Restler thanks MTA, Gotham Organization, and administration partners

I really am grateful to all the members of the Council Land Use Team, so thank you for your hard work on this.

I want to thank the MTA that really stepped up at the end of this project to help make this happen.

Sean Fitzpatrick is an old friend and a really talented guy, and we were lucky to have his involvement here.

I was really tough on the guys at Gotham, and they put up with it, and they said to me all along, Lincoln, we like building affordable.

housing.

If we can make the financing work, we'll be happy to do it.

And they stuck true to their word, and we together pushed each in our own ways to get the affordable investment we needed.

And I really want to thank Brian Kelly in particular for sticking with it and pushing and finding a path forward.

David Pickett for his leadership, Varun, Simeon, and the whole Gotham team for being good partners.

And we're looking forward to working with them in the years to come.

I want to thank, as I did, the Greenpoint Modern Museum folks, George and Janet.

I really want to thank the Mumdani administration.

I think this was probably their first.

big, hairy, hard ULURP of their first six months.

And Deputy Mayor Bozorg, Genevieve, Arvind, Patrick Love, Jelani, Deputy Mayor Kersen, and others all engaged with an open mind.

And even when they told me that what I was asking for was really, really difficult or maybe impossible, they kept trying to figure out a way to make it work.

There are many community members who pushed hard here.

Some for this project, some against, and I'm grateful to all of them.

I want to start by just thanking the Save the Inlet folks and the friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, Catherine Thompson, Steve Chesler, Trina McKeever, and many others.

Nobody's been more committed to the park over the last 20 years than them, and I'm hopeful that this...

I'm hopeful that ultimately this is going to be something that they can see adds positive benefit for our community.

I also really want to thank Rob Solano and Churches United for Fair Housing.

who really fought hard with me for more affordable housing on this site.

And last but not least, I don't mean to brag, but I think I have the best team in the city council.