First Deputy Commissioner Valerie Vasquez, Mayor's Community Affairs Unit: Good evening. My name is Valerie Vazquez. I'm the First Deputy Commissioner for the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. Thank you for having us today. Thank you for joining us. I want to thank, first and foremost, Principal Kenneth Zapata for hosting us here.
This is the 28th Talk with Eric Community Conversation Series. It provides an opportunity for the mayor, his deputy mayors, and his commissioners to hear directly from New Yorkers. We are very excited to be here in the South Shore of Staten Island. The mayor's aim was to have these town halls in every neighborhood throughout the City of New York. We are proud of the accomplishments that we've achieved. And City Hall is eager to work in partnership with all of you. But this is just the beginning.
Our hope is that we will continue the conversation, that you will fill out on your QR codes that are at each of the table. Fill out your information so you can continue the dialogue and continue to hear from Eric. We also have Q&A cards. We are going to go through each table. We will have one consensus question from each table, but in the event that your question is not asked, please be assured that we will get a response to you within two weeks.
Fill out the card, and a member of the mayor's Community Affairs Unit will be sure to get back to you. Now, I am going to go through our dais. I ask that each of the panelists, when we call your name, if you could please stand. Deputy mayor– Oh, and if you could please hold your applause to the very end. Thank you. First and foremost, the man who needs no real introduction, the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams.
Hold your applause, please. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, First Deputy Mayor's Chief of Staff Yume Kitasei. NYPD and your very own Staten Island proud, First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard, Health and Hospital CEO Dr. Mitch Katz. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Chief of Staff Jenna Mandel-Ricci. The Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health Deputy Executive Director Strategic Initiatives Kala Ganesh. ACS First Deputy Commissioner Winette Saunders. Department of Social Services HRA Administrator Scott French.
The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Assistant Commissioner Erick Salgado. Small Business Services Executive Deputy Commissioner Dynishal Gross. The Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Director Deanna Logan. Department for the Aging Executive Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray. Department of Finance Director of Outreach Kieran Mahoney. The City Commission on Human Rights Chief of Staff Jose Rios Lua. The Department of Education's Chief of School Support Danielle DiMaggio. FDNY Division Commander Joe Harry. The Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities Commissioner Christina Curry. To my right you have Councilmember Joe Borelli.
State Senator Andrew Lanza. Assemblymember Michael Riley. Assemblymember Michael Tannousis. Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. Another one of your very own Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo.
Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch. DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. New York City Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. Department of Probation Deputy Commissioner of Operations Sharun Goodwin. Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Assistant Commissioner for External Affairs Carlos Ortiz. HPD Assistant Commissioner for Government Affairs Nicole Simmons.
The Office of Asylum Seeker Operations Director Molly Schaeffer. The Office of Rodent Mitigation Director Kathleen Corradi. The Mayor's Office of Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. The Mayor's Office of Sports Wellness and Recreation Director Jasmine Ray. New York City Emergency Management Deputy Commissioner for Community Engagement Herman Schaffer, Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner Mario Bruno. EDC, Economic Development Corporation, Borough Director for Staten Island Diana Switaj. DCP, Department of City Planning, Staten Island Borough Director Catie Ferrara Iannitto. We have not on the dias, but we ask that when your name is called if you can please stand. NYPD Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough of Staten Island Assistant Chief Joseph Gulotta.
NYPD 123rd Precinct Commanding Officer Captain Glorisel Lee. NYPD Deputy Chief of Community Affairs Richard Taylor. The School Safety CO and Inspector Tracy Mulet. Department of Sanitation District super, Chief Christopher Hancock, and Superintendent George DeAngelo. Without further ado, we are now going to turn it over to your elected officials. We'll start with Councilmember Joseph Brown.
Councilmember Joe Borelli: Thank you, everyone, for attending. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Welcome to the beautiful South Shore. I didn't have the pleasure of going to this school, but I did live right down the block, so this school is like a second home. 42 almost years later, I still can't hit it out of the baseball field in the school yard. Used to try very hard. We're here to hear from you guys, so I won't delay this any longer. We're more interested in what you have to say, more interested in hearing the things that cause you concern. So thank you.
State Senator Andrew Lanza: Good evening, everyone. Andrew Lanza, New York State Senate. It's a privilege to serve the people of Staten Island. Mayor Adams and I go way back, City Council, State Senate, and now we serve together in these capacities. I think we're living proof that Republicans and Democrats can and must get together and work together.
Sure, we can have our differences. We have to haggle over those. We've got to argue, we've got to debate, but almost more importantly, we've got to come together and do the people's work. I enjoy the relationship I have with this mayor. We need more of that. We've got to stop dividing each other.
Assemblymember Michael Tannousis: Good evening, everyone. Assemblyman Michael Tannousis. I just want to say that I have the privilege of representing the east shore of Staten Island and a portion of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and State Assembly. Obviously, all Staten Islanders know the issues that are facing us on a daily basis, the difficulties that we've had. Usually, it's Staten Island against the world, as many of you know. I want to thank the mayor for coming here tonight to listen to your issues, to your problems, and to try to solve some of them. Thank you so much.
Assemblymember Michael Riley: Thank you. Assemblyman Mike Riley. I have the privilege of representing this district. Mr. Mayor, thank you for putting this together in your team, and most of all, for all of you coming out and participating. Mr. Mayor, you may have a little difficulty tonight because we have a member of the debate team from I-75 here, so I would just be careful.
Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar: Good evening, Staten Island. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for hosting town halls in every corner of this city, and I want to thank you, mayor, for giving 1,000 percent of yourself every single day to leading this city. One of the mayor's favorite sayings is, stay focused, no distractions and grind. That is the drive of a true leader. Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, I have the honor of being the first Indian woman ever elected to New York State Office.
I feel so blessed to be here. My parents came to this country with just $300 and one suitcase. My mom was born in a mud hut in India, and now I have the privilege of being state representative and serving this great country every day. I would like to report that two weeks ago, I scored an enormous victory in Albany. I authored the SMOKEOUT Act which will allow us to shut down all the illegal cannabis shops in our state.
We got to smoke them out and shut them down. It passed in the state budget. Mayor Adams said he needed the power to shut down these illegal smoke shops, and I went to Albany, and I got him the power. I'm looking forward to working with Sheriff Anthony Miranda and raiding all these smoke shops across the city, shutting them down once and for all. I'm State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar. Thank you for having me here in Staten Island.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much, Staten Island, for allowing me to come out here and just hear your thoughts. This is number 20-something, 8, how many? Number 28. In addition to 28, we've done a number of senior town halls, youth town halls, and we pulled together an amazing team. Before we open the floor, I just want to really, he alluded to it, but Andrew Lanza is not my colleague, he's my brother. He served with me and the relationship we developed in Albany will go a lifetime. Those relationships are what we often miss, and it troubles me dearly.
