 all right okay good afternoon everyone my name is Maria Torres-Fringer I'm the deputy mayor for Housing Economic Development and Workforce I'd like to thank all of you for being here today in Mott Haven I want to start by thanking our branch manager Tiffany McRae for hosting us this afternoon. I know that New York City's libraries have been invaluable partners from their inception and I might argue that this was never more apparent than during the pandemic. All of our libraries stepped up during those really challenging times of course to offer PPE testing resources and life-saving vaccines in communities across the five boroughs and as the city looked at the data and continued our conversations with local communities the feedback was very clear that libraries of course are some of our most trusted physical spaces and neighborhood partners in the city and why wouldn't they be so many of us myself included have fond fond memories of going to your local library when you were a child because this was a place where you could be curious it was a place where you could be safe and due to the partnership and work of so many in this room they now offer so much more from digital media to recording studios at teen centers such as this one are really turning interests of our young people into tangible skills and so when we started in this administration led by our mayor it was really heartening when our library leaders asked how can we continue to help and so really it's with this in mind that I welcome the 110th mayor of New York City to the podium mayor Eric Adams thank you thank you thank you and you know you listen a lot of things you get in a library you did not include you can get pizza you know so many young people go and attend libraries but in all honesty so many don't so many feel disconnected and we have to find creative ways of building that bridge and I think I was really impressed when we saw the hip-hop is 50 library card something simple like that building a studio of we if you were to walk on the street and speak to the average young person and say library they would think that you know there's nothing cool there's nothing hip there's nothing positive there's nothing going on and I think that we must be extremely open to send down and asking what do you want the library to be for you or to you what should be there how am I going to get you inside so that you can start seeing the wonders of not only a book or a book of different artistic ways of expression expressing oneself and that's what these amazing library leaders are from Queens to the Bronx to Brooklyn to Manhattan of San Island they are really engaged in reinventing our libraries and we want to want to be a partnership with the $15 million five boroughs not leaving any borough behind and reshaping the attitude of a teen center and teen services and really allowing the creative energy to really come out and experience how do you sit down and interact with each other and that's what this is about that is why we want to invest in this but we need your feedback we need you to really say to us this is what we want our libraries to look like and these are the services that are provided now it only makes sense we have senior centers I spent a lot of time in the senior centers and the seniors and the older adults are very clear on what they want so if we have senior centers why don't we have teen centers where teens can start saying what's the launching pad for me to participate in actively being part of the city that you love and it's not only on our part which is enjoyable the deputy mayor and the team we were able to get everything from Best Buy and this is the best buy they can do by investing in our young people we were able to get Google to participate as well Jolly Foundation all of these entities that's cool brother you let it run you know so funny I never forget I was I was at a meeting one day and all of a sudden I had this ringtone on my phone and I don't even want to tell you what the song was but when it went off it was rather embarrassing so be careful of your ringtones you know you know it was the thong song again just our partners thank thank you so much for doing this and thank you thank you the you know you young folks who are here you're not going to blow the winds of change for tomorrow you're the leaders of today and your input is crucial this administration we want to hear from you so we can get it right and great job deputy man great job to our librarians leaders our presidents that are here and what they're doing so let's keep doing the great work thank you thank you mayor now we'd like to hear from our the three leaders of our library systems they have been amazing partners to the city and have really pushed the envelope in terms of what every branch really needs to be able to provide in different neighborhoods in this city and so first we are going to hear from the president of the New York Public Library Tony Marks well huge shout out and thanks to the deputy mayor Maria does amazing job mr. mayor what an honor this is a great day for my haven this building 1905 built like a rock and here in the the congressional district with the lowest income I believe in the United States just a few subway stops from a community of the wealthiest of the United States this institution has always been a beacon for this neighborhood and it's always been so inspiring to come here this last year 50,000 visits 8,000 program office of visits and now with this space we can do so much more especially for our teens this is the 20th 20th teen center to be opening in our system 11 in the Bronx we as the mayor said we are using high tech the best music studios maker space to attract the teens in and we know from the New Yorkers library in midtown how powerful that is it'll bring you from any neighborhood if you're an aspiring musician you have no access to a studio this can be your start and once we have you in we'd like to suggest some things to read we have after school we have job and college guidance and placement we're working with the administration on a civics project to get the teens and the citizens and the communities engaged in their local issues we know we have mental wellness issues to address mentoring all of it can happen here in the teen centers is part of what we call our 360 teen initiative coming out of the pandemic and inspired by this administration all of this is only possible because of the support of the city of New York and its mayor thank you yes we are a