Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds Press Conference to Make a Childcare Announcement With Governor Kathy Hochul and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is always a pleasure to be back in Queens, and Jackson Heights, especially. Yes, shout out to Queens, especially when you arrive via the toddler rope, which I cannot say I've ever done before. I want to acknowledge our governor, Kathy Hochul, who's here and has been a partner in so much of this. I want to acknowledge also our chancellor, Kamar Samuels, who's with us. It is a pleasure to be here alongside the early childhood chair in the City Council, Councilwoman Jen Gutiérrez, who's here with us; [and] our local Council member, Council Member Shekar Krishnan. And I also want to thank Principal Christopher Herman of the Garden School. It is a real pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having us. You know, here in Jackson Heights, it takes a minute or two to walk one block as the crow flies. However, when you are walking on the toddler rope, it can take five minutes per block, maybe more. And because someone needs to stop and inspect 14 rocks, someone wants to touch every fire hydrant, someone won't walk further until they've seen a yellow taxi, and someone needs to debate whether or not the clouds actually look like dinosaurs. And the spoiler alert is yes, that they, in fact, do. But in all seriousness, when you are a parent trying to drop your child off at daycare, adding to your commute twice a day is a very long time. While universal Pre-K and 3-K will deliver major relief to parents, we know that our work has only just begun. For years, the demand for seats has exceeded the supply. As a result, working parents have frequently had to choose between traveling a significant distance for free childcare or spending more than $20,000 per child per year to stay closer to home. Universal childcare should mean meeting parents where they are no matter where they live. And it is such a pleasure to be here alongside so many leaders in this fight, because just yesterday our administration announced that we are adding 2,000 new 3-K seats across 57 new ZIP codes citywide. This is double the number of our previous 3-K expansion plan. And it's why today I'm proud to announce that we have extended 99,921 3-K and Pre-K offers to families across the five boroughs this year. I'm especially proud of the fact that we have extended offers that meet New York's families where they are. Seventy percent of families received an offer from their top 3-K choice, which is a 5 percent increase from last year. Eighty-five percent of families received an offer from one of their top three choices, another five percent increase from last year. And we've also reduced the average distance between a family's home and their childcare center by a third of a mile, also known as somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, or the time it takes a toddler to walk six blocks. That's the time that now parents will be able to have to get a cup of coffee or make it to work on time. Time to cook dinner in the evenings a little earlier, spend a little bit more time together before bedtime. Time that will frankly add a little more dignity and lift a little bit more anxiety from the lives of working parents. After all, as Wiz Khalifa once said: “Time is money, so I went and bought a Rolex.” Now, unfortunately, City Hall will not be buying parents Rolexes. We are just coming out of our budget deficit. But we do agree that time is time, and New Yorkers deserve a lot more of it. And I want to thank our governor who's here with us today, because so much of this has been made possible thanks to the governor's commitment of $1.2 billion, investing not only in the first time in New York City history for free childcare for two-year-olds, but also increasing the quality of childcare that we were already delivering across the city, and that is such a key part of what we're celebrating here today. Because we want these improvements to serve as examples — examples that [show] our efforts to rebuild New York City's childcare system are working. Examples that [show] we can make it easier to raise a child in the city you love without being forced out by rising costs and rising stress. And examples that when government understands its purpose as serving the working people who power our city, it can deliver change that working people can truly feel. Because what we are seeing today is that even for families who are placed in a program outside of their preferred options, we have, thanks to this infusion of support from the governor. Been able to cut the average distance they have to travel by nearly a mile on average. That is saving them time, saving them stress. And we're going to continue working every single day to build a better city for New Yorkers, to build a city where people have the time to live the lives they deserve and to raise the families that they love. Thank you so much for being here today to celebrate this momentous day in our city's history. And I want to pass it over now to someone who really made this possible. Thank you, Governor Kathy Hochul.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThank you so much to our Council member, not only for the kindness of her words, but the nature of her leadership and having been such a leader in the fight for universal childcare. It's such a joy now to have you here as we actually deliver on this together. It is now a great pleasure to introduce the Council member of this area district, Council Member Shekar Krishnan.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe saw the percentage of families that received approvals for programs that were not listed on their app decrease this year. Last year it was 15 percent, it went down to 12 percent as part of these investments, and for those that were still part of that 12 percent, they saw the average distance decrease by about 17 blocks. And we know that this is critical because as we've heard from both the Council members, it's not just the importance of this as a program, it's also the ability to actually access this program. We've heard families before who've said, “I live in Bed-Stuy and I'm getting an offer for a center in Astoria. That doesn't mean much to me.” And now we're actually starting to be able to deliver things that are closer to home so more people can actually use it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThat they're still at the heart of our focus. And that's why we also wanted to make sure that for those who didn't get that top spot, that the average distance would still decrease even for those families as well. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, I'll let the chancellor answer that question, but on the first question, what I will say is that we will always take every opportunity to speak directly to New Yorkers about the services that the city provides them and the fact that these are their programs. Because what we found is that we inherited not just a bare bones outreach team as it pertained to childcare. Despite the incredible efforts of the city council, we saw that there was sustained disinvestment in the outreach around universal childcare, especially as it pertained to 3-K and pre-K. What we've also seen is decreased immigration into our city, increased fear and suspicion of enrolling and using city services, especially from immigrant communities. We know that very clearly right here in Jackson Heights. And then also years of confusion over what was actually available. And so, in inheriting all of that, we knew we had to invest in a sustained outreach this year and have it also be part of multi-year outreach so that we can start to win the trust back of those families. Because frankly, the announcements that we've made today of how much closer these centers will be, how many more families will have their top choice or their top three choices, that's how you start to wind people back to being a part of the system. Because we know for so many parents, it's not going to be the ad that you see on a LinkNYC kiosk or in the back of a taxicab. It's going to be a comment you see from a parent on a Facebook group, that [says], “Actually, this year, I got that program” [or] “This year I didn't, and it was still closer than last year.” That's how we're going to start to win people in the years to come.