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Remarks by Speaker Sheldon Silver

Lower Manhattan "Marshall Plan" Bill Signing

55 Broad Street, Manhattan
August 31, 2005 [2 P.M.]


Thank you, Chairman Gargano.

Chairman Gargano. Governor Pataki. Senator Maltese. Mayor Bloomberg. Bill Rudin. Carl Weisbrod. Councilman Gerson. Elected Leaders. Members of the Media. Ladies and Gentlemen.

First, let me join the Governor and the Mayor in welcoming Christopher Faust and The Horn Group here to 55 Broad Street. As your assemblyman, I look forward to working with you to help this company grow and contribute to the rebirth of Lower Manhattan.

Decades from now, when historians assess how well we responded to the September Eleventh devastation of Lower Manhattan, they will agree that this legislation - which provides major incentives to spur economic growth and job creation in Lower Manhattan, which is a key component of the "Marshall Plan" I advanced, was a spark that helped us restore Lower Manhattan to its rightful place as the financial and business capital of the world and enabled us to breathe new life into a historic community that has contributed so much to our nation's growth and prosperity, and has suffered so dearly because of it.

A community where 35.5 percent of the people who live in my Assembly District walk to work!

This legislation was one of the major goals of this legislative session. It is a product of a strong city/state partnership that is essential to Lower Manhattan's recovery.

Let me take this opportunity to commend Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Bruno, and all of our colleagues in the Assembly and the Senate, for heeding my call for these critical business incentives and for the bipartisan effort that forged this important legislation.

In addition, let me thank Bill Rudin and the Association for a Better New York as well as Carl Weisbrod and the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association, for their leadership and for providing me with the necessary forum to advocate for this "Marshall Plan."

At the May 20th breakfast sponsored by these two important business organizations - where I outlined the incentives contained in this legislation - I urged this City's business leaders to understand that keeping Goldman Sachs in Lower Manhattan is the linchpin to our success and that we must do everything possible to make it so.

Armed with these incentives and with the combined efforts of the leaders you see here, we now have that important linchpin.

The decision by Goldman Sachs to build their new headquarters across from the World Trade Center is a major victory for Lower Manhattan. We thank Chairman Hank Paulson and this world-class financial institution for their commitment to stay and grow right here.

I have said this before - and I continue to believe - that rebuilding Lower Manhattan transcends partisanship and political legacy, and rises to the level of moral obligation.

Tremendous sacrifices were made here, and though painful to remember, those who made them must be honored first and foremost with a mutual agreement that doing so is our highest priority.

I believe that we are demonstrating that mutual agreement today and what we have accomplished, I hope, will strengthen our partnership so that Lower Manhattan will receive the attention and leadership it needs and deserves.

There are many difficult decisions still to be made and a daunting amount of work still needs to be done, so we must not rest on our laurels.

The intensity of our commitment, of our vigilance, of our sense of moral obligation must be greater, more passionate, more enduring than the hatred of those who directed the September 11th attacks and who continue to target us.

As you know, this is my hometown. This is personal for me.

From my grandparents and parents to my children and four grandsons, there are five generations of Silvers who have lived in Lower Manhattan and called it home.

I'd like to think that fifty years from now, there will still be Silvers living here, because together we did the hard work and built a better Lower Manhattan than any previous generation has known.

It is a goal that is within our reach. Let us reach for it together, for ourselves and for the future.

Thank you.



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