J.R. Giddings: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you?
Mayor Eric Adams: Great. Great. Great. And you were doing a good job. You could have kept going. You don't need me. You don't need me. She got it all laid out. And you were accurate. We have a lot in the pipeline going in before December 31st. We have not stopped. Because there's some real programs. And one of the things I am going to be extremely proud of that we're about to announce is a language-friendly city. And what do I mean by that?
There is technology that is now available through AI, ChatGPT, Google Translate, and others, where you should be able to walk into any agency in the city, no matter which language you speak, 140 different languages, and you should be able to have a conversation without needing someone to intercede for you. The technology is there. I have been using it while I move around the city. And I'm amazed at how advanced it is.
So if you speak Urdu, Chinese, Mandarin, Creole, French, Spanish, no matter what language, you should be able to go into that agency and talk about the needs that you have without feeling intimidated or afraid. So this is going to be one of the first, if not the first, language-friendly cities where there's no longer going to be a barrier.
Because if there's a language barrier, you're not getting access to the goods and services that you deserve and that you need. And I'm very proud of this. We're going to start with the Police Department, and then we're going to evolve to every agency in the city, if the incoming mayor-elect determines that he wants to continue this initiative. So all I could do is put the initiatives in place, and the next mayor will determine what he wants to do.
Giddings: Well, Mayor Adams, I am so happy that you touched on [the] mayor-elect. If you were to give mayor-elect Mamdani any advice, what would that be?
Mayor Adams: It's not about protesting. It's about governing. You know, I've done both. I protested, you know, during many civil rights issues ever since I was 18 years old, so I know how to protest. But governing is different. You're the mayor of the City of New York, and it's about diplomacy. It's about not taking a census before you make these tough decisions, because then you won't make a decision. You're the mayor. And so I know the DSA, people often think about Zohran, [for] those who are concerned.
The concern is not so much Zohran. The concern is the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. They made it clear they don't like our way of life, and some of the things that they're proposing are harmful not only to the city at large, but it's harmful to working-class communities. And he must understand we did not elect the DSA. You know, the people elected him as mayor. And there's something else that I wanted to point out that I hear a lot of, this thing about a mandate.
There was no mandate. 49 percent of New Yorkers stated they did not want Zohran as their mayor. 49 percent. Close to 51 percent said, yes, this city is divided. He has to go after those 49 percent to let them know of concerns they have. He's going to be mayor for all of them. And that means doing things that he may not like doing, like marching in the Israeli Day Parade, like marching in the Veterans Day Parade, you know, like going to places that he historically did not want to go into. And so we must heal the city.
That's the job of the mayor. And when you speak to all of these different communities, they will tell you Eric showed up and Eric made us feel welcome in many ways, if it meant the first Dominican to be deputy mayor, the first Filipino to be deputy mayor, the first East Indian to be deputy mayor, the first Trinidadian to be deputy mayor, the first woman to be a police commissioner.
I mean, all of these ways I showed that I was going to be mayor for the entire city. So that would be my message to him. You're no longer a protester. You are now the mayor. And that means picking up the phone and speaking to the president and say, “Mr. President, I need to deliver my city. And I disagree with you philosophically, Mr. President, but we want the best for New York.” And that's what being the mayor is about, particularly a city like New York.
Giddings: You know, Mayor Adams, as we were talking about the whole election process [and] what happened. What do you think about the voter turnout in this election here? I mean, it was record breaking.
Mayor Adams: Yeah. And those who followed this electoral season heard me from the beginning say two things. Number one, this is going to be the most exciting election in the history of our city. Number two, we were going to get record numbers. I said we were going to get anywhere from 1.9 to 2 million because the passion was on both sides. There was a great deal of passion for the mayor-elect, and there was a great deal of passion against him. And we saw that come out.
You know, I don't think people are fully understanding when you have those numbers and that much of a divide, a two-point divide. If that was a one-on-one race, we would have probably either even, even closer or even a different turnout. You know, I think that– I don't know why the heck Curtis was in the race, other than he probably had a different agenda.
But the bottom line is that this was a very close race, and there was passion on both sides. And I heard that passion on both sides. I heard those who were passionate about Zohran, and I heard those who were passionate about the concerns of the DSA and what he was bringing. And so, it didn't surprise me to see two million people come out because there was a lot of passion on this race.
Giddings: Mayor Adams, what is your reaction to the success of all the housing-related ballot questions from last week?
Mayor Adams: The same. I've been successful. I mean, I don't know if people realize, you know, you have to scratch your head and say, wait a minute, you hire a mayor to build housing, Eric built more housing than any mayor in the history of the city. You hire a mayor to be safe. We have the lowest number of shooters and shooting victims in recorded history of the city. Eric hired to educate children, we're outpacing the state in educating our children.
