 Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on this celebratory morning. I know it's a little bit of a rainy morning, but it's also an historic morning. My name is Maria Torres Springer. I'm the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce, thanks to all of the partners who are here celebrating this incredible moment in the city's history. Before I get started, please join me in giving a round of applause for the Danny Mix and Trio. You are amazing. Thank you. What a great way to start the day. I also want to thank our generous hosts, the owners of this amazing building, Penn One, so much investment in this building, such a rebirth of this building, and really emblematic of the rebirth that is going on all across our city, which we will talk about. I want to thank all of the partners who are here with us today. Leaders across government, leaders in business, in labor, in the not-for-profit sectors, and so many other sectors that we are here today is because of all of you. So a round of applause, please, for all of our partners. Before I turn it over to the mayor, I wanted to take a minute to set the stage. Now, we all remember the headlines, right, during the height of the pandemic. Headlines that declared that New York City was dead, that it was doomed. And then Mayor Eric Adams took office, and he had a very different headline in mind. One headline that would say that New York City will come back stronger than ever, that we would rebuild, renew, and reinvent, and given the jobs day that we just got yesterday, that's exactly what we did. Crime is down, jobs are up, and it's a five-borrow recovery due to the investments across every neighborhood. In Queens, we are building affordable housing and a new world-class soccer stadium. In the Bronx, the Kingsbridge Armory will become an economic engine in a borough that has long been under-invested in. Just a couple of days ago, we announced a new life sciences biohub right here in Manhattan, which will strengthen our position as a global leader for life sciences. In Brooklyn's Broadway Junction, we'll bring about half a billion dollars of improvements in the public realm and in transit. Staten Island in the North Shore Action Plan, that'll include another half billion in investments to parks, jobs, and new homes. Now, have we accomplished everything we wanted? Is our job done? Of course not. And it won't be until we have created economic opportunities for every New Yorker. But we stand here today with a very clear message that the future of New York City is bright. It is bright for workers, for small businesses, and for global companies. It's bright for the student from Queens, for the tech startup founder from the Bronx. It's bright for the construction worker from Brooklyn. It's bright for every New Yorker across the five boroughs. And so, how did we get here? Now, our city has a mayor who simply refuses to quit, who pushes us to do better, who expects us to go bigger. The story of our city's economic recovery would be really different without him. And as a New Yorker, I am just so grateful that he is at the helm. And so, it is my pleasure to introduce to all of you the 110th mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Real superstar and deputy mayor, Maria Torres Springer, and my entire leadership team that's here. I tell them all the time, if I were them, I would not work for me, you know? It is, you know, we are driven, our entire team. And you know what I love about the team? They're real New Yorkers. Real gritty, hardworking, take no S New Yorkers. We just, you know how we are as New Yorkers. We are resilient. People thought we were going to crumble during 9-11 when we saw the center of our trade attack and collapse before our eyes. But you know what, 9-12, we got up. And when New Yorkers got up, the country got up and realized that the invincibility of this great city with a spirit in the heart of the entire country, there is no city on the globe like New York City, nowhere else on the globe. All my colleagues across the globe, they debate about the second and third, but they all say we surrender to you, Eric. New York is the only city like it. Now, we printed this sign here. We printed this sign here saying that this was the largest private sector job. Let me change this for a moment. The city, 4.7 million. We have more jobs than cities have people. That's how well we're doing. Think about it, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Bringer was so right. You remember January 1st, 2022? Crime was trending in the wrong direction. No one wanted to be on our subway system. We were hemorrhaging jobs and people were leaving, taking flights to Florida. Well, you know what, they want to be back now. You know, people said that we couldn't turn this around. They said it was going to take two years longer for us to turn this around. Team came in January 1st, 2022, we came into the office at the building at City Hall and sat around the table and say today starts now for New York City Recovery to put us back on the right path. Public safety, subway safety plan we put in place, going after those who needed support and mental health issues on our streets, removing the encampments on our streets. You don't see them anymore. You don't see them in the subway system. We knew we had to bring down crime, partnering with the governor to put in place a real plan to put our police officers in our system and on our street, taking 12,000 guns off our street, driving down