Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, New York City. It is a pleasure to be here in the Bronx to announce the expansion of a program that helps students learn. New Yorkers find jobs, and people of all ages stream Zootopia 2, a film I simply cannot recommend highly enough. I am talking about New York City's Neighborhood Internet program. And I want to thank Congressman Ritchie Torres, who led the fight in Washington to secure additional funding for this program. I also want to thank our deputy mayor, Leila Bozorg. I want to thank our New York City Housing Preservation and Development commissioner, Dina Levy; the president of the New York Public Library, Anthony Marx; the New York City Chief Technology Officer, Lisa Gelobter; Council Member Althea Stevens; Dr. Damyn Kelly; and the team at Lutheran Social Services for hosting us and for all that they do to serve New Yorkers.
Today, we are here together to announce $2 million in additional federal funding for a program [that will] provide internet to New Yorkers for free. Because every New Yorker should be able to access the tools that they need to participate, whether in the classroom, whether in the workplace, [or] whether just to keep in touch with their loved ones. This funding builds on the work of the Pilot Neighborhood Internet program, which is funded by the federal Section 8 and will provide 2,200 apartments across 39 buildings of affordable housing with free internet for the next three years. And it will go a long way towards expanding digital equity in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.
Right now, we know that one in five residents of the Bronx lack internet connectivity. We know that in the age that we live in, the internet is a basic necessity to be able to participate in this economy. And this $2 million will provide internet to an additional 2,000 apartments across 50 buildings. Thanks to efforts of New York Housing Preservation and Development and New York Public Library, we will do retrofitting and install rooftop network equipment to bring affordable housing across the Bronx and Upper Manhattan online. The New York Public Library will also provide neighborhood tech help service on-site to support tenants as they get connected.
Now, after this initial installation, this tech help will continue to be available nearby at older adult centers, community centers and library branches. Now, the work that we are here together today to speak about is that which builds upon a citywide effort to make sure that every New Yorker has access to the internet that they need. New York City Housing Preservation and Development is already providing $3.25 million in Section 8 funding for the initial pilot. Now, our Office of Technology and Innovation launched the Get Online NYC campaign in April to make it easier for New Yorkers to find free digital resources at more than 450 public computer centers across the city.
Now, I've spoken often about [the] government's role in ensuring that each and every New Yorker can live a life of dignity. Today, we speak about the fact that in addition to delivering that by making it easier to afford life in New York City, we also are doing so by now providing internet to thousands more New Yorkers with the tools that they now have to succeed in the modern world. With that being said, I want to pass it over to Congressman Ritchie Torres.
Representative Ritchie Torres: Good morning. I am honored to join the mayor in announcing a $2 million congressional appropriation for Neighborhood Internet, a New York City-led initiative that will bring high-speed internet connectivity to thousands of families and make real progress toward closing the digital divide. This investment would not have been possible without the partnership of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Commissioner Dina Levy and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and President Tony Marx and the New York Public Library, as well as the deputy mayor and the chief technology officer. Public service is a team sport, and as a member of Congress, I'm only as strong as my state and local partners, like Mayor Mamdani and Council Member Althea Stevens.
Back in 2020, during the depths of COVID, we saw the digital divide deprive our most vulnerable children of access to an education and our most vulnerable seniors of access to health care. That is why our $2 million appropriation is not an expense; it is an investment in the health, education and future of the Bronx. For far too long, the Bronx has been ground zero for digital poverty. More than 20 percent of Bronx families lack broadband access at home. And in the South Bronx, in neighborhoods like Mott Haven and Melrose, Belmont and Tremont, the number of Bronx families without broadband access at home rises to more than 40 percent.
In the wealthiest city on earth, there is simply no excuse for accepting the persistence of a digital underclass. We cannot and will not accept the unacceptable. Neighborhood internet is inspired by the same moral ambition that electrified America in the 20th century. Just as President Franklin Roosevelt declared that no American home should be left in the dark, we must declare in our own time that no American home should be disconnected, that no one should be left stranded at a digital dead end.
