Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

July 30, 2024

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: Good morning, everybody. My name is Fabien Levy and I serve as deputy mayor for Communications for the City of New York. Thank you all for joining us today.

From protecting public safety to creating a more affordable and livable city, our administration is working every day to break down silos, bring teams together, and get stuff done for working class New Yorkers. To tell you more about these efforts, the mayor has once again convened senior leadership here at City Hall for our weekly in-person media availability.

Joining us today, we have Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tiffany Raspberry. I'm pleased to turn it over now to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much Fabien and the entire team for being here today. As we've been clear since day one, our three important bullets, protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make the city more livable for everyday New Yorkers, but specifically working class New Yorkers. We're doing just that, I love that picture in the middle.

It's clear that we are moving in the right direction around public safety. It's particularly around lifeguards and DM Meera Joshi and her team there is continuously attempting to evolve to make sure that those who use our beaches can do it in a safe way. New York City Parks is implementing a new emergency response heat wave protocol at our public beaches. In the event a heat advisory is issued in the city's emergency heat plan is activated, our lifeguards will remain in their lifeguard stations until 8 p.m. to respond to an emergency if needed.

To be clear, lifeguard chairs, they will not be in their chairs out on the sand because the beach is still closed for swimmers at 6 p.m. Beaches close at 6 p.m., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.is the time to use the beaches. In the event of an emergency takes place, we want to make sure the coordination between NYPD, FDNY, and New York City Emergency Management with our lifeguards so we can save lives. Unfortunately, we had a series of drownings, particularly with young people, so we want to do everything we can to alleviate that threat, if not eradicate it altogether. It's about enhancing beach safety, and we want to continue to do what's possible. I want to really thank the DM, I want to thank the deputy mayor and the coordination of her team. Really specifically want to thank Commissioner Daughtry, what he has done with the drones for not only identifying sharks, but also to look after swimmers.

Housing production, behind me, the numbers are clear when you look at them. DM, Maria Torres-Springer, you and that team just really should be proud of these numbers. This has been a key part of building our economy and making our city more affordable is making sure New Yorkers have affordable place to live. Yesterday, we had an incredible milestone in delivering on that mission. Across the board, particularly with NYCHA that has historically been denied when we talk about housing, something that first deputy mayor has been talking about as well for a long time. We have to include NYCHA in the game. Our city agency financed nearly 29,000 affordable and public housing units in fiscal year 2024 through new construction and preservation initiative.

We've also converted more than 3,600 NYCHA apartments into newly renovated residence. We've moved a record number of New Yorkers out of shelters, a record number of New Yorkers out of shelters. Even when we had to handle 207,000 migrants and asylum seekers. We never took our eyes off of the responsibilities that we had to do for everyday New Yorkers and it's just, when you think about it, it's really commendable.

Lastly, this is our final reminder. I like the outdoor dining. August 3rd, we were out in the street in Washington Heights over the weekend handing out flyers and information and reminders. Want people to sign up for the outdoor dining. I think it was a great addition to the city. Hats off to former Mayor de Blasio saving almost 100,000 jobs and making sure our economy was able to continue to move forward. When you walk into these restaurants and nightlife establishments, you see everyday New Yorkers that are there from the waiters to the cooks, the dishwashers, the bus boys and girls. It's just played such an important role of making sure that people are able to be employed and employed locally. So, sign up, great expansion, I think it's a great addition to our city. You can go to diningoutnyc.info to apply today. We will continue to encourage people to do it the right way. DM Meera Joshi has done an amazing job with her team of removing those unsightly abandoned locations. What, we have about 2,700, DM?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: More than that.

Mayor Adams: How many?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I think over 300.

Mayor Adams: Okay.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: You mean the ones that we've taken down?

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Yeah, yeah.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff, good stuff.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I do, just on the dining out, just to clarify, you can continue to apply for a permit after August 3rd. It's just those restaurants that have setups today on the street. If they want to keep them for the rest of the summer, just put it in your application. That secures your ability to keep that shut up and allows you to be part of the program going forward.

But, any time after August 3rd, if you don't have a setup, you can still apply. The window is still open and we really look forward to both the returning and the new business owners that we're seeing that want to take advantage of this program.

Mayor Adams: All yours, Fabien.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing?

Question: I'm okay. I'm curious if you could tell us sort of how you and Tim Pearson became so close and whether you think given the four lawsuits and the two DOI investigations, he's being unfairly prosecuted?

Mayor Adams: I became close with him the same way I became close to everyone. Like I'm close to you. I adore you. I like people, and there's no surprise. I meet people, we connect. Tim has been around for a long time, dealing with very important issues. He's well respected in the law enforcement community. He was the head of NOBLE, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement. So when you ask about our relationship, I have long term relationships with many people. Tim walks in the room. What I've learned in life is that a good friend walks in the room when others walk out. Those in law enforcement, particularly officers of color, would tell you he has walked in the room some difficult times. Lisa, you want to talk about the other aspects of her question?

Lisa Zornberg, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: We're letting things run their course. We're not going to litigate allegations in the press. There are answers in some of the lawsuits that have already been filed that are public record, and I can refer you to those.

Mayor Adams: How's it going?

Question: Everything is well. Good. I like the look. I grew up…

Mayor Adams: You can't say that. They're going to write about you and say you're hitting on me.

Question: No, but I grew up seeing our leaders outfitted just like that. Good look, good look.

Mr. Mayor, over the last 24 hours, they had a lot of shootings across New York City. Four in Brooklyn, New York. Is gun violence an uptick again?

Secondly, the pushback that you're getting from public advocates, Jumaane Williams and some others about solitary confinement. How do you respond to that?

Mayor Adams: First, I say this over and over again. This is one of the most difficult challenges we have in a city of this large, of 8.3 million people. These things that are highlighted give the impression of a city out of control. Which in fact is not true. I comment on your industry all the time. If it bleeds, it leads. Those leads sort of shape the opinion of New Yorkers far too often.

New York is the safest big city in America, not based on my opinion, based on the stats. The stats show that this is the safest big city in America. These police officers, when I came in, morale was low. They were not being paid the salary that they deserve. I came in with a very clear message on public safety. Public safety and justice are prerequisite to prosperity, and I lived up to that. Because of that, we have removed 17,000, over 17,000 illegal guns off our streets since this administration has been placed. Murders are down 11.2 percent. When you look at shootings, shootings are down. We're down in many of our major crime categories.

When you have those series of shootings, I saw one, we should have played that tape. I wish I would have played the tape. I saw a shooting yesterday that we had. A young man rolled up on a bike, shot three people. All, thank God, all of them are going to survive. One of them was 16 years old. You know where they were located? They were outside a cannabis shop, illegal cannabis shop. And so when our holistic approach of closing down cannabis shops, going after guns off our streets, and talking about those repeated offenders. I bet you when we catch the person who did that shooting, I bet you he's a repeat offender.

These highlighted cases are not a reflection on a city that has recovered. More jobs in the city history, bond rate has increased our bonds. Small businesses have opened, our children are outpacing the state in reading and math. Tourism are back in the city, 62 million last year. You see the housing numbers behind us. The city is not coming back, the city's back.

