 Good morning everyone, welcome to the first shared street down in New York City, which is this area. There's gonna be questions always about, we make an announcement by the best way to start for people to see you know we already had live through action. This area was mainly centered on cars and we've been able to plan because of the bead, Emily and Sean, the whole team at DOT you know having big plan for the future of the city and that's how we came out to build the first shared street in the city of New York. So thank you for all who are playing important role. My name is Danis Rodriguez, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. It is an honor to be here standing together with Mayor Eric Adden, the most progressive mayor that we have seen the city of New York. If he's measured by action, well he's pointing the money and he's pushing the city to address equity in all aspects. But we are also here with other members of the administration, Yatin, who is our chief for public space and our electoral officials, congressmen, athletes and advocates. Thank you for joining us. We are here today to celebrate the start of reconstruction for the next phase of roadway vision between 25 and 32nd Street. Roadway vision is DOT project to reclaim space people along roadway. Yes imagine from Union Square to Columbus Circle. Our streets are our largest network of public space and they serve all New Yorkers but too much of this space has been dedicated to just one use. The movement in stores of vehicles, but that's changing on the Mayor Adden's leadership. We know our streets don't belong just to cars. They belong to pedestrians, to cyclists and transit users too. And on this section of roadway, pedestrians and cyclists are common numbers, our numbers cars. So we are using innovative design along the corridor to reclaim our streets. New plazas, bike lanes and shared streets to create world-class public spaces. This design works for everyone. More space for people and we also designed to still allow local vehicle access for delivery pickups and drop-offs on what we call shared streets. And of course all those ideas are supported by resources. As the Mayor also in his state of the city added $400 million for DOT so that we can have all the resources that we need to do to do these type of projects. This design creates more safer corridors by slowing vehicle speed. We look forward to starting our design tomorrow. Thanks to the support of Mayor Adden's we will be building out this work with capital reconstruction of an even larger section of roadway in the years to come. But this agency prioritized equity. So we are now stopping our roadway. We brought a similar design to 34 Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. And that project has received national praise for creating safe welcoming public space alone 1.3 mile that used to be used only by car for cars. So while we look forward to our work here we can wait to bring this matter to more neighborhoods across the city. I'd like to thank all the hardworking members of the DOT that made this possible including Sharon Quinn, Emily, Wernan Hall, Kyle, Goldman, as well as many advocates here who have fought for this project for years in the bid that have been so integral to our success. I'm thrilled to be able to be part of this administration and team that is bringing this to fruition. We work 24-7, reimagining the use of public space. In this place the reconstruction will begin. But what is happening here is also happening in different communities, in different ethnic groups, in different social classes. Because the commitment of the Cadillac Regatta to ensure that we, in the transportation department, continue to rebuild public space for everyone, for pedestrians, for cyclists, and at the same time to allow vehicles to also be able to transit to deliver food or to pick up passengers. With that I would like to give you the best Mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Gattens. You said the best in the city. I hope there's not another. Well, thank you so much, Edonis, really for taking the vision that you talked about while you were the city council. And now to see the vision actualize on our roads every day. We clearly understand that our streets are not only for vehicles, it's about redefining our city. And right in this area we saw a horrific accident with a taxi that struck several pedestrians. And so this is real. It's real that we utilize our street spaces in an appropriate way. Before I get on the topic of the day, as I mentioned last week, we recovered 91% of our job that we lost pre-pandemic. And so the city is really recovering at a healthy tick. You are seeing our various social gatherings are increasing. I hear from my restaurant owners all the time. We're seeing a real recovery in the city from Broadway to Times Square. Our tourism numbers are extremely impressive. We are doing extremely well in the city as we are on the road to recovery. But the announcement that we heard with the Silicon Valley bank that went under is ascending fears throughout the city. There's a real concern particularly because in New York we have such a substantial number of tech startups. And it is not only the new ideas that the tech startups bring, but it's also the