Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Mid-Hudson Winners of Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward Program

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that Yonkers will receive $10 million in funding as the Mid-Hudson winner of the ninth round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), and the Village of Ellenville and the Hamlet of Livingston Manor in the Town of Rockland will each receive $4.5 million as the Mid-Hudson winners of the fourth round of NY Forward. For Round 9 of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and Round 4 of the NY Forward Program, each of the State's 10 economic development regions is being awarded $10 million from each program, for a total state commitment of $200 million in funding and investments to help communities boost their economies by transforming downtowns into vibrant neighborhoods. To date, total investments in the DRI and NY Forward have reached $1.4 billion.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon, everyone. What an energetic crowd we have on this spectacular summer day. The heat wave is over. It feels good, doesn't it? Please be seated everyone. It's great to be back here in Yonkers, and we have a great story to tell. This is a community, indeed the entire Hudson Valley is going through an incredible resurgence, and people just want to be here, and they want to bring their families here, and live here and build businesses here. So it's a very exciting time to be residents of these beautiful communities.

I do want to acknowledge our congressman in the house - welcome home, George Latimer. Thank you for being on the front lines of a real battle, and we appreciate all you can do despite what is happening - I won't go there, but thank you for being a leader at a time when leadership matters, so thank you. Great to see you.

And speaking of leaders, Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, my partner in government. We have done so much together and have delivered so much for the people of this state and your communities, and I'm really proud of our efforts and focusing on affordability and safety and other important initiatives, and so I thank you for that. Our County Executive, Ken Jenkins, is here, County Executive.

And of course, we're here in the home of Mike Spano. I want to thank him for his extraordinary work here in this great city. I come back here all the time, and I've been coming since probably 2011, '12, '13, and it really has been a transformation, especially all the housing I'm seeing. Nothing gets me more excited than I see new housing, and so congratulations and -

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We have Robert Eggleton, the Town of Rockland Supervisor - congratulations today. Village of Ellenville Mayor, Evan Trent. Great to see our Mayor in the house. Also our Secretary of State, Walter Mosley. And I know our other electeds have been acknowledged, our partners in state government as well.

So here we are. Let's face it - there is no place quite like the Hudson Valley in the entire country. It is a special, special place with a long history. I hope that you're all embracing the America 250 sense of pride that we have across the state of knowing the incredible strategic role that New York State played in accomplishing what was just a dream of a few people who believed that we could do better than being subjected to the whim of a king across the sea. And it was really the Hudson Valley that really stood up and made a huge difference. And so I hope you're out visiting the sites and going around the state. Go all the way up to Ticonderoga and Saratoga, two really critical battles. I just interviewed Ken Burns on a podcast, so I had to get up to speed on all my battles so I could make sure I knew my history.

But this is a special place and I defy anyone to prove me wrong. This is - I've hiked your trails, I've visited your downtowns, I've sat along the beautiful waterfronts and watched the sunset over the Hudson. It is such a special place. And sometimes, and I know this from where I come from, it takes someone who didn't grow up there, an outsider in one sense, to come and remind you of this gift that you've been given to be able to live in this extraordinary community.

But all of you in this room - I know you dedicate yourselves to make them even better, better than you found them. And that is really a responsibility we have as elected officials, but also the communities who step up and the business leaders like Marsha Gordon and others who are out there just putting their heart and soul out there making this a better place. And so I thank all of you. It's just, it's really great to be back again.

I've fallen in love with this community so many times - its world-class culture and breathtaking beauty and the architecture and as I said such deep history. The challenge is that those of you who've been longtime residents know this, but the outside world has discovered this area, and that has created opportunities to invite more people to come live here, bring their businesses, bring their dreams. But also the challenges are how we manage that, and how we do it in a smart way, and that's what I'm excited about - it's not just a great place to visit, raise a family, but also build a future here.

And what this means is we have a real challenge with housing. I mention housing all the time, because we're never going to fulfill the American dream, especially for our young people who are being told that you have to defer something that your parents and grandparents could always count on. And I look at young people who've done everything we ask them to do - they got an education, they got a job, they want to start a family and be near mom and dad to help babysit the grandkids. I know what this is all about. And yet there's no place that was built for them to live in, and they have to leave the area, and that is a tragedy in my opinion, so I really appreciate everyone who also understands my vision, which is to allow people to stay in the community they're raised in or to welcome new visitors who want to call this home, and just build the housing that we need.

So growing our communities is really an important part of it. That's why I believe in the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and our New York Forward program, which I launched. We had the DRI for a number of years, but when I became Governor, I said, "What about the smaller communities?" I represented two little villages when I was a town board member in my town and they often feel overlooked. And I was - people are joking about is, are we in Upstate right now? I said, "It depends which football team you root for," but that's another topic. But I also said as an Upstate resident, I understand the stress that these communities are under. You want to do more, but you do not have the tax base to be able to put that on your taxpayers.

So that's where government, state government can be a partner, and I never had that. All my years, I had a vision for my community, but we never had a state government that could unleash substantial dollars all at once, so everything is not piecemealed - you can get a few dollars here this year and maybe in five years apply again, that's not how you get the impact the wow factor that all of you are striving for. And that's what's so amazing about this program and why I just love this so much. Albany does not have all the answers. It truly does not. We should not be telling communities what to do with their downtowns and other than just saying, "We're here to help." I don't believe in government that's on your back - government should be on your side, and this is an example of that philosophy, making sure you have the resources, the money to do what your community wants. Many of you have gathered residents, businesses - a coalition to help put forward the applications that were successful today. On your teams and your, in your local governments, I thank all of them for having the vision.

