Good morning.

Welcome to the New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Parks and Recreations.

Today please science all self-electronic devices.

Moving forward, no one is still approached today's.

Chair Hankerson, we are ready to begin.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Ty Hankerson.

I serve as the chair on the Committee of Parks and Recreation.

And before I start with the remarks for today, I just want to say that this is an amazing day for parks with a historic baseline, and that is something to be proud of.

I want to say to all of the advocates, New Yorkers for Parks Play for a coalition, to everyone who has lent their voice to this fight over the years, to the former chair, Shagar Krishna, to our speaker, to our finance chair, thank you so much for fighting for our parks.

This is what our parks deserve.

Uh, and even to all of the parkes um, you know, who may not be watching this because I don't know who watches the council channel, but to all of the parkies, this this budget is for you.

So for everyone that's ever felt like your city has not paid attention or taken you for granted, know that today shows that we honor you and that we are fighting for you.

All right.

With that, today I'd like to welcome you all to this hearing of the Committee on Parks Recreation, where we will vote on two bills and a resolution.

One of the bills is a pre-considered bill that would ceremonially co-name one of three, 103 uh thoroughfares and public spaces throughout the city.

Co-naming bills are the result of council's periodic process where we seek to honor individuals and organizations that have made lasting contributions to our city.

Some of these include co-names for active community members, heroic New Yorkers who sacrificed their lives for others, people who committed their lives to public service, or those who greatly enrich the city's cultural landscape.

Of the 103 co-namings of this bill, I am proud to have sponsored Sri Lakshmi, uh Narain Mandar Wei, Reverend Dr.

Immanuel Ose Anchepung Way, and Mrs.

Kathy Hunt Way in my district.

We will also vote on Intro 859A, sponsored by Councilmember Brewer, which would specify the process to be used by the Department of Records and Information Services to comply with existing law that requires the posting of biographical information for the subjects of street and park name changes when no biographical information can be otherwise found in the legislative record.

Last but certainly not least, we'll vote on a resolution honoring our MBA champion champions, New York Knicks, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Dr.

Nantasha Williams.

It calls for various famed New York City locations to be ceremonially named for one year in honor of the 2026 champions.

The names and locations include Fifth Avenue as NYX and Five, Broadway as Brunson Way, Victory Boulevard, and Staten Island as Captain Clutch Boulevard, Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn as Alvarado Avenue, Times Square as Towns Square, Queens Boulevard as Heart Boulevard, the Brooklyn Bridge as Bridges Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge as Ananabi Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge as Coach Brown Bridge, and the Bronx River as Breen River.

We could add some more.

I'd like to congratulate my colleagues who have proposed these pieces of legislation.

I urge all of my colleagues on the committee to vote in favor of the legislation before us.

Thank you again and welcome.

At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Councilmember Brewer and then Council Member Narcisse for their statements.

Thank you very much, Chair.

And I am here about 859A.

This is about the Omnibus Street Conaming Bill.

It is a long history.

We have a long history in New York.

And we need tools to remember those who came before us, whether their name is on a building or a street sign or anywhere.

These folks shaped our neighborhoods and future generations.

In 2023, the council passed my local law 104 requiring the Department of Records and Information Services, known as Doris, to create an interactive digital map of these co-namings.

Every single person we had names of up to that point is in that digital map.

Yet between 2002 and 2003, more than 400 streets were co-named for first responders killed on 9-11.

And the city lacked biographical information to update the map.

I remember going to a lot of funerals at that time.

And to the credit of Doris, particularly former Commissioner Pauline Toole and her staff, they researched all 400 of the individuals lost on that terrible day because they could not until then get their bios.

Into 859A allows Doris to update the maps of New Yorkers and visitors can quickly learn the stories behind these heroes without having to search through years of records.

I want to say that to the credit of Doris, they felt that it should go through the council to be official and not just go up on the website.

I want to thank uh committee counsel Chris Saratory, Senior Legislative Policy Analyst, Patrick Mulville, and for their work on this as well as local law 104.

I think we're also ecstatic that Cecile Richards will be Cecile Richards Way on the corner of 83rd Street and Central Park West.

She was a civil rights women's rights leader of her generation, head of Plant Panworth for many, many years, and the daughter of the Ann Richards, who was governor of Texas for many years.

I want to thank Deborah Maharans and Carol Portland for their persistence, and also to thank her husband, Kurt Adams, for his support of this co-name.

Thank you very much.

Thank you to my colleagues for supporting this bill, which let us memorialize four heroes from my district, District 46.

Um John Leonard ran the legendary Landy's Park store on Avenue End for over 60 years, the same store his father opened back in 1958 and never let neighborhoods go.

I mean, without help.

If you're hungry, he got your back.

If you need something, he got your back.

Whatever that we the community were doing always involved, always go above and beyond.

And then we have Fred Wilkins been almost 40 years entering the call as a volunteer with Flatboard, I mean Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance Corps, training EMT and saving lives lives every day.

Those are the people we should honor at all time and give them the space where they spend their lives giving back to the community.