Investment Will Unlock New Housing, Business, and Employment Opportunities in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood, Enhance Quality of Life for All Buffalo Residents

Underscores Governor's Commitment To Jumpstarting Upstate Economies, Revitalizing Downtown Communities Through DRI

Governor Hochul: "This is a community that matters. It has a story to continue telling - the story of East Buffalo is not over yet. I believe that young people today born in this community are going to look back and bring their own children back here and their grandkids and say, 'I was there when this revitalization really hit its stride. We started really giving an opportunity for people to feel proud of their communities.'"

Hochul: "We're investing in not just a place, we're investing in our people. And that's what gets me so excited about this today. So, I thank everyone for participating. The best is yet to come, and really proud to make these announcements here in my hometown in Buffalo."

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced 11 transformational projects in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood to enhance the quality of life for Buffalonians and create business, employment, and housing opportunities as part of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative award. These investments will leverage the neighborhood's dense stock of largely historic commercial buildings for vibrant new green space, retail-oriented streets, improved bike and pedestrian connections and lively streetscapes. These improvements are part of the Governor's ongoing efforts to revitalize the upstate economy and uplift Western New York communities.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here

AUDIO of the event is available here.

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

Thank you so very much. Welcome, as we have an opportunity to demonstrate our further commitment to East Buffalo and the people of Western New York. And I want to thank everyone. It's indeed a solemn day for all of us, and I just acknowledge that this is the six-month anniversary, reflection. Now people reflect on what happened to our neighbors on that bright, sunny day on a Saturday that is forever steered in our hearts on May 14th. And we lost 10 good people on that day. And just to put us in the proper perspective, I'd like to bring up Reverend Mark Blue to give us some words of prayer and to remind us of the presence of God in our lives.

Thank you, Reverend Blue. And I also want to acknowledge the presence of our New York State Secretary of State, Robert Rodriguez. I want to give him a round of applause. Everybody should get to know him. He is a great leader. As mentioned, the Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, has joined us once again. She's ever-present here in her community, as well as a strong influence for this community and everyone in the state, in our state legislature.

Our Mayor, Byron Brown, who showed us the definition of courage and leadership during some extraordinarily challenging times. Let's give him another round of applause, Mayor Byron Brown. Our County Executive, Mark Poloncarz, another person I've worked very closely with for many years of public service, so I want to acknowledge his service to our community as well. Council Member, who's been a champion for this area, Mitch Nowakowski, thank you for joining us.

We also are announcing part of our projects that are determined by the Regional Economic Development Councils, and I want to recognize Katherine Conway-Turner, the Co-Chair of the Western New York Regional Council, and Eric Rice, the Co-Chair of the Western New York Council, and thank them for everything they've done to help us to make the right decisions for this community.

Also, Brendan McDuffie, the Former President of the Buffalo Urban League, who will be co-chairing the local planning committee as well. Brendan, great to see again. Also, we have members of the team of Congress, and Brian Higgins, who could be with us here today, as well as our Senator, Tim Kennedy, who is deserving of recognition, as well as everyone here at the Matt Urban Center. I want to thank them for hosting us here today as we make some significant announcements that we're going to get up to in about a minute.

I do want to say that after the six months, you know, I would say one reflection is powerful. One is that we are stronger than we were before. This tragedy was something we had to deal with in the moment, but if you think about the six months we just came through, it is a true statement that our spirits were not broken, our spirits were in fact lifted up. And scripture says, "The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger." And that's what happened in this incredibly strong community. We lift each other up, we looked out for each other, we took care of our neighbors, and we didn't wallow in our pain and suffering.

And our hearts break every day for those families that are still having the empty seat at the kitchen table or the dining room, especially as the holidays come upon us. But we are going to now continue to forge a path forward and harken in a new beginning for Buffalo because we came together as one after this tragedy. It won't define us forever, but people know to look at this time and say how he came through, what has to be so uniquely known as the Buffalo Way.

I want to thank Reverend Blue, again, for his leadership at this time and as we continue to rewrite the Buffalo Comeback story. This community has such potential. East Buffalo has always had that potential.

I came to this community as a college student. My mother was involved in the social work program at the University of Buffalo when she was a student. She came to know a woman, extraordinary leader, Sister Desponsata. And those of you who are very old, but remember the name, but this is in the 1970s. And Sister Desponsata saw this need for people who are elderly, people in poverty, people who couldn't find jobs. And she teamed up with my mother and they opened something known as the Neighborhood Information Center, over on Sycamore Avenue, I recall. And my mother had all of us, as her children, working there. And we went in, that was our summer jobs, and my sister, even five years younger. Remember we used to go around with Sister Desponsata and knock on the doors of the people, and bring in people from the African American community, the older Polish community, and it was a gathering place for people, but it was a place where services could be rendered. So, this is a community I have spent time in for many, many, many decades, and this is why I still feel at this time there is more work to be done, as we have not achieved its full potential. But we're going to continue making the investments day after day after day after day, to let everyone know that this is a community with a great story, a great history, a great heritage, and even better future. So that's why we're going to keep making these investments.

