Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on NEWS12 and Takes Questions from New Yorkers

July 22, 2024

Amanda Bossard: Hello, everyone, and thanks for being with us here on News 12, where local matters. I'm Amanda Bossard, and this is Ask the Mayor. It is a pleasure to be back here with you for the next half hour, as we are giving you a unique opportunity to ask Mayor Eric Adams your questions right here on the air. The number to dial is (718) 861-6800, and it will be on the bottom of your screen throughout the program for reference. With that, we are very happy to welcome back to our studios once again tonight, New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A pleasure.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Amanda. Good to be here. I feel like throwback Mondays. I used to come here for Ask the BP.

Bossard: We said it's just like riding a bike. Now Ask the Mayor. We couldn't have timed this any better, because we are coming off of a big weekend in politics with President Joe Biden abandoning his re-election bid yesterday, that announcement he made, and then shortly thereafter, throwing his support behind his Vice President Kamala Harris and endorsing her to become the Democratic candidate for president in this upcoming election. You did the same this morning and supported the VP in now becoming the presidential candidate. What did you take into consideration before making that decision?

Mayor Adams: A number of things, but first, we often look at the political side of this business and not the human side. If I could just take 60 seconds of just talking about a great patriot. President Biden, no matter what obstacles and hurdles and personal tragedies he had to endure, he's a great American and we should all be proud of what he has done for our country. I'm going to tell you, it is extremely challenging to reach the pinnacle of your success and decide I'm going to step away for the good of the country. That's what he did.

As long as he was in the race, I made it clear I was riding with Biden. I was not going to vacillate on that. He made the decision. His decision was to endorse the VP. I think people are going to be really surprised who she is and what she stands for. I think it is what the country needed at this time. She's a former prosecutor, very public safety conscious, which Democrats take a real hit on not being enough public safety. She knows how to balance that public safety and justice.

I endorsed her in 2020 when she was running in the primary because I saw something special in her. I saw how I felt that we should be running our cities across America. This is going to be exciting time. That's another thing about it. These are exciting times. We're going to look back on these days and talk about what is happening right now. I'm just excited about being a part of it at this time.

Bossard: History unfolding every single day, it seems, as of late. Who do you think should be her VP candidate, should she secure the presidential nomination?

Mayor Adams: She should find someone that she's comfortable with and that's going to be a partner and that could lead at any time. As we see, any moment, that VP should be able to lead the country during the difficult times. Your number twos are crucial. When you look at my deputy mayors, my chief advisor, my chief of staff, any one of them could step into the position of running the city at the time. That's what she's going to have to do when she decides who is her VP. Can they step in at any moment and run this country?

Bossard: I want to switch gears and talk a little bit more locally. Here at home, you had a very busy week in the Bronx, specifically at least two big drug busts that happened. I believe last week, there was one where about a million dollars worth of illegal drugs was confiscated. Then this weekend, the big one in Mott Haven, about $10 million worth of drugs recovered there.

That one was different, though, because it wasn't the typical smoke shop setup that we're used to seeing in these crackdowns. This was an illegal nightclub that was also acting as a warehouse for drugs. What does that tell you about how the illicit market here in the city is evolving and how officials have to adjust their strategy?

Mayor Adams: Great question. Both were… As I'm walking in with Lieutenant Rosa now from the Sheriff Department, we're walking into a place that was a normal deli, normal grocery store. We went into the back, and you saw mushrooms, which are hallucinogenics. You saw concentrated powder. You saw cannabis. You saw pre-rolls. Right here, this was a deli.

We would not have discovered this if it wasn't for the community residents. This was the partnership. The community called and gave us a tip, and we were able to go and act upon that tip. When you look at this establishment and then go to the establishment that we saw Sunday morning, around 1, 2 a.m., I was there with the team, we saw in that establishment $10 million, as you stated, a large quantity in the back. It was an illegal nightclub, and we found a shotgun that was there inside the premises at the same time.