I don't control the headlines. I don't control looking through the entire day and say let me find the worst thing that happens in a city of 8.3 million people and let me highlight it every day. That's the reality. That's why we do our town halls, that's why we go out on the streets, that's why we speak to our residents. The number one thing I hear every time when people start looking at our success, I did not know that. Of course you don't know that. It's not being reported. If it was the front page was these numbers behind us, people have a different feeling about our city.

We do not have a city where crime is going in the right direction. We don't have a city where crime is going in the wrong direction, we have a city where crime is going in the right direction. The subway is the safest in 14 years if you take the two years out of COVID. This is the lowest level of robberies in recorded history on our subway system. all the indicators are saying the same thing. Those who are not catching on to the narrative that our Police Department is responding, the coordination of our agencies is allowing this city to be the safest city in America. We had our AAMA, African American Mayors Association, came to the city over the weekend. They were blown away on how well this city is operating.

Is that my favorite chart? See that little orange there? See that little thing? You can almost barely see it. If you don't have 20-20 vision, you can't even see it. All of this narrative, I bet you don't want to live in some of those other cities. We're the safest big city in America. Now, that's no consolation to a person who's a victim of a crime. I'm not dismissive of people who are victims of a crime. We're going to continue to zero in on bad people that are doing bad things to good people in this city.

The results of what these police officers are doing, closing cases, catching people committing crime, going after those illegal actions, is something that should be commended. I want to say thank you to New Yorkers, and I want to say thank you to the men and women who are doing this. Six straight months of crime down on our streets and crime down overall year to date, six straight months. So why is my narrative of six straight months of decreasing crime is turning to a narrative of, hey, city's out of control. It's just like, what are we basing that on? The city is the safest big city in America. Next week, can we have a sign over my head that says that, please?

Question: Yes. The law of blocking solitary confinement.

Mayor Adams: I think Lisa has really laid out the importance of that. Lisa, why don't you go through that? But again, we keep using this term, and I don't know how many times I have to correct it. We don't have solitary confinement in New York City.

That was a bait and switch where people took an emotional terminology and they put it out there, and all of us started buying on it. Everybody started buying on to it. I was sitting down having a meeting with some of my national leaders, and they were saying, yes, because solitary confinement, and when I explained it to them, they said, wow, they duped everybody. We don't have solitary confinement. They knew everybody was going to hold on to that terminology and make it seem like, my God, how could you do solitary confinement?

The city does not have solitary confinement in our jails. I don't know how long it's going to take for folks to resonate. We don't have solitary confinement. The week after, can you put that sign up?

Deputy Mayor Levy: I'm assuming you're asking about Local Law 42.

Zornberg: Yes. I'm happy to provide some clarity to you and to all New Yorkers. First, let's be clear. New York City jails have not practiced any form of solitary confinement since 2019, that's five years ago. To be clear, solitary confinement is defined by the United Nations to mean having someone in their cell 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact. That's what we think of as common sense. When we think of solitary confinement, it's someone who's held in a jail, allowed out maybe for an hour, maybe for two hours. That's what the UN, the United Nations, says it is.

In fact, New York City jails have one of the most liberal policies of any large jail system in the United States for out of cell time. People in general population in the New York City jails are allowed out of cell 14- 14 hours a day. Let's compare that to other major jail systems. In Chicago, in general population, you're allowed out of cell six hours a day, less than half. In Philadelphia, general population allowed out five hours a day. In Washington, D.C., you're allowed out of cell five hours a day. What then is Local Law 42 even talking about when it keeps using the term solitary confinement? Let's clear it up.

The local law that was passed, in sharp contrast to the United Nations' own definition, arbitrarily adopted a definition of its own, saying that anything less than being out of cell 14 hours a day is solitary confinement. That's what the local law says. So if you're allowed out of your cell 13 hours a day, Local Law 42 labels that as solitary confinement. That is not remotely solitary confinement. And you don't have to be a correctional expert to understand that. The media really does have to stop calling this a law about banning solitary confinement. It's false branding. It's confusing the issue for the public. I want to make two more points.

The second point. If local law, if there is no solitary confinement in New York City, then what does Local Law 42 actually seek to do if implemented? Why is it so dangerous? I'll just break it down. The law as written would prohibit the Department of Corrections from operating a restrictive housing program, a separation housing unit, and de-escalation housing. Three forms of housing that are essential to safely run the jails and separate individuals who are violent.

Let's go through it. Restrictive housing. That's a unit specifically for individuals who have already been found guilty of slashing or stabbing a correctional officer or another person in custody. Currently, if you are put in the restrictive housing unit because you've been found guilty of a violent act, in New York City jails, you are still allowed out of cell for at least seven hours a day. For seven hours a day. That is still, even in restrictive housing, that is more out of cell time than Chicago, Philadelphia, or DC allow for their general population out of cell time. Think about that for a minute, okay? Separation housing. Local Law 42 would prevent the Department of Corrections from operating a separation housing program. What is separation housing? It's used in the rare instance when a body scan reveals that a person in custody has secreted a weapon on or inside their person and they're refusing to relinquish it. So they are removed from the general population until they become cooperative or until the weapon is surrendered.

There were 58 instances so far this year of that happening. The average length of stay in separation housing is about three days. Local Law 42 would prohibit and prevent DOC from having separation housing. What are you going to have? A person with a weapon on them left in jail population? Is that what families who have sons or daughters being held at Rikers want? For that person to remain in general population where they could get the weapon and slash someone with it? Then de-escalation housing, and allow me to clear it up as well since you asked. De-escalation confinement is for calming individuals, people who have just been involved in violent instances. Whether they're the violent actor, whether they're the victim, that it's used to decontaminate individuals if they've been exposed to a chemical agent. It's a temporary thing currently in the jails.

The time for de-escalation confinement cannot exceed four hours without senior staff approving any extension. But sometimes it needs to be more than four hours. What if it's a victim and you need to find a new housing unit for that victim so that the person can be safe? You can get supervisory approval while you set them up in a new unit. Local Law 42 would strip the Department of Corrections of all flexibility, judgment, and discretion, and require that no matter what, even if terribly unsafe, after four hours you have to put the person back in general population.

Finally, what would this law do? Restraints. This one is quite shocking. If Local Law 42 were implemented, it would restrain persons in custody from being, it would prevent restraining persons in custody when they're being transported. Do you know that Department of Corrections transports about 500 people a day to court or to hospitals? Average of 25 buses a day. This law, if implemented, would place such burdens on the Department of Corrections to restrain anyone that essentially they could not do safe transport. That's extremely dangerous. The NYPD would never allow such a thing. Public safety agencies throughout the New York City do not transport people unrestrained. Why treat Department of Corrections differently? Who will drive those buses? Who wants their son riding in a bus in the back with a group of individuals totally unrestrained who could harm them while a bus is in transit? So the bottom line of my second point is that Local Law 42 would be dangerous if implemented to the people who are in DOC custody and who work at the jails.

Third point, and my last point, because it's important for New Yorkers to understand this. DOC is under a federal consent decree and federal monitorship. That's aimed at reducing violence in the jails, which everyone supports. The monitor's approval is required before the city can implement any new policies in the jail. It's required. Has the federal monitor approved the implementation of Local Law 42? No. If we could just put up a slide, let's look at what the federal monitor has had to say recently. Go back one slide. That's not the first one. Okay, I'll read the, I'll read, that's the second one. I don't know if there's a, if there's a prior one. No. Okay.

