Suz Kroeber, Parent from Washington Heights: Good morning. My name is Suz Kroeber, and I'm here with my wife and kids, and I'm a member of New Yorkers United for Child Care. 3-K and Pre-K have changed everything for my family. Last year, we couldn't get a 3-K spot for our oldest child. It was a very stressful and frustrating experience that left us not knowing what was going to be in the future for our family in New York City. This year, we feel so much more confident.
The outreach, the follow-through, the emails, the on-the-ground people talking about Pre-K, [and] the robo-calls, [makes] it feel like the city is actually trying to make this work for parents like us. 2-K gives me so much hope for my family's future. We have a new baby at home, and knowing that free childcare will be there when he turns two changes everything about how we think about the future. Instead of pinching every penny to cover daycare and aftercare for two kids, we can start saving for college the way that it should be.
We want to stay in New York City, and 2-K will make the difference. We want to raise our kids in a city that looks like us [and] that has the values that we share, and we see diversity as the greatest strength of New York City. But that only works if families like ours, like our friends, [and] our whole community can afford to stay. 2-K will definitely keep families like mine in New York City. And it will help our family thrive, not just survive.
The administration is earning back families' trust. After years of broken promises on child care, parents need to see investment and results. With this administration, that is what we're getting. From the outreach on Pre-K and 3-K to the 2-K rollout, it's clear that the city is finally treating child care like the priority that parents have always known that it is. The governor is also listening to parents and responding to our needs.
Governor Hochul's child care plan will be transformational for parents in New York City and around the state. We want to see these changes not just for those of us in New York City who have already seen so many improvements over the last few years, but for all of our neighbors and other. The governor isn't just talking the talk; she's walking the walk and making real investments to make our lives easier. Parents fought for 2-K, and Mayor Mamdani listened. Right here in Washington Heights, where we live, parents started meeting, brainstorming, and organizing to win 2-K. Today's announcement is proof that when parents organize and leaders listen, we can have transformational change. Thank you to the mayor, the governor, and the Mayor's Office for Child Care for making this happen. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce the mayor of New York City, Mr. Mamdani.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good morning, my fellow New Yorkers. And what a good morning it is. It is not every day that we get to make history. It is not every day that we get to transform the lives of 2,000 children and thousands more parents across our city. And it is not every day that a movement by the people and of the people truly delivers for the people. Today, my friends, is a special day because we are gathered together to mark a monumental moment of progress on the path to universal child care across New York City.
I want to begin by thanking my partner in this work, New York's Governor Kathy Hochul. Without her support and her leadership, we would not be here at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum today. And I would like to ask [you] to join me in a round of appreciation and applause for all of our City Council members who are here today, all of our state Assembly members who are here today, our state senators who are here today, and our borough presidents who are here today.
And I say thank you to everyone who is here: all of the elected officials at every level, all of the parents, all of the children [and] all the organizers, because frankly, you all together have made this day a reality. As the old parable says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We are not taking that first step today, in March of 2026. Many of those first steps were taken back in October of 2024, more than 15 months ago, when people across all five boroughs put on sneakers with good lumbar support, wrapped themselves in layers to protect from the late autumn chill, and did their part to make the impossible, possible.
Neighbors knocked on neighbors’ doors, [and] parents spoke to other parents. People spent their precious free time after work and on weekends gathering petition signatures on street corners and passing out literature at subway stops. And you did not do this work because anyone enjoys climbing up six-floor walk-ups. You did it because you held a vision of a city that worked differently, that worked better. You did it because you believed, just as I did, just as more than one million New Yorkers did, that we could make a dignified life in New York City a little easier to afford, and that raising a family didn't have to mean scouring Zillow listings in the suburbs.
When a promise is made on a campaign, like the promise we made to deliver universal child care across the five boroughs, it often does not feel real to New Yorkers. Many expect promises made by politicians to be broken or abandoned, and for good reason— they so often have been. But, as the governor said in the rally where we announced the agreement that made today possible. The era of empty promises is over. Because what we are here together to announce today, my friends, is very real indeed.
Beginning this fall, we will provide 2,000 free child care seats for two-year-olds in four different parts of our city. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Washington Heights, Inwood, and Hamilton Heights. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Fordham, Belmont, Van Cortlandt Village, Morris Heights, Norwood and Kingsbridge. We are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Canarsie, Remsen Village, Brownsville and Ocean Hill. And we are launching free child care for two-year-olds in Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach and The Rockaways. This is only the beginning of our efforts to deliver universal child care across every corner of the five boroughs. And as we roll out this program, we want to get it right, to ensure that every family can access child care, that providers are supported, and that when Fall 2027 comes around, we have the infrastructure in place to provide free 2-K to approximately 12,000 children. This first step will allow us to build the systems and the capacity we need to deliver exactly that. And it will allow us to reinvent our city as well.