public-private partnership and we're grateful for the support of Google Best Buy the Jolie family foundation the Tish family but when this mayor came into office he understood the unique power of the libraries in every neighborhood the most visited civic institutions in this town and invested remarkably 15 million dollars out of the gate I have never seen that before as a substantive investment and it is so fitting as just one investment as we look at the nation in the world around us where we see people closing up opportunities to learn and to advance where we see books being banned here in New York City under this administration we stand for New York values values of opportunity and learning for all I am so grateful I'm so excited about what's going to happen in this space and the other 20 spaces a huge shout-out to Giselle Dixon, Siva Ramakrishnan and the whole adult youth young adult team the manager here Tiffany and the team here at Mott Haven it is a great day for New York for its libraries but most importantly for the people of the neighborhoods who will be flocking to this space it's now yours thank you thank you Tony I'd now like to welcome the CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library Linda Johnson thank you deputy mayor good afternoon everyone it's a pleasure to be here with you today and I'm honored to be with our favorite mayor mayor Adams who as my colleague Tony Marks just said has made such a significant contribution to the health and well-being of the city's libraries deputy mayor Tours Springer thank you my colleagues Tony Marks Dennis Walcott I call them my partners in crime but there's nothing criminal about opening centers for teens especially with technology to help them not only have a good time in the current day but also to give them skills for their futures I understand that for teens there's nothing quite like having a space to call your own and so we're profoundly grateful and happy that there are dedicated areas in our city for libraries and in libraries for teenagers in Brooklyn we've seen an 84% increase in teen program attendance and it's a no small part due to this rapid expansion of our teen offerings over the past year we are proudly inaugurating three new teen tech centers at Saratoga Bay Ridge and Adams Street libraries these are safe spaces where teens can gather with their friends after school and spaces that offer free access to laptops to state-of-the-art technology and instruction and collaborative zones where teens can socialize with their peers express their creativity and acquire the skills they need to become active and engage citizens and I might add to eat pizza because what would a library event as a mayor pointed out what would a library event be without the ubiquitous pizza so I'm also happy to tell you that the mayor in addition to supporting these teen tech centers has supported a popular program in Brooklyn teen takeovers program and it empowers local teens councils to organize special evenings throughout the school year where teens get the branches to themselves free range to plan activities and really own the space in a material way more than a thousand young people have participated in our teen takeover nights and we're excited to welcome even more in the months ahead so thanks to mayoral funding we have also expanded our teen internship programs our robotics initiatives which draw intense competition and lastly I wanted to take a moment to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated Brooklyn Public Library team especially individuals like Ames O'Neill Jackson Gomes Yosinix Arango and Karen keys they are the backbones of our teen support system and they work year-round to get these centers and their programs up and running to empower our next generation of future leaders so no pressure guys but you're you're next to the podium and so we hope that we're giving you the skills to make that happen thank you all for your attention and because Queen's is not to be out done I'd now like to introduce the CEO of the Queen's Public Library Dennis Walcott thank you deputy mayor and first good afternoon to all of you Mr. Mayor thank you really thank you very much and I'm not just thanking you for the initiative and the $15 million I'm thanking you for your team your deputy mayor is truly outstanding your team members are outstanding we at Queen's have a great partnership with a variety of components of your administration and as a result of that we're able to serve the public and I really believe in what you're doing and again just to pick up on a point that Tony mentioned earlier and Linda talked about it was in January when the mayor first took office and he had a conference call or virtual conversation with Linda Tony the deputy mayor and myself and out of his mouth right away was I want to make sure we place the emphasis and the focus on teenagers what can I do to make sure that teenagers throughout the city are getting the support and the services they need and mayor just didn't talk about it he invested in it he invested in it city-wide and you've heard the results of that investment in Queen's we're seeing a hundred and seventy six percent increase in the number of teens who are coming through our doors as a result of this investment we're seeing a thirty three percent increase in the number of library cards that are taken out in Queen's right now as a result of this investment your investment is paying off big time whether it's far rock away flushing camber height central Long Island City you name it the teen centers are thriving with things that I don't know how to do quite frankly the technology that's there is truly amazing it is something that when I go to visit our teen centers now and they say well do you want to try this I said no I'm not gonna embarrass myself but that's what our teenagers are doing and the other thing mr. mayor that's so important to stress it's not just one group of teenagers it's teenagers from across the system who are partnering together and as a result of that which Brooklyn does New York does and we do partnerships with the city as the deputy mayor has indicated in her introduction has been tremendous so mr. mayor thank you really I appreciate it and also for those who want to know I know the childhood library that this mayor went to and on guy I brew a boulevard and was it New York boulevard when you were growing up was always guy I know New York it was New York boulevard see and it was New York boulevard it's in a different location