The purpose of government is simple, to ensure that every New Yorker has a fighting chance at a decent life. And in the 21st century, there is no opportunity without connectivity. There is no American dream without access and without affordability. Today, New York City is a tale of two cities when it comes to broadband. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the lowest-income families in the Bronx pay five times more as a share of income for internet access than the highest-income families in Manhattan. The unequal cost of broadband is a hidden poverty tax that imposes the heaviest burden on the Bronx.
Providing free broadband, therefore, is not an act of charity. It is a long overdue corrective to inequality, an inequality that stems from decades of digital redlining. The average broadband subscription in the Bronx costs around $70 a month. Neighborhood internet will save a single family more than $800 a year and more than $25,000 over the course of 30 years. Multiply those savings across 2,000 families and the result is nearly $1.7 million a year and more than $50 million returned to the Bronx over a generation. The math of free broadband is as compelling as the moral imperative that inspires it.
In a digital world, broadband access is not a luxury. It is an essential utility, one that must be available and affordable to every New Yorker. And so, I want to thank Mayor Mamdani for bringing his bold vision of affordability to where it is needed most, right here in the “Boogie Down Bronx.” I have the honor of introducing someone I've known since I was a young Council member, even before then. If there is one person on earth in the housing space who is at the intersection of strategy and policy and organizing, it is our HPD Commissioner Dina Levy.
Dina Levy, Commissioner, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Thank you, Congressman Torres. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to start by thanking Lutheran Social Services for hosting us today and for partnering with HPD on the Neighborhood Internet program, which is bringing high-speed internet to HPD-financed projects across the Bronx. I think these days we take for granted the speed with which we now have access to unlimited information. The world is literally now at our fingertips. But that is not true for all communities equally. And for that reason, the Neighborhood Internet program is committing to making sure that all communities have equal access to information, because we know that information is knowledge, and knowledge is power.
Thanks to this new funding, we will be able to empower thousands of additional households, including young adults who need high-speed internet in order to thrive in a rapidly changing world. The new investment will allow us to serve more than 4,000 households, nearly doubling the number of people who will benefit from this program. I want to thank Mayor Mamdani for his commitment to this initiative and his dedication to leveling the playing field across neighborhoods throughout the city, to the team at HPD and our partners at the New York Public Library for making this program a reality and to Congressman Torres for expanding knowledge and power right here in the heart of the Bronx. Now it is my pleasure to introduce Council Member Althea Stevens.
Council Member Althea Stevens: Good morning, everyone. How's everyone feeling? This is a great day, and I'm really excited. I want to first [start] off by thanking our Mayor Mamdani and our Congressmember Ritchie Torres for really making sure that everyone has access to broadband. And I just want to start out by saying one of the things that I see in my office and my Council office on a regular basis [is] so many people coming to my office just to print up documents, just to be able to use our internet service because they don't have it at home. This is one of the things that people don't talk about in real time, and this investment actually is one that I know is going to change lives.
And so I'm excited to be here to say we are investing in the Bronx, and when you have partners who are in government and who have the same vision [as] you, this is what it looks like: coming together and making sure people have access to necessities because broadband at this moment is a necessity, and we have to make sure that everyone has access to it. And so this is going to, like I said, really have huge impacts in my district, where I've seen where even where we've talked about not being able to have remote days in my office because my community is not able to have access if we're not there physically because we see hundreds of people coming in on a regular basis saying they don't have this support. And so, thank you guys for having the vision and making sure that affordability is for everyone and not just for some. So, thank you.
Anthony Marx, President, New York Public Library: Morning. I'm Tony Marx. I'm the president of the New York Public Library, and it is so wonderful to gather with you all today. I'm here to thank Congressman Torres and Mayor Mamdani, together with HPD and also the efforts of Senator Gillibrand, to bring us the funding to create the possibilities that I confess the New York Public Library has been working towards for over a decade. And a huge shout out to Garfield Swaby, our IT director, with his colleagues who've been working at this. We've tried lots of approaches. We found the one that works. Now, we have the funding to make it work for the people of New York.