Okay. I'm just going to read it. The first one. I'll read this one. Local Law 42 includes unprecedented provisions regarding the management of incarcerated individuals following serious acts of violence and eliminates necessary discretion by correctional management in a manner that could actually result in increased risk of harm. The slide that comes before this is the monitor saying attempting to implement Local Law 42 at this time would be dangerous and would subject incarcerated individuals and staff to further risk of harm. Next slide. The monitor has written that the requirements of Local Law 42 impose absolute prohibitions on correctional management that remove all discretion where some degree of latitude and discretion is necessary to manage immediate threats to security.

Next slide. The Department of Corrections, and you can see the slide, is not presently equipped to safely implement the law, and the truncated timeline for implementation is unreasonable and heightens risk of harm and safety to those in the department's custody and who work in the department's facilities. Next slide.

Local Law 42 would drastically alter and impact the department's core strategy for addressing violent misconduct, its restrictive housing program. Finally, implementing the law would require changes that conflict with standard sound correctional practices and would therefore be dangerous. Given the dangers, and I'm wrapping up, given the dangers, just so where this is at, the federal monitor has said he must undertake a detailed work plan to determine which parts of the law can be safely implemented and which cannot, to determine which of the parts of the law conflict with federal orders DOC already has to follow and which do not.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, who presides over the Nunez case, agreed with the monitor's plan and has directed the monitor to do that work between now and October 24th and for the parties to then report back to the court. That, to answer your question, is why a temporary and narrowly tailored Executive Emergency Order was issued this past Saturday, to protect public safety by temporarily suspending or modifying the most dangerous parts of Local Law 42 while the federal monitor does his necessary work. We hope that the City Council will come to the table to collaborate in doing that work with the monitor and the Department of Corrections. We repeatedly asked the City Council to agree to a temporary stay of Local Law 42 while that work is being done. So far, they have not agreed. In the meantime, maintaining public safety is our top priority.

Mayor Adams: Well said. Yes.

Question: I wanted to ask you, today Comptroller Brad Lander announced his bid for mayor. He had an interview with New York 1 this morning. He said the reason, one of the reasons he's running is because you aren't getting stuff done that matter to New Yorkers, like affordability and safety. I wanted to get your response.

Mayor Adams: He said we are getting stuff done? That's what he meant? Oh, okay. Okay. I knew he was doing an announcement. I thought his announcement was to go to assist the first woman of color to be the president of the United States, not take the second man of color from being the mayor of the City of New York. I think we need to be focused on one mission. The mission is electing VP Harris. That's what I'm focused on. I'm sure he's going to join me in that once he sees the importance of that.

Question: I also wanted to follow up. I know it's a deadline to nominate a corporation counsel. Do you plan to nominate Randy Mastro? Do you have any concerns that you have a contentious relationship with the City Council right now, and they could reject your nomination?

Mayor Adams: I don't have a contentious relationship with the City Council. We were able to land three planes with budgets. We were able to revitalize our economy. We were able to have more small businesses open in the history of the city. We were able to have more jobs in the history of the city. We had bond raters that increased our bond. Crime is decreasing in the city. Tourism is back.

When you disagree with someone on two, three, four, five items, do an analysis on how many things we disagreed on. Then do an analysis on how many things we agree on. We don't have a contentious relationship. This is how government operates. There's a legislative branch, and there's an executive branch. If we agreed on everything, then this is not what the forefathers of our Constitution wanted. A good, healthy dialogue is great for the City of New York, and it's great for the state, and it's great for the people we're working for.

So, I don't have any concerns about us continuing to see the success in the city. I think Adrienne should be really proud these two Bay Siders are running the most complicated city with the most difficult journalist corps in the history of the city, and we're still moving in the right direction. The city is better. You can ride our subways now. You and your children can enjoy the city because of the job that we're doing as the mayor and the speaker. All of y'all should be happy. You're able to stop here and ask me these crazy questions because everything is going so good for you. So now I've got to be creative. Let me find something that's wrong. All of you are benefiting from the job that Adrienne and I have done. There's no contentious relationship.

Question: Do you plan to nominate Randy Mastro?

Mayor Adams: You know how we always do it. When we make announcements, we make those announcements. We don't do it prematurely unless we decide one of you, we're going to give you a scoop. Fabien does that.

Question: The first one is Simone Hawkins is replacing Kara Ahmed as head of the DOE's early childhood division. You agreed to a working group that would come up with recommendations to reform the early childhood system as part of the budget agreement.

Are you looking to employ a new approach to early childhood? What about empty preschool seats and insufficient preschool seats for our students?

Mayor Adams: What about what?

Question: What about empty preschool seats and insufficient preschool seats for students with disabilities?

Mayor Adams: You want to get into that? You or Ana? You want to start? The one of you that is so excited about the work they do. They both want to do it.

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: Absolutely. Yes, mayor. Yes, we're excited about start working with DC Hawkins, who started yesterday. You mentioned what was announced during the budget negotiation, our work with our partners from across the hall. As the mayor mentioned, with the council. We're starting a series of meetings with them that's going to be bi-monthly, twice a month, whatever that phrase is. Reorganizing our strategy on early childhood from all the work that has been done thus far. The mayor mentioned a few weeks ago how, during his administration, the affordability of child care has been taken on by this administration from $55 a month to now being less than $5.

We continue that mission and that vision with DC Hawkins, looking forward to building the team of all the internal folks that are going to be part of our work with the Council, as well as the council members that the speaker of the Council had assigned to work with us.

We continue to work on reducing the seats that are available in making sure that they go to the families that need them across the city by looking throughout, and have done that about for six months now, looking at every single seat coach that has seats available, what seats they are, examining the seats they are, and then looking at the family and what they need to make sure that we can make the changes to address the needs of those families. Thanks.

Question: A family of a prisoner showed up on the City Hall steps yesterday to demand that you fire the officers who killed him. Do you plan to listen to the family? How would you characterize your record on police accountability?

Mayor Adams: I think, A-double-plus, I think that this administration, under former Commissioner Keechant Sewell and the current Commissioner Caban, the entire team, we're very clear in my weekly calls with the NYPD, we must stay focused on producing a product that public safety and justice goes together.

The current review that's taking place, we're going to let it run its course, My heart goes out to the family. No one wants to lose a loved one to any level of violence. If it comes from a police officer, if it comes from a civilian, I know how painful this is for family members when you lose a loved one to violence, and our hearts goes out to the family members.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Just before we go on, just to go back to what DM Ana was saying, so just, you were asking about number of seats. It was over 2,400 when we started this process. We're down to under 1,000 left without an offer so far. We went from 94 percent who were initially offered a seat to now over 98 percent. We're going to get to the 100 percent before the school year starts. Thanks, Randy.

Question: Hi, thanks, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How you doing? Where you been? I haven't seen you in a little while.

Question: I'm not here all the time. Okay. Special appearance. I got a couple of questions for you about dining, which you mentioned at the top. DOT told me yesterday the number of applicants is at 1,300 total at sidewalk and roadway. It's about a 90 percent drop-off from the peak of pandemic when it was 12,500.

