Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, NYCHA Announce $38.4 Million Investment to Bring Clean, Reliable Heat Pumps to Beach 41st Street Houses
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. I had grand ambitions of FaceTiming Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson in, but it's a little bit too difficult with the logistics. It is a privilege to be here at the Far Rockaway Beach 41st Street NYCHA houses alongside the tireless workers, committed advocates who have dedicated themselves to keeping their neighbors warm. And I want to acknowledge the presence that we have here alongside me, not just of my Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg and my Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung, but also of our Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, our Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, our TA President Ms. Eugenia Gibson, and our NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt. Before I share how we are protecting NYCHA residents from the cold of today and the heat of the summer to come, I want to first speak about the cold spell that continues to impact our city. Today is the 13th day of this relentless cold. For two weeks, city workers and outreach teams have worked to shelter the vulnerable and the homeless from this weather. Since Monday, January 19th, when our city initiated a Code Blue protocol, we have made more than 1,100 placements into shelters and safe havens. We have involuntarily transported 20 New Yorkers who were determined to be a danger either to themselves or to those around them. And yesterday, we announced the opening of a new safe haven site with 106 beds in Lower Manhattan. This site is critically important to providing more shelter options for New Yorkers who are resistant to staying in congregate settings. As of this morning, 17 New Yorkers have passed away outside during this Code Blue. In 13 of these cases, preliminary findings indicate that hypothermia played a role. Three of these deaths appear to be overdose-related deaths, while one remains unknown. We await final results from the Medical Examiner's Office and will inform New Yorkers as we learn more. Each of these lives lost is a tragedy, and my heart is with the families who mourned their loved ones. From information available now, it appears that none of those who have died outside were living in homeless encampments at the time of their death. Our city remains in a 24-7 enhanced Code Blue. The danger persists from this weather. Temperatures will remain steady over the next few days, but there will be a drop come Saturday with the high in the low 20s and the low plummeting to around five degrees at night. Wind chill will get us to as low as negative 10. Though Sunday temperatures will rebound slightly, the wind chill will continue to drive real field temperature to 10 below zero. Monday itself may continue to bring zero-degree wind chill temperatures. These are dangerous, life-threatening conditions. And as long as temperatures remain this low, the risk of fatal exposure endures. These are also some of the coldest conditions that this city has faced in its recorded history. And so, we want to encourage everyone to take this seriously and to respond accordingly. We will continue to do everything in our power to get every New Yorker into a shelter where they will be safe and they will be warm. And I want to echo my call of the past few days to New Yorkers. If you see someone in need, please call 311 immediately, so outreach workers and first responders from across city agencies, including the NYPD and FDNY, can provide help and shelter. Finally, DSNY continues to keep our city running. They have cleared now over 59,000 crosswalks, over 12,000 fire hydrants, and more than 17,000 bus stops. They have melted more than 183 million pounds of snow and laid out over 227 million pounds of salt. They're also continuing to collect all residential trash and compost on its normally scheduled day, while recycling is being picked up within a 24-hour window of when pickup is typically scheduled. In the days to come, as we continue to weather this cold, I will keep New Yorkers updated on our progress. Now, I would like to turn to another issue brought to the fore by this enduring cold, the issue that brings all of us here together today. Our harbor is frozen. Ice flows have boxed out the ships carrying essential fuel that provide millions of apartments with warmth. And with bitter cold from New England to Texas, energy prices across the nation are skyrocketing. Costs like these only fuel the affordability crisis that too many New Yorkers' lives are affected by. And they serve as an urgent reminder of why we must pursue a clean heat future where sustainability and affordability go hand in hand. Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns. They are one and the same. And by changing the way that we heat and cool our NYCHA homes, we can tackle both, simultaneously building a brighter, greener future, while reducing the cost of heating and cooling our apartments. For too long, NYCHA residents have endured unreliable radiators and heating outages. And far too many summers have been spent soaked in sweat, deprived of access to the cooling systems they need. Before I was the mayor of our incredible city, I was an Assembly member representing a number of NYCHA developments, including the largest public housing development in North America, Queensbridge Houses. And when I would speak to residents, I would hear of a heating system that was so unreliable that they would have to regulate the heat themselves, opening up windows, no matter what the temperature was, to try and create some level of stability. And today, I am proud to announce that we are going to deliver a safer, more comfortable future for each of the 712 units here at Beach 41st Street Houses as we commit $38.4 million to install heat pumps for every tenant. The need for this infrastructure is urgent. You can look no further than the leak from the existing steam system at this very property where we are gathered. Residents here at Beach 41st Houses know the pain of a heat outage all too well. They deserve a heating and a cooling system they can depend on during the months of extreme weather. The outdated infrastructure in these buildings has outlived its useful life. And we are committed to fixing this steam leak as soon as possible while also delivering a more reliable system to the entirety of this campus. Now unlike the fuel-based system here, heat pumps are a reliable source of climate control for individual spaces, and they offer a dual-purpose answer to questions of both cost and sustainability, providing efficient and effective heating and cooling, while significantly lowering utility costs. As an Assembly member, I visited Woodside Houses, which is where there was the installation of heat pumps. And what I saw in person was a transformation of quality of life for NYCHA residents. It was a transformation that they would speak of anecdotally, and it was also one that you could see in the statistics measuring the impact of this installation. Because those heat pumps, when they were first introduced, they