We dropped unemployment in the city. We dropped unemployment in the Black and brown community by 20 percent. More jobs in the city's history. We turned around the economy. Bond rates have increased our bond rating. We have gone after no income tax for low-income New Yorkers. That has never been done before. Over $24 billion in M/WBE. No one in the country has ever done this before.
And so when I see my housing initiatives being passed on the ballot, it doesn't surprise me. People are going to wake up one day and say, wait a minute, “Why isn't he a mayor anymore?” You know, brother, we did it, you know. And so I'm leaving on a high note. I'm not one of those boxers that stays in a ring until they're punch drunk. I'm leaving with a winning hand. And when people look back over this, they're going to say, he was one of the greatest mayors the city ever had.
And it came with a lot of controversy. You know, the migrant and asylum seeker crisis, not one child or family slept on the streets of the City of New York. They want to call me names, but look at what I've done in comparison to other cities. We cycled through COVID, when people wanted our schools closed, I said, no, our children will be in school. And it was the best thing that was done. Coming from lawfare, being attacked because I stood up for this city. So I went through a lot, but I never stopped helping people who were going through a lot.
Giddings: Thank you, Mayor Adams. I'm going to, I'm just going to pose this question, don't answer it right now. I want the panel to get at least one question, but I'm hoping that you'll be able to tell us about your dream job. I'm going to come back to that after Pastor Straker. Pastor Straker, your question for the mayor.
Pastor Louis Straker: Well, good morning, Mr. Mayor. It's always been a pleasure to have you with us on the show. You've been with us from the beginning, you're sticking it out until the end. And we applaud you as the mayor who's always got stuff done. I mean, when you look at the records, it's there. When you see the double digit decrease in murder shootings, burglaries, all of these things.
When you see the guns that came off the street, when you see the crackdown on retail, on theft, you attack the illegal smoke shops, the recovery of the private sector jobs, the plans to cancel $2 billion in medical debt. You look at the Green Economy Action Plan, winning the FIFA World Cup for 2026, they'll put money into New York.
There's a lot that you have done, Mr. Mayor, and we have to give you kudos for that. My question is, you know, you have somewhat 50 days, and then you're out. My question, you know, hindsight, they say it's 20/20. And as you reflect on your time as mayor, what are some of the things that you would say that you would have done differently? Just looking back in your administration, what would you say you would have done differently if you had the chance?
Mayor Adams: That's a great question. And any person that does not reflect on their life and state, what could I have done better? I do what I do every day, actually, pastor. When I make an entry, I ask, okay, every day, what could you have done differently? What could you have done better? What did you learn? That's my daily meditation and prayer, to just become a better person. And one of the things, I trusted people that I didn't trust.
I'm an extremely trustworthy person. I believe that you should be the man or woman you say you are, and you should live up to that. And some people didn't. And some people really disappointed me. They broke my heart, actually. But you know, you heal. And you don't get to 65 years of life and don't make a misstep in judgment. We all do, in one way or another. And that is something that I learned. Now, if you're asking me, okay, Eric, are you going to stop trusting? Are you going to be jaded? Are you going to be angry and bitter and not trust anyone? No, I'm not going to do that.
You know, when you're running a city this complex, you can't concentrate and focus as much as you would like to, because this is a very complex city. And there were people who just– they just broke my heart. You know, I live up to what I expected of them. But you live and you learn, and you move on to the next step of the journey. And when you look at it, that was probably the top thing that I would say. And the second thing that I think is important that I learned, and anyone should learn this [inaudible] their own story.
You know, I kept telling the team that we need to use social media to do direct-to-consumer communication. Because for me, every time I go to town halls and I tell them what we have done, they would say, “Eric, we didn't know that.” My message was never told. There was one mission, particularly from the print media and those reporters who were assigned to me, and they're probably on right now because they listen to your show all the time.
But they were just mean, nasty people that started out saying, we don't want this guy ever to be re-elected again. And from day one, they made sure that they would not tell the success of our story. You didn't read about it. You wouldn't know about it. And it was a clear mission. And when you have a dependency just on the media to tell your story, you're in trouble. And my team could have done a better job of finding alternate methods to speak directly to consumers. Because that's the only way you're going to tell your story, particularly one as a mayor that I have been.
But those are the two things. But you said something else. You were talking about some of the things that we would have done as in FIFA. And I heard some comments that Zohran made about FIFA, that the tickets are too expensive. Listen, he didn't bring in FIFA, I did. And we have the finals. We don't only have the games, we have the finals. And let's be clear on something. I can care less about the ticket prices. I care about the billions of dollars in revenue and working class jobs that people are going to have because I was successful in bringing FIFA in with Governor Murphy.
Those are real jobs. They're going to be places where fans can go and enjoy the game. In fact, many people who go to the World Cup don't actually go to the game, they go to the fan experience. So don't start, you know, destroying what took us a long time to do. This is an international game. If anything, embrace them and talk about stuff that we're doing. We're going to be building pitches in different communities. We're going to have a nice fan experience in every community.