Let me tell you else what we found. We found…Remember those machines you use when you go into the meat market and you pull off the number when you wait for your turn to be called? There was one in the location. That only shows you how busy the establishment was. Over 70 calls for 311 to that location. It became a blight to the residents of that community. By the team shutting it down, it really sent the right message.

It's so important for me to go when we do these shutdowns so I can do an observation and come back with the team, because it needs to be a holistic approach. You have NYPD, the sheriffs, DCWP, the Department of Workers Protection, everyone coming together to do this. This stuff is laced with God knows what. You don't know what's in it, the toxins that's in it. People think they get a discount.

This is a real problem. They are targeting our young people, colorful Skittles, packaging, edibles, all of these terrible things. That's why we are serious about closing. Closed down over 645 illegal establishments, millions of dollars in fines, and millions of pounds of items that we took out to prevent them from being on our street. Now we're seeing the legal cannabis market is starting to increase because we're going after the illegal ones.

Bossard: It goes to show just how crucial those community complaints ultimately are.

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. The partnership is… People want to live in safe communities where their children are safe. We don't want our babies going into cannabis shops, getting edibles. We know what cannabis does to the development of a child's brain at an early age.

When I speak to my teachers and educators. They're telling me, Eric, our children are high all the time. They're self-medicating themselves. We get increase in depression, increase in suicidal ideation. Social media is coming at them. My son is in his late twenties. I don't know how parents are doing it right now with preteens and teens. I take my hat off to parents. It is a challenge raising children right now.

Bossard: Whatever we can do to help guide them in the right direction.

Mayor Adams: That's right. That's why we, as a city, we need to be there to give that additional support.

Bossard: When we talk about our kids, I think one area that we've been talking about a lot lately is beach safety here in the city. Lifeguards, a big topic of conversation. I know at last check, you said we had about 800 lifeguards on staff right now.

Then in light of certain tragedies that have happened, I'm thinking specifically Coney Island last month, where we lost two sisters after hours when lifeguards were not on duty. Some elected officials are calling for an extension of beach hours where lifeguards will be present. Your thoughts on whether or not that can become a reality, given the situation we're in right now.

Mayor Adams: Think about it for a moment. We do extend the use of the drones and we do extend other methods to keep swimmers safe. It broke my heart going to their funeral the other day. The large community from Ghana was there. These two young girls, to lose children in that manner is just devastating. Then we lost the two young people in Queens as well, in Rockaway. That's why we really want to commend the governor. I joined her last year, I believe it was, when we talked about pools and swim safety. We want to continue to expand on that.

I understand the desire of extending the lifeguard hours but is that the right message we're sending? The right message should be that, hey, the rule is don't swim if the lifeguard isn't there. If we extend it to eight o'clock, that's not going to stop people from coming at nine o'clock. If we extend it to nine o'clock, that's not going to stop people from coming at 10 o'clock. The goal is to be solid on the rules. Here are the hours or here are the times that you should swim and let's really lean into that and make sure that people are following those rules because you should not even be swimming in locations where you don't have lifeguards. That is so important.

Now, Deputy Commissioner Daughtry has really elevated our drones and using our drones to protect our waterways as well and to discover sharks. We've been able to identify several sharks. We want to do everything that's possible to teach our children how to water safety and to protect them throughout the summer.

Bossard: Where are you at with the lifeguards right now in terms of staffing?

Mayor Adams: We're more than what we had during last year at this time because we looked at some of those rules. You don't have to be an Olympic swimmer to go out to kiddie pool, for God's sake. We were able to do… Bringing more recruitment, $1,000 bonus. We did a lot of incentives and that's why the numbers the way they are.

Bossard: Okay, Mr. Mayor, stay with us because more conversation continues right after this. We are going to be taking your calls. (718) 861-6800 is the number to dial. Ask the Mayor continues here on News 12 right after this.

[Commercial break.]

