"Abuela"

What a 2nd grade holiday performance showed me about New York

Last night, I was ceremonially sworn in at an event at Booker T. Washington Middle School, where my son Ben attends. It was a wonderful event: Ruth Messinger and Mark Levine presided, D.A. Alvin Bragg did the swearing-in, and a group of extraordinary public officials honored us with their presence and remarks. I thought I would share my speech (sans acknowledgements) here. I closed by reflecting on the holiday show at our daughter’s school last year, and how it speaks to me in this moment.

I confess I feel a certain strangeness about celebrating a new and exciting chapter in public life at exactly the same time as we face unprecedented threats to our most important public institutions.

With that in mind, I think of this evening as an official kickoff, of sorts, of my efforts to use whatever power attaches to my office, and my voice, to figure out how, in this challenging environment, we can protect and meet the needs of the people who call New York, and the West Side, home.

I have tried not to waste a minute in Albany.

My proposal for a revolving public loan fund to build middle-income housing was incorporated into the Governor’s budget. So, too, was my proposal with Senator Hoylman-Sigal to help ensure that people with serious mental illness get the care that they need.

At a time when civil rights are under attack in Washington, I am committed to protecting them here in New York. That’s why I introduced legislation to ensure the continued enforcement, in New York State, of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 — even if, and almost certainly when, Donald Trump shuts it down at the federal level.

And it’s why, earlier this week, I announced the ACCESS Act — to get our colleges and universities to be more serious about preventing and responding to discriminatory harassment. I have a particular concern about the rise of antisemitism on campus, but this bill would protect all students from being targeted based on their identity.

And as Trump and Musk and their minions embark on a deregulation crusade that would make Ronald Reagan blush, I am proud to announce this evening that I am taking on sponsorship in the Assembly of the “Consumer and Small Business Protection Act.”

This sweeping legislation would give our State Attorney General the power to protect New Yorkers from unfair business practices, just as the lights are being turned off in Washington at the CFPB, DOJ, and SEC. The bill has languished for years, but working with Attorney General Tish James, I am determined to make this the year we get it over the finish line.

Along the same lines, I’ve got a bill to strengthen the Attorney General’s hand in prosecuting securities fraud, and a bill to go after large multi-national corporations that are evading New York’s corporate income tax — to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year — at the same time as Donald Trump is shredding international agreements to stop global tax evasion.

This community has always sent representatives to Albany who were willing to take on the rich and the powerful, and it’s time our biggest corporations pay their fair share.

More locally, I’ve got a bill to establish residential parking permit systems, to ease the pain of parking for local residents, a bill to limit how much SCRIE and DRIE recipients have to pay in rent, a bill to help District Attorneys and the NYPD meet the obligations of the discovery law, and a bill to get the damn scaffolding down.

I’ve rallied with activists to speak out against Trump’s immigration cruelty, walked the picket line with striking teachers at the Manhattan School of Music, and pressed the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation to move faster in pursuit of the State’s climate goals.

So, that was the first six weeks.

Twenty years ago, people said I was a young man in a hurry. I am not so young anymore. But I am still very much in a hurry.

And I will need the help of every person in this room — your passion, your energy and your grassroots organizing skills — to get this agenda across the finish line.

* * * * *

All of this, I see as part of the work that we must do to save what I call the New York Project.

The underlying thesis of New York is that millions of people can be thrown together in extremely close quarters and, not in spite of their differences but because of them, create a uniquely desirable and dynamic place. New York isn’t just a city in which to live, or work, or visit, it is a grand social experiment and a remarkably successful one — a testament to the notion that we are stronger together.

The reality is that the New York Project has been under great strain since the pandemic. Many New Yorkers lost their faith in the capacity of government to deliver effective services and a safe city, not without reason.

Some of those New Yorkers left — more than we should accept or be comfortable with. Others, in frustration, shifted their vote to elect a President who, along with his allies in Congress and in the media, aims to take the challenges we already face and add a slew of new ones, including weaponizing and withholding federal dollars, to tear away at our social fabric, and prove that the diversity, compassion, and generosity of New York will be our doom.

Just this morning, the cover of the New York Post says it very succinctly: U.S. vs. N.Y. That is what is going on here. If it said, “Trump to New York: Drop Dead,” it would be too passive.

We cannot let this succeed — we must save the New York Project.

That requires us to do two things at the same time.

First, we must be aggressive, creative, and strategic in figuring out how the State and the City can step in when the Federal government steps back, and in fighting every step of the way against the attacks in Washington against New Yorkers.

At the same time, we must be equally aggressive, creative, and strategic in working to restore the faith of New Yorkers in Democratic governance, and in making New York City a shining alternative to Trump’s dystopian vision: a city that is well-run, and safe; with world-class public spaces, and dependable public transit; a place where it is affordable to live and raise a family.

If Trump’s answer to government and policy failures is less government and less policy, our answer is better government and better policy.

But we must be able to deliver, and to do so in the most practical and concrete ways, including — and especially — for the lion’s share of New Yorkers who don’t see things through the lenses of political activism or interest group politics.

The goals of fighting Trump, and of getting our own house in order — these are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they are inextricably linked. Only if we restore the confidence of New Yorkers in their government, will we have the ongoing economic and political strength to defend our values from Trump’s onslaught.

And only then can we ensure that the New York Project will survive and thrive long after the fraudster in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is gone.

* * * * *

Ed Koch had one of my favorite lines about politics.

“If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me,” he said. “If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

This is the West Side — no two people in this room are going to be in accord 12 out of 12 times. And we wouldn’t want it any other way.

We won’t always agree, but you can count on me to come to my positions honestly and independently, and to always be direct — sometimes to a fault — about where I come out on any issue. I will fight hard for what I think is right, and even harder for this community.

In two years’ time, I hope the faith that each of you has placed in me will be validated not only by the 9 out of 12 issues where we were on the same page, but how I handled the 3 out of 12 where we were not.

* * * * *

A little more than a year ago, Elizabeth and I went to see the holiday show at Phoebe’s elementary school, P.S. 166 — another great public school in the 69^th Assembly District.

Over the course of the preceding fall, P.S. 166 had enrolled a meaningful number of students who were new to this country.

Mr. Shackman, the music teacher, and Mr. G, the drama teacher, take great pride every year in working with their students to put on original musical productions in each grade. Last year, for the 2^nd graders, Mr. G and Mr. Shackman decided to write a show that would toggle between English and Spanish.

Performing it required those children who did not speak Spanish, like Phoebe, to learn enough Spanish to sing all the lines, and asked the same of those students who were new arrivals when it came to the lines that were in English.

Watching the show, called “Abuela,” it was impossible to tell who had been born and raised in this country and who had arrived just weeks earlier.

All of these children had been crowned princes and princesses of the city.

This magic had happened in a public school building, because of the commitment and ingenuity of two teachers.

It happened because of investments our government had made in that school and in those teachers.

It happened because of taxes we had paid to fund those investments.

It happened because of a school community that treated all of those kids like our own.

And in the long term, we will be stronger for it — because those kids, all of them, are the future of our city.

That day, in an auditorium just a bit smaller than this one, I saw New York at its best.

That is the New York Project.

That is what I am in government to defend — and advance.

That is what I’ll be fighting for every day, and every night.

It is the privilege of a lifetime to be able to do so.

Thank you.