The other day I read a poll that when you look at a professional team, the most important aspect of a professional team is to build out their firm team, their bench, the double A, the triple A. Who's coming up to replace you. We have a problem with our bench, we have a problem with our farm team. Only 18 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds love America. Think about that. We are building a country of those who are coming up to be the Andrew Lanzas, the Eric Adams, the Jimmy Oddos, the Diane Savinos, the Deputy Mayor Williams-Isoms. If you don't love your country, if you don't believe in your country, then who's going to defend your country? Who's going to defend your country?
The dialogue has become so toxic that the far extremes have hijacked the narratives of the working-class people of this city. We no longer see this type of relationship developing where we can say we can disagree without being disagreeable because when you go to the basic level, you want safe streets, you want to educate your children, you want to be gainfully employed. That is the goal. January 1st, 2022, I became the mayor of this city. This place was a mess. Real issues. Crime was surging out of control. 40 percent increase in crime. Our children were not being educated at the level that they deserved. Jobs were not coming back to the city. Tourism wasn't back. COVID was everywhere.
You saw that the level of education of our children was at a low level. Bond rate as the independent financial observers was looking at us and stating we don't see the purpose of investing in the city. Couldn't get housing built. Was having real struggles with overproliferation of guns. Double-digit increase in gun violence. Double-digit increase in homicides. You saw a city that needed to have some serious, serious focus, no distraction and grind mindset and attitude. I put together an amazing team to do so. Many of them are Staten Islands, including Jasmine Ray and my unbelievable brother, Jimmy Oddo, to say how do we not have this place to be the forgotten borough but to focus on it?
Where are we now? Two years later, more jobs than the history of this city has ever seen. Our children are outpacing the state in reading and writing. We've changed the phonics-based reading level under Chancellor Banks that's now becoming a national model and eventually is going to become a model here in the state. Double-digit decrease in homicide, double-digit decrease in shooting, five of the seven major crime categories are decreased. Independent financial observers did an analysis of how we're managing this crisis, and they see that they've raised our bond rating because of that. 62 million tourists, fourth largest in the history of the city.
We built more affordable housing in one year in the history of the city. We put more people out of homeless into permanent housing than the history of the city. More people who needed FHEPS vouchers, we've given more people those FHEPS vouchers in the history of the program. You look at each one of the indicators and look at what we inherited and where we are now, you see how well we're doing. Why you don't understand and see it? Because we're overshadowed by three things.
One, recidivism. Too many people, too few people are committing too many crimes and they are repeatedly doing something. We just lost a young officer, Jonathan Diller. The person who shot him was arrested 20 times, folks. The person who was in the car with him was just out for a gun charge in April, and we found another gun in the car that was most likely his. Second issue we're facing, severe mental health issues. We have people who are dealing with severe mental health issues.
Years ago, the advocates decided to close psychiatric wards, and when they did so, they allowed large numbers of people to go to the streets without giving them the support that they deserve. They now are living on our streets, living in our subway system. When I became mayor and I started visiting them in camps and in tents and seeing, I saw schizophrenic, bipolar, food waste, human waste, drug paraphernalia. We decided to take a bold step and said we need to use involuntary removals and give people the care they deserve.
Thousands of people we put into housing, everyone pushed back. They told me it's suicidal politically, Eric, to talk about severe mental health issues. I said, "Like hell it is. People deserve the dignity of getting the care that they deserve." The third thing, random acts of violence. Nothing shakes our soul more than a random act of violence. Pushed on a subway track. Someone punches a woman when she's walking down the street. No matter how small the numbers are, it hits our front pages. We begin to believe that our city is out of control.
The reality is the New York City Police Department is the best police department on the globe and that was shown and elevated yesterday when they went into Columbia University. While they did Columbia University, across town at City College, they had to deal with people throwing bottles at them, cans at them, but they showed the discipline that was needed to execute the plan to make sure those students and outside agitators that we knew were part of motivating what we're seeing in our city. Listen, we're not going to allow children to be radicalized. We're not going to allow people to come in our city and destroy what we have built. The only way we do that is we start the process of developing the relationships of the Andrews and the Erics.
That's why I'm out here. People say you're going to the South Shore. You know they're mad at you because migrants. I'm mad because of migrants too. Think about this for a moment, folks. City's humming. We're moving at an unbelievable pace. My mans across the country looked at me and said, "How did you turn the city around so quick out of nowhere?" We got 191,000 people that came into our city. Everyone says, "Well, Eric, why don't you stop the buses?" I can't, it's against the law. "Well, Eric, why don't you tell them that they can't have a place to stay?" I can't, it's against the law.
I got to feed, I got to house, I got to clothe. "Well, why don't you let them work, Eric?" I can't, it's against federal law. Let me tell you what else they said. If you allow them to volunteer and you pay them a stipend to volunteer to remove graffiti and clean the streets, you are breaking federal law. Dropped in our laps. Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom and her team was able to move those 191,000 without one child or family sleeping in the street. Go look at the other cities. People are sleeping in precincts, airports, hospitals, on the streets. Google other cities.
All those tents, all of those encampments, all the things you see in those other cities, you don't see it in New York City. Yes, I join you in being angry about not allowing people to work. I need lifeguards, food service workers. I need people to work in my working industry. You know what? Other states are telling me, "Eric, we will take your migrants and asylum seekers, but they have to be able to work." I got 3,000 people at Randall's Islands sitting there doing nothing all day. What is more anti-American than not having the ability to work?
Here's the irony of it. We have a large number of Ukrainian brothers and sisters that came to this country because of the war. Do you hear about them? You know why? They can work. If you can work from Ukraine, why can't you work from Ecuador? Why can't you work from Mexico? Why can't you work from Colombia?
That's what we're up against, but we're resilient. I was a lieutenant, September 11, 2001, and my baby brother was a sergeant. I saw those buildings collapse, and on 9/11, it devastated this island because many of your residents was part of that. Let me tell you what happened on 9/12. We got up. Teachers taught. Builders build. Retailers sold their goods. People thought they were going to break us. When we got up, the country got up. New York is so important to America. We get it right, America gets it right.
