Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. I had grand ambitions of FaceTiming Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson in, but it's a little bit too difficult with the logistics. It is a privilege to be here at the Far Rockaway Beach 41st Street NYCHA houses alongside the tireless workers, committed advocates who have dedicated themselves to keeping their neighbors warm. And I want to acknowledge the presence that we have here alongside me, not just of my Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg and my Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung, but also of our Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, our Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, our TA President Ms. Eugenia Gibson, and our NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt.
Before I share how we are protecting NYCHA residents from the cold of today and the heat of the summer to come, I want to first speak about the cold spell that continues to impact our city. Today is the 13th day of this relentless cold. For two weeks, city workers and outreach teams have worked to shelter the vulnerable and the homeless from this weather. Since Monday, January 19th, when our city initiated a Code Blue protocol, we have made more than 1,100 placements into shelters and safe havens. We have involuntarily transported 20 New Yorkers who were determined to be a danger either to themselves or to those around them.
And yesterday, we announced the opening of a new safe haven site with 106 beds in Lower Manhattan. This site is critically important to providing more shelter options for New Yorkers who are resistant to staying in congregate settings. As of this morning, 17 New Yorkers have passed away outside during this Code Blue. In 13 of these cases, preliminary findings indicate that hypothermia played a role. Three of these deaths appear to be overdose-related deaths, while one remains unknown. We await final results from the Medical Examiner's Office and will inform New Yorkers as we learn more.
Each of these lives lost is a tragedy, and my heart is with the families who mourned their loved ones. From information available now, it appears that none of those who have died outside were living in homeless encampments at the time of their death. Our city remains in a 24-7 enhanced Code Blue. The danger persists from this weather. Temperatures will remain steady over the next few days, but there will be a drop come Saturday with the high in the low 20s and the low plummeting to around five degrees at night. Wind chill will get us to as low as negative 10. Though Sunday temperatures will rebound slightly, the wind chill will continue to drive real field temperature to 10 below zero. Monday itself may continue to bring zero-degree wind chill temperatures.
These are dangerous, life-threatening conditions. And as long as temperatures remain this low, the risk of fatal exposure endures. These are also some of the coldest conditions that this city has faced in its recorded history. And so, we want to encourage everyone to take this seriously and to respond accordingly. We will continue to do everything in our power to get every New Yorker into a shelter where they will be safe and they will be warm. And I want to echo my call of the past few days to New Yorkers. If you see someone in need, please call 311 immediately, so outreach workers and first responders from across city agencies, including the NYPD and FDNY, can provide help and shelter.
Finally, DSNY continues to keep our city running. They have cleared now over 59,000 crosswalks, over 12,000 fire hydrants, and more than 17,000 bus stops. They have melted more than 183 million pounds of snow and laid out over 227 million pounds of salt. They're also continuing to collect all residential trash and compost on its normally scheduled day, while recycling is being picked up within a 24-hour window of when pickup is typically scheduled. In the days to come, as we continue to weather this cold, I will keep New Yorkers updated on our progress. Now, I would like to turn to another issue brought to the fore by this enduring cold, the issue that brings all of us here together today.
Our harbor is frozen. Ice flows have boxed out the ships carrying essential fuel that provide millions of apartments with warmth. And with bitter cold from New England to Texas, energy prices across the nation are skyrocketing. Costs like these only fuel the affordability crisis that too many New Yorkers' lives are affected by. And they serve as an urgent reminder of why we must pursue a clean heat future where sustainability and affordability go hand in hand. Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns. They are one and the same. And by changing the way that we heat and cool our NYCHA homes, we can tackle both, simultaneously building a brighter, greener future, while reducing the cost of heating and cooling our apartments.
For too long, NYCHA residents have endured unreliable radiators and heating outages. And far too many summers have been spent soaked in sweat, deprived of access to the cooling systems they need. Before I was the mayor of our incredible city, I was an Assembly member representing a number of NYCHA developments, including the largest public housing development in North America, Queensbridge Houses. And when I would speak to residents, I would hear of a heating system that was so unreliable that they would have to regulate the heat themselves, opening up windows, no matter what the temperature was, to try and create some level of stability.
And today, I am proud to announce that we are going to deliver a safer, more comfortable future for each of the 712 units here at Beach 41st Street Houses as we commit $38.4 million to install heat pumps for every tenant. The need for this infrastructure is urgent. You can look no further than the leak from the existing steam system at this very property where we are gathered. Residents here at Beach 41st Houses know the pain of a heat outage all too well. They deserve a heating and a cooling system they can depend on during the months of extreme weather. The outdated infrastructure in these buildings has outlived its useful life. And we are committed to fixing this steam leak as soon as possible while also delivering a more reliable system to the entirety of this campus.
Now unlike the fuel-based system here, heat pumps are a reliable source of climate control for individual spaces, and they offer a dual-purpose answer to questions of both cost and sustainability, providing efficient and effective heating and cooling, while significantly lowering utility costs. As an Assembly member, I visited Woodside Houses, which is where there was the installation of heat pumps. And what I saw in person was a transformation of quality of life for NYCHA residents. It was a transformation that they would speak of anecdotally, and it was also one that you could see in the statistics measuring the impact of this installation.