Look, it's very simple. The New York Public Library is in the business of providing access to books, to ideas, to educational programs. So much of that is now available in our branches, which we love, but it is now available online. And we want everyone to take advantage of all of that. But if you do not have broadband, if you do not have digital access at home, you are literally in the dark. That was true in the pandemic, where it was particularly shocking, and it remains true. The numbers that the mayor highlighted — that one in four or five Bronx residents do not have internet access at home — is truly, truly a shocking number in the 21st century, in the city that is the center of the information world. It's a number that almost makes the mind go numb.
It comes down to the kid who lives in this building, who cannot do the math online homework that they've been assigned to move ahead in school, who come to the branches of the library, even after hours, to get bleed from under our door. This is not how it should be. Now there are people who say that the market or the market with regulations is, or can, solve this problem. That is simply not the case. That kid is a testament to the failures of our efforts up to now. Internet is an essential, not just for those who can afford it, but for everyone.
And that creates a challenge for us in a time of remarkable inequality. This very building we're standing in has now been brought online and we will complete that work in the month ahead. We're on pace, as the mayor referred to, to deliver free Wi-Fi for more than a thousand 1,000 households by 2027. And now with this $2 million additional federal grant — thank you, Ritchie — we'll be able to scale up the Neighborhood Internet program even further. We can provide high-speed, reliable broadband that people already expect in our branches and now we can bring it into people's homes. Representative Torres, Mayor Mamdani, thank you for understanding. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your efforts. Thank you for coming together in the public good to make sure that the public has what it needs.
Let me be very clear: this is a great moment, but it is just the start. This is a pilot, is a proof of concept. Thousands of people will benefit, but we need much more. We need a utility that can provide free internet to all as a public good. And what could be a better partner in ensuring that result than the ultimate public good, the city's public libraries?
Here we are in the greatest city in the world, and we have to make sure, and these gentlemen are working tirelessly to make sure, that no one is left behind and that no one is left behind offline as well. So, thank you all for all your efforts and now it's my particular pleasure to turn it over. It's enough from us to talk about this policy and try to get it done at the policy level. Let's talk about the realities of what this means for the people who live in this building. Please join me in welcoming Caridad Suarez, a tenant of the building.
Caridad Suarez, Tenant: Good morning, everyone. I'm born and raised in New York City. I've been living in this building since 2013. I wanted to take a brief moment to share what a difference the Neighborhood Internet program has made. My broadband bill has climbed up to $204 a month. Paying for this is always challenging, especially if the price is similarly everything has gone up and up. Food is expensive and I have four grandchildren that love their grandmother's cooking. But now, thanks to the Neighborhood Internet [program], I'm saving $204 every month, which is a huge relief and allows me to put something aside for the month for something fun. The community tech support staff has been a huge help to setting up my Wi-Fi, my Wi-Fi connection, my WhatsApp, so I can [talk] to family.
[Crosstalk.]
Anyway, I celebrated my 60th birthday this year. And I'm lucky I consider that being blessed to receive a keyboard as a gift. A tablet with a keyboard, excuse me. I still learning how to use it, but [they] already have been extremely helpful, not only with learning new things, but even on an everyday task.
As others have pointed out this morning, so many things have to be done on the internet. These things, I've been using it to help me make weekly acupuncture appointments, schedule rides, accessorize and [look] for free things to do in the city with my grandkids. On top of that, I've also enjoyed discovering many wonderful things in YouTube. I'm so excited to keep learning and know that it's easier than ever to do. I'm also excited to be my first library card, to have my first library card. I really wasn't aware of all the programs that have been benefited in the public library offer, including my new install free Wi-Fi at home for free. I'm truly grateful. Thank you.
Question: Municipal broadband, I think, it's like a step beyond what we're talking about here — publicly provided internet. Obviously, there are programs like this, or Big Apple Connect, which are kind of reliant on providers agreeing to the extension of services. Big Apple Connect is supposed to expire, I think, in 2028, so you've got to sort of dive back into that program, providing for the internet to 19 residents. Do you think there's more to be done, like municipal broadband programs, or even the Internet Master Plan, which was in the works under the de Blasio administration?
Mayor Mamdani: I think we've heard from a number of other speakers today about how internet is a requirement to participate in the world today. It is not a nice to have; it is a building block of every single way in which New Yorkers are engaging with the world around them. And I want to first appreciate Council Member Gutiérrez's leadership on this issue. She's been one of the proponents of how the city can actually meet that need. Now, as you said, that is something that was in the works, then the previous administration kind of dismantled it.