These small-town gatherings is the way we get it right. I'm not going to be perfect. In fact, I'm perfectly imperfect. I'm this dyslexic kid that had a mother that prayed and believed in him. Only in America can you go from the mail room to be the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. Let's answer the questions.
Question: Hello, everyone. My name is Laila Sedhom. I appreciate your time very much, Mayor. Thank you. We opened a social adult day care recently in my church in Todt Hill. We got all the permits needed to serve the community for the seniors and they have been coming happy and everything. However, we invited two insurance companies to pay us through these people. It's called VNS and Centers Plan. They came for a walkthrough. They loved the place, but they said we need to see it in action. We started the enrollments. People, they started to come since November.
The day before the walkthrough from VNS and Centers Plan, I received an email that they are putting the contracts, any new contracts, on hold. After I enrolled the people, and we've been providing services for them, so every Friday, my thoughts is, I'm going to come and tell these people, "I'm sorry, I cannot accommodate you anymore," but when I see the happiness on their faces and how happy they are with the service, I keep it for next week. Now it's been six months, it's bleeding. I hired employees, I bought vans, drivers. I pay a lease, and I don't know who to reach out to to get the contract from VNS and Centers Plan.
Mayor Adams: Now, is this part of the problem that the state is going to change who is in charge of the contracts? Is that what you're–
Question: They don't explain anything, Mr. Mayor. All I receive, just emails, "We are working on it." No definite answer for me.
Mayor Adams: Okay, because Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and Senator Lanza, this came on my radar the other day. These adult daycares are really managed by people who understand the community. What I'm getting is they're getting ready to move it out of the hands of people who understand the community and feel comfortable, and they're going to turn it over to a bigger conglomerate. That's the real problem, because these local communities that understand the community, AAPI community, East Asian community, different communities, they should be providing that services. I know I brought it to your attention, I know you were going to look into it.
Man, we're going to have this senator and the assemblywoman look into it, but that is a big problem. If someone brought it to my attention, it's coming through the state and we need to figure out exactly what they're proposing to do. Someone for the team would connect you, and I'll make sure you connect with the senator and the assembly person, okay?
Question: Yes.
Mayor Adams: How are you doing?
Question: I'm all right. Yourself?
Mayor Adams: Good.
Question: Currently, there is legislation, I believe, part of the City of Yes that will now allow multi-family dwellings of up to five stories be within a mile of a train station. What happens to the distinct character and fabric of our Staten Island neighborhoods if this goes through? We are just getting over the townhouse mess from a few years back that everyone here on the South Shore are all too familiar with. Our taxes keep rising, tolls keep going up, there's soon-to-be congestion pricing, yet now our property values will be dropping like rocks.
I know this is a huge issue for Staten Islanders, just as in South Jamaica, Queens, particularly, the accessory dwellings. Here's a problem that we're having. Do we have Dan– who's here? Who?
Before you respond, I want to share the problem we're having. Out of 59 community boards, nine community boards, they have built more affordable housing than all 50 combined. All 50 combined. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate in the city. 1.4 percent. Our children, Jordan, come home from college, Jordan doesn't have a place to stay because we don't have enough affordable housing. Dan Garodnick had to come up with a way, "How do we build a small amount of housing throughout the city because there are too many locations we're not building more. Many of your children can no longer afford to live in the city. We sent them away from college, they come back and they can't.
Our zoning laws were completely outdated. Now this City of Yes is coming to the community boards. People are going to debate it, people are going to kick it around. We're going to have to figure out how do we find what's best for each community? No one is trying to force anything down anyone's throat, but we're clear, we need more housing. If we don't get more housing, we're going to lose residents.
Many of our teachers can't afford to live here anymore, our accountants, our police officers, although we raise their income, there's a real housing crisis in the city, and we have to get together and get into these community boards and say, "How are we going to figure out how to do this that's not going to be disruptive to the city on a hold?" That's our goal. It's not an easy task, but we have to build somewhere. If we continue to say, "Okay, just this nine community boards is going to build, and we're going to exclude the 50," then it's just unfair to those communities.
Those communities are being oversaturated with residents, but we have to sit down and figure it out because I know this is an issue for Staten Islanders, and I hear it in South Jamaica, Queens, also the same issue, but we can get through and figure out what's the balance that we need.
If you build maybe your mother-in-law would stay on a premise. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Did I miss anything that you want to touch on?
Catie Ferrara Iannitto, Director, Staten Island Office, NYC Department of City Planning: No, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I want to emphasize that this is a huge proposal for the zoning resolution, one of the biggest that's ever been done. It has a huge environmental impact statement that's in progress, and it just entered public review.
We, the Department of City Planning, are coming to present this to Community Board 3 in a couple of weeks. We encourage everybody here to continue to be involved in the public review process. Just a couple of things. The proposal that you pointed out, transit-oriented development, it is a proposal to allow modest apartment buildings within a half mile of transit.
Here that applies within a half mile of the Staten Island Rail, but it's really carefully designed at this current stage in the proposal for applicability on lots that are large enough and lots that are fronting certain portions of the street. It's not a wholesale change across a residential neighborhood, but really meant to reflect the types of apartment buildings that we have all across the city, including across Staten Island, that are walkable distance to transit. The other item you brought up is property values.
As the mayor pointed out, one of the proposals in this text amendment would be for accessory dwelling units. That is an option potentially available to owners of one and two-family homes to allow for more space to be built on your property. Not a bad thing for property value if you can have more opportunity to expand your family there. There's plenty of other details about improving things on the zoning envelope so you could potentially not come across a problem when you just want to do something like enlarge your kitchen. You wouldn't believe how many people come to our office saying, "I just want to add a bedroom in the back of my house. I just want to enlarge my kitchen, but my zoning envelope doesn't do that."
What the heck's a zoning envelope? It's all going to be discussed in the City of Yes proposal. It's hopefully something that you can contribute and give us feedback on in the next few months.
Mayor Adams: It's important to weigh in. We want to hear from you. I'm a small property owner also. We were really, really challenged when we would drop this $4 billion price tag for the migrants and asylum seekers, but we went in and Jacques Jiha and the team, we went in saying we can't raise property taxes on New Yorkers, and we can't lay off. We were really focused on that. We were able to do that. We know all of us are being hit hard and we're not trying to add to that burden at all.
I hear you loud and clear, Staten Island. Where am I going? The debate team. I'm in trouble now. [Laughter.]
Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, how are you?
