Governor Hochul: "To me, infrastructure means connections. And I know this because I worked for 14 years in local government and I saw what a road could do or the harm a road could cause depending on how it was placed, I also knew that there were strong needs for water lines, sewer lines, infrastructure. And when you do that, you're taking care of very basic needs now I'm in a position to say, I understand local government. Let's let you re-imagine your communities with friends and support from Albany."
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the proposed $32.8 billion State Capital Plan includes nearly $3 billion for infrastructure projects that promote equity, connectivity and multi-modal transportation opportunities for communities all across New York State. The Governor highlighted these investments in Buffalo this morning at an event near the Kensington Expressway, the construction of which removed the historic Olmsted-designed Humboldt Parkway and divided the surrounding neighborhoods with the construction of a below-grade expressway.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
B-ROLL 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 are available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:
Good morning, Buffalo. Kind of a fun weekend coming up isn't there? Yeah, we'll talk about that, but I do want to acknowledge how special it is to be here. Last night when I was flying back from New York City so I could be with you this morning, I did receive some very tragic news about individuals, members of law enforcement, who were shot responding to a domestic call in Harlem where my Lieutenant Governor lives.
He immediately went over to the hospital on my behalf, and I spoke with him and was texting with the Mayor. I just want to say this breaks our hearts all over the state. And this has happened with far too much frequency. It is something that - our hearts and prayers are with the families and the members of the NYPD, but also, it's a resounding call to action. To say, those in Washington who will not heed the call, whether it was the children of Sandy Hook, who were slaughtered in their classroom, and continue up to this day.
We have to do more to fight the scourge of illegal guns on our streets. And we need Washington teaming up with us, teaming up with locals, to get it done. And I know Congressman Higgins, this is a passion of his, and I want to thank you for fighting the good fight, Congressman. And if we could only get the others to open up their hearts. To realize that this does not have to be this way, because these guns, despite our tough laws here in the state of New York, and we're proud of them, they're coming in from other states. They're flooding our streets. And I have pledged the resources of the New York State police to become embedded with NYPD and others to help them.
In fact, we've tripled - just a week ago on our budget, tripled the funding for this gun interdiction effort because they're coming in from Virginia and Maryland and coming in from Pennsylvania to our very streets. And we have to do whatever we can to protect our neighborhoods. So, we are all grieving as New Yorkers. We are all grieving today. So please keep them in your prayers, as we continue to find ways to deal with gun violence in all of our cities and also throughout our state. So our hearts are with them.
It's also a weekend where we talk about our infection rates. I'm going to just do a little, I don't want to say a commercial announcement, but it is a very good day to be able to say that we're starting to see the downward trend in COVID infections. Western New York and upstate have lagged a little behind but we saw that coming. New York was hit hardest first, and we knew that they would start seeing a downward trend sooner, a downward trend not just an infections, but also in the hospitalizations.
Something I've talked to our local leaders, particularly our County Executive. We talk about it on speed dial. And I want to thank him for his steadfast leadership through this pandemic, because we have talked nonstop on how we can protect people here, but also increase our hospital capacity. Something we've been continuing to fight to do. So, we are seeing improvements.
Erie County is down, our positivity statewide, the second day in a row we've been under 10%. I'm telling you two months ago, we would have said, 10%? Sound the alarm. So when we have 23% statewide a few weeks ago, this is extraordinary progress and it's coming our way here. So, that is what we're doing here today, as well as my chance to say hello to all the elected officials who I have such respect for.
And to have - I hope you all recognize that this is a very big deal - to have the majority leader of the New York State Assembly, our very own Crystal Peoples-Stokes, is a source of power and might that you do not want to underestimate, because when she wants something done, here we are. And I want to thank her for all she does and her friendship for many, many years, as we've been in the trenches together in local government and moving upwards as well. Also, as I mentioned, our Congressman Brian Higgins. It was a decade ago, we sat together in Congress and sometimes we just shook our heads and said, "What are they doing?" But you have been in there, fighting on the front lines to bring quality healthcare, and good jobs to Western New York and to make sure that we make the right decisions and undo the wrongs of the past.