Because those heat pumps, when they were first introduced, they yielded over 87 percent in energy savings. And what the initiative allowed for thousands of residents was not just to receive reliable heat, but to control the temperature in their homes for the first time, granting them autonomy that they had long otherwise been denied. And today's investment will accord that same dignity to thousands more New Yorkers and mark our intent to enact a clean energy heating and cooling system at NYCHA developments across the entirety of our city. We expect our Clean Heat for All program to reach over 10,000 New York City apartments by 2030.
And I want to encourage tenants and homeowners across the five boroughs to consider the same. On average, when a household makes the switch from fossil fuels to heat pumps, in this country, they save between $370 and $1,000 per year. In a city where affording groceries, rent and childcare so often feels insurmountable, hundreds of added dollars can make a difference. Today, we are one step closer to a future where no child need grow up in an apartment where the silence of the radiator means a brutal night of cold, where no senior needs to suffer through the suffocating heat of a July afternoon, and where New Yorkers find it just a little bit easier to imagine a life of dignity in this city that we all love.
And I will close by saying a thank you to the elected officials that are alongside me, because they ensure that no matter how far a neighborhood may be from City Hall, that its issues, its priorities, its concerns are never lost in the conversations of City Hall. And today is one example of what it can look like when we as a city are committed to building out the vision that we know each and every New Yorker deserves. Thank you very much, and I will now pass it to our deputy mayor, Leila Bozorg.
Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg: Thank you, mayor. I, too, want to acknowledge and thank our TA President, Ms. Eugenia Gibson. Thank you so much for all your advocacy and work for your community. I also, in addition to the elected [officials] here, want to acknowledge reps from Senator Sanders’ and Assembly member Anderson's offices, so thank you for being here. As the mayor mentioned, my name is Leila Bozorg. I'm the deputy mayor for Housing and Planning. It's really great to be here at Beach 41st Street Houses with you all today, and to have such a cross-section of our colleagues from across the city with us, too.
This property is a microcosm of the types of investments that we need to be making in public housing all across the city. If you walk just down the road, you'll be able to see the ocean. Beautiful and majestic as it is, it's also a reminder of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy to this neighborhood a decade ago. And if you were to look just in the other room, as the mayor mentioned, you'll see a steam leak that is the product of a heating system that has passed its useful life. Put these together and you have a symbol of the aging infrastructure that truly needs repair and modernization, especially after decades of federal disinvestment in public housing.
That's why we are so thrilled to be announcing today that we're investing $38 million in an improvement that's not just going to improve the quality of life for residents but help us tackle the climate crisis as well. But maybe the most exciting part of this project isn't just what we're going to be delivering, but how it came to be. NYCHA's team knew that heat pumps had the potential to make a real difference for residents, but that it could be difficult to install, given the building typology of NYCHA.
So, they used their purchasing power as the largest public housing authority in the country to create a competition for [a] brand new custom model of heat pumps. And that's what's going to be installed — being installed at Woodside Houses, now going to be installed here, and soon will be installed in many properties across the city. This is the kind of innovative approach to using the city's scale and resources that we want to be bringing to this administration's work. And we're really excited to talk soon more about the housing plan. And today, we're just thrilled to be here and celebrate this major improvement for Beach 41st Houses as a starting point. So, with that, I'll introduce Lisa Bova-Hiatt, NYCHA's CEO.
Lisa Bova-Hiatt, CEO of NYCHA: Thank you. Welcome everyone to Beach 41st Street Houses. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for your support as we strive to improve the quality of life for NYCHA residents. Thank you to Borough President Richards and Council Member Brooks-Powers for also standing with us. Thank you to the residents of Beach 41st Street, including Resident Association President Eugenia Gibson for hosting us. It's so great to see you again. And thank you to the Beach 41st Street property management team who work hard every day to foster a safe and strong community.
My colleagues and I are laser focused on addressing the massive physical needs at our thousands of buildings, and we are using all of the tools at our disposal to transform our developments, so residents have homes they deserve. At the heart of that work is collaboration. Thanks to the mayor and our other partners in City government, a $38 million investment will provide about 700 NYCHA families with state-of-the-art electric heat pumps. Thanks to this innovative technology, residents will be more comfortable in their homes and will be able to control heating and cooling in their own apartments.
Along with these cutting-edge heat pumps, residents will receive a more reliable hot water system in every building. This highly efficient technology benefits everyone. From converting the development's heat and hot water systems from fossil fuel boilers to electric heat pumps, we’ll reduce energy use by about 75 percent. By ultimately eliminating 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, it's like removing 860 cars from the road. I'm proud to inaugurate a new era in NYCHA housing, because quality, efficient, and environmentally friendly heating and cooling should not be a luxury enjoyed by just a few.