Bossard: Ask the Mayor here on News 12 with none other than New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Already so much ground that we've covered in this conversation. I think time now to bring in some callers. We have Carl from Brownsville on the line waiting tonight. Carl, thanks so much for calling in. What's your question for the mayor?

Question: Yes.

Bossard: Great to have you, Carl. Go ahead whenever you're ready.

Question: Yes, first of all, I want to say thank you, Mr. Mayor, for endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. That's a blessing right there. Second, I want to say you're doing it… You did a great job. You just got to get there. Another thing I want to ask is, a lot of people, they had it on them. They was talking about the Riis Houses, and they was talking about the water. The water is brown in Riis Houses, and they said every time they called the complaint center, the 707 number, that nobody come out to do anything about it. People talking about how much money they got to spend to go get water just to take showers. Not showers, but baths, to cook they food, to wash their hair. What can you do about that or your staff can do about that?

Mayor Adams: Carl, which houses are you talking about?

Question: Jacob Riis Houses in the Lower East Side.

Mayor Adams: I've been there on a number of occasions and actually drank the water myself and ran the water. NYCHA is very big on making sure the quality of water. We have some of the best water in the entire country, if not the globe. If anyone has a specific problem with their water, discoloration or something like that, we will be more than willing to have someone go out there and to inspect. If there's someone who's listening to the show now that they have a particular issue with the water, please reach out, call 311, and someone will get out there and inspect it as needed.

Bossard: Mr. Mayor, I feel like Carl's story is something we hear so often. Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about elevator outages at NYCHA complexes across the Bronx that were preventing seniors from being able to get to and from their homes during the extreme heat. Compound it with Carl's experience in the water. How do we make the necessary really big infrastructure changes that we need to our public housing?

Mayor Adams: Let me give you a number. $80 billion. The federal government has abandoned NYCHA. We're not getting the resources we deserve. They have an $80 billion capital problem. What did we do? We went to Albany. For the first time, we were able to do what many people tried, and that's the NYCHA Land Trust. Now residents are voting to see if we could free up billions of dollars to finally start doing some real repairs in NYCHA.

And we did something else. We included NYCHA in our housing plan. Never done before. We're doing it. And we're giving every residence in NYCHA high speed broadband for free. This is how you add money in the pockets of New Yorkers as is needed. We're also doing a local hiring initiative that when we give city contracts, certain contracts to those outside entities, they have to hire within NYCHA or in those low income communities as well. We're zero focused on NYCHA.

Bossard: A lot to look forward to for those tenants. Great. Let's get to another caller on the line. I believe we have Marta joining us from Co-op City. Marta, thanks so much for your call. Go ahead and ask your question when you're ready.

Question: Okay, thank you. Hi, Mr. Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: How are you, Marta?

Question: I'm good, thank you. My question is, we have a lot of trucks in the periphery of Co-op City area. I noticed that there's also campers in the area as well. I wanted to know if that is actually legal and allowed.

Mayor Adams: No, Marta, they're not supposed to be parking on the street. These are these large trailers you're talking about, correct?

Question: It's over by the MTA, the Express Bus depot, which is on Tillotson Avenue.

Mayor Adams: Okay, so let us check it out. We're getting ready to roll out an entirely new initiative. I have been receiving calls in the Bronx and Queens, the Laurelton section, where these large trucks are parking and just taking up parking space and just creating a quality of life issue in these communities. We went out there, did some towing.

We're getting ready to roll out a new initiative that I'm really looking forward to using, where you know how you put the boots on cars? We're going to do something different with trucks. We're going to be covering the entire front windshield and they're going to have to pay to get the item removed. This is a new initiative that Deputy Mayor Banks is introducing. We believe we're going to start making a real impact on some of this illegal truck parking.

Bossard: Looking forward to seeing that rollout and then tracking it happening in the Bronx and hopefully helping Marta. I do believe we have one last caller the line. I want to get to Dennis from Marine Park. Dennis, thanks so much for calling in. What's your question for Mr. Mayor?