Universal child care will not just provide our kids with the quality education they deserve. It won't just lift stress from parents' lives, as they know [that] their child has a seat close to home where they will be well taken care of. And it won't just rewrite statistics like the ones that tell us that families with kids under six are twice as likely to leave New York City as those without kids. It will place at least $20,000 per child back in the pockets of parents across our city and will make it possible for countless parents to return to the careers they love.
I stand here next to the first mom governor of New York State, someone who had to leave a job she loved when she had her children. No one knows better, or more personally, what this will mean to moms and dads who want to be able to both love their work and love their kids. And I stand before you as the mayor of the city that every business wants to be headquartered in, but where so often the top talent cannot afford to move. As we deliver universal childcare [and] as we launch free 2-K, we are also helping our businesses attract the candidates who want to move here but can't fathom spending so much of their paycheck on child care every month.
And we're making what Wall Street would call a good investment. Researchers estimate that every dollar spent on early child care returns as much as $13. After Quebec began offering universal child care, the number of women in the workforce with young children grew by 16 percent. In a city that lost $23 billion in economic activity in 2022 alone because of parents who had to quit their jobs or cut back working hours, this decision today, this commitment [to] universal child care, has the potential to supercharge our economy.
We will support and grow our workforce; we will grow our tax revenue and we will grow as a city. Now I wanna close with this: two things. The first [is] that I also wanna recognize that there are so many New Yorkers who have grown up in this city and have had to leave this city because of the cost of living across these five boroughs. Our dream is not only to make this a place where every New Yorker can stay, [but] also a dream where every New Yorker can come back home.
And I actually just want to take a moment to recognize one of our teachers, who's here today, who grew up in the Bronx, moved to Atlanta, and made the decision to come back home and teach the children here in our neighborhood. And we welcome her, and we welcome every New Yorker across this country who dreams of wearing Timbs in the cold. Once again, this is a city for you too. Because someday, many years from now, a generation of New Yorkers will raise their children here, in this city we all love.
They will worry about all the things that new parents always worry about: where they should buy their stroller or their crib, whether there's too much noise from the street and the nursery, [and] whether they'll ever get a full night's sleep again. But they won't ever worry, not even for a moment, about whether their child will be able to access quality care or whether they'll be able to afford it. They will return from jobs they never had to give up to homes in the neighborhoods they never had to consider leaving, and they'll never even imagine that for many years it wasn't this way. As we delivered free 2-K across New York City, we are writing a better chapter together for all those who come next, and it is thanks to the movement that we built, the hard work you all did, and the courage many of you had long before I stood before you as a candidate or as an elected official to envision a future that was more hopeful than the past.
On behalf of all those New Yorkers who come next, thank you to everyone in this room, to everyone who fought for this moment, for all that you have already done, and for everything that we will do together. Thank you all so much. And it now gives me great pleasure to introduce our partner in this work, a person who ensured that this day could truly arrive, and the first mom governor of New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Good morning, everyone, especially parents. Any parents out there in the audience? Well, let's do something together. Take a look at the faces of these children, look into their eyes, look at their sweet innocent faces, especially the babies, and know that today is all about them. Because they're the ones that matter. They're the ones that are relying on us, the adults, to do something that those before had not done, had not had the ambition, the audacity, the courage, the willingness to go where no man or woman has gone before. And that is to assure that they have a secure future, starting off with a two-year-old program and onward and upward, so they can get the best shot in life. And to give their parents just a little more breathing room, because it is so hard. They are sleep deprived. They're just walking around like zombies most of the time, wondering when can I get an hour of sleep — how about two hours? I digress a little bit, I'm kind of reliving a lot of PTSD here.
But today we're delivering on something that's been talked about. But this is the first time the State of New York has made such an unprecedented commitment into the families and children of the City of New York. And we're not going backwards. We are committed. And you think about — as the mayor mentioned, I want to thank him for just being someone who has that sense of urgency that I share. I needed a partner that also said, “Let's do this yesterday, not someday in the future, and do a study and think about it” — we're done with that. We're New Yorkers. We want it done now. And today is about now. So, thank you mayor and thank you to your team and all the parent advocates who never gave up on this promise. Now, whether or not you live in Washington Heights or the Rockaway or Brownsville or Cambridge, there's one thing that every family can agree on: that the cost of childcare is so outrageously high. I mean, our kids are worth every penny, but the costs are so incredible. But you know what? They've been like that for generations.
