 to Community Board 2 and also to our fantastic contractors. As you can tell from these thank-yous, so many people contributed to the success of this project. It was a true partnership. The renovations to Hudson Street between Houston and Canal create a reimagined boulevard with lush plantings, unique park-like spaces, more Hudson Square standard trees, modern benches, sidewalk cafe space and wider sidewalks for strolling. This project was one of the first to use the design build process and it was completed on time and on budget and during a pandemic no less, no easy feat. The improvements you see today showcase our ongoing efforts to create a people-focused neighborhood for all who work, visit and live here. When our bid was formed in 2009 Hudson Square was a concrete jungle known for its car congestion heading into the Holland Tunnel. Now Hudson Square is known for scenic streetscapes and unexpected green spaces even though we still have some traffic we're working on that. Today you see the culmination of the ambitious 10-year master plan that transformed Hudson Square. We planted or retrofitted more than 500 trees with the Hudson Square standard a hundred of which are right here in Hudson Street. We renovated Spring Street Park, created Freeman Plaza East and West at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel from unused port authority spaces and turned Varrick Street into an outdoor art gallery. But our work doesn't stop here. Today marks the completion of our first 10-year plan and the beginning of our second one which builds on what we've accomplished and focuses on seamlessly connecting Hudson Square into our surrounding neighborhoods in Hudson River Park. Private public partnerships like this one matter. We hope that the changes we are making here can serve as a model for other neighborhoods across this city and beyond. And now it is my great honor to introduce Mayor Eric L. Adams. Thank you so much for coming today. I have some swag. Careful how you use that word swag. There's a way you wear your hat. You know you have to bend it like that you know so it can give you that nice look. You know open that up again. This was my my district when I was a transit police officer in this community has always been impacted by the traffic from the tunnel and the movement and as you try to expand here you see the constant flow of just congestion and to utilize existing landscape as we see our amazing president from Manhattan walking Mark Levine to uh and you don't get a hat. You know to utilize our existing landscape and take partnership and so we want to really thank the bid Madam President for a job well done in coordination New York City Economic Development Corporation and the New York City Department of Transportation. Adonis Rodriguez who's here the commissioner uh 13 million dollars well spent uh with the good coordination and how do we figure out how do we beautify our communities and make them safe at the same time. We want to really enhance the pedestrian experience for far too long our cities have been just basically vehicle focus but now as we transform to bikers as we transform to those who utilize our streets and want to utilize them in a safe way this redesign features a new protected bike lane from Hudson Houston to Canal Street as well as 70 new bike parking spaces we hear it over all the time I know the commissioner you hear it of you know people want to be able to park their bikes as they commute to and from their place of employment and but we'll also do something else like wider wider sidewalks so that people can walk in a safe place a more seating expanded space for outdoor dining something I'm a big believer in as we continue to enhance our economy more trees green spaces this is what outdoor living is about and we all saw that during the peak of COVID if we did not have those green spaces many people would have found it difficult just to move about from day to day so we're taking the dream of a livable sustainable and beautiful city and turning into a reality uh block by block and with the partnerships that we are developing this is a big investment for a safer cleaner more movable city in a real way so we want to really thank our partners for doing so and Madam President thank you so much this was a this was an easy task uh with the coordination of your team and it's really a symbol of what we have done around MWB's what we have done around coordinating with all the entities involved and we it was a joy to work with you and your team let's get it done thank you thank you so much Mr. Mayor and now we'd like to call up DOT Commissioner Idanis Rodriguez well after the mayor's pick there's no more that commissioner will say I'm going to say in Spanish okay well exactly what I made you yesterday like you know but overall I thank you to the Hobson Bill for this great a public private partnership this is what this administration is all about under the leadership of Mayor Eric Adin inviting private sector to continue working with the city the opportunity is here we will continue transforming our street you know we are reimagining how to continue using more space in not a sitting area that was here happened because the great private sector committed and you also create better condition for the business sector to do good here so you know under this administration this is the future in New York City you know weeks after weeks months after months years after years we will see how we will transform our street in order to make you know more space for bikes for cyclists for petitions for the business community also to do well for me it's an honor to be here with Mayor Eric Adin dando la gracia liderazco del video killer Hobson three en lo que es el futuro de la ciudad de New York bajo el liderazco de Eric Adin invitando al sector privado al sector público a que trabajemos junto para reimaginarnos como las calles pueden ser segura para los ciclistas para los peatones y para el sector de los pequeños negocios también que puedan ser bien thank you thank you commissioner and now i'd like to call edc executive vice president liz arnais thank you good morning i'm elizabeth arnais i head up the capital team at the new york city economic development corporation for those of you who may not know us edc works on behalf of the city of new york to shape economic development across the five boroughs with a focus of empowering communities like this one here and today it is amazing to witness this transformation of this streetscape and to honor it and the community that it will serve when we started this project nearly five years ago it was a different world we now more than ever cherish the places where we can gather the places where we can walk the streets where we can ride safely connecting us back to this city our close collaboration with the dot and with the bid have ensured that this vision was made possible interestingly five years ago the city wasn't delivering projects using a design build model but thanks to the tenacity of my team and to the support we needed from the city from dot and the hudson square this was the first design build project for the city of new york we proudly partnered with prima paving construction and sam shorts engineers to pilot this alternate project delivery it proved to be an efficient process a success for this project and it is now common practice across the city i'm also proud that this project has a nearly 90 mwbe rate meaning that nearly 90 percent of the project cost has been performed and delivered by minority or women owned businesses that is impressive of course a huge round of thank yous to the hudson square bid who envisioned this radical transformation and has always been its strongest advocate to dot for pushing us the city to do more to provide safe access to the city to the city streets to our design build partners prima paving sam shorts and the rest of your team we're proud to stand with us partners in this success to my team edc for always pushing for what's right and never letting back to our elected officials for your continuous support and advocacy and lastly to the community you've been with us for every step of the way this is for you so thank you thank you liz and now i'd like to call borough president mark levine oh pleasure thank you so much i'm a little upset i didn't get a purple hat we're gonna have to work on that will i okay just check in i need my swag too mr mayor right on q that's some good staffing right there thank you um this is without a doubt one of the most important neighborhood transformations in new york city today all over new york city all over the five boroughs we are fighting to re-envision public space and streetscapes after decades when the only priority was cars and we are finally rebalancing this in favor of people of pedestrians of people on bicycles and you're showing that you can do this in the neighborhood that used to be the entry for the holland tunnel if you can do it here one of the most car saturated neighborhoods in new york city you can do it anywhere and just to sit out here today you feel it you feel what this transformation means to this community you see the life and i want the rest of the city to to understand that this is possible it wasn't easy it took an incredible collaboration thank you to the bed thank you to edc thank you to dlt and we know it took money this was not cheap but it is worth every penny this is the model of what we can do and what we must do all over new york city so thank you so much for making this a reality and for bringing us together and thank you for my purple hat congratulations there are more purple hats if you're jealous we can give some to you um that's it for our program thank you so much for coming today now we have to cut the ribbon that's why you're actually all here today