Transcript: Mayor Mamdani to Open David N. Dinkins Municipal Building Cupola for First-Ever Free Public Tours
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, everyone. I want to begin with just a few words about the winter weather that continues to linger across our city. First, city workers continue their remarkable efforts to lift millions of tons of snow off of city streets. DSNY workers have worked relentlessly to melt over a 122 million pounds of snow and to lay more than 209 million pounds of salt across New York. As of 8 a.m. this morning, workers have cleared 44,646 crosswalks, 16,532 bus stops and 9,764 fire hydrants. A severe cold front continues to bear down on our city. Today is our 11th consecutive day of below-freezing weather, and we could very well be in the middle of the longest period of consecutive sub-32-degree weather in our city's entire history. Without temperatures rising above freezing, snow has hardened into blocks of ice. But the greatest danger posed by the sustained cold is to vulnerable New Yorkers who remain exposed to the elements. As of this morning, 16 of our fellow New Yorkers have passed away outside during this brutal stretch of cold. In 13 of these cases, preliminary findings indicate that hypothermia played a role, and three of these deaths appear to be overdose deaths. 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. My heart was at the family of those mourning their loved ones. We are continuing to do everything in our power to get every New Yorker into a shelter, where they will be warm. The cold is showing no signs of stopping, so neither will the city's efforts. From information available now, it appears that none of the individuals who have died outside were living in homeless encampments at the time of their death. New York remains in a Code Blue. If you see someone in need, please call 311, [where] outreach workers and first responders from the NYPD and FDNY, will respond and get those New Yorkers the help that they need. Our outreach workers have only intensified their work to get homeless New Yorkers into shelter. We continue to operate warming sites and warming vehicles across the five boroughs. We have expanded shelter capacity, relaxed intake rules and are working with our partners across the city to increase outreach. As of this morning, we have made more than 930 placements to shelters and safe havens. We have also involuntarily transported 18 New Yorkers who were determined to be a danger to themselves or to others. We have expanded our mobile warming units to a fleet of 20, which are moving throughout the city, equipped with clinical staff to treat New Yorkers needs and get them off the street. If you are hearing me speak right now, and you are not sure if you will be looked after, please let me make myself clear: every single person will be cared for. No one will be turned away. As part of that commitment, we have added 50 new single room shelter units for those who are uncomfortable with other forms of shelter because we want every New Yorker to know that shelter is there if they need it. And as I said this weekend, while [the] City government will not rest in this work, we ask New Yorkers to do their part as well. Please check in on your neighbors, especially more vulnerable New Yorkers like those with disabilities, older adults and those who lack reliable access to heat. We will get through this cold, and we will get through it together by looking out for one another and by caring for one another. Now, for today's remarks. On January 1st, 1990, 36 years, one month and one day ago, David Dinkins was sworn in as the first Black mayor of our incredible city. As he delivered his inaugural address that day, he laid out a vision for all of us. We will never be mean spirited, and we must never lose sight of our dreams. We are together today to not only pay homage to the legacy of a great New Yorker, but to fulfill those words as we make it just a little bit easier for New Yorkers to keep sight of our dreams and of the city, we all love. As we mark Black History Month, we are celebrating a city that has been sculpted in millions of ways by millions of Black New Yorkers. Those who walk our streets today and those who came before. They are jazz musicians who reinvented what music could be; academics and scientists, who push forward the scope and scale of human thought; artists of all kinds, whose canvases captured the true breath of this city and all who call it home; and politicians like Mayor Dinkins, who made our city better, fairer and more aspirational. In many ways, Mayor Dinkins was ahead of his time. He tied racial justice to economic justice, worked tirelessly to uplift poor New Yorkers and strive to close the gap between the wealthiest of this city and the most impoverished. He uplifted at-risk youth, invested in the physical infrastructure of our city and worked to unify a city that remained in many ways divided along racial lines. He spoke famously of the gorgeous mosaic that is New York, but he recognized that speaking of it wasn't enough. The tile still had to be placed, the image carefully aligned and from City Hall, Mayor Dinkins tended to that very mosaic from the tower here on the 26th floor of 1 Centre Street, also known as the David Dinkins Municipal Building. That mosaic reveals itself in its gorgeous totality. You can see a 360-degree view of our city from midtown towers to the Atlantic Ocean, from the Brooklyn Bridge to New Jersey. And yet for too long, New Yorkers haven't been able to access this view. It's been closed off to the very people that should be seeing it. As we celebrate Mayor Dinkins legacy, we are changing that. And I am proud to announce today, that we are going to open the rooftop of the David Dinkins Municipal Building to the public of this city. Beginning in June, we will start offering free guided tours led by DCAS staff. Visitors will be able to reserve tickets online. We're also going to invest $6 million to improve this building as we repaint the cupola, repair the rotunda, add glass barriers and restore this one-of-a-kind civic space to a landmark befitting Mayor Dinkins name. Mayor Dinkins paved the way for so many who followed. He was not only the first Black mayor, [but] he was also the first to have been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and his politics of compassion, kindness and generosity remain a guide for me and so many others, as we lead from City Hall. I'm thankful for his family for being here today with us, and I am thankful for the opportunity to stand here alongside incredible elected officials and our commissioner of DCAS to honor this great New Yorker and to encourage the next generation of New Yorkers to enjoy a new perspective of our city from the building named after a man who helped to shape that same city. Thank you very much. And now our commissioner, Yume Kitasei.