Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Makes an Announcement at Goodhue Park Pool

August 24, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Courtney – I want everyone over here to acknowledge, Courtney did an amazing job, didn’t he? 

[Applause] 

Courtney, you said you were nervous. You didn't seem nervous. That was pretty easy, wasn't it? You did good. He's too cool to answer, I like that. Everybody, this is a really beautiful moment for Staten Island and for the children of Staten Island. Aren't they beautiful? Let's give them a round of applause – 

[Applause] 

And the families of Staten Island. This is one of those moments where we make things better for people by investing in families, investing in children, investing in the community. That's what Staten Island week is all about. That's why we're doing City Hall in Your Borough to fix things that need to be fixed, to right some wrongs, to bring some investment to a borough that often hasn't gotten its fair share. Now, a lot of good people here, a lot of people do a lot of good for the Staten Island community. First of all, thank you to all our friends at the Children's Aid Society for the great work they do. 

[Applause] 

A special thank you to someone that does so much to make the Goodhue Center great, Ilene Pappert. Thank you. 

[Applause] 

And a shining star here on Staten Island in terms of making sure our kids get the best education, what they deserve, Principal Dan Singleton. Thank you. 

[Applause] 

So, a long time ago, Jimmy Oddo and I talked about how we needed to have an opportunity for Staten Island kids in particular to swim year-round. This is a beautiful pool, and this is a beautiful facility, but Jimmy made the point, and I agreed with him immediately, we needed more, and it was going to take an investment. And Jimmy will tell you because he loves to recount all the steps along the way, sometimes there's a few missteps in there, but we get there in the end. We needed to find the right place, the right way to do it. And this is the right place --supporting this community center, creating an enclosed pool that kids and families can use year-round. And I am pleased to say, we are putting our money where our mouth is in this year's budget, $52.9 million to make this place beautiful. 

[Applause] 

That is what we call real money. And we believe this is something kids deserve, families deserve, Staten Island deserves, but it's also the kind of investment we need to make as we bring New York City back. We've all been through a crisis we could not have imagined, but we are coming back because Staten Islanders don't give up, New Yorkers don't give up. We just fight back and to bring ourselves back, we've got to invest. We've got to do things bigger, better than ever before. And I always say it has to be a recovery for all of us. That means it needs to reach every corner of the city. So, this is the kind of investment that makes a difference. So, everyone, are you going to like being able to swim? I want to ask our panel of experts. Are you going to like being able to swim even when it's snowing out? Does that sound cool? 

[Applause] 

That's what's going to happen for the kids here and so many other kids and families. And I want to bring forward the guy who made it possible. You know in public life, as in the rest of life, give credit where credit is due. Jimmy Oddo spoke up, he knew what was the right thing to do, and he would not let it go. And I made the mistake a long time ago of giving him my cell number, something I've regretted since. He uses it, uses it a lot, and he used it to great effect to help the people of Staten Island. So, this is a day where we really need to give him a thanks. This would not have happened without him. Borough President Jimmy Oddo. 

Staten Island Borough President James S. Oddo: You know I have to say – and Mayor, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your cell number is the same cell number that you have had – 

Mayor: Don't talk about that – 

Borough President Oddo: That you have had for a long, long time. So, check your old phones, kids. Call the Mayor. 

[Laughter] 

So, let me just – let me just repeat that so people far and wide across Staten Island can hear it. $52.9 million in Fiscal Year 2022 City budget for the Children's Aid Society to build a new community center, enclose its outdoor swimming pool on the grounds of Goodhue, and in addition, the City funding will complete the acquisition of the additional 11 acres of Goodhue property to be forever preserved. 

[Applause] 

Man, that is a mouthful. That is a glorious mouthful. Let me tell you folks who don't know that Bill de Blasio and I know each other, if not 30 years, certainly 25 years. We were colleagues together in the City Council. We were on the budget negotiating team, the leadership team. We have been together in meetings, in Council hearings. We've been together at numerous press conferences during his tenure as Mayor. And he will tell you that whenever he gives me the microphone it's unpredictable, it's an unpredictable happening. So, I want to allay the Mayor's angsty and tell him right at the outset that there are two points to what I want to say. Two goals I have today. 

