Transcript: Mayor Adams Launches "Chinatown Connections" Plan to Add New Public Space and Improve Traffic Safety in Chinatown

February 9, 2024

Ya‑Ting Liu, Chief Public Realm Officer: My name is Ya‑Ting Liu, I'm the city's chief public realm officer. And it's an absolute pleasure to be here today. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon than bringing this major public space announcement here right here in Chinatown.

[Speaks in Chinese.]

Vibrant, beautiful, safe public spaces are a necessity, they're not a luxury. Chinatown needs it, Chinatown deserves it; and the Adams Administration, with all of our partners standing here today, will deliver it.

The Chinatown project — the details you will hear from Commissioner Rodriguez in a moment — builds on the incredible work that we have done in this administration to improve public spaces throughout the city. Why? Because it's an essential ingredient to quality of life. Whether you're 9 or 99, whether you live here, work here, or you're visiting New York City, quality public spaces, they draw you in.

They invite you to take respite; and more importantly, they invite you to spend money and support local businesses like the one right here in Chinatown.

So, we are cleaning up the streets, we are taking down scaffolding, we are improving outdoor dining setups so that we can invest also in major transformative public space projects like Chinatown Connections. So, without further ado, I'd love to introduce one of the major leaders and visionaries of this city when it comes to public space projects, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez.

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: Thank you, Ya‑Ting, and it's a great honor to be here. You know, I was born and raised in New York, but I was lucky to spend my last semester in 1992 in Shanghai in Fudan [University], so I was able to see for those five months a great, you know, contribution that Chinese, in this case, Chinese American, made to our great city. But 5,000‑year history.

You know, and that's why for me, I see it. So, it's not only about China, the Chinese American now in the United States about so much history that you as a community represent. Thank you, Ya‑Ting, and thank you for the work of your public realm team and the entire EDC on this project. Let's give Ya‑Ting and EDC a big round of applause.

As Ya‑Ting said, I am Ydanis Rodriguez, New York City DOT commissioner, the first non‑native English‑speaking commissioner, the first commissioner being born and raised in another country, who is here representing the story of so many great New Yorkers that have contributed a lot.

When I look at this neighborhood, I see the story of America from the first Chinese immigrants who opened a cigar shop on Park Row to today where Chinatown is home to the largest Chinese population in the Western Hemisphere. 

These neighborhoods remain an iconic and defining location for New York City, but it has been hit hard over the recent years. Businesses and residents here have lived through 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and Covid‑19 pandemic. And for too long, historic sites like Kimlau Plaza have been neglected and ignored. 

Not anymore under Mayor Eric Adams. Just look around us. We have a chaotic five‑way intersection that causes confusion and endangers drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. And we have constrained public space that doesn't do justice to the history and importance of Chinatown. 

When the mayor came into office two years ago, he had a mission: protect public safety, revitalize the economy and make this city [work] more for hard‑working New Yorkers. Every day, Mayor Eric Adams and his administration is delivering under his vision, and that includes making this city more beautiful, more enjoyable and safer for all New Yorkers.

But in the past, public space across this neighborhood has lacked investment. That ends today. The mayor's vision is helping us to reimagine the streets across New York City, and we are doing it with a new and unprecedented level of community involvement and engagement.

As the mayor announced in his State of the City address a few weeks ago, we are revitalizing the future of this neighborhood with our new initiative, Chinatown Connections, a $56 million joint investment between New York City and New York State that will redesign Park Row, Chatham Square and Kimlau Plaza. This is a bold new vision for the neighborhood, reclaiming a space for people to enjoy the greatest city in the whole world.

We are going to reimagine Kimlau Square with shortening street crossing, more public space, simpler intersections and direct cyclist connections, making our streets safer for all New Yorkers to share.

We are beautifying Park Row, making it easier for New Yorkers and tourists to get from the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge to Chinatown. And we are going to build a new Chinatown welcome gateway that will finally, that will give finally Chinatown the entrance based on the dignity and respect that it deserves, one that commemorates the thousand years of cultural heritage of the Chinatown community and especially of this area. This is how we revitalize our economy, our business districts. It means more room to walk, to bike, to eat [at] our world‑class restaurants here.

