Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) delivered remarks on Friday on investing in East Buffalo.
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00:00So great to be back in Buffalo, where when you say Go Bills, people answer correctly,
00:11they say Go Bills, right? I'm still trying to teach the rest of the state. We have to
00:16be patient with them. Wonderful to see everyone again. And I want to thank you for joining
00:24us on this special afternoon and thank my partners in government. And two women who may
00:31look a little sleep-deprived is our Major Leader, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who's been working
00:37tirelessly on our budget. And Senator April Baskin did a great job. Strong, strong partners
00:47who delivered for Buffalo in our budget. We worked hard together. Also, we have our county
00:54executive Mark Poloncars, who's joined us. Thank you, county executive, for all you do.
01:00Mayor Chris Scanlon has joined us. Thank you, mayor, for all you do as well.
01:05All the other elected leaders here today, but also, I have my dream team. I have the leader
01:12of my economic development team who's doing an extraordinary job. And believe me, she has
01:16been to Buffalo almost as much as I have. And that is the president and CEO of Empire State
01:22Development, Hope Knight. Commissioner for Civil Service, Tim Hoegs, who also did it for the county.
01:37Buffalo's own. And Mark Schroeder, who has been head of our DMV and through some trials and
01:44tribulations, but he got real ID over the finish line. And Larry Stitz, the president of the Greater
01:53Jefferson Business Association. Larry, an owner of Golden Cup Coffee, where I went there first when
02:02I landed. Larry and I. Constituents always have a lot on their mind in your place. I'll just say that.
02:09A lot of good, a lot of selfies, but a lot of good conversations as well. It's like, okay, I hear
02:14you. Okay, sure, sure. Call your city council member for that. But the sweet potato pound cake is to die
02:25for, right? I mean, that's next level. That's next level. But on a more somber note, I made a promise
02:35as the first governor from Buffalo, as Mark Schroeder, our historian, would tell you,
02:43since Grover Cleveland, who is not buried here, so Mark won't count him as from Buffalo. So I may be
02:49the only governor ever from Buffalo. But I wanted to make sure that the city that has been sometimes
02:58down and out, and people thought it could never come back. I want to make sure you had all the
03:05resources you need to be the full enrichment of a truly queen city well into the 21st century.
03:13But sometimes there's setbacks that are really painful. And my hometown, just a few minutes from
03:23here, was the site of one of the most horrific, brutal mass killings driven by race in our nation's
03:32history. I'll never forget getting the call. I was over in the Hudson Valley, and within seconds,
03:38I was in route, and I was still here when everything was still going on. And that has been heavy in my
03:46heart for these three years now. And I dedicated myself to healing this community, working closely,
03:56doing whatever I could as a daughter of Buffalo. And as we approached the anniversary just on May 14th,
04:04I wanted to make sure I stopped by, gathered with the 914 Memorial Commission members who are working
04:13so hard. So these families have a place to go to hear, read the stories of their family members,
04:20their loved ones, but not just for our generation, for generations to come, that their stories will live
04:27in this memorial. When people say, who are they? Well, we're not even here anymore. They'll know the
04:34story of a community that was so tough, and so resilient, and so loving and giving of each other
04:41that they pulled together in their memory, and said, we will stand against gun violence with every
04:48fiber of our being, because no one should ever have their life cut down, whether it's the random street
04:53violence, or a mass murder, like we experienced here in Buffalo. That is not how life is supposed
05:01to end. It's not the natural course. And I needed to come here, and we just met and placed flowers at
05:08the TOPS Memorial. It is a beautiful place, but what we're working on is going to be extraordinary,
05:14extraordinary. So I'm asking this community to continue to support this. Reverend Blue, I want to
05:19thank him for chairing this commission. Let's give him a round of applause. Head of the NAACP, chair of
05:25the commission, and others who pulled together. Oh, we're just getting started, and I thank all of you
05:32for being involved. So today matters, because I came here and also said, what can I do? I can give
05:39comfort. I can give sympathy. I'm a good hugger. I can hug everybody, and did a lot of that. But also,
05:46to let this community know they matter and they're so important to me as the governor and to the rest of
05:51us, I knew we needed more investments. I needed to show not just words, but in deeds. And we've worked