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI have to be honest; there isn't a great answer for the holdup of a lot of these centers. We are talking about childcare centers that were sitting dormant sometimes for years, and New Yorkers would walk past them and ask themselves, how can I believe in this program if this center right here is gathering dust after we've spent millions of dollars in bringing it up to code? And I will say that for us, we are asking ourselves, how we can deliver more for New Yorkers? How can we deliver more for parents? Because we don't want to rest on our laurels. We don't want to say, “This is as good as this program will ever be.” It's always an opportunity to do more. Emmy, I don't know if you'd like to add anything to that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, it is an incredible run. I am like every New Yorker, just continuing to hope maybe I will be there. We'll see. But I'm definitely watching. I even managed to catch a glimpse of Wemby hitting it from the logo yesterday, which was quite something. But we are, we are praying for a rerun of the 1999. When it comes to heat, I will say that, you know, today we are entering into 90-degree weather. And as a result of that yesterday, we took the action of activating the City's Heat Emergency Plan and what that means is that we're going to have city workers out across the five boroughs and they're going be welcoming New Yorkers into cooling centers and also helping our neighbors stay safe in extreme heat. We know that when you have this level of heat it can also be exacerbated and amplified in certain parts of the city due to the built environment and so we are urging every New Yorker to not only plan ahead, to not only stay hydrated, but also, to check in on loved ones and to take this heat seriously [and] the city is doing exactly that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe're interrogating that every day. Thus far, what we're seeing, though, is the utilization of all the tools we have in us. It's not. Those three individuals should not have received press passes. My administration is reviewing the entire process and the standards for press credentialing. The guidelines fall underneath the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. We will initiate our own process to review these. And what I will say is there is a good nature debate to be had about where a press pass should extend and where it shouldn't. However, the three people that we are talking about don't fall within that debate. I think one of the most important things is that I, as the mayor, should not be deciding who is considered a journalist worthy of a pass and who is not. However, what we should have is a process that people can trust, because as you said, the nature of news, how it is reported, how [it] is consumed, has changed. The city has to keep up with that. We have to ensure that if a New Yorker is getting their news in this manner, we also treat that legitimately. However, we're talking about with regards to the three press passes that were reported on yesterday; that's not within that debate. What we need to do is put forward a process that is one where people can look at it and say, “This is actually acknowledging the different ways in which to report.” That's what we're reviewing right now, is how to put that together. You know, at this point it's still within the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. That's where we're going to conduct that review to make sure we actually put together that process. And it's one that is actually reckoning with all of these different changing dynamics of the newsroom environment. We're going make sure that it's actually a much fairer one. I've made very clear that when organized labor and community organizations across the city raise concerns around the constitutionality of this legislation, as well as the impact it would have on so much of what is at the core part of how organizing takes place, especially given its incredibly broad definition of educational institutions that encompasses libraries, museums, hospitals, not just institutions of higher education, that it's important to hear those concerns and act accordingly. That's why I did veto the legislation because of those concerns. I made that clear time and again, and I continue to stand by them. And I know that we had a number of Council members who voted in opposition to that legislation, and a lot of them were doing so also in accordance to those same concerns. The conversations that I'm having are usually on issues around the neighborhood, I will say, but I've made my feelings very clear.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIt looks like it. I think, obviously, this still has to be ratified by unions, but given the way in which it's being responded to, I think that many New Yorkers are overjoyed at the fact that we're going to see a resumption of service in about 46, 47 minutes, and that that is something that is important for the workers who keep our commuter rail running, and also for the New Yorker who rely on that commuter rails. And then on your question, you know, I don't think that those three should have been accorded those press passes, and now as part of the review, we're gonna look into what the immediate next steps are.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYeah, I think the most important thing is that when you're looking at these kinds of contracts, there's acknowledgement of the kind of work that is being done to ensure this computer rail system is continuing to operate, and also the importance that it plays in the lives of so many New Yorkers. Those who live in New York City, those who are also commuting in New York City. I also don't think of my own salary as a barometer. What I would say, though, is that we see it's incredibly difficult for New Yorkers over these past few days to negotiate their day-to-day needs. Now, at 12 p.m., they're going to see it gets that easier.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI'm not as familiar with the specific work rules with that, but I do appreciate the question. I am confident that our city is going to be able to meet the demand and meet the needs of working families across the city. And we, in our executive budget, we put forward $40 million in increased investments for rates for childcare providers. And that is a reflection of the fact that they are at the heart of ensuring it is even possible to dream of such a transformative system. They have been doing the work across the city. They've been seeing so much of the cost rise. And this is a down payment to that end. 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 Holds Press Conference to Make a Childcare Announcement With Governor Kathy Hochul and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.