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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at West Indian American and Caribbean American Heritage Reception 2014

August 27, 2014

First Lady Chirlane McCray: Hello, my Caribbean brothers and sisters! I’m so happy to see you here. Welcome to Gracie Mansion. This is your house. It’s the people’s house and you are always welcome here. It is wonderful to see so many familiar faces. Hello! Hello, hello! This is like a family reunion.

As some of you may know, I trace my roots back to the beautiful island of Barbados. And I may have a little bit of St. Lucian in me too – it’s a big family debate. She came over – my grandmother Irene – did she come over from – she came over from Barbados, but did she start in St. Lucia and then go to Barbados? We don’t know – and I say it doesn’t matter. Any way you look at it, I’m a daughter of the Caribbean. I may not have an accent but I do have plenty of drive and gumption – and you know those are the trademarks of our people, right?

[Applause]

Now, I have been very lucky. I’ve traveled to Jamaica. I’ve traveled to St. Kitts. Jamaica in the house?

[Cheers]

Yeah! Alright! St. Kitts. St. Martin. Tortola. Dominica. Antigua. And I could go on, but the night is not long enough. And, of course, I’ve been to Barbados. I’m a second-generation American and a proud New Yorker, but I have never forgotten my roots.

Back in 2009, Bill and I took Dante and Chiara to Barbados so they could have a better understanding of their roots and it was truly a magical trip. I even got to meet more of my relatives by looking them up in the phonebook – and we still keep in touch through Facebook. And I hope to make it back – I plan to make it back next year.

But in the meantime, the West Indian American Day Parade is my favorite way to reconnect with my roots. I love everything about it – the music, the floats, the costumes, and of course the food. Everything we see and hear is just a reminder of all the island cultures that we love so well. And the parade is also a reminder of what we love about New York and why we call it home.

So I can’t wait to be out on Eastern Parkway to wind down, as my Jamaican friends say. And that’s also true of the man I’m about to introduce – the one person in the world who might love rice and peas and coo-coo and flying fish more than me – and that would be Mayor Bill de Blasio.

[Applause]

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Welcome, everybody. Welcome and – I just have a question – it’s a totally objective question – okay, I just want to just take the pulse of the crowd – are we blessed to have the most wonderful first lady in New York City?

[Cheers]

I think if you want a great first lady – someone who represents this city, here and all around the world, someone who reaches out to our people, tries to make life better for them – if you want someone who can do that job with heart and passion and ability and – as they say in Barbados – industry, then I say, hire a Caribbean American woman. So, I thank my wife, who is my partner in all we do.

There’s a lot to be thankful for tonight. It’s one of those moments when we stop and appreciate. We appreciate this city, we appreciate the beauty, we appreciate all the peoples that make up this place and make it work. We appreciate the struggles so many immigrants went through to get here to establish themselves – and in the process made us stronger. It’s a time to celebrate. It’s a time to appreciate – a lot of people I want to mention tonight who are part of that history, who are doing so much for us. But since it’s also a time of just pure joy and celebration of culture, let’s start our thank you’s with the man who brought us the steel drums this evening – Mustafa Alexander – let’s thank him.

[Applause]

And when you hear the steel drums – or, as some people like to call them, the pans – it brings you there, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it transport you to a beautiful place? And you think about a beautiful people, and music, food, culture, by the waterside on a hot evening – well, wait, that must mean Gracie Mansion right now, doesn’t it?

[Laughter]

That describes us all at this moment. Well, we’ve got a lot of people here celebrating with us. I’m going to call out everyone I believe is here. If I miss anyone back here, tell me.

First of all, this administration is blessed to have great leaders who represent the Caribbean diaspora and represent so many other communities of New York City – and a lot of them wanted to be here tonight to celebrate with us. So I’m going to shout them out and you can clap for them all. First of all, our Deputy Mayor Richard Buery – let’s thank him.

[Applause]

The first lady’s Chief of Staff Rachel Noerdlinger.

[Applause]

The Commissioner of Citywide Administrative Services Stacey Cumberbatch.

[Applause]

With a name like Cumberbatch, you know she’s from the Caribbean.

[Laughter]

Our Director of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Cynthia Lopez.