It means more room for opportunity. Public space fires up our economy and lead to safer streets for all. And this process will be led by you, the community, at front and center.

This month, the city will convene a community working group with key stakeholders across Chinatown to help guide project design and implementation. So, the project will reflect what the community wants and needs from our city. That's the commitment of Mayor Eric Adams for all residents of Chinatown.

Every Friday, every day, we make this city more livable for the working and middle class New Yorkers who make this city so great. We're getting outdoor dining done. We are taking down ugly scaffolding. We are removing trash bags from our streets, and we have major public realm projects on the way in every single borough. We are reimagining the urban experience for all New Yorkers; and together we are building the Chinatown of tomorrow. Thank you, Ya‑Ting, for your great leadership.

You've been a great partner.

One minute in Spanish. Hoy estamos aquí, junto con Ya-Ting, a nombre del alcalde Eric Adams, asegurándonos que en esta comunidad se entienda que la inversión de 56 millones de dólares, un producto de inversión de la ciudad y del estado, es un dinero que va a venir a esta comunidad a hacer, pues, de esta más segura, más bella, una entrada que les va a dar el respeto y la dignidad que merecen a los residentes de este vecindario. Mejor seguridad para los peatones, para los ciclistas, y apoyando los negocios que tienen restaurantes de primera clase en esta ciudad. Thank you.

Liu: Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. A bold, ambitious project like this requires many partners, and one of the key critical partners in this effort has been New York State, Department of State Secretary Robert Rodriguez.

New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez: Good morning, everyone. I'm Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez, and I'm excited to be back here in Chinatown, and Happy New Year to all of you.

It's an honor to be here with Mayor Adams, with Manhattan Borough President Levine and with the Chinatown partnership, my friends Wellington Chen and Raymond Tsang; and of course, the Chinatown community as well as many legislators who are here that serve with me in state government.

What we're able to do here is really celebrate and build upon the work that has been done since 2021 with the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. In 2021, the governor saw fit to award $20 million to Chinatown to help move forward the revitalization efforts of this community.

Typically, we only give $10 million per community as part of DRI, but we saw so much need and opportunity here in Chinatown coming after 9/11, after Sandy, after Covid, that this was a unique opportunity for us to revitalize a community in their vision, in their way.

When we talk about our Downtown Revitalization Initiative, we put in the community's hands the plan and the vision for the construction and the work that's going to happen; and with that, you came back with 11 projects, including revitalizing Kimlau Square and addressing the gateway and the arch.

One of the things that we knew is that we could get far, but we now have $56 million to help dream bigger and to do the projects in the way that we imagined them to be. And this is, again, not the state or the city coming in and telling you what this project and community should look like. You are in charge of what's going to happen here and what we're going to implement. So, we are very excited to continue to do that work with our partners in the city.

One of the things that we heard loud and clear from everyone during this process is that we want the residents to feel safer. We want to invite visitors back to Chinatown's local restaurants and businesses, and we want to celebrate the local community and culture. This project will allow us to do that, this will allow us to do that and more for this location.

With DRI, we're going to continue the work that we want to do with Smith Houses and the Child Care Center. We're going to continue to do the Chinatown Welcome Center. But here, this is where we're going to make the magic happen. This is where we can see an incredible redesign of the streetscape and the public space. This is where we make the connection from here down to Park Row, reconnecting parts of lower Manhattan with Chinatown.

So, this would not happen if not for the contributions and the support of the Adams administration, of the mayor; and of course, with our partners here in government, Commissioner Rodriguez, who has to actually redesign all the streets and this park space to make this vision happen.

So, I want to thank my staff for all the work that they've had in terms of bringing this project here, I want to thank our partners in government, because one of the things that we recognize is that we don't need to be working separately to help make the best vision for New York City to happen, we can work together.

And that's why we're going to work under one contract with EDC to help make this a reality so it happens faster than it would be if we were working separately. Those sound like the things that are maybe minutia, but we know that those are the things that make projects happen faster, and that's what we want to have happen here in Chinatown.

