Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Rally Celebrating Initiatives in the FY25 Budget Agreement With Advocates for Working-Class New Yorkers

June 28, 2024

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: Today is a great day in New York City. The mayor will tell you in his own words that what do we do, mayor?

Mayor Eric Adams: Land the plane!

Lewis-Martin: I am Chaplain Dr. Ingrid Lewis Martin, chief advisor to the mayor of the City of New York. Today, as the mayor said, we have landed the plane. Once again, three consecutive years of an on-time budget. Without any further ado, it's indeed my honor to present to you our second Black mayor in the City of New York, our number 110, Eric Adams.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff, good stuff. Really excited. Those long calls, the harassment from Commissioner Cumbo, the constant just focus. Nothing was more painful than those who commit their lives to this work.

Commissioner Cumbo didn't start when she became the commissioner to talk about cultural institutions. That was her life. Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom didn't start talking about children and families. That was her life. Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer didn't start talking about the importance of housing. This was what the life that she committed herself to, and she was the architect to the $500,000 moonshot goal and making sure we put that $2 billion into housing and including NYCHA on our housing initiative, which it was never included on before.

We spend time in our libraries. We know where they are. We know their cooling centers. We know this is where seniors go. We know where people need to go and use these institutions. It was extremely painful for us, for us professionally, but personally, when we had to look and figure out, how do we deal with this fiscal crisis, the $7 billion. I just cannot say enough about OMB and Jaques for being able to just to make it happen.

One of the most significant appointments I made. We sat down in Harlem when I was mayor-elect, and I spoke with him, and I just said, listen, Jacques, I need you. To have him here with us, we would not be successful as an administration in what we had to overcome in dealing with the fiscal challenges if we did not have the team over at OMB and Jacques Jiha. They have been just unbelievable for this city. It's really an American story, as we see the power of our immigrant population and group. This Haitian-born man has come here and realized that he can run the fiscal responsibility of the greatest city on the globe.

I just thank him so much. I want to thank Speaker Adams for what she has done. Speaker Adams just has been a real partner with Justin Brannan, the finance chair. I also want to thank the dignity and the authentic desire of these advocates behind us. They unselfishly talked about the needs of their institutions. They were extremely helpful. We are here now because they made some very difficult choices earlier in this administration. They sat down, they shared their thoughts, they shared how they felt. They always did it in a very dignified way, because they were fighting on behalf of the people of this city.

I cannot thank them enough for advocating on behalf of the people of this city. Because of that, we were able to do some real things, to, number one, stop the April PEG, and then to bring restoration to some of the PEGs that they were calling for. They were very thoughtful, understanding the fiscal challenges that we were facing, and coming up with creative ideas of making this happen.
Adding billions of dollars to our housing budget, to expanding access to Fair Fares. We are, again, reducing the cost of housing and public transit for working people. It was all about a zero focus on working peoples, and we're providing so many funds from public safety, to libraries, to cultural institutions, parks, and sanitation as well.

What we've done with pre-K, our chief of staff has constantly, Camille has constantly talked about pre-K. If you look at the numbers, you will realize that this administration has put more money into our school system than any other administration, when it comes down to pound-for-pound. pre-K, 3K, everything from changing food, changing the campus, teaching our children how to do breathing exercises, meditation, how to build a better environment within our schools, and extended to care to our migrant families, not leaving anyone behind. That's what we should do and continue to do.
Many challenges ahead. We know that, but we are confident of the future. The city is resilient, and we have the right team to do it, both in government, out of government, and our nonprofits, and all of New York is coming together. This is a proud day for New Yorkers. No matter what turbulence we hit, we landed the plane and we got a deal.

Lewis-Martin: When I say, what did we do, you're going to say, we landed the plane. Adams & Adams United, what did we do?

Crowd: Landed the plane!

Lewis-Martin: What did we do?

Crowd: Landed the plane!

Lewis-Martin: City Hall is now called Adams & Adams United Airlines. We landed the plane. Our next speaker is the chair of our SIGs and also the executive vice president-did I get it right? Oh, the vice president at BAM, one of our cultural institutions in Brooklyn, Ms. Coco Killingsworth.

Coco Killingsworth, Vice President, Brooklyn Academy of Music: Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for delivering for New Yorkers and for recognizing the essential role culture plays in making New York the greatest city in the world. We are so glad to see a partial reversal in the executive budget, and we are thrilled that $53 million are in the budget for arts and culture, $53 million, $53 million, no less, and that this budget will make us whole in FY 2025.