Wanted to get your reaction to that drop-off if you're satisfied. Then secondly, I've been trying to figure out like what the breakdown is of roadway versus sidewalk 1,300. DOT's press office has refused to tell me. I was wondering if you could tell me and if not, why not? Okay.

Mayor Adams: See, and DM Meera Joshi will give you those breakdown. What I found when I was out there to some of the restaurant establishments, the outdoor dining was a lifeline. They needed it because of COVID. People were not comfortable in going inside.

After things normalized, they were able to adjust the money that they were making. But some said, hey, this is amazing. It has attracted people and they want to expand. I don't think the drop-off is no more than that is now significant to people. Some people sees they don't need the outdoor dining. They were doing well as a restaurant and they're still doing their normal manner. Some are seeing the benefit of it. So it's good to have options. DM Joshi?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Sure. I do want to start out with the program that on the street now was an outgrowth of COVID. It was done very quickly in response to the fact that we couldn't eat and be together indoors. It also had another characteristic that I don't want to lose sight of. It was free.

Basically, we were giving restaurants, and the Times really made it the right move. We were giving restaurants an extra room to their establishment, but they weren't having to pay any rental fee that they would pay if they extended their establishment. The roadway dining and sidewalk dining that we worked on with City Council really takes the best of that aspect of the ability to extend restaurants and gets rid of some of the historic challenges that people had when they wanted to do sidewalk cafes. The cost and the administrative burden were really high.

Pre-COVID, there were not that many sidewalk cafes, if you can recall. I don't know if we can still go back that far, but what it added was the ability to use the roadway. We have about 1,300 applications. On August 3rd is the deadline for people who have existing sheds up. We'll probably see a little bit more of a rush as we get to August 3rd. I really encourage everybody who has a shed up that wants to continue with the open dining program to apply at nyc.gov/diningout. Just put in your application, save your spot. It also protects the shed that you have up. The bigger message is that's not the end of the application period. That application period remains open. It's a seasonal program.

In November, all the old sheds will come down. Next year, all of the sheds will have the new requirements. You'll see a lot more uniformity and really much better conditions for all of the sheds. So it's an amazing program. It will be the nation's biggest roadway dining program, sidewalk cafe program. We're really opening up New York streets in a way that we didn't think possible. But one of the silver linings of COVID is that we got to see our city in a different way. So, we can't give it away for free anymore. We do have to have some rules. I'm certain that like with everything, the popularity of it will bring more and more people into the fold. We'll see lots and lots of businesses take advantage of it.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Joshi: We can follow up. Some people have done sidewalk only. Some people have asked for roadway only. Then a group asked for sidewalk and roadway.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I assume that there is a breakdown.

Mayor Adams: Let us get that for you. That should not be a complicated question. If we are not, DM, breaking them down with readily available sidewalks versus roadway based on the application, let's make sure we do that.

Question: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. What's happening? Not too much. Going back to Tim Pearson, can you describe what his role is within the administration, whether that's changed as a result of his lawsuits? The most recent one described him as having vast powers over NYPD promotions. Is that the case?

Mayor Adams: Everybody throw around that term vast powers, vast powers, vast powers. No one has vast powers. Everyone has checks and balances. He's a senior advisor for public safety. What he has done around so many areas. We need to be able to be flexible to deal with the moving targets that are in front of us. I've just learned from those like Deputy Mayor Banks and others that have come from the flexibility in law enforcement, the ever-changing environment of law enforcement. Those skills are just so important.

He's going to continue to do that. Everything from planning, how we dealt with the COVID. I remember those beginning days, how Camille, that's how I discovered Camille's brilliance. Camille and Tim came together to make sure our schools were open, to coordinate the PPEs that were distributed. It was unbelievable. We should have documented all of that stuff. It was unbelievable how the two of them came in and took over a system that was not operating correctly.

Then now, all those decreases in what is costing us and migrants and asylum seekers, bringing down the costs, living up to the PEGs, making sure we're doing the security at the various locations. Yes, we have, you'll hear about some of those high-profile cases at Randall's Island, but the day-to-day operation of thousands of people sitting around doing nothing and coming up with safety mechanisms and advising not only this administration, but advising the PC, bringing down the cost of this, all that's Tim Pearson. He has, he would continue to do so. People have a tendency to, when accusations are made, to say, you know what, the pressure's hot, you need to just get rid of a person. I just don't operate that way. I believe in a city of due process, and let the process take its course.

Question: Can you say whether his role has changed at all since the lawsuits have been brought up?

Mayor Adams: Has not, has not.

Question: Why does he work for the EDC?

Question: Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Hey, what's happening? Dr. Bob Lee. Had a voice like yours, man.

Question: Making this a more livable city. We always see you in the community. You're always working with people who are doing great things. You recognize that. I'm out there with you. I see you. Thank you for all that. Thank you for continuing to do that. Can you talk more about the Rise Up New York City program?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I'm going to turn that over to Dr., to Dr. Martin to talk about that series. That was something that she felt was so important. People get free entertainment. It's interesting at all of these events, you don't see any discourse. You don't see any problems. People are able to come out and enjoy themselves. Why don't you go into that?

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: They actually started under your leadership back in the Senate, actually. We did an event in Brooklyn that was very well attended. It made us think about matriculating to become the borough president, as you always wanted to be anyway. Then we just took over that concert series in Wingate.

When we came to the city, we decided we wanted to do it on a broader scale, to give everyday New Yorkers who didn't have an opportunity to have a staycation. We have a lot of people in New York City who cannot afford to go to a top-level concert series. They want to have a little bit of fun. We were able to figure out how to do it with partners. We have a great partnership with Make Music NYC, a non-for-profit. We have a great team, Globe Star Music and Entertainment, as well as WBLS and Hot 97 and others who partnered with the city to ensure that New York City residents who cannot go to a free, quality concert engage in such.

This year, I can make that announcement, I guess. We have Patti LaBelle. We're excited about that, yes. Miss LaBelle. Miss LaBelle. Miss LaBelle herself and Miss Nona Hendryx will join her. We're instituting something that's new. We're excited to do an entertainment key to the city for people who are in entertainment and who have distinguished themselves as being really great artists.

She will be one of the first recipients, and Miss Nona Hendryx. We look forward to doing that. That will be in Brooklyn. It'll be in all boroughs. We're doing in Queens. We're doing in Staten Island, Diane. Staten Island, you're always saying you're forgotten. We love you. We'll be there. Bronx, all genres, American music, West Indian music, Latino music, soul music, rock music, all types of music.

We've partnered also with Summer Stage. We've been doing a series of concerts with Summer Stage from June, I believe, until August. Our rise-up proper starts in August. We're going to go into November because we're bringing back one of our old favorites, Celebration of Praise. Thanksgiving in Praise. It'll be a good series. We look forward to all New Yorkers coming and joining us. It's on our website. You can go on our nyc.gov website, and you can get the listing. It's still in formation because we're still adding acts. We look forward to you coming, and it's throughout the week.

Mayor Adams: One part that you're missing that I love that you added, we have the Karate Kid mindset. that scene in a movie where a person thought he was washing a car, but he was learning karate. We're showing people what resources are available.

When you come to our concerts, we're telling them about employment, how to get employment. We tell them how to sign up for different city services, how to get access to the resources. We're meeting people where they are.

