Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good evening, everyone. Can we please have a round of applause for Gabriella D'Addario. And I'd like to also just acknowledge Carlo Scissura, if we can have a round of applause for our brother. And I have to make sure to use the right bathroom at his home. Joe Calvello, our indefatigable chief spokesperson, and our Manhattan borough manager, Ovie Lattimore.
Buonasera, everyone. Welcome to Gracie Mansion, the People's House. It is such a pleasure to be here alongside leaders both in and out of City government. I wanna just take a moment to acknowledge a number who've joined us. We have our City Council member, Frank Morano, Staten Island here in the building. We have a former Council member in the building, Sal Albanese. I also wanna acknowledge a number of our commissioners. We have our commissioner of the Fire Department, Lillian Bonsignore, who's here.
Commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations, Renee Campion. Our commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement, Tascha Van Auken. And I want to acknowledge we have the ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, His Excellency, Giorgio Marrapodi, who is here, as well as the Consul General of Italy in New York, Giuseppe Pastorelli - I'm a work in progress, but I'm working.
You know, more than a century ago, fleeing a country in the midst of political upheaval and burdened by economic turmoil, thousands upon thousands of Italian families arrived on the shores of our city, searching for possibility, for opportunity, for a better life. Sicilians moved into Elizabeth Street. Neapolitans laid down roots on Mulberry. Calabrians made homes on East 109th Street. And their Baresi neighbors did the same just a few blocks over on 112th.
But as Italian New Yorkers began to settle down across our city, the better life they had traveled so far to find did not come easily. Everywhere they turned, they were confronted with prejudice. Landlords refused to rent to them. Restaurants would not serve them. Colleges and universities would not admit them. And yet, despite that withering discrimination, Italian New Yorkers were not deterred. With a defiance that has long defined this community, they responded to injustice with tenacity, creativity, and a remarkable resilience. Where they found signs that said "Italians need not apply" on the doors of factory floors and employment offices, they took on the grueling and dangerous work of digging our subway tunnels and building our bridges. So much of the infrastructure that connects our city today was built by Italian hands.
When they were forced to worship in church basements, Italian New Yorkers established their own churches and held joyful celebrations for their patron saints, like the Festival of San Gennaro, that have become beloved traditions across the five boroughs. And when they were told that they were too foreign, too different, too working class to be great, Italian New Yorkers achieved greatness anyways, over and over and over again.
From Mother Cabrini, to Fiorello La Guardia, to Martin Scorsese and countless more. That history of greatness is felt in every single neighborhood across every borough. We see it in the pure craftsmanship and detail of the two lion statues carved by the Piccirilli brothers, patience and fortitude, that stand watch over the steps of the New York Public Library. In the monumental figures and motifs that Italian American hands sculpted into the Washington Square Arch. In the expert stonemasonry and bricklaying of countless brownstones and buildings across our dear city.
We taste it when we grab a slice of pizza on the go or bite into the pillowy crust at Spumoni Gardens. When we steal yet another spoonful of risotto from a friend's plate. When we go to Arthur Avenue and eat lasagna so good it prompts an existential crisis. And we experience it in the colors and lights on Mulberry Street, in the markets and storefronts in Sheepshead Bay, in the warmth and community of Great Kills and Tottenville. Yes, Staten Island.
And yet we know that over recent years, it has become all the more difficult for Italian New Yorkers to remain Italian New Yorkers, to stay in the city that they worked so hard to build. That is why City Hall is working to ensure that every New Yorker can raise their child in the neighborhood where they, their parents and their grandparents grew up. Where working people can make their rent, can buy their groceries, can send their child to childcare.
And where our small businesses and restaurants know that City government has their back. So, as we celebrate our incredible Italian American community this evening, let us recommit ourselves to the promise of possibility, opportunity and a better life that brought Italians to our shores.
Let us recommit ourselves to the work of making that very promise real. Now, before I close my remarks, I would like to also just point out a friend of mine, Anthony, if you can put your hand in the air. Anthony is a proud Italian American in our city and has been traveling to Italy to speak about the campaign that he helped to make. When I ran for mayor, I had the privilege of making many a video with Anthony and Deb. And so many of the videos that introduced me to many New Yorkers for the first time, often so, were ones that would not have been made were it not for the Italian hands of the man right there. So, with that being said, grazie.
