Governor Hochul: “Congratulations to all of you who never gave up on this City – never gave up during its toughest times. You kept building during a pandemic and a spike in crime and a lot of anxiety. You kept building. You never gave up your dreams. And as a result, we are that place that people want to be, because we're New Yorkers.”
Hochul: “We need to build more housing in New York City, in the entire State of New York, and we have to keep pushing forward until that happens. I will not give up.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the New York Building Congress Luncheon in New York City.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you, everyone. You know, I was having a pretty good day until I'm standing backstage, and I hear the old, “Sorry about the Bills.” You know, somehow, I don't know that that's really genuine when I'm in the City of New York, but I talked about uniting the State and I do feel for at least maybe a 10-day, two-week period that I was able to unite Jets and Giants fans into Buffalo Bills fans. Am I right about that? At least for a little of that brief shining moment in time. And as we've said for the last 60 years, there's always next year, right? See when you come from Buffalo, nothing can hurt you anymore. You've been so wounded so deeply. So, I can take the pains and arrows of all the stuff from the media. Heck, I'm going to the New York Post Editorial Board in an hour, I'm not kidding. So, just bring it on.
I love this organization. You are the ones who when people see good things happening in this City, the empty spaces being brought to life, that people are given the dignity of a home to live in. We have these shining, magnificent buildings. We have the infrastructure projects that make us so proud. Most New Yorkers don't know the faces of those who are responsible for this, but I do. I know that the Building Congress has been the driving force behind the growth and the explosion of this City. And I'm going to say you ought to take some credit for that amazing article that came out and said that of all the places in the entire world that people want to live, New York is number one.
So, congratulations to all of you who never gave up on this City – never gave up during its toughest times. You kept building during a pandemic and a spike in crime and a lot of anxiety. You kept building. You never gave up your dreams. And as a result, we are that place that people want to be, because we're New Yorkers.
And I have an incredible friendship with your leader. Carlo and I go back many, many, many years. Back when I was that unknown Lieutenant Governor, and nobody could pronounce my last name. He actually knew how. Carlo's made sure that I saw everything in Brooklyn and all over the other boroughs and I thank him for being a friend for such a long time and his influence here as the President and CEO of this organization. You are very wise to pick him. And so, congratulations again. Another great successful year, Carlo. I've worked with Ralph Esposito, your Chair. I want to thank him for his leadership as well. Always pushing this organization forward. Cheryl McKissack Daniel, Chair of the foundation, and we've worked very closely, Cheryl, and I'm looking forward to more projects together with you.
And I actually am surrounded by some incredibly talented people as well. Is Roberta Reardon here? My – yes, she is – our Commissioner of Labor. Now, just so you know, in her spare time, she also was able to set up a database that now has 41,000 jobs for people who said we want to hire the migrant community. So, when we get those people put to work on your job sites and throughout the State of New York, we're going to start being able to really harness the power of the migrants who've come here in search of a better life, and it starts with the job. So, thank you Roberta Reardon.
And how are they going to get to those jobs? Well, I'm going to tell you right now, they're going to get there on time and they're going to get there safely. Thank you, Janno Lieber, for your leadership of the MTA Thank you. He might be feeling a little bruised because he just had his hearing up in Albany yesterday, but you survived. Glad to see it. Can you send an extra drink over to this table right here? Because that's never a fun experience.
And the Port Authority. Rick Cotton – where are you, Rick? Rick, thank you. Wow. Talk about visionaries, but not just people who dream things, people who get things done. And we, since my first day as Governor, have worked so closely together to think about all the possibilities of what we could do with the Port Authority, and he's been an incredible partner of mine as well. Let's give another round of applause to both Janno and Rick.
It's been a few interesting weeks. We announced our State of the State – our priorities, my priorities, your priorities. And one of them that is so important is to stabilize places like New York City and deal with the crime issue. Because you still have employees and people going to a job site and your workers and you have businesses who are saying, “I'm worried about crime in New York, is it as bad as they’re saying?”
