Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming out on this gloriously moist day. Let's hope we just stay in this pattern for a few more minutes. My name is Meera Joshi, I'm deputy mayor for operations. I have the honor of overseeing the agencies responsible for the amazing playground you see behind you, and the gate that you're going to see in motion in just a few minutes. That is the Department of Design and Construction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Department of Transportation. So, I want to thank them all for their hard work.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I also want to thank our First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo who led the Department of Design and Construction in some of the critical decision points for this wall to be here today. And I also want to thank the community because it takes patience to bear with us as we bring about a better New York. So thank you for your patience. The results are before you. What you see is the beginning of a wall that will be completed in the years to come. And it's not like Trump's wall. It actually does good things and saves lives. So, it's a wall we can all be proud of deep down.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I want to call out a few community members for their undying patience and support. Susan Steinberg of Stuy-Town, Jesús Pérez of Community 6, Janet Handel, and Shanique Sealey of Waterside Plaza. So, thank you all.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: And without any further ado, I want to introduce our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams, who gets stuff done, including moving a 79' 4", 46 ton block of steel.

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, these deputy mayors are getting my little humor. I thank you for all of our electeds who were a partner in moving this forward. We're doing a lot of big things in the city. And we know that this East Side Coastal Resiliency project is one of the biggest. It's an amazing achievement of human feat, and this is phase one of this massive plan. There are more phases to it. The goal is to protect Lower Manhattan. I remember, as we saw the hurricanes moving through this area, the flooding that impacted so many people. This is costing taxpayers dollars, but it's a real win. $1.5 billion climate adaptation project is the single largest urban climate adaptation project in the country. The single largest. Well, this is more than just infrastructure. This is how we are going to protect our city, and the people from rising seas, and stronger storms that are just part of the normal living in big cities, particularly those like New York, we're surrounded by water. And we have to take this in a very serious way.

Mayor Adams: It is how we are also creating jobs. Jobs right now. This project is about creating jobs. And it is how New York City is leading this globe in climate and sustainability. Climate change is happening now right here on our planet. And we have to be serious about it. The more we're seeing increasing temperatures, and stronger storms, the more dangerous flooding in our coastal cities. We have to be prepared for that. New Yorkers are not going to sit around and just wait for it to happen. We're going to meet it head on. We're rolling up our sleeves and getting the work done in the right way. And today, we are demonstrating the results of that good work. 79 feet long, 45 ton gate is the second installment of 18 protective barriers that can be deployed when a hurricane, or storm surge is headed our way.

Mayor Adams: We're coordinating with the Office of Emergency Management to make sure we have a clear coordination to deploy the resources that are needed. And this gate is one of the resources. Once emergency officials makes a call, the deployment of this gate will take place. And we're going to demonstrate that in a few moments. That is one of the best parts of the press conference. I'm looking forward to hitting that button, and seeing that gate move. This project started under the previous administration in the Department of Design and Construction being had by no other than our great First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo, the master of getting stuff done. And we cannot thank her enough.

Mayor Adams: The project will create nearly 1,000 new jobs, and is scheduled for completion in 2026. The gate, it's one thing to build great projects, but how are we building them outside our city, or country? Not this gate. This gate was built right here in New York state. Once installed, these gates would reduce flood risk due to coastal storms, and sea level rise on Manhattan East Side from East 25th Street down to Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side. And I'm pretty sure Councilwoman Rivera is happy to hear that as well. And ultimately protect over 100,000 residents of the East Side from sea level rise. That includes, often when we talk about storm preparedness, we often leave out and ensure that we don't have NYCHA residents protected in the process. That includes 28,000 NYCHA housing, as well as adding new landscape green spaces, and recreational opportunities for our communities. So, the sounds of children playing would be a normal sound in our community.

Mayor Adams: This project is more than a marvel of engineering and technology. Love New York City. And a clear signal that New York City is leading the nation when it comes to sustainability, and climate action. Fighting climate change is a massive undertaking. It's almost as massive as talking over those people who are protesting right now. But we have the technology to help mitigate the effects and draw down on the emissions that they are causing. And New York City is going to be the place where we put these technologies into our first action, first, right here in New York. Scientists and engineers are working closely with our government tech business sectors to rewrite the future and protect our city. And we are recreating jobs by building equity.