yielded over 87 percent in energy savings. And what the initiative allowed for thousands of residents was not just to receive reliable heat, but to control the temperature in their homes for the first time, granting them autonomy that they had long otherwise been denied. And today's investment will accord that same dignity to thousands more New Yorkers and mark our intent to enact a clean energy heating and cooling system at NYCHA developments across the entirety of our city. We expect our Clean Heat for All program to reach over 10,000 New York City apartments by 2030. And I want to encourage tenants and homeowners across the five boroughs to consider the same. On average, when a household makes the switch from fossil fuels to heat pumps, in this country, they save between $370 and $1,000 per year. In a city where affording groceries, rent and childcare so often feels insurmountable, hundreds of added dollars can make a difference. Today, we are one step closer to a future where no child need grow up in an apartment where the silence of the radiator means a brutal night of cold, where no senior needs to suffer through the suffocating heat of a July afternoon, and where New Yorkers find it just a little bit easier to imagine a life of dignity in this city that we all love. And I will close by saying a thank you to the elected officials that are alongside me, because they ensure that no matter how far a neighborhood may be from City Hall, that its issues, its priorities, its concerns are never lost in the conversations of City Hall. And today is one example of what it can look like when we as a city are committed to building out the vision that we know each and every New Yorker deserves. Thank you very much, and I will now pass it to our deputy mayor, Leila Bozorg.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So yes, the order of operations is first the most immediate issue, which is the leak. And then this heat pump installation commences, it goes over a longer period of time than that leak fix will take. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Look, I understand NYCHA residents and New Yorkers at large for whom politics has been nothing to find faith in. I understand that because just look at the history of how our city has often treated those who have been most overlooked. And I also understand that as having been an Assembly member of the largest public housing development in North America, because for far too long, what government meant was the inability to heat your home in an accurate and appropriate way. It meant that you would be unable to use the elevator and that you would be asking a senior to climb stair after stair after stair. And so, it is not for me to tell New Yorkers that they should start to believe. It is for me to prove to New Yorkers that belief is something that is worthwhile. And frankly, what I appreciate is with the team that we have here, the elected officials alongside us, that we have an opportunity to prove that through our actions. You heard from the borough president, James 2:14, the critical importance of works. This is that work. And as the council member said, it has to continue. It has to continue until we have finally proven what New Yorkers have long been told. Because New Yorkers, they hear a lot of talk, what they want to see is action. That's what this is about. I don't know if I should be getting in the business of picking my favorite Bible verse. It's up there.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, this is something that is critical infrastructure year-round. I'm going to pass it over to our chief climate officer to add some more specifics.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think we are continuing to explore every avenue that we have to keep New Yorkers warm. And that means ensuring that we are taking on any heat outages, whether they be at NYCHA properties or any property across the city, because we also know that there are a number of Con Ed outages over these past few days. And then beyond that, to ensure that we have warming buses, that we have warming centers, that we have safe haven sites, shelters, not only that are available, but also that we are having outreach teams do the direct outreach to connect homeless New Yorkers with. And what I have appreciated is, in our team, an understanding [of] the urgency of this moment. Because we know that just because there is a cold front does not mean that there are not other issues that emerge in that same time. As the borough president was saying, one of the times that we met early on in my first month as the mayor, was at a fire that happened in Ridgewood. We know that there continue to be fires in this city, and also amidst this incredible level of cold, it only intensifies the need of those responses, those resources. And also, I would just have to lay out my appreciation for the Red Cross and the partnership that they have been doing in providing exactly that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source We are continuing to follow up to make sure that these are the operations that are operating at the best possible level. Because what we know is, as you said, this cold front is not leaving. This is the coldest weather this city has seen for years. It's among the coldest weather we've ever had. So, what it requires from us is a level of response. We're pushing on every avenue to ensure that's the case.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Thank you for the questions. I'll start with your first one, then I'll go to your second one. We are in the process of developing out a policy so that New Yorkers can know exactly what to expect when it comes to transparency. I think that transparency is something that is critical in ensuring that the facts that we have are also the facts that New Yorkers have. And as soon as we have something to share on that, we will be sure to update you and to update the public as well. And I think on the second question, the Department of Community Safety has long been a focus of our administration, and frankly, over the time that we were running for this position. And the north star of that department is safety. Ensuring safety for the affected individual, for the family, for police officers, for any responding city personnel. And so, right now what we are doing is exploring every potential avenue to create the Department of Community Safety. That includes supporting legislative efforts like that of Councilmember Restler, but it does not limit itself to that either. That is the work that we're focusing on. We'll share any updated timeline as we have it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think it only highlights the importance of every single mode of transit in this city and also how, as the borough president and the council member have said, both today but also prior, how for too long the transportation needs of this neighborhood in our city have not been thought of when it comes to the focuses and the priorities of City Hall. And what I appreciate is in my conversation in the summer with Borough President Richards as well as having served with Assembly member Khalil Anderson, the emphasis on the importance of buses also comes from neighborhoods like this. Because we're talking about the need for a wide variety of modes. So, I'll tell you in terms of ferry service, a lot of this is dependent on the weather. I think what is very difficult is that we are seeing the kind of cold front that is not typical to follow the level of snowfall that we had. So, we will keep New Yorkers updated. We want to expedite all of the avenues of transit. We also want to be safe in each and every decision that we make. I know you had a separate question.