00:00Before we speak about the Weeksville Heritage Center, I want to share a few words about my recent visit to
00:07the White House.
00:08Yesterday, I did something that I am truly reluctant to do. I left New York City.
00:14I traveled down to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Trump in the Oval Office.
00:19I have said time and again that our city faces an immense affordability crisis.
00:24It is felt by residents here in Weeksville, across Brooklyn, and across the five boroughs of the city that we
00:30all love and call home.
00:31And it is felt whenever New Yorkers try to find a place to live, go grocery shopping, put their kids
00:37in childcare, or even take public transit.
00:40Addressing this crisis was the focus of my meeting with the President.
00:44I proposed working together to build more than 12,000 new homes in our city,
00:49which would be the single largest housing development New York City has seen since 1973.
00:54The President was interested in the idea, and I look forward to the ensuing conversations about how to build more
00:59housing in a city that doesn't have enough of it.
01:02We also discussed the immigration cases I know are front of mind for so many New Yorkers.
01:07I shared my concern with the President about ICE's detention of Columbia student Elmina Agayeva yesterday morning,
01:14as well as the detention of four additional New Yorkers in relation to the university.
01:19Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Yunsayo Chung, and Nika Qurdia.
01:24I ask that their cases be dropped.
01:26I'm grateful that shortly after our meeting, the President called me to inform me that Elmina would be imminently released,
01:33and indeed she was.
01:34Now I want to speak about the reason that we are together today, the Weeksville Heritage Center.
01:40What a gift, truly, it is, to be here with all of you.
01:45Thank you to the String Quartet, if we can have another round of applause for the incredible performance, truly.
01:52For beginning this event on such a celebratory note,
01:55and my deepest gratitude as well goes to Dr. Raymond Codrington and the staff of the Weeksville Heritage Center for
02:01preserving historic Weeksville's remarkable legacy for all of us.
02:10I am struck by the way that this center honors the past while existing firmly in the present and charting
02:17a course for our future.
02:19Whether it's yoga classes or movie screenings, you have created a space for both black joy and black memory.
02:26And I want to say thank you as well to Afiya Atamensa, the Chief Equity Officer of New York City,
02:33from our administration here with us.
02:36Thank you to my former colleague, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker.
02:43Also say thank you to the DDC team members that worked so hard on this project.
02:49That's right.
02:50They should get their props.
02:52I want to say thank you to Woon Lam, to Suzanne Lee Kim, Alexandra Ramos, Anthony Saxon-Joseph.
02:59I also want to say thank you to the Capitol team at the Department of Cultural Affairs with a special,
03:04special shout-out to Victor Meteor,
03:07who shepherded this project from the start.
03:09And to say thank you to our outgoing Commissioner, Lori Cumbo.
03:12And I'm told, I'm also told that Commissioner Cumbo's mother may be in the audience as well.
03:22So we want to say, we want to say thank you to you as well, ma'am.
03:27And at some point we may be joined by the Deputy Brooklyn Borough President, Kim Council.
03:32Now today, we mark the completion of the renovation of the Hunterfly Road Houses,
03:38where black New Yorkers gathered, organized, and raised their families long before the Civil War led to emancipation.
03:46Just 11 years after New York State outlawed slavery,
03:50Stevedore James Weeks bought two lots here in 1838.
03:54At the time, New York had a law that stated all white men were entitled to vote,
03:58but that black men had to own $250 worth of property to do the same.
04:04James Weeks built his own home, and then he built and sold homes to other black people
04:09to recently free slaves along the eastern seaboard.
04:12And in that way, he created a community of voting black landowners.
04:17By 1855, Weeksville was home to more than 500 free black New Yorkers,
04:22sustained by their own shops, schools, nursing home, orphanage, newspapers, and churches.
04:29Weeksville was a sanctuary, as we heard before,
04:32a sanctuary of safety, of dignity, of opportunity,
04:35in the face of injustice and systemic racism.
