Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Wingate Park Concert Series: Gospel Night

August 18, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: God bless you, Brooklyn! [inaudible] I had to move to a home in Manhattan, but my heart’s in Brooklyn.

[Cheers]

It’s good to be back at Wingate. It’s good to be here for this beautiful concert tonight. I want to thank the man who picked up a great tradition and continues it for all of us Brooklyn – Borough President Eric Adams.

[Applause]

And remember, this is a man who has served us – whether he was a police officer, a police captain, a state senator, or borough president – it doesn’t matter – he has been about the people of this community with all his heart. And he has made a big difference for all of us. Let’s thank him for what he does.

[Applause]

Stars of Brooklyn are everywhere. Public Advocate Tish James – thank her for all she does!

[Applause]

Assemblymember Annette Robinson – thank you for all you do!

[Applause]

Tonight you are going to have the joy of hearing from one of the great choirs in this city –Christian Cultural Center.

[Applause]

Anyone up here from CCC tonight, I say, ‘Grace and peace to you.’

[Cheers]

And CCC is an amazing place I’ve been honored to be so many times – an extraordinary congregation with not one but two secret weapons – Pastor A.R. Bernard and Elder Karen Bernard.

[Applause]

[inaudible] something I want to say – it’s very simple tonight, because you have some extraordinary music to hear to and some inspiration to receive. I want to say simply that I stood before you last year with a lot of other good people here and we said – as the Borough President just said – we said things need to change in this city, that the status quo was not acceptable because too many people were hurting and we needed to move forward.

And you’re going to now start to see the progress that we came here to make. Starting in just two weeks, on September 4, we take a huge step for full-day pre-k for every child in this city.

[Applause]

Just last year there were 20,000 full-day pre-k seats. On September 4, there will be over 50,000 full-day pre-k seats in New York City –

[Applause]

– for children of central Brooklyn and in every neighborhood in this city. And then next year there will be over 70,000 seats every year so every child will be served.

We made sure quickly to address the real needs of people. And so if you were someone who didn’t have paid sick leave coverage at work, you’re one of a half million New Yorkers who didn’t have that support – now a half million more people have paid sick leave in New York City. If they get sick they can take care of themselves or their loved ones and they won’t lose a day’s pay or two days’ pay or a week pay, which none of us can afford to lose.

When we are done – throughout this decade we’ll be working to build affordable housing – at the end of ten years we will break 200,000 units of affordable housing – enough for half a million New Yorkers who need housing.

[Applause]

Finally, brothers and sisters, we – we need a safe city. We all depend on a safe city. And we need a fair city also. We need a relationship between police and community that is close and trusting. We need a government that protects us and respects us – and that’s what we’re building. I’ve got an expert here who for years and years protected us, and always said that you could protect and respect at the same time. And that’s what we’re going to build in this city.

We used to have a broken policy of stop-and-frisk – we have brought those stops way down so people are respected now. We have new leadership at the Civilian Complaint Review Board. We have a police inspector general. We have the tools for balance, for fairness.

But we also have to make sure throughout our community that it’s clear that there’s a respect for the men and women who protect us everyday. We’ve got to have a partnership to keep us all safe – and we can build it! We can build it. This is a city that knows how to respect the views of each citizen and that’s the society we continue to deepen and improve. And brothers and sisters, this will become a safer city and it will become a fairer city. That is why we are here and we will – with your help – succeed.

[Cheers]

Thank you.

[Applause]

I will leave you – you’re about to hear from Tamela Mann and the CCC Choir. It doesn’t get better than that. So take some inspiration tonight from these extraordinary performances. Take some inspiration because we are all in this together to make this a city we deserve, a city fair to each and every one of us, a city good for each and every one of us. Together we will make that happen. God bless you and thank you, brothers and sisters.

[Applause]