Let me give you an echo back from a previous generation when I was that young mom. Now, I started out with a dream in my heart. All I wanted to do someday was — this is as high as it got for women of my era, so forgive the lack of ambition here — I just wanted to be a staffer to a Congressman or a senator on Capitol Hill. I visited as a child. I thought, “Someday I might be able to work in that building and help somebody else do really well.” Never having the own ambition to be that person myself. But finally, that day arrived and I spent years working on Capitol Hill, working for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the highlights of my life. I thought I was done. I had achieved my goal at age 27. But then we decided to start a family, and boy was I not prepared. I had no idea that there was no support system. My family didn't live close by. I had no relatives, no friends who were in the same situation as I was, and the choice came down to this: Do I continue with this job I love and try to figure it all out, or do I end up having to stay home because I could not find child care we could afford?
I'm working on a government salary. My husband was working on a government salary. We made a decision that I would stay home to be there with those kids because we did not have childcare a generation ago. Now they turned out fine. I got my career back on track. Everything ended up just fine. But you don't know it then. And when you're stressing out about the fact that you now have half the paycheck you once had, and the cost of diapers — even though you go out to the big box store and try to get them in bulk and stuff them in every inch of space you have, because they take up a lot of space — and the cans of formula, and the clothes that the kids keep out growing every three months, literally. You just try to scrape it all together and hope that someday this will all end, that future parents won't have to endure this. But guess what, friends? One generation later, those babies grew up, and they're having their own children, and they're still having trouble finding child care.
So, society did not improve or address this crisis until now. This is when everything changes. Now, we've been on this journey for a while. I've decided years ago that something must be done. I stepped up as governor. Now, we've invested over $8 billion already in the four years that I've been governor, because no one else was making that commitment. No one else said, “Yes, it's expensive, yes, it's hard to do. But we must continue on this path.” Now when I first became governor, families earning up to $57,000 a year could get a subsidy. They could get support. And I said, “Well what about everybody else?” So, we added the money. Today that number stands almost double, $113,000 up to that income. People can get major subsidies, upwards of $15 a week would be their total expense. Think about that. To go from $57,000 to $113,000. Scores and scores and scores more families and children are able to take advantage of this. We've doubled the number of vouchers. We directed bonuses for childcare workers. We've invested in the locations.
Because here's the challenge. We have the ambition. We have the desire. But if we don't have the locations for this, it doesn't work. If you don't have the workers, it doesn't work. So, that is the infrastructure that I've been building for years, waiting for this day to come. And we have prioritized this, and I'm so proud of what this announcement is all about, mayor, because it's a sign of tangible progress. And so, 2,000 children, with little adorable faces like the ones right here, are going to know that they have a secure place to go and mom and dad can be less stressful. So, here's what we're doing. We're going to continue investing. Across the state, we're going to be guaranteeing universal pre-K for every child in the next two years. We're investing $60 million for upstate as well. I'm telling you this, the money is there. That's why we're here today. The money is there. I made a commitment. The commitment is also through the next year as well, though I'm not supposed to budget too far out in advance. But I said, I'm going to at least make the commitment for the next year.
But the State of New York is not walking away. This is something I believe in [it] to my core. There's no way I could walk away from a commitment to these beautiful little children. Not now, not ever. So, you can count on that. I want to make sure that our businesses are more enriched and they're stronger when we have a diverse workforce. Our communities are stronger when families don't have to pack up and leave even across the river because they built more housing and life is cheaper — we're working on housing too, mayor. We need more housing for these young families. But we're shaping a better New York that our kids are going to inherit. Your children will not have to struggle like my own children are today. That era is over. This says that our priorities are with the people of this state, with the families of this state, the moms and dads of this state, and of course, above all, the children of the great State of New York and the great City of New York. And that's what today is all about. Let's celebrate. And someone who understands the needs of children more than anyone in this city has to be our chancellor and that is Kamar Samuels. Let me introduce him and bring him up to the podium.
Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels, New York City Public Schools: I am so excited to be here. I, like the governor — right now, I have a three-year-old at home. And as I was — usually she comes to me and she says, “Dad, I have something cool to show you.” And this morning I said to her, “Kira, I have something cool to tell you. I'm going to this press conference” and she was like, “No, no, no, dad, no, no.” And what I really wanted to tell her was that this is really transformative, not just for her, but for every single two-year-old and kids to come in New York City. And I am so proud to stand here with you today to talk about this. So, give it up for our governor and give it up for our mayor for making this happen for all of us. And thank you to the Sugar Hill Museum Preschool for hosting us today.
We are taking a real meaningful step towards ensuring every child in New York City gets the bright start that they deserve. With the launch of 2K, two-year-olds in District 6, District 10, District 18, District 23, and District 27 — that's all district numbers, but the mayor told you the neighborhoods earlier, so I thought I'd tell you the school numbers. You know, they will have access to free full-day care and early learning this fall. Thank you so much. Now, these Phase One districts represent communities where we know we can make a real difference right away. We can expand access now, and we can do it the right way, with strong supports in place for all students. But let me be clear, for families in districts not included in Phase One, we see you soon. Now, we know the need is real, and that's why this is a first phase and not a final answer.
Everything we learned this year about demand, capacity and implementation will directly inform how and where we expand it next. And New York City has done this before. When I was a superintendent, as a city, we built 3K from the ground up, and today it serves tens of thousands of children. 2K will follow that same path. Because quality early care is not a luxury, it's a foundation. I want to thank some special people in the room. I want you to give it up for the deputy chancellor, Simone Hawkins, right over there, and someone who was a huge part of launching Pre-K as well, executive director at the Mayor's Office of Child Care, Emily Liss, over there. And I'll tell you — give it up for all the partners, providers in the room. If you're a childcare provider for our kids, give it up. You make this all possible. Look, we look forward to welcoming all our new two-year-olds into our building next year. Thank you so much.
Question: Do you have a sense of how you're going to fund the remaining two years of 2K? And I know there's been a lot of talks for you to increase taxes on wealthy New Yorkers [inaudible]. Do you have any updates on that for the remaining two years [inaudible]?
Mayor Mamdani: I'll just start by saying that we are incredibly appreciative of the commitment from the governor not only for the first year of funding, but also for the second year. And what that funding does is it doesn't just allow the city to roll out the first step of universal childcare for two-year-olds — free 2K across the city, 2,000 seats this year. It allows us to also ramp up to 12,000 seats next year and make the fixes necessary for 3K. Because as we've heard, there have been a number of parents who've long been concerned about the city's ability to meet demand across the city by providing seats closer to home. And the governor and the $1.2 billion that she committed to the city, more than a hundred million is allocated to those fixes. And as the governor said today, the state is committed to this as something we deliver to New Yorkers, and I'm incredibly thankful for that. And I have to also say that we have long known that childcare is a priority for the governor. It's a priority for parents here in our city, and now it's a priority in what we're delivering.
Question: To pay for this specific item, do you think raising taxes on corporations and millionaires [inaudible] wealthy would be in the cards [inaudible], and also Mr. Mamdani said he’s going to have to raise property taxes if they don’t eventually —
Governor Hochul: Off topic, but I'll answer the on-topic part. We’ve done such a good job managing our budget that we're able to provide this new program in an enhanced way to have two-year-old care in the City of New York, in addition to all the other investments we've made throughout the state with current revenues. So, we're managing the budget, we anticipate the same next year and going forward because it's a priority of mine, and as long as I'm governor, it's going to continue being a priority of mine, so we're not backing off from our commitment.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: [Inaudible] the next neighborhoods — in Phases Two, Three, and Four — what do you say to the people waiting in Phase Four? That’s, you know, years from now.
Mayor Mamdani: So, you know, Senator Elizabeth Warren talks about childcare as infrastructure. And part of that is that to deliver on the scale that we are speaking about also means we have to build up infrastructure that is durable, that is sustainable, and that can deliver high-quality care. We are able to deliver 2,000 seats in this first year thanks to partnering with existing childcare providers. These determinations were made in part on a reflection of which neighborhoods had those providers ready to go before the end of this year and also as a reflection of economic need. That will continue to be some of the ways in which we make the determinations for the 12,000 seats next year. But then by the end of year four, it's every single two-year-old in the city of New York. I don't know, Emmy, if you'd want to add anything to that.
Executive Director Emmy Liss, Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education: We're committed to moving as quickly as we can, recognizing the urgency that families feel. But we also want to make sure we're building, as the mayor said, a system that can endure, that we are focusing on really deep partnership with child care providers, centers and home-based providers in the communities where we expand, and working quickly to deliver family need, but making sure again that we do that in a way that reflects the high quality that we know families want and deserve.