Mayor Adams: Quite well, how are you doing?
Question: I'm doing good, thank you. My name is Annalisa Ermat. I am a student here at I-75, I am on the debate team like Mr. Michael Riley said before. My question is about the education system.
I have been just made aware that there is going to be a $700 million budget cut in the education system. I'm also aware that you have projects like The Subway Safety Plan under act. I just want to know and become aware why the education system is the first thing to get cut because the education system is the foundation of everything there is to do in New York.
If we want to stop crime, I think that we should start at the roots of education. I just want to know why is the education system being cut first?
Mayor Adams: Who do I have for DOE? Because I'm not going to debate. [Laughter.] I'm going to let the DOE talk, but I do want to share this. How many of you are homeowners, own a home? Think about this for a moment. You budget yourself for the year. I budget myself for the year. All of a sudden, you have an emergency. Your roof caves in. You go to your insurance company, and you tell them, "Listen, my roof caved in. I've been paying my insurance all this time," and the insurance company says, "You know what? We're not paying you." You have to take money from somewhere in your budget to fix that roof. That's what happened to our city.
We've been sending taxes to Washington for years, sending more than we get back. The migrant asylum seeker issue happens and give us a $4 billion roof cave-in tag that's out of our budget. Then we have to say to ourselves, "Okay, we have to pay this because we have to balance the budget." Not only that, just with the education piece, the previous administration put in place permanent programs like pre-K, 3-K, summarizing, and a whole list of others that was made out of stimulus dollars.
They knew the dollars was going to sunset, but they said, "We're going to be gone." I had to deal with the sun setting to keep the programs open. I had to deal with a $4 billion roof cave-in price tag. Then I had to do what others didn't do because I heard it from you guys a lot. I had to settle outstanding union contracts because we were not paying our civil servants a decent salary. One of the major ones that had a 13-year outstanding contract were our ferryboat operators. You used to stop me all the time and say, "Eric, settle that contract." We settled the ferry boat operator contracts. 94 percent of our contracts we settled and gave them a salary that was deserving.
We had sunsetting costs for the programs that the previous mayor put in place. That sunsetting, we had to pick up the cost for. We had a $4 billion price tag with migrants and asylum seekers. We had to pay our union contracts because our police officers were not being paid the salary they deserve and we were hemorrhaging, and losing them. We were able to get a 96 ratification rate based on the contract we settled with our police officers, our firefighters, our teachers, the UFT, our DC37 employees. We gave them the life that they could have so they don't have to flee the city. All of that came at once.
We were able to look at the DOE and we said, like you said, we said, "Pre-K and 3K is too important because that's the beginning of life. We need to do a better job with our children." We reinstated the money for that. We set the summarizing program that allowed children to go to school all year round. We reinstated the money for that. Then we did something else.
I'm dyslexic. We did dyslexic screening so that we don't have children who are dyslexic, believe they're dumb like I was told I was. They can get the help they need earlier. That's why you were so accurate. 30 percent to 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island are dyslexic. Since they didn't get what they needed, they left school, had a life of crime and they ended up in jail. If we do what you say, let's start early and give people the children the support they need, they won't go through a life of crime. Now, tell me about the $700 million. What's the dollar that the young lady, so what's your name? I'm sorry that she's sharing.
Danielle DiMaggio, Chief of School Support, Department of Education: Yes, Annalise. I just want to say I appreciate a couple of things. First of all, debate is such an important skill to have, so thank you for that. I'm happy to debate with you over the $700 million. Ask me the questions I can bring them back to our financial officer to get those answers for you, but you also have your superintendent at the table that you can ask the same questions.
Mayor Adams: See, everybody's scared of debaters.
DiMaggio: You can raise your hand, Superintendent Wilson. I also want to say the questions that you're asking are so important. Financial literacy starting at a young age is just as important as all of the other subjects that we learn. We can't have a plan and a dream if we can't fund it. The mayor is correct. He was able to reinstate some of our programs that are so important, like summarizing, like pre-K and 3-K, and even our community schools, but for you, one of the things that I'd love to talk to you about after this is that there is an opportunity to engage in conversations at the school level.
We know that our stimulus money is not going to be here next year, and the questions to ask are what were some of the sustainable programs that we built at our schools? And there were many that we have done that when the money goes out, we can still continue to use some of our SEL programs, some of our counseling programs that are happening, and then have an opportunity to speak with your school leadership team where budget is part of the conversation on a monthly basis to say, what are our goals? What do we have and how can we look at the budget cuts that we have and still achieve that? I'd love to connect with you after this meeting tonight.
Mayor Adams: Yes, there was no joy, trust me. These commissioners and representatives, my DMs here. This is probably one of the most painful periods for us because when you look at the deputy mayors and these commissioners here this is their life work. When I sat down and spoke with them and tell them we have to find efficiencies to fix that roof. It was hard. There was some very tearful moments. There was some very painful moments. They felt as though they were portraying their life work. It was really hard on us, and the chancellor really felt that it was hard. The areas that we had to do efficiency was we wanted to minimize the pain.
We knew 3-K was important. We knew dyslexia screening was important. We knew summarizing was important. They made some tough, tough decisions. Tough, tough decisions but we did not enjoy it at all, but I thank you for your question.
Question: Good evening, mayor, how are you? My name is Tony Ann.
Mayor Adams: Quite well. How are you?
Question: I'm good. About five minutes ago, you mentioned that it was un-American not allowing the migrants to work.
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Question: There are thousands of New York City employees who were terminated over a vaccine. My question to you is, why are you still fighting us in court? It's not about the vaccine, that's over and done with but why is New York City still fighting the thousands and thousands of us that are still out of work?
Mayor Adams: There's a few really emotional issues on Staten Island, and that is one of them. That is one of them. COVID still has an impact and we're still dealing with the byproduct of COVID and the previous administration, across the country administrations, made a determination what the rules were. Was it up to us for me to disagree or not agree? We had a mayor, this was the rule. This is the rule that came in place when I was in office, the Corporation Council has to fight that rule, they're going to make the determination on what is the outcome of it and the courts are going to decide what the determinations are.
All I know is that if we didn't have something in place with this thing called COVID that none of us knew where it was going, none of us knew how long it was going to be here, none of us through the long-term impact, there were a lot of people that did not want to take a vaccine, there were a lot of people who made those tough decisions and many of them I met all the time as bar president. They had to make that decision and make a decision in life.