06:01hard to build something, and I'm grateful for all the East Buffalo property owners and the community-based
06:06real estate trainees, the non-for-profit leaders, the community partners, the elected elites, everybody
06:10pulled together to revitalize East Buffalo one building at a time. So we have been steadfast in
06:18our support over the last three years, investing over $50 million in housing assistance alone,
06:25saying that there's too much blight here. There's too many lots that are either vacant or have decrepit
06:31buildings, or there's people living in their homes who don't have enough money to make the repairs to get
06:37by. So we've invested direct money right in this very community, so that families who've lived here for
06:44generations might even be able to buy that home on their own, something that's been out of reach for so
06:51many, with the down payment assistance program, or help families who are at risk of foreclosure, or
06:58like I said, the home ownership program. All these programs were to help these individuals and their
07:04children be able to build a new life in East Buffalo and grew up where their parents did. We have
07:10beautiful amenities here. And I'm working hard to revitalize our commercial districts,
07:17which, when I grew up, were so busy, so vibrant. And over the Broadway market, you didn't just come
07:24there Easter weekend. You came there all the time. That's where people shopped.
07:28My father-in-law's family had a hokal funeral home in this part of town. And this is part of my family's
07:37story. So what we've done is successfully revitalized over 60 commercial mixed-use buildings
07:46with new roofs and masonry, and doing everything we can to maintain the character and the vibrancy of
07:52this part of Buffalo. I've always marveled at our historic neighborhoods, which is why we've been so
07:57focused on restoring landmarks in this community. And for that, we've committed over $250 million
08:04in this part of Buffalo as well for institutions and structures, places like the Michigan Street
08:10African American Heritage Corridor, and Broadway Fillmore. $10 million in revitalization for that
08:17as well. Like I said, the Broadway market and the central terminal, which I want to get done. I think
08:24that's going to be a monument to resiliency of a strong, strong community that believes in itself
08:30again. And the shining Apollo Media Theater, the most beautiful Olmstead Park, the MLK Park.
08:37We've all brought them back from decline into revert, rebirth. But we're just getting started.
08:45There's more to do. Isn't there, folks? There's more to do. We have to do more.
08:49And today, we're building on that momentum with $10 million, the East Side Building Fund,
08:57because there is more to do, and we're going to get it done.
09:01This will help streamline neighborhood improvements and move money, here's this,
09:06more quickly into the community, so you don't have to wait forever. I'm very impatient. Everybody knows
09:12that. But I'll take my time when it comes to important things, like the budget. We'll get it
09:17right. It's all right. You get what you want. It's worth waiting for, right? I take a lot of hits.
09:25We're from Buffalo, right? You can't hurt us. You can't hurt us, right? And I'll support projects of
09:31all sizes, you know, from storefront renovations, which are so important. My mother, when she was
09:38starting out her career to help victims of domestic violence and people that were suffering in
09:42communities, became one of the founders of the Neighborhood Information Center in East Buffalo.
09:48Anybody remember who that was? I think it was over on Sycamore. And my parents used to take us,
09:54and especially my mom would go visit everybody. And I saw the storefronts. And, you know, there's a lot
10:00of great architecture, but they get plastered over. You have to put the wood up there because,
10:06the plywood, because the glass is broken. And what a sign of despair. And I want that fixed. And I want
10:14larger rehabilitation projects. With the $50 million we committed three years ago, and $8 million more
10:21into the vacant rental program, you've added up, we're talking over $70 million. That was money that
10:28was not necessarily coming here that I said I want spent in Buffalo.
10:32Because these areas have been neglected for too long. But also, this is such an important part of
10:40our state. What's good for Buffalo, lifting up Buffalo means we're lifting up New York. And we take care of
10:45our historic districts. You can't touch our architecture in this community and our Olmstead parks. I mean,
10:52it's extraordinary. It's extraordinary. And whether it's through renovation or new construction or
10:57restoration, there's so many different things we have an ability to do. But one thing we can never
11:03lose sight of is our belief in the better future. And if it takes resources from the state of New York,
11:09I will continue to make sure that happens. Because we'll show the world that Buffalo never backs down.
