Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at "Jimmy Breslin Way" Street Renaming Ceremony

May 30, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Welcome, everyone. Well, this is a very special occasion, and I first want to thank all the members of the Breslin family who are here. You’re going to hear from a couple of them. I want to thank the whole family for everything that Jimmy did for New York City, and it’s just amazing what this one man did for New York City.

And I want to express my appreciation to his widow, Ronnie Eldridge who I had the honor of working with when she was City Council member. And Ronnie, thank you for all you have done for this city, thank you for your strong, never changing progressive beliefs that you shared with you husband, and the way you both put it into action all the time. Let’s thank Ronnie for all she did for this city.

[Applause]

And a lot of Jimmy’s former colleagues are here, and I know it’s an important moment for them, honoring this man and the way he lived and the way he wrote, and the way he told us about ourselves. Here’s what I want to say, I didn’t know Jimmy Breslin well, but like so many New Yorkers I hung on his every word because he spoke about the people, wrote about the people. He looked at this city from the ground up, from the grassroots up, and what was so extraordinary about him was no matter how famous he became, no matter which prizes he won he was the same person who understood everyday working New Yorkers and wanted to talk about them. He didn’t want to focus on the famous and the powerful, he wanted to focus on everyday people. And he wanted us all to be held accountable for what we did for everyday people, or if we failed to help everyday New Yorkers we had to be held accountable for that as well.

And that’s something to really stop and reflect on. How did one man, a proud son of Queens, manage to epitomize the life of this whole place? How did one man manage to capture it all? Again, I didn’t know him in the way that I could give you a conclusive answer, but I can tell you what I think. I think it’s because he had so much heart. I think when he wrote about everyday people it was out of empathy, and honoring their lives, their struggles. He understood that the rich and the famous and the powerful had it easy but everyday working people constantly struggled, and he epitomized their lives in his writing.

And he tried to point us towards a different and better society that was actually based on the needs of the people. And the fact that he disrupted the normal approach, I think that was the normal approach when he was writing, it’s the normal approach today to focus on the bold face names but the bold face names ultimately don’t make history, everyday people make history. The world changes from the grassroots up, but it’s amazing how rarely we actually see in our public discourse the trials and tribulations of working people.

And, I was just talking to some of the family members about how everyday New Yorkers would call out to Jimmy all the time because he felt – excuse me because they felt, everyday New Yorkers felt he was their tribune, he was their voice. Someone actually saw them, someone cared about them. And he used his fame to tell their stories.

So, that’s a lot to celebrate. He’s going to be remembered with his name on this street, and he’s going to be in some very good company – other extraordinary people who share this intersection with him. But, what’s particularly true about Jimmy is that he wanted us to see what too often people didn’t see and he was willing to put it all on line to tell their story; the story of everyday people. He was willing to do what was unpopular; he was willing to express his views even when they weren’t the majority views. He just felt it. He felt what he was doing and that’s what made him great. So I think for this generation, and the media, and the particularly charged and powerful time in our history, a time when our values are on the line, maybe even our democracy is on the line. Think about what Jimmy Breslin did. Think about how he saw the world. Think about all the everyday people stories who still aren’t being told. Try to carry on Jimmy Breslin’s tradition in what you do, because we all need a lot more of that. And he is so worthy of this honor here today.

Let me now bring forward a member of his family who can tell you passionately who Jimmy Breslin was and what he meant to the people of New York City. It is my honor to welcome Jimmy’s son, Kevin.