Question: Somebody in Flushing, let's say they're in Phase three, somebody in Flushing, if they can put their child in a daycare place in Astoria, in 2K in Astoria, like, they have to go there?
Mayor Mamdani: So, what we are rolling out today is for parents of two-year-olds in the neighborhoods that we have listed. It covers the neighborhoods that I've said, as well as parts of other neighborhoods that are covered within the school districts the chancellor said. All that is required is that parents live within that school district, no matter the amount of money they make, the occupation they have [or] their immigration status. So long as they live there, they can apply. The application process will become open sometime in early summer, and then next year, we will be announcing additional neighborhoods and school districts that this will apply to. It will extend beyond these sets of districts, and one thing that I can tell you for certain is that it will also extend into Staten Island. Thank you.
Question: So, for the short term, until this is truly universal and it applies to families of all income levels, how will you actually decide which families get priority within each of these districts? Because I assume that there is more demand than there is supply.
Mayor Mamdani: This does apply to families of all income levels, of any occupation, of any immigration status. We are starting with the 2,000 seats in these school districts, then going to 12,000. I don't know, Emmy, if you want to add anything to it.
Executive Director Liss: As the mayor said, for the seats we are opening up this fall, any family who lives in District 6, 10, 18, 23 and 27 will be eligible to apply, and our goal is to serve as many of the families who apply as possible. When we roll out the application process in the next couple of months, we'll outline the process by which families will be able to apply and how we'll work through that, similar to the way we approach 3K, Pre-K and K-12 admissions. Thank you.
Question: Just a question for the governor. I know you mentioned some of the money is going to be invested in upstate. Do you have any idea what communities that's going to heavily target, where that's going to be going, or sort of criteria you're looking at in investing money upstate?
Governor Hochul: The rest of state is a little bit behind the city. In fact, we don't even have universal 4K. So, number one, I'm prioritizing that. And by 2028, we'll have the entire, all the families across the state of New York covered with a 4K program. What I'm doing in three other pilot communities — Binghamton and Dutchess County and Monroe County — starting this fall, is something that's never been done before, which is newborn-to-three-year-old [childcare], a pilot program to test how this works upstate as well. So, simultaneously with us, universal 4K, get to 3K to catch up to the city, but we're also at the same time understanding that there's families that have higher needs throughout the state, so I'm excited about this. It's not just New York City, although we're focusing a lot on the two-year-old program here. The rest of the state is playing catch-up this year, and I'm leading that effort.
Question: Mr. Mayor, do you think Iran is better off without the Ayatollah?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I've said before that the Iranian government has engaged in systematic repression of its own people, even killing thousands of Iranians who were seeking to express the most basic forms of dissent earlier this year. It is a brutal government. And I've also said that while I may be a young mayor, I am old enough to remember the devastating consequences of our country pursuing a war with the intent of regime change in that very same region not that many years ago.
Question: You probably understand there's been some backlash, some pushback against your remarks about the war, calling it an illegal war of aggression. Is there anything you want to say to the Jewish community in New York in particular, and then also the Iranian dissidents, who also live in the five boroughs, with respect to those remarks and to acknowledge the backlash?
Mayor Mamdani: What I would say to Jewish New Yorkers, to Iranian American New Yorkers, to any New Yorker, frankly, is that my primary responsibility is to keep you safe. And as much as I have shared my thoughts when I've been asked about the federal government's actions as well as the actions of the Israeli military, I've also focused my time and efforts in being in constant communication with our police commissioner, as well as emergency management officials. And so, what we have done is taken the decision to increase agency coordination, as well as increasing patrols of sensitive locations across the city out of an abundance of caution.
And what that means is we also know that many Jewish New Yorkers are celebrating Purim in this moment, many Muslim New Yorkers are celebrating Ramadan in this moment. And this is also a time when there is a sense of anxiety about whether New Yorkers can celebrate themselves, their faiths in a moment of such anxiety and tumult across the world. And we are taking the steps to ensure that our police officers are present, [and that] they are visible and reassuring New Yorkers that they do not need to sacrifice an ounce of themselves to be safe in this city. They can be the fullest versions of themselves. And I'm thankful of the work of the men and women of the NYPD in making that the case.