While you're sitting down in between acts, we have information that we're giving people to allow them to know all of these benefits. We leave too much money on the table. Too much money goes back to D.C., goes back to the state, because people don't know how to navigate how to get these benefits. The concert is saying, while you're here enjoying the show, here's how to improve the quality of your life in the city. I thought that was a brilliant attitude that you had.

Lewis-Martin: I'm glad you said that, because we also, this year, the Department of Elections, they asked us to partner with them, and we'll allow people to sign up to register to vote. That's important this year. Everybody should register and vote.

Deputy Mayor Levy: The concerts start, there's three on August 1st, 2nd, 3rd this week up in the Bronx, and one in Harlem. The next week, I think there's four also. If you go up on RiseUpNYCConcerts.com, you can see the full list.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Bob Lee. We need to do a key to Dr. Bob Lee, man. Real pioneer.

Question: My question, I have two questions. The first is on Tim Pearson. I read in the New York Times story that John M. Flannery, a lawyer with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, he's been hired by the city to represent Mr. Pearson in the city's interests. When was he hired, and who made the decision to hire him? I know my colleague, Greg Smith, had reported about the outgoing counsel, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, had some concerns about that.

My second question is about the lifeguards. I don't know if the DM wants to talk about it. Will it be all the lifeguards in the extended heat wave? Will all the lifeguards deployed to the beach remain until 8 p.m.? If you're going to have them at shacks, understanding that shacks are dispersed across the beach, they might not be able to get there. There won't be any walking posts. If you're going to have lifeguards on duty, which I know, when I've asked previously about extending swimming hours, that's when they are concerned. If you're going to have all the lifeguards, why not just extend swimming, because people still swim and people can drown very quickly if there are rough waters.

Mayor Adams: Yes, they all, when you ask the question, everybody's like chomping at the bait. Hold on, let me, first, let me say this, and Lisa, you can pick up after. Judge Radix did not say that. The mere fact that you reported doesn't mean it's accurate. She did not say that.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Well, she did not say that. Lisa, you can take the rest, but I just want to be accurate, because we put these things out in the universe, and all of a sudden, they become facts. She did not say that. Go ahead, Lisa.

Zornberg: The prior reporting was false. If you need to, you can absolutely call the Law Department for correction. The law department is the part of New York City that has a process for figuring out counsel issues, including when individuals are named in a suit, if they are entitled to have counsel provided by the City of New York. Also, the Law Department is responsible for determining whether the Law Department itself has a conflict in handling the representation and defense of a matter.

The Law Department did both of those evaluations and assessments here. It was the Law Department that determined that it… The Law Department needed to bring in outside counsel to handle representation for all defendants, as to whom the Law Department determined representation could and should and must be provided. The law department hired the firm of Wilson Elser, of which John Flannery is a partner.

Question: Do you know how much the city has paid so far?

Zornberg: I don't have that information.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: On lifeguards, I do want to start out with these are union negotiations that we do with the lifeguard union. This administration has made incredible strides that really prior administrations weren't able to accomplish in order to make sure that management of recruitment and training of lifeguards rests with Parks Department and not one particular person within the Parks Department. We're already seeing that the benefits of that negotiation. We have more lifeguards than we had last year. Even when we're at Astoria Pool, many of the lifeguards commented personally that this level of agency interaction is extremely helpful for them in terms of training and supervision and getting quick answers on how to handle situations.

Ultimately these are about work rules and being a lifeguard is a difficult job. You're out in the hot sun. You've got to stay in shape. You've got to pass that test. You've got to be vigilant at all times and you've got to have nerves of steel and quick reactions. All of that means that whenever we adjust schedules, we've got to consider hours, staffing and the schedules. What we put together is a skeleton crew. It's not all the lifeguards. It'll be about 66 lifeguards that will stay on call at the particular shacks and there are more than dozens of them across our city. City beaches, they'll stay there, not on the chairs because they don't want to give the false impression that the beaches are open and that it's safe to swim. They'll be there so that as FDNY, our PEP officers and NYPD and the Parks Maintenance and Operation officers, especially at Coney Island because they're 24/7, are on the beach and see things. They can immediately get the help of a lifeguard that is nearby.

The point is to have a skeleton on the on-call first responder group. That has been, again, another historic change in the way lifeguard staffing works in the city. I think it's a really important step that both the union and the Parks Department made in response to what we're seeing with drownings and the real need for people to understand that, and I'll leave on this, like don't swim if there's no lifeguard in the chair.

Question: Would you have a breakdown of which beaches, how many will it be, lieutenants, chiefs, lifeguards individually? I don't know. I'm sure I can get that later.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I'm happy to connect you with Parks and they'll provide you that detail.

Mayor Adams: Major adjustments during the off-season. We have surpassed the number of lifeguards from last year. I think we're up to about 920. Last year we had 850. We saw the problem and we modified it and made the right adjustments. It was just a smart decision on the role of Sue Donoghue from Parks and DM Meera Joshi.

Question: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Two questions on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. Councilwoman Hanks launched a task force yesterday to review the plan and to recommend changes ahead of the City Council vote. I want to get a sense of what opportunity for compromise do you see in the plan currently? What would you like to hear from a task force like that?

Just secondly, on battery energy storage sites, the larger sites being set up around the city. We've heard some concerns from Staten Islanders in residential areas about fire safety at those sites. What would you like locals to know about those sites and what the city has planned in the event of a fire?

Mayor Adams: I'm going to turn it over to DM Torres-Springer and DM Joshi, but let's be clear on this. The starting point for anyone that is engaging in the conversation, either we want shelters or housing. We have to build more. Before we open any meeting, we should acknowledge that we have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate and even lower for affordable housing. We need to start there. That we are in a housing crisis. If we don't start that conversation from that place, then people tend to talk about this housing piece from a place that we have enough housing.

I think those of us who have homes should think about those who don't have homes. Sometimes that is not brought into the conversation. It is imperative that what Dan Garodnick is doing and what DM Maria Torres-Springer is doing is saying that far too many New Yorkers can't afford to live in the city and we don't have the housing stock that we need in the city. We have to build more housing. We're open to a conversation around City of Yes, but we need to get City of Yes done. I think some of the stats that the DM Raised yesterday that if we're able to get City of Yes done, the amount of housing that we're going to be able to do in contrast to those who came before us is just really remarkable. DM, why don't you go with that?

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: Sure. I think I'll start there. When we shared the historic affordable housing production numbers from the last fiscal year that our work with the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and the five neighborhood plans really puts us in a position to dramatically increase housing capacity in the city. Specifically, if you count the capacity that we're building 100,000 potentially new homes through City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. You add the new residential capacity, the five neighborhood plans that we are working with the City Council on, the five rezonings across the boroughs, that's about 150,000 new units.

You know what that is more of? That is more than double, that is more than double the residential unit capacity that was created in the entire 12-year term of Michael Bloomberg and it is more than four times the capacity built in the entire eight-year term of de Blasio. Now, of course, both those administrations, I was part of them, did some great work on housing. The 1.4 percent vacancy rate that we face is one that requires not small plans, not incremental plans, but the type of dramatic change that is progress that is needed.

I also want to talk specifically about Staten Island, because the Department of City Planning had that 15-hour record hearing, and we heard voices from across the city. Now, it might be surprising to folks in this room that most of the voices were voices in support. If you look at the community board votes, more than double the number of community boards voted in favor compared to when we were trying to advance the mandatory inclusionary housing policy during the de Blasio administration.

