Transcript: Governor Cuomo Unveils Comprehensive Housing Plan at First Corinthian Baptist Church
Government is about doing, it's about completing. It's not with your mouth, it's with your hands. Competent government experience, government that makes a difference in people's lives. We can do it. I know we can do it because we've done it.
- Andrew Cuomo
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, today delivered remarks at First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem. He was joined by Pastor Rev. Michael A. Walrond, Jr., Assemblyman Jordan Wright, and community leaders.
Cuomo unveiled his comprehensive housing plan to the church congregation on Palm Sunday that proposes building or preserving 500,000 affordable housing units and partnering with the faith-based community to help achieve this goal. He also spoke about the need for New York City to stand up and fight back against the injustices and actions taken by President Trump and his administration.
A transcript of his remarks appears below:
Governor Cuomo: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here on Palm Sunday. I want you and I love you too. I want you to know Pastor Mike, I'm working on being a non-conformist. I am in church today. No tie. Hey, look at this funky shirt I'm wearing. Pastor Mike is an extraordinary, extraordinary leader and accomplished and we're blessed to have him. My portrait hanging at Morehouse is really extraordinary. Now, I think what they're saying to you is for you to have that honor at this point in your career that they're resetting the clock on you. Because normally that comes at the end. So now you have to live a whole nother lifetime and start from zero. You have to double everything you've done and I know you will. And when you read through Pastor Mike, you say, how can a person do all these things? How can you win all these awards? And I was trying to figure it out. He had to have some kind of superpower. And then I figured it out. Reverend Lakeisha, gives you your superpower. Give her a round of applause.
I recently had a change in life plans. I had done government service. I did eight years with the Clinton administration, HUD secretary, I was attorney general, I was governor. And I thought I was going to take it easy and I was taking it easy. Went fishing, tried to play golf, frustrating game golf. Every ball I hit, I lost. I spent time with my kids. But my kids are older now and they're like, “I can't go to dinner with you three times a week. Dad, why didn't you get a job?” And I was watching New York City and what was happening in New York City and I am afraid for New York City. I'm a New York City boy all my life. I'm afraid for New York City. I've seen cycles, but I've never seen this before. New York City is too dangerous, it's too expensive and it's making too little progress. 500,000 people left New York City, 500,000 people all across the income. Everybody, they're leaving. And when they're leaving, they're telling you something and you have to hear what they're saying. And it starts with public safety. We have to be safe. You look at some of these incidents that happen out there. What happens on the subways? This doesn't happen in science fiction movies. What's happening out here? And we have to be safe.
Mayor David Dinkins, when he took office, he had a crime problem. He increased police, 40% change. The city of New York made it safe. What did we do? We defunded the police. Now the police alone aren't the answer. We have to get our young people jobs and training and get mental health services. But my father used to say, you have to be idealistic, but you have to be realistic. You can't do it with no police. You need the police. We have to get back to safety. We have to get back to safety in the subways. We have to clean up the city. We have to get rid of the rats in the city and we have to make the city more affordable.
And I put out a long paper today on affordable housing that the pastor said he's going to read. I don't believe he's really going to read it, but it was nice of him to say that. But it says we have to focus on affordable housing because that is what is driving people out of this city right now. You can't afford the rent and it calls for 500,000 units, but it also calls for a special element that hasn't been done before that I'm very excited about. And it says that we have a partner who we should be using in building affordable housing, who we haven't used before. And that is the faith based community. And that's why I'm here today because this is a model. Look at what FCBC can do. Look at the Hope Center. Look at the Dream Center. It should be FCBC that is building affordable housing in this community. It is FCBC that knows what this community needs. Let government provide the funding to FCBC, but let it be your vision. Let it be your reach out to the community and let's change something. Let's build affordable housing for members of the community who are being priced out of their own community that they live.
A lot of people have given up on government. And there’s a despair. Well, we don't believe we can do it. I'm telling you. I know we can. I know we can. When I took over the state of New York, it was just as bad as what we're seeing in city government. $11 billion deficit. The legislature wouldn't vote. We had all this crazy politics going back and forth, but we turned it around. Ask Brian Benjamin who's here today, who was in the legislature. Ask Jordan Wright. We turned it around. This state became the most progressive state in the United States of America. The first state to pass the highest minimum wage in the United States of America right here. First state to pass best paid family leave program, the best gun safety program, all in New York. And can we build? Go look at LaGuardia Airport, it was the worst airport in the United States. It's now the best. Go look at the Second Avenue subway. Go look at the Moynihan Train Station. Go to the Mario Cuomo Bridge. $5 billion largest infrastructure project in the United States passed on time and on budget. And yes, I named it but so what? We can do these things because we have done it. Government in your identity statement, we are doers. Yes, we're dreamers. Yes, we're visionaries, but we are doers. Government is about doing, it's about completing. It's not with your mouth, it's with your hands. Competent government experience, government that makes a difference in people's lives. We can do it. I know we can do it because we've done it.
Last point is this. And the pastor touched on this much better than I can. The greatest challenge government faces is not our inability to do what we have to do here. We can do this. We can do public safety and clean the city and fix the subways. We've done it before. We can do it again. We have a bigger threat. And that is Mr. Donald Trump. That is the threat that we face. And you haven't seen it yet. You haven't felt it yet. He's doing this over here's saying, look at this hand. Look at this hand. Immigration issue attacking law firms. That's not what it's going to be. It's going to be this hand and it's going to be about the money. That's what it's going to be. It's going to be about doing tax cuts that transfer money to the rich from the middle class, the poor. It's going to be tax cuts that are financed by cutting programs, vital programs to this state like Medicare and depriving people of healthcare. That's going to be the fight. And I know Mr. Trump, I managed COVID in this state when he was president of the United States.
And I'm telling you, we had our battles about everything. We almost created issues to fight about. It became so commonplace. But we fought about vaccines. We fought about federal resources. We fought about ships, we fought about everything. And you know what I learned about Mr. Trump? He is a bully. He is a bully. And you know what you do with a bully? You stand up to a bully. When they put their finger in your chest, you step forward. You don't step back. And that's what we have to do. We are going to fight this administration. We're going to fight these measures because that's who we are. They talk about fighting the good fight. You fight the good fight. Fighting the good fight is a fight. And he brought the fight to us. And it is our destiny, our legacy. Who are we? We are the state of New York, the city of New York.
We have a different vision than what President Trump is talking about. We don't see his America. And we're going to stand up and fight for our America because our America, America has real justice for all Americans and real opportunity and real equality. And that's going to be the legacy of New York. We're going to stand up to the bully. We're going to be the first city to stand up and we're going to stand up first and we're going to stand up firm and we're going to stand up strong and we're going to stand up smart and we are going to win. And the best for this city lies ahead and New York is going to lead the way, and I hope with your help to be part of it. Thank you. God bless.
Watch the Full Remarks of Governor Cuomo’s Speech Here
Details on Cuomo’s Housing Plan Available Here
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