employment, the employees, the visiting shops and restaurants and cleaners and just engaging and creating the cross-pollination of how do we solve some of the major problems that cities are facing. I spoke with Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. We are going to have a coordination with the federal government, the state, as well as here in the city to be a conduit of information. So we can relieve some of the anxiety that many people are feeling right now during these uncertainties with this major banking institution for tech startups going under. And we're going to be here for the employees and for the companies as well. And I'm happy we have with us our amazing Congressman, Congressman Nandler, the dean of the congressional delegation. And we're going to be coordinating with his office as well and my other congressional leadership. And so today we are extremely pleased with the announcement we're having right here in Midtown. We are revitalizing the future of our streets. A lot of people have talked about this for years. You know, ever since the Bloomberg administration, the Blasio administration, we're building on the vision that my former mayors really must be acknowledged for putting in place the concept and ideas of how we live in our city. Tomorrow on Broadway, the Broadway vision comes to life with construction work on major improvements from West 25th Street to 32nd Street. Reclaiming space for people to enjoy the greatest city in the world. You really appreciate the city when you're able to walk through it, ride through it, skateboard through it and really engage in all that the city has to offer. Offer new pedestrian plazas, widening crosswalks and for pedestrian safety. This work has started already and now we're moving it here to Broadway, a street that is notably a presence for New Yorkers. We're going to be adding two-way bike lanes, expanding city bike docks, as well as adding more room for outdoor dining, which we are going to make permanent with the City Council. We're excited about the future of outdoor dining, something we discovered during the COVID pandemic and now we're going to make it a safe, clean place, get rid of those COVID sheds and have a real safe place where people can enjoy outdoor dining. This is really how you imagine our city and under the leadership of Commissioner Rodriguez, we're going to continue to move forward. And it means more room to walk and to bike and to just enjoy this great city. And I'll say over and over again in the finest city on the globe and any of you that's here, if you're tourists, we only have one ask of you and that's to spend money, spend a lot of money. And what we're going to do this spring will start even an even bigger capital project to make these kinds of changes all the way from the 21st Street to 33rd Street as the Commissioner stated. We have seen what happens when we open space to people. They enjoy the city. We saw an exciting expansion and tourists reveled at what we did on open streets on Fifth Avenue during the holiday season when I walked through there seeing thousands of people enjoying the shops and enjoying the scenery and enjoying all that we have to offer during the holiday season. We want to expand that throughout the entire summer and early winter as well. We're going to go big just like there. We're going to be big here. We're going to build more public space in every borough, not just Manhattan, our central business districts, but we're going to expand this throughout the entire city. The first step of our Broadway vision plan to reimagine Broadway from Columbus Circle to Union Square and it's part of the $375 million capital public space enhancement that are announced at the state of the city. Those were not just words on paper. Those were actual projects that we're putting in place. New public spaces are critical to our city's comeback. It is really, it goes hand in hand. Safe streets, public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity and having streets we can walk on and live on in a safe way is how we're going to continue recovery of our city. Last year, Senator Governor Huckle, we did the New York plan, the report, which highlighted the importance of public space to our city. We've already delivered on a commitment that planned to appoint our chief public realm officer, Yachting Liu. We're excited about what she has to offer, the LeBron James of public space, our anchor player, so she's going to do her thing. Today we begin to fulfill other commitment by revitalizing this area with public space and I want to thank Yachting for hitting the ground running and helping oversee the reimagining of our city. New York City is back and we are dreaming big again because we know the possibilities when we dream big. Looking down Broadway, you see the past, present, and the future. Broadway is the pulsing heart of Manhattan. Moving New Yorkers and visitors alike and powering our economy with world-class culture, sporting events, the improvements we make tomorrow will shape our city for generations to come. This artist's rendering is a real reflection of the excitement and energy that this is going to bring. This is a map of the area. I just want to thank all of our partners who are coming together to realize that when you open your streets, you open opportunities of enjoying all that this city has to offer. We're going to move on. I just want to have the opportunity and not giving it to my commissioner, but I want this opportunity of just really inviting a real partner, Congressman Natla. Congressman Natla during the most darkest moments. I was in Washington with the Congressman to help us so many levels in time and time again as the dean of delegation. He's a similar delegation together to really come and bail our city out from COVID to dealing with our asylum crisis, to dealing with the issues around public safety. He has been a real partner and I cannot thank him enough, so I want to bring up to the microphone our amazing Congressman, Congressman Natla. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. It's a great pleasure to be here and let me congratulate the mayor and the administration for beginning, for reaching a stage where you can begin the project this week. Making this city, and especially Broadway, that's my parochial interest, safe for pedestrians and car free and a center for all kinds of activities is a great priority. I look forward to seeing this area have on the characteristics that we have in the Times Square area. That has been a great success and we should expand this. This is one stage of it. It'll be expanded. The mayor said from 59th Street to 32nd Street, I hope eventually it'll go all the way down to Canal Street. This is a great day for the city and I want to congratulate the administration and one day soon we will have car free, more car free areas, greater pedestrian safety and greater street activities. That's why I thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Congressman Nadler. This is here from James Method, President of Flatterer and All More Partnership. Thanks, everybody. Mr. Mayor, Congressman Nadler, Mr. Commissioner and everyone else here today, thank you for joining us and welcome to Nomad. I'm James Method. I'm the Mayor, I'm sorry, the President of the Flatiron and Nomad District. Only one Mayor. Only one Mayor. Unelected. This one. This one's unelected. Sorry. But yes, I'm the President of the Flatiron-Nomad Partnership, the Neighborhoods Business Improvement District and since the partnerships founding in 2006, we've created and maintained and activated safe, welcoming public spaces for everyone who comes to our district. And it's days like today that make our multi-year effort to expand our bid boundaries and services throughout Nomad and along this ever-evolving Broadway corridor worth it. The last three years have been New Yorkers' love outdoor spaces more than ever. Early in the pandemic, the Department of Transportation acted quickly alongside the bids and other community partners throughout the city to create open streets that were innovative and open restaurant programming that were vital to the city's lifeblood, which have thrived here and throughout the city. It's inspired this neighborhood's collective re-imagination of Broadway between 25th Street and 27th Street. It's called Nomad Piazza, a vibrant community vestibule that the partnership has had the privilege of managing. And in addition to making those blocks safer for pedestrians, Nomad Piazza has been an outdoor dining oasis thanks to our creative local restauranteurs. I see Mark Barak from La Corabianca here. We congratulate him. He's been a real leader in this. The transformation of Nomad Piazza is a hyper-local economic success story having helped to attract and retain many businesses over the past three years. And now it has laid the foundation for this project we're celebrating today, the next steps of Broadway vision. This new shared street will add more pedestrian, bicycle and dining space from here to 32nd Street, completing our Flatiron and Nomad Broadway vision corridor from 21st Street all the way to Greeley Square. That alone would make this a landmark day, but we're also here to celebrate the Mayor's commitment to capital reconstruction of the Flatiron plazas just south of us, Worth Square, and this section of Broadway in the subsequent phases and years ahead. Alongside our city partners, bid members, and the Madison Square Park Conservancy, we look forward to redesigning, reconstructing, and dramatically upgrading these models, plazas, shared streets, and making them permanent, world-class public spaces that New York deserves once and for all. We're grateful to Mayor Adams for his leadership on this and convening the New York panel that he mentioned with Governor Huckle. Their action plan, including transformative projects like this, has created the North Star for the city when it comes to reimagining our public spaces and accelerating our economic recovery. We also applaud the Mayor for his appointment of Yachting Liu, our LeBron James of public space. She's been a terrific partner thus far and we know she's going to be doing amazing things with us and throughout the city in the days ahead. And also, speaking of great partners, Commissioner Yadani Rodriguez, you and your tremendous public space team have been absolutely amazing to work with. And alongside of the borough president, our council members, Botcher, Power, and Rivera, and Congressman Nadler, we're looking forward for more