Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces New York City Winner of Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward Program

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Williamsburg will receive $20 million in funding as the New York City winner of the ninth round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) and the fourth round of NY Forward. Recognizing the unique scale and density of New York City neighborhoods, New York City NY Forward and DRI funding are being combined into one $20 million award. For Round 9 of the DRI and Round 4 of the NY Forward Program, each of the State's 10 economic development regions is being awarded $10 million from each program, for a total state commitment of $200 million in funding and investments to help communities boost their economies by transforming downtowns into vibrant neighborhoods. To date, total investments in the DRI and NY Forward have reached $1.4 billion.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, everyone. Delighted to be here at the nice and cool Williamsburg Community Center. Cool in many senses, just not the heat one. I want to thank first of all our Borough President, Antonio Reynoso. I've known him for many years, and we've worked very closely together, and he has been championing this announcement through from the very beginning, so I want to give him a special round of applause for everything you've done.

Francesca Fernandez Bruce, the Executive Director of the Grand Street BID. Let's give Francesca a round of applause. Alberto Valentin, the CEO of the Graham Avenue Business Improvement District. Walter Mosley, the Secretary of State for the State of New York.

It's been a great week. I've been coming to Brooklyn a lot. I was here this morning. Monday, I was at Junior High 383 over in Bushwick, and we celebrated the success of our cellphone ban, which has been extraordinary - to any parents in the room. That change has had more impact on the mental health and the lives of our kids than anything else we could have done, so I'm really proud of that. We talked about that with students there.

Earlier today, I was at Sunset Park, where I was watching young people, I thought would be in classrooms, but they were out playing soccer. They're all part of a tournament. More power to them. It's World Cup season and energy, so we were over at PS 94 this morning. And over there, we were announcing that we're accepting applications for my "New York Kicks" Initiative - not the Knicks. We love the Knicks. It's the "New York Kicks" Initiative, where we're trying to get money out into communities, especially underserved communities, to let them build more soccer facilities.

So I know there's a lot of soccer fans here in East Williamsburg, and I hope to see you out watching the games at the Fan Zone at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. I'll be out there as well. The World Cup is going to transform our city this summer. But today, I want to talk about something that's going to transform this part of our city and this vibrant part of Brooklyn. And thanks again to the hard work of our Borough President, Antonio Reynoso, and so many other dedicated community leaders with us here today.

I'm proud to announce that East Williamsburg has been selected to be our newest winner of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Congratulations.

[...]

There's a little bit of a qualifier here. Normally, when I go around and announce these grants, and I believe in them to my core because I've seen the effects of how this money all at once can transform a community, normally they're $10 million. But, Brooklyn's a little expensive. New York City's not the cheapest place. How does $20 million sound instead?

[...]

Let's make it $20 million. And what I want to do, and you, this is your vision, this is executing your vision, to put it toward affordable housing, building more housing for those who want to live here. And also, listen my friends, we build more housing, we start stabilizing the rents. They don't keep going up. They start stabilizing, then they start going down. The more supply you build - I've seen this happen elsewhere.

But also, what we can do to improve the quality of life here for hard-working New Yorkers like all of you in this room. And some of the ideas could include the upgrading of Cooper Park, including a new playground and running track. Let's hear a round of applause for that. Taking the area around Boricua College and turning it into an outdoor plaza, a gathering space. Opening STEAM Innovation Centers, supporting young learners and those getting ready to enter the high-tech workforce. Let's do that as well.

And how about some much-needed improvements in our NYCHA buildings? We've created over 200,000 more housing units with our affordable housing development and other great products that are too numerous to list, but you know them all because you put them forward. So this is a great community. East Williamsburg is a party, a community that embodies all the ideals that make New York great, especially our commitment to hard work and family and knowing your neighbors, making friends, socializing, and really doing everything we can together to lift up this great community.

We know that half of the residents here speak a language other than English at home, and that, to me, speaks to the incredible diversity and the vitality. Many are first and second generation immigrants, came to New York pursuing the same kind of dream that brought millions of individuals here before them, including my own grandparents who stopped first in New York as they came here as teenagers fleeing great poverty in Ireland where they were first raised, and ended up becoming migrant farm workers and domestic servants and working in the steel mills. So I come from a generation or two ago where if you worked hard and could break your way through society and build a life for your children - they had eight children - anything can happen. That is truly the promise of the great country of America, but also the promise of New York State when you come here.

So I want to say this. I see in the eyes of many of you that you truly love this community. You want to do everything you can. I see that in our Borough President. He's dedicated his life to this, and we'll always, I want to restate this, that we'll always welcome our immigrant neighbors with pride. This is your home. Welcome, welcome. Bienvenidos. But whether you're first generation or sixth generation, and I also know this: Everybody is feeling the squeeze of the affordability crisis. Everything is going up. It just seems like there's no relief in sight. Rents are too high, groceries are too expensive, gas prices through the roof.

And I just want to reflect on this. Remember when Donald Trump said when he was running for office as a candidate that on day one the prices would come down? He would make New York and America more affordable. That didn't happen. He seemed to think that bigger ballrooms are the way to bring more affordability here in East Williamsburg. He is wrong. But I, in contrast to Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington, I'm not ignoring this affordability crisis. And we need people who are going to go there and fight. Help us win this battle. And I know that people are suffering all over this city and across the state.

I know we need to build more housing, as I mentioned before. I announced a $25 billion initiative to build over 100,000 new homes. We've done that. We're already ahead of schedule. But I also want to say this. We also need to make, break down the red tape and the barriers that make it too difficult to build homes. So when we're talking about building more affordable housing here in East Williamsburg, the law I just passed, and I just signed into law, will help us remove some of the obstacles and the extra years and the extra costs associated with building housing. And this will be one of the first communities we're going to see that in action and get the building done.

I also said we have to focus on auto insurance. The high cost of auto insurance. I'm already hearing the groans over here. It just keeps going up and up. You look at your bills like, "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm a good driver. Why is my insurance premium going up?" New York State was number one in the nation for having the highest auto insurance rates, and I said, "Why is that?" I looked at our laws and the fact that people are criminals staging crashes, and all of you and we were paying for that. So I just enacted in our budget new reforms that I know will drive down the cost of insurance. We got that done as well. And also stop them from setting your premiums based on your zip code or your education or where you work. That has nothing to do with how good of a driver you are. We said no longer will you be able to do that.

And as New York's first mom Governor, childcare is very important to me, as well as all of our parents here. And I want you to know that we are on a path to universal childcare. I just made an announcement about this yesterday, opening up our two-year-old program that the State of New York is funding here in the City of New York, $1.2 billion.

We're also focused on the high cost of energy. We have allocated a billion dollars to give direct relief back to families especially - about upwards of about $200 for families making less than $150,000 a year, a rate payer protection plan. And so, I've got a whole lot more ideas. This is just what we've accomplished in the last few months, and I'm not finished though, fighting the affordability crisis.

So here's what I want to do next. I want to keep working to make sure that all of us are joined together to make sure that New York State is a place that everybody can afford, that every family can thrive here. Everybody feels welcome here. This is your home. But I want to make sure you can afford to live in this great place.

And I look forward to seeing all these great projects that you put forward, your vision here in East Williamsburg. And again, I want to thank everybody for doing this. And now you know, it's not $10 million that you're applying for, it is now $20 million. So let's hear from our Borough President Antonio Reynoso and thank him again for driving this effort to make sure all of this money goes back to his great borough, Brooklyn.