Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez: Good morning, buenos dias. Come on, I know the day is not that inviting, but good morning, buenos dias. Let me start by thanking Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams, and President LaBarbera for all they've done to really make this moment a reality. So [I'm] very thankful to them.
I also want to thank EDC, our partner in this project. I want to thank President Cantor from Hunter, the faculty, the staff, the entire team who've been working on all the planning and making sure that we have the right set of blueprints for what is going to be this phenomenal facility.
Also, the Dean of the School of Public Health, Dean El-Mohandes, thank you for your leadership and for the work in your teams. [In] the central office, also a dedicated team working, our COO Hector Batista, worked very hard. He's not here, he's a little bit under the weather. But we wouldn't be able to be here without that great support.
And about a couple of years ago, we stood here on this campus and we announced a plan to transform the Hunter College Brookdale campus into a state-of-the-art public health and education hub. It will be known as SPARC, Science, Park, and Research Campus in Kips Bay.
And I'm proud to say that SPARC is expected to generate approximately $42 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years, create about 15,000 new jobs, and provide 2 million square feet of academic public health and life science space.
I want to give a face to some of those numbers too, in terms of how they connect with CUNY's commitment to serving all New Yorkers and to be an engine of economic mobility in the city. We currently enroll about 40,000 students in health and human service programs. Just to put that in scale, that means that that's about the size of the entire NYU or Columbia, right? So that is the amount of talent we have at the City University of New York, starting in the areas that are going to be impacted by this facility.
Many of our graduates stay in New York to contribute to our economy and to bring their skills into the work. So by bringing together here on this campus, both Hunter and the School of Public [Health], we'll be advancing research, education, and practice. SPARC will enable us to expand the college to career pipeline.
And the proximity to institutions like the Forensic Pathology Center would also make it easy for students to get the internships and apprenticeships that they need to succeed. And as you know, we're doubling down in our efforts at the City University of New York to make sure that students, when they get to our campuses, are thinking and connecting and thinking about careers all throughout, and facilitating experiences for them to be able to do that.
The result will be a workforce that is uniquely prepared for careers in sectors that account for about one-fifth of all the jobs here in New York City. Extremely grateful to all the elected officials. We have Councilman Powers and Senator Gonzalez here who help us do that. Deeply appreciative of this two-time CUNY graduate, for all the wonderful things that he did on behalf of the City University of New York and to you and your team, our eternal gratitude. Thank you for all of that.
Now, it is a privilege for me to introduce the other key partner in making sure that this became real. And to refresh your memory, for investments in our professional schools and our four-year schools like Hunter and School of Public Health, this was a historic partnership of capital and support from both the state and the city to make this happen here. And I want to refresh our memory about how important that was.
And that happens because we've had a partner in the state that is deeply committed to the work in higher education. I love how when the governor talks about that, it comes from a space of her own personal experience in her family. And in her tenure as governor, the investments in higher ed in general, but particularly in CUNY, have been dramatic.
I will not list all the things she's done because they will yank me off the stage. They want me to sort of keep that short. But from increasing TAP, adding flexibility for part-time TAP and adding funding there, our program for free two-year degrees in key areas where the economy has high demand professions for individuals between 25 and 55. Capital investments, the work that we've received from [inaudible], the support in paid internships, dramatic in the work that we do.
So I am honored and delighted. And Christmas came early, so I can introduce to you our great partner, the wonderful governor of the State of New York, Kathy Hochul.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Thank you, chancellor. And I appreciate your enthusiasm, your drive, your energy, all things CUNY. And yes, you come to my office often with your hand out. And I don't think you're too disappointed. So, at least if you are, don't tell me.
But it's an investment that makes sense. When you think about investing in education, [it] means you're investing in people. And you did reference my own family circumstances, and the story is my father and mother lived in a trailer park, my brother was born a year older than I am. And they could have stayed in that trailer park, while dad worked at the steel plant, except he was able to get an education at night. Walking out the door, leaving my mom with that little baby in this tiny, tiny space where they lived. And I've been back there many times to see that neighborhood.
But that education unlocked opportunities for him that otherwise would not have been there. And my story has changed dramatically from what it could have been. So I'm grateful for those who open up those opportunities. And I'm proud to be a governor who is able to do that, working with great leaders like our chancellor here, Félix Matos Rodríguez, and also the partnership with the City of New York, which has been extraordinary, and I'll speak about that.
Also, I do want to recognize laborers here. Gary LaBarbera and the men and women of labor, I want to thank you, because when you're involved, I know it's going to be high quality. The work is going to get done. And we have a lot more projects to work on together. And I thank our other elected officials here.
