July 20, 2017Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, very, very much. Well, thank you, everyone, for being here. And, Peter, I want to tell you, you have a beautiful house and I love the beautiful landscaping too. You’ve done a great job. Now, you said 20 years you’ve been here? Peter Kyriakakis: Yes.Mayor: 20 years – and this was the house where you started your family? This is the house that’s been the center of your life. Kyriakakis: Yes.Mayor: And – born and bred Queens resident?Kyriakakis: Yes, sir.Mayor: Alright. Thank you so much for letting us be here with you in this beautiful neighborhood. This is sort of one of the most basic things you can think about when you think about how people live their lives. And I’m a homeowner in Brooklyn. Your home is the center of your life and everything you have to do to keep up your home is a challenge for every homeowner to begin with – just keeping up the home, all the costs, everything that comes up. The sidewalk is always something that homeowners are aware of. We know it’s our responsibility, but we also know sometimes that things happen that are beyond our control. And when the problem is because of the trees that are planted by the City, that adds an extra challenge for homeowners. Now, mostly – as you see right there, you’ve got a tree, but it’s not causing a big problem for the sidewalk. But along Peter’s sidewalk, we see a number of places where those beautiful, big trees – and they’re wonderful – Peter said they’re part of what makes the neighborhood great – but they’re really big trees, they’ve been around a long time, the roots have really expanded and they’ve started to push the sidewalk up in a way that’s just not right. It’s not safe. It’s dangerous for people walking by. It’s particularly dangerous for seniors. It’s hard for parents with a baby stroller. And that challenge has too often fallen on homeowners to address. We’re trying to fix that. And we know it’s going to take some real time and it’s not something that’ll get fixed overnight, but it’s something we have to do a lot more to address, because, again, the homeowner didn’t create the problem. Peter did not create the problem.
The City put in the trees, and trees are a great thing, but if they come with this unintended consequence, we have to do something about it.Now, this is something, I know, of concern to my colleagues that are here. You’re going to hear from Assemblyman Braunstein in a moment. I know he hears this from his constituents all the time. Our Parks Commissioner for Queens, Dorothy Lewandowski, I know you hear about this all the time. And your department is the one that solves the problem for a lot of homeowners, but you know how much demand there is and you’ve had very limited resources historically to address it. And because there’s a safety issue, our colleagues at the NYPD even hear about it. And we just had the commanding officer of the 1-0-9 Precinct, Judith Harrison, with us, and we thank her for her good work. So, we understand this is a pervasive concern for homeowners in Queens. And, again, it’s partly because Queens has the blessing of all of these trees. There’s – the most trees of any borough are in Queens along the streets – 250,000 trees along the streets and they – we all know they beautify the neighborhood, they provide shade, they help make the air cleaner. There’s a lot of wonderful things that we really appreciate about these trees, but when they also create these hazards and these challenges, homeowners are left in the lurch. Now, the City, to be fair, started to address this problem over a decade ago, but on a very modest level. And the typical year – relatively few sites got reached. We are announcing today a huge expansion of this effort, because we know there’s so many homeowners who are waiting for help and we know we can do a lot more to help them. So, the program that I’m announcing today is $16 million in new funding for this year’s budget – $16 million. And it’s going to allow us to help 4,000 homeowners, about half of whom are going to be here in Queens.
So, just in this next year, we’re going to start to reach about 2,000 Queens homeowners with the help they need. Now, right here, the sidewalks you’re looking at here – and it’s particularly around the corner there with those real problems you saw – that work, according to Dorothy, is going to start this fall to fix those sidewalks. And we’re going to fix that side and come around here because there’s a part here that needs work as well. We’re going to get it all done in one fell swoop.So, look, before turning to the Assembly member, I’ll just say this – it’s what I talk about all the time – there are so many wonderful things about living in New York City and there’s also a lot of challenges that come with New York City. It’s an expensive place to live. It’s tough to make ends meet. Someone who’s doing everything right, like Peter, still has to deal with these unexpected expenses that can throw a real monkey wrench in your household budget. Where we see these particularly severe conditions, we want to do more to help. And so, this program is going to allow us to reach thousands of more homeowners. I think it’s going to be a big success, and so long as we can find the resources, we’re going to keep building on it from there for the good of all, for the good of our homeowners, and for the safety of the whole community. With that – a pleasure to turn to – we’re on tour today together – Assemblymember Ed Braunstein.