I want to remind all New Yorkers and Staten Islanders in particular about what is happening on Staten Island. In the most recent census, 53.9 percent of households on Staten Island are rent burdened. That means they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent, and 30 percent are severely rent burdened, meaning they pay more than 50 percent of their income in rent. Last year, Staten Island produced 83 new income-restricted affordable homes, and that's out of a citywide total of close to 12,000. There's a lot of need on Staten Island and not enough production, and you can see that story across the five boroughs, which is why we're pounding the pavement.

You don't have to take it from me. We are so focused on this, I think we should actually listen to the words of leaders on Staten Island. Reverend Terry Troia of Project Hospitality, who's been doing this work for three decades. You know what she said during the hearing, and I'm just going to read it because I think it's so compelling, from a Staten Island leader talking about housing affordability. She said we have an affordable housing crisis of profound proportion in our borough. We need affordable housing for very poor, low-wage working families, for disabled people, for our senior citizens, for our parents, for our grandparents, and for our children.

This is not about outer borough versus Manhattan. Staten Island is an outer borough, but we are living a tale of two cities. She talked about, because she sees, she's on the front lines of this work, and what it means if we're not able to really tackle this crisis head-on. That work continues. We are looking forward to continuing to engage New Yorkers across the five boroughs to working with the City Council so that this gets over the finish line by the end of the year.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Yes, on the batteries. Energy storage systems in New York City are highly regulated. They're regulated at the company level, at the federal level, at the state level, and at the local level. In New York City, they have to go through scrutiny from FDNY and DOB. In fact, the governor's Task Force on Energy Storage is looking to adopt the requirements that we set in New York City for energy storage statewide.

I do want to highlight why we're even talking about energy storage again. Because if we don't find ways to reduce pollutants in our city, we will continue what is really not an impressive stat, that the Bronx has the highest asthma rate in the nation, and that temperatures are getting hotter and hotter every summer. We really need to ensure that our renewable energy is available and is stored safely and can be used throughout the city.

Question: Mr. Mayor, back on the latest lawsuit against Tim Pearson. This one, unlike the previous one, contains allegations of sexual misconduct that predates Tim Pearson's time in your administration including allegations that there was a criminal complaint filed against him alleging that he sexually abused a Queens pastor. When did you first find out about sexual misconduct allegations against Tim? Did you know about them before you hired him? In terms of his duties, you're saying you're not going to modify them in any way in response to these lawsuits. How do you justify that, given that there's others in your administration, like Rana Abbasova, who was suspended over arguably much less serious alleged wrongdoing?

Mayor Adams: The process will take its course, Chris. Next question.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. State Senator Liz Krueger was quoted in the New York Times saying that she would support any other candidate but saying that some days I'm not even sure he's a Democrat. Just hoping you can respond to that. Do you feel like your record reflects a Republican more than a Democrat?

Then I have a second question on migrants. There was a lawsuit yesterday, they ruled that the banning of the Texas bus company is transporting migrants, that that was overturned. Then I think there's been like less or fewer people going into shelters lately. Just hoping you can talk about that.

Mayor Adams: I think my record speaks for itself. Senator Krueger and I, we have a long relationship from my days in the Senate. I'll just leave it like that. You want to talk about the….

Zornberg: Sure. On the lawsuit. As you may recall, back in January, early January 2024, the city filed a lawsuit against I believe it was 17 bus companies that were participating in a very cynical, bad faith plan by the state of Texas to intentionally try to overwhelm New York City's social services system by busing individuals. At the time that we brought that lawsuit, towards the end of December, the city was in a place where we were receiving 12 or more buses a day coming from the state of Texas at all hours of the night, dropping off people not appropriately clothed, posing all kinds of danger to the dignity of the people being transported. Around the same time we sued the bus companies, we also put out an emergency executive order with rules and procedures for any buses that would arrive.

Yesterday, I believe the state court… That lawsuit that we brought, which I'm very proud of, was really about using every tool in New York City's toolbox to protect New York City's social service system and New Yorkers. That's what that lawsuit was. We recognized when we brought it that the law was, it hadn't been ruled on, whether that law was constitutional or not, it was an open question. Our argument to the court was that if ever there were a case where the law should be upheld as constitutional, it was this one.

The court yesterday found that the law in its entirety is unconstitutional. That was the ruling. We respect the court's ruling. Notwithstanding the court's ruling, the fact that we brought the lawsuit for a period of January until now had the effect of at least half of those bus companies stop transporting individuals at Texas' direction to New York City and was helpful to our management of the situation overall.

Question: Does this mean that bus companies will now be allowed to, Texas bus companies will now be allowed to drop off migrants again at like 10?

Zornberg: I will say, I will say this. There was never a bar on bus companies coming. There was never a bar on that. Any bus that is intending to transport migrants knowingly to New York City still have to abide by the terms of the emergency executive order that puts in place requirements, time and manner restrictions on coming to New York City.

Deputy Mayor Levy: It's 32 hours, right Lisa?

Zornberg: I believe so. It's a notice provision and a certain place for drop off.

Question: As regular listeners to WBAI know, you rose to prominence talking about police accountability before you were elected. We've had Sonya Massey, a Black 36-year-old mother of two. She was unarmed but was fatally shot in the face by a Sangamon County deputy sheriff in her home in Springfield, Illinois on July 6th. Similar protests, there's protests around the country.

We now know that the terminated officer is Sean P. Grayson. He's been charged with murder. He had been working in another jurisdiction where he was relieved for issues. Then he had a discharge issue in the military. We saw a national outcry, international outcry after the death of George Floyd and tremendous momentum in Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice Act, which would have made some interstate accountability for officers. It's time for us to pass that.

Mayor Adams: I concur with you. I'm glad you gave the history, WBAI. Long-time listeners will give you their analysis of my days with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, being one of the leading voices in this city about police reform. When we were having a million, almost a million Black and brown young people being stopped in this city. They would tell you about my sponsoring the Rockefeller drug laws, reversing the Rockefeller drug laws with those draconian actions. They'll tell you what I've done about visiting inmates all over this state as the ranker on crime and correction and stopping women from being handcuffed to hospital gurneys.

There's a real history here. A lot of people who are new to this don't realize I'm true to this. I've been doing this for a long time, testifying in federal court in the Floyd v. the New York City Police Department. The judge acknowledged my testimony as one of the reasons for ruling against the Police Department. That was one of the most despicable shootings that I've witnessed as a law enforcement officer. I was extremely troubled by what I saw and it really desecrated the badge and the shield and the role of protecting people.

That officer should be held accountable for his action. I was really troubled when I saw it. My heart goes out to the entire family. I see that attorney, the attorneys that are on board that is going to be looking to this case, they're very known for dealing with the issues of overaggressive or police abuse. I think that what you saw here in this city, the response, people raised their voices but there are many people who are in this space. They say, we know Eric. We know what Eric stands for. We know what Eric has been about throughout these years. You can write the future, but you can't rewrite a history.