So, I thank my staff, Deputy Secretary Kisha Santiago and my revitalization specialist, Jeannette Rausch, for all of her hard work in bringing all of the 11 projects including this one into fruition. And of course, to the mayor and the city for doing the heavy lifting and helping to support this investment now and in the future. Thank you.

Liu: Thank you. Thank you, secretary. As a testament to how important and how excited everybody is about this project, you have representatives it from all levels of government here today. Fresh from Washington D.C., Congressman Dan Goldman.

Congressman Dan Goldman: Thank you, Ya‑Ting. It's great to be here with all of you to celebrate what is really the first step in a larger revitalization of this area. I want to thank the mayor, Commissioner Rodriguez, Secretary of State Rodriguez, Andrew Kimball from EDC, who's going to be taking on the lead, all my state colleagues who are here, because our collective goal is to rebuild this neighborhood, to revitalize this neighborhood.

When I came into office a little over a year ago, it was very clear to me from speaking to all the community members that this neighborhood has not had the proper attention that it deserves. And we have all been working together recognizing that, and this is very exciting for a lot of reasons.

First of all, this is a dreadful corner, and it is dangerous. This is public space that can barely be used because there are five different roads coming in here. So, to not only redesign the streetscape as Commissioner Rodriguez will do, but to add a significantly larger public space that is more connected to Chinatown will be a great benefit to the community.

Second, to redo Park Row, make it much more inviting and accessible for pedestrians, is going to connect Chinatown with the Brooklyn Bridge. There are tens of thousands of people who walk across the Brooklyn Bridge every day. Now they will have a straight and welcoming pathway into Chinatown, which will be so important for the economy.

And then third, we need to mark this neighborhood in the way that this historic community deserves. And to be able to put a significant large gateway to welcome everyone to Chinatown is going to be a great addition to this area.

And then finally, I just want to say that this is just the beginning. [Jenny Lowe] is here, and Secretary Rodriguez, the governor has put a lot of money into this area. The mayor and the city have committed to invest a lot to actually get this done.

But this is the beginning. And I look forward to working with my city and state partners on getting federal funding to reconnect some of the communities that are here, because we're not done revitalizing this area. So, I want to thank everybody for all their great work. Borough President Mark Levine has been a great leader, and ‘Xīnnián kuàilè.’

Liu: All right. Thank you, congress member. Next up, we will hear from your state representatives, State Senator Brian Kavanagh.

State Senator Brian Kavanagh: Thank you so much. Thanks, it's great to be here. And so much has been said by Ya‑Ting and Ydanis and Robert and our very hearty congress member and transportation commissioner who doesn't seem to need a jacket on a damp, cold morning.

But, I won't, you know, so much has been said about why this project is important. I just want to say that, you know, revitalizing space like this takes a lot of us working at very different levels in very different ways. It obviously takes the large amount of funding that this is going to take.

This community advocated for and received the largest ever downtown revitalization initiative grant: these are usually $10 million grants, this was a $20 million grant. And that is the thing that has allowed this community to think about many different projects and really think broadly. 

It also, of course, takes the partnership, the city coming in with funding but also a willingness to put the pieces together, put the agencies together and make sure, as the commissioner and Robert said, to make sure that the mechanism is in place to actually move quickly and decisively. 

But also, this is a crowded space, this is an iconic space. You know, our congressmember did some truth telling about its current condition. But it takes a lot of work for a community like this to come together and get to a consensus, get to a vision. That work is going to continue. 

But I want to really thank all of the people from this community that have worked so hard to conceptualize what is going to happen with the DRI money who are committed to continuing to work together to make sure that this space really achieves its potential. 

And you know, it's been mentioned a couple times, but a lot of this is about, you know, improving conditions right here in Chinatown. A lot of it is about connecting this community with the other iconic, wonderful spaces we have nearby, making sure that tourists and visitors understand that there's an easy way to sort of flow from maybe visiting the Brooklyn Bridge or some other things and moving right into Chinatown and enjoying dinner and commerce and the wonderful cultural attractions of Chinatown.

So, again, it's a great pleasure to be here. This is a great day for this community. Thank you very much. 

Liu: Thank you, senator. Next up, your state assemblymember, Grace Lee.

