Heading into his re-election, Gov. Cuomo on Thursday boasted that he’s set aside $1.4 billion on projects in Brooklyn.
“This is not a dream or a hope or an aspiration. This is reality, my friends. This is happening,��� Cuomo said during an event at the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA.
The initiative includes 3,000 units of subsidized housing at 11 sites, 8 new playgrounds, 22 community gardens, 4 recreation centers, 12 new youth-run farmers’ markets and an oyster reef in Canarsie.
The governor said the state had already issued notices to accept bids for some of the housing projects..
Cuomo also discussed a plan to open a new waterfront park — which he first announced in his January State of the State address.
The governor was introduced by Public Advocate Letitia James.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who attended a competing event to announce the restoration of the Flatbush Avenue perimeter of Prospect Park, was not there.
Meanwhile, Cuomo’s Democratic primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, stumped in Syracuse and the Finger Lakes region upstate.
Nixon rapped Cuomo for not doing enough to protect illegal immigrants. She supports making New York a “sanctuary state” to protect undocumented residents from deportation and a new law to provide them with drivers’ licenses.
She also called for repeal of a controversial teacher evaluation system that would rate teachers, in part, on how their students perform on high-stakes state exams.
Cuomo intially backed stricter teacher evaluations based on Common Core exams, but backed off following a backlash from teachers’ unions. He subsequently backed a moratorium recommended by a task force he appointed.
“A couple years ago Andrew Cuomo described teacher evaluation based on high stakes testing as one of his greatest legacies, now he is hoping that parents and teachers have forgotten all about it,” Nixon said.