Transcript: Mayor Adams, NYC Parks Commissioner Donoghue Open First Public Space In Freshkills Park, Formerly World’s Largest Landfill

October 15, 2023

Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Department of Parks and Recreation: So, good morning! Welcome. I'm so happy to be here to help officially open North Park. My name is Sue Donoghue, I'm the New York City Parks commissioner, and I could not be happier to be here and to acknowledge all of the people who are out there with us today to help celebrate this momentous event.

We have our Staten Island borough president, Vito Fossella is with us, Vito. Councilmembers Joe Borelli, David Carr. We have our Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis with us today as well as we also have our Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo with us, Assemblymember Mike Reilly, Assemblymember Mike Tannousis, As well as Al Curtis, Board Member of the Freshkills Park Alliance.

This is truly… I don't need to tell you all, a transformational project for Staten Island. Think about what this site represented for so many decades: an unattractive eyesore. You could smell it just driving past. It's been said that you could even see this landfill site from space.

For many visitors to the area, this area — the former landfill — was their lasting impression of Staten Island, but not anymore. Now, just look around you and soak in this beautiful scenery. After so many years of blight, this park is rewriting the narrative for this borough. Since the creation of Freshkills Park began, we have seen a boom in wildlife inhabiting the site including ospreys, hawks, foxes, terrapins, even rare birds that have not been seen in New York City in decades.

With two new beautiful viewing platforms you can see behind me, I am certain that North Park will become a must‑see destination for bird enthusiasts and so many others across the borough and across New York City. There's plenty of other things to enjoy here as well such as pedestrian and cycling paths, and even a bike repair station to help fix those annoying breakdowns. There's a picnic area to spend the afternoon enjoying the park with family and with friends, a pathway leading down to Schmul Park with its athletic courts and playgrounds.

We believe that this park will serve as a model for what land reuse projects can be worldwide and a shining example of how restoring habitats can benefit wildlife in urban areas across the city. This is just another example of how New York City and New York City Parks is leading the way. In creating this park, we have put an emphasis on sustainability for protecting the environment.

The restroom behind us is designed to turn waste back into compost to reintegrate into the earth's soil; and, materials that we use for construction included recycled plastic lumber wherever possible. When fully completed, Freshkills Park will be nearly three times the size of Central Park — an amazing, amazing amenity for Staten Island.

So, what we are creating here with the help of all of the elected officials and advocates behind me is something that will be a gem not just for Staten Island but for the entire city, and also a destination for visitors from around the world. I'd like to thank Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Joshi, and our partners at the New York City Department of Sanitation, the Department of Environmental Conservation. There were so many people who were instrumental and involved in this project, too many to thank individually.

But I do want to give a special shout out to New York City Deputy Commissioner of Capital Projects Therese Braddick and her entire Staten Island capital team.

Another force in our park system who, sadly, could not be heard today, but our Staten Island Parks Borough Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone and her team. The wonderful Freshkills Park Alliance, Freshkills Park Administrator Mark Murphy, who is here with us.

The design consultant team for this project field operations, and also the contractor Luma Construction Corp. It takes so many to make a beautiful park site like this one, and we are so grateful. We're so grateful to the mayor's office for providing the vast majority of funding for the creation of North Park and also to the New York State Department of State for providing grant funding for this project.

Now, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the podium, Staten Island Borough President, Vito Fossella.

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella: Thank you very much, commissioner, thank you to the Parks Department and to Borough Commissioner Linda. She's a star, and her whole team, so we thank you for convening us here today, and to all my colleagues in government. The commission said this is a transformation. This is 80 years in the making. This day is almost 80 years in the making.

And this may be a transformation, but for me it's for a restoration ‑‑ it's a restoration to what should have been many years ago. And the people of Staten Island, it was not just an unattractive nuisance, it was a disgrace what happened to the people of Staten Island for decades. And we know the story, but it bears repeating because we don't want it to happen again.

While every other landfill in the city closed, there was one on Staten Island. And we were five percent of the population and we received 100 percent of the garbage. On any given day, you could see seagulls flying, bulldozers piling garbage up. If you went to the mall you had to run into the store before you got sick. But those days are gone, and now the people of Staten Island have been given a gift that they deserved 80 years ago. Better late than never, but here we are to celebrate the opening of Freshkills Park.

And you can't see if you're looking at the camera, all the people being in front of me, they deserve the credit for never giving up — never giving up and knowing that anything is possible, because we were told so many times, can't do it. Can't do it, don't waste your time. So, the lesson is, not necessarily fighting City Hall but fighting with City Hall to get things done, to collaborate and do the right thing for the people, because that's our job.