Question: Great. A number of months ago, the mayor said that he was going to get rid of all these abandoned food sheds that are outside these restaurants. As of now, I don't believe he's done one of them. I'd like to know what's going on.

Mayor Adams: Okay, Dennis, hang on the call. Because you're telling me I haven't done one of them. I need you to come out and watch and see the ones that I've done. You need to come down to City Hall and travel with me. Then I want you to go back to the community and say, I'm sorry I said that about the mayor. In fact, I do like the mayor.

If you have an abandoned shed in your area, let us know what it is. Call 311. This is so important for all New Yorkers. If you see something, say something, do something, and let us go and address it. If you have an area, a place where you're seeing an abandoned shed, let me know. People call me and let me know about encampments and let me know about dumping zones. That's how we communicate and that's how we get stuff done. I want to go and look at those sheds that you're seeing in the Marine Park. We're going to rectify that problem over there. Is that a deal?

Question: We take it down.

Mayor Adams: We're going to take it down if it's abandoned. Okay?

Bossard: All right, Dennis heard it here first. Then Mr. Mayor, real quick, because the permanent outdoor dining program is currently in its rollout.

Mayor Adams: Yes, it is. The licenses go out, or the application goes out, because the legal outdoor dining that's not abandoned, we're going to allow the inspections and the proper use. We are removing abandons. We have removed a substantial number of abandoned sheds. August 3 is the deadline.

Bossard: Okay, looking forward to that. Stay with us. More conversation continues right here on Ask the Mayor right after this.

[Commercial break.]

Bossard: Welcome back to Ask the Mayor with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. We were just talking about before the commercial break, removing some of those abandoned outdoor dining sheds and you were able to get some updated numbers on how many?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Because Dennis felt we didn't take any down. We took [4,900] down, [4,900]. He may have some in his area. We're going to have… I'm going to have the local patrol just see in that area of Marine Park, but we removed [4,900].

Bossard: Hopefully next time we're talking with you, it's a different tune.

Mayor Adams: Yes, Get sheds down. Get sheds down.

Bossard: Lovely. I want to get to another caller who we have waiting on the line, Yvonne from Highbridge joining us here tonight. Yvonne, thanks so much for taking the time and what's your question for the mayor?

Question: Yes, Mayor Adams. I would like to know why isn't the city giving us garbage bins free for the first time? Because a lot of us can't afford it.

Mayor Adams: Yvonne, what we're looking at, number one, we made sure the person we made the deal with, because we have the large volume, to bring down below retail costs for the bins. That's number one. Number two, it's an investment in your property. Because if you hate rats like I hate rats, having a bin is rat-proof and is the best thing we can do. Number three, we're trying to look at how we can go to seniors and extremely low-income New Yorkers, how we can even drive down our discount more. We haven't figured it out yet, but that's our goal.

When you spread it out throughout the entire city at a low rate, we don't have to raise your taxes, something that we have not done since we have been in office. We don't have to take it out of taxpayers' coffers when you spread it out. That's why we're charging below retail, an investment in your property. I have a bin at my house, and it was one of the great investments that we have. Those plastic bags are the all-you-can-eat buffet for rats. You may not have heard it before, I hate rats.

Bossard: We have heard it loud and clear, and we're working at it. As you've gone on in this effort to really containerize a lot of trash, starting with some of our retail businesses and now really going on to our residential units, any impacts you've seen already that you can share?

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt. By November, we're going to containerize 70 percent of our garbage. This was the one of the last horizons. Then we're going to go to those large buildings. This is amazing for our city. They said it was going to take five years. We're doing it in under three years.

Bossard: We're going to be there even before November, in September, for that rat summit. We'll be following up with you then. Mr. Mayor, a pleasure.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Bossard: Thanks so much for your time. Thank all of you for your calls tonight. Have a good evening.

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