shooters, driving down homicides, but doing something else. We've settled almost 87% of our union contracts, given our police officers a salary they deserve, our teachers a salary they deserve, our ferry boat operators a salary they deserve, working class people investing in public spaces and people and in public safety to prerequisite to our prosperity. That is how we came back and you see it every day. I was in Times Square last night at 1 a.m. in the morning. There was so many people out there taking photos and saying there's nothing like New York. 56 million tourists last year, 65 million predicted this year. You're seeing a city that's not just surviving, we're thriving, thriving. And how many of you are basketball fans? Who like basketball? You ever see someone when they're at the goal line getting ready to take a shot and the opposing team is behind the basket, waving all of this stuff to distract you and but if you are so focused and disciplined you don't see all that distraction. This is a focused team. We have to foul line. We're gonna take the shot for New Yorkers and all that distraction that's taking place around us we're not going to allow it to get in the way of the job that we must do. Yes, we're dealing with some issues that we have to face. We know that. We know that we have to deal with the migrant asylum seeker issue. We know that we have to continue to encourage people to come to the city. But this team is so focused. Everyone knows their assignment and the assignment of dealing with one thing is not going to get in the way of dealing with another. And that is how we were able to recover this city in a manner that we did. An amazing team of New Yorkers and our partners in business. Day one, I reached out to corporate America and say the days of us not having a relationship that we're all in it together is those days are over. We sat down with Kathy Wilde from the partnership who has been a constant companion. And we sat down with our restaurant associations and the leaders to say we're going to do this together. We made it easier with Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer looking at how businesses were being interrupted by the bureaucracy, the bolder bureaucracy in government. No one wanted to do business in New York because the agencies were not focused in how we could be business friendly and we changed some of the basic rules so people can navigate government in the easier way to open business here. We infused technology into our city to make sure that we can function at a better city and we found efficiencies even in the most difficult time with our teams. You are just seeing a city that is going to show other cities that cities are manageable. We can deliver. We have a lot to do every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. for the most part. I'm across the street handing out food to our everyday New Yorkers. That moment for me is the most important part of the week because it keeps me rooted. No matter how well we're doing there's still a large number of New Yorkers that believe this new city is not providing for them. When I speak with them on the line it started out as just people who were in homeless shelters. Then I started to see working class New Yorkers who knew that I was going to be there every week to talk with me about the struggles and challenges they have. They fuel me every day. That refueling that I do on Wednesday nights with my New Yorkers who are struggling tells me that we cannot take our feet off the gas. We must remain focused and disciplined. Everyone must succeed as we continue to thrive. So this is a day of celebration but it's also a day of determination. We must be focused to keep moving this city forward. We can't have high unemployment in our black and brown communities. We have to close the gap. We cannot have children growing up in homeless shelters. We cannot have New Yorkers believing our city is not affordable to live in because the rent is too darn high. We have to make sure that we encourage everyone to participate in this prosperity that we are experiencing. So I want to thank Penn One and its partners for hosting us today. This building is an amazing story as well but you think about it as 110th mayor of this great city. We started out with a discipline. I told you New Yorkers, the city that I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and protected you as a police officer. I told you I was going to drive down crime. I was going to rebound our economy. I was going to create an environment for working people in the city. And we're doing it. We're doing it. And today's celebration is the indicate of that. Many people questioned us. They didn't think it was possible. We did some amazing thing with this team by coming up with our economic recovery blueprint in New York plan which reimagined the future of New York City's economy. And when you look at what we did coming out of COVID-19, we knew we had to get the city back up and operating. We have recovered in a way that is really impressive for all of you. You should all be proud because you're a part of this recovery with more than 280,000 private sector jobs created. That is a total of 4,709 million jobs, over 4.7 million jobs. Not just private sector, as I stated, but total jobs in our city. Before we took office, experts were projecting the city when we gained pre-pandemic job levels until 2025. They just did not know this team. I said January 1st, this was my Aaron judge, while we're knocking