Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at The New York Building Congress

January 23, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Carlo. Thank you everyone. I really appreciate the chance to be with you now. I want to tell you, I, as mayor of this great city – 8.5 million people – every nation of the world, every background, every language, every faith represented – by definition, I feel a great feeling for all the people that make up this city. But I do want to have an Italian-pride moment.

[Laughter]

Carlo, congratulations; Richard, congratulations. I was – they’re in a [inaudible] with Richard, Carlo, Gary LaBarbera and me. Now, I want you to know, it’s not that the Italians are taking over – we’re sharing with everyone. 

[Laughter]

There’s room for everyone at the table. But, Carlo, seriously, congratulations. Carlo’s right, we go back all the way to 1999, and I recognized a long time ago that Carlo was a public servant, and now serving in this new capacity – such a perfect fit for him. 

A public servant because he understood people’s lives, because he told it like it was, and because he kept his word. Those are three things you will find about Carlo in all the work you do with him. And we have worked together in many different settings, and I have found he does not waver, and I think a part of why he’s such a great fit for this place, with all the important work you do, and all the important interests you represent – you’ve chosen a leader that’s going to really be a great example and a great representative of everything you stand for. 

So, let’s give Carlo a round of applause. 

[Applause]

And, Richard, thank you for your great leadership as well as the chairman, and we appreciate all that everyone is doing to strengthen this city. And this is really what’s it’s all about isn’t it? It’s about how do we create a stronger city, a city that’s more resilient in every sense – physically, economically, humanly. How do we create a more inclusive city?

This is the task of our times. And what a glorious time, if you think about, to be a New Yorker, because our strengths are in evidence more than ever – I would argue – than ever in our history. This city’s gone through some wonderful times and some very challenging times. It was not long ago that this was a city a lot of people were disinvesting in, a lot of people were leaving. And, today, to be in a place that’s so clearly, so consistently, so uniformly is admired and appreciated around the country, around the world – that people want to come to it, that people want to stay in, that people want to build businesses in. 

There’s a lot to be proud of and everyone in this room deserves a share of the credit. I know a lot of people in this room, and whether you worked in public sector, public sector, or both, you helped to create the momentum that we’re now experiencing. So, I want to offer my profound thanks for that. 

And it’s a moment to fully delve into, in the sense that we have great advantages right now as a city. We have great strengths we have to build on and build on quickly. You never know when the world turns. My view is this is an extraordinary moment. Let’s make the most of it. 

Now, I have to tell you, I fell very blessed to have extraordinary people working with me in this administration. And when I was on the verge of taking office, I heard plenty of good people and honest people say to me – be careful, you had a lot of big plans, a lot of ideas, it may not be so easy to find the talent that you’d like to measure up to those ideas and make them real – and it was a perfectly fair caution. I have to tell you, after three full years, I’ve been thrilled with the caliber of people that we’ve been able to bring into our administration, or keep in government, and the productivity – I think, at some point, there’ll be a look at all that New York City government achieves, and even though I certainly appreciate them any strengths of the private sector, I think we have a city government today that’s firing on all cylinders, and it really has to do with the leadership of our agencies.

So, I want to shout out some of the people who are here and thank them. Someone who’s done extraordinary work for years, and her agency, I think, is an exemplar of government getting its act together over the years, now really showing what efficiency and effectiveness looks like. Let’s thank the President and CEO of the School Construction Authority, Lorraine Grillo, for all she does.

[Applause]

The man who has helped to build so many things over the last three years of this administration, and played a crucial role in Build It Back, and a lot of really challenging missions, but ones where we’ve been able to turn the corner and serve a lot of people well – our Commissioner for the Department of Design and Construction, Feniosky Peña-Mora, thank you. 

[Applause]

And, finally, a man – I’m going to praise him, because he’s starting to do the impossible, he is making the Buildings Department user-friendly, and customer-friendly, slowly but surely. When I had the honor of hiring Rick Chandler, I said, Rick, look, let’s be blunt, if there’s one agency I get the most complaints about in all of New York City government. And if it’s the one that I imagine if I took a poll of the room, I could probably guess the results right now. A lot of people in this room who want to get a lot of things done and find, historically, the Buildings Department to be one of the places where good ideas went to either die or slow down. We don’t believe in that, we don’t accept that. We believe the Buildings Department has a crucial role to do in terms of safety, health, and so many other things, but also it needs to work to get things done more efficiently and more effectively. Rick Chandler, I think, has done an outstanding job changing the culture. So, thank you, Rick. 