But it's great to be back here. I think it was maybe October of 2022, mayor, we stood here with a lot of money coming out of our pockets. I was a brand new governor, I was like, “You sure we can afford this?” And the mayor was on board, I was on board. So we matched a significant contribution to make this become a reality.
But it's joining the people of New York to do something which is so natural for New Yorkers. To dream big, to think about all the possibilities, the great thoughts. It doesn't happen elsewhere. And that is what sets us apart from every other city and every other state in America. Because we have that capacity, that wild ambition that many often will say, “That's not going to happen.” We say, we will find a path and it will happen. And today is the culmination of that belief, that dream of so many others.
And as we stand here breaking ground on SPARC Kips Bay, and I'm grateful that the ground is inside and not outside today. Although I’m from Buffalo, I'm not sure what the problem was being outside. I just want to— gotta toughen up, team.
But you know, we think about, let's go back a little down memory lane, Mr. Mayor. We both took office, we were still coming out of a pandemic. I mean, the greatest health crisis our nation had seen since the 1917 pandemic, I believe. It was hard, it was all consuming. It was like, where are we getting healthcare workers? Where are we getting the PPE from? How are we going to keep it alive?
I mean, don't forget the stresses that our healthcare system was under at that moment in history. And it went on for years. And people questioned our future, really “were our best days behind us?” And they were wrong. They were so wrong. And I'm proud that we were able to address this.
And the mayor and I took on this partnership with this sense of, we can do this together. We can get through this time. We can restore people's faith and confidence that this city is not going to be kicked down. It's going to rise up. And we work so hard on issues, the healthcare crisis, of course, our team's working in synergy together.
But also crime was out of control. Something happened during that pandemic and sociologists can figure this out someday, but there was a crime wave all over America because of the instability created by this. And we had to deal with the effects of that.
And people were fearful. They weren't going to come back on the subways, even if their job was waiting for them, because they're afraid of something terrible happening to them or their family members. Economic uncertainty, public safety. You know, the city was just reeling for a while there.
And we just wouldn't accept the narrative. You know, we just rolled up our sleeves, mayor, and you and I worked hard together and I always will commend your leadership during those dark, dark days. And together, we just delivered the safest year in subway ridership, subway safety in recorded history, except for the year after 9/11. Think about that.
And we'll say there's going to be a scary picture on the cover of a tabloid tomorrow that shows something bad happened to somebody. It will happen. But that doesn't mean that people [aren’t] starting to feel more confident, because they're coming back to their jobs. They're coming downtown. They're taking the subway. They're walking the streets. And that didn't happen by wishing it would happen. It was a result of intentional strategies, collaboration, teamwork, a vision of what we can and should be.
So we made historic investments in public safety. And the mayor and I would talk about the need for more housing. The historic City of Yes plan was ingenious. It finally said, why are we letting all these obstacles, these barriers hold us back? People want to live here. Young families want to raise their kids here. And we're driving them to other states because we didn't have the ambition that's being on display with this project. We didn't have that with respect to housing for too long.
And finally, we could do that, and I was proud to help support that financially. Although, it was a late night call from the mayor asking, “Can I have a billion dollars to get this over the finish line?” And maybe I was kind of still half asleep, I was like, “Sure, mayor, whatever you want.” So, message, don't call me late at night because I won't pick up anymore, it's too expensive for me.
But you believed in it, I believed in it, City Council got it finished. And that's why we're going to be unlocking so much more housing. And we've worked focused on economic development and more opportunities. And this project here, SPARC Kips Bay, is just a sign of $1.6 billion transformation. That sounds like a pipe dream. But it's happening right now. Shovels are in some ground out there. Right, Gary? It's going to happen.
And so this is the way it's going to be a world class hub for health care, public health education, life sciences, serving more than 4,500 students in one of the most important fields that's going to determine our future. Because we know what it's like when we had a shortage of health care workers, it was a scary time for us. And we say no more.
And thank you, chancellor, for recognizing what we did with the state budget this year. We said, in the five or six fields where we are short in workers, what can we do to have an immediate catalyst to get more people to pursue careers in health care? And we said, let's pick up the full cost of a community college education. Everything, books, fees, everything.
And you know what? We did that just starting this summer. We already have 16,000 more students going into our public community colleges here and across the state than we would have had. And that is dramatic. And we're just getting started. So those people will get the education they need and will be filling these jobs that are so important for us. So we're going to train together.