this out of the park right now. We got it done in 22 months. Straightforward plan, protect public safety, invest in public spaces, support working people. Or as we have been calling it, the triangle offense. As I've said for so long, public safety will always be my prerequisite to prosperity and we're gonna continue to lean in that. It is what I campaigned on as I stated, this is why we took immediate action plan. We put $170 million in our subway safety plan to get people back on the subway. Many of you here have metro cards in your pockets and I have a metro card as well because I know we have to be safe on our subway system and we're gonna continue to drive down crime. We wanted to ensure that we get back, right as back on the systems where they are and we're making transformative changes in how we keep our city clean. Think about it for a moment. We are getting ready to get rid of every garbage bag that you see on our streets. You may not know it, but I hate rats. We're going to containerize our garbage. They said it was not possible. It's commission or t-shirt. They said it was not possible. They said it was going to take five and six years. We're ready two thirds of the way there where you're going to be able to walk through your city and not see garbage bags spilling over all over our streets. This is going to be the safest city and the cleanest city in America. And to support broken people, we have awarded loans to more than 600 small businesses to our small business opportunity fund. Where's our commissioner Kim? Commissioner Kim, job well done, doing an amazing job. We have expanded our summer youth employment. DYCD is here. Who's here from DYCD? Our Department of Youth Services, 100,000 summer youth jobs, 110,000 young people went into our summer rise program. Great job, Sheena Camille and the whole team around that. And real partnership, you can't help but to notice the ever presence of our amazing councilwoman who was a one-time borough president of Manhattan who's continued to thrive forward. Gail, thanks so much for being a real partner. So many people have benefited from our recovery but we know they're those who are being left behind. We're bringing them forward with real plans, real opportunity and we're going to take the message directly to New Yorkers with the kickoff of a working people's tour. We're going to highlight the hard work in New Yorkers who are powering our economy. You dropped your scarf. I'm always serving the people. We're going to announce new interventions to help boost growth and build on ramps to opportunity across the five boroughs. We will be releasing a new plan to create youth pathways to good paying jobs, so important. Chancellor Banks talks about it all the time. Our young people don't even know why they're going to school anymore. We're going to give them a clear direction on why you are in school and partner with our corporations and entities so our children are prepared and ready to fill the jobs that are available. All New Yorkers must share in our city's prosperity. No one should be left out. That's our mission. We know that. Listen, I'm a blue collar mayor and I believe that working people, they are the foundation and the cornerstone of what makes this city great. Crime is jot down, employment is up, optimism is up, the city is recovering at a rate that was unimaginable, safest big city in America, more jobs than any other city. We are doing what we committed and promise ourselves that we were going to do. I want to thank you, New York, for making this happen and entire team. I was handed this when I came in. Our trademark is clarity of message. We want to give all of you this card. This is the New York City card. On the back, it is the clear things we need to be asking from our federal government. And we want all of us to know that. One message, all of us are on one message. When we walk around, when people say what do you want, we want to be able to clearly state here are the things we need. If we have one message, we're now in a huddle. When we go to the line of scrimmage to execute the play, we're running the same play. So one message from New York is so we can continue the great job that we are doing in government. And I look forward to making sure each one of you get one of these New York City cards so you can let everyone know we're moving together in one direction. Great job, team. Thank you. Thank you all of you so much. Thank you so much, Mayor. I just want to repeat those numbers. I'm a numbers person. I like numbers. I like really big numbers. And so here we go. 4.7 million jobs. Nine. OK, good. We can clap for each of the numbers. Let's do it. 946,000 jobs added since the pandemic. 