[Applause]

And just quick thank you’s as well to my [inaudible] there, Gary LaBarbera. We have worked together on so many things on behalf of the city. Thank you, Gary. Vinny Alvarez of the CLC, thank you. 

I want to thank our colleague in public service, Vinny Gentile. Thank you very much for all you do. And a special shout out to your president emeritus – I have to say, it’s not just that I’ve enjoyed every encounter I’ve had with Dick Anderson because I can look him in the eye. 

[Laughter]

It’s also because he is a warm and wonderful guy who’s done a lot to help build New York City. Let’s thank Dick Anderson for all he’s done.

[Applause]

Alright, let me be quick – let me get a few important points out. Carlo – I always appreciate when someone steals my lines when they’re good lines. But he said something that you’re not necessarily going to see splashed across tabloid headlines – that at this moment in our history, New York City is doing the things we always wish we could do. We’re driving down crime consistently – that’s happened for a long time, but now we’re going even farther, and healing some of the relationship between police and community that’s been overdue to be addressed. And I have to tell you, our Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill, and the men and women of the NYPD are just outdoing themselves. It’s extraordinary what they’re achieving now – even lower crime and guarding us so effectively against the threat of terror. 

In our schools, we have the highest graduation rates we’ve ever had. We have consistently increasing test scores. We’ve added whole new elements like Pre-K for All, and Computer Science for All, and they sky is the limit. We’ve just begun transforming our school system – you’re going to see a lot more. 

In our economy, 4.3 million jobs – the largest number of jobs we’ve had in the history of New York City. The strongest tourism numbers we’ve ever seen – 60 million visitors last year. These indicators, you round them together – it speaks to the success of everyone in this room, the strength of this city, and the fact that we’re actually poised to do a lot more. And that’s not only in all of our interests, but that’s where your work comes in so crucially, because to do more we have to build more. 

Now, this issue of building our city and what it means – I assure you this comes up every single day in the work I do and in a huge percentage of the conversations I have with every-day New Yorkers. I know Vinny Gentile will say the same. People at this moment in our city are grappling – the central question – they love this place, they want to stay here, they’re scared they won’t be able to, they’re scared they’ll be priced out, they’re scared they’ll be displaced – and how ironic for so many people who worked through the tough years, and stood, and fought and then feel like the reward is they may not be able to stay any longer. 

We’re trying to address that head-on. But what I’m trying to be very honest about – and not only in a room like this, but in a town hall meeting I did in East New York some months ago, and in press conferences, and everywhere I go it’s the same. Let’s be straightforward that the path to an inclusive city, and allowing people an opportunity to stay in the city they love is not by putting our heads in the sand, or acting like development pressures and market pressures are suddenly going to go away – it is by accepting certain realities around us and figuring out how to work with them productively for the good of all. It’s not to be anti-development, it’s to seek development that achieves the most for the most New Yorkers. 

And this is a discussion we still haven’t had fully enough in this city. And it’s a tough discussion to have and it doesn’t lend itself to quick hits in the media, but I’m convinced that we can have the right kind of honest discussion to help New Yorkers of all walks of life. Understand, this is a city that’s always built and building has made us great. That doesn’t always mean the building was as equitable or inclusive as it could have been. It didn’t mean enough people benefited always, but we can do a lot to address that and fix that. And that conversation is a healthy one, and the more we show results – all of us together – the more people can believe that this can lead us to a better place.

The affordable housing plan is a great example. 2016 – we have done more than has been done in a quarter-century. We’ve preserved and financed 21,900 affordable apartments just in this last year. That’s, again, the biggest in 25 years – and that’s more than enough affordable housing for over 60,000 people who need it. It can be done. We can show people – you do that year, after year, after year, you start to change the playing field, you start to create more and more space for people to be able to afford the city they love. 

And that affordable housing program, as a lot of you know, runs the gamut from folks at the lowest income, to folks who are working class, to folks who are solidly middle class – but even solidly middle class people are trying to find a way to afford New York City. So, we have to be there [inaudible] every time we prove to people it can work, we restore a little bit of faith and the development process can be something for everyone.  And we should people it’s still their city, and they still belong, and it’s still a city devoted to them as well. 

Now, that 21,900 is part of a bigger initiative. We started our Housing New York plan – 62,000 apartments since the beginning of this administration have been preserved or financed affordable – 62,000 apartments. We are on-budget and ahead of schedule for an overall plan for 200,000 affordable apartments – another half-a-million people by 2024.

