Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Buenas tardes! What a joy it is to be back in beautiful San Juan, surrounded by so many friends, partners, and New York leaders.
Each year, we arrive at SOMOS from Buffalo and Binghamton, Albany and St. Albans.
And each year, we arrive here at the Leadership Reception to recognize the work that Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie do year-round.
I would like to take a moment to do so myself.
In the five years that I served in the State Assembly, I had the good fortune to not just work alongside Speaker Heastie and Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, but to learn from them.
Speaker Heastie taught me that there was no shame in being Prince's greatest fan.
And Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins taught me new ways to tell time depending on what stage of the budget process we were at-such as the middle of the beginning, and the beginning of the end.
But most importantly, both of them have taught me and so many others, in ways seen and unseen, what it takes to get things done. What it means to lead a government that actually delivers for the people it serves.
Throughout their decades in government, they have demonstrated what leadership should truly accomplish: transforming the lives of working New Yorkers by delivering on their every need-from the cost of utilities to buses and trains that run on time.
And they have done so, by being two leaders who may possess enormous power but have never forgotten where they came from.
I will never forget the day that I received the Majority Leader's endorsement on the Mayoral campaign. We were together at Amsterdam Houses, the public housing development on the Upper West Side where she grew up.
Her leadership has been defined not only by a devotion to the New Yorkers who are so often forgotten by those with power, but by a deep understanding that progress can only be truly measured if it reaches deep into the lives of those too often left behind.
And when I recently had the opportunity to join Speaker Heastie at the reopening of the newly converted Edenwald Houses in the Bronx, I was reminded of his unwavering commitment to the community that raised him.
Thanks to an $8.1 million dollar investment secured by the Speaker, the Edenwald Senior Center has finally reopened its doors after 25 years-an achievement that will be felt in the lives of residents every single day.
While their hands may touch the clouds in Albany, their feet remain planted firmly on the streets of New York.
And over the past 10 months, City Hall has sought to govern guided by those same principles-the idea that government should be visible in New Yorkers' lives, and instrumental in delivering material changes to those lives.
We have been able to do so in no small part thanks to the leaders' enduring partnership from the very beginning.
When City Hall inherited a historic $12 billion dollar budget deficit this past January, they were instrumental, alongside Governor Kathy Hochul, in helping us to return our city to stable financial ground.
It is one thing to say that we reject a politics of austerity.
But we were only able to reject a politics of austerity-one that would have had to slash services that millions of New Yorkers rely on-because of the billions of dollars in funding they helped to secure.
And over the years to come, we will be able to pursue a politics of ambition thanks to their support of measures like the pied-à-terre and shifts in cost burdens that have long been unfairly borne by the city.
Since we finalized our city budget, they have been steadfast partners in the work of making life better and more affordable for working people across the five boroughs.
Together with Governor Hochul, we have delivered universal childcare for 2,000 2-year-olds across the five boroughs, with 10,000 more seats opening next fall. We have enacted some of the strongest tenant protections anywhere in the nation. We have filled more than 200,000 potholes.
And together, we are setting a new national standard for what people can and should expect from their leaders.
Today, a new generation of Democratic lawmakers is preparing to take office-in our nation's capitol and in state capitols across the country.
And as they prepare to lead, they will look to New York-to the model of collaboration, shared ambition and dedication embodied by the leaders and so many others here in this room-to learn not only what is possible, but what it takes to make their vision real.
It has been a privilege to get things done alongside the Speaker and Majority Leader-to pave a path of what productive partnership looks like.
The best is yet to come.
Thank you.