280,000 jobs since the start of Mayor Adam's administration. These are all time highs in the city's 400 year history and incredible achievement for the city of New York. But also it's important to put it in context because sometimes you're like, what do these numbers mean? So for example, the jobs that we've recovered, if the near 1 million private sector jobs were added to our economy in the last few years were a city, it would be the 10th largest city in the US. It would be the size of Austin, Texas, the size of San Francisco, California. And those are just the jobs we added since the pandemic. The jobs we added since the mayor took office, those are more jobs than Buffalo has people. And then Jersey City has people. No offense to Buffalo or Jersey City. But really when you look beneath these numbers, what you see is also this really beautiful story. It's a beautiful story of industries in New York City really growing and becoming stronger. I see Julie Samuels is here. It's a story about the rise of tech in our economy. It's a story of health care, of finance, of construction, of education. So many sectors creating such a diverse ecosystem in our city. But it's also a story of how government, small business, large firms are all moving in the same direction. We are all partners on the same mission. And so we're gonna hear from a lot of our partners from some of these voices during today's program. And the first person really special that you're gonna hear from is someone who not only represents the story of a typical New Yorker, but really the story of the many sung and unsung heroes from the pandemic given what she's done. So I'm so happy to welcome our first speaker, one of those New Yorkers who'll share her story, one of hard work in the collective spirit of New York. Please join me in welcoming Hattie Becha. Dear ladies and gentlemen, my name is Hattie Becha. I am from Albania. I came to the United States in 2019. Back home, I worked as a registered nurse for nine years in the intensive care unit. When I arrived in the USA, I was looking for a job as a registered nurse. Everywhere I applied for a job, they told me I needed a US license. I started learning to pass the NCLEX test and I used many sources and spent a lot of time and money. Even though I used the programs and had a lot of experience and knowledge from back home, I failed the test two times. I was hopeless and devastated. Luckily, I heard about La Guardia Community College through a friend. I feel fortunate to have been accepted. In the beginning, I found this college very hard because I was working a full-time job while also studying. Thanks to the professional La Guardia management and their professional instructors, my English was improving and I started feeling more confident in NCLEX topics. My La Guardia Community College instructors did a very good job with every one of us. The best thing about this program is that I had to pay nothing. When it was my turn to take the NCLEX test in January 2023, I passed it on the first attempt. After I passed the test, I immediately got promoted from a patient care technician to a registered nurse. My income was, my income immediately improved. I will always be very grateful to La Guardia, welcome back center and to the sponsors. They changed my life. My dreams came true in New York City. Thank you. Thank you, Hate. What an amazing story. Now we know in government that we can't do it alone. So much of our work is propelled by partnerships. And one of the areas that we think is a real green shoot or real progress here in New York are in really building a new and modern apprenticeship system. They've done it in different parts of the world. We know we can do it here, we can do it bigger, we can do it better. And so one of the employers who's really been leading on this is the firm called Accenture. So we wanna thank them for all of their work. But you don't have to take my word for it. Our next speaker is again another special one. I would like to welcome all of you in welcoming Destiny, who is a former Accenture apprentice and now a full-time employee. Welcome, Destiny. Woo! Bear with me a moment. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. And thank you for having me here today, Mayor Adams. I can't tell you how much of an honor it is to be here in front of you all. So I was born and raised in the Bronx, so I know my mother and my abuela would be so proud to see me here today with you all. So my name is Destiny Parra. I am now a Marketing Associate Accenture. My journey began in 2020 as a youth apprentice during the pandemic. I was a junior at Vanguard High School. Shout out to them. When I first heard about the partnership between New York City and businesses that connected students with paid apprenticeship opportunities to get them ready to start in the workforce, I can genuinely say that it was an opportunity that completely changed my life. As a youth apprentice at the company, I was able to explore various career paths in application development, cybersecurity, and data engineering. But most importantly, it allowed me to learn more about marketing. And this was a field that I've been interested in being in since I was very young. I recently celebrated my third anniversary at Accenture. Thank you. Now with a full-time role at the company, and I want to shout out all of marketing and communications at Accenture. This one's for you. Yeah. And it made me think of all the people who made it possible for me to be here, and those are the same people that inspire me every day. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for the programs like the Youth Apprenticeship One that allow local students to learn and explore different career paths. This program allowed me to be here today, a long way from the Dominican Republic where my mother and my abuela immigrated from to allow me more better opportunities and a better life. A career path that my mother is so proud of me to be here today. Thank you. And I also have New York City to thank for that as well. So thank you so much, and thank you again for having me. Thank you. Thank you, Destiny. I love your name. Certainly your colleagues, and I know your mom is very, very proud of you. So thank you. Thank you for joining us today. As I said earlier, this isn't just a story about jobs, it's also a story about our incredible small businesses across the five boroughs. So over the last four quarters, close to 30,000 new businesses have started in New York. To put that in another way, about one in seven businesses in New York City opened in the past year. And we estimate that about 40,000 new businesses have started during the mayor's administration. Our small businesses, they're mighty, they are growing, they are hiring, and they are one of the strongest forces propelling us forward. But you don't have to take my word for it. So I'd like to welcome Rudy Cazares of Cazar Logistics, a veteran-owned logistics company based in the Bronx that hired nearly 50 employees from the city's Workforce One system. Welcome, Rudy. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. First, I'd like to start by thanking Mayor Adams and his team, thank you for the opportunity to allow us to be here today. It's a huge honor. Special thanks to Queen's Workforce One Center and New York City Department of Small Business Services. And he may or may not be here, but a special shout out to a friend, Commissioner James Handen of the New York City Department of Veteran Services. Hello, everyone. My name is Rudy Cazares. I'm a former Marine-turned veteran entrepreneur. I'm a proud owner of Cazar Logistics, which is an Amazon delivery service partner. Currently employs 80-plus drivers in a fleet of over 45 vehicles. And we're looking to obviously increase that significantly now that peak season's here. A little bit about myself. I was born and raised in Elmer's, Queens. My parents are immigrants from a small town outside of Puebla, Mexico. And early on, I was able to see the sacrifices that they made to allow me and my brothers to have a shot at the American dream. So early on in my career, I made a decision to continue that tradition of sacrifice and serve our country. And I served as a Marine, participated in three combat tours, a few other tours overseas over the course of 15 years of service. But I always knew, thank you. I always knew that I was gonna come back to my hometown, New York, and build a business, build an organization in New York for New Yorkers. And little did I know that when I launched my company in January of 2020, it would be starting a business during the most difficult periods in New York during the pandemic. But what happens when New York's encounter a challenge or when Marines face adversity? We band together, we adapt, we overcome. And thanks to partners like Workforce One, the Small Business Services of New York, and Amazon, my business didn't just survive, it thrived. Workforce One helped me put New Yorkers back to work. Over 22% of my current team comes to us from Workforce One. They were key in helping us achieve staffing goals, as you all can imagine over the course of the last four years. It's been a bit crazy, right? Also, they helped me identify top talent from other industries to place them in the logistics industry. We know that the restaurant industry was hit hard with many restaurant workers being laid off, but these individuals brought transferable skills. They understood customer service, how to work in a fast-paced environment, how to think and make decisions on their feet to fix problems, problems that we encountered every single day. But more importantly, they had the will to persevere. A perfect example of this is my management team. And I want to go ahead and highlight those individuals today. David Kizaris, Vincent Herrera, and Danny Herrera. And they are just a few, but all of them came from the restaurant industry. They were servers before they started in my company. And today, there are managers overseeing one of the largest businesses within the Amazon Logistics Organization in the Bronx. And having delivered right results, we're over 10 million packages year-to-date to customers in the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester. So in closing, thank you to all the partners in supporting small businesses like mine. Thank you to Jennifer Bellow and the Queens Workforce One Career Center for all their support and Amazon Logistics. And special thanks to all my team members that have been with me for the last several years, exemplifying the spirit and grit of New York, that when challenged, we rise to the occasion. Thank you. Thank you so much, Rudy. Thank you for your service, and thank you for exemplifying the grit and the heart of New York. All right, so we have one more speaker. I mentioned earlier that so much of this work happens in partnership. We work closely with not-for-profit partners, faith institutions, community groups, tenant associations, talent developers, and of course, many, many members of the private sector to really build a stronger city and a more competitive economy. Together, small businesses and large firms are creating a more resilient city. And we have so many partners in this world. John Gray is one such partner. He and his company and through his work with the partnership for New York, which represents over a million jobs in our city, really the private sector is so committed to New York and to its future. And John also is an incredible civic leader, generous leadership and contributions for NYC Kids Rise and the partnership with DOE. And so he's wearing many hats today and we're so glad that he is with us. So please join me in welcoming John Gray. Thank you, Deputy Mayor for the kind words. I just wanna start by saying my heart goes out to the