[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 204 (Thursday, December 3, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H6052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MAYOR DAVID DINKINS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a great 
New Yorker, someone that has made us all proud, someone that we all 
stand on his shoulders, the late Mayor David N. Dinkins.
  Words cannot express how we feel in New York with the passing of 
Mayor Dinkins. Many of us stand on his shoulders, as many of us here in 
this Chamber stand on the shoulders of other giants that came before 
us. None of us really stand on our own. We stand on the shoulders of 
those trailblazers, those pioneers that opened the door to men and 
women across the country.
  Mayor Dinkins was such a leader. He was the first and, up to today, 
the only African-American mayor in New York City, a city that prides 
itself on diversity. In fact, New York City says that its strength 
really comes from the depths of its diversity.
  People from all over the world, immigrants, as I was in 1964, coming 
from the Dominican Republic, people from all over the world come to New 
York City looking for that dream. Different races, ethnicities, 
religions make New York City strong. And Mayor Dinkins often called the 
city a gorgeous mosaic, and that was its strength.

  So we honor his legacy and his many years of service as a New York 
State Assembly member, as a Manhattan borough president, and then, of 
course, as mayor of the city of New York.
  His detractors, and those that attempt to be revisionists of history, 
will never acknowledge the great things that he did. But those of us in 
the trenches, in the neighborhoods that have been traditionally 
forgotten, those of us that know that our communities lacked the voices 
to be heard, the disenfranchised of the city of New York will forever 
remember him for his accomplishments.
  Community policing, he got $1.8 billion to establish the community 
policing program; foot officers, foot patrol officers, in neighborhoods 
across the city of New York fighting crack and crime but, most 
importantly, knowing the community, the small business owners, having a 
daily relationship, almost as family members, preventing the kind of 
conflict that is plaguing America today.
  The beacon schools that he opened up, after-school programs that 
became the center of communities across the city of New York; the 
Arthur Ashe Stadium for tennis, which houses the US Open and yields 
more revenue than baseball, basketball, and football for the city of 
New York.
  And, of course, that day when he welcomed Nelson Mandela to New York 
City, it was such an important day. I went to that celebration, and 
many of us in New York felt that day that New York was the center of 
the universe. Every neighborhood enjoyed and celebrated freedom for 
South Africa, and Mayor Dinkins was our mayor. What a great day. What a 
great mayor.
  What a legacy, Mr. Speaker.
  I stand here to honor that legacy so that it will never be forgotten 
that the great, late David N. Dinkins was an integral part of the 
gorgeous mosaic that he always called New York.

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