Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks And Cuts Ceremonial Ribbon At Grand Opening Of Civic Hall Technology Hub

November 1, 2023

Andrew Kimball, President and CEO, NYC Economic Development Corporation: Good morning. Good morning, everybody. I mean, what a crowd, what a building, what an organization Civic Hall is, a truly unique, public/private and community partnership. My name is Andrew Kimball. I'm president and CEO of New York City's Economic Development Corporation, also known as EDC.

To start, I want to thank our partners in city government, Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer, Councilmembers Carlina Rivera, Gale Brewer and Amanda Farías, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Assemblymember Deborah Glick as well as our extraordinary partners at The Fedcap Group, particularly Christine McMahon and Jim Malatras, and Robert Levine and his team at RAL who built this unbelievable 27,0000 square foot building of which 90,000 is Civic Hall and the rest is packed with thriving tech companies that are making New York's economy stronger.

Before I introduce our special guests, the mayor and the deputy mayor, I want to ask everybody to come forward so we can officially cut the ribbon on this building.

Okay, if I can ask everybody to hop back in their seats, we're going to keep rolling here. The Adams Administration is committed to working on new approaches to economic development, bringing together industry, education, employment and private investment all in one space while creating career pathways for New Yorkers to enter the rapidly growing tech industry.

To build an equitable and more inclusive economy, at EDC we support high growth, high wage industries and sectors that will strengthen our economy today and communities in the future. As New York surpasses pre-pandemic employment numbers— surpasses— we’re at an all time record high to now, because of the leadership right here. Our tech sector is strong and resilient, employing over 350,000 people, ranked number two in the world.

But we all know there is significant work to ensure that all New Yorkers have opportunities to participate in these high growth, high wage sectors. While 20.8 percent of New York City's tech workforce is Black and Latinx— a far more diverse workforce than our competitors— we all know we have a long way to go to ensure that this sector truly reflects the full diversity of our city and that today's diverse workforce becomes tomorrow's diverse entrepreneurs and business owners.

That's why we're so excited about the official opening of Civic Hall at Union Square, a critical hub for digital skills training, offering cutting edge innovation, collaboration and educational trainings to every New Yorker regardless of background or skill level to find economic opportunity in the tech ecosystem.

In collaboration with high impact tenants and leading training providers including LaGuardia Community College and the Data School New York, this cutting edge facility will offer best in class tech training programs and courses. Civic Hall ensures that all New Yorkers can receive the resources they need to overcome systematic barriers and achieve their full potential and seize opportunities presented by tech.

Now, I've had the chance to collaborate with Eric Adams for nearly 20 plus years, first as state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president when I led the redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in industry city. And this is a man who cares deeply about economic development, public/private partnerships while creating career pathways for New Yorkers. Ladies and gentlemen, the Get Stuff Done Mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. And just an amazing team of people. I'm just such a fan of Andrew and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer. They are just really pushing the envelope on what we could do in the city. And the team tells me often that the entire Internet stratosphere just continuously looks at how we are embracing tech in this city and leading from the front.

We were together a few weeks ago at an event that was held by one of our banks, and I shared the story that I want to continue to share all the time, the significance of this moment of, you know, being a seven[th] child, family's from Alabama. You know, every once in a while I like to go down there and play the role of being a farmer. And I was down there one year and the tractor broke down, and I had to move hay to one side of the farm to the next side— we have several acres of land there.

And when it broke down, I hooked up a motorcycle to the back of the wagon to do so; and when I finished the task, I realize I learned it from being in Cambodia. They use these things called tuk tuks because they don't have a lot of cars. And so I was able to learn something new.

And so today, Civic Hall, which I like to believe is Andrew's baby. You've been giving birth to this for a while, brother. You delivered today, you know?

You know, going through labor, you know, just breathe [breathes in and out quickly]. [Laughter.]

But the greatest moment about this day is not the technology, this is a Karate Kid moment: you know, he thought he was washing the car but he was learning karate. This moment is going to compel us to bring our culture, our ways of doing things, the diversity, it's going to allow us to come in a space and cross pollinate not only ideas how to solve global problems but how do we once again start to communicate to each other as human beings.

We've allowed this division, and this city with all of its diversity, we don't know each other in a manner in which we should know each other. We don't know about mosques and synagogues and Baptist churches and Buddhist temples, and why someone wears a hijab, a yarmulke, a kufi, our Sikh community.