Again, I want to thank the union workers who are going to be building this. And we're going to be continuing to focus on attracting the smartest minds in the nation to this very space. That's what's so exciting to me, too. We're always going to be a magnet. But when you have a catalyst like this, a hub, a place that says, “We're going to be a nation leading in our research and our innovation and what we're going to do here,” you're going to attract people from all over the country and indeed the world, if they can be let back in. I deviate. We want them here, by the way.
So, we're going to continue our investments. We've done it here, with our investments across the State of New York. But this is important. And again, it's just a reminder, we don't settle for small ideas. Small ideas are for other people. Don't even bother with this. If you want to go big, you come to New York. You want to go big, you invest here. When you want to go big, you raise your family here. Because this is the epicenter of everything that matters. We're going to make sure it remains that way.
And again, I want to thank Mayor Adams for his close partnership with me through some incredible, incredible crises that we had to face head on together. And I say our city is safer today, mayor. We're going to be building more housing. There's more economic development. I personally just want to thank you for your service, a lifetime of public service to this community. Thank you very much. Let me bring up our mayor, Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks, governor, so much. And you were joking about those 1 a.m., those early morning calls, but they did happen. On so many occasions, from the migrants and asylum seekers, to subway safety plans, to getting City of Yes over the finish line, to addressing how we're going to deal with school control over and over and over again. And I think history is going to be kind when we reflect on these four years of the relationship that we developed during some extremely difficult times. And good generals don't send their troops into battles. They lead their troops into battles on the front line. We've been on the front line on some major issues that impacted this city.
And so standing here today, I want to thank the local electeds and Gary, who has been a true friend and voice for building a city, a city of union, and making sure that those who are on these job sites reflect the diversity of this city. And he has continued to be a voice for that. And one of my probably most significant deputy mayors standing behind me, who headed HPD, and now the deputy mayor who's dealing with many of these projects. Adolfo, I want to thank you. And for what he has represented.
And when you look at the narratives and stories that have come from the governor, from being in a place, a small trailer park, to Adolfo Carrión life coming up from Puerto Rico and his family living in a basement apartment, to the life of my mom working three jobs to make sure she could raise my five siblings and me, the stories are the same during the last four years. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things, reflecting on their personal journeys to see how [the] government can betray everyday working class people, but also coming with a full understanding [of] how [the] government can lift people up. And that's what we've seen.
And I don't know if there's ever been a very clear relationship of the governor and the mayor working together to utilize both our executive powers to uplift New Yorkers. And so New York City is a city of innovation and possibility, a city where big things happen. And today we are taking another step towards the future, the next phase of our SPARC Kips Bay project. We were excited about this project. We were in this room. Now that I remember, we were in this room when we talked about it and people thought it was not possible, and we knew it was.
And it's doing what I believe is imperative, and that is creating jobs.15,000 jobs, good paying jobs where people can provide for their family. And that is [15,000] jobs for New Yorkers that would help them support their families, their careers, and most importantly, their future. Far too many people don't see a future. But when you are employed, it is more than just a place that we go to during the AM hours of our day. It's the precursor to sleep that allows us to experience the American dream. This would generate over $42 billion in economic impact for our city.
Once complete, this is where we will invent new vaccines, cure chronic diseases, and unlock the knowledge that will help millions of people live longer and healthier lives. We'll create high wage, high growth jobs for New Yorkers and build opportunities for our young people as we move forward. We don't want our young people to leave the city to find innovation and the possibilities. Right here in New York, this project is going to contribute to allowing them to stay and get good paying jobs through good paying training.
With this project, we are making New York City the global capital of life sciences, health care, and public health. And so we want to clearly thank our partners. I don't know if he's here, Andrew Kimball from EDC, who has really put his creative genius behind many of these projects. He's the CEO and president of EDC. And of course, our brother, Chancellor Rodriguez, yes, two time CUNY grad. And CUNY has played a major part of my life and is continuing to play a major part of the lives of far too many.
And when you look at the CUNY population, it is comprised of the people of this city, many first and second generation New Yorkers, many first time college graduates and their families. So much promise in CUNY. And the governor, from day one, you have been a real partner on these initiatives. We cannot thank you enough. Four years, we have worked together to make our city more affordable.
Look at the things that we've done in addition to SPARC Kips Bay, more affordable housing in the City of Yes, getting it over the finish line. And we did need that billion. And it was great to have the money put into it. But getting it done, building more houses so people can have an opportunity to live in the city. What we did with the housing, the Public Housing Preservation Trust, first time NYCHA residents, they heard it over and over and over again that we needed innovation on NYCHA and it was not done.
