Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Antioch Baptist Church

February 21, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: There’s some things I want to say about Antioch, and about my friend, Pastor Waterman, who, by the way, I always look up to.

[Laughter]

But I’ve got to do something first – and unfortunately, the first thing I have to tell you is not a good thing. Once again, in this country, unfortunately we’ve seen it so often it feels now commonplace that someone takes a gun and fires into a crowd of innocent people. It happened again now from Kalamazoo, Michigan – six people dead – random act of violence because there are too many guns in the wrong hands in this country, and we have got to grapple with that, and we’ve got to change that. Right now, though, we have to pray for these families who senselessly have lost their loved ones. I just want to ask you for a brief minute of silence in their honor. 

[Silence]

Thank you. Thank you. There is some good news too though in this world, and I always like to be able to remind people that the good news coexists with the challenges and coexists with the bad. So, yesterday, I was at Kings County Hospital because of our police officers were fired upon while they were trying to stop a man who was menacing the community with a gun, and both were hit. I went to the hospital, hearing the worst, and I had the honor of speaking with these two officers who – thank God, one is already walking around – the other one will be out of the hospital soon –

[Applause]

And this happened not far from here, and I want you to know the officer who was shot in the back was talking to me, he was awake, he was vibrant, and he didn’t want to talk about the fact he was shot, and he didn’t want to talk about his trials and tribulations – he wanted me to know that the day before – because we have our new ShotSpotter system that detects gunfire – that the alert went off – this was the day before – the alert went off, police went right away, and they arrested someone with an illegal gun. He wanted me to know we got a gun off the street in this community and he was proud of that. 

[Applause]

God bless both officers. 

So, Pastor Waterman was right – and I’ve had the honor of being at Antioch many times. This is one of the great houses of worship in the borough of churches that is named [inaudible] –

[Applause]

The whole world is looking at Brooklyn right now. We are the coolest. We are the hippest. We are the most happening. 

[Applause]

And we are [inaudible] those ideas go together. So, Antioch is such a special place and has such a rich history, and that history has been built on powerfully by Pastor Waterman. He is a dynamic leader –

[Applause] 

He is a compelling leader. He is a leader that energizes people.

[Applause]

And one of the very first times we spoke, I was so struck – this was almost a decade ago – I was so struck that he talked about what we need to do for our young people, and he talked about their potential that was going missed. He talked about reaching our young people on a basis of mutual respect, and an appreciation for the fact that they very soon would be our leaders. And I heard a clarion call – it was not the usual pretty words – even if heartfelt, pretty words about honoring our youth – it was more sharp than that, it was more blunt than that, that we had an obligation to our youth to open the door wide, to never hold them back or hold them down, but treat them as those leaders because they’re developing as our leaders right this minute. And Pastor understood that, and Pastor provided that leadership and animated a generation of young people to believe in their potential, and we need to thank him for that.

[Applause]

Now, as Pastor mentioned – I actually – I only remember a few differences. I maybe remember the agreements, but one thing that he often gave me guidance – so, when the time came I was going to be a citywide elected official, I was going to become Public Advocate, I turned to Pastor and I said, look, I need a Bible that’s appropriate for the occasion to be sworn in. And Pastor allowed me to use his personal Bible, and that meant a lot to me, and I felt doubly blessed that day. 

Now, Pastor, I’ve got to tell you the truth and nothing but the truth, because, here, the truth is required. 

[Laughter]

God is watching what I say. 

[Laughter] 

When it came time to become Mayor of the City of New York, I had to choose a Bible, and, Pastor, I did – I passed you up, but I want to tell you what I passed you up for. I hope you will find it to be acceptable. The Bible I was sworn in on was the personal Bible of Franklyn Delano Roosevelt. So, Pastor, he was the only one who could surpass you.

[Laughter]

Look, let me tell you, Pastor said it right: this city, this town, this community, Bed-Stuy means so much to this city. You say the words and you conjure up immediately strength – strong, resilient community. A community that’s stood and fought when times are bad. Times were bad – I know the history’s been airbrushed a little bit, but let me remind you – times were bad. A lot of people didn’t believe in New York City anymore. A lot of people didn’t believe in Bed-Stuy. They [inaudible]. They went away. They wouldn’t invest. But people stood and fought, and believed in their neighborhood.

[Applause]

And guess what? A lot of people in this room were in that category of the brave believers. You were the [inaudible]. You saw the neighborhood through the tough times to better times – not perfect times by any stretch of the imagination, but better times. You stood, and fought, and you won. And so, there should be a reward in that. Typically the victors are rewarded, and it would be natural to believe that therefore your neighborhood now – strengthened because of your work – would be a place that you could depend on for the long haul. But in this neighborhood, and so many other neighborhoods, I hear the question all the time, “What’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to my family? Will I be able to live here? Will I be able to afford my own neighborhood? Will I be able to be a part of the place I built?” I hear that everywhere I go – by far, the number one concern of New Yorkers raised to me. 