And there are folks who are not here today who deserve credit. Sometimes we forget where we come from, but it was guys like Guy Molinari and Jim Molinaro and Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Bloomberg, and George Pataki and others who basically had the courage to say enough is enough and beginning on the path of, as she says, transformation and restoration. So, to all of you who fought it, to all of you who are going to enjoy it, God bless you all and God bless Staten Island.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you so much, Borough President Fossella and for all of your support for parks and open space in Staten Island. It is so very much appreciated. Now it gives me pleasure to introduce Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis.

US Representative Nicole Malliotakis: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be with all of you. I did not expect to speak, because as you know, those of us who are the younger elected officials really had nothing to do with this. We were mere students in school, I was in high school at the time. And I hate to make him feel old, but Vito actually was the one who's up here who was in the city council at the time, really helped make this happen. So, thank you very much, Vito, for your leadership.

But since then, we've seen a lot of other great elected officials come forward who took the ball and kept it running. And so I appreciate my colleagues in the City Council worked really hard to make this what it is today, and really thank all of you for being here to celebrate this great moment in Staten Island history. As Vito says, it shows, when we stick together, regardless what level of government, regardless what party affiliation we are, we can get great things done for our fellow neighbors. So, let's keep it going.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you so much, Congresswoman. Appreciate your being here. And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce another great leader for our parks and for our city, our mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. And I think that the congresswoman is accurate in her assessment: not only must we all come together to impact the quality of life of our city but there needs to be a continuation. Politics is about passing the baton, and just because the new administration comes in we should not disband the good ideas and the great ideas that we put in place.

And I see she's in the audience, who has always been a voice for Staten Island, my good friend, Senator Diane Savino who has been a real advocate.

And you're right. You know, listen, let's not deny the fact that for far too long Staten Island has been a forgotten borough, and we have a tendency to think because of the bridge that it is not an item that's used to bridge us together but it was used to separate us. And I made it clear to Vito and the councilmembers and the assemblymembers that I was not going to treat this important borough where you have working class people, this is the bedrock of working class people, and they should have the same level of services that the entire city deserves.

And I have been out here on Staten Island, in 21 months, probably more than any mayor in the history of this city, but we're not coming alone. We're coming with resources, ideas and listening to folks. And this is one of them. We all remember this Fresh Kills. It was nothing fresh about the smell that came out here, it killed. And you know, it was a signature. And hooray to those early pioneers who said we had to close this dump, and it was done.

But I mean, look at this space, look how beautiful this place is, and it just went unused. And we had to find ways of really not only the desire to do so but the need to do so. And so this later at one time became the largest landfill on the globe filled with New Yorkers' household garbage. And people became complacent and stated that there was nothing we could do. It was ugly, it was unsanitary, it had a terrible smell coming from here. And it was undeserving for working class people in this city.

And now, again, thanks to the efforts of many who came before us who fought hard and continued this, and there must be something symbolic that Vito was one of those leading voices as a congressman and now he's back as the borough president and continuing it. That says a lot about the consistency of the work that he's doing.

And this has become a new green space that is home for local plants and animals and gives the residents of Staten Island a place to be outdoors, to exercise and breathe fresh air. When I took office, this was something that we zeroed in on. Thanks so much, Sue, for keeping us just focused on this. This was so important to our administration. But then add up, add up what we have done. No one thought we could settle a 13‑year ferry contract.

Staten Island's ask from the town hall, they asked to settle this contract, and we said, we got this. We're going to get it done, and we got it done. And we are giving those Staten Island working class people what they deserve. We have the Staten Island Action Plan that we're implementing, the opening of the North Park section of Freshkills Park, partnering with the councilwoman, the development of the amazing waterfront of Staten Island. Some great housing opportunities are coming there for working class people.

This is the first section of Freshkills Park inside the site of this former landfill to open to the public. The park will be built in stages, and when it is complete, it will be the second largest park in the five boroughs — the second largest park.

The park shows what we can achieve when we put our minds together and come together. It is a marvel of human ingenuity and engineering, turning the refuse of the past into shared space for our future — a future of sustainability and respect for our environment. And which I think is real creative is that if you look over in the back you see that we're using solar panels. The parks… The solar panels here will be used in lighting the restroom facilities, and parking lot will run on energy from solar panels. The waste from the composting restroom will go back into feeding our soil, and so we're going to turn crap into energy.

We are putting the natural environment front and center, and nothing personifies that more, we've been hit with some harsh storms, and they're not going away, so we need a short‑term, mid‑term and long‑term plan, and that's the combination of what Sue is doing as well as what Rit from DEP. It is all of us coming together to see how we fit together and not how we are separated.

We are protecting our wildlife, we are renewing our soil and we are cleaning our air. We're creating an environment that is better for New Yorkers and better for Staten Islanders. So, again, I thank Department of Sanitation, Department of Parks, DEP, but most importantly, really hats off to this team of elected officials who were there, who are there and who will be there for the future of Staten Island.