And I’m really proud that we’re continuing to make major investments in working with the Mayor of New York. Yes, we're still using that phrase after two years. Can you believe that? The Governor and the Mayor are still working together? Shocking headlines. But we just had a chat, I congratulated him on his speech yesterday and he said, “Isn't it something that things actually get done when you have a Governor and a Mayor working together?”
And yes, we're going to keep that partnership strong because the people benefit from that. But we both believe that the foundation of all of our success is a safe City. So we're continuing to focus on this, as well as helping people with mental health challenges get the help they need. They should not be living on the streets or in our subways. We're getting them the support they need. So, crime and mental health are top priorities for us as well.
But once you have that, and we have that now, it's all about the projects that we're investing in, the infrastructure projects. And I'm really excited about so many of them. I get updates all the time and my jaw drops at how many signature projects are underway as we speak. Products that have been talked about our entire lives.
I mean the Second Avenue Subway, people talked about that since the 1940s. How long have we talked about the Gateway Tunnel? And it was going to happen, then it wasn't going to happen, then it was going to happen – we're getting things done, and it takes a long time, and there's no one more impatient in the state of New York than I am. I'm saying yesterday these should be done. But we're starting. I want Penn Station to be renovated and look like a beautiful, welcoming place because our residents and our visitors deserve that.
I want to make sure that we finish all of our airport projects. LaGuardia is astoundingly beautiful. Astoundingly beautiful. And JFK, we're continuing our work there as well. Interborough Express, now those of you who live and work in Manhattan, may not know this, but there's a couple other boroughs out there, and everybody shouldn't have to just come into Manhattan to get a ride to the other one, right?
So just a radical thought for someone from Buffalo is thinking about this. What about Brooklyn and Queens being connected? So we're going to get that done as well because I believe that the people of this City deserve it. Moynihan Train Hall, we did that, that is so incredible. So I don't want to go through the whole list, but there's one thing that's foundational as well – it's safety, but also housing.
We need to build more housing in New York City, in the entire State of New York, and we have to keep pushing forward until that happens. I will not give up. I loved seeing all the articles written in December saying, “Yeah, Hochul's throwing in the towel on her housing plan, she's not doing it, yeah, she tried one time, it didn't happen.” Meanwhile, I'm working around the clock with my team to write our housing plan, and I said, well I guess they'll just have to wait and see.
Because they don't know me if they think I throw in the towel, ever. That's not in my DNA. We will find another pathway. But to work with the Mayor who desperately wants this to happen as well, and as someone who is now an apartment dweller in New York City, I want the rents to go down, and we can do that by building more supply, right?
More supply. More supply. It's basic economics 101, so let's start building. Let's break down all those barriers that have held us back. And most of them are not even rational. And yes, we do need incentives because it's wildly expensive to put up housing today. And to say that without 421-a people will still put up the buildings and they'll still do the same percentage of affordable because they're such good guys and gals and they'll do it anyhow, no, that's not how it works. It's just not reality. Especially with supply chain costs going up, the cost of capital, interest rates.
There's so many factors that affect the ability of someone to say, yes, I'll do that project. So let's just make it easier. Common sense. Make it easier to build and they will build it and people will continue to come here.
Like I said at the outset, this is the most desirable place in the world where people want to live. Let's go on a buildings binge – a building binge right now. So not just our firefighters and our teachers and police officers can afford to live in the communities that they serve, but our kids and grandkids can live there, and people from other parts of the country, the young people who are saying, “Silicon Valley isn't as cool anymore, I want to be in New York City.”
That's what we had to prepare for, and we should have for a long time, and we didn't. So let's step it up. Let's be persuasive. Let's take this march on to Albany and get this done once and for all. I know with the spirit in this room and the people who understand the urgency and a Governor who gets it, we will be successful.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you do and never give up believing in New York. Thank you very much, everyone.