people in Israel and everyone affected by the conflict in the region. And I wanna give a huge shout out to the mayor for his leadership in this area. It's been tremendous. It is a tough world we all know and that's why it's great to celebrate the recovery of New York City today. People often, as the mayor noted, count out New York City in the 1970s after 9-11 and certainly during COVID, but once again, New York proves it always comes back. And I would just say as someone who is not from New York, not from another country, but from Chicago, I am so proud to have made New York home for 30 plus years. As it relates to my firm Blackstone, we are totally committed to New York City. Our firm was founded by Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson nearly 40 years ago and have always been headquartered here. Our business has grown a ton, but particularly since 2019, our headcount is up 60%. We have 3,000 workers now, employees at Blackstone in New York City. Over that same period, I'll take the shout out. Over that same period, our physical footprint has doubled and we are big believers in being together is better, physically together in the office. That's how we build culture, that's how we build a firm. I would say the key thing when we think about our firm is talent and there is no place in the world where you can attract talent like New York City. The energy, the dynamism, the mix of cultures, the food, all of it makes this city an incredible beacon for people all around the country to come here and all around the world to come here and work and seek opportunity. I see it in my own family, I have four daughters, as they and their friends graduate from college, they wanna come to New York City. So I would just say a couple of things. First, as it relates to the partnership for New York, Kathy and her team do an incredible job. Shout out to her. And as I said, back on our firm, it's not just our employees, we are big investors in New York City. We have major investments in 16 companies that are headquartered here. We own more than $15 billion of real estate. We're super excited that next week, we're gonna be at a groundbreaking ceremony for Manhattan's first ever film and TV studio campus at Pier 94. We are very fortunate to be doing that in partnership with the owner of this building, Vornado Steve Roth, shout out to you, a great partner. That project's gonna create 1,300 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs. Last month, we started construction on a 340 mile renewable transmission line, which is bringing hydro power from Quebec to Queens. It's gonna power a million homes. The mayor, the governor, all have been super helpful making this happen. And I would just say it is definitely worth noting that we and so many people, despite headlines you may read at time, have a super positive outlook on New York City and a ton of credit belongs to this mayor. He fully understands that a great city looks out for all of its citizens. A great city understands the importance of a thriving business community to create jobs and create opportunity. He understands the importance of the next generation. He helped my wife and I expand our program, New York City Kids Rise, to help all New York City kindergartners start with a college savings program. Having the mayor in this seat as our number one cheerleader as you see today and our leader is inspiring. It also gives my firm Blackstone the confidence to grow our firm here, to expand our headcount and to invest more dollars here. So thank you very much mayor. I just want to say thanks again for everyone here. Congrats on this huge milestone. We love New York City as investors. We love it as a home for our firm and we love it. I personally love it as a home for my family. Thank you all so much. Thank you, John. I just want to make two other points and then we will wrap up. So much of the work that we're seeing today is because many different colleagues, amazing team members across agencies are really heeding the mayor's call that we have to keep moving the ball forward. We literally have to run through walls for New Yorkers and so I want to give a particular shout out to my colleagues at the Economic Development Corporation led by Andrew Kimball. All of the work across so many different industries. I want to shout out the chair of city planning, Dan Garodnik, who's helping us build for the future. And I'm not sure Commissioner Cumbo is here, Commissioner Kaufman, but also so much of what makes New York City unique aside from amazing buildings, aside from great transit, aside from being a concentration and hub of jobs is that we have an unmatched ecosystem of culture and of arts and creativity. And so we can't forget that. We can clap for that as we think about what's important for the future of New York. Okay, I want to thank everyone for coming and closing. I just have two messages. Number one, for New Yorkers who are watching, please check out jobready.nyc.gov. Here on this site, you will have access to a whole array of training opportunities and job opportunities. So please check it out, jobready.nyc.gov. And then finally, as you see here today, and this is a message you will be caring because we really believe it, the future of our city is bright. It is bright because of the leadership of Mayor Eric Adams. It is bright because of the partnership of everyone in this room and most importantly, it is bright because of the unparalleled medal of New Yorkers. Congratulations to everyone.