You will see a lot of me, because this is in a very important borough for us to deal with the equity of Staten Island and the Bronx and the outer boroughs. I'm an outer borough mayor, I'm a working class mayor, and that we need to lift up working class people. Again, thank you very much. Good job, everyone.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you so much, Mayor Adams. And now I'd like to introduce someone who doesn't have much time because he's running to a game, our Councilmember Joe Borrelli to speak.

City Councilmember Joe Borelli: great. Thank you. Thank you. For you parents, you know what it feels like to have to get to Miller Field from here in time for a kick off. So, I always wondered about that moment in American history, I think it was Apollo 16 or Apollo 17, the astronauts were returning from the third or fourth time humankind stepped on the moon.

They're returning, they're experiencing weightlessness for the first time in their lives. They're doing experiments critical to science. And I wonder who that astronaut was who looked out the window and said, is that Fresh Kills landfill?

I was going to make my "it should've been a golf course" joke, but I thought that was pretty good because you mentioned it before.

So, something that you can't joke about, though, was I was one of those kids who grew up on Staten Island in Arden Heights, and from my bedroom window every single day I can see the Staten Island landfill in its full glory. Every day, I played outside with my friends roller hockey and dodgeball and whatever we played that day. Three senses out of five experienced the Staten Island landfill. I'll let you think about what those three senses might have been. I know Staten Islanders know exactly what they are.

So, up to this point, I have to be honest, I was a naysayer. Even throughout my 17 years in government as an elected official and as a staffer, I didn't think this day would ever actually come. I didn't think this day would come where we're actually standing on Freshkills Park able to use it, able to have fun. This is going to be a successful park. I know that, because we covered up, capped and built the Brookfield landfill into a park, and now the biggest complaint we get there is, why aren't there ballfields? Why aren't there enough resources there for us to do things with?

So, I already see Matt LeBeau, he's thinking about how he's going to ride some bikes over here. I see Mike Cusick, the former assemblyman, over there, he's thinking about how he's going to run with his short shorts. Mike, I've seen 'ya. I've seen you run, Mike. I've seen you run.

Me, I'm going to wish it was a golf course, but that's okay. Commissioner is going to have a big announcement, she's going to have a big announcement soon about those. So, we are the last relay of elected officials who are just carrying the baton. We're putting our hands up, we're coming to the finish line. But there were a lot of people up to this point who did the bulk of the work, the majority of the work and had the most fights.

So, even to those who aren't with us anymore, we say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I thank you for my children's, from their bottom of their hearts, because they'll be out here playing. And I know Staten Island will enjoy it very much. Thank you, guys.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thanks so much, Councilmember Borelli. And then now, another great advocate for our parks in Staten Island, Councilmember David Carr.

City Councilmember David Carr: Thank you, commissioner. Mayor, I want to thank you so much for your commitment to borough equity and to Staten Island's place in our city. And commissioner, thank you so much for your advocacy and your investment in our parks and open spaces here in Staten Island.

Like the speakers before me, I have to thank those who worked on this. This was a generational project politically and socially for our community, and it all started with the then Councilmember Fossella and Borough President Guy Molinari and others who kind of forced the issue and forced everyone in the city and state to do the right thing and to close what had been really an environmental debacle that had been forced upon Staten Islanders at a time when state and city leaders saw Staten Island as a solution to their problems and did not think about what the impact would be of having this here for so long.

And I want to thank those who came after, like Borough President James Molinaro and then Congressman Fossella and all others who advocated to Mayor Bloomberg to turn this into a park and to make it a dedicated open space for now generations of Staten Islanders to come. It's an absolutely beautiful thing, and I'm privileged, as Minority Leader Borrelli said, to be kind of part of the team that's going to see this to a successful finish.

But it's absolutely a wonderful day. I look forward to continuing to advocate for our open spaces and our parks and seeing the future phases of Fresh Kills come to light. And I'll just, my pitch for this place is not a golf course but we could really use a zipline over that body of water there. I think it would be a lot of fun. I think that's a little cheaper than a golf course, maybe we could figure that out. But I'd love to come back here and see the community really enjoying this open space. So, thank you to all who have been a part of it.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you, Councilmember Carr, and we always appreciate the suggestions, so thank you. All good ideas. And next, acts I'm pleased to welcome to the podium Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo.

State Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo: Good afternoon, everyone. How are you doing?

There's really not much more I can say to add to what my colleagues have said, so what I would like to do is I'd like to have everybody just turn around and take a look. This is really what we're talking about. This used to be a garbage dump, and now, just look at its beauty. We were all here early this morning and a lot of people talking to everybody, so I don't know if we all had a chance to take a look. But before you leave if you want to go down and see, well, I don't know what that's called other than the bird lookout, but just spend a few minutes. You know, and it doesn't have to be in silence but take a look at the beauty that we have here on Staten Island. That's really what's an amazing thing.

