Good morning. Happy Friday. Thank you, Reverend Doctor Waterman, for welcoming us at Antioch - and for the wisdom and grace you have shared with your congregation and with Bed-Stuy for more than a decade. Thank you, Dr. Bailey, for bringing us together.
It is lovely to be back at AACEO with you. I have been here before as an Assembly Member, as a candidate for office, and I am so proud to be here today as your mayor. I know that my mayoralty is at times described in the language of firsts. And yet while it may be true, I do so with the humility that it is only possible because of the many other firsts that came before. When I think of those, I think of a great New Yorker - Mayor David Dinkins. Thirty-seven years ago this fall, our city stood on the precipice of history.
New York City was on the verge of electing its first Black mayor. I know that David Dinkins is a hero for many of you. He is for me too. And in moments where it feels lonely being the Democratic Socialist Mayor of the greatest city in the world, I draw comfort from the knowledge that in this, I followed him. But we know Mayor Dinkins' election was hardly inevitable. Vast forces were organizing to stop his progress - to foster suspicion and division, to undermine the coalitions powering his rise. In that moment, three men - Reverend Doctor Gardener Taylor, Al Vann, and Reverend Herbert Daughtry - came together to bring the city together.
AACEO was created not only to help get David Dinkins elected - but out of a shared belief in New York City. A belief that we are stronger united. A belief in a city that can fulfill its potential. A belief in government's ability to deliver not for itself, but for working people. Over the 37 years since, our city has changed. Neighborhoods look different. Sports teams play in new stadiums. Coffee costs more. Over just the last 20 of those 37 years, we have watched as more than 200,000 Black New Yorkers have been forced to leave our city - because they can no longer afford life in the city they helped build. And yet, no matter how much has changed, AACEO has remained - a rock for those searching for wisdom, a resource to those it serves, a place where belief not only has a home but where belief expands what is deemed possible.
When I think of your work, I think of what Mayor Dinkins said to the people of this city in 1989 after winning that election. "You," he said, "voted for your hopes and not your fears." Hope over fear. It takes belief to make that choice - because make no mistake, it is a choice, and a difficult one at that. I am in a room full of people who make that choice every day. Each morning, often long before the sun has broken the horizon, you wake up and decide to dedicate your energy to organizing and uplifting others. What is that choice if not an expression of hope? When you visit the hospital to hold the hand of a mother weeping for her child stolen by gun violence, when you accompany a frightened immigrant to 26 Federal Plaza, when you counsel a family that can hardly afford the costs of today, let alone those that will come tomorrow - what is that choice if not an expression of hope, an expression of belief in New York City?
Standing before you today, I think of a hymn that echoes so often across our city on Sunday mornings: "I want to walk worthy, my calling to fulfill. Please order my steps Lord, and I'll do Your blessed will. The world is ever changing, but You are still the same; if You order my steps, I'll praise Your name."
Just like all of you, I want to walk worthy. Not just worthy of those who voted for me, those who believe in my politics, those who feel at home in the movement we have built. I want to walk worthy of those who feel alone in a world and a city that is ever changing. Those left behind and betrayed by government. Those who hear gunshots outside their windows and those who cannot afford the bus fare or the rent. I want to walk worthy of every New Yorker - and I know that I cannot do so alone.
It is only by coming together, by believing together, that we can build a city worthy of those who call it home. Since taking office four months ago today, City Hall has sought to do exactly that. We have placed working people at the heart of our work. On day eight of our administration, we secured a historic $1.2 billion-dollar partnership with Governor Hochul to make 3K universal and deliver free childcare for two-year-olds for the first time in our city's history. Too many families have been forced to reckon with impossible choices as they wonder how they will be able to afford the most joyful moment in their lives - the arrival of a child. When we expanded childcare access, we began in places like Brownsville - because we want these resources to reach those who need it most. We have fought for those New Yorkers to be able to stay in their homes with the creation of a new Office of Deed Theft Prevention - because the promise of dignity and stability that a home accords should not be so easily broken.
Black New Yorkers have had to work so hard to build generational wealth. We will not sit idly by and watch as it is stolen. We have fought for the New Yorkers targeted by the tax lien sale, so often forced out of this city by a predatory system that publishes the names of homeowners behind on their bills and prompts debt collectors to arrive at their doors. We have made the decision to pause the tax lien sale for six months because there are far better and more equitable paths towards stability.
We have strived to use the power that government holds to improve the city that New Yorkers live in. We have paved more than 130,000 potholes, taken down thousands of feet of scaffolding, and will replace more than 6,700 catch basins. And we have worked to keep New Yorkers safe in our city - because you cannot walk worthy if you cannot walk safely. Since taking office, murders have hit record lows. We have taken more than 1,000 guns off our streets. The NYPD and our crisis management system have worked together to put us on pace for the lowest levels of shootings in our history. And yet I know that too many in this room are in mourning - that too many of your congregations sit heavy with grief, that too many of your communities have holes in the shape of young lives cruelly robbed by the scourge of gun violence.
The progress we have achieved is only a reminder of how much more there is to be done - and how the crises of gun violence and mental health demand renewed ambition and commitment. We intend to deliver that with our new Office of Community Safety - and we intend to deliver it by working with each of you. And as we witness federal attacks on the right to the franchise, as those with great power seek to undo the progress won by the titans of the Civil Rights Movement, who marched in the rain, who marched alone, who marched even when set upon by fire hoses and those wielding billy clubs, we will chart a different course. We will ensure that our city remains a place where every New Yorker has a voice - where democracy is strengthened and expanded, not weakened and eroded. I will close with this.
Here today, I feel a great sense of responsibility - the same that I know you feel each day. It is not just the responsibility of leadership. It is not just the responsibility of fulfilling the trust that New Yorkers have placed in each of us. It is the responsibility of walking worthy of those who look to us for guidance, and it is the responsibility of walking worthy of the great New Yorkers who came before - and the visions they held for our city.
One of those men was Reverend Doctor Gardner Taylor. In moments where the path ahead feels daunting, or the obstacles impossible to overcome, I think of a sermon he gave. He said: "One day, the things that plague us will be no more and we shall walk in the glorious freedom of the Sons of God. I look for that day - when sickness and sorrow and pain will be felt and feared no more. I look for that day when men's dislikes will be behind them. I look for that day when all of God's children will walk together."
Let us look for and deliver that day, together. Let us make it easier to believe, together. Let us walk together, my friends - and let us walk worthy of this city we are so fortunate to serve. Thank you.