So thank you for just your friendship, but also just being that voice, that steady voice of reason that we've needed here for so long here in Western, let's give a round of applause for Congressman Brian Higgins. And our powerhouse Senators, first of all, Tim Kennedy. You know what it's like to be the chair of the New York State Senate's Transportation Committee. I was on Long Island yesterday. I'm talking about the far end of Long Island, like "Oh, do you know Senator Kennedy?" Everybody knows, because they want their roads fixed, Senator, they're coming after you too. So you think the potholes here need a little help? You should try the Long Island Expressway. It's a pretty bumpy ride. So Senator, thank you, we've worked together for a long time as well, and it's great to have you in that position.
And another individual I work with from his local government assembly. And now as a Senator, Senator Sean Ryan. He has been such a person with a true progressive heart, to make sure that we're fighting for the causes that are so important to his constituents, but people all over the State. I want to thank him for his leadership. And that is our Senator, Sean Ryan. As I mentioned, County Executive Mark Poloncarz, we have a lot to do. We're working on some other important items these days, and we'll get those over the finish line. Our Chairwoman April Baskin, its great, April, it's great to see you again, so wonderful to see you in that position. Legislator Howard Johnson's here. Howard good to see, he's my own legislator. Darius Pridgen, who's not just the council president, but he's also my spiritual leader. And I want to thank him for helping me through some tough times in my life. You totally have been there for me as well as the people in this community.
And I want to thank all of you, and Ulysees Wingo, city of Buffalo as well. Ulysees, it's great to have you here. And I want to thank our hosts here. This science museum, this is a homecoming. I came here as a child. I came here with my own children. They participated in those summer programs where you get to drop your kids off for a week at a time, for their educational benefit. But, it's a wonderful place and it continues to evolve and just be that place of great stimulation where we're inspiring the minds of so many children and adults as to be in nature's wonders. And I want to think Marisa Wigglesworth for being the president here for such a long time, and David Bush, the chairman as well. So thank you for hosting here, and we never forget our fighters in the community.
The people that are on the ground who make things happen by sheer will sometimes. I'm talking about a woman, Stephanie Geter, Restore Our Community Relations at all her partners. Unbelievable, Stephanie, unbelievable. Now you can stop calling me about this one. I know you have other ones, but that's all right, that's right. And unfortunately, just before we came here, we got word that there's a health problem within mayor Brown's family, somebody needed to attend to. So he would have been here to celebrate this important milestone, this announcement, and we'll certainly see him at many, many, many more opportunities to showcase what we're going to continue doing here in Western New York.
So let's talk, what are we doing here in Western New York? Let's talk about these pictures. This is snow on the ground, this street even look beautiful with snow on it. I mean, that, that is spectacular to see what we had come from Humble Parkway and the great history. And I was reading up an article about the genesis of the whole concept of putting in a massive highway through this beautiful treeline home for hundreds and hundreds of Western New Yorkers, people lived in the city of Buffalo. And at the time there are a lot of influences going on. First of all, the thought that everyone was to be driving cars when this is 1946, they were having these conversations. And yes, we were starting to emerge into an era where people had not just one car, but two cars and they thought they needed to accommodate these transportation needs.
But also they wanted to get people faster out to the suburbs. So when you want to point to a time when the city of Buffalo started declining, it was after it was so easy and so fast, for people to flee the city and we didn't keep building back this city during those intervening decades, between the late 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
And now what we're trying to do is reverse so many of those decisions, they weren't just made here. The thought was, these superhighways were going to be fantastic. And this is a sign of the future. We're getting people through it, out of the cities as fast as we can, but that was so painful, not just for the hundreds of people whose lives were disrupted and turned upside down.
I was reading past articles on this, and they said, yes, there was community opposition to it. But they were overshadowed by the politicians and the local media that thought this was the greatest thing that they could have thought. It was to tear down a tree lined boulevard where there were homes and churches and businesses, and to make it into this infrastructure. We're trying to undo the wrongs of the past, and we've seen opportunities where we've done it right.
And that's why I'm so optimistic about this and I know it can get done because we saw it happen in Rochester. The New York Times had a beautiful story on the evolution of the movement to remove highways all across America and they showcased Rochester. And what you see now in the site of the former inner loop, there, was first of all, they had room to expand the beautiful strong Museum of Play.
If you have not taken your kids there to have to seen everything here, go to Rochester. It is gorgeous. It is gorgeous. They had room to expand there. Affordable housing, supportive housing, townhouses, a neighborhood. It is stunning. And it also understood that there could be tremendous pressure for gentrification if you didn't build the affordable housing as part of it immediately.
