00:01Thank you to the Mornings Heights Coalition. They've done a tremendous amount of work in making sure that government listens
00:13to the community. That's what it's all about.
00:16Thank you for this investment, which is, I think, as the chairman put it, in preparation of a major change,
00:28of a major transportation hub waiting to come uptown that will connect.
00:34You will no longer have to go down to Times Square to connect to the east side. You will be
00:41able to do it in the future right here, connecting to the Lexington Avenue line, the 2nd Avenue subway, and,
00:50of course, future water transportation, both in the Hudson and in the Harlem River.
00:55Fast bus service to the airports, connecting to Metro North, going all the way up to Connecticut and other counties
01:04outside of New York City.
01:05This is going to be truly a major, a major transportation revolution right here in Harlem on 125th Street.
01:14And this will change the formula. This will bring foot traffic to local businesses. This will bring greater investment in
01:24the community.
01:24And it starts by making this subway station truly accessible.
01:30And thank you for also making 137th Street fully accessible with two elevators.
01:38We are fighting the administration in Washington to release $150 million so that we can make a couple of stations
01:48in Kingsbridge accessible.
01:51Of course, we've got a number of stations further uptown that are accessible.
01:57181st Street, the number one line, one of the deepest stations in the city, next to 181st Street, remains to
02:07be accessible from the street down to the platform.
02:11We need to build an elevator there. But this is a major, major accomplishment, and I want to thank everybody
02:18involved for doing this.
02:19Last week, Senator Gillibrand, Schumer, myself, Ocasio-Cortez, and Richie Torres sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation Duffy
02:30about withholding funding for additional accessibility projects.
02:36I plan to talk to the Secretary in his upcoming appearance in the House Appropriations Committee, where I sit.
02:44And so this is important, not just for accessibility, obviously, greatly important for that.
02:50But this is important for the future economics of northern Manhattan, for it to be competitive with the rest of
02:59the city and the borough.
03:01And it will bring about major, major, major positive change, not just with these elevator service and accessibility programs, but
03:11also transportation as a whole.
03:14Second Avenue subway, which the MTA was successful in the courts just a couple of weeks back to making sure
03:22that the money continues to flow in, will connect Harlem to the rest of the world.
03:27And it will mobilize hundreds of thousands of strap hangers and reduce the most congestion, the most congested subway line
03:36in the country, the Lexington Avenue line.
03:39So these are major transformations for northern Manhattan.
03:43I am proud to be a part of it.
03:45I want to thank my partners in government, Senator Clear, Assemblyman Wright, of course, Councilmember Sean Abreu, who now sits
03:55in the Transportation Committee.
03:57So I gather that Gano will have to go visit him every once in a while.
04:03And, of course, Michael Lasher, our former President, Hallman, who is all about him.
04:10I want to meet, of course, our controller, who takes care of our pension plan.
04:14And all of them.
04:16Gracias a todos por esta iniciativa.
04:19Le va a proveer accesibilidad a personas con problemas de movilidad.
04:24Y también va a conectar esta gran estación de tren en el futuro con el tren de la segunda avenida,
04:31transportación a través de los ríos y también el Metro Nord.
04:36Muchas gracias.
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