And we’re in a moment of decision in this city. We, for years, the City of New York, I think looked the other way, meaning, our government looked the other way while changes are happening. There was a phenomenon of gentrification – it went unspoken. You could see it, I could see it, everyone could see it, but it wasn’t talked about in terms of what we have to do about it – how we have to compensate for it. Gentrification is not one thing or another, it’s not all good or all bad, it is complicated, but know one thing for sure – it changed people’s lives, and sometimes it displaces people. Sometimes it prices people out.

[Applause]

And that is not what we aspire to in a city that’s supposed to be for everyone. It’s not what we aspire to in a city of neighborhoods – in the city of neighborhoods we honor the neighborhood. We honor its character, we honor its people, we honor its fight. So, for 10, or 15, or 20 years, gentrification kept hitting, and hitting, and hitting, and city government looked the other way, and in some communities – it certainly happened here, and it certainly happened in Bushwick – there was no meaningful response from the city. And I came into office saying we’re going to look at this in the face. We’re going to call it what it is, and we’re going to change.
I said the only way we have a chance of having a city for everyone – we need enough new affordable housing for half a million people – for half a million people we need 200,000 apartments. That is the plan I embarked on. And I want to say at the beginning – people say to me, “What is affordable? How do you define affordable?”

[Applause]

And that answer should also be talked about because the First Lady defined affordable as for 120,000 families under my plan – 120,000 families in Bed-Stuy and all over the city – affordable means you stay in the very same apartment you’re in now with the subsidies and support, so you can keep paying your rent that’s no more than 30 percent of your income – whatever your income is.

Does that sound affordable?

[Applause]

Okay, 120,000 families under my plan will experience that reality. Already 13,000 families have been reached all over the city. That is the first way you create affordable – keep people where they’re living right now. We have to build, too. We have to build enough new affordable housing for 80,000 families. We’re already on track to do that – we’re on schedule to do that. 

What does it mean? For some families it will be – for people who make less than $20,000 a year – for some it will be for people who make less than $30,000 or $40,000, and that is a lot of people in New York City – a lot of people in Bed-Stuy. There’s also affordable public housing for public servants because when you think about a teacher, a nurse, a police officer they make more than that – and they should make more than that – but they need affordable housing, too. So we have different types of housing for different types of people, but don’t for a moment believe we’re missing the fact that for many, many people if it’s not for $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 income it’s beyond their reach.

That’s where so much of our program focuses, but that’s not the only news. I’m fighting to protect the millions of apartments that are rent-regulated right now in this city. And we have to fight that fight in Albany all the time – but I did one better and I’m very proud of that. We said it’s one thing to have a rent-stabilized apartment, but you should not be charged an unfair increase each year, so the increase should only be what the landlords have to be pay for – and if the landlords aren’t incurring new expenses why should there be an increase for the tenants?

So for the first time in almost 50 years – almost half a century this year we get a rent freeze for people who live in rent-stabilized housing – zero was the increase for their new lease - because the landlords didn’t have new expenses – the cost of oil and gas is going down in fact. We said if there’s not an increase in expenses, we’re not going to pass along an increase in rent. We did a rent freeze.

The next piece of the equation – 400,000 people, 400,000 good New Yorkers, so many of them who work every single day so hard for their families live in our public housing. Well, here’s the reality at NYCHA – and this is the painful reality that our government stopped supporting NYCHA the way it should have long ago, and the City of New York, until a few years ago, this will probably shock you because it shocked me – the City of New York used to make our Housing Authority pay for police services – like it was some other city. They had to pay for NYPD protection. I ended that practice, and we sent tens of millions of dollars back to the Housing Authority to create repairs that people needed.

The Housing Authority, since 1947, had to pay taxes to the City of New York – does that make any sense? That our own Housing Authority had to pay taxes to the City of New York? I ended that practice and said take those hundreds of millions of dollars and turn them back for repairs for people who need help in our Housing Authority [inaudible].

So now I’m painting the picture – we protect our Housing Authority, we will never, ever allow privatization of our Housing Authority – ever.

[Applause]

In fact, when I came into office it was this close to bankruptcy and now we’ve stabilized the finances of the Housing Authority so it will be there for us in the future.

[Applause]

We protect our Housing Authority, we protect our rent-regulated apartments, we make sure that rent increases are fair and when there shouldn’t be an increase there isn’t an increase. We build more affordable housing for income levels that actually fit the needs of the people who deserve public housing [inaudible] keeping 120,000 families in place.

One more point – and this is a very important point – everyone in this room can help now. If you have experienced yourself or have met someone – a family member, loved one, friend, neighbor – who feels they are being treated unfairly by their landlord. We have heard and seen evidence all over the city of landlords trying to force people out of their apartments, or tempt them out with too good to be true offers. By the way, an offer that is too good to be true – it’s too good to be true. If someone says I’m going to give you this one time check – look at this check how wonderful it is, but you’ll never ever have affordable housing again in your life that’s probably not a good deal.

We want people holding on to the affordable housing they have. We’ve seen people harassed, we’ve seen them lied to, we’ve seen them shown legal contracts that weren’t legal. So for the first time we’re going to do something that’s never been done before in the city – we increased the amount of legal aid and legal services funding by ten times what it was a few years ago, and now all you have to do is call 3-1-1, and say I believe my landlord is harassing me or trying to evict me illegally.   

