REMARKS
Adrienne Adams' addresses the city council
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16 min
Adrienne Adams delivers a speech to the city council after becoming Speaker of the New York City Council.
Speaker 2
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Madam Speaker, you have the floor.
Speaker 4
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Mister Clark, thank you.
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Good afternoon to everyone, and what a happy new year.
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I, of course, want to recognize and thank my sister in service in New York attorney general Letitia James.
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Tisch with with everything that you're working on in the interest of the people of the state of New York I really appreciate you taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule and doing what we know you gotta do.
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To be here for me and with me today.
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In case you all don't know, Tish has been a constant mentor and inspiration for me even before.
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I first stepped foot in this council chamber 7 years ago.
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And as our public advocate, Tish flawlessly officiated our stated meetings, as she said, promptly stayed seated in that starred chair.
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And she's been such a powerful, positive influence for me and countless women.
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Throughout our city.
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Tissue trip trailblazing work continues to uplift all New Yorkers, and we're so proud, so proud of your leadership.
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So proud of your persistence, so proud of your fearlessness in the pursuit of justice and equity.
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For the people of the state of New York.
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I love you, and I thank you so much.
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Next, I want to take a moment to think, the hardworking staff of the New York City Council.
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Thank you all, staff, every unit, every department, My sergeants, my security, My detail, and of course, I cannot leave out my own district 28 office team, which is led by my district chief of staff Ty Hankerson.
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Tye has been with me since day 1 of my membership on the city council, and I thank him for his dedicated public service.
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We could not have accomplished what we did over these years without your commitment to this city, and we're so grateful for your contributions to this council and we truly look forward to the next 2 years.
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Or as Calman said, Calman's got the the stopwatch on because it's his stopwatch too.
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23 months and 28 day, we didn't get to the seconds.
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Thank you, Calvin.
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Thank you for that too.
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And finally, thank you to our partners in labor advocacy and government who continue to support the health and safety of New Yorkers day in and day out.
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Your partnership is vital to the success of this legislative body and to all New Yorkers, and we cannot thank you enough.
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2 years ago, I was proud to become the 1st black speaker of the New York City Council, the first wife, the first mother, the 1st grandmother chosen for this position by the 1st women majority and the very most diverse counsel elected by New Yorkers in our history.
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And once again, we have historically gotten a diverse counsel and our women majority remains.
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And the men that get it, Together, we do reflect the rich diversity of our great city.
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We're made up of New Yorkers from all different backgrounds where nurses social workers, educators, community leaders, advocates, small business owners, and so much more.
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Our members have various experiences with how the systems of our government impact the people in our communities.
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We have children.
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Grandchildren and family members whose current and future well-being depends on the work we accomplish just as it does for each of our constituents.
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The diversity of this council and its women majority have led us to govern differently than our predecessors.
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Our perspectives have shaped our legislative priorities, empowering us to address long standing issues that have not been adequately prioritized.
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Our relationships to our communities have enabled us to unlock equitable tunities that were previously inaccessible to so many New Yorkers who look like us.
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This allowed us to make strides in confronting ingrained challenges within our city and society which will require our sustained commitment to fully address.
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For example.
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We took action to improve maternal health for all New Yorkers, passing a historic package of laws to push the city towards addressing the severe racial disparities that disproportionately harm black women and birthing people and other people of color.
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When left New Yorkers are nine times more likely to die from a pregnancy related issue than white New Yorkers.
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Our attention must be focused on resolving this long standing crisis.
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We knew this though as more than a statistic.
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As mothers and grandmothers, parents and spouses, and loving friends.
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Our experiences and stories including my own, informed our work as lawmakers.
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We must renew our commitment and build upon our efforts to end this persisting injustice that continues to harm families.
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We advanced our mental health road map, which recognizes community based care programs as proven solutions to promote well-being and prevent crises.
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We expanded the city's commitment of resources to these underinvested in programs as part of a critical intervention to address the mental health crisis.
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However, getting New Yorkers the help they need will require wire us to make even deeper investments into our communities, which we are prepared to do.
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To bolster economic and educational opportunities, we expanded the city's summer youth employment program and pioneered CUNY Reconnect to help working age New Yorkers finish their degrees to improve their earning potential.
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Thousands of New Yorkers seize this opportunity.
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And we quickly blew past our initial goal to reenroll 10,000 students to reach over 25,000 New Yorkers.
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The majority of whom are women and people of color who previously left school because of family or work obligations.
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This is tremendous.
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Together, we have prioritized equitable access to opportunity by expanding fair fairs creating pipelines to civil service jobs and advancement for women, people of color, and marginalized New Yorkers.