Those who didn't I respect that. It's your body, that's why in this country we have a due process system that allows us to sue and make the determination, let the courts decide if they should be returned back, how it should be handled, should they be getting back paid. Let the independent body of a court system make that determination. That's where we are right now. It's not Eric Adams that wants to fight you, it's the City of New York that had a rule in place and the Corporation Counsel must defend that rule. Okay, we're not going to call out because I'm not going to call out when you're talking so if you want to be the one that's asking a question from your table, then you can. Go ahead, sir.
Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor, thank you for coming to Staten Island.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Question: John Kilcullen representing the St. George Civic. Simple question. We're an island, expansion of the New York City ferry to Brooklyn, to Manhattan, I'm a big proponentof the ferry. I've taken to the story,
I've taken to the Rockaways. We are an island. The south shore of Staten Island has to funnel to St. George, has to funnel to the bridge. Just asking that we expand the ferry. I know Councilman Brenner and Hanks have sent you a letter about getting the 69th Street ferry started again. Simple question, let's get the ferry started somewhere else.
Mayor Adams: Does that sound like something that we talked about, Jimmy? Jimmy and I pushed for that when we were board presidents together. I agree with you. We need to look at how to do the actual expansion. Is Meera here? Who's here from Meera? He sounds like me. Expand the ferry.
Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: First of all, we have two ferry systems. As you know, our free ferry system, which is run by DOT, that's the Staten Island ferry, and the New York City ferry system, which is much more flexible and has a lot of different routes that's run by EDC. They've made a lot of changes to the pricing. It is a very good system. As we explore how we can reactivate so many places along our waterfront, increasing ferry service is number one on that list. I know we have a member of EDC here. At the very end, she just raised her hand. You can give a little bit more information about the plans for EDC ferry system.
Diana Switaj, Borough Director, Staten Island Economic Development Corporation: Sure. Hi, John. Thank you for your question, and thank you, Mr. Mayor. The New York City Economic Development Corporation runs the New York City Ferry Service. We also saw the letter that came in from Councilmember Hanks from the Brooklyn side about increased service. It's a conversation that we have and that I have all of the time with the community board. We were at the community board recently, they sent a letter about the interest in increased ferry service and transit is a huge topic for Staten Island, generally.
As it was just mentioned, the ferry system did take a big hit during COVID. We've been really working hard to stabilize that system, find out different ways to increase revenue. Right now, while there aren't any new lines or station planned anywhere, and not just in Staten Island, we're looking very closely at opportunities to do that. I think particularly for the North Shore, that will be an increased part of the conversation as we continue making progress on the North Shore action plan. Happy to follow up on that with you.
Mayor Adams: I'm with you, man. I'm with you. We need to figure out, we need to crunch the numbers. You only have the bridge and the ferry boat. Jimmy and I, we talked about this. This would be a huge W if we're able to land this plan. I'm with you.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams: I'm with you. Let me figure it out with your team. I think that Jimmy and I talked about it. We did something joint together as borough president. Really, you don't have enough transportation off the island. I think it would be a real W. Then you got Diane Savino, the permanent Staten Islander that's always harassing me about it. We need to put our heads together. This would be a huge W if we could land this plane. Yes. Where am I going?
Question: Hello.
Mayor Adams: How are you?
Question: Good. How are you?
Mayor Adams: Quite well.
Question: My name is Lisa Geary. I'm a concerned citizen of Staten Island.
Mayor Adams: Sounds like a plan.
Question: I take the Staten Island Ferry every day. Thank you for settling that contract because it was horrible waiting for the ferry. Now, we got to do something about the trains. Sometimes you're waiting for the train. It's not coming. I have a meeting at work. I'm going to be late, conference call, you know the deal, right?
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Question: We need something to happen with the trains. I do see the new train sitting there in the St. George Terminal. Why is it not on the track? Maybe some more bus routes? That would be helpful. I know we cut the bus routes, but a lot of people are going back to the city now. You want us in the city, right?
Mayor Adams: Yes, I do.
Question: We need to get there. That's part A of my question. Part B, homelessness in my neighborhood. Not loving it. I need help fixing it.
Mayor Adams: Tell me more about it. Where? In a park, on the street?
Question: No, on the street. I walk in the morning six o'clock to seven o'clock in the morning. My friend and I walk before we work and there's homeless people along Amboy Road, not in parking lots, not in ShopRite, just in the residential area. Some of them are quiet and we scoot our way around. Some of them start yelling and you're nervous. I'm in an area where there's schools. I don't want these homeless men or women affecting the children.
Mayor Adams: DHS, who do I have here that's going to touch this for me?
Scott French, HRA Administrator, Department of Social Services: Thank you. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Scott French from DSS.
Mayor Adams: What's up, Scott?
French: How are you doing?
Mayor Adams: Good.
French: I'd love to connect with you after this to understand the exact neighborhoods that you're talking about, so I can talk to our teams at DSS and so we can figure out a way to come out and actually canvass the area to understand what's happening, talk to the individuals, understand what might be leading them to be homeless in the community and how we can intervene and get them to come inside to some of the services we have rather than be out on the street. I'd love to, when this is over, find the exact communities you're talking about.
Mayor Adams: We're going to get your information, we're going to schedule a day that he and I are going to go together. Can't do it next week. I'm going to see the Pope. We're going to schedule a date. All right. Get information. All right. We're going to do a walkthrough together.
Deputy Mayor Joshi: And real quick on the first part of your question around rail and buses, the MTA did just recently announce that they're going to add some additional Staten Island Express bus lines. I actually have those numbers, 1C, 4C, 23, and 24 service, but we can also make sure we get your contact information to get estimate on when the new rail cars will be going into service, as well as other service enhancements in the neighborhood.
Mayor Adams: How are you, ma'am?
Question: Hello. How are you?
Mayor Adams: Good to see you.
Question: It's good to see you. It's good to be here. I'm glad to pose my problem because I take public transportation from work. I'm a nurse, I work in the hospital, and when I'm on the 48 or the 98, once that bus goes past Broadway and Forest, everybody's piling on the bus and they're fare evading. I pay my fare. These people are not, and I find that's a problem at a low level, which then progresses crime on a low level, progresses to a higher level.
Mayor Adams: Agreed.
Question: I feel that it's unacceptable, and I feel that there should be some consequences. I don't know how you can deal with this fare evasion problem.
Mayor Adams: Is it at a certain stop?
Question: Well, I see it mostly when it's more crowded, of course, at Broadway and Forest. This is the North Shore.
