Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Grand Opening of Wilkeson Pointe on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the grand opening of the $11 million Wilkeson Pointe improvements project with “Perro & Poni” restaurant coming soon at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor. Working within an approximate seven-acre site, the area between the water's edge at Wilkeson Pointe and the nearby Fuhrmann Boulevard entrance underwent a renovation to expand access to the waterfront site and enhance the visitor experience. A new restaurant, operated by the team behind South Buffalo’s popular Dog & Pony Saloon, is coming soon with a relaxing beer garden, featuring sand seating areas as well as a patio deck and gorgeous views of the water.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

 Good morning — great to see everyone. Yesterday, I was at the Buffalo Bills Training Camp, and I said, “Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?” I'm going to say it again today.

Where would you rather be than right here, right now, because this is extraordinary. And to all of you true believers from a long time ago, and Brian Higgins, are you in the audience here? There you are. Please stand up, and take a bow. Still our resident visionary who saw the great possibility of this area by harnessing the power of, literally, the Power Authority and bringing the resources here. And I want to thank so many people — I’ll get to them, but I'm just overwhelmed by this.

Those of you who are old enough — and you all look too young — but if you remember what this was like before. Decades and decades of just driving by, going over the Skyway. I lived in Hamburg. I went over the Skyway every day, and you didn't even look to this side of the lake. It was such an eyesore. It was big piles of abandoned waste materials. When I was much younger, the ships were coming in and my grandpa worked down here, longshoreman worked down here before they went to the steel plant.

And this was an industrial wasteland. And yes, it was prosperous in its time, but when that era was over, there was no Plan B for literally scores of years — and it hurt because it just seemed too big to handle. Nobody could bite this off enough right-size pieces to make something happen.

And I don't think there's a person who lived in that time who ever envisioned that we'd see what we're seeing here today. The life down here, the attractions, bringing in nature in such a beautiful way — it really nourishes the soul. And, I want to thank Joan Kesner for assuming the leadership of the Erie Canal Harbor Corporation. We've worked together on a town board years ago. But I knew that she'd be one who could execute the vision and she has brought so many ideas forward. Let's give a round applause to Joan Kesner.

Mark Wendel. Where's Mark? Mark, thank you for spearheading this as the President of the Erie Canal Harbor Corporation. He just gave us a nice tour a little while ago to talk about the final implementation of the vision down here. And I'm not just talking about this part of Wilkeson Pointe where we are today, but we literally started this morning down seeing the incredible, incredible resurrection of that state park, which was very nice by most standards. It's Buffalo's first ever state park.

But seeing what the vision is now to have the largest splash pad in Western New York for little kids to come to — and I might try it too — and beautiful places for you to sit, and gather and stare at the sunset because a lot of people would like to have a house that they could see a sunset, but its denied them.

So this creates accessibility for incredible amenities down at the state park for kids to play, and building little restaurants down there for people to get a hot dog, and some ice cream cones, and much nicer restroom facilities. A lot of parents are like, “I'm not taking my kid in that,” but you won't be saying that any longer.

And then working our way up to see what has happened with taking an abandoned terminal. How many years do we go by and just stare at those and say, “I guess they're going to be here for the rest of our lives.” But that was not an answer for us. And to turn that into an event-gathering venue, that literally thousands of people come down here and enjoy the experience of seeing sunsets, where they're watching a world-class concert just starting this year — it is spectacular. And then we go further down, closer to here, and we stop and we're going to do something that I have long dreamed about, which is bringing cruise ships to the City of Buffalo — my gosh.

And I'll say this: The inspiration came from a couple places, but I remember being in Erie, Pennsylvania; now — nice city, right? They have a little waterfront, much smaller population, nice things. They have nice things there. They had cruise ships coming through the Welland Canal, bypassing the city of Buffalo and everything we can offer — with Shea's Theatre, Botanical Gardens that we have, and the incredible Albright-Knox Art Gallery and countless other cultural attractions.

They were bypassing Buffalo and heading right down to Erie, Pennsylvania as their first destination. I had a problem with that and I said, “No. We'll create a space literally by 2027. We'll be able to welcome cruise ships to the terminal right over here. It's perfect for it. It fits them. They can have two at a time down there.”

And you know what happens? I've seen this in other cities. People from the community come and gather to watch people getting off the ships. It's like an attraction. And we'll have amenities for the guests and they'll be transported to all these great opportunities, not just here, but also in our city to take advantage.