[Applause]

She’s from that Caribbean island known as Puerto Rico. Rose Pierre-Louis, our commissioner of the Office to Combat Domestic Violence.

[Applause]

Nisha Agarwal, our commissioner for immigrant affairs. Mitch Silver, our parks and recreation commissioner.

[Applause]

Joe Esposito, our commissioner for emergency management.

[Applause]

An incredible group of public servants, all of whom know this community and serve this community, each in their own way.

We have elected officials who are celebrating with us. We have Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

[Applause]

We have Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

[Applause]

I’m doing elected officials first, then I’m going to mention a couple of non-elected officials who are very special. But first, finishing with the elected officials, we have Jamaica’s own Nick Perry.

[Applause]

Jamaica, Jamaica, not Jamaica, Queens.

[Laughter]

It would be Brooklyn’s own, Nick, right? I mean that’s –

Assemblymember Denny Farrell from Manhattan.

[Applause]

Jamaican also. Not Jamaican, but loves Jamaicans and all Caribbean people – Assemblymember Helene Weinstein.

[Applause]

Representing the Haitian American population, the first Haitian American city councilman in New York City – Mathieu Eugene.

[Applause]

A man who wants to be Caribbean – and I know someday he’ll get there – Eric Ulrich, city councilmember – 

[Laughter]

– who’s been a great friend and partner. Thank you, Eric.

Now, I’ve mentioned some non-elected officials who do extraordinary things for this community. One of them – we thank him for all he does to inform us and educate the community and uplift the community – Karl Rodney, the publisher of Carib News. Thank him.

[Applause]

Finally, you can’t have a celebration like this without having the mother of Caribbean American political empowerment here – the shy and retiring Dr. Una Clarke!

[Applause, Cheers]

Sorry to all the other officials, but I saved the best for last – it’s clear. And Una and her daughter Yvette have been extraordinary friends to Chirlane and I. We have gone down a lot of roads together – and we always seem to get to the right place. But thank you for all you’ve done to help us shape this administration and our policies to make this a better city. Let’s thank Una for all she has done for this city.

[Applause]

And I’ve just got a couple of things I want to say tonight, but it’s also important when you have a beautiful event, and you get to have fun, and you get to be with people, to thank the event sponsors. So let’s thank Grace Foods USA for all they did tonight.

[Applause]

I was mentioning to our leadership from Grace that Chirlane and I participated in the festival – not this year, the year before – the Jerk Festival – very important annual cultural event. Some of you may know there was a jerk chicken cook-off in the year 2013 in which I was involved. I just want to make a statement to all the politicians and aspiring politicians – if you win the jerk chicken cook-off, you win the ultimate prize. If you want to be mayor of New York City, it runs through the Grace Foods jerk chicken cook-off.

[Laughter]

I want to thank the other wonderful sponsors – Anheuser-Busch, Sugarcane Restaurant, Super Wings, Allan’s Bakery, Maroon Sausage Company and Susty Party. Let’s thank them all.

[Applause]

We’re looking forward to the parade on Monday. Our family loves this parade. It’s one of the few things that it’s easy to get Chiara and Dante to come to every time. They love everything about the parade, but they especially love celebrating their heritage. And it’s a moment for such pride – and it’s been that way since 1967. It started small – just an inkling of what this community would mean for New York City – and over the years, it’s turned into the largest event – in terms of the number of people who attend – the largest event in New York City each year. And that is something the community should be proud of, because it’s grown and grown like the community, become stronger and stronger. And we are looking forward to it this year to celebrate everything – culture, music, art, food – everything that makes up this community.

Now, more than half a million New Yorkers of Caribbean descent put such a strong and powerful positive imprint on this city. Those ranks are growing all the time. The city is becoming more Caribbean all the time, and that’s making us stronger. And I’m proud to be the mayor of a city that for many nations, the biggest population from that nation from the Caribbean, outside the home nation, is here in New York City. And I’m proud to represent all these communities – and I know Chirlane feels that deeply as well.

Again, we wanted to make sure we had great people on our team who represented all of New York City. So, you’ll see – at all levels of government – representatives of this community who are helping to make New York City better. You’ll see it in Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, whose family hails from Panama – never leave out the Panamanians.

[Applause]

Let’s see, who is here from Haiti to salute Rose Pierre-Louis?

