Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Bill Hearing and Signing for Intro 1933-A, Making the Open Streets Program Permanent

May 13, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Buenas tardes a todos.  

[Applause] 

Qué lo que? 

[Applause] 

Susana, I want to honor you. I want to honor you. Look what you have built. Look at this – and your whole team. You have great people working with you. This is something beautiful. This is something unique. This is something full of energy and life. Right here you can feel New York City coming back. And you built this. This was your beautiful vision and now it’s coming to life. Let’s congratulate Susana for all she has done. 

[Applause] 

So, you can see right here what Open Streets means. It is not just words, it’s the humanity of it, it’s the life, it’s the vibrancy. Small business owner has a dream, and the dream has succeeded inside those walls. But let the dream go free, and now something even greater happens. Now, we become this beautiful festival. This is a place for everyone. Everyone can see it. They are excited. One of the things we learned with Open Streets is New Yorkers want to live outdoors more than we ever did, and it’s better for us and we experience life together as a community. And the countries we come from, all of us from all over the world, think of your homelands – there is often that sense there’s that public square, that place where everyone comes together. We’re creating that here. We’re creating that in a new way. That’s what Open Streets means. So, I am happy for everyone in Inwood but it’s also, today, we’re celebrating Open Streets all over this city. And that fact that they are going to be here forever – Open Streets forever. 

[Applause] 

So, we’re going to sign a bill today. It’s officially known as Intro. 1933-A. And I want people to remember this is something that was created – and I want to give a lot of credit to our colleagues in the City Council for their leadership – it was created out of struggle. It was created out of crisis. It was created out of pain. But something beautiful came of it, and something we learned together we could do that we hadn’t imagined before.  

You go around the city, you look at the Open Streets, every community has their own version. They put their own spirit and culture into it. Some places, it’s salsa. Some places – are we allowed to say bachata. Can I say that here? It’s a family gathering, but that’s okay. Some places, it’s yoga. But what all of it says is we’re coming back. What you can see – look around you, look around you. Doesn’t this feel like a city that’s coming back strong? 

[Applause] 

Can you feel it? 

[Applause] 

Are you proud? 

[Applause] 

We are New Yorkers and we’ve been through a lot, but you cannot keep New York City down. There is no stopping New York City. There is no stopping this community in Inwood. There’s no stopping the Dominican community. There’s no stopping the small businesses. There’s no stopping New York City. And today we prove it again.  

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish] 

[Applause] 

All right, so we’re going to come back stronger than ever. A lot of people deserve credit. I want to thank everyone at the Department of Transportation. They led the way on this initiative. Thank you to DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman, thank you.  

[Applause] 

And now I – you know, in life, give credit where credit is due. The City Council really pushed this idea from the beginning. Some of us said, hey, is this going to work, how are we going to do it, we got to try it, we got to test it, wait a minute, how are we going to make it work – and Corey Johnson kept saying, we can do it, we can do it, we can do it. He said it a few times. He said it a few dozen times. And we got there. So, I want to give him so much credit for being in this idea and helping to make it happen. Speaker of the City Council, Corey Johnson – 

[Applause] 

[...]  

So, all week it’s been Streets Week!!!! at City Hall. We are celebrating changing our streetscapes, making it more and more a place for people, making people safer, making it easier to get around. Streets Week!!!! has been four days. As we know on the fourth day of Streets Week!!!! you have to do it with four exclamation points. So, Streets Week!!!! very big deal. And this is the culminating event, signing this legislation into law.  

Now, her sense of timing is impeccable because she just arrived. Cool, calm, and collected as always. Wearing a very stylish mask. The sponsor – and this is something she really led the way. She saw this potential with Open Streets, and she is someone who grew up in this city, grew up in the streets of this city, understands the life of this city, what it means, and we’re opening things up because of her leadership. So, I get to sign her bill into law today. My pleasure to introduce the sponsor of Intro. 1933-A, Council Member Carlina Rivera.   

[...] 

Such a good New Yorker. You don’t move at all when the sirens go off. You just keep talking, it’s beautiful, beautiful. It’s what makes us special, right. Alright, I want to bring up someone you know very well. And I want to give him credit because he is a visionary, his whole life, activist, elected official. He always talks about what we could do that we haven’t done before. That’s how he thinks. That’s how he feels about life. And he makes things happen. He’s the Chair of the Transportation Committee in the City Council, and he has served this neighborhood with passion, with passion, as your Council Member – Ydanis Rodriguez. 

[Applause] 

[...] 

I want you to hear from two more people before we get to the moment when we make this a law for this city for the future and forever. First, someone who has represented this borough with great passion as well, has really fought for the neighborhoods of Manhattan, and is very much a believer in approaches like this. Borough President of Manhattan, Gale Brewer. 

[Applause] 

[...] 

Finally, we want to honor all of the activists and advocates who believed in this idea and fought for it. There are many wonderful organizations and people who did that. But one of the groups that has really been leading the way on so many issues has been Transportation Alternatives. My pleasure to introduce the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives, Danny Harris.  

[Applause] 

[...] 

All right, you have to vote – if you want me to sign the bill, say yes. 

[Cheering] 

Say, sí, se puede. 

Crowd: Sí, se puede. 

[Applause] 

Mayor: Alright, I’ll do it.  

[Laughter] 

[Mayor de Blasio signs Intro. 1933-A] 

[Applause]