So, I'd like to thank the mayor for your help and I'd like to thank everyone who came before me. I'm the new kid on the block. Thank you, commissioner. I certainly would appreciate it, and I cannot wait to be here with my dog Valentine who, surprisingly, is not here with me today, but the whole park needs to be off leash, just to let you know.

Commissioner Donoghue: Lots of suggestions today, so we'll take those all into account. Next, Assemblymember Mike Reilly is with us to say a few words.

State Assemblymember Mike Reilly: Thank you, commissioner. Thank you to everybody who put all their efforts in to make this happen. I remember growing up as a kid, I was in Brooklyn, and my parents decided that they were going to move to Staten Island in 1992. And I remember visiting family and friends and going to the mall and going to DMV, because there was a lot shorter line in Staten Island than it was in Brooklyn. And the smell was just horrendous. And I can remember it like it was yesterday. And the girl that I was dating, her family lived around the corner, and it really stunk.

But to think 30 years since I moved… 31 years since I first moved to Staten Island in 1992, the change that has happened, the beautification, would have never thought it would have happened; and thanks to those that came before us, we have that. And it's just an awe moment. It simply is just awe. So, thank you for everybody that made this happen.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thank you, Assemblymember. And now I'd like to welcome Assemblymember Mike Tannousis.

State Assemblymember Mike Tannousis: Thank you, commissioner, for having me. I'm going to keep it nice and short. I know our bro president said that this was 80 years in the making, so I'm assuming that's when you, Mr. Borough President and former Assemblyman Mike Cusick started their political careers.

So, and Ed Burke, right? I'm not even going to go there.

So, with that being said I'm so happy to be here. I also want to congratulate my former boss when he was a councilman, Jimmy Oddo, I know that this is something that he worked hard for as well. And also, you know, I just want to tell Mr. Mayor, that machine there that turns crap to energy? We could use that in Albany.

So, maybe we could bring that with us...

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Donoghue: Very good. Very good. We'll be talking to Albany about that. And next, I'm pleased to welcome Al Curtis, who's a board member of the Freshkills Park Alliance, to the podium.

Al Curtis, Board Member, Freshkills Park Alliance: Good afternoon, all. I'm the newest member of the Freshkills Park Board. It is a delight to be here to introduce the newest park in the City of New York. The Fresh Kills Alliance works in partnership with New York City Parks Department to make Fresh Kills a safe place for families to come and enjoy it. Freshkills Park is more than a park, it is a platform for doing great things for the people of Staten Island.

There's so many here that have much to say, so I will be quick… Ir, have had a lot to say, I will be pretty quick. First, I must thank the late Allan Weissglass who founded the Alliance.

Good friend. And those of you that know Allan, Allan was a giant in New York and Staten Island in particular. His generosity will be felt for many, many years to come. Also the Staten Island Foundation, who funds so much of the programs and capacity building of the Freshkills Park Alliance. I have a bunch of thank you's that have been mentioned, so I'll just skip them, commissioner.

I'd like to recognize the Park Alliance staff who are out there every day working to do the most good in getting this thing going. The First Former Deputy Commissioner of Parks Department who took on this mission years ago, Eloise Hirsh, thank you for your leadership. To the Freshkills Park staff of adventure educators and scientists, our development team, our volunteer team, thank all of you for your hard work. Also to my fellow board members and president of Freshkills Park Alliance, my good friend, the esteemed Mark Murphy. Thank you for stepping up and for your superb leadership in this endeavor.

Also the entire Parks capital team and parkies that have built and maintain this fabulous park. But most importantly, thank you, Commissioner Lynda Ricciardone, the best borough commissioner in the city. I can say that because I live on Staten Island, and my wish is that we'll be able to get this going soon. I also like to thank my good friend Mayor Eric Adams for not thinking it robbery to come overseas to Staten Island to be here with us today. And thank you for your commitment to the people of Staten Island.

And finally, I'll just recognize a few people here. We have Snug Harbor CEO Jessica Vodoor, Borough President Special Adviser, my good friend, Ed Burke, where is he? Staten Island Alliance President Sijera Plunbun, community leader Jean Guerrero, and a member from Charles Fall’s office.

The longest journey begins with the first step, and Mr. Mayor, we have begun that first journey. Thank you.

Commissioner Donoghue: Thanks so much, Al, and we appreciate your partnership on this park and across the borough. Now, there is just one thing left to do, what we've all been waiting for, what Staten Islanders have been waiting for. We're going to cut the ribbon and open this great park.