Dahved Levy: What’s going on man? Big big things going on. We are inside the Carnival. In New York City, this is where we collide on Eastern Parkway tomorrow. I have seen in the past we had about two million to three million people. They're saying that it's going to be the biggest carnival because all the stars are in town. They had the big Caribbean music awards on Thursday night. You had behind the Brooklyn Museum you've got [inaudible] and tomorrow we're on the road.
But, the person who is behind a lot of this stuff and the shakings and maneuverings of Carnival in New York City is our mayor and I want to welcome him on Labor Day night, the night before Carnival on Monday in New York City. Good evening, sir and welcome to the number one Caribbean show in the world, Caribbean Fever, in the midst of the 2025 New York City Carnival.
Mayor Eric Adams: Rocking you, rocking you brother And you know, it's almost a dual celebration because tomorrow is Labor Day and our Caribbean diaspora plays a major role in the labor community and nurses, teachers, power professionals, just a whole group.
But, also it has been defined as really the celebration of the Caribbean diaspora. The West Indian Day Parade is the largest in the country, if not the globe. And the energy is just so overwhelming—
Levy: Sir, can you say that again, please? Can you say that again?
Mayor Adams: It is the largest celebration in the country, if not on the globe.
Levy: Wow. Carnival on the Road tomorrow, Monday. What do you say to the millions of New Yorkers and tourists that swarm down on Eastern Parkway? Sir, and I'm curious, what kind of money, we keep hearing that these events bring lots of money into the city. What kind of money are we talking? If you can't give me the exact amount, if you can give me an idea of what kind of money we're talking about that a festival like this, a carnival like this brings to New York City?
Mayor Adams: No, no, well said. I just tell people one thing that they come from across the country here and across the globe, spend money. We want you to leave all of those dead presidents right here in our city, man. And, you know, because it is a major economic stimulus for our city.
Think about it, materials that's purchased for costumes, the food that's purchased. When you think about hotel stays, you're talking about tens of millions of dollars that's generated over this festival season. It is so important for our city. And that is why when I have people come to me saying, “Well, you should stop the parade on Eastern Parkway.” I said, not while I'm mayor, that is not going to happen. It is very much part of our culture and our economic stimulus.
Levy: And that is gonna go to my next question. But all this, why does some people feel that they don't get good treatment that they deserve? I guess there's a pocket of Caribbean people that feel like we bring all this money into New York, but we still are not treated with respect as far as business people and residential persons on the Eastern Parkway route.
Mayor Adams: No, and I know from my days of being state senator, I represented the area, I represented the area as borough president and now as the mayor. I am clear, we're going to treat this important economic engine here in our city the way it should be.
We have been meeting with the organizers of both J’Ouvert and WIADCA, saying that, listen, tell us what you need. We want to make sure the resources are there so that they know that we respect the economic stimulus of this entire activity throughout the entire week. It doesn't only start on Labor Day, but throughout the entire week, the money is being spent in this city and it needs to get the respect that it deserves.
Levy: All the festivities, maybe two weeks before leading up to Labor Day and Eastern Parkway. Sir, let's jump into some politics. Mamdani has a younger base, and people are saying Mamdani has a young base. While you are more experienced, and you have a more experienced background. How are you gonna turn Mamdani’s young base to vote for you?
Mayor Adams: Well, I think that it's being overrated about this young base that everyone talks about. We have 2.5 million Democrats that did not vote, a million Independents, hundreds of thousands of Republicans. We had only a million, one million, two, that came out to vote. He has about 600,000.
There's still heart and soul of the voting population in the city are our older adults. They come out every year. They are very active. And so, yes, we're going to go after the older adults, but we also know that every young person in the city doesn't subscribe to what Zohran is saying. And I think it is unfortunate that people believe that every young person in the city believes in the things that he believes in.
When I talk to young people, they say, we don't want young boys standing on the corner selling their bodies in prostitution. We don't want young girls doing that. We believe in family. His platform is not to believe in family. I believe in family and young people believe in family, starting a family.
And so many other issues that young people believe in, and this is probably the generation that is more a believer in entrepreneurship than any generation I know about. They wanna work hard. They wanna start their own business. And so, I think it's unfortunate that everyone believes that every young person in the city has subscribed to his mindset, that's just not true.
Levy: Sir, I would like you to name me three things that your administration has done that you should get an A for. Give me, I don't need five, I don't need 10. All I need is three things that your administration has done that you should surely get an A for.
Mayor Adams: Well, number one, something that everyone hijacked onto, and that's making our city safer. We have the lowest numbers of shootings and homicides in the recorded history of the city. We're seeing major decreases in many crimes. Our subway system is the safest it has been in decades when you take out the two years of COVID. NYCHA has been trying to be a safe place for so many years. We are breaking the record on safety there. So, safety, number one.
Number two, investment in our young people. I mean, it's unbelievable what we're doing. Universal after-school programs, decreased the cost of childcare from $220 a week to less than $20 a week. The extension of pre-K season, now zero to two. We're expanding that as well. Over 130,000 of our young people are in the seats.
Going after justice-involved young people through our CRED program, teaching them technical skills. Those young people who have been in contact with our criminal justice system, we're not abandoning them. And what we're doing for foster care children, paying off their college tuition, giving them life coaches until they're 21, that is just a huge success.
And then the last thing, which I am really pleased about, is the $30 billion we put back in the pockets of working class people, $30 billion. If you're a low-income New Yorker, you no longer pay income tax anymore. What we have done with medical debt. That's the number one cause of bankruptcy, medical debt. For low-income New Yorkers, we're excusing medical debt.