Mayor Adams: And we're not stopping with Lower Manhattan. We're going to break ground on even more coastal resiliency projects as we go forward, including protective barriers in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and our neighborhoods that are vulnerable to the effects of climate storms. That's getting stuff done, that's doing it the right way as we move forward in our city. We're excited about this project. And we're excited about many more projects. And we are also excited about the countless number of New Yorkers, 8.8 million people, and 8 of them may have an opinion that's different from the other 8.8 million, but you can't focus on the numerical minority that is the loudest. You have to focus on the numerical majority that's saying, "Eric, get stuff done." And I hear them every day.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you very much, Mayor. Next, we're going to hear from our Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, Executive Director Kizzy Charles-Guzman.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman, Executive Director of the Mayor's Office Of Climate And Environmental Justice: Thank you. Yes. Hi, everybody. Buenas tardes. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I'm thrilled to be here today to celebrate this achievement. It is an achievement, it's a feat. My name is Kizzy Charles-Guzman, the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. And everyone here today is part of one of the most ambitious infrastructure, and climate justice projects here in New York City's history. One of the most technically complex resiliency projects anywhere in the world. We are proud to be on the cutting edge of urban coastal resiliency.

Charles-Guzman: Frontline communities, like the East Side, know all too well that our risks that the city faces are not in the distant future. Climate change is here. They're impacting our communities here and now. And not all communities are impacted equally. And this is why we have such ambitious climate goals as a city. This is why we are investing billions in working class waterfront communities. And this is why we're committed to building infrastructure for people, like the new Asser Levy playground. The upgraded playground that provides this community with an amazing play and recreational space will now also keep this neighborhood safe during storm events. And will be able to reopen more quickly after a storm. And will continue to do so for generations to come.

Charles-Guzman: As we approach the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, and the first anniversary of Ida, we know that we need to be prepared for more intense, and more frequent storms. And projects like this one, ESCR, are emblematic of our multi-layered approach to climate change that links together resiliency, equity, and sustainability because building a stronger city must go hand in hand with building a fair and more just city. And, in this case, a city with more swings, and slides, and basketball courts too. So thank you to our amazing city team DDC, DOT everyone, and to our federal and community partners, and to everyone that made the milestone possible today. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you, Kizzy. And for the swings and seesaws. We are going to to hear from our Parks Commissioner, Sue Donoghue,

Commissioner Susan Donoghue, Department of Parks and Recreation: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Joshi. And I'm thrilled to be here and celebrate these improvements to Asser Levy Playground, where we can hear kids playing, and screaming in the background, which makes this such a fun press event. This is truly a milestone for the ESCR project, and our progress in making this city more resilient as Kizzy so aptly said.

Commissioner Donoghue: I first want to thank Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Joshi, our partners at DDC and Commissioner Foley and all of our speakers here today. I also want to acknowledge the many who have worked on this project, as well as the Parks' Department employees who work right here at Asser Levy, including our maintenance staff, our pool and recreation staff, the people who provide so much joy to this community, and so many others. Thank you so much for everything you do every day.

Commissioner Donoghue: We all know the importance of neighborhood parks like Asser Levy. This two and a half acre space offers a recreation center, an outdoor pool, play equipment, and a basketball court. It's essential that we protect parks like this one from the effects of climate change. Thanks to this new massive flood protection the park's recreation center and pool will now be protected from major storms. The basketball court and play equipment have also been upgraded with resilient materials. These improvements are an investment in New Yorkers who visit our parks and enjoy our parks, not only today, but for future generations to come. That's what ESCR is all about. It's looking to the future, and improving, and investing in our open spaces that are so critical to the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

Commissioner Donoghue: We're amazed by this feat of engineering here today. And we look forward to continuing to work with DDC, and our other great sister agency, and partners on state-of-the-art projects like this one. Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you, Commissioner Donoghue. And now, I think we've come to the final moment. Everyone can gather around and we're gonna orchestrate the closing of the gate. I'd like to also acknowledge Council Member Powers, Council Member Rivera.

Mayor Adams: We going to do some on-topic? Okay.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you ?

Question: I'm wondering from the demonstration it looked like it takes a while for the door, or gate to completely close. How long does it actually take? And how quick will that response be? I mean, if the water's flooding in you got to wait for the whole thing to close. What will be the actual response?

Mayor Adams: Well, number one, that's a heavy gate. Number two, if we wait until the tides rise, then we're not coordinating. We meet with Office of Emergency Management to our entire communication plan. When is the storm coming? When are we expecting high tide? So, we're going to be way ahead of the time. We're not going to wait for the storm to be here. You're talking about if the storm is here day before we're already moving this gate in place. And so, it moves at a slow pace because of how heavy it is, but we're going to be well prepared. Do we know the exact number amount of time it takes to close?

Commissioner Thomas Foley, New York City Department of Design and Construction: About five minutes.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. So, it takes about five minutes. And if we are preparing for a storm five minutes out, we in trouble.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I was just wondering if there are other plans to implement a similar type of project in other like low income, or in other average neighborhoods of where they face flooding more?