now and the mayor is a believer in libraries and the investment that we've made in our teenagers and mr. mayor deputy mayor staff at the Queens Public Library all of our teams thank you very much because our teens are benefiting as a result of this investment thank you so much Dennis and now I want to turn to someone who I'm sure is happy not just about this teen center but the 11 teen centers across this borough the great borough president Vanessa Gibson thank you good afternoon everyone bienvenidos a todos welcome to each and every one of you what an exciting opportunity to be here at the official ribbon cutting of the teen center at the Monthaven library so excited to be here because we recognize the value of our New York public library system and right here in the heart of the South Bronx you have dedicated staff like Tiffany and the entire staff here at Monthaven that dedicate their time each and every day to uplifting the voices of our young people empowering all of you to realize that you can dream big you can be creative and innovative you can be ambitious bold courageous you can be determined in all of this great work so I'm excited that we have an administration led by mayor Eric Adams and our deputy mayor who believes in the public library system during the pandemic when so many of our scholars were struggling with internet access many of you were disconnected it was the libraries that were open that provided that safe space but also that space of education of learning and of recreation libraries are hubs they are beacons of hope for a better tomorrow and we have hope for our borough and for our city so I am so grateful that we are here because all of this work young people is all for you we want you to realize that no matter where you live in the Bronx your block does not block your blessing but you are destined for great success you can be the next DJ the producer the engineer the rapper you can do whatever it is that you want and right here at the Monthaven library we are offering you all of that so I recently got a second library card and shout out to hip hop 50 thank you New York Public Library for recognizing the 50th anniversary of hip hop right here in the boogie down Bronx so if you have not yet gotten your library card please do so because we want to get our numbers up Bronx so we can compete with Brooklyn with Linda Johnson and Dennis Walcott in Queens right we want to get our numbers up so we need more young people to come we need to get our numbers up right I like it yes we could do a competition we want to make sure that the Bronx gets our numbers up he's whipping out his card but out of the twenty-teen centers in our system that covers the Bronx Manhattan and Staten Island I'm so grateful that eleven are in the Bronx from here at Monthaven to Grand Concourse to Wakefield to Spidey and Dival Park Chester West Farms Woodstock and a number of others that is what you talk about when we say access and opportunity when we talk about investing in all of you we cannot tell young people to do something different if we don't offer you something different so here you have a music studio you can design you can draw you can do whatever it is that you want so I encourage all of you to take advantage of your library and also bring a friend every time you come to the library you should bring a classmate you should bring a friend so again thank you to Mayor Eric Adams to Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer to our colleagues at the New York Public Library our dycd commissioner Keith Howard and everyone from the mayor's office that really believes in our young people we proud ourselves here in the Bronx on doing this work with commitment compassion and intention we intend for all of you to be successful and we are not going to leave any of you behind so congratulations young people enjoy your teen center and we look forward to doubling the number to 22 right here in the Bronx thank you everyone thank you borough president so of course today is first and foremost about our young people and I do want to acknowledge our commissioner from dycd Keith Howard who wakes up every morning thinking about young people across our city so now we get to hear from one of our younger New Yorkers who's going to share with us her perspective on what we are announcing here today so please join me in welcoming an NYPL teen ambassador Yaryana Torres hello everyone my name is Yaryana and I was a teen civics ambassador for the New York Public Library last year so teen civics ambassadors work with the library's teen centers to help local teens become more involved in their community and as an ambassador my job was running civic focused programs and having conversations with teens about their communities interests and issues that they're passionate about I've had conversations with teens at my branch that shifted my perspective about so many important topics now I'm a page at the Allerton branch my childhood location where I will be able to work to improve the community and provide important services to the library's patients in my time working at NYPL I've learned that libraries are so much more than a home for books they have also become a home for teens as well we give them shelter when it's cold friends when they feel lonely help when they feel stuck and computer access when they don't have it at home the staff and the patrons they all feel like one big family the staff have open conversations with patrons about what they want to see at their local library and we work together to execute their vision the library taught me what a team truly looked like it showed me that there are people willing to take time out of their day just for me together we formed an unbreakable bond and I still visit my local branch to catch up with my coworkers they taught me that a library is not just a building in your neighborhood a library is its own little community thank you Mayor Adams for your support of New York City teens and these great teen centers I am thrilled to join everyone here today and celebrate this wonderful moment at Mount Haven and excited for what my fellow teens will discover here and at libraries throughout the city such beautiful before we before we cut the ribbon we have a special addition to this program a gift for our mayor and I want to invite Nana Adjua to present the gift so my name is Nana Adjua Jami and I have been I have been wanting to draw the mayor for a while so I thought this event was the great opportunity to give you