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I can tell you that just earlier this morning, I was having a policy conversation with our schools chancellor and his team on the question of AI within our school system. I also know that the governor had put forward a proposal in her State of the State around AI as it pertained to elections. So, this continues to be work that we have to do. At a personal level, it is incredibly difficult to see images that you know to be fake, that are patently photoshopped and AI-generated, and yet can reach across the entirety of the world in an era of misinformation. And there's the old adage about how quickly a lie can spread with a comparison to the truth. I think what we have to know is what the truth is. We share it with those [impacted]. And then we also have to work to ensure that we have a city, we have a state, we have a country that actually has a regulatory system when it comes to AI. Because, frankly, what it looks like today is a system that is ill-equipped for the speed and the reach of the technologies in front of us. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think one of the most frustrating things you can do as an elected official, I'll tell you this as a former Assembly member, is when somebody calls your office and you tell them, “Actually, that's not your jurisdiction. Actually, you should call your City Council member. Actually, you should call your Congressmember.” And for too long with NYCHA, we have told New Yorkers both the truth and also the limitation of it. The truth being that there is an immense federal responsibility as it pertains to NYCHA, that the $80 billion in capital needs are ones that the federal government should be playing a pivotal role in meeting. And the limitation of that is that we know that we cannot in good conscience expect that assistance to be coming this year or the next year. It has not come for many years. And so, what that requires us to do is look at every avenue we have as a city and as a state to start to confront this ourselves. Part of that is transparency. I can tell you one of the frustrations I've heard from NYCHA residents over years is not necessarily how long something might take, but that they don't even know the length of that timeline until they get to the end of it. The other part of it are the kinds of investments that can do more than just one thing. And what I mean by that is these heat pumps, they are heat pumps that save money. They are heat pumps that have a positive impact on our climate. They are also heat pumps that have a positive impact on our quality of life. And I can tell you that in Western Queens, for example, we speak about Asthma Alley, the particulates that come from so much fossil fuel generation that is disproportionately in Western Queens. And that was a concern I would hear from NYCHA residents again and again. Heat pumps also have a relationship to that, to ensuring that we are using the cleanest possible technology. And I also have looked at the clean energy challenge as a successful example of what private and public partnership can look like. You know, it was NYCHA's issuance of an RFP that created the mini fridge in this country. That is technological innovation that was a result of NYCHA's own needs. We can bring that era back to make this a place where New Yorkers look at as the site of where we develop new answers to old problems. That's what we have to do. And I'm proud to be here alongside others in doing so today.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI'll go with your question on EDC and then you can bring me back to the other question. We are proud of this city's legacy of generating prosperity. You know, the Assembly member who's not here today, most people know him as Khaleel Anderson. His middle name is Musa, named after Mansa Musa, historically one of the wealthiest individuals in world history. Now, what we want to do is to ensure that that prosperity reaches the lives of each and every New Yorker. This is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And yet one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. And EDC is a critical part of generating that prosperity and being a leader within city government on what economic development looks like. And I am excited, frankly, at the opportunities we have in front of us for how this EDC underneath our administration can build on its own legacy and also start to reach the very New Yorkers who spoke to Judge Street Journal outside, about why they have a diminishing faith in government. Because for many of those New Yorkers, what has economic development meant? We need to make it something that you can feel, something that you can actually use in your day-to-day lives. One of the earlier times during the campaign, Borough President Richards and I rode the bus together. We talked about, with New Yorkers who were there, what making buses fast and free would look like. We need to have policies and then implementation of those policies that New Yorkers, working class New Yorkers, can live and breathe. And then you had — we continue to be committed to increasing the city's preservation capital commitments. And that's going to be the focus of the budgets, the ones that are upcoming and the ones that follow.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source What I am speaking about here is a mental health system in this city that burdens police officers with being the only form of response to issues of crisis such as these. And our focus has to be on safety. That safety extends to the affected individual, to the family, to the officers, to any additional responding city personnel. And I'll tell you as well that in a moment such as this where we are sharing the facts that we know with New Yorkers, and we know that Jabez Chakraborty, who has had schizophrenia for years, we know the pain that his family is living through in this moment. That it is, to me, incredibly clear that what he needs in this moment is mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution by a district attorney.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think that the questions at the heart of our pursuit of the Department of Community Safety are looking to answer exactly what mental health crisis response should look like. And I think what we are seeing is what it does look like today. And we know that for far too long, we haven't asked these kinds of questions of this system. Those are the ones we're looking to answer with our work and our policies. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani, NYCHA Announce $38.4 Million Investment to Bring Clean, Reliable Heat Pumps to Beach 41st Street Houses.