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Supporting a healthier industrial sector in our city and promoting entrepreneurial and small business growth for underserved communities.
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We must continue to take critical steps forward to improve equitable economic outcomes for all New Yorkers and working families across our city.
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We're most effective when we treat our challenges as the interconnected issues they are rather than as isolated ones.
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The council's approach to public safety has been a prime example.
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Public safety is access to mental health.
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As well as resources and opportunities that help New Yorkers meet their basic needs.
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We have prioritized pushing the city to be to better meet the needs of crime survivors and communities that experience violence the most.
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Rather than simply paying lip service and using their tragedies, to advance ineffective policies that make us less safe as so often happens.
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Our city and communities deserve a more sensible conversation on public safety that advances new comprehensive safety solutions and is built upon lessons learned from our past mistakes.
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We have pursued and all of the above approach to public safety because this is the pathway to contend with the legacies of harm that have impacted generations of New Yorkers, particularly in underserved black and Latino.
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Communities.
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We have also recognized housing as public safety and began confronting our city's housing crisis as the pathway to a safer New York.
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We started to shift how the council approaches equitable housing development by making clear that we are most successful when all stakeholders work together, and all of us contribute to solving the housing crisis.
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The council will have to be a constructive force in helping our city emerge stronger from the severe lack of homes that has deepened our crisis of affordability and homelessness.
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By treating housing as a part of an ecosystem that can help deliver health, safety and prosperity, we are better able to utilize housing as a tool to invest holistically in the strength of our New Yorkers.
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That is how we can help New Yorkers remain here in the city they love.
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We pass critical laws to advance climate leadership and environmental justice in our city, as well as so many other critical solutions, while priority ties in our oversight role to whole city agencies and the administration accountable.
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We stood our ground.
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On principled fights when the best interests of New Yorkers in our city were at stake.
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We exercised our role as the equal branch of government through checks and balances to executive authority, which helped to strengthen our democracy and the governance of New York.
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We worked with our leaders in government, our elective leaders, as we shout out today, congressman Gregory Meakes.
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Congressman Adriana Sperayak, and our former colleague Paul Valone We have so much to be proud of.
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Our work over these past 2 years have made a marked difference in our constituents lives.
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To our returning members.
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I thank you.
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Your tenacity, thoughtfulness, and service on behalf of your district and our city.
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Make our city stronger and your leadership is critical to this body.
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To our new members, Youssef, Christy, Chris, Susan.
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We welcome you.
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The various experiences and expertise you bring to this body will be so important for the challenges ahead of us.
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I encourage you all to rely on my office central staff and your colleagues as resources to navigate the intricacies of your new roles and the legislative process.
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While we eat to represent unique districts with many distinct needs together, together colleagues, we make up one city and one body.
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Our shared commitment to service and the goal to improve life for all New Yorkers is the North star that must unite us all.
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As a body, we are stronger together and can succeed by working together.
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While we helped our city emerge from the worst of a global pandemic, Our work is not yet finished, and our efforts towards a full recovery are just as critical as they were before.
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Our full leadership team will be announced in the coming days.
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Today, I can say that the selections for part of it will include Diana Ayala as our deputy speaker.
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Amanda Farias as our majority leader.
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And Salvina Brooks Powers as Majority WIP.
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Placing all women in the top leadership positions of the council and a Latino as majority lip whip.
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As majority leader for the first time in history.
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I am confident that together, we will help lead this council and prepare the institution for future success.
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And colleagues.
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I especially want to thank council member Keith Powers and express my gratitude for his leadership which will remain integral to our team and As a body, we must be tenacious in our leadership.
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And remain clear, focused, and humble in the face of our challenges because they are deeply ingrained in our society.
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We will need to renew our efforts to address the preexisting disparities widened by the pandemic.
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That block women working families in our communities of color from securing stability and opportunity.
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Although the equitable future we seek may take years to arrive, every ounce of progress we secure today will bring us closer to what New Yorkers deserve.
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And when the path forward feels muddled, we can work with advocates, organizations, and community stakeholders to clear the way because they are our partners.
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When the challenges feel too big to handle on our own, we can work with our colleagues across all levels of government because the crises we face require our collective efforts to solve.
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And when we're short on answers colleagues, we can sit with our constituents and hear their stories and solutions because they possess a wealth of experiences and knowledge that can guide our way forward.
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Colleagues together, we can ship away at the injustices that our communities have endured for too long and deliver more of what New Yorkers deserve, we can move our city forward.
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As I look at this brand new body, I have such high hopes for what we all will accomplish together.
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It is an honor of a lifetime to serve the great people of New York City alongside of all of you and to serve all of you.
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Thank you.