Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In For Live Interview On WBLS 107.5 FM’s “Caribbean Fever”

June 30, 2024

Dahved Levy: Caribbean Fever, 107.5 WBLS, Dahved Levy rocking you. Let me see my first guest. My first guest is around. Hi, good evening, sir. How you doing?

Mayor Eric Adams: Good evening, brother.

Levy: Rocking you, rocking you, rocking you. How are you doing? How are you doing? The mayor of New York City, sir, when you were our president, you were just dealing with Brooklyn. Now you've got Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens. You are busier than a bee.

Mayor Adams: It's about scaling up. When you think about it, if you run one store correctly, you can duplicate it and run a chain store. That's how it works. I'm just scaling up the success of Brooklyn, making it happen citywide.

Levy: Okay, Mayor Adams launches Let's Swim New York City with over $1 billion in improvements to public pools in all five boroughs on those two pools at city public schools. Tell us about that.

Mayor Adams: It's so important, our pools, they are the equivalent to our French Riviera. They are equivalent to going away on vacation. Families come together, and we knew we had to look at our 50 pools and get them up and operating.

One of the pools is out, Astoria Pool, where it's a 100-year-old pool. We spent $19 million, and we renovated it in one year. This is part of our billion-dollar investment in New York City public pools over the course of five years. We know how important public pools are. Then we add that to more than 600 lifeguards on staff already. This is what we had last year. We're going to protect our swimming, and at the same time, we're going to have clean, safe places for our children and families.

Levy: Sir, we know that children of color don't have the accessibility while you're doing what you're doing. How are you going to make it for all those kids who do not have access to the pools, who do not have lifeguards to teach them properly what to do and what not to do, and just people that are very scared of just going into the water, period, who have never done it?

Mayor Adams: You're so right, Dahved. When you look at those two young men we lost out in Rockaway, that is why swimming and access to swimming lessons are so important. We're doing a combination of things with the parks and other organizations are combining with us to make sure the ability to swim is for all communities.

The governor has been a real partner in this. We really started focusing on how to teach people how to swim so they can fulfill some of these lifeguards jobs and also have the ability to enjoy the water. It's a complete program and turnaround that the governor and I have partnered with. We announced it several months ago and we're going to continue to lean forward on it.

Levy: Sir, you and Chancellor Banks unveil more equitable vision for the future of New York City's public schools with signature math initiatives and new divisions of inclusive and accessible learning. Exactly how does this work for people of color?

Mayor Adams: We keep adding on new layers of improving our educational system. Remember we started out with dyslexia screening so that we won't continue to allow those who need differently not to get the support they deserve. We looked at food in school. We looked at everything from breathing exercises to mindfulness. Then we changed the reading curriculum to a phonics-based system. Now even the state has embraced it to improve our reading scores. Now the chancellor is doing the same thing with math.

We realize far too many young people in general but specifically those of color believe they are bad math students. We want to show them just the opposite and that is what the chancellor has rolled out. Dahved, we are leading the state in reading and math. That's the level of improvements that we're seeing in our school system. That's why mayoral accountability or mayoral control was important.

Chancellor Banks is the right person to do this but we're doing something else. We're looking at those children who are dealing with either disabilities or learning disabilities. We now have an office of special education and multilingual learners. They're joining forces to become a division of inclusive and accessible learning under the leadership of Deputy Chancellor Foti. This is really exciting. This is something advocates were calling for in a long time to give these children the opportunity they deserve.

Levy: Mayor, it is said that you have announced 10,000 free tickets for general public for the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks. Who do you pick who these tickets are being given to? Everyone loves a good fireworks show. The spirit of the Fourth of July is the music that everyone enjoys.

Mayor Adams: You're right. The fireworks live presentation is going to be stronger than ever. We're giving 10,000 tickets to New Yorkers who can view the show at the heart of the action. The general public can also watch the fireworks show without a ticket along the West Side Highway to celebrate with their families and loved ones. You can just go to my website and you'll get the information on exactly how to get access to the 10,000 tickets.

Levy: Last but not least, sir, I saw that you took a trip to Europe and you were there meeting with the Pope. I'm curious when you met with the Pope, that interaction, were you scared? Were you tough? Were you humbled? What was your mindset when you stood in front of the Pope?

Mayor Adams: That's deep when you think about it, because, the significance of the position, His Holiness represents those of the Catholic faith and many people that come from the Caribbean diaspora, embrace the Catholic beliefs and philosophy and way of life.

To be there in the midst of the Pope and other global leaders, the Pope called for a meeting of the human fraternity, stating that we need to all come together when you look at what we're going through, wars all over, from the Sudan to what's happening in Gaza to what's happening in the Ukraine to even what's playing out in Haiti in our hemisphere.

The Pope called us all together to meet and during the meeting he held a different briefing with some of the leaders and it was just really a very spiritual moment where we had the opportunity to hear him and so it was a significant moment for me, a person of Christian faith I really appreciated the opportunity to do so.

Levy: I'm curious to find out if this had anything to do with you being baptized in prison?

Mayor Adams: That baptism at Rikers Island with other inmates was very important to me because it was a renewal of my faith but I wanted to do it with those who were often cast out. I have been on Rikers Island more than any other mayor in the history of this city because I believe that as we talk about closing Rikers Island we should also talk about how do we close the pipeline that feeds Rikers Island and that is what I wanted to be there to get baptized and this is all part of the renewal of my spiritual faith. As we go through turmoils and troubling times, we need to understand the power of prayer and how we need to be focused on that.

Levy: Thank you very much. You've got the last words.

Mayor Adams: I just want to continue to tell New Yorkers we inherited a city that was going through some trying times and when you look at where we are now how we settled the budget that put money in our libraries, our schools, after school programs, our summer jobs our city is not coming back our city is back.

Our subway system is the safest it has been in decades over 4.1 million riders and just six felonies a day. We want to get rid of those six but the reality is you're seeing a decrease in shootings, homicides [and] other violence. 40,000 illegal dirt bikes and mopeds removed off our streets, 15,000 guns off our streets, you'll see a city that's clearly on the pathway to recovery and we've just gotten started. You're going to see some great things in this city and all I can say is we're going to continue to rock you, brother.

Levy: Thank you very much. Have a good summer, mayor. Take care. Caribbean Fever, 107.5 WBLS.

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