Mayor Adams: Chief, they gave you a huge applause that means that you are a good guy. Can we connect with Chief Kemper and have out surface guys do a couple of initiatives. People get the message, it's just people are too comfortable doing it. Can you connect with the chief, and he's going to put you in contact with Chief Kemper, who's in charge of transit, and he's going to come out there and look at those locations, and we're going to crack down on that.
Got to pay your fare. I was a transit cop. Got to pay your fare. We start cracking down on those who are not paying fare. They stopped doing that, but we are now back because you shouldn't be paying and other folks are not paying. You're sitting right next to him. It was perfect timing. We set that up so you could be next to him. Limona was a transit cop also with me. How are you, sir?
Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for coming to Staten Island.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Question: Anthony Reinhardt, proud resident here in Huguenot. Our table had a pretty lengthy discussion and came to a question. It was said here at the table that if crime is down, why don't people feel safe? Staten Island is the last borough that has the small town feel. Now you can't go shopping without reminders of crime skyrocketing, businesses closing while criminals are treated with kid gloves.
Just today walking into CVS, they have the gum locked up. You can't even buy the pack of gum without a staffer coming to unlock it. This while Staten Island assigned police officers are shipped from Staten Island to deal with crime and protest, things all over other parts of the city. When will criminals be treated like criminals, but more notably for you, Mr. Mayor, from our table, when will we see our local police officers staying here in our community, not shipped off to temporary assignments to keep us safe, to keep us the community that Staten Islanders love so much? Thank you.
Mayor Adams: The movement and balance of police resources and personnel, it doesn't matter where it is. If Staten Island is having an issue, Commissioner Caban is going to shift personnel. You're going to move in. That's what's good about the New York City Police Department, our ability to move personnel based on where the needs are. That's always going to happen. If there's something going on in Staten Island, I remember when we had that terrible hurricane here. Personnel was shifted here to assist. We're always going to shift based on where the needs are, but it should never hurt your public safety what is needed here in the city.
Remember I said the three things that are bothering us in our city, that's overshadowing our success, one of them is the recidivist on shoplifted. 542 people were arrested 7,600 times. Just think about that. That's why we locking up gum. That's why we locking up razors. That's why we are spending so much time at the counters. Then in the subway system, 38 people that assaulted transit employees were arrested over 1,100 times. As long as we have this revolving door, it's going to impact our quality of life.
We have met with all of our retailers. We've had a retail theft task force led by Deputy Mayor Banks, where we're zeroing in on those repeated habitual shoplifters and offenders because that impacts our quality of life. I was in Harlem a few weeks ago, one of the elders there stated her drugstore closed down, she has to now take the bus to get her prescription filled. That impacts everyday quality of life in our city.
Now, I could give you as many stats that you want, but if you don't feel safe, you don't feel safe. Part of the problem is the worst things that happen in the city every day is constantly broadcasted. It's a while before you go from how you felt to how you're feeling. We're the safest big city in America. I'm not making this up. The stats show that.
That this city, with this Police Department, has been able to do— We removed 15,000 illegal guns off our street, 15,000. With First Commissioner Keechant and now Commissioner Caban, what they're doing, even out right now, they're out dealing with the protesters on this street, using their ability to deploy their resources. No one does it better than the NYPD. We got more to go. We got a lot more to go. We're going to continue to make sure that our teams are executing smart tactics to keep our city safe. That includes Staten Island. And from Staten Island, we got one of the best first deputy commissioners in the history, I believe. Why don't you talk about the public safety aspect of it?
First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, Police Department: As you all know, I'm a Staten Island resident, North Shore, 120 precinct alumni here, and live in the 120 precinct. I want to tell you that one of the top complaints of Staten Island nine months ago was that we had 50 less cops patrolling Staten Island. What did Commissioner Caban do and what did his first dep, nudge him a little bit. When we get recruits, we have 60 new cops in Staten Island. Every class that graduates, we ensure that Staten Island get a proper amount of officers. Listen, I live across the street from CVS and I think we're talking about the same CVS. Retail theft is always an issue. It's a big issue in Staten Island, in all the boroughs.
We have the best cops here. We have the best borough commander. Staten Island is the safest borough in the city. By far, I know the perception and how we sometimes feel, but the numbers don't lie in crime versus last year to this year, under Chief Gulotta is doing amazing. Please, we are proud Staten Islanders, most of us here, and we look forward, and we want to work in our home borough. Sometimes our outer boroughs need help and assistance. Just like when we had Hurricane Sandy, the other boroughs, they rallied up and they came and they helped us. Sometimes we have to help and lend our helping hand to our other counterparts to show them.
Mayor Adams: We got always to do what's right because I often felt, sometimes I feel as though it's me and Staten Island against the world. No, we hear you. We got to drive down crime. This city must be safe. That's the prerequisite to our prosperity, safety. I don't have to be sold on that. People get upset all the time that I talk about it. We're going to be safe. That's my commitment.
Question: Right here.
Mayor Adams: Is this another debate team?
Question: No. Wow, I look that young?
Mayor Adams: Well, I like that half hood, half Holy. That means pray with me, don't play with me.
Question: Right. [Laughter.] That's right.
Mayor Adams: Now, before you ask your question–
Question: Yes.
Mayor Adams: Can you pray with me?
Question: Sure. Let's pray. You want to start or you want me to start?
Mayor Adams: You can.
Question: Dear Lord, I hope that you watch over our city graciously, and you keep us all safe. I hope that you can guide our Mr. Mayor to do the right thing by us, as always, and I hope that as we grow, we may do what is right for our city. Amen.
Mayor Adams: Amen. Now, think about it. Remember what I started out, I started out talking about only 18 percent of 18 to 34 years old. If they are doing this, they're going to love this city, they're going to love this country. I don't know if this is an organization or what, but I cannot thank you enough. You just inspired me.
Question: Thank you.
Mayor Adams: You really inspired me.
Question: Appreciate that.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Question: I do. I love honestly being a part of this because I am so young and honestly, the fact of the matter is it's our future. That's what really matters. That's why we are so involved as we try to be. My name is Emily Ingenito. It's very nice to formally meet you. How are you? My question today is basically just around the migrants. I know that we call them asylum-seekers. That's fine. I will say that to be respectful, but I basically just want to know why are they gaining so many more benefits than us.