It is going to compel us to say, here's a problem in front of us, and how do we bring all the uniqueness from our different cultures to solve that problem? Because if you have companies and problem solvers and the people look the same, talk the same, walk the same, eat the same food and listen to the same music and do the same things, you are not being a leader of today and of tomorrow. Leaders of today and tomorrow must have the diversity of cultures to solve a problem. You can't be a MetroCard problem solver in a passport universe.

That is what Civic Hall is about. People are going to come from all over. That was Andrew's vision. Andrew knew that we had great minds outside of this city and beyond and in communities that have historically been denied access to ways of solving problems.

Real problems: how do we diagnose dyslexia early? How do we do vertical farming using technology in housing projects and rooftops with solar panels? How do we train people for the jobs of the future? How do we use technology for people just to talk to each other in a real way? Right here we are going to be solving the problems of not only the future but of today.

I'm excited about Civic Hall, and it falls in line with this working people agenda that we are talking about: everyday New Yorkers having an opportunity to appreciate and enjoy this amazing city.

UNGA was here, the UN General Assembly was here, and I would sit in a room and watch world leaders and mayors from across the globe all debate about what city is at number two or number three. And then they would look over to me with a smile on their face. They said, we are not even going to try to say what is number one.

New York is the number one city on the globe, and we are able to get things done in a real way.

But we've been like a racehorse. People were holding us back. We wanted to be let go and free to be adventurous. We were so ashamed of, what happens if we fail, what happens if we don't get it right. We've been so fearful of saying, well, what if people laugh at us? What if we drop the ball?

In this administration it's a culture of failure, failing when you know that that's the first act in learning something. Nothing great happens if you didn't have any failures. You show me a person that never failed and I'm going to show you a person that never succeeded at anything.

That is what we must infuse in this city: our eagerness, our excitement. We must embrace the opportunities and how we look at this city. This is the laboratory for the entire country. If you do it here, it cascades throughout the entire globe. These civic halls are going to be popping up all over the globe because of what Andrew did, planting that seed, watering it with his vision, his opportunity, his get stuff done attitude.

I'm so proud. He was so helpful during our administration while we were running for office, and to see this vision and this dream come to life on his day, giving birth to his baby, and everyone who was in the room with you. Congratulations to you, brother. You have done an amazing job.

I wish you so much success. Thank you very much.

[...]

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: What an incredible room. I am so happy to be here. You know, the team at City Hall led by the mayor, we go to a lot of events, right?  And they're all great. But I have to say there's something really special about this one.

There's something special about this as a stop on our Working People's Tour, as the mayor mentioned, because it represents not just why we exceeded the 4.71 million jobs record, but it also represents the road that we have to travel together in the weeks and years ahead, because the promise of this site is that it will be really that microcosm of all not just what the tech ecosystem in the city can be, but really how we're going to propel this city forward. And so I'm just so incredibly, incredibly grateful to be here.

We know that right under this roof, Civic Hall will play a pivotal role in the growth and enrichment of our tech ecosystem, and that has been one that, as Andrew mentioned, has been growing very rapidly over the course of the last couple of decades. From 2017 to 2022, we saw an almost 30 percent increase in the number of jobs, and there are more than 1,200 venture capital firms located right here in New York City, some of the world's most respected right here even in this building.

But this is also a story of perseverance, and everyone in this room has played a part in making this particular project happen. For me, as Andrew mentioned, it's also very personal. Back when I was at EDC in 2015, the RFP for this site — the former PC Richards site — we put out. And at the time — it seems like such a long time ago, but even at the time — we knew that this site could have a really special place in the economic history of the city.

We knew that it could be a transformational opportunity to reinvent the site, capitalize on the rich academic and transit advantages of this neighborhood, and it could be a place for all New Yorkers from all backgrounds can really come to learn, to work, and to network together.

And so one of my last acts when I was EDC president was to designate this site to the development of RAL and Civic Hall. And most of our decisions turn out to be good ones, but this one, obviously, turned out to be a really, really tremendous one. And it's gratifying to be here to see it come to reality, see the hard work of so many partners in government, in the private sector and the not for profit sector really bear fruit.

But there is one person in particular I do want to shout out, because you can put out a really good RFP and even make a pretty good designation decision, but those projects don't actually come to fruition, days like this don't actually materialize, unless you have a partner or a set of partners on the other end who have a real belief that it can happen.

And despite all of the odds, all of the obstacles, all the naysayers, really keep moving forward in order to see that vision come to reality. And so I'd just like to take a moment to really recognize and thank my dear friend, [inaudible] Carlina Rivera, of course the leaders at Fedcap and the incredible team at EDC. This is a fantastic day for our city, and I cannot wait to see what will be such a hive of activities in this building representing all that is beautiful and great and promising for our city. Thank you.