Bianca Peters: Mayor Eric Adams delivered his second State of the City address yesterday, laying out his plans for New Yorkers.
Rosanna Scotto: Tackling crime, creating jobs, making the five boroughs a better place to live, all part of his agenda. Mayor Adams joining us this morning from City Hall. Congratulations on your State of the City. Nice to have you back on Good Day.
Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. It's good to see both of you. And we were clear, it is a working people's agenda and just the basics. Affordable housing, care, employment, safety. That is what New Yorkers said to me last year as I moved around the streets and our subway system, and that is what we're going to continue to deliver.
Scotto: Safety. Absolutely number one on everybody's minds. You talked about murders and shootings, stats show it's going down. But as we know, subway crime still a problem, and I know you're tackling it today with the governor. What is going on with that today?
Mayor Adams: We're moving in the right direction and we are clear on that. And I am really pleased when we release the customer satisfaction survey, we're going to see what every day New Yorkers are saying. And I stated from the onset that it's going to be a while before New Yorkers go from what they felt to what they're feeling. I knew our 1,200 infusion of officers in our subway system, removing those who are dealing with severe mental health illnesses and cleaning up the subway system with our partners. I knew what that was going to do to impact what people were feeling. Listen, we have 3.9 million riders. 3.9 million, six felonies a day. We're going to get rid of those six felonies. But it was more than just those six felonies, it was a system that people felt was not safe and we are going to address that.
Scotto: Let's face it, mayor, when people go on the subway and they see somebody either smoking pot or half naked on the subway, they feel threatened by something that they're saying. It's not a great feeling. How are you doing with getting the mentally ill out of the subway and putting them somewhere safe? Can you give us some stats on that?
Mayor Adams: Well, listen, let's be clear on one thing. When you talk about hearing from the riders. As I stated, we have a customer satisfaction survey. That goes directly to the riders. That is a true gauge on how people are feeling. They're going to release the results of that survey today with the MTA. And that will give us an indicator, are we moving in the right direction? Now we removed thousands of people off our subway system, put them into Safe Haven and other care. We still have over 1,000 that are in those Safe Havens, and we're going to continue to do that. You know I have a very aggressive plan to show compassion and care to those who are dealing with severe mental health illnesses because it's just wrong for people who can't take care of themselves…
Scotto: Mayor, do we have a number…
Mayor Adams: … Or in our streets.
Scotto: Do we have a number of how many people you were successful with getting out of the subway and into some kind of help?
Mayor Adams: Yes. Over 3,000 we were able to get off our subway system. Over 1,000 are still in some form of Safe Haven. Others have gone to stay with loved ones and other individuals, but we are seeing a clear cleanup on our subway system. If you are down there, you can see the difference and I'm really proud of what we have accomplished.
Peters: I got to ask because I know a lot of New Yorkers would like to see you maybe a bit more aggressive with bail reform because when we talk about crime, it goes hand in hand with bail reform. There's just a lack of consequences for crimes committed and perpetrators know that here. You're going to be speaking with the governor later today, what are you telling her? What can be done? What else needs to be done?
Mayor Adams: Governor Hochul has been a great partner and we should be clear, the criminal justice system has a real problem. It's bottlenecked, too many people stay in jail too long, trials are not going through with guilty people going to serve their time. It's a holistic approach. We want to tackle recidivism in Albany this year. 1,700 people committed a disproportionate number of crimes. And we're not talking about petty thefts, we're talking about serious violent crimes and we want to zero in on them. And then we have to deal with the discovery, financing the discovery law. Defense attorneys and prosecutors alike must get the resources they need. As these laws are passed, we have to give them the resources to retain and ensure that we get the safety that we're looking for.
Peters: Mayor, I know you just said we're not talking about petty thefts, but petty thefts is just a quality of life issue here in this city with many shop owners having to pay private security to lock up their items, customers having to deal with that as well. That can't be off the table?
Mayor Adams: No. It's not. When I was talking about the 1,700, I was talking about violent people and they're not committing petty thefts. They're violent people using guns, burglaries, robberies. But our petty theft is a issue and we have addressed that. We had a summit at Gracie Mansion with our retail shop owners, with our law enforcement, our prosecutors, and we came and walked away with a formidable plan to stop the repeated offenders.
Peters: What is that plan?
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?
Peters: What is that plan? Cause I know a lot of shop owners have said, "Not much has changed."
Mayor Adams: Stuff will continue to change. This is what we're looking at. Petty theft falls into three categories. Number one, you have organized crime. Attorney General Letitia James and the Police Department took down a major ring that are selling goods on our internet. Number two, you have those who have substance abuse issues. We need to address those substance abuse issues so they're not repeated offending. You have a small number of people that have been arrested repeatedly because of the substance abuse. And lastly, you have those who are dealing with real economic issues. We want to show people you don't have to steal to get food to eat, to take care of your needs. And those three categories must be addressed separately as a combination of police, social services and a partnership with our retail shops, and that's what we developed.
Scotto: All right. That sounds like a tall order. Yesterday on “Good Day New York,” we sat down with Jim Dolan. It was an exclusive interview with the head of MSG. Lots of talk about facial recognition and his use of barring some lawyers coming into his venues who were suing him. Where do you stand on facial recognition and how Jim Dolan feels?
Mayor Adams: Well, first I want to end with your last comment about this is a tall order. I did not get elected mayor to climb a hill. I got elected mayor to climb a mountain and these are some mountains that we have to climb.
And the area of Jim Dolan, I did not see the interview. I heard you talk about it, so it must be a pretty interesting interview to see. You should use technology and not abuse technology. Technology has continued to evolve. For many years, facial recognition was not identifying people of color properly. When we iron out those kinks, I think you should use every form of technology within the boundaries of the Constitution to identify dangerous people and to make sure that we have a safe use of this technology. I'm a believer in technology.
Scotto: So you're not at all up on what Jim Dolan's doing at MSG? Basically barring some attorneys who are suing him.
Mayor Adams: Well, that's why they're suing him I guess. This is an opportunity to go to court of law and determine if some type of rule was violated. But when we talk about using technology, I'm a person that has two thumbs up for technology and it should be used within the restrictions of our Constitution and our local laws.
Scotto: Mayor Eric Adams, good luck today. Hopefully you can get some money from Governor Hochul for the migrant situation, right? I mean, she owes you a few bucks.
Mayor Adams: Well, I believe we're going to get help from Albany. I want to thank my congressional delegation, Senator Schumer and New York delegation for the money that we're going to receive from Washington as well.
Scotto: All right. Good luck.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Scotto: Thank you, Mayor Adams.
Mayor Adams: Take care.