11:18We never cave. We never cower. We stand up proudly. We are a proud, strong community. And no matter what
11:27comes our way, we'll still be standing in the morning. And that's my commitment to Buffalo.
11:32So we're going to continue the sense of hope in our people, in our streets, in our neighborhoods,
11:43in our community, our identity. And we're going to continue to hope for a Super Bowl win.
11:51Because that's what makes Buffalo Buffalo, right? There's always something over the horizon that you're
11:56fighting for, striving for. It gets us up in the morning. And that is the energy I embrace as I lead this
12:02great state because of people like all of you who supported me since I was local government. It's the
12:08grit, the charm, the generosity, that unbreakable spirit that I internalize. So I could not be prouder
12:15to stand with you here today on the cusp of a painful, painful anniversary. But know that this community
12:24is undaunted. And we are tough. And I thank you for instilling that in me. Because it's a matter of
12:31survival sometimes. And I know I don't just thrive. I will always thrive because of what I have in bed
12:38in me. Buffalo born and bred. Buffalonians, you're tough. I love you. And let's continue to make the
12:44east side rise up to its grander glory. Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you.
12:52Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
13:04And now, in case you need to be caffeinated when you leave here today,
13:08head on order to Golden Cup Coffee. And I don't know if there's any sweet potato pound cake left.
13:14But ladies and gentlemen, a leader of this community, Larry Stitts.
13:28That's a tough act to follow.
13:34Thank you, Governor. And good afternoon.
13:37Along with my wife and I, Jackie, we are owners of the Golden Cup Coffee Company at 1323 Jefferson Avenue.
13:49We started Golden Cup 15 years ago. And we've been fortunate to watch our business grow.
13:56Today, Golden Cup on Jefferson Avenue is one of two African-American-owned coffee roasteries
14:06in the city of Buffalo.
14:14In 2008, we had a vision to expand the hub of our operation by acquiring the property
14:23at Jefferson and 1362 Jefferson Avenue. It had been opened earlier in the 1940s
14:33as a grocery store. And through wear and tear, we took the opportunity after purchasing that building
14:44and made a commitment to bring it back to life. The building needed and still need a lot of work.
14:51Many buildings in the commercial district on Jefferson Avenue need a lot of work.
15:01And we appreciate the governor bringing those funds into the community because we're going to bring
15:08Jefferson back one business at a time.
15:17In 2020,
15:20they helped us secure fifty thousand dollars
15:24from the Commercial Building Stabilization Fund
15:27to put on a new roof.
15:32The roof was in critical condition, as they would say.
15:36New York State then had a grant
15:40to where they gave us seventy-three thousand dollars to put the floors in.
15:45Yes, to put the floors in.
15:48And we couldn't move equipment or anything in there without the floors.
15:54And we really appreciate that.
15:58With these much-needed improvements,
16:01we are finally realizing our dream
16:05for future production, expansion, and cafe development at 1362.
16:11For the first time, there's a real sense that the east side of Buffalo is turning around.
16:23Financial opportunities are being made available to entrepreneurs like me
16:30have been patiently waiting for that time to come.
16:35It has truly been a golden opportunity for my wife and I,
16:39and I look forward to spreading the word about the $10 million
16:45East Side Building Fund and continuing East Side Buffalo revitalization.
16:52Next time you're on Jefferson Avenue, Governor,
16:56please come by and grab a cup of coffee and sweet potato pound cake.
17:04And at this time, I'd just like to thank you
17:06for the support that you've given the Golden Cup
17:11and all of the businesses on Jefferson Avenue.
17:14Like I said, we're going to bring Jefferson back one building at a time.
17:18Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Majority Leader Crystal People Stokes.
17:29Good afternoon. Good afternoon. How's everybody doing?
