Gov. Kathy Hochul Celebrates NY SWIMS Initiative To Encourage Outdoor Recreation

5 months ago

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) delivered remarks about funding for underserved communities for water-based outdoor recreation.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00outside. I want to acknowledge our great friends who represent this amazing part

00:10of our state, starting with our Senator Cordell Clear, our Senator

00:14Robert Jackson, Assemblymember Al Taylor, Assemblymember Inez Dickens,

00:19Assemblymember Manny De Los Santos, Councilmember Yousef Salaam, and our

00:24Commissioner of State Parks Randy Simon. Let's give everybody a round of applause here.

00:28And to all of our legislators, our leaders in the legislature, Majority

00:34Leader Andre Stewart-Cousins, and to Speaker Carl Heastie. So now that school's

00:40out, there's been a lot of activity here at Riverbank State Park, which is a

00:44spectacular jewel in our state park system. This is the time of year we've

00:49all been waiting for. Relaxing with friends, and barbecuing, and swimming. I

00:57love to swim. In fact, I'm gonna tell you a little story. The only time I ever got

01:03a medal for sports in my entire life, growing up in a very competitive family,

01:08but I did not have the right genes apparently, I was asked when I was 10

01:12years old to swim in a competition. They were missing a boy for the ten-year-old

01:19race, right? I was eight, swim against ten-year-old boys. And I want to tell you

01:25this, I came in second. But in the interest of being honest, only two of us

01:38competed. I still have the medal. I love to swim. But you know we have the most

01:50beautiful bodies of water throughout our state, our rivers, our lakes, our swimming

01:56pools. And one of the reasons we announced this enormous initiative with

02:00the support of all these legislators, 150 million dollars, to invest in swimming

02:06pools and creating more activities, especially in underserved communities.

02:09Because it is heartbreaking for me as a mom to know that the number one cause of

02:15death for infants ages 1 up to toddlers age 4 is drowning. And for ages 5 to 14

02:24it's the number two cause of death. But there are racial disparities even within

02:29those numbers, because black children are three times as more likely to drown than

02:35their white peer children. So let's focus on this. We're making 150 million

02:41dollars investment to invest in these schools, in these pools. Already started

02:46in May with $90,000, which is out there for competitive grants. Also we need more

02:52lifeguards. We've seen what happens when you have pools that are open. Hot days,

02:57people want to come out and there aren't enough lifeguards. So we raised the

03:01salaries in our state parks last year to attract more. Five million dollars more

03:05for incentivized recruitment. We're focusing on lifeguard recruitment. Any takers? You're all free in the summer.

03:12Also expanding swim lessons at our state parks. And why not have free sunscreen to

03:23keep everybody from burning. Take advantage of it as well. I also want to announce that we're

03:28waiving all swimming pool entry fees at state parks this summer. We want to just make it easier and more affordable for our families, some of them which are struggling.

03:43Also announcing a 1.5 million dollar partnership to fund transportation to

03:48and from these swimming lessons. Reducing the barriers for our young people to

03:52learn how to swim. And organizations, schools, municipalities can apply for

03:57funding right now. So we're investing in safe places to swim all over the state

04:02of New York. But also I want to talk about keeping our kids healthy. Yes it's

04:06about getting offline and outside. Why am I saying that? We together have

04:12focused on youth mental health as a top priority of mine and our legislators. And

04:18I spent much of last year, summer through fall to winter, convening young people,

04:23listening to their stories. And they literally are succumbing to the

04:27addiction from these algorithms that are being pushed on them by these

04:31companies. That's why we passed our nation-leading social media legislation.

04:37The regulations are being worked out right now but you're going to be so

04:40proud of this when the rest of the nation follows what we're doing here in

04:44the state of New York saying we are taking our children back, letting them be

04:47children who have less stress, no mental health challenges, and just let them be

04:52children once again as they've always deserved to be. Letting them get outside, free from this.