Mayor Adams: Yes, without a doubt. As we stated, although this is classified as a high income, 27,000 NYCHA residents. So, in between the high income earners, you have NYCHA residents that are here also. But we're looking throughout the entire city because a lot of areas that are surrounded by water are in low income communities like Red Hook. We have an amazing project taking place in Red Hook. So, we're not leaving any coastal area unchecked. And yes, no matter where the economics are, climate change is impacting us all.

Question: [Inaudible] on the metrics. It looks like it's 16 feet high, the weight and-

Mayor Adams: Yes. You have the metrics?

Commissioner Foley: Hi Tom Foley, Commissioner DDC. It's 90,000 pounds. It's 45 tons. It's 79 feet long. It's 9 feet high plus the wheel makes it 10 feet high. You can see the elevations on the side. During Sandy, it came to 10 1/2. That was the elevation during Sandy. So, you could see the protections that we're affording here. And then also, as engineers, we also have designed a 2 foot cap on the hole, and the surrounding areas to provide that for years and years to come.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff. Okay, let's do a few off-topics. Okay, folks. Thank you. So, Michael Gartland back there, what are you up to Michael? And Bernadette, boy, it's going to be a busy day. Good.

Question: So two questions for you. Number one, we had another bloody weekend, at least 12 people shot. Other people were stabbed. You said yesterday on the radio that you're going to turn the crime problem around. What are you doing this summer that's changing the trajectory? Crime is still up obviously compared to last year, but what more can more officer in the NYPD do that you have in the works to turn this-

Mayor Adams: This national violence surge across our country is something that we need coordinations from the federal government. We just appointed a new ATF head, which was important. We met with the special agent in charge here in New York City to look at some additional initiatives we're going to do to pinpoint the shooters. We're gonna continue to put more officers on patrol. But it's also the feeder. I keep saying this over and over again. We need to stop young people from getting guns in their hands. And so, our continuous coordination efforts, you know the numbers, almost 3,800 guns off the street, we're doing our share. We need our courts up operating, getting these shooters, these violent people inside.

Mayor Adams: Many of the other crimes, although we're down in shootings, we have done respectable - not down in nothing homicides, but when you look at the repeated offenders and robberies, burglaries, grand larcenies, there's a clear problem that we are allowing dangerous people to come out of jail, and come back on our streets. And so, we cannot say it enough, we need help from the other criminal justice parts of the system. Police are doing their job and we're going to continue to do so.

Mayor Adams: The initiative you saw over the weekend, the amount of shootings we witnessed is unacceptable. And we're going to continue to be as aggressive as possible to go after these dangerous people that our court systems are continue to allow out.

Question:  What do you need on the streets?

Mayor Adams: We want to maximize - too many officers are doing clerical jobs. We have an entire civilian plan putting officers back on patrol while we're putting civilians in those jobs that you don't need a gun and shield to do.

Mayor Adams: Now, the police commissioner, to her credit, if you go to parades now I was at a parade, the Cuban parade, you did not see that over saturation of police officers. You are not seeing police officers doing those assignments that is an over saturation of their manpower. We are deploying our police better in our subway systems, and our housing, as well as the streets. And, as I've always stated, it's about properly deploying the resources we have. Nelson Mandela said it best, "Do as much as you can with what you have right now." And that's what we are going to do.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I was at the UN celebrating it.

Question: Hey Mr. Mayor I get a question on a story we had ran this weekend from our education reporter about District 75 schools. And some of the conditions reported that a student who graduated high school in that district not knowing multiplication tables, people smoking weed in the hallways, fights breaking out. And these are in programs to help out kids with emotional and behavioral challenges. I wanted to know what you thought about some of the conditions we reported on, and what the city's doing to kind of address those conditions?

Mayor Adams: First of all, the reporting really inspired me in many ways. But I immediately spoke with the chancellor after reading the story to drill in on it, District 75, District 79 systemic problems. And the problems are not only in the school, because if we believe taking those children and only doing academics, then we're not going to hit the target. Some of those children are dealing with mental health illnesses. They're coming from backgrounds that are extremely challenging at home. And we need to zero in, again. That is why I say we must de-silo the system.

Mayor Adams: I need my homeless shelters employees to be part of it, our mental health professionals. So, it's a holistic approach. And that is something that Chancellor Banks is clear on to really reexamine 75, 79, and make sure they get the support and resources that they need. He's going to be announcing some new leadership over there. And rolling out some of the things that he wants to do to zero in on 75 and 79. We believe they have been betrayed for years in education. And we have normalized that betrayal. It's not acceptable. It's not about just promoting children. It's not about just pushing them through the system. It's giving them the support they need to be productive citizens.