And as you know, in my State of the State address last January, we talked about how we can reunite a community that was literally divided by asphalt, a decision made by individuals who determined that the best thing you could do for Buffalo was to divide it in half, to really split the heart in two and create the exodus of white flight out to the suburbs easier is what's happening when people could live out there and have a quick commute back downtown. That really began the disintegration of our strength of our city. And we have tocontinue talking about that, talk about what went on at that time, but now how we write those wrongs, which is what our $1 billion investment in reconnecting the neighborhoods divided by the Kensington Expressway that happened long ago. And I want to thank Crystal Peoples-Stokes for being a real champion of that project as well, and our Mayor and everyone else who's been involved, and Senator Kennedy. We also announced $37 million to the Broadway Market, a place I've shopped at many times and I don't just want it to be vibrant during Easter week, as we all know it is. It's packed, I want to see it that packed year-round.

And again, it's part of our heritage, it's part of the story, it's part of what makes Buffalo so unique, to have a place like that. I cherish going there and I do go there other than just Easter week, but I do want to see more people there. So, we're going to invest in this and let's just - let's bring it back to the earlier idea of it being a gathering place, people can shop and get to know their neighbors, and bring back that sense of community. Also, $30 million we talked about for the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor. It's a story that needs to be told, and they need the resources to be able to put that out there, to identify all the areas that have historic significance, and draw tourists to this region for that purpose. Also, $6 million to revitalize the Martin Luther King Park. We want to make sure we keep those investments. $55 million for phase three of the Northland Quarter Redevelopment Area, as well as $21 million per Northland Workforce Training Center. That was all last January. Before anything happened, we decided, back then, so much more had to happen. And I thank our legislature, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, and our local representative, Senator Tim Kennedy and others, for helping champion this through the legislature.

And I also want to thank the Ralph Wilson Foundation for all the work that they have done for this community and continue to do. We also invested in affordable housing, something we have to continue doing because people want to live here. This is a great community. $93 million in Pilgrim Village to help 237 apartments for families and seniors in the Fruit Belt area. School studio apartments, I've been to a lot of ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings here, and it's so great when you take a school, a former school, and you go in and you get to talk to someone and they say, "This was my first-grade classroom. I used to be a student here. Now I get to call this my home." So very excited about it. And then after May 14th, we announced an additional $50 million to help the community heal in a very direct way. Investments in more housing and economic development, job creation, and the whole issue of food insecurity. So, those are some of the areas that we've been taking steps up until now, but today we take it another step further.

Today, I'm proud to announce that we're investing in 11 transformative projects to revitalize this downtown area. And we believe that these investments will result in over $44 million of private sector as well. And the Buffalo Fillmore District has been selected — was announced last year as one of the $10 million recipients, and they'll receive an additional $34 million from the private sector as well.

Let me just give you a high level of what some of the projects are. I talked about making the Broadway market look a little better. How does that look? $2.5 million,

$2.5 million for enhancements to the Broadway market. $1.7 million for the pedestrian experience. I mean, look at the street lighting and the signage and everything that makes it look so much more vibrant. One point - or I'm sorry - $1 million for the construction of the Buffalo Central Terminal Great Lawn. What a waste of space this has been. Let's make this magnificent. This can be a gathering place where people can celebrate each other and have festivals, and just a place where you can have concerts and really make people feel connected in the community.

Also, $1 million for renovation of 239 lumbar to provide child care and train child care workers. What a need this is. That's one of the reasons why a lot of parents, especially moms, have not been able to get back to work. A lot of child care centers shut down during the pandemic, and it became very expensive. You know, as part of our budget, investing in families and helping lift the cost of living for them, we're investing over $7.7 billion in families for child care - supporting the providers, giving better wages to the workers as well as supporting the families. And over half the children in the State of New York, half the children, are eligible for assistance for the cost of child care. And that's extraordinary. I want to make sure we're doing that right here in Buffalo.

$630,000 for the revitalization of the Sears Paderewski Park. Let's make that park look worthy of the name. $550,000 for affordable housing at the PlayterGardens at the Market. $500,000 for the renovation of the Historic Schreiber Brewery, Schreiber Brewery. $427,000 to renovate 950 Broadway for the Affordable Daycare Center. Yes, more daycare. Another $362,000 to expand the neighborhood bakery. Let's - I remember - that looks a little brighter, a little more vibrant. Let's make that look spectacular. As well as $290,000 for improvements right here at the Matt Urban School for After School and Performance Space. So proud to announce that.

So that's just an overview. We have all the details we'll be happy to release. But, you know, with all these projects, it shows number one, we care about this community. This is a community that matters. It has a story to continue telling - the story of East Buffalo is not over yet. I believe that young people today born in this community are going to look back and bring their own children back here and their grandkids and say, "I was there when this revitalization really hit its stride. We started really giving an opportunity for people to feel proud of their communities."

And this is long overdue. It's a great, great, great community. And people have wanted the recognition, the intention and the investments for a long time. And Mayor Brown has been doing this his entire tenure as Mayor, working closely with the state, and I thank him again for bringing so many projects to our attention, working as a real partner in these investments.

So, it's all about redevelopment, new development, job creation, job retention and economic housing, food security, as well as the housing costs are getting too high in Buffalo. We have to make sure that we continue to build out our housing inventory of affordable housing. So, so far, we've invested over $600 million in 59 communities across the state helping downtowns, but I really could not be prouder to do it right here in my hometown of Buffalo.

So, we're investing in not just a place, we're investing in our people. And that's what gets me so excited about this today. So, I thank everyone for participating. The best is yet to come, and really proud to make these announcements here in my hometown in Buffalo. And with that, I'd like to offer the opportunity for our Majority Leader, Crystal Peoples-Stokes to give some reflections. Or the Mayor, who wanted to go first? All right, Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Okay. Let's give her a round of applause.