17:42This is how you look when you just got off to 90
17:45and you just finished passing in historic state budget.
17:48And you literally didn't think you were coming here today because I heard it was at one o'clock.
17:54I was like, I can't make one o'clock. Why couldn't I make one o'clock?
17:57Because the payroll office didn't open till nine.
18:00And I was not leaving Albany.
18:04Without being able to pay some bills here in Buffalo.
18:07So I am super grateful to be here. I certainly want to honor our great governor.
18:13I mean, you all know I've been around for at least five governors.
18:20This is a great governor.
18:21Now, I'm not saying that because she's from Buffalo.
18:28And I'm not saying that because I know her as a friend.
18:31I'm saying that because I've seen the results of her work.
18:35And I know that there are tons of people not just in this room,
18:38but probably in this state and in the city who don't like some of the things that she does.
18:43But you know what? People who only focus on one issue and decide their opinion on an election
18:49is suffering from a Goldilocks syndrome.
18:54We need to be looking at a holistic system.
18:57That's what we have in this governor. And I'm super grateful for her.
19:00Certainly grateful to be here.
19:06With my new colleague, Senator April Baskin.
19:09It's a pleasure to be able to work with her.
19:11It's a pleasure to be able to work with all of the elected officials across this community.
19:18There's some people I know there's a primary going on, but let's still talk about their primaries happen.
19:23And at the end of the day, somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose.
19:27But right now, there are people that are doing the job in Buffalo.
19:31And I think we have to honor them.
19:33So Interim Mayor Scanlon, I honor you.
19:35I certainly honor the council members.
19:38Boylan, Majority Leader.
19:40I honor all the council people.
19:44There she is over there.
19:45I honor the work that you do.
19:48And because you spoke so loudly and so vividly about what you needed,
19:53I worked really hard to make that happen.
19:55And I hope that it serves the people of Buffalo.
19:57When Hope Knight was introduced, I had to stand up and give her an applause because
20:07she's a mighty financial person.
20:11I had to.
20:13I am grateful to have had the opportunity a couple months ago, my chief of staff and I,
20:18to go over the total of what happened with this $10 billion.
20:21And I was like, this is huge.
20:28You have to talk about this more often because there are still people in our community,
20:33literally walking around and saying nothing is happening.
20:37I know, it's hard to understand, but they still are saying that.
20:41And so I think even when you make this great announcement today and Hope,
20:46when you all make this announcement, that there's still going to be people who are naysayers
20:50and going to find some things that are wrong.
20:54Well, if you're adding another $10 million to that, let's see what they say after that.
20:59Because there still are going to be those folks.
21:02I'm excited about what's happening on Jefferson.
21:04I'm born and raised in Buffalo.
21:06As a matter of fact, I'm born and raised on the east side.
21:09I've never lived anywhere else in Buffalo.
21:14And although I respect the desire to try to change our image by changing our name,
21:20you know, let's stick with what you know.
21:22East side.
21:24East side.
21:26I was in Harlem not long ago.
21:29Somebody said, oh, no, this is Manhattanville.
21:31I said, no, it's not.
21:31It's Harlem.
21:33So there's the strange things how people do when things get invested,
21:37investments happen and complexion of people changes and things start to look different.
21:41You think somehow you need to change the name in the community.
21:44I actually think that's kind of disrespectful.
21:48And I would hope that we would go back to saying East Buffalo, kind of like east side,
21:53like we say west side.
21:55Like we say south side.
21:56Let's say east side.
21:57I'm good with that.
21:59And so what's happening in these commercial strips is real.
22:04And it's supporting business people who have demonstrated the capacity to support themselves.
22:10Now, there are a ton of people who are in business who don't support themselves so well.
22:16And they expect that somebody else should do it.
22:18That's not the way it works.
22:19You've got to put in to get something back.
22:22That's what Larry and Jackie Stitt did.
22:25They put in not only to their existing business, but they went and bought another building on
22:31Jefferson that they knew needed work.
22:33That didn't stop them from making that investment and seeing the vision of what it could be.