And now, for us, we're looking at every single step we can take to expand access, while also engaging with the larger realities of that access across the city. Today's announcement is one that is incredibly exciting, because it doubles the access of this program. And initially, when this program was put together, the city wasn't sure if it would be low cost or free. And we're excited to announce that it will be entirely free. And this is not going to be the end of how we are engaging with the question of internet access citywide. I think that's part of the larger conversations we're having about how to go beyond this.
Question: I have two quick questions. One is regarding the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture. Our reporting at the Times, I think, found that there might have been a misinterpretation of the terms of the federal funding supporting that program, and that it would not actually require the collection and disclosure of individual immigrant data in order to keep funding the program. In light of that misinterpretation, why hasn't there been a decision to revisit keeping that program operating?
Second question: some reporting by my colleagues found that there was concern among advocates that the creation of the Office of Community Safety would weaken the work of the Office to Combat Domestic Violence. I'm curious if your administration is considering any steps to protect those focused on the domestic violence work in light of the creation of the Office of Community Safety.
Mayor Mamdani: On the first one, we'll get back to you on the specifics of that. On the second, I want to make very clear that that work is critically important to our administration, and the Office of Community Safety is our vision for how to take what was previously disparately organized parts of City government, [and bring] them into one work stream within our city work. And that includes not just the efforts that we have to combat domestic violence — to combat gender-based violence — but also tackling the mental health crisis, also tackling the gun violence epidemic, to finally [ensuring] that we could actually approach this with a coherence that it's long been denied.
Question: I wanted to ask if you could comment on the incident Saturday night outside Wyckoff Hospital. You know, there are two things going on. There are some elected officials who are alleging that there was some kind of collusion between the NYPD and ICE. Secondly, there are also all of these videos circulating showing police officers using force on protesters. There's one video in which there is a white shirt who is saying, “All Democrats [are a] waste of [the] human race.” He's saying that you are just temporary. Have you seen the videos? Can you comment on that? And also, the allegation that there was some kind of collusion going on.
Mayor Mamdani: Let me first start with the incident as a whole, and then we can get into the specific videos. First and foremost, I want to be very clear that there was no prior coordination or planning between the NYPD and ICE ahead of this incident. NYPD officers were not dispatched to the hospital to participate or facilitate an ICE operation. Rather, they were responding to 911 calls regarding a protest outside of the hospital. And as I've made very clear that our laws leave nothing [and] no room for interpretation about the fact that our NYPD will not participate in civil immigration enforcement.
And I've also been very clear about my views on ICE raids as a whole. I think that they are cruel. I think that they are inhumane. I think that they do not serve any interest of public safety. Now, I've seen some of the videos from the incident. I saw a video that you referred to of an officer grabbing a New Yorker and throwing them onto the floor. That is incredibly disturbing, and that is being actively investigated right now. I haven't seen the video of a white shirt with those comments that you just referred to, but I will follow up on that.
Question: There have been two, and I want to call them “open-door fires” in the city, fatal fires, multiple fatalities. And I'm wondering to what extent that concerns you, and also at the same time, you and the team managed to make very effective — I think it's indisputably, effective social media videos. Are you considering making a video that would perhaps act as a public service announcement to people to encourage them to close the door when they leave the fire? I mean, obviously, it's a disturbing trend.
Mayor Mamdani: First, I just want to say thank you just for highlighting this as an issue, and that is a suggestion I'm going to take back to the team right after this press conference. Frankly, what we've seen, and even just this morning, right, we continue to see fires across our city, and wherever there are actions that can be taken to prevent those fires, we are going to do everything within our power to ensure that those are being taken and that New Yorkers understand the consequences of that, whether we're talking about an open door or we're talking about double parking in front of a fire hydrant.
There have been a number of times where I've responded to a fire. I've arrived on the scene to meet the incredible first responders that our city has and have been shown the fact that there was a car parked in front of a fire hydrant that then delayed the response to a five-alarm fire. So, absolutely, I will follow up with the team about adding this as part of our public education to what New Yorkers can do in terms of preventing these kinds of fires.
