Mamdani Announces $783m Edenwald Renovation! Better Apartments And Community For NYC

And I want to say a special thank you to Kara Vogel, who's been emceeing tonight, to Laszlo Jakab-Orsos, who spoke to us and has continued to lead at the Brooklyn Public Library, to our very own Pierogi Boys, who've been here with us, and to our incoming Commissioner of the Office of Labor Relations, Liz Vladek. Now, some of you likely took the Queensboro Bridge to get here tonight. But I'm willing to bet that few of you thought about Gustav Lindenthal while you crossed the river. Born in 1850 in what is known today as Czechia, Lindenthal immigrated to America with dreams of becoming a civil engineer. After nearly 30 years of learning the arts of the bridge, he became the commissioner of New York's Department of Bridges. And while serving our city, he designed Queensborough, a vital point of connection that for more than 120 years has helped our city grow and allowed New Yorkers to reach one another. And there is something deeply moving to me about an immigrant who travels across an ocean because he wants to build bridges. Lindenthal's story is exceptional, but it is not the exception. The history of our city is filled with Eastern Europeans carrying that same spirit. For generations, men and women have arrived here from Georgia to Croatia and everywhere in between in search of an opportunity they could find nowhere else. And for generations, they have seized the opportunity to build a city that was stronger, that was more ambitious and more decent, changing the landscape of New York for the better. Even as so many fled wars, pogroms, and governments that sought to exile them for whether their religion or their identity, they arrived here refusing to abandon hope for a new life. They were ready to infuse every corner of this city with their ideas, innovations, and culture. At the turn of the 20th century, the Lower East Side bustled with Russians and Poles who came to find work in the garment industry and who organized to deliver the better wages and workplace protections that we now take for granted. In the wake of the 1956 revolution, Hungarians settled in Yorkville, where they worked as teachers and civil servants, and opened the Hungarian house to connect their homeland with the city they now called their home. And when Albanians faced persecution as Yugoslavia dissolved, they stitched their lives back together in the Bronx, now proudly home to the largest Albanian community in the country. As I've said that, I probably have to do this. New Yorkers experienced the contributions that Eastern Europeans have made every day. in so many of the small gifts that bring this city to life. We taste it when we bite into a fresh khachapuri in Brighton Beach or a pierogi in Ridgewood. We stand in awe of it when we take in a Rothko painting at MoMA, read a book of essays by Heschel tucked away in the Brooklyn Public Library, or listen to the intricate harmonies of a chorus like the one we heard tonight. And we immerse ourselves in it in the steam of a banya, where babushkas and Bushwick influencers can schvitz together side by side, as was always meant to be. And yet we see the struggles that so many continue to face as they make this city home. The Romanian dock worker whose paycheck doesn't cover what it used to at the supermarket. The Lithuanian nurse who commutes two hours from New Jersey to see her family because she can no longer afford an apartment on the Upper West Side. The Ukrainian grandmother who worries every day about what new tragedy the war will bring. The story of this city, our past, our present, our future. It cannot be told without the story of our Eastern European community. And if that story teaches us anything, it is that we must protect the opportunity that so many have found here in New York. We must keep building a city where working people can afford their rent, buy their groceries, and imagine a future of possibility and prosperity. One where every immigrant who comes to this city with the vision of a new life has the chance to make it real. And I have to say that as someone who grew up in this city, it has been such a joy to learn the words of the languages that have been brought here by Eastern Europeans. To think of these things, not as of another place, but as New York. And that to me is the glory and the beauty and the privilege of calling this city our home. It is that I, a man who was born in East Africa, came to this city at seven years old, can go and visit my Montenegrin friend's house and see his grandmother and say, dobro, kakosi. And I have no idea what I'm saying. But that's just how we grew up. Those are the two words she would understand. Those are the two words I can say to her. And it's the same belief that no matter where we're coming from, together we are all weaving the same fabric of this one city. And so as we celebrate tonight, I ask that we recommit ourselves to the mission that sustained Lindenthal's work more than a century ago. To the idea that we too could come here and others could join us and build the very bridges that have been making this city what it is for years and so i want to say thank you for making the city your home thank you for making this the greatest city in the world it is such a pleasure to be your mayor it is such a pleasure to look out on a community not just of eastern europeans but of eastern europeans who have built this city every single day thank you so much subscribe to one india and never miss an update download the one India app now.