How we're helping people with college tuition and reformatting their— I'm sorry, their college student loan. We're reformatting, saving $3,000 a year for undergrads, $7,000 a year for grad. And when you start looking at how we use our powers at the Mayor's Office to put money back into the pockets of working class people, I am really pleased with that because people are hurting and I cannot decrease the price of bread, but I can put bread back in the pockets of New Yorkers and I'm not gonna do it by giving them broken promises.
Levy: Sir, I hear you, but I've got to bring this to your attention. Four charged in a deadly shooting at the Bronx Basketball Tournament. A girl, 17, still fighting for her life. And then you've got a 32-year-old Jaceil Banks fatally struck in the chest. You've got Anthonaya Campbell, 17, that was shot in the face, remains in a critically injured condition.
Is crime the number one concern? And if crime is the number one concern, what are you gonna do that you have not done before to get different results?
Mayor Adams: No, so true. And you had the 14 people that were shot on Franklin Avenue. You know, think about this for a moment, Dahved. Do you know in the Bronx, shootings decreased by over 30 percent in the Bronx? But when you have these high-profile shootings, when you have four people shot in the park, when you have 14 people shot on Franklin Avenue in a nightclub. When you have these high-profile shootings, it overshadows the success that we've had in this city.
We are the safest big city in America. And we did it by being proactive and reactive. Proactive, we did things to keep our young people out of harm's way. 100,000 summer youth jobs, Summer Rising program, 11,000 internships. I can just add up the programs that we've done. But we've also gone after those who are carrying these illegal guns. We removed 23,000 illegal guns off our streets. Closing these shops where you're selling illegal cannabis, that's really hurting our young people.
And so, I know when you hear these high-profile shootings, you say to yourself, “Wait, I don't feel safe.” But, in reality, with the crisis management team, the Police Department, our teachers, our social workers, our other city employees over at DYCD, what they have done, they saved lives, saved lives. And what we have to do is continue to drive down crime.
But I need help from the state, Dahved. [Governor] Cuomo passed the bail law. You get a revolving door of those who are breaking laws. Raise the Age. Shooters are becoming younger, and victims of crime are becoming younger because of that law. That law should have never been put in place.
And so, we need help from the other parts of the criminal justice system to keep us safe. You can't just police your way out of this. It’s a combination. But we're gonna do our part. Everyone else must get in the game and do their part.
Levy: Sir, Trump plans an order to yank federal funding from states that allow cashless bail. If this is taken away, then what?
Mayor Adams: What the concept is, is that any state that has a sort of a no bail policy, he wants to go after it. I don't believe a person who's doing non-violent crimes or makes a mistake in their life should sit in jail because they don't have the money to pay for bail.
But I've been very clear. Repeated offenders, like the guys that shot the Customs Border Patrol agent or the person who shot the grandmother late earlier this week, had gun charges on him already. Or the four people who shot up the park the other day. These guys had previous gun charges. They were shooters.
So, individuals like that should not be allowed to go back on our streets and commit violence. I think that those are the cases where we must have bail to keep them inside until their trial date or don't let them go out and continue to violate warrants and refuse to go to court.
Levy: Sir, finally, what advantages do you believe that you have over Mamdani for becoming mayor? What is your advantage that you might have over Mamdani?
Mayor Adams: Well, I say it over and over again, Dahved. Think about it for a moment. I was a paperboy, a dishwasher, a clerk, a mechanic, a computer programmer, a sergeant, a lieutenant, a captain, state senator, borough president, and now the mayor.
Levy: You forgot something, you forgot something. 100 [Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care].
Mayor Adams: Right. So, I have, you know, life experience. You can't go from being a rapper to an assemblyman where you missed 50 percent of your votes, and now you want to run the most complicated city. This is not an experiment. This is experience.
And not only the professional experience but growing up in poverty. I'm a working class mayor. Zohran grew up in luxury. My mother didn't pay my college tuition. I went to school at night while I worked during the day. I know what working people go through, and that's the agenda that I brought when I became mayor. And because of that, you're seeing the results that this city is moving in the right direction.
And he has raised good points, but I knew those points before he raised them. That's why we were putting billions of dollars back in the pockets of working class people, because we knew the affordability of this city and country is hurting working class people. And we took action. Not broken promises, but factual results to help working class people.
Levy: Sir, are you gonna be on the road tomorrow?
Mayor Adams: Yes, must be. I must have been to the parade since I was 15, 16 years old. You know, massing up the parkway. I would not miss it. I enjoy being out there and really being engulfed and the rich Caribbean experience. The Caribbean community has given so much to the city, the state, and this country. And this is our way of celebrating that rich energy. And I look forward to seeing you out there and the other 700, 800, or maybe a million people who are on the parkway.
Levy: Okay, sir, you've got the last words.
Mayor Adams: Okay listen, let's be safe tomorrow. And you remember that commercial that used to come on, 10 o'clock, “Do you know where your children are?” We need to go back to those days. If you're allowing your son, your daughter to go out there tonight in J'Ouvert, make sure that they are really conscious about their surroundings. Don't be with the wrong people.
And then when we get on the parkway, it's about making sure we celebrate without having one or two incidents tarnish the entire beauty of this celebration. Because many people would love to see us stop this celebration, we won't let it happen. But trust me, there are a whole lot of new visitors and [those] who have just moved to this city who want to dictate our long-wished tradition. And so, let's not give them any reason to try to attack this beautiful experience that's going to take place on a parkway.
Levy: Sir, happy holidays, happy Labor Day, happy Carnival, and I wish you the best tomorrow.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.
Levy: Take care, sir. Thank you.
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