[Applause]

Now, we’re going to have the perfect Caribbean woman, Stacey Cumberbatch, because she’s part Bajan, part Trinidadian, part Jamaican – she’s got it all. Give Stacey a round of applause.

[Applause]

She is the Caribbean unity candidate.

[Laughter]

Now, Chirlane and I also know this is not a political event, but I’ll make an observation about the political process. Chirlane and I know that last year was a transcendent year for this city. The people of New York City had a choice – hard-fought, long-debated decision. And we know that one of the reasons we have the honor of greeting you here at Gracie Mansion is because the Caribbean American community came out for us. So we want to say thank you for bringing us to the mayoralty.

[Applause]

Thank you also for getting us a substantially larger house than the one we had before.

[Laughter]

We had one bathroom on the third floor – we used to fight over it all the time. You have brought peace and unity to our household.

[Laughter]

But seriously, this community means so much to us personally, in terms of what we do in public service and government, in terms of our understanding of the incredible commitment people in the community made to bringing us here to make the changes that we have to make. And wherever I went, wherever Chirlane went, in the Caribbean-American community, the talk was never idle – it wasn’t just chit-chat – it was talk about the changes we had to make. And we’re moving on them aggressively.

One thing Chirlane and I determined a long time ago, there’s only one speed – fast – when you’re making change to reach people who need more, and to bring about more fairness, more equality – to address that tale of two cities. And so, now, because of the actions we took – and we want to thank our colleagues in the City Council who were so much a part of it – half a million more New Yorkers have paid sick leave than the beginning of this year.

[Applause]

Starting on Thursday, September 4 – a week from now – pre-k takes a huge step forward – 50,000 pre-k seats for our children, full-day pre-k. For 20 years I’ve been listening to Una Clarke talk about the need for full-day pre-k. I thought, I better get this for her or I’ll just have to keep listening to her longer. So this year – this year we’re going from only 20,000 seats – that’s what we had at the end of June – to 50,000 full-day pre-k seats all over this city.

[Applause]

The following year, we’re going to get to close to 70,000 full-day pre-k seats guaranteeing every child in New York City a quality education at the pre-k age.

[Applause]

And you know what that means—a stronger foundation. No community values education more than the Caribbean-American community. Let’s give our children that strong foundation – and then everything is possible.

[Applause]

Everything is possible.

How about afterschool? Starting Monday, September 8, we’re going to double the number of afterschool seats for our middle school children. The following year, we’re going to guarantee that every middle school child – every middle school child in New York City grades 6, 7, 8 – who wants an afterschool program will get it for free.

[Applause]

They’ll be safe. They’ll be learning. They’ll be doing homework and getting tutoring and getting arts and culture and sports, and they’ll be stronger. And every parent, every aunt and uncle, every grandmother and grandfather, in this room knows – a child that is in an afterschool program is a safe child who is learning. That’s what we aspire to for all our children.

I know what you’re thinking. There can’t be anything more. That must be the whole agenda. It’s time to shut the book and go home. That’s what you’re – no, wait, there’s more!

200,000 units of affordable housing over the next ten years – enough for half a million New Yorkers – so people can actually afford to live in this city.

[Applause]

And finally, we’re going to talk over these coming months about actually honoring and respecting immigrants in this city – this city – the city of immigrants, the city built by immigrants, the example to the world of what immigration means, of why it’s so positive and rejuvenating. We’re going to take a step that will send a message to the whole nation, because at the end of this year – and thanks to Nisha Agarwal for her incredible work – we will have a municipal ID program. Regardless of who you are, where you come from – regardless of documentation status – the City of New York is going to treat you like someone who matters. With an identification card, you can get a lease, you can get a bank account, you can have a full and normal life, because this city is going to say, “You count, you’re our fellow New Yorker, and we embrace you.”

[Applause]

So we’ve got a lot to do. We’ve got a lot to do. And we get to do it because of you. We’re doing it for you, we’re doing it with you, we’re doing it because of you, because you gave us the chance to do this. So I look forward to great victories ahead. In the meantime, it is a hot August night. You are welcome to enjoy the beauty of the People’s House. And everyone, we will see you Monday, on Eastern Parkway. Thank you and God bless you.

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