Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Affordable Housing Rally

March 23, 2016

First Lady Chirlane McCray:  Hello, everybody! What a great day to be a New Yorker!

[Cheers]

And we did it together.

[Cheers]

Because that’s the only way big things get done! Right?

[Cheers]

[Laughter]

I remember when I moved here, when I was 22 years old with $35 in my pocket. It wasn’t easy, but I was able to make a place for myself back then because the New York I love – the New York we love – is a place for strivers and doers and people who could not imagine living anywhere else.

[Cheers]

The New York we love is a place for 22-year-olds with a dream and 82-year-olds with a legacy.

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The New York we love is a place that realizes that teachers and mechanics and electricians are just as vital to our city as CEOs.

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The New York we love just doesn’t welcome those yearning to be free, we also have a place for them to stay and make a life.

[Cheers]

So thank you to everyone who stood up and fought for the New York we love – a city we can live in with new rules, with fairness and affordability. I now have the pleasure of introducing someone who once again showed herself to be a true leader – principled, creative, resourceful. Throughout her career she has fought to make New York fairer for the people of East Harlem and now for the whole city.

[Cheers]

Ladies and gentlemen please join me in thanking Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

[…]

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Brothers and sisters, hermanos y hermanas, we did it. 

[Cheers]

Together – together, we won a victory for working people, for senior citizens, for people struggling to get by. We said this is their city too – a city for everyone. And we know that New York City has always had a magic about it – something special, because unlike so many other places in the world, we believed everyone had a shot, everyone deserved a shot, everyone mattered. It didn’t matter where you came from, it didn’t matter what language you spoke, we believed everyone mattered and everyone belonged. But you can’t belong in a place you can’t afford, and, today, we said, it’s time to turn the tide and keep this a city for everyone.

[Applause]

I have to tell you, the City Council did what we ask of our leaders in a democracy – they deliberated, they questioned, they challenged, they looked at the needs of the people and they asked how far can we go? What’s the most we can do? And it’s a day for New Yorkers to be proud of democracy in this city, because it worked. The people’s voices were heard. The people’s needs were met. And the members of the City Council really did everything in their power to help keep this a city that is affordable, and for that, we owe them all a debt of gratitude. Let’s thank them all.

[Cheers]

I want to thank all of the elected officials who are here. But I have to offer a very special thank you to my partner in government, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. And, by the way, here is an activist and a community organizer who happens to also be an elected official. 

[Applause]

And she looked at this crisis, she looked at people in the communities she represents in East Harlem and in the Bronx struggling, and she said we can do something different, we can do something better, we can do something that’s never been done before. Isn’t that the definition of a visionary leader – to take us someplace we haven’t been before? And we owe such thanks to Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

[Cheers]

Now – I have notes too.

[Laughter]

I’m going to thank some other people. And I want to thank some of the wonderful organizations that are here. So, you’re going to bear with me for a moment, please – but at the time I call your organization and the name of its leader, I want to hear your pride in what you belong to, okay?

Now, before we do that, I have to say – you know, we have a phrase we use in New York City – remember who you came to the dance with. Okay? Now, in life, in politics, in everything I do, this is who I came to the dance with.

[Applause]

And I can tell you something – that our First Lady is not one for compromise. She always says what’s the next thing we can do? What’s the highest height we can reach? And she believed we could do something fundamentally different. And whenever I needed a little extra push, or a little extra inspiration, it was right there in bed next to me. Let us thank – let us thank the First Lady of New York City.

[Cheers]

I know this is a family program – I didn’t mean to make it too racy there.

[Laugher]

Just keeping it real, people.

[Laughter]

There are some people who don’t get a lot of attention. But you need to know, there’s people who work for you – every one of you, every single person here. There are people who work for you, and I have never seen people work harder every day. There was no night. There was no morning. There was no weekend. It was just work to get this done. They may not be famous, but there will be thousands and thousands of New Yorkers who get affordable housing because they worked, and they believed we could do it.

I want to thank our Commissioner for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development Vicki Been.

[Applause]

Where are you, Vicki? C’mon take your bow. You’re got to come forward when I call your name.

[Applause]

And whenever your landlord’s not providing heat or hot water, she busts them to make they have to, okay?

And a man who’s served the City of New York since the John Lindsay administration, and he keeps going, and this is a great achievement on top of so many others – the Chair of the City Planning Commission Carl Weisbrod – step forward.

[Applause]

I mentioned the great elected officials behind me – one has fought for affordable housing since the day I first met her over 25 years ago – the Borough President of Manhattan Gale Brewer. 

[Applause]

I thanked all the Council members as a group, but I have to single out two – the Chair of the Land Use Committee David Greenfield, and the Chair of the Subcommittee on Zoning Donovan Richards.

[Applause]

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito: You forgot to say our Land Use staff.

Mayor: And the Land Use staff of the City Council. 

[Applause]

And all – okay, I’ll thank your staff, but now I’m going to thank my staff – and all the staff of the Mayor’s Office, HPD, and City Planning, and all the agencies, and Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and her Chief of Staff James Patchett – all of them.

[Applause]

Now, get ready, when I state your name – it starts with a quiz. Your president is Stuart Appelbaum – and we thank Stuart Appelbaum and our WDSU.