If your case can be fought, we will give you a lawyer for free to take on the landlord and keep you in your home. And all you have to do is call 3-1-1. These are the tools now here – Pastor, you know a thing or two about leading the community and organizing the community. I’m going to ask Antioch to be one of the places that helps us to end [inaudible]. We need to know who we can help right now with that free legal service.

And one other thing – there’s going to be a vote in the City Council, and I need your help with this too. Because when I came into office, there was a lot of anger in the city – rightfully so.  A lot of development happened that the city [inaudible] – the city participated in – we had no affordable housing in it. There was development happening – nearby Williamsburg – great example – where people in the neighborhood were told there would be a certain amount of affordable housing but it wasn’t binding. 

So guess what now? The luxury buildings got built and the affordable housing did not get built. That’s what happened. With all due respect to my two previous predecessors, they did not require developers to build affordable housing the way they should have. And they didn’t even enforce the deals they made. So we have a new idea and we want to make it a matter of law and we need your help because the City Council will vote on two pieces of legislation: one has a title that is not exciting, but is very powerful. It is called Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning, and I want you to please focus on the first word, mandatory. Because it says, in any place where this policy applies, a developer cannot even build unless they legally – in a legally binding manner – guarantee the affordable housing that will be built on that site. They must give us affordable housing if they want to build. Period. And if they don’t want to give us affordable housing, they don’t get a building permit. It’s as simple as that. 

[Applause] 

This is what government needs to do today because my friends, the free market is not going to protect us. Look what’s happening around us. If the government just throws up its hands and says let the free market take its place – more and more people will be displaced. We can see it happening all over the city – people will be forced out. Free market doesn’t respond to the needs of the people when it comes to affordable housing, but what does is a muscular, strong government that lays down rules. We’re saying very clearly – there’s got to be new rules. They have to be strong, they have to be binding, they are non-negotiable. This Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning is going to go before the City Council in the next few weeks. And if you agree that there should be these requirements on developers, we need you to tell you your Council members to support us in this.

And one other, if you’re like me, you understand that this city has more and more senior citizens than ever. People are living longer – that’s a blessing. Families are not just two or three generations – but four generations. That’s a blessing. But our seniors more than anyone need affordable housing. Do you know a lot of rich seniors? Because I don’t. I know a lot of seniors who are good, hardworking people – who worked their whole life – and have Social Security, which doesn’t give that much, and maybe a modest pension. I know a lot of people who don’t have a modest pension or any pension because pensions were taken away over the last few decades. I know a lot of seniors who are on fixed income and they desperately need affordable housing. To build that affordable housing, we have to find every single place in this city that we can build senior housing. To do that we’ve got a plan, it’s called Zoning for Quality and Affordably – ZQA. It allows us to unlock areas that could not be used for senior housing developing and one way to do it. Under the laws previously, you had to put a lot of parking any place you built something new. 

Now, I live in Brooklyn. I stay in Gracie Mansion, but my home, my house, my home, my heart is in Brooklyn. I drove my own car until January 1, 2014. I’ve spent much of my life looking for a parking space – 20 minutes a night, 30 minutes a night. Who’s been there? Anyone, Anyone? So I can say – I too am an expert on how much we love and need our parking in this city. And I’ll tell you one thing and this is blunt. I talk to a lot of seniors and I say are you more interested in an affordable home or in parking? And every senior I’ve talked to wants an affordable apartment – they don’t care if it comes with parking or not. They want an affordable apartment – and they need it now. Under this ZQA plan, we can build more and more senior housing and we need it fast. So if you agree with me, please tell your Council member how much it matters to you.

I just want to close by saying – we have big challenges – really big challenges. But I can also see something happening – in this city and all around this country – that gives me hope. Because a lot of things that weren’t talked about before are being talked about. A lot of blunt truths are being talked about. We’re talking about income inequality and we’re talking about how you cannot have the rich just incessantly get richer without undermining the entire society. We’re talking about that openly finally – that if the top one percent continues to control more wealth and power, this country will not fulfill its potential. In fact, we’ll start to decline. We’re talking about the fact that if there isn’t a respectful relationship between the police and the community, we can’t be safe. We can’t be safe. And by the way, you may remember, a few years ago, one of my opponents said that because I wanted to end the unconstitutional policy of stop-and-frisk, we would all go back to the bad, old days and revert to the 1970s. Well, just a little fact you might be interested in – since I took office, stop-and-frisk is down 93 percent and crime is down too. Crime is down too – safety and fairness go together, and we see this all over the country – the demand that we account for our history, acknowledge the truth about who has held the power and what it has done to everyday people, and the changes that require at this moment. 

This is a very powerful moment. Something is moving. Something is changing. Let’s grab it for all its worth. Let’s go as far as we can to make change in this moment. Because something’s opened up. The minds of the people have opened up. The hearts of the people have opened up. And they no longer accept what they used to accept. So, I want to thank you for this chance to be with you in this extraordinary church. I want to thank you for having a leader who does so much for the community. I want to thank you for having stood and fought for this place and together we are going to keep it a place for everyone. 

Thank you and God bless you.