As a full-time employee, especially these days, it's very difficult for me to buy groceries, for me to go and get gas, for me to just even go to CVS or Target and buy shampoo for myself. These migrants are given free debit cards, free food stamps, free housing. I understand that they're struggling, but so are we. We're not getting anything. I just want to know how could we do more for us? Not necessarily less for them, but more in a sense that it'll make it a little easier on all of us too.
Mayor Adams: Let's peel that back because oftentimes, we respond to what we read and we need to peel it back. First of all, that was one of the biggest things that I had. My challenge was when this first started in April of 2022– Was it April, 2022? God, where's time going? People were saying, "Eric, why are you giving everything away to the migrants and asylum-seekers?" When we opened our first HERRC on Randall's Island, I think it was Randall's Island.
When we opened our first HERRC on Randall's Island, there was a homeless shelter that was run by USA shelters. The people who were in that shelter, they said, "You got them over there in the tent and they have everything over there." Right. I said, "You know what? I want you to come with me," because I used to visit all the shelters. "I want you to come with me and you can look and if you like it, you can stay in there also."
They looked inside and they saw cots, they saw outdoor bathrooms, outdoor showers. They said, "Wait a minute, I want to go back to my own shelter that's next door." Migrants and asylum seekers are not getting more than everyday New Yorkers. You look at these locations that they're in, I don't even like people living in these conditions because I believe people should be living not in a homeless environment. When the child grows up in a homeless shelter, they're less likely to graduate from high school.
You know what I say, if you don't educate, you will incarcerate. Then when you look at, everyone was talking about the MOCA cards, they were not credit cards. We were spending hundreds of millions of dollars on food that were required by law to feed. When we did an analysis of it, 10 percent of it was being wasted because people were not eating the food because they didn't like the food. What we've discovered through the deputy mayor and through my chief of staff and my first deputy mayor is that we found a company called MoCaFi that instead of telling people, here's the food and buying it from large corporations outside our city, we said, "Here's the debit card–" We did a pilot program.
"Here's a debit card. You will get $13 a day for your three meals and you can shop in a local bodegas, the local drug stores, the local supermarkets, so the money can stay within the community." We saved $600,000 a month, $7.2 million a year, and the money's recycled locally in our community. That is what you call smart management. That is why they raised our bond rating. Now, migrants cannot get WIC. Migrants cannot get SNAP. Migrant cannot get home vouchers.
All these things they don't qualify that long-term New Yorkers qualify. There was a myth out there that we were giving more to the migrants and asylum seekers. No, New Yorkers are still getting those services that they're supposed to get. You wanted to say something?
Question: The only other thing I wanted to say was just the fact that, yes, and I do agree with all that and I think it's fantastic. However, I am working and I am not working enough still and I'm still not able to have those SNAP benefits or the WIC or whatever it may be because I'm considered making too much. How's that fair to us?
Mayor Adams: Great question. When we came into office, because mommy raised five of six of us on her own. She was a food service worker at a daycare center. I knew what the kids ate every day because she would bring recycled aluminum foil and Tupperware bowls and keep their leftovers. We know what it is to struggle.
What did we do when we came into office? We went to Albany and partnered with Andrew Lanza and Jenifer Rajkumar. We raised the earned income tax rate the first time in over 20 years. I made sure I settled my union contracts for hardworking union members and I'm a fighter for union members to get the contracts that they deserve. I made sure that we gave reduced fair metro card payments to bring down the course of those who are not all the way at the poverty level, but still are struggling. When you see all of these initiatives that we've done, what we said, how can we put money back in the pockets of working class New Yorkers like you?
That's what we have continued to do and expand to do. We know it's hard. We know you're struggling. We know inflation is kicking our rear. We got it and we have done everything possible to say within our means, let's not raise our taxes to working class New Yorkers. Let's try to find ways we can partner with Albany to put money back in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers, because When I hear your story, I hear the story of Dorothy Mae Adams, who raised six children and she had to struggle every day. We're with you. I'm a blue collar mayor.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams: But you got a whole like 25. All you have to do is keep praying. Yes. Hold on. Yes.
Executive Deputy Commissioner Dynishal Gross, Department of Small Business Services: Hi. I'm here from the Department of Small Business Services, and it's not part of our name, but it's a really important part of our mission that we administer the public workforce system. We don't just serve New Yorkers who are out of work, we serve New Yorkers who want to grow in their careers, expand their incomes, and we help match them with jobs and connect them to training.
We really work to find accelerated paths through training to increase your income. I invite you to visit our Workforce One Center. It's on 120 Stuyvesant place here in Staten Island, and get connected to those services so that you can have the growth that you want to see for your family.
Mayor Adams: I'm so glad you said that. Ana, can you talk about the [inaudible], talk about the hiring homes that we're doing, because you may be eligible for some of these good paying union jobs that we have. We have 14,000 jobs. Can you go into what you're doing, Ana?
Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: Yes. Hi. It's nice to meet you and thank you for your question. It's great to be in Staten Island. We are having about five hiring halls per month throughout the entire city. Last week we had one in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, and we're going to Manhattan this week, and we'll come to Staten Island.
We have about 1,500 young people coming into those events just last week. Of those, about 600 of them got interviews on the spot and now way into the process to be able to get employment. These are not only young individuals who had never finished their education, but we have them who have an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree and are continuing to their master's, or individuals who want to come in, see what's available for them to see if they can have a change in their career, and they're pursuing that.
We have different institution, including city agencies from all throughout the day is here, who has send their staff with a list of employment available they have, the jobs available. We have assisting with resume editing and printing, and having those who come to those hiring halls be able to prepare for the interview in case they have one that day. If not, then we can have information about the resources that we have available for them to be prepared to go to the interview at a later day.
The resources are great and we would love to get in contact with you to provide those services. We have also some agencies that come in and provide in-training, not only for those who have jobs and want to do a promotion, get a better job, but also for those who might not have the skillset needed for the jobs that are available so we can provide information as to where we like to go to get that information. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Not only do we have city jobs, we have now partnered with… you applied?
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams: We got to track it down, because we have the Department of Sanitation. I need you to connect with deputy mayor. She said she applied for a DSNY. You didn't hear back from anyone?
Question: No. I actually [inaudible].
Mayor Adams: Okay okay, connect with the deputy mayor. I want you on the city payroll. You know that?
Executive Deputy Commissioner Gross: Mayor Adams? Mayor Adams, commissioner [inaudible.]