State Assemblymember Grace Lee: Good morning, everyone. I want to wish everyone a happy new year. ‘Xīnnián kuàilè.’ I want to thank Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul, and for all of my government partners for bringing this vital project to our Chinatown community. Chinatown is one of the oldest, most historic neighborhoods in our city and state, and it represents the first footprints of the Asian diaspora to the United States.

But despite this legacy and the many contributions of the Chinese American community to our city and state, this area has been underfunded and overlooked. The launch of Chinatown Connections is recognition of the many challenges our community currently faces, including struggling businesses, reduced tourism, the inability for pedestrians even to cross the street, and a lack of access to open green spaces. I look forward to seeing the revitalized spaces in this neighborhood and the positive impact that it will have on residents in the community.

Once again, I want to thank everyone in city and state government for taking this step to recognize the value and the importance of the Asian American community, and I look forward to helping to uplift the community and having a positive impact for all of them across the city and state. Thank you. 

Liu: All right. Thank you, assemblymember. Thank you, assemblymember. When we talk about the realm, I say we need a lot of public realm avengers to make beautiful things happen in New York City. And one of the key partners and a key public realm avenger is your Manhattan Borough President, Mark Levine.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine: Avenger? Wow, I hope somebody got that on video. Going to be my new meme. [Speaking in Cantonese] Are there no Cantonese speakers here? Come on! ‘Gong Hei Fat Choi.’ ‘Xīnnián kuàilè’ All right, the rest of this speech will be in Yiddish.

Welcome to Kimlau Square, a place that honors Lieutenant Kimlau and many other heroic Chinese Americans who served our country in the armed forces. And when this memorial was created in 1961, it really converted this into a sacred space for Chinatown and for New York City, but it has never had the setting that it deserves, as you can see looking around.

We finally have a chance to fix that. We're going to fix that. This is going to become a grand gateway to what is the best Chinatown in North America. I am sorry, Flushing. That's number two. And I'm very, very grateful for what the mayor and the administration are investing in this project, but I am extremely proud of what the state‑funded and community‑led Downtown Revitalization Initiative did here.

Over a hundred projects were recommended, a community‑driven process which collectively decided to put more money here than all the other projects combined: five million for the reconstruction of Kimlau Square, four million for the revitalization of Park Row, and two and a half million to create the first Chinatown Arch in New York City. We're going to do this.

And collectively, what these projects will do, tying in to this great new public park that we're building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Anyone heard of Gotham Park? Yes, you have. It's going to be a magnet to draw some of the 30,000 people who are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge every day who currently have no idea that they're five minutes from Chinatown. They're going to be drawn into a great park, and a Park Row that has visual continuity and design continuity into a grand square with the memorial to our heroes of the country's history and a Chinatown arch.

I mean, this is going to become a great destination for New Yorkers. It's going to become the Columbus Circle of Lower Manhattan, and it's all because of you. Congratulations. Amazing job. [Speaking in Mandarin.] Thank you.

Liu: All right. Before I turn it over to some of the community stakeholders to say a few words, I just want to also acknowledge some of the elected officials who joined us with here today. We have State Assemblymember Lester Chang and we also have State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar who is with us here today, too.

I also want to give a quick shout out to our city agencies. You already got the memo. It's a lot of, you know, it takes a whole village to make this happen. So, again, New York City Economic Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball, his a credible team, Jennifer Sun and Gigi Lee, and also New York City Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue and her team here.

The community groups that are here as well, there's so many of you that have showed up tirelessly to the public meetings during the DRI process and that are here with us today. We look so forward to working with you to advance all of these projects and plans. 

And so without further ado, I'd love to introduce a key community leader and voice in helping us pull this vision together, Wellington Chen of the Chinatown partnership.

Wellington Chen, Executive Director, Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation: Good morning, everyone. What a great way to begin the new year. And I can't thank enough what a giant red envelope this is: $56 million, for God's sake. Let's give all of yourselves a round of applause, because this is truly no better way to begin a new year.

