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.

Audrey Dust taught at PS91 for 30 for 32 years and never stopped giving.

After even she retired, 50 years volunteering at Down State Medical Center, thousands of hats knit by hands she will do and bring to the children.

Those are the things we can never forget.

Gianna was a young person, and even through cancer, she was giving, she was organizing, she was making even adult feel better in the community.

She was present for everything that the young folks were doing, older folks were doing.

I'm sure she was the youngest one giving back.

So we are, we saying to them, thank you for your service.

You deserve it, and the community that you work so hard for will never forget you.

So thank you, my colleagues.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member.

At this time, we're going to turn it over to public testimony.

Um, we're going to call Leah Cooper and Sharon Marshall to the street.

Okay.

So good morning.

Um, I want to thank you, Chair Hankerson and the distinguished members of the parks and recreation committee for giving me this opportunity to speak on behalf of the co-naming of uh Edith Mott Youngway on Union between Albany and Kingston Avenues in Brooklyn, New York.

My name is Sharon Marshall.

I am the president elect for the Brooklyn Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theater Sorority Incorporated.

In fact, my term starts tomorrow.

Well, tonight at midnight.

And so we I want to share with you.

The Brooklyn Alumney Chapter has over 350 members that do significant work in the community, but to be able to also have it anchored with this co-naming as a place where a founder of Delta Sigma Theta actually resided during her time, is especially poignant and significant for us.

If you are not familiar, Delta Sigma Theta was founded in 1913 at Howard University by 22 visionary women, including our founding soror, Edith Mott Young.

And so I will turn it over to Sora Leah Cooper, who is our chair of Heritage and Archives, who has worked diligently to have this day happen.

Good morning, Chair Hankerson and distinguished members of the Committee on Parks and Recreation.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

My name is Leah Cooper, and I serve as the Heritage and Archives Chair for Brooklyn Alumni's chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

I respectfully ask for your favorite favorable vote to co-name Union Street between Albany and Kingston in Brooklyn as Edith Mott Youngway.

Street namings are among the most meaningful ways New York City preserves its history.

They remind us that the people who shared our neighborhoods deserve to be remembered where they lived, served, and inspired others.

Edith Mott Young was one of the 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, but today we are not asking you to honor her because she helped found a historic organization.

Devoted her life to education and public service, and in 1949, she helped establish what became the Brooklyn Alumni Chapter.

From that beginning grew more than 75 years of scholarships, mentoring, youth development, health initiatives, civic engagement, and community service that continue to benefit Brooklyn today.

This proposal is supported by a broad coalition of residents, elected officials, community organizations, clergy, businesses, and neighborhood partners because Edith Mott Young, Young's legacy belongs not only to Delta Sigma Theta, but to Brooklyn itself.

Recognizing her does not rewrite history, it completes it.

It ensures that a woman whose contributions have shaped this our borough for generations is finally recognized in this public landscape where her legacy began.

By voting yes today, you will preserve Brooklyn's history, honoring a lifetime of service and inspire future generations to ask who was Edith Mott Young.

Every time the question is asked, another chapter of our city's history will be told.

On behalf of the Brooklyn Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, Edith Mott Young's family, and the many lives her legacy continues to touch, I respectfully ask for your favorable vote to establish Edith Mott Young Way.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to the people of New York City.

Thank you.

At this time, we're going to call the clerk.

Thank you.

Hello.

William Martin Committee Clerk, roll call vote committee on parks and recreation.

All items are coupled.

Chair Hankerson.

Vote aye.

Krishnaten.

Aye.

Lee.

Thank you.

Marte.

Aye.

Narcis.

Aye.

Nurse.

Sanchez.

Permission to explain my vote.

Chair.

Oh.

Did the same thing earlier?

I just want to uplift a few of our local families, Lisa Pinheiro's family and Gloria Thomas's family, who we are also renaming Thorough Affairs for, and I look forward to those ceremonies with them.

Thank you.

And with that, I vote aye.

Thank you.

Ung.

Thank you.

Salam.

I vote aye.

Santos Woso.

Aye.

Thank you.

Morano.

Permission to explain my vote.

I'd like to enthusiastically vote aye, but I really want to thank my colleagues for uh their votes for the street namings in my district.

Uh especially for two incredible Staten Islanders, one woman who two both of whom should be saints, one of whom is a household name, and that's Dorothy Day.

A lot of you may have seen her picture on the wall at City Hall.

And uh we're gonna be honoring her on her birthday on November 8th, and the other is a young man who you might not have heard of, named John Hudson Dilgen, who should also be a saint, who passed away far too young after uh dealing his whole life with a debilitating disease called EB, and through his work and his advocacy, uh they've really furthered the cause of EB research significantly, and uh he's been a model Staten Islander, and I thank you all for your support for those street namings in my district.

With that, I'll vote aye.

Thank you.

By a vote of eleven in the affirmative is zero in the negative and no abstentions.

All items have been approved by the committee, Mr.

Chair.

That is a full committee.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

This committee is adjourned.