So let's not start up destroying what we were successful in winning and start talking about ticket prices. Ticket prices are expensive everywhere, you know. Ticket prices are expensive no matter where you go. But the name of the game is what's the economics and what are the jobs that are attached to it. And let's make sure we get those jobs so working class people can benefit from it. We don't want it in another country or another city. We want it in New York. And I need for him to embrace that.
Giddings: Mayor Adams, I know you have to jump off, okay, but so many people, they will tell me that, oh, you're just blind for Mayor Adams. But I continue to say why I support you is because of the things that you have done not only for the Reset Talk Show, but for grassroots media. You know, I said that going in, I want to say it again. I hope it is maintained with mayor-elect where the grassroots platforms will be in the room with mainstream platforms.
That was a huge one. Not to mention advertising, how you advocated for the grassroots platforms to be in the mix. But what I've been bombarded with, so what is your mayor going to do now? So that's the question. You spoke about the dream jobs and, you know, people are intrigued. I don't know if you want to drop the bomb right now, but I made sure I was going to ask you this question today.
Mayor Adams: Well, first, let's talk about the media piece, because you're right. And remember, we fought to get the diverse media, ethnic media inside Room 9. That's the room, folks, where the press hangs out and covers the mayor and the City Council and City Hall. Lack of diversity, no diversity at all. We fought to get you seats inside that room, right in City Hall, and get you the access that you deserve. And coming to my Tuesday briefings and remember, they fought against us.
And even City councilmembers were talking about passing laws, not allowing us to do this, you know, being used. This is [inaudible] you have to have the diversity of the media to do so, and the people who were covering me, let's be honest, they didn't like me. They didn't understand my understanding, and many of them were transplants. Many of them didn't even know the history of the city. I'll never forget one of the reporters asking me a question. They said [inaudible] what was one of the [inaudible], do your research, you know, you're a reporter, I’m not doing basic research on the mayor who's in office. And that's what I was up against.
And so we're going to, we should continue that diversity. We should continue having the various ethnic media and their different language and methods speak to us. And I'm hoping that the next administration [will] do so. And now when you talk about the dream job, there's so much, so much I want to do, J.R. People don't know how much being a mayor and even an elected official takes away from your family. I've missed so many games that Jordan had, I missed so many events that he had.
And, you know, I want to go on and do the good things that I want to do with my life. So there's a number of things I'm going to be doing, and I indicated some of them. I want to go out. I want to go. [Inaudible]. Classroom interacting [inaudible]. I’m hearing different ideas. I'm going to do a documentary to really tell my own story, but I'm also going to be doing some things to improve other cities in other countries, and I'm going to be rolling that out in the near future. But I'm not leaving the city.
I'm going to also monitor the success that I have had. And there are good things you could do out of government that could help what I did in government around housing, around fighting against hate, particularly antisemitism. You know, J.R., antisemitism is real and it has become too comfortable and too pervasive in the city. And I'm not going to remain silent on that and just anti-violence against Christianity. You see what's playing out in Nigeria as thousands of Christian churches are being burned.
Thousands of Christians are being murdered all over this globe. There's been an attack on Christianity, and I'm surprised how silent we have been on this. So these are some of the issues I'm going to advocate and fight for, and I'm going to do it in a very business approach. And lastly, I want to regain, I want to recapture our young people.
Our young people have been radicalized. They hate America. They hate themselves. They're doing things that are extremely dangerous, high levels of suicidal ideation, high levels of depression. You're seeing children murdering their moms and their families and their loved ones. I want to really focus on recapturing our young people so they can love themselves again, they can love their country again, and they can love being a resident of the greatest country on the globe, and that's America.
Giddings: Well, Mayor Adams, I want to thank you. You still owe us one more visit. You still owe us one more visit in December, but I'm glad that you were able to speak directly to the people about what you're going to do, what's your next move. I heard that you're going to take up all these different positions, and I said, I don't know. So I asked you a question this morning. You responded.
I really want to thank you for that. I'm just thinking from J.D., Okay, I wanted to get the rabbi and Donnatella in, but next month when you jump on, we will definitely have both of them lead the conversation so everybody on the Reset [Show] could get a chance to find out where the mayor is as far as his life going forward.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good to talk to you. You guys and ladies, you are doing an amazing job and I cannot thank you enough for what you have done and just your level of respect that you have shown throughout a very difficult, difficult moment and very joyous moment. Take care.
Giddings: I have one more for you. This one is going to blow your mind.
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Giddings: I was out at the Mamdani headquarters last Tuesday, and one of the reporters that are usually in the room said to me, “So, J.R., I bet you this incumbent mayor is not going to visit your show every month.” And he laughed.
Mayor Adams: Listen, let me tell you something. There's a whole lot of things I've done that no other mayor will ever do. And so you're not missing me now, but you're going to miss me. Take care.
Giddings: Take care. Take care, Mayor Adams.
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