00:00I want to say thank you to the community members and child care advocates who have long called for this
00:05project.
00:06And thank you as well to the elected officials who are here alongside me, our Speaker Julie Mennon and our
00:11Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Siegel,
00:14as well as our Community Board 8 Chair Valerie Mason.
00:20For too long, parents across the city have faced a shortage of 3K and pre-K seats in their neighborhood.
00:26The lack of early childhood education centers left families with two bad choices.
00:31Either claim a seat in a neighborhood far away or pay out of pocket for child care.
00:37Upper East Siders have long called for the early childhood resources the neighborhood needs.
00:42And yet year after year, those calls were ignored.
00:46While this building was completed last summer, its classrooms have continued to sit empty for months.
00:52And so while parents were forced to look elsewhere for child care, they would walk past a solution to the
00:57very challenges that they faced,
00:59wondering why its doors remained closed.
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