And I cannot thank, you know, I worked so hard with so many of you over the years, and this is truly a dream come true, not only to pay the proper respect for Lieutenant Kimlau, the American Legion who all paid their ultimate respect here, but as the commissioner said correctly and said, this is going to create ample opportunity. 

It's going to create new space, make it safer, make connections. And I thought there's one missing marker that we should put down here, and that is John Lennon's Imagine: this is truly the moment I encourage the community to really imagine a greater future. 

You may not realize this, mark my words: this is an historic moment that's going to go down in history. And I have always planned to have a fortune cookie fortune rising on that wall when you have a giant Columbus Circle of the future where Second Avenue opens here. And I look forward to working with all of you. Again, kudos to yourself. Happy New Year, everyone. 

Liu: All right, Wellington! Thank you, Wellington.  Another key community leader and partner whose feedback, whose ideas, whose engagement have been critical to the success of this project, Raymond Tsang of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. 

Raymond Tsang, President, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association: Hi. Good morning. On behalf of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, it's my honor to stand here today with the representatives of both Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul and all our elected officials. 

This Chinatown Connections Project is such an important project for our revitalization. I don't even have too many words to say, because they already described why we need it, but it's my honor to stand here. Since CCBA has been founded in 1883, we've been advocating for this community, and this is the kind of thing we need for our community to recover. 

We're still on our recovery stages post Covid, and nothing's ever been the same. And hopefully this project, Chinatown Connections, will bring about the change that is needed for our community to finally revitalize, to bring in more tourists, to bring in even the people that have been living at home unwilling to come out, to come check out this new public space that we will have. 

So, once again I just wanted to thank everyone that's involved in this project. It's definitely not possible without the support from all our local electeds as well as everyone from city and state being involved. So, thank you. 

Liu: All right. Thank you, Raymond. Thank you, Raymond. And last but certainly not least, our public realm avenger in chief, Mayor Eric Adams. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. And really want to thank our partners, they just continue to show how our partners in this state, headed by our governor, and our amazing elected officials who are here, state representatives who are here, how we come together to just really reclaim the narrative of what we always focused on: public space, public safety and making the city livable for everyone. 

And this is a real coming‑home moment for me. As a rookie police officer, I was assigned to this area in the Transit Police Department, and I always noticed the energy and spirit of the residents who are here and how this is a largest reflection and representation of the Chinese experience in the Western Hemisphere. 

This is so important. When you look at for so many years this community has been impacted from superstorms to Covid‑19, the businesses were harmed in a very real way, to the various crime patterns that impacted the city, that devastated this community. 

So, for the governor to join us in making this multimillion‑dollar investment to revitalize the economy. Open space means open business. It brings tourists, it brings visitors, and it brings dollar bills. We want people to spend money in this community. 

So, Ya‑Ting, job well done, you know, for really understanding… You know, and you are rocking that coat. 

You know, job well done. As we continue to look citywide, how do we reclaim our spaces? You look at these beautiful plazas and what they have to offer. It's just been open spaces, and what Ya‑Ting is doing with the commissioner, Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, is just really looking over the city, and state how do we finally reclaim these spaces, these spaces where we can sit down, these spaces where we can come together and just really reconnect with our society. 

We have found throughout the years from highways to intersections to roadways, we've divided the community in a real way. We're bringing the community back together. We look at the skate park that we are bringing back. The community residents who met with me and sat down and just stated they wanted a mayor that was going to listen, that was going to hear, that was going to do a walkthrough and use your taxpayer dollars to reinvest in the community. 

So, I'm happy to be here. I'm proud to be here. This is a major milestone for this community, a community that is really part of the bedrock of what makes New York City the great diversity capital of the entire globe. Job well done to all our partners. Thank you so much. And it's so good to see you here, Congressman, you know, for your assistance in this as well. Thank you very much. 

Liu: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. 

Question: Hi. This might be for the DOT commissioner. You mentioned the traffic, the intersections being straightened out. How do you anticipate this affecting traffic in the area, like more traffic, less traffic? And secondly, is part of the plan to reopen Park Row to car traffic?