22:38And when people have a vision, it's government's responsibility to see that and build on it.
22:43And that's exactly what the governor and your representatives in state government are doing.
22:48I'm excited to have the capacity to do that.
22:50And I'm really grateful to see what's coming next.
22:53I know it's going to be as great as we have seen right now.
22:56Lastly, I will say this about the Buffalo Bills.
23:02Maybe we shouldn't wait so long for a Super Bowl.
23:04How about we just get a draft of the NFL happening in Buffalo soon and very soon?
23:11You can make that happen, Governor.
23:12I know you can.
23:14Thank you and God bless you all.
23:20Keep those hands together for Senator April Baskin, everybody.
23:35Good afternoon, Buffalo, New York.
23:37Good afternoon.
23:37I, too, am fresh off the road from Albany, but I'm not in leadership like the leader.
23:43So I got to leave sooner than her.
23:44I got to take a shower and put on this blazer.
23:48But I'm so grateful for her leadership and the governor's partnership.
23:51And I want to lift up my conference members and the great Andrea Stewart Cousins,
23:55who leads my conference, because that was brutal, but we got it done.
23:59And I'm very, very proud of the resources that we are now going to collectively deliver
24:05for our city and our great state of New York.
24:08You know, before Governor Hochul, New Yorkers were not privileged to be able to say a very specific
24:15phrase.
24:17Happy Mother's Day, Governor.
24:19We couldn't do that.
24:21She's a first.
24:26Sometimes they try to rewrite history, but Kathy Hochul brought that to these streets.
24:30Happy Mother's Day, Governor.
24:32And happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers who are here today.
24:35Give them a round of applause.
24:36I still sometimes have nightmares about 514.
24:46I don't, I didn't have the experience of those direct victims, but being someone
24:52who represented the community, who lived a short few miles from TOPS, it was quite a tragedy.
24:59Even still talking about it to this day makes my hands sweat, so don't shake my hand after this,
25:03pound it.
25:06And I remember when all the elected members gathered into the Apollo Theater
25:13a short time after the shooting happened.
25:15And we had all been briefed on the tragedy.
25:18And the governor was there.
25:21That deserves a round of applause, period.
25:23And I remember two things had to happen at that time.
25:32One, we had to address the tragedy and we had to have justice be served.
25:37But also the governor was able to put that into a perspective.
25:46And then also she was able to think about why the mass shooting happened.
25:52And we could sum that up with white supremacy and the mindset of white nationalism.
26:00But it's also the fact that East Buffalo had been facing disinvestment for decades.
26:08And so while many of us were focused on justice being served in that tragedy,
26:17our governor was thinking about that, but also thinking about how we could right the economic
26:22wrongs of this community who had been violated in this tragedy.
26:25And I remember the announcement of that first $50 million is just going directly to the East Side
26:33to help the East Side be better so that things like this don't continue to happen.
26:38And that still resonates with me, Governor.
26:40So thank you for your leadership in that moment because I know it was very, very tough.
26:46I want to also acknowledge Hope Knight for your hard work and all of the hardworking folks
26:53over at Empire State Development.
26:55It's not always easy to deliver to underserved communities like the East Side.
27:00But over the last seven years, the East Side has had a focus because of your leadership, Hope.
27:07And ESD has not only delivered, but along the way, they have listened to the community.
27:14Just a week ago, I went over to ESD to get briefed on what
27:18progress was happening in the commercial districts.
27:20And I had some ideas that I had heard from local minority developers in our community,
27:25and I brought them to the table.
27:27And ESD said, Senator, we're already doing that.
27:30Join the team.
27:31We got it.
27:32We got it.
27:34And I was so proud, not only that the groundwork had been laid, but that there was an open door
27:40for opportunity for me and my office to be included in the residents in my constituency.
27:48And I want to also offer a great deal of thanks to the program administrators that help these
27:54programs be done because we don't talk about them enough, Heart of the City, Broadway, Fillmore,
28:01Citizens Alliance, and the Black Chamber of Commerce.
28:05You see, these are the organizations where the behind-the-scenes work gets done.