A heartfelt thank you to Speaker Adams, to Finance Chair Brannan, to the Cultural Affairs Chair Rivera, and the entire city council for your steadfast support throughout this budget process and for recognizing cultural institutions as a fundamental pillar in our city. This year, we as the 34 cultural institutions and our partners in the CDF, our 1,100 cultural organizations across the city, were united and unified and activated in ways that we have never seen before because of how deeply we care about this city. This budget shows how deeply the mayor cares about us.

We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to our partners in tourism, in labor, workforce development, hospitality, aging, and arts education. This city's investment that we are celebrating today allows us to further expand our diverse programming and continuing to reinvest in our local communities and economies. New York City's museums, theaters, stages, historical societies, zoos, botanical gardens, artists, art educators are not just economic drivers. They are the lifeblood of this city. They are the soul of the neighborhood. It is the things that make it possible that culture is for all New Yorkers. Thank you so much. Let's go. We landed the plane.

Lewis-Martin: Say it louder! Now we have someone with us that doesn't need any introduction. Many of him as an advocate for those who are in need of shelter. Where is my brother at? Where's Shams at? Shams, where's Shams? What do we do?

Shams DaBaron: Land the plane! What do we do?

Crowd: Land the plane!

DaBaron: What do we do?

Crowd: Land the plane!

DaBaron I didn't bring no notes, so I'm going to make it real short and sweet. A few months ago, maybe a month ago, I said when I show up, I'm with the mayor, I'm with everybody here, we're usually celebrating something, right? Today is a celebratory moment. Just real quickly, for a person like myself, who not too long ago was sleeping on park benches, on the city trains, and in shelters, I really know what it's like to not have a home, to not have even the opportunity for decent housing.

Thankfully, under this new administration, with a great city council, those days are long gone, because in this administration, with all of the great people that are here, we are now seeing that there is a focus on one of the fundamental basic human rights, and that is housing. This budget, we're seeing $2 billion that will be added so that we can increase our production of housing.

Now, the mayor tell you that oftentimes we walk these streets, no press, no security, and we go and engage people that are homeless, people that are out there with no housing. One of the things that I've noticed is that, rather than see an increase in what I call a shelter industrial complex, this mayor is committed to this housing first strategy.

When this whole focus on making sure we have adequate resources, the money that we need to go towards it, we have to applaud that. We have to be grateful for that. We have to keep pushing for more. I want to thank all of you, everybody that's here, commissioner, deputy mayors, all of you, Ingrid, Sheena, my everybody, can y'all give yourselves a round of applause? We landed the plane!

Lewis-Martin: Let me hear it again, what did we do?

Crowd: Landed the plane.

Lewis-Martin: This rally would be incomplete if we didn't focus on what I call the equalizers, the equalizers, our libraries. Libraries are a place where anyone can go, no matter what your age is, no matter what your religious affiliation is, your race, your creed, your culture, there is a place for you in the New York City library system, the New York Public Library System, the Brooklyn Public Library System, the Queens Public Library System.

Libraries are for all. Without any further ado, it's indeed an honor for me to introduce to you Ms. Linda Johnson, president of the Brooklyn Public Library, my library system, my library system. We landed the plane, y'all.

Linda Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library: As we all walked in here, I heard everybody saying, how are you, to each other. The answer has invariably been, "We're good now." I think there's a general sense of relief and gratitude. First, let me say a few thank yous to the mayor and the entire administration, Ingrid, who is a Brooklynite at heart, through and through, to the budget and negotiating team, to the speaker, to the Brooklyn delegation. Then, of course, on behalf of all the libraries in the city of New York.

Thank you to all of the patrons who came out and advocated on our behalf. Over the course of this budget season, we sent, our patrons sent, 180,000 letters to their elected officials explaining just how important our institutions are to the quality of their lives and to the value of what is actually the most democratic institution in our society, the public library, the buildings and the people who inhabit every single corner of our city.

I think the most important thing that this budget says about our values is that we value democracy, we value literacy, and the library is the symbol and the actuation of all of those things. Thank you, everybody, for participating in this.

Lewis-Martin: On behalf of Adams and Adams United, we thank you for coming today and for joining with us. What did we do?

Crowd: Land the plane!

Lewis-Martin: What did we do?

Crowd: Land the plane!

Lewis-Martin: We landed the plane. Thank you.

###

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.