We [landed] that plane. And NYCHA residents are having a voice in making sure it continues to be a place of affordability. And then for working class people, Axe the Tax for working class, low-income New Yorkers are not paying any income tax in this city. Increasing the earned income tax credit. [The] first time it was done in over 20 years when we put it together. So this initiative, just in the earned, the no tax for working class, an increase in the earned income tax, that alone is $408 million back into the pockets of 2 million New Yorkers. But that's not all. So much more.
What we've done in the Bronx, the Kingsbridge Armory, for decades they've been trying to get the Kingsbridge Armory operated. You know what? We got it done. We landed that plane, put the money in the armory, and now we're going to finally see the Bronx residents get what they deserve in the [Kingsbridge Armory]. But if you want to start with one B, let's do another B, Brooklyn. Marine Terminal in a modern time maritime port is going to create thousands of affordable homes and tens of thousands of good paying jobs as part of our Harbor of the Future.
So thank you governor. Thank you administration. You have an amazing team there that has worked in collaboration with our administration and really got things done for the people of the City of New York. And if we're going to do it, if we're going to build it, we want to make sure we build it [so] that everyday working people can not only be part of building, but can afford to stay in the city. No one personifies that energy more than my friend, Gary LaBarbera.
Gary LaBarbera, President, New York State Building and Construction Trades Council: Well, good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure for me to be here. First and foremost, I want to thank Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams. Let me say a few words. You know, the governor mentioned [and] the mayor mentioned it when this came together in 2022, remember we were coming out of a pandemic. And that was seriously, a very difficult time for the country, for the city, for the state. And the leadership that both the governor and the mayor showed was, in my opinion, incredible.
And three short years later, and that is short years, and when you think about construction projects, we're standing here making an announcement with construction demolition beginning to start in earnest within months from now. So thank you both for your strength, your leadership, your commitment to all of these things. Now, before I talk a little bit more about the project and what it means to the building trades and to the city, I have to take a point of personal privilege. I had every intention last– actually yesterday or Friday, to call Mayor Adams and have a personal conversation with him.
And when I knew I would see him today, I'd rather say what I have to say in public. Mayor, I want to thank you in the most sincere way I can for the friendship over the many years. I want to say that under your administration, we did historical things with the building trades. We signed a historical MOU for housing, for workforce housing, for New York's essential workers. We have thousands of units in a pipeline now because of built union, because of Mayor Adams here in the city.
$50 billion in Project Labor Agreements over his administration. And in this Project Labor Agreements, we have the strongest workforce development program anywhere in the country. And this will create opportunities for marginalized and underserved communities. The list goes on and on. On a very personal note, you know you have a friend when you reach out with a text, with a problem that you need help [with], and within minutes that text is answered. That was the relationship that I had with Mayor Adams. So on a very personal note, I want to thank you for your friendship. I want to thank you for everything you've done for this city, and I wish you all the best in every bit of your future. Thank you, sir.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
LaBarbera: You've been a great mayor. Now, let me just say a few words about the project. This is a very historic project. Again, I thank Governor Hochul and the mayor for their vision, their strength in making this a reality today. This project will literally create thousands of family-sustaining building trade union jobs. We have the most highly skilled, highly trained building trades workers, in my belief, anywhere in North America, and I would say in the world, right here in this great state, across the State of New York, and right here in this great city.
I want to acknowledge our trade partner, our CM on this, Sean Szatkowski from Skanska. The partnership that the building trades in Skanska has is unprecedented. What I can say is beyond just the job creation and the importance of this project focusing on life sciences and public health. Isn't it ironic that this project starts in the beginning conversations about public health coming right out of a worst pandemic in 100 years? That's a statement. This project, I guarantee, will be built on time, on budget.
Everyone that will occupy these buildings will be in the safest built and the most professionally built buildings. The environment here will be outstanding, a place they will want to come to learn, to study, and this is what we do. We create family-sustaining careers. We cannot do that unless we have projects that offer that opportunity. And if it were not for the governor and the mayor, we wouldn't be standing here today talking about this project. Creating thousands of good-paying family-sustaining careers in the building trades.
This is going to be a great project. We are very excited to be a part of this project. We have a Project Labor Agreement that guarantees all the efficiencies of what project laborers agree along with workforce development.
That's what we want to do. We want to work with our partners, the governor, the mayor, in creating opportunities to lift everyone up, lift people out of poverty, and we do that by creating these opportunities, which ultimately lead to career paths into the middle class. So I want to end by saying a big thank you to the governor and to the mayor, and I'd like to wish all my friends and union brothers and sisters that are here a very happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you and God bless.
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