28:11Business owners like the great Larry and Jackie Stitz, they have these scopes of work.
28:17And these scopes of work are big, but there are architectural designs and hiring of contractors
28:23and dealing with paperwork.
28:25You know, we wouldn't be standing here today celebrating the governor giving us another
28:29$10 million if for the last seven years the work and the money wasn't implemented in the right way.
28:35So I want to highlight those program administrators for your hard work, too.
28:38I like the title, the East Side Building Fund. The church folk know all about a building fund,
28:47don't we? We usually get nervous when pastors get up there talking about a building fund.
28:54But this isn't the building fund that we talk about on Sundays at church. This building fund is for
29:01everybody on the East Side. And I am so grateful to that. And it's at a time like this where funding from
29:12a government level is being stripped from us, especially the funding that was created to write
29:20our country's past. And at the federal level, we see so many of those programs and those intentions just
29:28being ripped day by day by day. But because of our great governor and the hardworking folks over at ESD,
29:36New York State is doubling down in addressing diversity, equity and inclusion by delivering
29:42more money to black neighborhoods and their commercial strips.
29:50Two of these two of the businesses that were that are beneficiaries of this project
29:56are something special to me. First,
29:58Brown Sugar Hair Salon on Bailey, owner Lisa Daniels has been my grandmother,
30:07my mother and my daughter's stylist. She don't do my hair because I don't ever have time to get my hair
30:11done. But I'm so glad that Brown Sugar has received this funding because I don't want to fight with my
30:18daughter about her hair. So it's really good that that place exists and that it's spruced up and it's
30:24looking nice. And then I want to acknowledge Sunshine Vegan Eats, a minority woman owned.
30:29Many of us know that that was the once Maddie's restaurant, the great Butch Holt and Maddie Holt,
30:42who, well, it was Maddie. She always made it known that that was her spot.
30:46And the great Honorable Butch Holt, you know, when they left, it left a gaping hole for a place of
30:56community and good food for us, especially getting the grits and the bacon and the sausage that we
31:02just love to eat at Maddie's. And you drive down Fillmore every once in a while and you just see
31:07it sitting there and you think about all the good times and you think about generations of black
31:12business owners that have had to depart, you know, their businesses. About a week ago, I had the
31:18privilege of standing with council member Everhart in the neighborhood where she was raised on
31:23Delavan Avenue and the city hung a trailblazing sign for James Vincent, who owned Vincent's barbershop,
31:31JV's barbershop on Delavan for 50 years. And now, and now, uh, Mr. Vincent passed away last year after
31:40owning that, that, that, that, uh, that lot of land, that business and operating in the community
31:46for over 50 years as a black man on the east side. And now he has been able to leave that business
31:51behind for his children. And that is remarkable. This year, we are celebrating 100 years of the
31:57family owned business. We know as the criterion newspaper, a hundred years.
32:02And there may be some folks in here that are older than me might be able to name maybe one or two,
32:11but the, the legacy of being a black business owner on the east side, unfortunately, isn't a long one.
32:18And sometimes after people leave their businesses leave with them and they're not able to pass it on
32:23down to their children and their grandchildren, like the Vincent family and the Merriweather family
32:28has been able to do. But because of our great governor, we're going to change that. And I believe
32:33that we're going to see a long legacy of Stitt's great grandkids brewing coffee and giving people
32:39sweet potato pound cake for years and decades to come because of projects like this. And, um, it was
32:47heartbreaking to see, uh, the, the establishment of Maddie's sit there for so long. Um, and I want to
32:53congratulate chef Nikki of sunshine vegan eats, who is a stellar chef and, um,
33:01who is carrying the tradition of black business ownership, um, in that very, very same building.
33:08It's a restaurant owned by a black woman, just like it was. And I'm sure just like Miss Maddie wanted
33:13it to be. So, uh, again, I want to give you all, um, my greetings, happy mother's day to everyone,
33:19and especially governor. Thank you so much for this investment and for investing in not East Buffalo,
33:26the East side. I got it right. Thank you.