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Executive Deputy Commissioner Gross: Thank you. Hi. It wasn't mentioned, but thank you. When we talk about the hiring halls, we also need to remember it's now accessible for people with disabilities. We also are going to be at 9 Bond Street where we're going to have people that will be able to work with you if you're deaf, if you're blind, you're in a wheelchair, so that you are also employed, that you are going to be connected to real jobs, real careers. I just wanted to add that part in. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: So important. That was something that the commissioner really wanted us to focus on because we want to improve our numbers on people living with disabilities. They have a right to work and have a right to be gainfully employed. Thanks for raising that. Make sure you connect. What's up, brother?
Question: How you doing, Mayor Adams?
Mayor Adams: How are you?
Question: My name is [Samson Balogun.] I work for the [inaudible] program over at Central Family Life Center. My question is, given that Staten Island doesn't have a public hospital, can our borough be prioritized for a neighborhood health action center? There is a pressing need for mental health services for youth and the uninsured. That's my question.
Mayor Adams: No, thank you. I know those things that really gets Staten Island. We checked the dump off the list. Once we got that dump– Sue, didn't we turn that into parks? Freshkills. We going to go to you for a moment, doctor. How many of you saw that formal dump. Now, what we did with it? We got the recycling going on. Who did the recycling? We did the recycling going on in Staten Island. You guys are doing well under me, but I've heard this hospital issue. Dr. Kaz, I heard this hospital issue, doesn't have an H&H. Andrew used to beat me up all the time about it. Talk to me, what can we do about Staten Island and the hospital situation?
Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals: Thank you. Thanks for the question.
Mayor Adams: Turn on the mic. Don't try to talk too low.
Dr. Katz: Thank you. Thank you for the question. First, for Staten Island, while we don't have a health and acute hospital. You have Seaview, and I just have to call out Seaview because Time Magazine notes it as the number one nursing home in all of New York State. For anybody who thinks that the public sector cannot work, it's the number one skilled nursing facility in the whole state, public or private.
I think that's a health facility we're very proud of, and the CEO Matthew has been part of tonight's conversation. We also have a community clinic, Vanderbilt. 167 Vanderbilt on the south side, and good access to primary care, and ability to get people additional specialties. There are two hospitals, as you know, on the island itself, and that number of beds does fit Staten Island's need for beds.
I don't think there's a shortage of hospital beds. I wish there was a public hospital, but I do feel like the private sector beds work. The issue that you raised and my great colleague Jenna is going to talk about it. Mental health is a need throughout the city. I think all of us have been harmed by COVID. That all of us, whether we realize it or not, we're traumatized by those years of lack of social connection and it continues to reverberate throughout our community with increased mental health needs. Jenna has agreed to talk a little bit about what's available on the mental health side.
Jenna Mandel-Ricci, Chief of Staff, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Thank you, Dr. Katz. Hi everyone. Very nice to see you. Today's actually the first day of May, and it's also Mental Health Awareness Month. Happy Mental Health Awareness month. I wanted to mention this administration and all of these agencies have been more focused on mental health. We have all been focused on this because of what Dr. Katz just said. I think there's more and more awareness that this is a major issue for our city, for our country, and we have really focused in three major areas within the health department and the larger city that's on severe mental illness, which came up earlier on folks at risk of overdose and on youth mental health.
I just wanted to talk for a moment. We've already talked quite a bit about severe mental illness. On those at risk of overdose, we are doing a lot in this area, and I'm very excited to talk about within our opioid settlement fund dollars, which is a specific tranche of dollars that we receive through a large settlement, we are actually making available. We're very excited. There'll be a request for a proposal released next month, and there will be a number of resources here on Staten Island around harm reduction and treatment and we're very excited to be– we've been working with all of you, with your elected officials and with others to make that available. We'll be rolling that out.
On youth mental health, there has been such a commitment by this mayor on a very personal level by our commissioner, my boss commissioner, Vasan, on the issue of youth mental health. You've probably heard a lot about social media, and we're also doing a lot of other services and resources to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our youth. I have a 14-year-old and 16-year-old at home, so I feel this acutely. I'm sure you all do as well. This is really an enormous area of focus. We are a national leader in this area, and we're making huge progress and need to make more. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. I don't know if you heard the original settlement for opioids excluded Staten Island because the money came through H&H. These guys lobbied us and said that should not happen.
We've heard them and we were able to have an allocation of resources as it was just mentioned, so that Staten Island would not be excluded. Like I said, sometime I feel as though it is me and Staten Island against the world. We were able to bring it back. Thank these guys for what they did for bringing it to our attention. Job well done. Job well done.
Question: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams: How are you?
Question: Doing well, how are you?
Mayor Adams: Quite well.
Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Do you have any policy in place or anything in the process of being developed to ensure that students are safeguarded from the private equity firm that acquired control of New York City Department of Education's reading curriculum?
Mayor Adams: Tell me more. You know anything about that?
Question: Veritas private equity firm bought HMH in 2022.
Mayor Adams: They bought who?
Question: HMH, which is now the only curriculum available in New York City for reading soon to be possibly writing, and there's a lot of data that these students are using and giving freely to a private equity firm. Private equity firms, for those that don't know, usually acquire agencies. Those agencies then go bankrupt within two years.
Mayor Adams: This is the first I'm hearing about it, but I would love to look, do you know anything about it? I don't.
DiMaggio: No. I would love to connect to talk more about you with you, but there's a couple of things that I just want to talk about. HMH is not the only reading and writing curriculum that is offered throughout the city. There's also expeditionary learning as well as Wit & Wisdom, and districts have the opportunity through engagement with their communities to select different curriculum to use. HMH is not the only reading and writing curriculum used across the city. In reference to your other question, I will connect with you right after this meeting to get more information and then I'll be able to follow-up.
Mayor Adams: Now what I do know is that what Chancellor Banks did with phonics-based reading is now becoming the state model. That because we were teaching our children the wrong way to read, the wrong way to handle phonics. Now, the state is picking up what we are doing, and I believe it's going to become a national model.
Question: God willing. That was great. However, now that I have your attention, you did have a press release, a press announcement where you said that teachers were given the wrong playbook.
Teaching is an art as much as a science, and we were not given the wrong playbook. We are devoted. This is a vocation and I'm happy to see the change. Structured literacy is wonderful. Balanced literacy. I believe that both have value, but something to consider.
Mayor Adams: When you first got up, I said, "That's a teacher."
You just had this teaching stuff going on. I picked up that energy. [Laughter.] Where am I? Staten Island, is there a good restaurant I had that I could go to?
Thank you. Listen, this is an important community. You're the bedrock of our city. Thank you very much.