B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Opening of New Buffalo Harbor State Park Sprayground

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the opening of transformative improvements to Buffalo Harbor State Park, including a new sprayground, buffalo art sculpture and fountain, enhanced accessible playground, café/retail space, public restrooms and park office. The improvements expand affordable recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike and add further energy to Buffalo's Outer Harbor waterfront.

B-ROLL of the Governor touring Buffalo Harbor State Park can be found on YouTube and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

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

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

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

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

Thank you, thank you, thank you. The Bills and the Sabres make us want to shout. How about that season, Sabres fans? That was extraordinary. Let's give a round of applause for our favorite teams. Wow, finally, it's happening. I'm a little delayed because it's pouring out in New York City, and I said, "It's always sunny in Buffalo, and that's where I'm going," so I had to drive to a different county to get a different airplane, but here we are. I would not miss this for the world. This is so important to me, and I want to thank some individuals who are very instrumental in making this happen. I want to thank our Acting Commissioner of Parks, Kathy Moser. Let's give her a round of applause. Mark Mistretta, our Western New York Regional Parks Director. Mark, where are you? Thank you, Mark, for all you've done. Great. Tim Hogues, our Civil Service Commissioner, is here as well. Welcome home. Mayor Sean Ryan - thank you, Mayor. Special shout-out to Joan Kesner, the chair of the Erie Canal Harbor Corporation and all the board members - all the board members stand up, please. Board members, please stand, rise - Leslie, others.

Joan has been nagging me about this for a long time. Every time we get together, let's get together for a cup of coffee, we go to the diner in Lackawanna, and all I get are plans about how we're going to do this, and get the buffalo here on time, and all this. And so, I want to thank you for your passion for this project. And anybody else I forgot to introduce? I'm sorry, there goes my paper. Cindy Letro, our Parks Commission Chair from this region. Cindy, where are you? Cindy, good to see you. All my partners in government, labor who built this park. Let's hear it for labor as well.

But Buffalo residents, Erie County residents, New York residents and all of our visitors, this is for you. This is taking what has been a very nice park, ordinary in some ways, and taking it to extraordinary. And those who want to head down memory lane, you really have to be a certain age to know what I'm talking about, but those who used to come over the Father Baker Bridge out there. Anybody hear of that before? Okay, you're showing your age. The Father Baker Bridge, but you never saw this piece of land because the sky was so orange. Remember? You look like you're going - you had to have your windshield wiper on because there was so much pollution in the air from the steel manufacturing that was going on here that you never even looked off to the water. You couldn't see it. But it was just a wasteland. There was no vision. No one believed that there could be anything better than what we have there at the time; it was just how it was going to be. And we had some visionary leaders at the time - Congressman Brian Higgins and his staff members, and Bonnie Kane Lockwood, who runs my local office and makes sure these projects happen, is here as well. Let's give a round of applause to Bonnie.

There were true believers back then who helped us get to this place, a magical place - a place where families can gather, children can build dreams and memories with their family and just have a sense of being part of something really special here. But I had a plan - we had a plan - that we could make this even better. And what you're seeing here today is that culmination of the effort that we committed to to say that Buffalo is worthy of these projects. Why not us? Why not something that is second to none in our nation in terms of creating more accessibility for children who need that? To have a place to play in the water when you're not - it can't be in that water - you can be at a splash pad. And also remind us that, yeah, this is Buffalo. How about that? How about that as well?

So two years of construction, almost $50 million of upgrades. We've transformed this into the ultimate family destination. As I mentioned, 6,700 square feet of sprayground for the children to cool off. I think the adults are going to be having some fun there too. I'll be over there. An expanded, universally accessible playground for swinging and sliding, multipurpose room for the community for activities, and a fully built-out permanent - get this everybody - bathroom facilities. How about this moms and dads? So now we can go offline. This is my slogan. I want the children offline. Put down the phones, put down the devices and come outside.

And so, this Buffalo Harbor State Park is exactly what I've wanted to deliver for the people of this community and not just make the waterfront more desirable, but it expands beyond this, expands beyond this. It goes down three miles. Just last summer we were here talking about what we were doing out at Terminal B, which we've finished and is now an incredible destination. Anybody been here watching the sunset and watching a concert? This is a gathering place that no one could have imagined just a few short years ago. So we have Terminal B transformed into an outdoor concert and event center, improving the Bell Slip restrooms down there, too. And also, we opened the Wilkinson Point after $11 million of new landscaping, increased water access, improved trails, park golf and a new restaurant. So all this has happened in a very short time.