Commissioner Rodriguez: Well, first of all, as Mayor Adams has said, and under his administration, this is the first mayor that have include the data on crashes as part of the NYPD report, because the mayor has said traffic violence is equal to any type of violence. So, definitely as we will work with the other agency improving safety, this area is going to be one of the top priority.

Question: How about Park Row?

Commissioner Rodriguez: Well, this is part of what we made, as I said from the beginning, we wi;; hear from the community. Park Row is part of, in this administration led by the mayor, you know, that we are inviting. There's going to be a community front and center. The community [inaudible] have been bringing a lot of suggestions about Park Row, and this will be included as we start the community engagement process.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I was just wondering if you could provide a breakdown of the city money on this whole project. How much for the arch? How much for something else? And also there are already some debates going on in the community about all the projects, especially the arch. So, I was wondering, how would you ensure every decision can reflect the majority's perspective? And also, if there's no consensus, will DOT pull back from the arch again. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: This is New York, 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. This is life in New York City. You know, that's the excitement of this city. You're always going to have different perspectives, different beliefs. You sit down, you convene as many stakeholders as possible, and then you make the ultimate decision. You can't be afraid after hearing all the voices to determine what's best for the city as a whole. And the loudest is not the majority. I've learned that. It's about, how do we move forward? 

And I think that we can land this plane together. The partnership is there. There's been a countless number of conversations and discussions, including the Park Row conversation. Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, we did a walkthrough the other day. That area is going to be beautified. It's going to be inviting for this community into Chinatown. So, we're really excited about the remaking of this community that has been disconnected. 

And you know, there are those that want to stay in a very nostalgic way to remain the way it is now, but that's not going to happen. We're moving forward. We're excited about it. Who can give us the dollar amount?

Jennifer Sun, Executive Vice President, Planning Division, New York City Economic Development Corporation: Good morning, everyone. I'm Jennifer Sun, I am executive vice president of the Planning Division at EDC. So, in terms of the funding breakdown, the city is contributing, and specifically the City Department of Transportation, $44 and a half million, and then there is state funding that is a part of the $56 million. That state funding breakdown is $2 and a half million for the welcome gateway, $4 million for Park Row improvements and $5 million for the Kimlau redesign.

What makes the gateway for Chinatown here in Manhattan different from other Chinatown arch projects in the past are a couple of things. One, it came out of a very different process led initially by the state. So, it was something that advocates from this community really advocated for being a part of this project.

Second, we are going to work very closely with the Chinatown BID and partnership to make sure that we are putting systems and protections in place to make sure that when individuals or organizations are donating to the gateway, they understand what they are donating for, for the design, construction and maintenance of the gateway; and that they understand that when they're making that donation, it is for that use only.

And then we'll also talk about having a third party escrow agent, for example, support the Chinatown BID and partnership in providing oversight to make sure that those funds are protected before they're transferred to the city for the gateway.

Question: [Inaudible] talked about some of impacts on Chinatown, Covid and climate change. There's also the Chinatown jail, there's a proposal for a shelter down on Broadway. There's other, I understand that these are in parallel, but what are you or the other elected officials, how do you see these two projects or the impacts of those being mitigated by this or what's your position on those two projects?

Mayor Adams: And we are still very much in, you know, serious conversations. You know, the City Council passed a law on the jail. We have to abide by the law that is put in place. You know, we're not going to go against the law. But I'm hoping that they have a real reflection on this should be part of our overall revitalization of Chinatown.

And you know, there's two sides of the houses in the City Hall, and one is the City Council's, one is the Executive Branch, the Mayor's Office. And so we are willing to listen to the voices of this community and engage with our partners in the City Council to make sure that we have a complete revitalization of this beautiful community and what it has to offer our city.

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: So, why do we have to fundraise [inaudible]. Why isn't there funding included already for construction of the arch.

Mayor Adams: I think that all, many projects we do in this city, like even in Fifth Avenue redevelopment, which is an international destination, there's some private dollars that are being put in place. That's the combination of private dollars, governmental dollars, city, state, federal dollars. That's how we get these major projects carried over and moved over the finish line.

There's nothing unique about doing that. That's the best way to do it. And we all have to get engaged. When we all invest, we all can do our best and make it happen. Thanks a lot. It's great to be here.