Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: During Climate Week, Governor Hochul Announces Opening of Environmental Education and Resiliency Center at Hempstead Lake State Park

Earlier today, during Climate Week, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the opening of the $8.3 million Environmental Education and Resiliency Center at Hempstead Lake State Park in Nassau County. The 8,000-square-foot center offers hands-on learning on the topics of storm resiliency and environmental management; provides space for community outreach; and serves as an emergency coordination center during disaster response. The center is part of a $35 million parkwide project to reduce flood risk, improve water quality and enhance recreational access along the Mill River corridor as part of Rebuild by Design—Living with the Bay, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much. And thank you, commissioner, yes, we've probably had more fun than anybody would ever expect people in government would have. We get a chance to go explore the most magnificent jewels of our system, and certainly Long Island has its share of magnificent state parks, including the one we're in today. But I want to thank you for stewardship of our parks. It's not what we're doing today, but what we're doing for future generations that will be remembered. And we have done an amazing job and much, much more to do. And thank you to RuthAnne Visnauskas, another fabulous commissioner who is normally associated with building amazing affordable housing and projects all over our state, but then she also has, this seems like a little special designation to be handling the Office of Storm Recovery. But when you have hurricanes like Sandy, you're going to be busy for a long time, and so she and her team have done an amazing job. I want to thank them for all they've done.

Always great to be with our county executive Laura Curran. She's been a dear friend. We are frequent guests at all the diners. No one can touch Long Island diners, I just want to say. We are regulars, but it's been great to see just the work that she has done on behalf of the residents. She really took this county by storm when she was first elected. She has transformed government. She's restored people's faith in government, which is no small task, something I'm going to follow in your footsteps and do, county executive. And from one first to the other first, the first female county executive of this great county, I want to thank her for her great partnership and friendship as well.

Adrienne Esposito, we've worked together for a long time, and she is so passionate about her causes, and that has resulted in, the preservation of beautiful places on Long Island to make sure that we don't continue what historically had been man's assault on mother nature out here. And sorry about the men, but that's just how it goes. So thank you, Adrian, for everything you've done to protect our environment. And to all of our elected officials who've been named, I consider you my friends. We've been on a lot of journeys together, and your voices, not just here, but in our State Capitol, are loud. We know that you are champions for your districts and the people you represent, and it's just a privilege to work with our Assemblymembers and Senators, who are recognized here today, as well as our local government officials who I never want to forget either. So, thank you, mayors, for being here as well.

I just have a few remarks. Happy Climate Week. It is Climate Week. Let's have a round of applause for climate. I am celebrating Climate Week like no other. I'm here in this beautiful space. I was on the rooftop of the Javits Center, which is one of the largest urban farms in America, and a green roof, and just incredible what they've done there. And I'll be up in the North Country, Adirondacks, tomorrow, making more announcements there. I was in Niagara Falls yesterday now that I think about it, at a facility that generates 25 percent of the power for the state, the Niagara Power Authority.

So I'm taking advantage of this. Get on the road, I'm tired of sitting in the office for the last month, so I'm getting out there on the road, but this is the place I wanted to come.

And you know how I feel about Long Island. I treasure this place. The people are just incredible and the diversity of the people, the places, the parks - it's spectacular. Those of you who take for granted perhaps what you have here, I tell you not to. Go elsewhere and also listen to what people say when they do come here and when they make their first impression.

So you think about all the economic development that's going on here, the Nassau hub, what we've done in Baldwin, working with our DRI and a lot of the economic development, restoring our downtowns, bringing them back.

Our sports team, let's go, Islanders, let's keep it going. We're excited about a new season there, a new season for the Islanders at a new venue. It's going to be great.

And also, you really protect your natural resources. You take this seriously. You make sure that we're doing everything in our power to protect the natural beauty of this magnificent part of our state.

So climate change is something we all take seriously here. You don't have to get through a Hurricane Sandy a number of years ago, nine years ago I think, but even just for Hurricane Henri, I was literally on Long Island and we were told it was going to have the same effect as Sandy. I was on Long Island beaches telling people, go home, don't be out here, this is dangerous. Literally, I think it was maybe the 22nd or so of August and we got that hit.

