Governor Cuomo Delivers Remarks at Christian Cultural Center
I know how to make government work. I did it at HUD. I did it when I was governor of the state of New York. I built LaGuardia Airport, JFK Airport, Kosciuszko Bridge, Shirley Chisholm Park, Second Avenue Subway. I passed the state budget on time for 11 years. It's twice the size of the city budget. We passed national firsts.
- Andrew Cuomo
Video of remarks here
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for mayor of New York City, joined Reverend A.R. Bernard today at Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, where over 3,000 congregants were in attendance. Governor Cuomo encouraged the congregation to vote in the upcoming election and emphasized his proven experience in government. He spoke about restoring safety, improving housing, addressing mental health, and bringing back jobs to lead New York City out of crisis.
A transcript of remarks is below:
Good morning, church. God is good. All the time.
It's a pleasure to be with the CCC family. Again, thank you very much for giving me a couple of minutes. And it is just a couple of minutes because I spoke to Reverend Bernard before, and he said, “You know, Andrew, don't forget the five-minute rule.”
Five minutes. I said, “I got it, Reverend.” And the Reverend has been a great mentor to me and a spiritual leader, and I like to play with the Reverend once in a while. I said, by the way, what happens if I violate the five-minute rule, Reverend? He said, “Andrew, did I ever talk to you about the concept of eternal damnation?” I said, okay, so I'm gonna speak very quickly today because eternal damnation is above my pay grade.
I'm running for mayor of the City of New York because the city is in trouble. It wasn't my plan. I had done public service, done a lot of jobs, and I was in the private sector. But I think the city's in trouble. And I think it's at a tipping point, and that's why I'm going to run.
I think two things are happening. I think the mayor of the City of New York—we have to understand that that is basically a management job. You have to hire someone who knows how to manage. Fiorello LaGuardia said, “There's no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage,” right? It's about managing, and you can't take a person who's managed five people, ten people, twenty people, and put 'em in charge of a city where you have 300,000 employees.
Second issue is, the Democratic Party has a far-left movement that is really taking over the Democratic Party. They're called the Democratic Socialists. And it is a far-left view, and I don't think it is productive for the Democratic Party, for the city. It's about dismantling the police department, legalizing prostitution, abolishing the jail system, everything free—free transportation, free schools, free food, free everything. And we'll figure out a way to tax the wealthy. All great ideas, but just in practice, it doesn't work.
I want to get the city back to a stable place. I want to get it back to when it was safe, and you could take the subway at night and not worry about whether or not you were gonna get home on time and not worry about whether your child is in trouble walking down the street.
David Dinkins took over New York City—it had a crime problem. He hired more police. I want 5,000 more police, get the number back up—respectful, trained—but make the city streets safe.
We need more affordable housing because the rent is too darn high. I said, darn, Reverend Bernard. And that is about the supply of housing. And that means you have to build more of it. You have to build it faster, which means a competent government that doesn't take six years to approve a permit.
We built LaGuardia Airport in four years. It takes six years to get a permit approved to build an apartment building in New York City. Makes absolutely no sense.
I want to get the homeless, mentally ill out of the subways and off the streets. It is inhumane to leave them there. That has to end.
On the affordable housing, I want to have a community preference so people in the community have a preference for that housing that is being built. Because right now we have government-subsidized gentrification, where we're bringing outsiders into the community in those new units because the people in the community can't afford it.
And I want to bring businesses back to the city because it's about jobs. The best social program is a job. Our young people need jobs, and we need to bring that back to the city.
The bottom line on the election is: who can get the job done? That's the question on election day—who can get the job done?
And I don't do a lot of things in life, but I know how to make government work. I did it at HUD. I did it when I was governor of the state of New York. I built LaGuardia Airport, JFK Airport, Kosciuszko Bridge, Shirley Chisholm Park, Second Avenue Subway. I passed the state budget on time for 11 years. It's twice the size of the city budget. We passed national firsts.
I can't sing. I can't dance. I don't play golf. But I can make the government work. I can turn the city around.
We did it through COVID, which was the greatest challenge we will ever face. If we can do that, we can do this.
You know I can do it—with you—because we did it together before.
Thank you, and God bless you very much.
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