Question: Can we also ask the HPD commissioner on that topic?
Mayor Mamdani: Yes absolutely, please.
Commissioner Levy: Yeah, so obviously, there was another tragic fire in Inwood yesterday. We are still working with the Fire Department and with DOB to determine what the cause of the fire was and also whether there was any negligence on the part of the landlord that contributed to the fire. It is under the Housing Maintenance Code a requirement that all doors be self-closing and so if tenants are propping them open, we do need to do more to educate them on why not to do that, but we also need to make sure that landlords are complying with making sure all doors are self-closing.
Question: Do you think HPD could do more?
Commissioner Levy: I think HPD is doing what it should, which is enforcing the Housing Maintenance Code. I think we need to do more to educate tenants to make sure that they are not, you know, doing anything to undo the requirements as required by the Housing Maintenance Code.
Question: Mr. Mayor, former Mayor Giuliani is in a hospital in Florida in critical condition. I wonder if there's anything you'd like to say about that.
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. I'm wishing strength and recovery to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his loved ones during this difficult time, and I hope that his recovery is steady, and I hope that his family finds peace in one another during this time.
Question: Is there anything you'd like to say about his contributions to the city, the fact that he got the city through 9/11?
Mayor Mamdani: I think former Mayor Giuliani is someone that we as New Yorkers know well, and he's been a fixture in our city's politics and public life for so many years, and I know that many New Yorkers are concerned by the reports that he's in critical condition. So, we do keep him and his family in our prayers at this time.
Question: I wanted to ask you, last week the city's comptroller put out an analysis on the pied-à-terre tax and said that it's actually not going to generate $500 million but closer to $320 million. I wanted to know your reaction to that, especially because there are billions of dollars when it comes to the budget gap. And then also to go back to this idea of what happened at the Wyckoff Medical Center, what is your understanding of how the Police Department can interact in these types of situations, especially when you're hearing these allegations that they're colluding in these types of ways?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I will begin with your first question, and then we can go to your second question. On the first question, we are very much confident in working with the governor's team that this tax will raise half a billion dollars. I think the comptroller's report said that it could raise half a billion dollars; it could raise other amounts of money. A lot of it comes back to the way in which this tax is administered. And so much of the work of these last few weeks has been on that very question, on how to ensure that this is a tax that is actually being applied in the manner that it was first envisioned. And I'm confident of where it's going to land and its ability to raise that money as part of a larger conversation we're having about ensuring that the city is on firm financial footing after inheriting the largest fiscal deficit we've seen in a generation. Would you mind repeating the second question?
Question: What is your understanding of how the Police Department should be interacting in these situations where ICE is there to, you know, do civil immigration enforcement? Do you feel like they're helping in any type of way when you see the videos? Have you had conversations with the police commissioner about some of the allegations that are being lodged against them?
Mayor Mamdani: I've spoken with the police commissioner, and I'm always in active conversation with the police commissioner, because this is an issue of immense importance to New Yorkers. I understand why New Yorkers are so concerned and frustrated by this, because what we're seeing are ICE raids across our city where they are detaining New Yorkers. And sometimes it's the detention of a New Yorker; recently it was a delivery worker who had just finished his Grubhub shift. And as soon as he finished delivering that food, he was then detained by armed federal agents without any active warrant. And this is incredibly concerning. It's why I've said time and again that I believe that ICE should be abolished.
And I believe that we have to have a response to immigration as a country that has humanity as part of it, as opposed to simply a footnote. And when it comes to our police force, I've been very clear about the fact that there cannot be any work in coordination with ICE and planning with ICE. And there was none of that when it comes to Wyckoff. And there cannot be any assistance in civil immigration enforcement, and there was none of that in what our police force is doing. And we are going to continue to actively examine what our response protocols are when ICE is present to ensure that we're handling these situations appropriately. And we're doing so in a manner that's consistent with our local laws and our values as a city. Thank you all so much.
Question: At what time did you finish? What was your time for the bike ride?
Mayor Mamdani: I don't know, to be honest with you. But I can feel it.