05:00So we're going to keep investing in mental health. We're making sure that all

05:05of our schools have mental health clinics. That's on top of our billion

05:09dollar mental health investment. We're looking at the cell phone issue, having

05:13conversations around the state with parents and young people and

05:16superintendent and members of various communities. But also today we're

05:20announcing this Get Offline and Get Outside campaign. This is to promote

05:26mental health, physical health, and encouraging families and our kids to

05:31just go to a throwback time. Think about when you were young, what you did

05:35with your time. You kickballed, you played catch, you swam, you just enjoyed life. You

05:40weren't sitting indoors being held captive to your cell phone. So that's

05:45our advice. Don't scroll through life, just dive in and let's get it started.

05:52So let's go say hi to some of the young people here. Are there any questions that

05:56we're taking now? What's the plan? I want to say hi to the swimmers, but okay, I'll

06:01give up. You got me for a couple minutes.

06:15Getting kids off their phones, have you had any more discussions about that or what that might look like?

06:20Yes, very much so. And I said when I first started talking about this several

06:25months ago, I wanted to spend this summer doing convenings of people. We have a

06:30schedule being set up right now to take me around the state. There's so

06:34many people affected by this. You know, what are parents saying? What are teachers

06:37saying? How difficult is this to enforce? Making sure that when cell phones have

06:43happened in the past and there's racial inequities, how we count for them this

06:48time around and get it right. So I want to make sure that when we go back to the

06:51legislative session, we have a plan that'll work, that is supported by the

06:55legislature, as well as the people of the state of New York. So yes, those

06:58conversations have absolutely started in earnest.

07:03About the dropping of the fees for the swimming pool, does that apply statewide, including the Jones Beach pool?

07:11Indeed it does. You can go to our website and see all the locations in the state of

07:18New York where there's a pool in a state park and all those freezer waves this

07:22summer. And families, take advantage of this. Get out there with your kids. Just

07:26enjoy life and let them be just who they're supposed to be, just little kids

07:31with no worries. That's what we're fighting for. We're fighting for the

07:34mental health of all of our children and bringing families closer together

07:37starting this summer.

07:50I said I'll be continuing to have conversations with the leaders of the

07:54legislature and members of key committees. I've already started those

07:57conversations. As I said, every project that is important, and they all are

08:01important, will be funded. But as I said, we talked about this summer of

08:05affordability, what we're doing at our state parks, recognizing that families

08:10are struggling. And right now, as I said, $15 on top of everybody's expenses for

08:16groceries and everything is going to cost more. It's just not the right time.

08:20We will find the financing and yes, conversations are very much underway.

08:28Governor, I know it's still fairly early. The primaries for 2024 just

08:33happened. But have you given any thought to what more 2026 will look

08:37like? Do you intend to have the same ticket? A lot of first term governors

08:42have a different person on their ticket for their second term. Just what is

08:452026 looking like in your mind? I have a very strong relationship with my

08:49lieutenant governor. We communicate regularly. He is doing a phenomenal job

08:53traveling the state, promoting some of his signature initiatives. So I'm very

08:58happy with what we're doing now. 2026. It may be a long way off. I'm running.

09:03I'm preparing for that race. But my focus right now is this November. I

09:08have been in constant communication with our teams, bulking up the state

09:13party. Number one, I lead the state party. And as goes New York, so goes

09:19the Congress. So I'm working to get boots on the ground. We're investing

09:24in local headquarters all over the state from our battleground districts.

09:28I've gone out and met people in those areas. So I'm going to continue my

09:31responsibility this year to deliver Hakeem Jeffries, the House of

09:35Representatives and make him the speaker, continue to support Chuck

09:38Schumer, but also deliver New York in a robust big way for President Joe

09:43Biden this November. So that's what all my focus is on right now. All

09:47right, everybody. Thank you very much.

Gov. Kathy Hochul Celebrates NY SWIMS Initiative To Encourage Outdoor Recreation

Category

Transcript

Recommended