Question: I just have a couple of questions for you about transparency. One, there was a report that came out that you're using Signal to communicate with government officials on government official information. Just wondering if you are using the app Signal. And then also separately, last week, when you left to Washington, D.C., it took at least two hours for your team to confirm that you were even out of the state. So, who did you inform when you did leave the state? And do you think that if there had been an emergency, do you think that New Yorkers had a right to know who their mayor was in that moment, if you're not? Are you going to try to help alert the media and New Yorkers when you do leave [like] this? And then one more question about it, I apologize, but when you, uh, when you do leave, are you required to tell anybody?
Mayor Mamdani: So, when it came to the meeting with the president at the White House, we followed the White House's lead. They made the decision to not share the meeting on their public schedule, and so we followed suit accordingly. However, the top members of my administration knew of the meeting, and no matter where I am, I am always the mayor of our city and able to respond to anything of urgency. As soon as the meeting concluded, we shared that information publicly, as well as with the results of that meeting, including the release of the Columbia student who had been detained by ICE earlier that morning.
I can tell you as it pertains to Signal, I use Signal for personal and campaign purposes. I do not conduct City government business on Signal as a matter of practice. I am committed to transparency, I am also committed to all applicable rules and regulations governing official communications and record keeping, and that includes the Freedom of Information Law. And that practice means to use city-appropriate channels for city business, and I've also ensured that my staff knows the same.
Question: The first deputy mayor was acting mayor when you were out of state?
Mayor Mamdani: Yes. If I'm out of the state, that is the practice, yes. But I knew that I would be back before the end of the day.
Question: As you mentioned just a second ago, you were instrumental in the release of this Columbia student. What role might you and the city generally be able to play in getting the video released of the DHS agents approaching, and for that matter, [the] NYPD on the scene? What role, and Columbia's video — what role might the city be able to play in that, sir?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I'll have to get back to you on that. I haven't thought as much about the video. I've thought more about what role we can play in ensuring that New Yorkers are not being unlawfully detained. And so when I sat with the president in the Oval Office, I brought up to him the fact that ICE had detained a Columbia student just that morning and that there were actually five people who had been detained either as Columbia students or for activities on Columbia campus, and that I believe that all of their cases should be dropped. After the meeting concluded, shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from the president informing me that he was taking the decision to release her imminently, and that we could share that publicly.
Question: Two questions for you. First is, have you spoken with the president since he launched the war in Iran? And second, you talked about how NYPD is on high alert. Are you aware of any threats that the war rendered New Yorkers less safe?
Mayor Mamdani: So, at this time, there are no threats to share with the public. Everything that we are doing is out of an abundance of caution. And I'm appreciative of what the NYPD is doing because it is both reassuring New Yorkers who are understandably concerned at this time, and also ensuring that we are taking every single step we can to be prepared in light of anything resulting from the actions of the federal government and the Israeli government. And I have not spoken to the president since our meeting in the Oval Office.
Question: I wanted to ask about your security clearance. I know there were reports today that you're still waiting. You mentioned you haven't talked to the president, but in your previous communications, has that come up at all? And maybe you could talk a little bit about, I guess, with the threat from Iran, whether that's how you're kind of handling that?
Mayor Mamdani: So, we are going through the regular security clearance process. It takes months and everything is going according to that routine. I'm also thankful of the fact that there are a number of members of my senior staff that do have that clearance. This has in no way impeded our abilities to respond both to the day-to-day needs of New Yorkers as well as to respond to the current crisis at hand. And what we are doing is taking every step that we can to ensure that we are keeping New Yorkers safe. And I am thankful once again to the hardworking members of the NYPD for doing exactly that across the five boroughs, both in times of celebration for New Yorkers, and in times of anxiety.
Question: What do you think of Sid Rosenberg using the term cockroach? I know your police commissioner had dinner with him.
Mayor Mamdani: So, Muslims in this city, for almost as long as we have been in this city, have had to deal with those with power and platform dehumanizing us. And to be called animals, insects; to be called a jihadist mayor; to be called a cockroach; this language is both painfully familiar to me as a Muslim New Yorker but also as someone who was born in East Africa. And, it is difficult to hear, there's also a reminder that the silence that often greets this kind of bigotry, this kind of Islamophobia, is what allows it to fester.
The temptation to treat it as politics as usual. And I want to be very clear that I have far more urgent work in front of me than indulging the provocations of a man who trades in outrage and frankly fears the city that we are looking to build, which is one where every single New Yorker who lives here can call it their home. I am not ashamed of who I am, I am not ashamed of my faith, I am not ashamed of being the first Muslim mayor in the history of our city, and there is no amount of racism that will change the way in which I lead or the commitment that I hold to each and every New Yorker in this city. Thank you so much.
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