creative, great creative safer streets and sidewalks for all New Yorkers. And last but not least, before I stop rambling here, I'd like to recognize our many neighborhood stakeholders and the supporters that have worked with the partnership and the city to make this day a reality, particularly the Nomad Piazza resilient restaurants, hotels, property owners, and residents that have invested in Broadway and this neighborhood from the start. This soon to be better Broadway is yours. So let's promise to bring the band back together in a couple of months for a ribbon cutting. I'm going to hold everyone to that and thanks everyone and enjoy Broadway in the days ahead. Good morning. So the block that we're standing on today as well as the next block will be a fully pedestrian plaza so no vehicles on these first two blocks. The rest of the corridor up to Harold and Greeley Square will be shared streets. It will be encouraged vehicles drive five miles an hour. We have different traffic calming elements like jocaines. We're narrowing the intersection so pedestrians will be able to cross safely. Cars will be turning slowly. And a huge dramatic change that this project is delivering is for the first time we have formalized two-way cycling. So this whole corridor from Madison and Worth Square all the way up to Harold Square will be a two-way bike boulevard for cyclists. It was always a plan to continually identify plaza areas but I think what the terrible accident did it highlighted why we have been focusing on creating these plazas. It was a horrific incident I recall it you know when I was notified by the department and it just really showed that throughout the city there are spaces we are reclaiming for pedestrians but this was always always on the plan it was a continuation of the Bloomberg successful years the Blasio successful years and we knew we should continue to build on those years. My predecessors were amazing they focused on this topic and this is something that we wanted to continue and not start from the beginning but the accident was a major major reason that we knew that it was time to really continue to push forward on this issue. I'll answer that as well all across the country we're seeing police officers who are going through resignation. We have a law enforcement crisis in this city in this country and it's serious but I know the men and women of the police department because I was one of them and it's clear that when you look at the double digit decrease in shootings double digit decrease in homicides you see the decreasing in the major felonies our subway system is getting safer. The customer satisfactory surveys people are stating that they feel safer because of the men and women of the police department. What I think we failed at is that we weren't going out and recruiting at the capacity that we should have and we're changing that we're back into the streets we're showing people excitement of being a man a man or a woman in the New York City police department there's a large number of people that want to be police officers and you know we have in retirements but trust me when I tell you NYPD is the finest police department on the globe and it's a privilege to serve there and we're going to continue to recruit the best diversified department. Many of my emerging immigrant populations are increasing these exciting times so yes there's a crisis of law enforcement globally but trust me this is the finest police department and it's a great career and we're going to continue to bring people in. Talk like a New York allowed. Staten Island don't forget Staten Island. Yes well the the the commission I made it clear this is not a Manhattan centered administration I'm a five borough mayor and it's about going to those other boroughs we have some great plans in all of those four boroughs that you just mentioned that we're going to roll out and the commissioner and his team they have made it clear every community deserve good safe streets with pedestrian plazas and that's what our LeBron James is going to make sure it happens you know yes no and and there's a culture shift that must take place in the city and when you look at the number of drivers of the number of pedestrians that walk clearly out numbers the number of drivers and I am encouraging people to get out their cars you know we have the best transportation system the MTA I'm on the train all the time I'm encouraging people you know we need to exercise we're two stationary let's get on our bikes let's walk let's skateboard you know so I'm hoping that people realize that vehicles are not the only way to get around those who must use the vehicle we're going to always be a city or country where vehicles are going to be used but we need to minimize them you know in this city our transportation system can take you wherever you want to go and we're doing it in a safe way so you know yes there's going to be inconvenience for those who are used to being in a car by themselves uh driving along well you know we're going to excite you you know get out your car meet the diversity of the city and enjoy our public transportation system and I think they're going to be excited about it and once you get on the train this is a Mikey moment why don't you try it you would like it