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source And now the warmest man on this stage, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source We will never light this building up for the Patriots, and now New Yorkers, when I ask themselves, “Can I view it?” “Yes, you can.” [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think, to your point, we can never rest on our laurels as a City government. We have to go out there and tell New Yorkers directly. Yesterday evening, I was at a safe haven site in Midtown Manhattan, and I got the chance to thank a few outreach workers for the work that they're doing. Because as we all shiver up here in this cold, they are spending hours, at all hours of the day, outside looking to speak directly to homeless New Yorkers, to actually tell them of those warming buses and to bring them to those warming buses. And that direct street outreach is critical, and it has been a significant part of those workers, as well as those at FDNY and NYPD, being able to make nearly 1,000 placements at this point since we initiated Code Blue. And we will continue to share this information to New Yorkers. The most important way will be that direct outreach, but we will use every single avenue available to us. And just to give a sense to New Yorkers of the different options available, we are speaking across the five boroughs of warming buses and vans. We are speaking of mobile warming units that are equipped with clinicians, as well as resources, and then warming centers as well themselves. And what we are also working with NYCEM to do right now, partially in regards to your question, is to add additional signage outside of these units so that for anyone walking by them, who hasn't actually been met by an outreach worker during their shifts, that they know that these are the units that should be keeping them warm. That signage is going to be rolling out today and tomorrow. And it's important, frankly, that we not just rest on that signage, we not just rest on that direct outreach, but that we continue to use every avenue available to us. We'll continue to do so. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I want to be very clear that NYPD has been a part of the outreach efforts throughout Code Blue. They have been a part of it. DSS workers have been a part of it. It's been a whole-of-government approach. And I think the primary issue here is the weather that we are experiencing. We are speaking about already one of the coldest periods in New York City history and what could end up being the coldest period in New York City history. And what these city workers have done, no matter whether they're DSS, NYPD, any other agency, they have done the work of reaching out to New Yorkers to make now nearly 1,000 placements. And we know that that is work that has to continue. That is work that we will not rest [on], so long as this cold continues and so long as there are New Yorkers who are outside. And I think that, yesterday when I was at that safe haven, I spoke to a number of New Yorkers who were finding warmth within it. And some of them had come in the night before. Some of them, you know, I met a man who told me that he had been living in an airport for five months before he was brought to this shelter. The conditions that people are living through, they are conditions that none of us should be comfortable with. And so, we're going to use every single resource at our disposal to continue to build on this work to open up more shelters, open up more beds, and ensure that New Yorkers are staying warm. I think, to be very clear just at the top of this, the deaths that we have seen, at this time it does not appear there is any relationship between encampments and what we've seen with these 16 New Yorkers. The policy on encampments, we have long said that it was a failure to pursue a policy in the manner that the previous administration did. We've said that it's a failure because of its having only connected three New Yorkers with permanent housing over the course of 365 days. So, our policies will continue on the same timeline as they were prior. However, instead of looking to just push New Yorkers from one encampment to another part of this city, we're going to look to emphasize the services that we can connect those New Yorkers with.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source Sorry, I wasn't aware of the meme. You know, we have not yet heard any additional information that that date has come and gone. We will continue to stand up for this city and continue to make clear that our values and our laws are not bargaining chips and we will stand up for them if ever they are threatened. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I think it's as yes, as you've said, it is primarily due to the weather, whereas typically after snowfall of any kind, rising temperatures would assist in the melting of that snow. Instead, what we are all experiencing is a cold that is continuing at a record pace, frankly. And what that has meant is that the entirety of the city's response is up to the city workers themselves. And what they've been doing is an incredible job. However, it is a job that must continue. And it is also a job that has required us to go beyond the typical. What I mean by that is that we might typically have just sanitation workers doing a lot of this work. Right now, we have 2,500 [Department of] Sanitation workers working 12-hour shifts, each 12-hour shift rather. And then we now have up to 1,500 additional workers, many of them coming from separate city agencies who are supplementing that work, especially when it comes to bus stops and crosswalks. And at this time, we're seeing that that's going to continue. What I'm thankful to see is that the pace of cleanup is increasing. And I am hopeful that that continues to be the case across the five boroughs and that we also make this clear, as you've said to New Yorkers in every language that they speak. This is a city of the world. As Mayor Dinkins said, this is a gorgeous mosaic and it's a mosaic that deserves to be spoken to in its own languages.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, as you've said, sanitation is currently running about 24 hours behind on trash collection. I know that they are working with everything that they have, to come up to speed. And that will continue to be a focus for us, because what we want, is a city where New Yorkers can continue to return back to their lives as they were. We know that this cold is not going to help us. We know that this is going to continue for the next few days. And I think that what city workers are doing is they're increasing their capacity; they're increasing their capabilities. I'm thankful for the work that they're doing.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source I think we have to use every single option we have to get New Yorkers inside. And as you've said, there are homeless New Yorkers who have made clear their preferences in the kinds of shelter. And a lot of that, to be frank with you, is because of their previous experiences in the shelters that have been offered to them. And so, it's not just about advertising the existing resources. It's about opening additional ones. That work continues. We will be sharing that as it comes.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani to Open David N. Dinkins Municipal Building Cupola for First-Ever Free Public Tours.