So people who want to live there in beautiful new homes. These are stunning. I walked through the apartments. I saw what was being done in supportive housing for veterans and others who've been identified as individuals who need help. We did that in Rochester, on the very site where there had been a highway, not unlike the one right outside these doors. That's what gives me hope. It's been done before with great success. And, you know, we always know that the land downtown is the most valuable. This is where people want to congregate.
We know that. People see the possibilities just as I have growing up in an area where the people used to say the last one out of town, turn out the lights. We've come a long way from that attitude. We are optimistic now; we see a better future. And the city, once a highway's gone, they can develop this into a wonderful asset for them, to take something that had just been an eyesore - people just got used to it, never even questioned why it's even there in the first place.
Something we just accepted. We're no longer just accepting things because they came before. We can't always assume they did it right the first time as the Majority Leader pointed out. So, building back a city, that's a multifaceted approach and there's, there's no examples where the quality of life in a community or neighborhood improved when they put a highway in.
But when you remove it, it happens like this. As I mentioned, people congregating, children, playing - what we can do with parks and linkages, but also the jobs that are created doing this, critically important as we're coming back after this pandemic. So, I'm excited about that aspect of it, as well as just the thought that this place matters. It matters enough, the people matter enough, that we're going to reconnect, reunite, reunite the neighborhoods.
So, there's economic, there's psychological benefits. There are environmental benefits that come from removing this asphalt structure, as well as just the social opportunities for interconnection. And that's why when I spoke about infrastructure in my State of the State address and in my budget, I say most people don't get real excited about the words, infrastructure, other than guys in the front row, over here.
But to me infrastructure means connections. And I know this because I worked for 14 years in local government and I saw what a road could do or the harm a road could cause depending on how it was placed, I also knew that there were strong needs for water lines, sewer lines, infrastructure.
And when you do that, you're taking care of very basic needs. And for so long when I was in local government, we were always saying, Albany, please help us. Can you send some money? And it felt like we were always crying to deaf ears. And now I'm in a position to say, I understand local government, let's let you re-imagine your communities with friends and support from Albany. And now because of what President Joe Biden did, along with people like Brian Higgins and our majority leaders and our senators and others, they got it together and did something that is a generational change.
We now have the money to do projects like this because of what happened in Washington with the leadership of the Democrats who voted for this project. And I want to make sure that we give them the credit and there's going to be so many more projects that now float in New York because of the infrastructure money that was passed by President Joe Biden. And he believed in this as well as our members of Congress and our Senators. And that's why we can be here today as well.
So I don't take that for granted. I do not take, we waited a long time. I was a young staffer for Senator Moynihan when he was on the infrastructure committee, we talked about projects, but the funding was never freed up the way it is in a very impactful way.
So that infrastructure, it creates connections. It creates opportunity. So now we all love the word infrastructure, right. Even if you did before, that is a very cool word. Right? So I'm excited. And I also want to mention someone who was here today, who is going to be the architect of all this, the person who gets it done. And if you do not know this other power woman that was referred to earlier, you need to get to know her.
This is our incredible DOT commissioner, Marie Therese Dominguez, and what she has done already. Commissioner Dominguez and I sit in an office sometimes, and we just say, what great things can we do together. Let's reimagine infrastructure and how it can transform people's lives. And I know that other states are envious of the leadership that I'm blessed to have in this commissioner, so let's give a special round of applause to the person who's going to make it all happen and that is Commissioner Dominguez
I'm going to conclude, I seriously have pages of other Western New York announcements, but I'm going to just tease them out and we're going to, because I want to have more reasons to keep coming back here, especially when the weather gets a little better. So we have many more projects and we will be talking the Outer Harbor, we will be talking about the DL&W terminal. We will be talking about other highways. We will be talking about major investments on the east side of Buffalo in particular, large sums of money we're bringing here.
If I tell you all now, I won't be able to come back and have another celebration with all of you. So I'm going to focus on this particular project, but today I'm announcing we are making good on the promise I've just made to all of you. And that is that the environmental impact study will begin immediately. And when I say immediately, it begins immediately. That is what we're doing here today. Proud to have everybody. Let me bring up Mr. Transportation himself, Senator Tim Kennedy.
Let me just get this on, got to double up. Always proud to wear this mask. And, I will close by saying Patrick Mahomes you've got nothing on Josh Allen, you are in trouble my friend. I don't mind trash talking you every day of the week, because we're going to take you down.