This is an economic driver that I knew we had potential for, but was never realized, and in 2027, I'm proud to announce – we have a letter of intent from a cruise company that says they want to make Buffalo their next destination for 2027.

So it happens because there's a community that believes in itself. We have incredible leadership. I want to thank, again, Mayor Chris Scanlan. This is home turf for him. He's well familiar with this area, and has grown up here and always believed in this area. And I also want to thank Senator Sean Ryan who understands the power of connecting people with the waterfront and is going to continue in his role, fighting for that as well.

And Jon Rivera, who's fortunate to represent much of the waterfront with the Niagara District years earlier. I thank you for everything you've done as a partner in Albany. And I certainly remember Karen McMahon. I know, not the water, per se, but it's a regional asset, right? It's a regional asset. And the same with Assemblymember Burke — I want to thank you for attending here today, but also, again, just to have Brian Higgins here is really special. Brian, I would not want you to miss anything with the waterfront because you are forever associated with this — and it's the weight on my shoulders to take it to the next level, and that's what we're doing here today.

So this is also part of an initiative that's important to me. As we see what is happening to the mental health of people in our communities, our own family members. I don't think as a single family it's untouched by some form of mental illness or mental challenges. And I think about our kids who don't know a life other than sitting in their rooms all summer long connected to their devices because that is their world that's been created.

It's been a decade now that somebody thought it was okay to allow children to have cell phones in schools. Now, you can't sit there and play a board game; you can't sit there and draw pictures; you can't play video games, but somehow it was okay to have a cell phone, which has only drawn children into a dark space throughout the day. Bombarded with over 250 notifications and the addictive algorithms — which we outlawed, the first state in the nation to outlaw them last year; we stood up to the social media companies.

But still, we did that, but as long as they have that in their hand, they're under enormous pressure — the pressure on young girls, in particular. I had round tables around the state for a year and a half sitting there talking to stressed out teenagers, and one young woman said to me, “You have to save us from ourselves. We can't put it down ourselves because of ‘FOMO,’” fear of missing out. “We're going to miss something. We'll be social outcasts if we don't have a cell phone.” And I decided I will be the person who saves that child from herself.

It's hard. A lot of people are saying, “No, you can't tell us what to do,” but, you know what? I'm here to make the hard decisions, and starting this fall, we're going to have a distraction-free school environment. No more cell phones, no more earbuds, smart watches. And having seen the school districts that took the leap forward and have already done this after just a few months of adjustment – and again, I know the parents and the kids are going to have a major adjustment, but afterward – young people have told me in those schools, “I have my first friend in person. I never had a friend in person.” A seventh grader — she says, “The hallways are noisy again. People are talking to each other, they're laughing. Gym classes were silent, lunch rooms were silent, the hallways were silent.”

So, we're bringing new life back. So what's the connection between that and this? It's an initiative we launched last year, but I'm doubling down: Get Offline and Get Outside. And it is up to us to create the attractions to the outdoors that'll draw young people to want to be in places like this or other places in their community, and discover them once again and find out what it's like to be a child. Kickball in the backyard entertained us for many summers.

And so I want to simplify life for our young people. I want them to emerge as healthier adults, and when families know that this is available to them here — and for families who cannot afford a nice vacation to go somewhere fancy, they don't need to. Why would you ever leave Western New York in the summertime with everything we have here? It is extraordinary. And I want this to be a continuation of that narrative that we're bringing back Buffalo, Western New York, and making investments from the state that are going to make a huge difference.

So I'm here as someone who rides my bicycle down here. You might not recognize me, except there's usually people that look pretty official following me. I've gotten used to that. But we're going to let people stroll on this water's edge and see the most beautiful sunsets in the world. We're going to play park golf. Did you think you'd be playing park golf down here? Volleyball tournaments, kayaks, renting kayaks and bicycles, and also fitness centers down here, fitness activities. And so, who would've thought? Who would've thought all those decades of just going by and saying, “Too bad no one cared enough to do something.” We have cared enough. We've done something, and it is going to be magnificent.

So I want to congratulate everyone involved in this. Again. I have a little 3-year-old granddaughter who'll be making a guest appearance at some point if my husband can find her shoes, I suppose. Little Sophia will be joined by her little cousin who's two weeks old, Nina, at some point because this is all about reconnecting family.

Ladies, gentlemen, let me bring up our great Mayor, Chris Scanlan.