Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Announces Fifty Percent Decline in Potholes Since 2014

October 6, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Gather round guys, don’t be shy. New Yorkers are never shy, gather round. Alright. Well, first of all, I want to thank some of the unsung heroes of this City, our Department of Transportation workers, because they do amazing work all over the city. A lot of times the work they do does not get a lot of attention. A lot of times it happens in the middle of the night so it won’t inconvenience people but what they do makes New Yorker’s lives better. It is as simple as that. Anytime you go from driving on the street that’s all broken up to driving on a beautiful, smooth new street, you should take a moment to thank our DOT workers, because they do an amazing job.

[Applause]

And you know they are out 24 hours a day. Wherever there is a problem they are addressing it. And they are making the city safer. They are making it easier for people to get around. They are saving motorists a lot of money from all those times that there are accidents or problems because a car hits a pothole. These guys are making people’s lives better. And it may not be the work that gets a lot of attention but it's actually is one of the most important things the city government does. So people – wherever I go – they say they want to see the streets better. And they really appreciate — and I don’t know if all of you get the compliments passed on to you, but I have heard so many people say thank you because of the way it changes their life after the street has been repaved or a pothole has been filled. We have made a huge investment — and I want to thank our colleagues in the City Council, you’ll hear from them too – they have been partners in this. An investment bigger than ever before – $1.6 billion for repaving our roadways – and this means our streets are smoother, traffic flows better. It is one of the ways to address congestion. You see it around the City, you see major highways are being repaved as well as residential streets. And obviously, it is one of the things that affects quality of life the most.

And there is a direct connection – Polly will talk about it in a moment but this chart really makes it clear – there’s a direct connection between doing more repaving and having fewer potholes. So, as we have focused on repaving we've done nearly – one and four streets in this city has been repaved in the last four years – one in four streets. And again, thanks to all of you for the amazing achievement. That took a lot of hard work. And DOT teams have filled 1.5 million potholes. 1.5 million, that is amazing. But the complaints about potholes continue to go down because repaving goes up. We've had potholes decline more than 50 percent since 2014. And every day New Yorkers are feeling the difference. And Polly will explain to you but it really is as simple as this. The more you repave, the fewer potholes you have.

We are not going to stop. We have a lot to do. Look, we have beautiful weather today so as long as we have good weather we can do a lot of repaving. So this fall and into the spring we will be doing repaving in all five boroughs. That second map over there shows you some of the key places that we will be going – some major roadways that need work including Roosevelt Avenue in Queens and Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. And these crews know they have to work really fast now before the winter comes. So, for all of you who are watching the playoffs in baseball, there is an important analogy here — this is the time of year that is the repaving post season. This is the time where they really have to shine. Because they know they have to get in ahead of the bad weather. So it's time for a clutch performance and DOT is really good at that. These guys know how to get things done in the clutch and we are depending on them.

I want to remind all New Yorkers there is one thing every New Yorker can do, if you appreciate these hard working employees of the City of New York, if you appreciate what they do for our neighborhoods, when you see them working slow down, slow down, safety comes first. We want them to be safe, we want them to go home to their families safe. We want to make sure they can do their job. We have something we have to do. We need to slow down and respect the important work they are doing. With that, and again, with tremendous appreciation for all the great work that is being done, my pleasure to introduce the leader of the operation who is really driving the Department of Transportation to new heights, Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

[Applause]

Unknown: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor. Can I ask you a question? 

Mayor de Blasio: Hold on, hold on. I’ll get you after. I’ll get you after.

Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, Department of Transportation: Alright. First of all, Mr. Mayor I want to thank you. I mean, obviously the work that the men and women of DOT roadways crews have done has been extraordinary, but we want to thank you for the resources. You have invested $1.6 billion into paving and that has helped make this transformation happen on the city streets.

And I also want to thank you for, for that important safety message. I’ve been out with our crews many time and I just want to reiterate, it can be dangerous work. They are often working on very busy highways and very busy stretches of roadways. Motorists, please slow down. Just drive a little slowly and make sure that these men and women can get home safely to their families.

I want to take a moment to thank the leadership of the Roadways Division – our Deputy Commissioner Galileo Orlando; I think we have Mike [inaudible] here, John Messina, who runs our Bronx division; Reed Lancelot; John [inaudible]; Greg Stewart, and many other people from the Bronx crew. And as the Mayor said, I think one of the things we are the proudest of — when this administration started it is no question, we got a lot of complaints about potholes. And although you always want to fill those potholes, potholes are a symptom of roadways that need to be resurfaced. And not only have we done almost a quarter of the cities roadways, we have picked some of the biggest and toughest roadways that people drive on. And now pothole complaints down by more than 50 percent. So, thank you Mr. Mayor and thanks to this crew. We are very proud of our work.

Mayor de Blasio: [inaudible] like your charts. Congratulations, Polly.