Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Edenwald Houses Playground

July 27, 2021

Chair and Chief Executive Officer Gregory Russ, New York City Housing Authority: All right. Could I have your attention please? We're going to go ahead and get started. And I want to start by saying good afternoon and thank you all for being here. It is just a grand day, a beautiful day for this celebration. I want to welcome our guest speaker and the Mayor. I’m glad they're here together. I think it's safe to say that with these two gentlemen, we have some of the biggest champions for public housing and the public housing environment, not only in the city, but in the country. The Speaker's committed to public housing here in the Bronx, but also in Albany when the time comes to pass the budget. Under his leadership, the State has invested over $700 million in NYCHA since 2015. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. These funds mean real infrastructure improvements like boilers and elevators. I'd also like to acknowledge State Senator Bailey and Council Member Riley. Thank you for standing up for public housing as well. And our hardworking Property Management team, Jasmine Williams, who's our Neighborhood Administrator, Catrice Houser, and Joyce Johnson. Your service is impressive and you've lived up to the challenge. And I also want to call out our Resident Association President Mr. Walter McNeil. He's been a great partner. We love working with him and he's a great individual. The kids are going to love this playground as they will like all the playgrounds in this area. We've had a chance to overcome this pandemic and reopen as a city and as a nation. We know how important it is after a year of being a part, how play and play in a safe space can bring people together. We're also transforming 15 basketball courts across the city, renovating and redesigning them. These kinds of targeted community investments are really, really powerful. And we must do the same for all of our buildings. Everything that NYCHA owns needs to be preserved and reinvested. We're grateful for our resident partnership. Have fun today. Thank you all for being here. And I'd like to take this moment to introduce Mayor de Blasio, thank him for support for NYCHA, that's unprecedented, not just for the city, but really for the entire country. Thank you for your vision and leadership. And, Mayor de Blasio, please – 

[Applause] 

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Greg. Listen, everyone, we're making things happen in public housing. And today we're talking about something precious our children, our families, playgrounds that families depend on, that need to be great, that need to be beautiful. That need to be up to date. I want to thank Greg Russ. He has the hardest job in public housing in all of America, as Chair of NYCHA. By far the biggest public housing authority in America. And we know that for decades NYCHA was not invested in properly. We have been working to change that with major investments by the City of New York. Thanks to Speaker Heastie, major investments from the State. And thanks to President Biden, finally, we are seeing a proposal in Washington to provide tens of billions of dollars for public housing that we need and to treat public housing like infrastructure, which it should be considered because it is essential to our communities. So, we're all knocking on wood and praying that we're going to get a great outcome in Washington that could really be transcendent for NYCHA. But in the meantime, we got work to do. So, thank you, Greg. Thank you everyone at NYCHA for what you do. Even when you don't have everything you would need, you still make great things happen. I want to thank you for that. 

Now, everybody, we are in a moment of recovery for our city. It has to be a recovery for all of us. And that means for residents of public housing, for NYCHA residents as well, we've got to do better, and we can. And the recovery moment's going to give us a chance to do it. It is Bronx Week. We have City Hall in the Bronx all week long. We are focusing on investments in the Bronx and we're here at a beautiful playground to say every playground needs to be this beautiful. And so, I have a major announcement today for the whole city, but, also, it's very, very important for the Bronx. In the last couple of weeks there has been talk about NYCHA playgrounds, what's going to happen with the playgrounds that are still closed around the city? 83 playgrounds, almost ten percent of all the NYCHA are playgrounds have been closed, needing more repairs. Today, I announce that we have put the money in the budget to repair and reopen every single one of those 83 playgrounds. 

[Applause] 

As many as possible will be reopened before the summer is out. And we did need to add money. We added over $7 million to keep moving this along. And that's going to have an impact in the Bronx. In this case specifically at the Boston Secor Houses playground there that's been closed. That money is going to help to open that playground right back up. So, you see behind me something joyous. These are the children of the Bronx, the children who we love, the children who give us hope, but we got to invest in them. And making sure these playgrounds worked for them and are available to them, we want positive outcomes for our children. We got to give them positive places to be. So, the City of New York will do whatever it takes to get every single one of these playgrounds up and running again. We're coming out of COVID, we're coming into recovery and a recovery for all of us means the recovery for these beautiful children as well. So, the playgrounds will reopen. And I want you to know, as you listen to the leaders of this community, we could not have done this without them. Each and every one of them has helped us to get the resources we need to move NYCHA forward and to move these playgrounds forward. And the person you need to hear from first has done the most because he has the highest rank. And he has used that for the good of so many communities. He has been indispensable. And this last budget by the State of New York was literally the greatest I've ever seen in my lifetime. And the reason it was so great is the Speaker of the State Assembly, Assembly Member Carl Heastie. 

[...] 

Mayor: Thank you, Speaker. And everyone there is a lot of leadership here. I want to take a moment to thank the leaders, the resident leaders who are here. Thank you for all you do. I want to thank the community leaders, community board leaders, everyone who helps make the community great. This community has produced high impact leadership for the City and the State. Obviously, the Speaker is a great example of that. But now I want to turn to the Senator who is unquestionably, a rising star in Albany. And that is a very good thing for the City of New York and a very good thing for the Bronx. He has led the way on so many important issues and he too is one of the people that made sure of this last budget did historic things to help the city, to get us finally, our fair share, particularly for our kids. My pleasure to introduce Senator Jamaal Bailey. 

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Mayor: As I was looking around, listening to the Senator, talk about this soundtrack of the New York City summer. This is the summer of New York City. And this is a beautiful part of that summer. Look at these kids, having a great time. Look at the spray of the water. Look at how beautifully this playground has been kept up by everyone that works here. That's a labor of love. You can see it. And this is a positive place for kids to be. We want every one of these playgrounds to be positive and beautiful for our children. The last speaker is new on the scene. He has distinguished himself already in several ways. One of them is, he is the most fashionable member of the New York City Council already. He has taken that prize immediately. But the second is he hit the ground running. And some Council members take a while to figure out where things are. Kevin Riley just got right in the game and made an impact right away for his community. Especially in the middle of COVID he was out there fighting to protect people. And I honor him for that. My pleasure to introduce Council Member Kevin Riley. 

[...] 

Mayor: I hope Kevin Riley has a very long productive career in public service, but he also has a radio voice. You got to use that. You could make a lot of money with that voice. All right, everybody, listen, what you see is the shape of things to come. And what we're saying is clear as a bell today, every single NYCHA playground will be reopened. We owe it to our families. We owe it to our children. We can do it now. We are coming out of COVID. It's time to recover. It's time to move forward. And that means taking care of our children, giving them the lives they deserve. This is a beginning, and we look forward to New York city coming back strong. And I want to finish with this statement. As I'm going around the Bronx this week, seeing the beauty of the Bronx, the energy of the Bronx, the power of the Bronx, no matter what we've been through, there is no stopping the Bronx and there's no stopping New York City. Thank you, everybody. 

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