Creates New Business Improvement District in Coney Island.