I have a solid history on standing up against aggressive police behavior. Not only professionally, but personally. You could almost benchmark my life by police encounters. Clifford Glover as a child, Randolph Evans, Arthur Miller, Amadou Diallo. I can go on and on and on. These are not people who are strangers to me. I know they're families amd I'm committed to this work. That officer should be held responsible for his action.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: It should get done. It should get done. Hopefully with a new Congress and Senate, we can get it done.

How are you?

Question: I'm fine. To follow up on the conditions in and around the shelters at Randall's Island, your administration has added security protocols like metal detectors. You had some cops in the area. Are there any plans to bolster those plans to prevent any further violence in that area? Your admin has said when you asked about metal detectors for months now, that you do a weekly review of the security in and around the shelters. Why does it take an incident like this to then get those installed? Because it came just days after some deadly violence there.

Also, just following up on your appointment for the corporation counsel as there is a deadline today. Why wait until the last moment to appoint, I guess, whoever you're appointing. Randy Mastro. Do you have any plans if the Council says they have the votes to shoot it down? Are there any plans for a backup here?

Mayor Adams: Lisa can go through the timetable. I cannot say it enough, and it's probably going to be on my tombstone. Respect the process. It's a process. You try to rush the process, you try to ignore all the elements of the process. There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. Tiffany and Ingrid have been engaged in negotiations and conversation. Lisa has been part of that. There's just a process.

Government is not frictionless. We respect the process. Our success has come because we have respected the process and we've been able to move it forward. That's how we get the Ws that we are getting. Let's respect the process. We will make an announcement of who we are appointing. Lisa, you can go through the timetable of what happens.

Zornberg: Just quite simply, the deadline for nomination is tomorrow, not today.

Question: Is there a backup plan?

Mayor Adams: Anyone, mommy used to say if you don't have a plan, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, then you just are in trouble.

Deputy Mayor Levy: W, X, Y, Z?

Mayor Adams: W, X, Y, Z. I normally don't get that far down. Now I know my ABCs, tell me what you think of me.

Listen, this administration, and I think that is our, the key to our success. We've always been able to pivot and shift continuously. We had to pivot and shift when 207,000 people showed up at our doorstep. We had to pivot and shift when we were dealing with scooters that were running rampant on our streets and we moved 40,000. We had to pivot and shift when businesses were fleeing and now they want to come here.

We're in a constant state of analyzing a problem, coming up with solutions like what DM Meera Joshi did with the lifeguard situation. We pivot and shift. We're not stagnant. We're not afraid of these challenges. In fact, we love these challenges. We're adrenaline junkies. We love these challenges that are in front of us.

That goes back to your question about some of the locations that you're seeing some crimes in those locations. I don't know if people understand that when you put thousands of people… I think on Randall's Island we have 3,000, Camille? 3,000 people in a location that they can't do anything but sit around all day. That's just a terrible scenario. Many of them are young.

My goal is to continue to find ways to allow them work. We want to get some of our faith-based leaders to play roles like we have a heavy Muslim population, heavy Christian population that's there. We want them to come in and hold services and do other things. We have to find ways until we can get everyone employed and all get them taking the next step in the journey to do everything that's possible to deal with some of the aggression.

Now, we do have a small number of people who are part of a gang. That's why I sent the commissioner, first deputy commissioner and chief of Intel down to Colombia because we wanted to get a hold of who they are. Some of them are violent. They prey on not only migrants, they prey on civilians. We are focusing on them. I take my hat off to those who come here and just want to pursue the American dream. Right now there's a pausing for many of them. We're going to try to do everything that's possible to get them to work.

Question: Why wait until this violence breaks out…

Mayor Adams: We didn't wait.

Question: We talked about, we asked you up here about security, about simply metal detectors.

Mayor Adams: We didn't wait. Everything is a process. Remember, we have to make sure everything is cost-effective. Camille has been and her team has been looking at how to do it right. What are the dollars that's associated with it? We're in increased demand to bring down the cost of the migrants and asylum seekers. Camille and her team, they have been analyzing how do we go about doing it? How do we find the right price? How do we negotiate it? Then when you look at our shelters, you're seeing that they have been relatively safe with the volume of people that we have and that we've been handling. Over 207,000 people.

Question: Good afternoon, sir.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. Nice shirt, by the way. I have a question about the migrant shooting in the migrant shelter. Is there any updated information about what exactly happened there? I'm hearing turf war. I'm hearing drugs but I can't really get a straight answer.

Mayor Adams: Still analyzing exactly what happened. I spoke with the commissioner and the chief of Patrol to wrap our hands around, and the chief of Detectives, to wrap our heads around. Still breaking it down to find out exactly what happened. Seemed like it was a dispute that spilled over to retaliatory action. We're still looking at exactly what happened there. We don't have 100 percent. We have made some arrests in the Hall Street shooting by the park and others. These detectives do an amazing job of bringing people to justice. We're still analyzing the shooting that happened at Randall's Island.

Question: The gang, the migrant gangs. A very small amount. The amount of 200,000 that are in New York.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: How many shootings are connected to them since they got here?

Mayor Adams: That's a good question. I think it's a combination of only shootings but robberies. Other illegal behavior. We'll find out. It's a small number as you indicated. They're bad people. They're bad people. We'll have Chief LiPetri if he could give an analysis. Because we don't keep stats based on if you're a migrant or immigrant. We keep stats based on the gang.

We'll have Chief LiPetri give you a report on that. All right?

Question: I wanted to ask about the first weekend of having gun detectors in the subway. Can you give us any conclusions after the first days and plans already for next stations?

Mayor Adams: We, what was it, Monday, Friday, these days move so rapidly. We're in August almost already. We did the first rollout and they're giving a report in a few… It's a 30-day pilot, so we'll do an analysis on exactly how well they're doing. We'll then give you an update. We just started Friday. Today is Tuesday and we'll give you an update.

Deputy Mayor Levy: And we're still looking for additional companies…

Mayor Adams: Yes. We're open. I think that this is going to really increase the ability to make this technology fast track. When you look at this technology, those of you who were there, to be able to see exactly the location of a gun on a person's body, to me, that's a game changer. Now we're hearing about other companies that can use these technologies in different ways. I think these are really exciting times because we can start being more proactive in finding guns on the street.

We had a long presentation by Lisa, so let's try to get those last two, three hands that were up since we had that long presentation by Lisa. Very informative, very educational. I'm looking forward to the news stories tomorrow as you break down what we're doing, that we're not trying to reverse any law. We are being very precision on those parts that many of you have told us for a long time, listen to the monitor, listen to the monitor, listen to the monitor. The headlines tomorrow should be that the mayor listened to the monitor.

Question: How you doing, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Fine.

Mayor Adams: Good to see you.

Question: About the Randall's Island shooting, any update on the police operation yesterday? The second question, are you concerned about Venezuela election, how this will impact the migrants here?

Mayor Adams: The Venezuelan election, I remember being in Venezuela and seeing a lot of the conditions that they've gone through, and we would never impact what happens to another country. It seems like there's a voice here that supports that regime, and there's voices here that don't. I don't think it's going to impact our election here. We're going to keep doing the business that we're doing here. Once we get updates on that shooting, we'll make sure we let everyone know. I know the Police Department did a briefing. We will make sure as we get updates, we will find the person responsible for it.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Mayor, I just wanted to mention that last week you did that roundtable with the Venezuelan community and how they were saying that was the first time that they've actually gotten invited to be at City Hall and to meet with you. We talked about everything from housing, to mental health, to all kinds of different things. We really appreciate it and are working closely with the community as they go through this difficult time.