When I became Governor I said, "This is my hometown, everybody. Move faster. Get it done. No more delays." But that was always the story of Buffalo, right? People had great ideas, but then they'd sit on the shelf with all the other great ideas piling higher and higher. But sometimes you just have to say, "No more. No more. We're going to turn them into reality."

Also, another vision I had a few years ago, back in 2022, brand new Governor, I went to a meeting of the Great Lakes Governors and Canadian premiers. I went up to Quebec, and I had an opportunity to meet someone who was in charge of cruises along the Great Lakes. And they told me, I said, "Show me where, where you go. We go to Toronto, come to the Erie Welland Canal. We go to Erie, Pennsylvania." And I was like, "Did you know there's a place called Buffalo along the way?" They're like what have you got?" And I said, "I'm going to make something magnificent that you will not be able to say no to." So we've invested the money into now having a cruise terminal. You saw the pictures unveiled recently. It's amazing, and here's what I want you to do. We're going to have a temporary location this year down where the Miss Buffalo docks. Go on down there and welcome people. Let them show some Buffalo love. And then more people are going to hear about what a friendly place we are, and introduce them to everything we cherish here, the Bills, the Sabres, chicken wings, anything you want to do, just make them feel welcome. When they finally come down here, when they step off and see how beautiful our waterfront is, I believe that's going to be part of changing our national and international reputation. When people from around the world have a chance to come here on a beautiful cruise, they will say, "Oh, this is the place we want to come back to and stay and visit."

So all this is happening right now, so this is our moment. And I want to make sure that the children who grow up now will have to never know the past. They don't know what this looked like. They don't have to know all the effort that we had to endure years of waiting because the future is now. Buffalo's future has arrived, and places like this, using an asset that's been there for generations, and people worked here, worked hard - immigrants came here. My grandfather came here, worked right down the road there, taking his lunch pail to work for the three-to-eleven shift every day. But now we've converted it into a public space, a place to be celebrated, a place to be cherished by all those today and tomorrow.

So I also want to recognize that this sculpture is called "The Buffalo of Love" sculpture. And the fountain behind me captures that essence perfectly. It's an eighteen-foot long, thirteen-foot tall, three-ton metal monument to our past, present, and future. It's the work of renowned artists, Ai Qui Hopen and Bill Hopen to create something magnificent. Are they in the audience here? Let's give a round of applause. Please stand up. Please stand up. This is magical. Magical. [...] Well done. Well done. Totally encapsulates the vision that I wanted to have for this waterfront, and it's, we're a lot of firsts. Get this one. World's first transparent stainless steel buffalo. It's only here. It's only here. So look closely because it's made up of birds in flight. Those are birds, 15 different species, all native to New York. Think about what went into this process. It is brilliant, and it symbolizes our unity and our diversity. And as the light changes through the day, you'll see the patterns of the birds slowly changing on the ground beneath. Isn't that incredible? Unbelievable - let's just give that another round of applause. I am so excited about this.

Again, this was made possible because of our union workers who made this a reality, got the job done. Our Regional Parks team, thank you very much, led by Mark and all those and all our other elected officials here from the city and, and the state, and also just the incredible Erie Canal Harbor Corporation, again, led by Joan and everyone who cares so deeply about this community. So I'll be back in a moment. Back in a moment to turn on the fountain. Probably get a little wet if I'm standing in the wrong place. We'll try not to let that happen, but for now, let me conclude.

2026, when you think about it, is really an incredible year. We got this done, on time. Two years ago, I stood here and said, "We'll have it done by Memorial Day 2026." Okay? And when I realized that Memorial Day was a week earlier than usual, I said, "Okay, it's still Memorial Day, okay? I'm not giving you the extra week." So we got literally - when did the buffalo arrive? Monday, okay. Literally, the buffalo came down the road. You see the pictures. It literally just arrived because I said, "We have to have the buffalo here." Okay, the buffalo's ready. But speaking of Buffalo, we're doing this Memorial Day. By Labor Day, on time, we'll also have the brand-new Highmark Stadium, home to the Buffalo Bills. Another vision that I wanted to make sure became a reality as a Buffalo Governor. Yeah, I'll wear that proudly. The first governor since Grover Cleveland from Buffalo. I want you to know that you are the beneficiaries of my love of this community. My love is so deep. It has made me who I am. I'm sure sometime this week I'm going to head over to the trailer park my parents started at many, many years ago, the diner over in Lackawanna, as I mentioned, because I never forget where I came from or the values that are embedded in me as a Buffalonian, a Western New Yorker, and I take that all over the state with a sense of pride. We have an extraordinary state. But I want you to know that this is our gift to Buffalo, and I do hope that for generations people understand what Buffalo love is all about. Thank you very much, everyone.

Let me welcome up our Acting Parks Commissioner, Kathy Moser.