And we are going to keep doing it. [Inaudible] and partners we can to make that happen. That is one piece of the equation. But the other is to take the actions we need to keep building other ways and one of the best examples recently is East Midtown. Everyone knows that East Midtown was part of this city, absolutely crucial strategic part of the city needed a new set of rules. Previous efforts hadn’t worked. We had to come back to the table and get it right. And I’m someone who believes you can do height and density the right way. You can have height and density that shows the people product and result for them as well. And that is what we did in East Midtown. We took a reality where we were strategically out of position in terms of the future of this city, got ourselves in position, but also showed people it will benefit their lives in terms of what it will allow us to do with the infrastructure of the area, particularly the transportation infrastructure. Everyone knows one of the parts of the city where the transportation infrastructure is most stressed, most needed help – we blended that idea of the rezoning with a way to address that infrastructure reality for the good of all. And said to people in the process this rezoning is not just for folks who will build the buildings or companies we will be in – it’s for the people who live and work in the area as well. Everyone involved by the way, so many people in this room are a team - our Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and Carl Weisbrod, our City planning chair and their teams and the elected officials we work with including Borough President Brewer and Council Member Dan Garodnick. All of them have done an exemplary job getting this plan on track.

And while giving praise I mentioned the extraordinary impact of the affordable housing plan. Our Commissioner Vicki Bean outdid herself. So this is a group of public servants who really figure out a way to get things done that say to people this is development to them. Look, going forward and I’ll conclude on this, we got a lot to do and the infrastructure reality that [inaudible] for so many people in this room, I think you probably feel some of what I do. It’s great every time you score a victory. I was thrilled that I worked personally long and hard to convince everyone involved that we actually could repave the FDR and that it was needed and it was overdue and it would change lives for a lot of people and on the 100th try we got it right. Sometimes as my colleagues know in the public sector, persistence is necessary. That was right and then every time I try to find another road on the highway that’s not in shape it drives me a little crazy and begs the question how to move on to the next one and next one and next one. We’re about to announce our capital budget tomorrow, our tentative capital plan. And our Fiscal ’18 expense budget – I won’t step on the lead here, but I will say you’re going to see a lot of things you like and particularly – we have been true believers in repaving roads.

We’ve done 4,000 lane miles or in the process of 4,000 lane miles. By the end of this fiscal year we’re going to do for the next budget for next year an additional 1,300 more lane miles of roads and highways in this town and Lord knows we need it. So, that’s one example of new investment. We are also going to do something that we need for our families and our children. We are going to ask Lorraine Grillo and her team to continue their magic by investing in 40,000 more school seats. And that is another indicator of extraordinary growth in this town that the demand in our school system keeps growing and we’re going to match that. So these are examples of the big investments we are going to be making and I am excited about what they are going to help us achieve and particularly excited about some of the things you heard referenced before that are going to change life in the City and in other ways. The Brooklyn Queens – BQX – the Brooklyn Queens Connector is going to be transcendent and it’s the kind of thing that can prove we can create new mass transit options. The citywide ferry service that will start later this year, taking advantage of our waterways is going to create all sorts of connections between neighborhoods and [inaudible].

These are the things you have to do to keep this city growing and to create opportunity, particularly, in some of the areas of the city where the economy is growing the most, but the infrastructure haven’t yet caught up. What else do I want to say is we need your help not only in the work you do every day and the partnership that we feel in that and we know that we have to always help you get your work done. And, sometimes we are going to need your help to get things done for all people of the city. One great example and I think we have a lot of common ground on it is what we need from New York State and I want to thank you for supporting Design Build Authority for New York City. It’s something we all know could help us all get a lot done more quickly, but we are going to need your help in Albany. And there is a lot of reaching in this room. There is a lot of reach in this room there is a lot of fire power in this room. We need all your voices to be heard in Albany in these next months because getting Design Build Authority is going to allow us to create a better city for all.

So I want to thank you and just say we believe in a city for everyone, we really do. That is the magic of New York City. It has been for generations, like I said, anyone can come to or anyone can be born into or dropped in and find extraordinary opportunity. A place that really has achieved something that few places in the world can claim – regardless of background, regardless of origin – it’s that anything is possible. That’s the magic of New York and we have to make sure we maintain that. And we have to do smart and aggressive things to keep it a city for everyone and keep it a place that has that entrepreneurial spark that creative genius it has had for generations. It’s our generation’s turn to make that happen and I am confident that together we will.

Thank you so much.