One is to tell you good folks how we got here. And secondly to tell you why it is so, so important. The first point, how we got here – it's a long journey, but it's one that I want to talk about because it speaks to resilience and perseverance. It speaks to owning, sort of, missteps that the Mayor alluded to and it speaks to keep getting after it until you get it right. So, there was a decision made 20 years ago that Staten Island might be the home of the final Kroc Center – Kroc Center are all of these wonderful facilities that are put in economically disadvantaged communities that are community centers and they have an indoor pool and activities. And we resurrected it when I got to borough hall in 2014. It was dormant for nine years and we resurrected it and we tried to get it done and we failed. We didn't, and I was angry. And the Mayor and I had a really candid, private conversation and to his credit, he owned it and he said some things to me privately. And then he went out publicly at a town hall meeting a few days later and said those very same things publicly to all of Staten Island. And at that time, he committed to building an indoor facility, an indoor pool for the kids of the North Shore and the kids of Staten Island. And that process started, the Mayor put in $25 million, put in $50 million, put in $100 million dollars. And it was clear that we were never going to build that aquatic center for anything less than $250 million. And there was a dispute about the location. My chief of staff, Jason Razefsky, came in around the holidays time, around Christmas. And he said, ‘Jim,’ he said, ‘boss wear in gridlock. What is it you want to do? You want to keep fighting? What else do you care about? What else do you want to get done? Maybe we should pivot.’ And it was one of those moments where you had to sit and say, am I going to fight for the sake of winning, or am I going to do the right thing by the community that elected me. And shortly thereafter, the Mayor and I had dinner and I said, ‘Mayor, the pivot, how about we pivot?’ He said, ‘what are you talking about?’ I said, ‘I think there's a higher purpose for this money.’ And from that has come this quest to use this money for the kids and for Staten Island in general. 

This morning, we announced that there'll be a new diabetes center at the Gotham Vanderbilt site on the North Shore. There's lots of good things happening as a result of the decision to pivot. One of which is this project. 2014, the great Deputy Borough President Burke introduces me to the good folks at Goodhue. This is a passion of Eddie Burke’s, this institution. And we started having these conversations and then there's a movement, Save Goodhue Park, save the woods. And Eddie gets me in the room, and he is a clever one, Mr. Mayor, that Ed Burke. And he gets me going and I become passionate about Save Goodhue Woods. So, I make the Mayor an offer he could not refuse. ‘Mr. Mayor, I will put $6 million of Borough Hall money, which is the taxpayer's money, not from the little Jimmy Oddo bank account’ – he certainly doesn't have that – and I say, ‘I will put six, why don't you match me with 12?’ And the Mayor did, and we put $18 million to save the woods. I was so enchanted by this institution and Ilene and Dan and all the good people here that we said, you know what, we've done good, let's do great. And that's when the conversation started about what we could do on the community center and the enclosure of the pool. And the Mayor was on board. 

Now, why is this so important? This is so important because – how many years ago, Dan? Thirty years ago, there was a kid who was here just like these kids. And he benefited from this experience. It's life altering. That kid grew up, went back to his home community, and is the principal of P. S. 31. And if you know anything about Staten Island, education on Staten Island, you know that P. S. 31 has unique challenges. I went and visited early on when I was Borough President. It was a different principal, good principal, whatever, I went in toured, great, okay. And then a short while after my staff had me going out and I said, why am I going to 31, we were there. ‘New principal, you have to meet him.’ And we spent an hour-and-a-half, and to an individual on the Borough Hall staff, we watched Dan Singleton with those kids. They love him and he loves them. And I was immediately impressed. Dan and I don't talk often, but we are friends, and we talk about life. And during some of the hardest times that this country has seen in the last few years, Dan and I had the most honest, raw conversations. And he said things to me, and I said things to him and he said things to me that I could not understand – experiences that he went through as a Black man that I will never understand, but I listened, I tried to emote, and tried to show some empathy, and tried to let him know that although I can't change things, I hear him. 

My dad was my hero for a long time. I had very complicated relationship with him, but I think we all want our fathers to be our heroes. My father was a workaholic, and he was my hero. I haven't had many heroes. I don't use that term lightly. Dan Singleton is a hero of mine. Every day he dedicates his life to improving the lives of the kids who need it most. And Dan Singleton is the man he is today – and my God, what a man he is because as a kid, he was here. So, when you say, why do you keep running into that wall Borough Hall staff? When you say, why do you keep pestering the Mayor? When they ask, why do you try hard to have a relationship with colleagues like the Mayor who maybe ideologically you don't see eye to eye, it's to be able to look Dan Singleton in the face and in the eyes and say, I hear you, my friend, and we're going to do everything we can for this institution that did so much for you. That's why today's a great day. That's why today is a legacy day. I've gone on too long. And Mr. Mayor, I hope you don't mind, but you got to hear from Dan and hear from his own mouth, his own words, what this institution meant to him. Because 30 years from now, there’s going to be another Dan Singleton right there in that pool who is going to do great things for this borough. Dan – 

[Applause] 

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