So that's what today is about. It's about bringing dreams to reality, and I get very excited about this. I know how powerful it is. And we're talking about transforming downtowns, creating housing, building a stronger future, and this program has done it thus far, but it's always time to add more. And today is about announcing three communities that have been selected.

Now let's start with the city of Yonkers, which is receiving a -

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City of Yonkers, how does $10 million sound to you today?

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Yonkers has quite a calling card - it's one of the safest cities in America. Schools are ranked among the best. More than 80 parks and historic sites. You really punch above your weight. This is really - this city offers so much. But also, we've talked about how we've also reimagined ourselves. You think about, here we are in Hollywood on the Hudson. Who would have thought of that just a few years ago? Look where we are right now. Look what's across the street, it's amazing. Any Gilded Age fans in the audience? Yeah, it's happening here.

Yeah I jumped. They were also up in Troy, and I went over to Schenectady and was on the set, and I'm looking at all the jobs that are created and the local pride and the restaurants that are bringing in the food to everybody. It has an incredible economic impact. But to know that they're able to take advantage of the tax credits that the leader and I support to be able to bring these jobs right here - this is powerful to show how a community can really seize an opportunity and make it become a reality. So we're excited about this, and I think they've used the Hudson River Museum as a set and the train station, and they transport you back to the, the 1880s. It's really special.

But it's also - that creates demand for housing as well because people come here and they say, "Oh, I want to live here now." And it also is a catalyst for our small businesses, our downtowns. I think about the little downtown that I grew up in, the Village of Hamburg. It was a wasteland after all the big businesses left, the steel plant and the car manufacturers - they all left and nobody was left.

The message was, "Last one here turn out the lights." So that was the promise to young people then. I look at Yonkers, who had an opportunity to do something that other communities had before them, but to transform this into a hub for creating the content that people see around the globe, it's really special. So I think we also can do more here to connect this community to the Hudson River. What a jewel this is that we have. This is so majestic and again, since Henry Hudson first came up that river and explored and opened up the commerce opportunities that were never there before, this is such an important opportunity for us at this moment in time to say, "This is who we are. We want to make the connections even stronger."

We want to make sure this is part of your plan. We want to make sure that families can walk safely to the river and have public spaces and pedestrian connections, which are so important, expanded streetscapes, gathering places, new destinations for recreation and tourism and investments that'll position the city for the future. So that is your vision, and hopefully $10 million will be a - go a long way to making it happen. So congratulations to Yonkers.

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Very proud to announce that the Village of Ellenville received a $4.5 million New York Ford award, and this is how many residents in Ellenville?

This is one of our smaller communities - but it deserves this, it deserves this. And so they've seen an influx of visitors and residents who've come the last few years who understand how wonderful this downtown is. And Mayor Trent and your team understand that a thriving downtown must be walkable, and must be welcoming, and it must be affordable. And so this, your vision includes building more housing and investing in public spaces and ensuring the downtown remains a really dynamic commercial and corridor and creating community space as well.

I love your emphasis on creating spaces for young people so they know this is their home, and they, if they go away for their education, they'll always come back and know this is their home. And also strengthen the village's connection to its proud history and the stunning surroundings with the mountains, the foothills. It's so beautiful there. So I want to also congratulate everyone in Ellenville. Congratulations to Ellenville.

And last but not least I'm proud to announce that the Hamlet of Livingston Manor in the town of Rockland will also receive $4.5 million in New York Forward funding. And anyone who's spent time in Livingston Manor knows why people are drawn to it. It's the creative vibe, the beautiful scenery, the main street that looks like a postcard. And leaders like Rockland supervisor, Rockland Town Supervisor Robert Egleton saw the vision here. He saw the possibilities, and understands what success means - it's protecting what we have that's special, but opening the door to the next possibilities, whether it's reimagining vacant properties or expanding art spaces, improving walkability, or strengthening connections to the creek. So this investment will help Livingston Manor remain unmistakably itself, but also enhancing that even more.

We invest - I conclude with this. We launched these two programs because we know investing in downtowns is not about investing in a space. It's about investing in people and their identity, which is often so linked to the community they're raised in or that they move to. We've committed over $1.4 billion over many years now to these programs, creating thousands of housing units, arts institutions, streets and public spaces, and really help communities execute ambitious visions for themselves that otherwise would not have become a reality.

So as we continue to make New York more affordable, I believe that building more housing is the linchpin to that. You're going to hear me say this 1,000 times. And I thank the communities that have stepped up and leaned into this because that's how you drive down the cost of rent - you build more supply. We saw it in New Rochelle. I toured there and saw that not only did rents stop going up, they stabilized, and now they're coming down. So we have the proof point that it actually works. So that's why these dollars make a difference. And every one of the communities that was receiving this award is a pro-housing community. That was designated by me a couple - two years ago.

You know, when I was told I needed to give more carrots, the leader and I talked about carrots, I accepted that - I listened. $750 million worth of carrots is a lot of carrots. So we've pulled together all the discretionary dollars the DRI and our Main Street grants and others, and said, "If you want a piece of this for your community, you have to make a commitment that you'll build more housing."

And that has been a successful formula, so I thank all of you for following our insistence that more housing be built for if you're a recipient of state dollars, and so I thank all of you for that. And I also think that every one of you has something special. I thank you for being the kind of leaders that understood that this money at this moment can really set you on a path to prosperity, success and a brighter future.

So congratulations to Yonkers, Ellenville and Livingston Manor.