Question: How does de-siloing help out in the classroom? I mean, can you just get into that? I mean, how does that help a teacher kind of interest those issues?

Mayor Adams: A teacher identifies a child that comes in every winter with a windbreaker on. Something's wrong with that. How are we finding out what's happening to that child at home in 20 degree weather, if we're just going to allow him to sit in that classroom with the windbreaker? Let's find out what's happening to him at home.

Mayor Adams: A teacher identifies that a child has a running nose all year long. Something is wrong. We have to start looking at the tell tale signs, the tells to say, should we find out what's happening in that child's life that's preventing them from coming in and being prepared to learn? And that could include is he getting, or she getting the required number of meals? Are their clothing soiled that they need some support at home? Or do they have bruises on them? There's mandatory reporting for domestic abuse. So, we need the teachers to look at the tells, and pass them off to the other city agencies that could investigate what are the barriers for children learning? I don't believe we have done a good enough job doing that historically. And we want to change that and create this de-siloing. And how do we complement each other to identify the barriers to a child learning?

Question: Mr. Mayor wanted to ask about the Penn Station financing deal you reached with the governor. A lot of questions about the financing here. Could take up to 80 years to pay off. It's giving real estate interests a tax break, similar to what happened with Hudson Yards. And that did not end very well. How confident are you that taxpayers will not be left holding the bag with this deal?

Mayor Adams: Well, we have to get it right. And my conversation with the governor, and the tax incentives is going into other areas as, some of the notes, 100% of the improvements to street sidewalks, public spaces, and other elements of the public realm, 100%. 50% of improvements to transit infrastructure, including underground concourse and subway entrance.

Mayor Adams: So, some would like to say, well, we're just giving rich cats tax breaks. No. They're going into improving the infrastructure. And when you start dealing with that infrastructure it costs money. And we're saying with those tax incentives, you have to improve the infrastructure, the much needed infrastructure. And we're excited about the project. No loss of local property tax revenue, and commitments to joint governance entity. That's a project that we know the devils are still in the details. We're still mapping it out. But we feel confident that this project is a much needed improvement in the Penn Station area.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, my question is also about the Penn Station redevelopment. What assurances does the city have from the developer in case this project falls through? We have a looming recession that you frequently talk about. What assurances do we have that if this project does not go through that we're going to be sitting on an empty site that's not yielding the most tax revenue that it could for the city development [inaudible] not a giant office tower?

Mayor Adams: Listen, we have to maximize the development, maximize the benefits. We know that Penn Station, a major hub, not only for the Long Island Rail Road, but also for the Amtrak. I took Amtrak every day that I went to Albany. We know it's time to invest there.

Mayor Adams: And the only way you could protect your interests is to get good attorneys that's going to be at the table making sure we're protecting the interests of New Yorkers, and we believe we put the right team together to do so.

Mayor Adams: Listen, there's an uncertainty in the economic future of the city and country, but we cannot sit back, and hold back development projects that we need for infrastructure being in fear. We have to be prepared, but we have to move forward as a city. And I'm just of the firm belief that the city is invincible, and we always make it through these turbulent times. And we're going to do it now.

Question:  [Inaudible]. Thanks. Mr. Mayor, can you speak to any specific resources about, or going to, getting some of those illegal dirt bikes, ATVs off the streets? Because just yesterday we had a video of like 100 people ripping down 1st Ave.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I am tired of these dirt bikes and three-wheelers. So trust me. And we have a real focus, a few initiatives to zero in on them. One thing is for sure, we can't do it in a reckless fashion because you're dealing with dirt bikes and some of the people who are riding them and the three-wheelers, they would go up on a sidewalk. They would go against traffic. They would do anything to evade police, and continue the harassment on our city.

Mayor Adams: And so, we must be smart in our approach because we don't want to recklessly go after, or pursue one, and injure an innocent person. And so, the police department has been doing a multitude of coordination. We were able to apprehend several bikes over the weekend. But our goal is not to go after 20 or 30. Our goal is to go after hundreds. It's time to end the harassment of our city with those who have no regard for safety, or following the rules. And it's a handful. We probably have 500 bikers out there on dirt bikes, three-wheelers, which are illegal. They're not allowed to be on New York City streets. And we're zero in on them. We are very aware of this problem. And we are going to rectify this issue.

Question:  Mr. Mayor quickly on the Penn Station deal, is the city losing on any tax revenue? Doesn't that money, the tax breaks go to the city? Or is the state coming in and going to fill that hole? Or how does that work?

Mayor Adams: We have our OMB and the governor's people answer that question specifically. Okay. Thank you.

pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov (212) 788-2958