Governor Hochul: "We're not saying the $10 million alone is going to change its downtown. It's not going to. It is the catalyst for the capital to start flowing and the developers and the local businesses to say, 'You know what? Maybe I can bring in my money, but now I have enough to get me over the finish line.' That's what we're doing here as well. That's the story that has to get out."
Hochul: "This is not about an individual community or a county or even a region. This is about making sure the State of New York reaches its full potential, because at the heart of it all, you're New Yorkers."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $200 million in funding is available through the State's two signature downtown revitalization and economic development programs — $100 million each for Round 7 of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and Round 2 of the NY Forward program, which focuses on revitalizing smaller and rural downtowns. This year's funding brings the total amount of State investment across all rounds of the programs to $1 billion since 2016. Together, the two programs have awarded $800 million in funding to 93 communities across every region of the state. Applications are available on the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward websites. The deadline to apply is September 29 at 4 p.m.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you, Secretary of State who, you think of Secretary of State being an ambassador to all the countries of the world, he certainly is ready for that after being my ambassador to all the counties of the State of New York. And you've done an extraordinary job. And I want to thank you for putting in the miles that are necessary for communities and are more remote and far away from New York City to feel they're important.
And that has always been the hallmark of what I've tried to do because I cut my teeth and ran for office in one of those communities that we always felt were overlooked. So this is personal to me to have a part of my team, people who understand what it means just to show up. And I'll continue to do that, which is why I was in Oswego this morning after New York City after taking the Red Eye from Los Angeles to talk about our infrastructure projects to other governors and what we're doing here in New York, because it's all about showing up. And communities know that they matter.
And I also want to thank Mayor Walsh. We've done a lot of groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, announcements, and they just keep surpassing each other. It is extraordinary what has happened in a really finite amount of time. When you think these are transformational projects, we use that word a lot, but these are not over two decades or three decades — this is over a year. And that is the wow factor where you all of a sudden get people's attention. And places like Micron, companies like Micron, are paying attention to the wow factor that is going on in our state and certainly in Central New York. So, thank you. Thank you, "Mayor Wow." So thank you for all you've been doing.
And also, we have our other mayors from Central New York here. We just were up in Oswego — and congratulations to someone who, the first day in office in 2016 said, "I heard about this DRI, and maybe we can use this as a catalyst to jumpstart a community that always had the assets." The waterfront, the river, charming downtown, the infrastructure, the buildings from the late 1800s, which many of our communities have - but it was never pulled together with a cohesive vision to go forward. And now that he's ending his term, which is sad for many of us, but he is able to say today that he got all 12 projects, not just started, not halfway there, but 100 percent complete. Our very first fully done DRI community from the first class of 2016, Oswego.
And not far behind is Fulton, which we drove past on our way here and has the same assets. A little smaller scale, but when you're smaller, you have to fight harder sometimes. I know a little bit about that. And I want to thank you for your vision as well, and we're going to finish those projects because when they're all done, people just get this sense of hope and possibility. And that's what I love about this. People start believing in their communities again. People who have given up hope, business owners or seniors who just like, "Yeah, it's not happening."
And if you stay with it and you show the courage to stand up to adversity and break through challenges, whether it's flooding in a community you're trying to fix, or a COVID pandemic. It shows that testament of resiliency of the people. And I want to thank all of our mayors for doing that. And also, our Mayor of Cortland, I spent a lot of time in Cortland, and I remember the first time I visited your predecessor saying, "Do you know who Cortland is named after?" And he didn't know. I said, "The lieutenant governor was Cortland." I said, "I don't have a town named after me." And I was Lieutenant Governor. So just in case you have some land, that's not been named. Lieutenant Governor Cortland got a wonderful community named after him. And also, to have SUNY Oswego hosting us here today, grateful for all you do.
Today is about a gathering of people. Some of you Central New York, some Finger Lakes, some Southern Tier, elsewhere. I think this is what we need to keep doing, sharing the best practices - and Andrew Fish and I have been a lot on this journey together as well - share the best practices because some communities don't apply because it seems too big to do that. $10 million. "How can I explain all this? How can I find the project?" And that's why I listened to them and said, "Let's give you another alternative." That's what New York Forward is all about. And I have been through some of those communities to say, "Thank you for getting it." That we wanted to participate, we wanted to show our constituents. We were taking advantage of these great resources, but we just didn't have $10 million worth of projects to bring to you. So, we are now jumpstarting our even smaller communities, and they're starting to feel just as valued as our larger communities, and that's important to me as well.
So, we have now invested in totality — let me just get this right — over 93 communities between New York Forward and the DRI and totaling upwards of $1 billion direct from the State. And when you think about the return on investment we talked about this morning in Oswego, right Mayor? A seven-times return on investment. So, our $10 million bought in $65 million in private investment.