But then literally days later we got hit, we got walloped, with Ida and I was at the Great Next station to see the ravages of that storm and what it did to the Long Island Rail Road and see how people's lives were so disrupted and the damage was just incredible from Long Island all the way through Queens where I just saw the places where people literally were drowned in their own homes. It was just a real eye-opening experience that we still are vulnerable to climate change.

And we have to act with that sense of urgency that I do now that we could have another hurricane every 10 days now instead of every hundred years or 500 years. I mean, people told us it was a 500-year rain event that we experienced a few weeks ago, and we broke that record, almost doubled it within 10 days.

So I'm not trying to scare anybody. I'm just saying it is real. It is real and I'm so proud that our state is taking major, major steps to build our resiliency and that's something we know all about. And I'm really proud that the areas that were built back after Sandy were the ones that were able to withstand the forces of this hurricane. We got that test. We were tested and we passed that test with flying colors, but also point out the places that remain vulnerable, the places that did not have that resiliency built into it. So what we did with Sandy, most of you know this, we spent $1.2 billion to directly help 10,000 homeowners and also to build resiliency. $239 million for 100 community reconstruction projects.

I was with a lot of you in Valley Stream, when we completed a storm protection project to help south shore homes there. We worked on the historic Bay Park Conveyance project. Last April, we broke ground on it to redirect treated wastewater from the plant in east Rockaway and help the Western shore.

And as we said, we've invested a lot of money in our parks, like Jones Beach, and Robert Moses, and here as well. And we also completed the final 10 mile stretch of the Ocean Parkway Coastal Greenway, which I've ridden on. It was kind of windy and cold that day, but it didn't matter to me. I'm from Buffalo. I can handle it.

Also, we're leading the nation in our offshore wind generation. And we're starting that project and I'm very excited about that. And we'll be able to help achieve our 70% zero emission electricity by 2030 and 100% zero emission electricity by 2040. So this is good for the environment, but I love the jobs that are coming out of our green energy future.

And for us to be able to realize now there's a lot of young people in marginalized communities who don't think they have an opportunity to lift themselves out of their circumstances. And if we can connect them, Maddie we talked about this, how we connect them to the training and the skills for the jobs that are going to be just waiting to be filled.

That is how we solve a lot of societal problems. But also, take care of the needs of the future in protecting our environment. So today, on day four of Climate Week, we're just getting warmed up here, I'm very happy to announce the opening of this $8.3 million environmental education and resiliency center. You are here to witness this it's day one of this center.

What an extraordinary accomplishment. 8,000 square feet, so people can come here and learn. Hands-on about resiliency and the effect of climate change and mother nature. And what we have to do to protect our planet. And I think it's going to be great for kids to come here, students, young people to really just understand why we're fighting so hard for them and therefore their future.

It's an incredible resource. Over 400,000 people already come here every year. I think this is going to increase the numbers even more when people want to come and see what this is all about. And also there's going to be space for environmental education, nonprofit organizations, educational institutes, the Nassau county law enforcement Explorer program is going to be operating out of here, to use the center for community outreach and combating gang violence and positively engaging young people as well.

So this is also going to be a command post for our responses. Hopefully there aren't too many more, but our local disaster response can be coordinated right from here.

So this is all part of our $35 million park wide project from the office of storm recovery to increase resiliency, including reducing flood risk and improving water quality and habitat restoration. And we do want to thank the Department of Housing and Urban Renewal for the partnership there. So as I said, we're not just going to wait around for the next storm. We're taking action. I made some announcements about football today. I had some of the Giants and Jets with me as we talked about a plan to be able to get more people vaccinated.

So just so you know, I'd rather play offense than defense. I want to go on offense. I don't want to just keep defending and cleaning up the mess afterward. Let's go on offense and let people know that this is how we're going to play this game, is that we're taking climate change very seriously. We have a responsibility not just to protect our current homeowners and our businesses and our transportation centers - we also have to protect this planet for the future and I hope all of you feel that incredible sense of urgency that I do on my shoulders right now, that we can wait no longer. And our children's children someday will appreciate and look back and say, I'm so glad that they figured it all out before we had to deal with what they were dealing with, all those ravages of storms and unprecedented climate events.

We can stop that from happening with the power we have right here on Long Island in places like this in Hampstead and buildings like this. And you, my friends, were all part of this great story. I thank you for being here today.