Mayor Adams: Yes. I thank you for that because that was the first time they were ever invited into City Hall and they acknowledged that as in yesterday when we did our Peruvian event. It was the first time they were ever invited into Gracie Mansion to hold that event. Being mayor is not only substantive, it's symbolism. That is something that I think is important.

What was interesting about that Venezuelan roundtable, Anne, was that we asked them how are you feeling? Think about it. They're hearing their country name being mentioned often. Their children are hearing these stories. They have feelings, they have emotions. They were extremely thankful for what we've done as a city to our New Yorkers in this administration. They're going through something right now. We want to align ourselves with the community and help them over this very difficult period.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Yes, how are you?

Question: I know you've talked about how you're frustrated that your message isn't landing. I wanted to ask if you would consider perhaps maybe part of the reason might be your communication strategy. I know you really like these off-topics. I know you really like surrounding yourself with your administration so we can ask questions, but the more traditional way where you take off topic questions at every event, we follow you around, you talk to us every day, why not go back to that and try that for a change?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. You should be part of the Journalists for Eric Adams. You should organize a team of journalists who are having a better quality of life in the city because of the great work this administration is doing.

Two things. I'm not a traditional mayor. I think that's the biggest problem that people are attempting to do. They want me to fit in a box. I don't fit the description of a traditional mayor. I don't think there's ever been a mayor that has been bald-headed. I don't think we've ever had a mayor in the history of the city that wore an earring. I could go through a whole list. My entire team, by the time they finish with me, all of them are going to go to therapy for working with me. I'm not a traditional mayor. Because you know what? This is not a traditional city. People are not authentic when they sometimes get in an office. They try to pretend who they are not. I'm not going to do that.

Let's not act like once Fabien and the team decided to do off topics that all of a sudden the shift in coverage changed. Come on. You know what I'm saying? Our good stuff has not been reported from day one. We cycled us out of COVID. We brought down crime. It is what it is. You have a job to do. I have a job to do. These off topics and giving you an opportunity to answer them, give me an opportunity to do my work during the week. I don't want to spend a whole week having folks chase me down and ask questions when I need to be focusing on running this city right now.

I'm the pilot and all of you are passengers. You better pray this plane lands. Stop praying that it crashes. Because there's no parachutes on this plane. We're all in this together. We need to figure out how we get through this together. This is the best way. This works for me. Because I miss a lot of you during the week. I get an opportunity to see your faces and enjoy time with you. It's just giving me a warm feeling when I'm around Chris. Yes. This is the… We're all together singing Kumbaya.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Liz, I would also point out in the first six months of this year, we've done 100 events with Q&A. Over 100 events. If you want to go on our website, you can just look up the transcripts. 100 plus.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Levy: No. That's the point. Liz was just talking about covering all the good wins that we do. Come and ask, 100 events, about all the events that we're doing.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Levy: Hundreds, hundreds of times. Got it. So it's about you. Got it.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I wanted to return to solitary, I guess, for lack of another word.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Local Law 42. That's the other words.

Question: Sure. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has made the argument that there was a six-month implementation period and your EO just came over this past weekend right before the law was supposed to go into effect. I guess curious why you didn't make moves to put that in place earlier.

Then also separately last week when the speaker was rallying against your Charter Revision Commission before its final meeting, she said we don't want a king. Do you want a king? Something along those lines. Kind of referring to the amount of power that might be shifting towards the executive with a couple of proposals that the commission put forward. I wanted your response to that as well?

Mayor Adams: First, I was very interested in your response when Fabien said Local Law 42. You said sure. You dismissed it. I think it's unfair and it's unfortunate that we continue to use the terminology that's incorrect. Part of journalism should be accuracy. It should be about informing the public. I think that Lisa's presentation showed you that this is misinformation.

Now, either we can make a decision in the free press to continue to perpetuate misinformation or we can take the accuracy of the information that was shared by a very knowledgeable attorney that spent the time so you can understand it. Now, we can dismiss it if that's the goal. The goal is we're just going to act like we didn't even hear it. Then that's fine. But it's Local Law 42. We are trying to deal with aspects of it that is extremely dangerous according to the monitor. I'm hoping that you quote that what the monitor stated to do. I am not going to surrender public safety.

For inmates, 80 percent of those who are attacked by inmates are other inmates, so I'm not quite sure who we're looking to protect here. I'm not going to allow inmates to be harmed, civilians on Rikers Island to be harmed, or correction officers to be harmed. I want you to step out of your journalism role for a moment and just imagine if one of your loved ones was on Rikers or imagine if one of your loved ones was a correction officer and they're told that you can't restrain someone when they're going to court or to a hospital.

Prisoners, inmates plot during those moments to go after retaliatory actions. I have to keep these inmates safe. That's what we're going to do. If people want to use terminologies like that, I'm not going to involve in that name calling. I'm not going to involve in that. We have a great system. Listen, my veto, I vetoed, what bill was that I vetoed and got overturned? I vetoed the How Many Stops Act. It was overturned. It's a system. That's the beauty of the power. They have tools in their war chest to say we disagree with Eric, we're going to override them. That's the tools. These are the tools that we have.

The emergency executive order is a tool just like their override of veto is a tool. That's what's great about our process. We all have tools that we can use so we can balance the power so that no one has overwhelming power. Everyone would like as much power as they want, but that's just not the system. I respect the system. I respect the process. I respect the system. I respect what the City Council is doing. We have been successful. We're not going to agree on everything. There's some stuff we're going to disagree on. Lisa, you want to…

Zornberg: Just for procedural completeness and so where to find all the information for accurate reporting. The monitor has two letters. They're both in the public record in the Nunez case. One was a letter issued in January stating back in January that this law raised very grave concerns about dangerousness and safety for the people at Rikers who both live and work there. The second is I think July 17th. That's in the public record. In the public record is a 17-page declaration by the DOC commissioner laying out in specific some of the things that I summarized for public education today.

Also, it's inaccurate to say that this just waited until the last minute. Since the bill was first introduced, there have been efforts to engage with the City Council. The monitor has been on record encouraging the City Council to pause for public safety reasons. For the last two months at the court's direction, there have been multiple meet and confer sessions between the city acting through the Law Department and the City Council basically beseeching that they just acknowledge press a pause button so that all of these safety issues could be worked out ahead of the July 28th implementation date.

It's not an accurate portrayal. There's a procedural history. The EO itself lays out the entire procedural history. It's available. It's available online, and I would encourage you to read it. The statements today that were up on the slides from the monitor's own letters, those were excerpts from the emergency executive order. We've tried to do everything possible to lay it out as clearly for the public and why it's a public safety issue where everyone should just be united as part of good government into how to have safety in our jail system.

Mayor Adams: Many of you have covered this story because I looked at your reporting. I have not seen the quotes from the monitor. This is not our administration. We're not saying it's dangerous. The person who has been placed over Rikers to bring down violence is stating this is dangerous. Part of taking the quotes of those who are hurling these comments, can we take the quote from the monitor? This is what… Any time the monitor says something that was against this administration, you put it front and center. So can we take her quote, or his quote? Isn't that… That's what you call fair journalism, the last I checked.

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