[Cheers]

We thank New York State Director Beth Finkel, and everyone from AARP. 

[Cheers]

Can I just give some advice to the elected officials? Don’t mess with AARP.

[Applause]

I thank Executive Vice President Estela Vazquez, and everyone from 1199 SEIU.

[Cheers]

President Hector Figueroa, and everyone from 32BJ –

[Cheers]

I’m expecting louder from BJ – I was expecting louder. Alright, BJ, you’re going to have another chance later.

[Laughter]

Let’s see if these guys can beat you – President Peter Ward, and the Hotel Trades Council.

[Cheers]

[Laughter]

Okay, you won – you won. HTC, you won the contest, but you have given 32BJ motivation for next time.

[Laughter]

I want to thank the Director, Bobbie Sachman of LiveOn New York for their great work organizing.

[Cheers]

Finally, they did amazing work on this, Deputy Associate Director Jahmila Joseph, DC37 – AFSCME.

[Cheers]

So, I’m just going to say a couple things, then we have a very, very, very special guest. For too many years in this city, people felt that their neighborhoods were slipping away from them. And they saw and heard it so many times from people. They saw big shiny new buildings going up, and people would say to me, I see those buildings, they’re not for me, they’re not for my family. And there was a tale of two cites. And the City government needed to do something different. We needed to act. We needed to address all the changes that were happening to us that we could see before our very eyes. Brothers and sisters, gentrification – it’s a complicated thing. It has blessings and curses to it, but it demanded a response. You needed and you deserved that your City government come up with a plan and a vision for how to keep this a place for everyone. And for too long we didn’t have that, but now we have something that no other big city in America has. We now have a law – a law that protects everyday New Yorkers. A law –

[Cheers]

– a law that says that this town belongs to the people. And real estate developers can do their work and build their buildings, but whenever they come to the City for permission, now there’s a new rule. If you need our permission, you have to guarantee us affordable housing.

[Cheers]

You have to build affordable housing, and if you don’t build affordable housing, you’re not building anything.

[Cheers]

So that’s the change that everyone here achieved. That’s what you did. You changed the rules of the game once and for all – once and for all. And you recognized that if we were going to really honor our seniors – the people who made this city great and so many of whom struggle on a fixed income. But you know what I always say? So many seniors have a fixed-income, but the price of housing isn’t fixed. It keeps going up and up and up. And we needed to do something more and because of you we will now be able to build senior housing more than ever before to give our elders that respect.

[Cheers]

So, you put the law on the side of the people. You worked hard for this day, and we’re going to go and build that affordable housing. And we’re going to keep people in their apartments that they are in now that are affordable, and we’re going to make sure they stay affordable for decades to come. And we’re going to make sure if anyone is threatened with eviction illegally that now they have a lawyer on their side and the City of New York will provide it for free.

[Cheers] 

And I want to deputize – I’m deputizing everyone behind me. I’m deputizing everyone in front of me. If you hear of anyone, anyone threatened with an illegal eviction, take out your phone, call 3-1-1, put them on the phone so we can get them the legal services they deserve to protect their apartment.

[Cheers]

So, the status quo was broken. And yesterday, you just broke the status quo. You changed it. You created a new reality in this city, and you proved that things could change for the better, and we could be One New York. We could be a place for everyone.

Now, we’ve got a lot of work to do up ahead. We have to protect the 400,000 people who live in public housing in this city. We have to make their lives better, and we have to keep public housing public and never privatized.

[Cheers]

We have to protect the two million people who live in rent-stabilized housing who, for the first time, got a rent freeze, and they deserve that rent freeze.

[Cheers]

We have to do a lot of things in this city and we’re going to keep doing them because that’s what makes New York City, New York City. The day we become a gated community, the day only the wealthy can live here – we will not be New York City anymore. We won’t be the beacon of the world. We won’t be a place that’s created so much greatness. But you stopped that negative momentum. You turned it around and you are now ensuring that we will be a place for everyone. A few words in español –

[Cheers]

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

And I’ve said it, people are going to look back on this week in March of 2016 – they’re going to look back at this week as being the decisive moment when things turned. And every one of you will tell your children, your grandchildren that you helped to make it happen. Now, this is big news – big news for our city. It’s such big news that they even heard about it far away in Washington, D.C.

[Cheers]

There you go.

[Laughter]

I need you to have my back when I go to Washington, D.C.

[Laughter]

We are blessed in this city to work with the Obama administration.

[Cheers]

And even with the tough situation in the Congress, the administration has had our back. And I have to tell you, there’s nothing more wonderful than when I pick up the phone to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ask – can you help us in New York City? Can you help us create affordable housing? Can you help us protect what we have? And on the other end of the phone is a good man, a progressive man, a man who understands what working people go through, a man who has a very particular qualification for his job as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, because he was a mayor, and that teaches you everything. You learn all sorts of stuff. Well, he learned great things as the Mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He did great things. And I have to tell you, he not only is helping us to create affordable housing, he’s not only helping us to create jobs for people who need them, but a lot of the inspiration we took in this city for one of our proudest achievements – pre-K for all – we first took that inspiration from what Julián Castro did in San Antonio, Texas.

[Cheers]

So, let us welcome the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro.