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Let me begin, as I like to do, with all of our announcements of new members of our administration,
by thanking everyone who has helped to put together this administration, starting with
our First Lady – who I don’t see in the room, but I thought was going to be in the
room.
She’s coming from upstairs.
She’s coming from upstairs! There we go. The co-chairs of our transition call, Carl
Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones Austin, our Deputy Mayor Lillian Barrios-Paoli and my Chief of
Staff Laura Santucci. Want to thank them all for the work they did leading to today’s
announcements. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: the vision in staffing up this
administration has been to find extremely effective experienced folks who share the
progressive values of this administration and represent the totality of this city. And
I’ve said from the beginning, I was convinced there was extraordinary talent out there that
wanted to be a part of public service. Every time we get to make these announcements I
think it confirms that view. With the appointment today of Maya Wiley as Counsel to the Mayor,
Emily Lloyd as Commissioner of DEP, and Donna Corrado as Commissioner of DFTA, we’re taking
a major step forward in creating the administration that we envisioned. Maya, Donna, and Emily
are each highly respected leaders in their fields, and each possess the first-hand knowledge
and experience that will make them effective leaders in this administration.
Let’s first talk about Maya Wiley. Maya is known locally and nationally as one of
the fiercest advocates for equality and social justice. And she fits the vision I have for
the role of Counsel to the Mayor, because what I’m looking for in this role is someone
who will constantly reinforce our focus on fighting inequality. And make sure that not
only are the actions of this administration legally sound, but that they are morally sound
as well, and that we stay focused on our goal. Now, Maya has extraordinary experience and
she also has a very particular attribute that makes her knowing and strong, and that is
she is a Brooklynite. In fact, today we have an all-Brooklyn lineup. Maya and Emily currently
in Brooklyn, Donna born and bred Brooklyn – even though your strayed away in recent
years, we still consider you a full Brooklynite. I’ve been told to say Brooklyn’s in the
house, is that what I’m supposed to say? So Brooklyn’s in the house today. Maya will
serve as my chief legal advisor on all matters involving the Mayor’s Office and the staff
of the Mayor’s Office. I’ll expect her to provide counsel on all the day-to-day workings
of the Mayor’s Office, as would be true of any counsel. And she’ll do some of the
roles that one might assume as typical of counsel to the mayor, for example, coordinating
our efforts in terms of judicial nominations. But her role is going to involve a lot more.
It’s going to involve taking on some of the issues that are core to our agenda and
need to be led from City Hall to be effectively achieved, and one example is when it comes
to broadband access. I’ve spoken about this a lot over the last year. This is an area
that Maya has put some serious time and energy into. To have a truly just society means economic
opportunity for all. And in this day and age, that means having access to the totality of
the digital world. In this city today, it’s shocking how uneven broadband access is and
that has tremendous ramifications for the people of this city, in terms of their ability
to prosper, their ability to learn.
It certainly has huge ramifications for the potential growth of our technology sector,
which – as everyone knows – is one of the really exciting and important new elements
of our economy, and one that offers tremendous hope for a more economically fair and just
city. But that can only happen if the sector has the capacity to go, and that will only
happen if we have truly universal access to high-speed internet. To achieve that change
– and you’ll be hearing a lot more from us in the coming weeks on this – is going
to take intensive coordination with a number of city agencies, including DoITT and the
Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning. It’s going to take some forceful work with elements
of the current industries that regulate or – that determine what kind of access we
have, I should say. And wherein, there is a problem. We’ve been open and honest about
it before. Particularly when it comes to Verizon, we have not gotten some of the movement we
expect in terms of broadband access. We want to see more competition than has been existent
in the past. These kinds of efforts are going to involve a lot of different city agencies
but they have to be led forcefully from City Hall. And that’s why it’s something I
want under the purview of the Counsel to the Mayor.
Now as a civil rights attorney with extensive experience advocating on behalf of the poor,
and the marginalized, and the underserved of New York City and beyond, Maya’s commitment
to tackling structural, racial biases and poverty is a thread running through her entire
professional career. In 2002, she founded the Center for Social Inclusion and she is
now the president of the center, she has supported ideas and strategies that promote racial equity,
that create prosperity and opportunity for all. Previously, she served in the Office
of General Counsel at the Open Society Institute. She served as a consultant to the Director
of U.S. Programs before becoming an international advisor on a criminal justice initiative,
which had her based in Cape Town, South Africa. And previously, she served as an Assistant
United States Attorney for the southern district of New York, where she spent three years in
the civil division. So her career is illustrious in legal terms, but equally important to me
is illustrious in terms of taking social values and putting them into action. This has been
what her life has been about, and it animates her work, and that’s exactly what we need
as we face the inequality crisis gripping this city. We need that kind of spirit here
in City Hall. We need that kind of focus on the changes we have to make. And for that
reason, I’m honored to name Maya Wiley as Counsel to the Mayor.
[Applause]
Maya Wiley, Counsel to the Thank you Mr. Mayor. It’s with great humility and with great
excitement that I accept this position. And I wanted to start actually by thanking the
snow for stopping. And for my children’s [inaudible], because I told them they are
absolutely not allowed to lobby me on snow days related to school.
That’s a legal restriction.
That is a legal restriction. We have set up the firewall in the house, I will assure all
New Yorkers. But really I’m extremely excited because this administration and this Mayor
have been so courageous in standing up for every New Yorker in saying that this is going
to be a city that rises together. It’s something that I’ve always cared about, and to be
given this fork in the road – I think is the way you termed it in your State of the
Union speech, Mr. Mayor – this fork in the road where the Mayor actually asked me to
make a choice. And the choice was: will you take this fork with me, in order to ensure
that no New Yorker goes without a meal. That no New Yorker goes without a roof over his
or her head. That no child is in school without the ability to learn. And that everyone has
the ability to see a ladder before them. We’re going to add some rungs to that ladder. We’re
going to make sure that everyone climbs it.
Broadband is going to be pillar of that, because we can’t be a twenty-first century city
if our nation’s – if our city’s children actually have to go to McDonald’s to get
online. That can’t happen in this city anymore. And I’m really looking forward to working
with this mayor and this administration to change that. And I want to thank New York
because I’ve always loved this city. My brother’s sitting here with me, and our
earliest days – I just have to say this – our most exciting days would be when my
mother would put us on the train in DC, because my father was up here working. And it was
the best thing because we’d get to come up here and we’d get pretzels off the street.
Like you couldn’t do that in DC, get pretzels off the street. And I had to have it with
the mustard on it. But I will also say that we fell in love with the city as young children.
We’re both here now in Brooklyn, and we remain committed to this city. And I remain
committed to my father’s legacy, because when he was here, he was actually trying to
make sure that no one went without a meal. So I look forward to serving that legacy and
serving you, Mr. Mayor.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
It’s good to know that our street pretzels have led to such social commitment.
[Laughter]
Now, our next appointment is someone who is no stranger to the job that she will take
on, and she’s certainly no stranger to Chirlane and I. Emily Lloyd is someone we have known
for over twenty years and have just the greatest faith in and the greatest respect for. And
when the question of who would be our next environmental protection commissioner came
up, I knew from my point of view there was no one better in New York City – no one
better in this country – to take on the role. The only question is whether we could
tempt Emily back into the service of the people of New York City. And I’m thrilled that
she said yes. Emily served as DEP Commissioner from 2005 to 2009. And she understands, by
definition, this agency as well as anyone understands the enormous role it plays in
our city’s life, even if it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. And that the challenges
have grown with each passing year. Let’s note what DEP is expected to provide and to
achieve each and every day. First of all, assuring the quality of drinking water for
8.4 million people. Ensuring that their air is safe, overseeing – in the case of the
commissioner – a staff of 6,000 to maintain the city’s critical water and sewer infrastructure.
And on top of that, driving key parts of our administration’s sustainability and resilience
initiatives across all five boroughs. New York City, we know the challenges we face.
We also know, in everything we do, we have the potential to be the progressive leader.
In everything we do we have the potential to change the way things are done for the
better. And when it comes to sustainability, we have the potential to be the most sustainable
big city in the world. And DEP is crucial to that work, crucial to creating a greener
and more resilient city. Under Emily’s leadership there will be a focus on investing on infrastructure
upgrades to improve our resiliency and to improve our preparedness in the face of natural
disasters. It will be her role to convene public and private sector leaders to build
upon the successes of PlaNYC. And I often say, there are areas where I disagree with
the Bloomberg administration, there’s areas where I’ve found a lot of agreement and
the desire for a lot of continuity. And PlaNYC is something I believe in. I’m glad we’ll
be using it as a blueprint to start from, as will be the case with the resiliency plan
that was produced after Sandy. And Emily will be charged with continuing our environmental
education efforts to continue to help our residents to understand how they can build
a greener city, and particularly to get our students and young people involved in sustainability
initiatives citywide.
So, I’m announcing today a leader who knows firsthand what it takes to put this city in
the lead nationally in terms of sustainability. She brings her extraordinary expertise and
history with DEP, and her personal passion for protecting our environment and our resources.
As commissioner from 2005 to 2009, she oversaw major progress toward the completion of the
third water tunnel. And she helped to save the city billions of dollars by earning the
city the status as one of only five major cities in the country with high enough quality
drinking water that it does not require filtration. In the last few years, she has served as the
administrator for Prospect Park and the president of the Prospect Park Alliance. A lot of us
here, it’s an organization near and dear to our hearts. It’s a – I can safely say
that Dante and Chiara learned everything that they needed to learn in Prospect Park – in
the playground. Emily’s worked with city officials, business leaders, advocacy groups
to continue the extraordinary work that’s been done in that 150-year-old park to make
it better all the time for its nearly 9 million annual visitors. She also served – and this
was when Chirlane and I had the honor of working with Emily as a commissioner for the New York
City Department of Sanitation from 1992 to 1994. So this is someone who knows New York
City, knows our infrastructure, knows what it takes to protect it. And no one could be
better to help forge the future of the New York City environment and our resiliency in
the face of an ever-changing world. And someone who’s done it all, Emily Lloyd.
[Applause]
Commissioner Emily Lloyd, Department of Environmental Protection: I like the stool, that’s great.
You’ve grown in my estimation.
Thank you so much, that was fabulous. I’d like to say how happy I am to be standing
here today. As the mayor said, I’ve known him and the first lady for a very long time.
During the first Dinkins administration, and then he became my own representative in the
City Council. I lived in his district. He looked after Prospect Park, which is also
in his district. And then I had a real opportunity to work with him when he was in the City Council
and I was at DEP, which was probably the most substantive work we did together. And I thought
that he brought such great intellect and energy and commitment and willingness to work together
every time we sat down, that I have tremendous respect for him. He’s someone who can really
grasp the issues, look for the opportunities and solutions without either demonizing city
agencies or diminishing his advocacy for the way to do things. And I think that’s a very
special kind of ability. I know we share a belief that we must do everything
we can to give all of the city’s residents the very best city services we can. And we
must do it – excuse me – in a way that reduces our negative impact on the environment
and reduces climate change’s negative impact on us. And that we must never lose sight of
the importance of the individuals affected, and our obligation not only to give them good
service, but to help them solve their problems. You will not be surprised to hear that this
mayor has an aggressive agenda. And it includes many things I’m eager to work with, and
I’d like just to mention a couple of them. First, we will strengthen the water supply
infrastructure by continuing work on Water Tunnel 3 and the repairs to the Delaware Aqueduct.
Second, we will work to reduce the impacts of storm water on our residents, businesses
and waterways. Third, we will expand the use of renewable energy, both to our own use at
DEP’s facilities, and by tapping the byproducts of our operations for wider use. And we will
maintain an unwavering focus on helping those still living with the aftermath of Sandy.
This is a time of tremendous challenge and opportunity for New York. With strong leadership,
that is when we are always at our best, and I’m looking forward to getting started right
away. Thank you.
[Applause]
[inaudible] right away. Finally, I had a big choice to make when it came to determining
who would replace the woman who now serves as our deputy mayor for health and human services,
Lilliam Barrios-Paoli. So, this is not a physically true statement, but it is a morally and intellectually
true statement, that she has big shoes to fill. Lilliam is a legend in our city government,
and what she did at DFTA was extraordinary. And so as we’ve considered who could lead
the Department for the Aging, we thought about a couple of things. We thought about the fact
that this city has a growing senior population, with a host of needs and challenges and a
host of possibilities. And we needed someone who really understood the reality the seniors
face today and all of the tools that we could bring to the table to improve their lives.
The fact that this is going to be a very different city in 10 or 20 years, and that we have to
build in advance of that by taking our seniors fully into account. We needed to find someone
who understood the challenges that seniors face day-to-day, whether it’s affordable
housing or access to high-quality healthcare. We needed someone who understood that, for
so many of our seniors, there’s a profound economic they face in an ever more expensive
city.
Almost a quarter of our seniors live at or below the poverty line, even when you include
Social Security benefits. And seniors living on fixed incomes face costs of living that
are amongst the highest in the nation here in New York City. And the previous administration’s
decision to cut rental subsidy programs left many seniors without critical housing support.
So as the senior population continues to grow as the cost of living continues to rise, our
administration is committed to taking aggressive steps to make sure our seniors are protected.
We’re going to support affordable housing for our seniors as part of our plan to create
and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. And we’re going to protect low-income senior
centers – senior citizens, excuse me – against rental rate increases. We’re going to do
all we can to give seniors as many options as possible, including senior centers and
recreation centers that improve their health and wellbeing. And we’re going to support
nursing home transition and assuring that our seniors have access to vital services.
So to do all that – I hope you feel tired already, Donna – to do all that, we needed
someone who really, really understood the senior citizens of this city and how to serve
them. And that person is Dr. Donna Corrado. Donna has dedicated her entire career to expanding
and improving social services for New York City’s most vulnerable residents. She started
her career as a program director for older adult services at Catholic Charities, an organization
that serves more than 400,000 meals to older adults at senior centers and delivers 570,000
meals to homebound elderly clients. She has spent more than 22 years working at Catholic
Charities, helping to expand the services that the organization provides to New York’s
neediest and most sensitive communities. Under Donna’s guidance, Catholic Charities partnered
with DFTA to open an innovative senior center in Brownsville, that features a farmers’
market, and community supported agriculture programs for the centers’ seniors. This
is exactly the kind of effort we want to see a lot more of in our communities. So Donna
has firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing non-profits that provide the services
seniors depend on in this city. She’ll be someone that each and every service provider
can relate to and respect, and she understands how city agencies can best work with grassroots
organization and neighborhood organizations to successfully deliver services for our seniors,
and she’s someone we’ll all depend on to help us figure out the policies we need
to prepare New York City for the future, and for the future of our senior citizens. Welcome
Donna Corrado, as our new DFTA Commissioner.
How audacious to step into the role of Commissioner of the Department for the Aging after Lilliam
Barrios-Paoli. That was very intimidating to me in one sense, and in another sense it
was refreshing, and it was an incentive, because she is leaving the department in good shape,
having already started many of the initiatives that we had all been praying for years, and
I just hope to build on that, and expand on all the wonderful work that you’ve done,
and your cohorts at DFTA, and your deputy commissioners – one of whom is here, Caryn
Resnick.
My passion for working with seniors goes back, as the mayor said, over 22 years ago, when
I was hired at Catholic Charities to run a case management program – one case management
program, then five programs, then 10 programs, and then over the years, overseeing all of
the agency’s vast portfolio of senior services. So, in that sense, I’m well equipped to
step into this role, from the perspective of the provider community, and as you know,
over the years, funding for aging services has diminished on the city level. But, under
this administration, it is a priority, especially given the fact that seniors, one in every
five seniors, lives at or below the level of poverty. My vision for the Department for
the Aging, and I am so audacious to be able to do this, sit here and set policy on minus
day one, because I haven’t actually started –
Just go for it.
– in this role yet. But there you go. My vision includes enhancing the capacity to
provide quality case management by reducing caseloads to more manageable levels, and building
case management capacity, given the enormous waitlist that we have. Really, using the information
Lilliam had the foresight and the brilliance to study case management, and the results
of those studies, I’m told, will be out shortly, or tomorrow. So we can do that really
based on scientific data and knowledge, and find – what are the best ways that we can
provide case management, what’s the best array of services, expand that array of services,
and be more flexible in doing so.
I’m thrilled that I have the opportunity to work across city agencies and, having the
broad knowledge of other human service fields, that we can actually do better work. Because
seniors are homeless. We can do a better job of supporting seniors by having access to
benefits. And every city agency plays a part, because we’re all getting older, so there’s
older homeless people, there are older everything. Everybody is older. So it’s across all the
networks. We’d like to start a citywide campaign to gain access to seniors for benefits,
and for food stamps. Given that 40 percent, only 40 percent of seniors that are eligible
for food stamps actually participate in that program, so there’s more we can do.
We’d like to open new avenues of funding, and better align the DFTA network, the service
network, with the changes that are going on currently in health care. That’s a way to
expand programs, that’s a way to bring new sources of revenue into the DFTA service market,
and we’re looking forward to doing that.
Expanding on the theme of “Every day should be chicken day at the senior centers,” my
friend here –
Can you explain that theme? That is definitely an inside joke.
[Laughter]
That is an inside joke, and the reasoning goes that, when you serve chicken – they
follow chicken, so the more chicken you serve, the better the utilization in the senior centers.
All right. We’ll put that motto on the wall.
So, in that theme, we would like to have, not only a chicken in every senior center,
and a chicken in every pot, but a Masters-level social worker in every senior center across
the city. We’d like to expand the capacity for seniors’ transportation options by bringing
to scale the taxi card program currently being piloted in two boroughs. It’s a tremendous
need for seniors, especially in the outer boroughs, for transportation to medical appointments.
It’s very difficult for them to access Access-a-Ride, which, working with other city agencies, it’s
a need for improvement. But through the taxi voucher program, scaling it up, more seniors
will have access to transportation, and we’ll bring in new revenue to the city. So I look
forward to working on that initiative as well.
The DFTA network knows how to keep seniors in the community for as long as possible.
And as we ride this wave of the aging tsunami, the department’s role will take on an even
greater importance. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve New York City, and to
serve this mayor, and this administration. And I’m ready to start as soon as Catholic
Charities lets me go, which should be any day now, and I look forward to working with
Deputy Mayor Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the staff of DFTA, my advocate friends and colleagues,
to really make senior services stronger, to support the growing number of seniors, and
we’re all going to age, and age in place hopefully, and really to build on the prior
administration’s effort to building an age-friendly New York City. And we hope that seniors continue
to choose to live in New York City and make New York City a place where we can attract
and support all seniors – all 1.4 million seniors, and that number is growing every
day. And I thank you for that opportunity.
Well, I’ve learned a lot already at this press conference, including, well the “chicken
day,” definitely that a revelation, but I was also going to say, the physical intimidation
level of Lilliam Barrios-Paoli. I didn’t realize that she struck fear in the hearts
of people this way. I just thought it was your sparkling personality, I didn’t realize
intimidation was so much a part of it too.
A moment in Spanish.
Tengo el gran honor de anunciar a tres líderes progresistas y efectivos para que dirijan
nuestros esfuerzos para mejorar la vida de las personas mayores, proteger el ambiente
y reducir la desigualdad social.
And with that, we’re going to take questions about these three appointments, so, on topic
only. These three appointments. Yes.
[Reporter] About broadband, [Dewitt?] already says that there’s nearly 100 percent availability
residential, for the city, and the real issue is adoption, which is a complicated task.
What are some of the ways this can be tasked?
Well, I’ll start, and feel free to jump in. Look, I think the practical reality, and
we’ve heard this incessantly from people in neighborhoods all over the city, they don’t
have the access that’s claimed, and we certainly hear this from the tech center as they’re
trying to expand. And we’ve had, as I said, some real issues with Verizon in terms of
keeping their commitments about what they were supposed to provide. So I would say,
based on the information we have, we have a lot more to do, and we believe that the
tools of this city could be used very effectively to truly gain that kind of access for people.
Yeah, thank you for that question. 100 percent penetration depends on what you’re talking
about. So, some people will have very inadequate access to high-speed Internet services despite
the fact that technically, you could look on a map and see that there are providers.
So, I actually don’t think there’s 100 percent penetration in a way that’s meaningful
for people. One of the important things to focus on – in addition to the infrastructure,
and whether the infrastructure itself provides sufficient bandwidth, sufficient data, sufficient
access – is affordability. Because so many people in this city, even if they’re lucky
enough, and many aren’t, but even if they are lucky enough to have access in their neighborhoods,
they can’t actually afford to pay for it. Because if you can’t afford to feed your
family by the end of the month, you can’t afford $75 dollars a month for the broadband
service. And that’s what we have to fix.
[Reporter] Yeah, I was just a little confused about the connection between, kind of the
legal side of Ms. Wiley’s new position, and broadband, how that kind of –
I’m glad you asked that question. Because, look, there’s different facts, if you look
at the histories of Counsel to the Mayor, a lot of different people played the role
in very different ways. It is, of the many positions in city government, it is one of,
that’s most sort of in the eye of beholder. It depends on what the individual mayor is
looking for, it depends on how the individual in the role plays the role. I’ve seen the
Counsel of Mayor, historically, as one that carries the mantle of the Mayor’s Office,
and helps to make things happen, and this is an example. This is the kind of area that
we’re only going to get progress on, if it’s directed from here. And it needs a
convener here, and someone who will drive the agenda. Now, that being said, Maya’s
role will obviously also involve some of the traditional legal counsel type roles, by definition,
on a whole host of issues. When we’re having discussions on policy initiatives, it will
be her role to pass judgment on if they’re legally sound, or if there’s questions that
have to be resolved. It will be her role to work with different agencies to create some
of that quality control, if you will. But I want to emphasize, this is not a narrowly
constructed role. This is very much a policy role, very much a role driving some of the
core pieces of our agenda. Yes.
[Reporter] You spoke about having a Bloomberg-era continuity with Emily Lloyd, Department of
Environmental Protection. In terms of Parks Department, I know you’re a fan of Bloomberg’s
environment policies, are you looking at something similar there as well, in terms of leadership.
Well, as I’ve said many times, we don’t make announcements for any role until we get
to the point of being ready to announce them. I think in the area of parks, I do have some
differences, and I’ve talked about some of the things we have to do to create greater
fairness in terms of support for parks across the five boroughs. And I was critical of the
previous administration in terms of some their approach to parkland, and the disposal of
parkland, for example, in the most recent situation with the soccer stadium. I’ve
been critical of some of the ways that we fund parks, and we want to look for greater
equity in that. So those will be important principles when we get to the point of making
that decision, but when we have an announcement you’ll be the first to know.
[Reporter] What’s the city’s legal authority to help make broadband more affordable?
I’ll start, and then let the lawyer take it up. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m going
to answer the question more from a programmatic level. I think we have tremendous ability
to determine the outcome here. You know, this is a situation where our city’s economy
is being held back, social and economic justice are being held back, because we haven’t
reached this level. Now, if you look – again, I’m being very open about the fact, I’ve
talked about this before – if you look at the franchise agreement that Verizon is working
under, you know, there’s very clear terms there that have not been met. If you look
at the state of competition in this area, it’s greatly lacking, and I think there’s
a history in this city, and in this state, of some very interesting absences of competition
in certain areas. We think we have a lot we can do on that front, with our regulatory
power, with our purchasing power, with our franchise power. So I think we can have a
big impact, but I’ll allow Maya to do what she’ll be doing from now on, and telling
me what the law says.
And the first thing I will say is, the lawyer will never what the law says, without first
doing a full vetting of the law. So I think your question is really appropriate.
[LAUGHTER]
Your question’s a really appropriate one. There are lots of legal issues involved, and
we will be looking at all of them. I think the mayor’s absolutely accurate when he
says, there are lots of levers that the city can pull to ensure access, and we will be
pulling all of them.
[Reporter] Ms. Lloyd mentioned that part of her focus would be dealing with those living
in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Could you go into a little bit more detail on that?
I’ll start, as she comes forward to the step here. We believe there’s a lot that
needs to be done. I’ve said this in my State of the City speech, that for a lot of people,
the effects of Sandy are very immediate and very continuous. The storm is very much still
with them. And that takes on many forms, most especially people trying to get back into
their homes, and needing more support. But we also have an immense amount to do to protect
against the next storm. And we all know that that is not scheduled. It’s not something
we get a lot of warning of. It’s something that we have to be working on right now to
prepare for, and we have to use the federal resources that are coming in effectively,
and we have to get more federal resources, because as we talked about in the budget address,
we’ve not gotten the kind of commitment federally, that we need to really make ourselves
as resilient as we need to be. So all of that is going to frame our decision making. And
then now, over to you, Emily.
Well, I’m not going to add a lot, because until I get to the department and start looking
at it more closely, I don’t know exactly what remains to be done. But I think that
there is, as the mayor said, a lot of finishing out of things that have been begun, and we
want to make sure that everyone who was affected has been helped to the full capability of
the city, drawing on federal and other resources. And then, the other thing is, of course, resiliency.
We face, with climate change, very intense weather events that bring with them storm
water, storm surges from the seas, and very high winds. And we really have to think about
those things, and how we can protect neighborhoods as well as possible, how we can advise, through
zoning and other methods – which would obviously be not my action, but in collaboration with
other departments – how we can help people to not only protect themselves, but to remove
themselves from risk in some cases.
[Reporter] Back to the broadband for a second, is the objective here to try to get free broadband
across the city, to try to drive down the price of broadband, what’s the idea?
I’ll start, and again, I’ll pass to Maya. I think, first of all, we want universal access
to high-speed Internet. We want it to be as cost-efficient as possible. The fact is now,
we’re so far off the mark in a number of neighborhoods, that you can’t – not only
is it not fair to people in terms of their everyday lives, and what they need to access,
educationally, occupationally, etc. – but you can’t really talk about a five-borough
economic plan living out its full potential if this isn’t a part of the firmament. And
one of the things we’ve talked a lot about with the tech sector, and there’s been tremendous
receptivity, is building out the tech sector to be a fully five-borough enterprise. This
is now our second-biggest employment sector. It’s really grown in an amazing fashion,
and we need it to keep growing, but we need it to be something that is a part of every
borough’s economy, and we can’t do that unless there’s very consistent, very universal
broadband access at the best available prices.
So I think the most important answer to your question is, we’re going to have multiple
solutions. There’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all. There’s not going to be one unilateral model.
What we’re going to do is be very creative. We’re going to look at every single way
we can make sure we do exactly what the mayor said, and that means we are not going in with
preconceived notions about what it looks like and how it gets done. We’re going to go
in and look for the ways that it will be effective for each community, for each sector, from
small businesses, homeowners, even Hurricane Sandy rebuilding requires this access. So
we’re not going to go in with preconceived notions. We’re going to work collectively
with a lot of different stakeholders. We’re going to figure out what works, and we’re
probably not going to have a one-size-fits-all. We’re probably going to have multiple models.
Last question, guys.
Last question. Always an interesting question. I have faith in you. Go ahead.
[Reporter] [inaudible] –
Wait, wait, wait. We’re staying on topic. Judges?
That’s off topic.
Well, we can get that one into the next one. We can get that one into the next one. I do
want to honor the notion that we’re staying on topic here. It’s a lovely editorial,
but I do want to honor that notion. OK, on topic. Yes.
[Reporter] You talked about your stance on park partnerships, could you –
I don’t know. You’re a little off topic also. I answered that previous one because
I was in the spirit of answering, but, this is on topic, so parks is not on topic. This
is Department of Environmental Protection, Aging, and Counsel to the Mayor. Last call.
One. Two. Yes.
[Reporter] Ms. Lloyd also talked about renewable energy, can you give me any examples of types
of energy you might be looking into?
Well, let me start and then pass it to Emily. You know, we have tremendous opportunities
here, and first, in the area – by the way – of conservation. One of the things I’m
very excited about, when we announced our housing team, we announced Shola Olatoye as
the new chair of NYCHA, and one of her first priorities is going to look at how we do a
really massive program of energy retrofit in NYCHA, which will not only save a lot of
money, more importantly will be tremendously good for our New York City environment, and
one of our ways of addressing climate change, and I think a great job producer for folks
in NYCHA and beyond. When it comes to alternative energy, I think we have an opportunity through
the funding we’re receiving to address Sandy, and our resiliency efforts, to look for ways
to create more alternative energy options. And by the way, we remember, in the aftermath
of Sandy, one of the most devastating realities was that power was cut off, and
there weren’t locally available sources to compensate. And so as we’re going through
our efforts to rebuild, we want to find ways to create greater energy independence here,
and
that could obviously involve things like solar and wind. So, this is actually an opportunity
moment for us.
Well, I think solar and wind are very important opportunities. One of the wastewater treatment plants is already
in the process of putting in place a solar panel. So one thing I think we want to do
is to be very alert, throughout our system, as to opportunities to install solar and wind.
But the other thing, of course, is that wastewater treatment plants generate a lot of digester
gas, and that is a fuel, if it’s captured and used properly. And I think the goal is
to both look at reusing that to power the wastewater treatment plants, which take quite
a bit of energy, and also
to
see
if
it can
be captured and made available for other uses.
All right. Thank you, everyone.