September 20, 2017-Bronx, NY- Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announces Bronx Civic
On Tuesday, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the Bronx Civic Center neighborhood in the South Bronx will receive $10 million in funding and investments as the New York City winner of the second round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. As in the first round of the DRI, one downtown from each of the state’s 10 regional economic development regions will be selected as that region’s DRI winner and will benefit from $10 million in state investment to revitalize the area, marking another overall state goal to target $100 million in funding and investments to help communities identify catalytic downtown projects to boost the local economy.
Watch “Governor Cuomo Makes An Announcement At Bronx Museum Of The Arts” on YouTube
The state has been more productive, and had a greater relationship with the Bronx, than any administration I can recall. And I go back a long, long way. We’re building four new MTA stations. Co-op City, Hunts Point, Parkchester, Morris Park. It’s going to open up transportation in four locations that now don’t exist.
Hunts Point we opened an organic food hub that’s going to serve the Bronx and other areas. Good food, healthy food, and jobs right here in the Bronx. SilvercupStudios and York Studios – who would have believed you would be doing movies here in the Bronx. But they are here and it is working and it is growing and I’ll bet you it’s not the last of it. I’ll bet it’s just the beginning. Roberto Clemente State Park -beautiful idea but it needed help. We invested $35 million and now it’s a park we can be proud of once again. Empire State Poverty Reduction program to help people with the greatest need. Hostos Community College, we started two programs for the jobs of tomorrow – new media jobs and health care professional training. We started the job training strike taskforce for young minority males predominately, who are chronically unemployed and underemployed. 10,000 people have gotten training. 8,000 people in permanent jobs. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?
September 20, 2017-Bronx, NY- Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announces Bronx Civic
We’ve been building affordable housing all across the Bronx. We’re rebuilding the Madison Avenue Bridge. We’re rebuilding the Broadway Bridge. We’re funding the BOEDC and the [Bronx] Chamber of Commerce. And a project that I am so proud of because I’ve heard about this project for 20 years. My father was Governor a long, long time ago. And I remember a group coming in complaining about Sheridan Expressway and Hunts Point, talking about asthma for children and trucks backing up and the price tag was $2 billion. I remember my father’s frustration because he said, “There’s no way I can get the legislature to do $2 billion for one program for the Bronx.” Because it was a lot of money, to change the interchange and roads, et cetera. After 20 years, we are doing the Sheridan Expressway and Hunts Point access. And you look at the scoreboard – the Bronx is now the fastest growing borough in the city of New York. 6,000 new affordable housing units. When we started, unemployment was 12 percent and change. Today unemployment is 6 percent. We cut it in half with 70,000 new jobs.
And that brings us to today. Now, we had a competition for communities that came up with the best downtown revitalization plan. And we wanted to leave it to the communities to design their own vision of what the downtown area should be and here in the Bronx you focused on the hub and the civic center and the courthouse area and you came up with a really smart plan that hit all the bases.
So, I’m here to tell you, congratulations. You are a first place winner. You won $10 million. You did it. You earned it. It’s just more momentum for the Bronx. You’ve been hitting it out of the park every time you get up. The leadership here is extraordinary. The borough president’s doing a great job.
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