That's what we're talking about. We're not saying the $10 million alone is going to change its downtown. It's not going to. It is the catalyst for the capital to start flowing and the developers and the local businesses to say, "You know what? Maybe I can bring in my money, but now I have enough to get me over the finish line."
That's what we're doing here as well. That's the story that has to get out. So, the communities that have already applied and have been successful, you need to go out and be the ambassadors to other communities because why not strive for having every single community in the State of New York be a beneficiary of one of these two programs?
That's what we should be shooting for. And the smaller communities that don't have the grant writers, because when I was the village of 10,000 people, a grant writer was going to blow our budget. We just didn't have that. And so, we understand those challenges, and that's why the Secretary of State is finding ways to help out. But you can also partner with your neighbors and say, "I can let you talk to my economic development and my community development teams, share the best practices." Because guess what? This is not about an individual community or a county or even a region. This is about making sure the State of New York reaches its full potential, because at the heart of it all, you're New Yorkers. So, let's go with that same spirit of comradery, not a zero-sum game if another community is doing well because that lifts all of us up.
And as we attract people from other states to work here, and we talk about Micron a lot, but Micron was going to Texas. And when President Biden and Majority Leader Schumer were able to bring in money for semiconductor companies, that helped keep companies here in America, but it didn't say they're going to New York. We had to work with our legislature to come up with at the very end of session a package that made sense for them. But it wasn't just that because they knew those incentives were on the table, and they were still walking away because they had a better offer, earlier offer.
I talked about the quality of life in Upstate New York. I spent three hours on a very cold February night. It was supposed to be a hello, and I ended up staying three hours and flew home in a snowstorm because I was not going to let them go until I could tell them what it's like to live in Upstate New York for your employees and the affordability of housing and fresh water and all you have from the beautiful lakes and the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes and the Erie Canal and Niagara Falls down the road and not a far drive from New York City if you want to go catch a Broadway play on a weekend.
I just bragged about every corner of this state. I was talking about everything I possibly could. And you know what? They listened. And I also said, "We also want good corporate citizens. We want you to build child care centers and workforce development programs and invest in education and go to those communities that don't right now have a parent who works in tech and never will perhaps." Let communities that are underserved know that they also have a chance.
That's how I'm recruiting businesses — and not just to Micron. Not just to Micron. All the supply chain companies — do you know we just landed the Northeast's largest dairy processing facility? Now they were going to Ohio or Pennsylvania, they told me. Coca-Cola was looking for it to build a $650 million dairy processing facility. And I got on the phone with the CEO from Southern California. I said, "You don't know this about me, sir, but I come from a long line of dairy farmers in Ireland. And I love cows." And I said, "I represented the most cow populated county in the state, Wyoming County — 20,000 people, 40,000 cows." And I said, "I knew all their names too." Okay. So I said, "I'm committed to dairy."
And I said, "I'll personally make sure that this product is successful. If you come to New York." They're going to Webster down the road. This is how we're going to do it — bringing the businesses here, and when we can show them the charm of your downtowns, it sells itself too. The history — we just celebrated Seneca Falls, 175 years ago last week. 300 people found their way to change the course of history, and Frederick Douglass was among them to talk about the rights of women. I think we're going to do more than have 300 people find their way to this part of our state. We have what it takes. We have everything we need. We have the formula for success, and no one can touch us when we continue to work together.
I'll be your partner. I'll be your ally. My administration will, but I need all of you to keep that faith and that sense of optimism that we lost for so long. Believe me, I know what that feels like. I'm from Buffalo. Okay? Okay?
I will digress one second and tell you a story. I was in California with the governors talking about infrastructure, talking about AI - by the way, we'll have an AI conference — and as I was stepping out, they said to stop at this restaurant on our way. It was a nice restaurant. At the next table is Colin Farrell. Do you know who he is? Okay. He recognizes me. I don't know, I barely recognize him. He had this ponytail and all this.
He said, "You're from Buffalo I hear." I said, "Yeah." He goes, "Too bad about the Super Bowl." I'm like, "Really? I have to, I have to hear about this in California, okay?" So, I get real defensive. And he says, "No, no, I love the Bills. I was in Ireland. I was nine years old and I'll never forget: Wide Right." I said, "Okay, stop saying that."
So those of you don't know, watch Four Falls. It's an ESPN 30 for 30, and you'll understand my soul and how it hurts when people say things like that. But I was just amused that we're known for that and that toughness and that resiliency, and we get knocked down. You get knocked down all the time, but my god, we come back.
That's the spirit of Upstate New York. That's what you embrace, and that's why our communities are going to be the best ever. Thank you very much everyone.
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