04:38It was the physical embodiment of black resilience and resourcefulness,
04:42a place where black New Yorkers not only had the vision to imagine something greater,
04:47but the determination to also build it for themselves.
04:49In this center, we see reflected the countless choices that led to the haven that was Weeksville.
04:57It was a choice for James Weeks to build the community that would become a sanctuary for escaped slaves,
05:02to publicize the fact of Weeksville in the south.
05:06Because of that action, 30% of this community, of its residents, were southern-born.
05:12It was a choice to make the Freedman's Torchlight a newspaper that not only delivered the news of the day,
05:18but taught Weeksville's recently freed residents the alphabet,
05:22and doled out educational material on how to live on your own.
05:25It was a choice to ensure the idea of a safe haven was built into Weeksville's very DNA,
05:32so that years after its founding, black New Yorkers again sought safety there from the 1863 New York City draft
05:38riots.
05:39All of these choices allowed Weeksville to become a home for the city's abolitionists,
05:45a place where radical thinkers could exchange ideas.
05:48Here, too, was the birthplace of Dr. McKinney Stewart,
05:50the first female black New Yorker to earn a medical degree.
05:54And yet the story of Weeksville greatness is also a story of greatness that came to a premature end.
06:00Its cemetery was dug up to make way for Eastern Parkway,
06:04its identity as a hub of black sanctuary forgotten.
06:07I am thankful for the work of James Hurley, who rediscovered this site in 1968,
06:13and for Joan Maynard, who led efforts to preserve Weeksville's history.
06:23It is because of them, as well as many others,
06:27that New Yorkers and City Hall can look to Weeksville as a guide,
06:30as we work to build a city where every New Yorker can afford a dignified life.
06:34To deliver that city will not only require the same level of thoughtfulness
06:39that James Weeks and others led with nearly two centuries ago.
06:42It will also demand the same willingness to put working New Yorkers first.
06:47Now, you know that I speak often about the importance of taxing the rich
06:51and ensuring the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations pay their fair share.
06:55In response, I often hear about an imagined exodus such a policy choice would prompt.
07:01After I share the fact that our city is home to more millionaires today
07:05than we were when the state raised taxes on millionaires in 2021,
07:09I then ask about the exodus that we're already facing.
07:12Over the past two decades, more than 200,000 black New Yorkers have left our city.
07:18Because child care costs have become too prohibitive, rent too unaffordable, bus is too slow.
07:23That is a very real, very tangible exodus.
07:26And it is measured in storefronts that sit shuttered,
07:29in neighborhoods that feel more hollow than before,
07:32in schools with fewer students in their classrooms.
07:35We can and will do more to ensure that New York stays home to all those who want to call
07:40it as such.
07:41Like the leaders of Weeksville, we now look to them as an example
07:45for how City Hall can use the fullest extent of our power
07:48to improve black New Yorkers' lives across this city.
07:51Over the coming weeks and months and years,
07:53we will make universal child care a reality for every family in this city.
07:59We will protect homeowners by taking on deed theft
08:02while breaking new ground on affordable housing across our city.
08:06And yes, we will also make the slowest buses in the United States of America.
08:11Fast and free.
08:12As we reflect upon the urgency of this work,
08:15I am reminded of an exhibit that is currently on display here,
08:18In Search of Sugarcane, by Latasha N. Nevada Diggs.
08:23It tells the story of a black woman's slow displacement from her Harlem apartment,
08:27preserving her mementos and memories at an altar,
08:30and in that way, keeping them alive,
08:33creating a space of what she calls sacred time.
08:37Standing in the exhibit, you feel the profound loss of displacement
08:41as well as her refusal to be erased.
08:43It is a story that is all too familiar to many black New Yorkers.
08:46My friends, as we celebrate this incredible day,
08:50and as we celebrate Black History Month here,
08:52let us also recommit ourselves to ensuring
08:55that black history can continue to be written in our city.
08:59And may the memory of Weeksville light our way.
09:02Thank you very much.
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