And so, through our Clean Heat for All Challenge, we are installing 30,000 window heat pumps over the next several years, improving the quality of life for thousands of NYCHA residents, while helping the city achieve ambitious and critical goals for cooling and sustainability. In addition to benefiting the environment, the initiative also supports communities, providing green-collar jobs and job trainings for NYCHA residents. I'm so pleased that through partnership, we are equipping our buildings and our residents for a successful and sustainable future. Thank you again for everyone helping us continue our progress and continuing to blaze a trail here in Queens and across the city. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Next, we'll hear from our chief climate officer, Louise Yeung.
Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung: Good morning, and thank you to the mayor, our partners in government and elected office, and to all of you gathered here today. It's great to be back in Far Rockaway. My name is Louise Yeung, and I'm the chief climate officer in New York City, and I have the privilege of overseeing the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. Frontline communities, especially [those] like the one in Rockaway that bore the brunt of damage and destruction after Hurricane Sandy, have historically been the last to receive critical investments and resources to combat the climate crisis.
But a just and equitable climate transition to a clean energy future demands creative solutions, especially for our buildings that make up 70 percent of New York City's greenhouse gas emissions. And most of that is from fossil fuels that we use for heating and hot water. Our partners at NYCHA recently installed cold climate window-based heat pumps just 20 miles west of us in Queens, as we talked about. And these low-cost, easy-to-install-and-maintain equipment offer sustainable alternatives to traditional fossil fuel-based boilers. And now we're so excited to expand these benefits right here to Beach 41st Street houses.
All tenants deserve the peace of mind of reliable heat, no matter how frigid it is outside. And this announcement reminds us that we need solutions that end our reliance on fossil fuels. As the mayor referenced, this week the frozen waterways in the New York Harbor disrupted the barges from delivering heating oil to the buildings that still rely on them. And without those ice-breaking ships from the Coast Guard, it would have been not possible to heat those homes in this cold snap. The transition from fossil fuel-based heating to electric heat pumps is not only good for our climate, it's also common sense that will improve energy reliability and save money in our pocketbooks. And it's a necessity to stay safe in extreme weather, whether it's cold or hot.
And none of this work is abstract. Today's announcement is fundamentally about investments that the city is making for a more sustainable and affordable future to prepare for our changing climate. And standing here today at Beach 41st Street houses, I see tenant advocates and neighbors and hardworking New Yorkers who are tired of shouldering the burden of being last when they are the first to experience the impacts of climate change. Reliable and affordable energy is climate justice. And our continued partnership with agencies like NYCHA will demonstrate what's possible when government is laser-focused on delivering for New Yorkers. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: Thank you, Louise. Now we're going to hear from our one and only borough president, Donovan Richards.
Borough President Donovan Richards: Thank you, deputy mayor, and welcome to Rockaway. Sorry, mayor, I couldn't give you a better summer experience thus far being out here, but we anticipate you'll come back to be on the best beach on the Eastern Seaboard, and that is Rockaway Beach. But let me start by just saying thank you. It's really good to have you here for your first visit as the mayor, announcing a historic amount of capital dollars to a community and a development that has been the most resilient. The very gem that we stand in, for those of us who lived in the Rockaways and experienced Hurricane Sandy, was this gem. It was completely destroyed.
And I remember the resilience of the community coming together to really try to fix the band-aids that have long subsided in this particular development and center as well. So, today is really a good day to ensure that our historically most marginalized communities, who often feel overlooked and disinvested in, can see that their city is saying, “No, you deserve to be invested in, no matter your socioeconomic status, your zip code, the housing you live in, you deserve to be invested in.” So, the Rockaway Peninsula has been one of those communities with five developments. We have the largest concentration of public housing right here in Queens.
And often families have felt forgotten, they felt neglected. And there are individuals like Eugenia Gibson, who stepped up — our president, madam president, thank you, our TA leader — who we've had to, over the course of the last five years even, set up a task force just to ensure that right before the winter begins, we know that NYCHA is actually working on a heating plan. And I want to give NYCHA, and I really want to give our CEO a lot of kudos because they have [always] shown up during those moments. They've been there through the good and the bad.
But today we signal that the City of New York — which has, by the way, been the worst landlord. I know we come up with these landlord lists every year, but we have neglected, the city has neglected to really keep up pace, and the state, by the way. But we know that the federal government has a large role to play here as well. And they've historically disinvested in us. We know that it's not going to get easier under the Trump administration, certainly. So, it's really going to be up to the city and state to come up with real sound solutions to ensure that our public housing residents can be seen and heard.
Today, $38 million, Mr. Mayor, for this development, [is] long overdue. Eugenia will tell you that we are tired of calling the hotline […] telling residents to call that and put in tickets. But this $38 million investment is going to ensure that the quality of life of residents here gets much better. And once again, regardless of whether or not we're in a historic cold snap like we are now, families deserve to be warm in the winter. No one should ever have to see their breath in their apartments. No one should ever need to use a space heater or, in particular, their oven to stay warm in the winter, which also, as we've been at several scenes across Queens, cause fires, fire hazards.
So, this is also about safety and also a direct investment in the sustainability of our borough. And as the former chairman of the City Council's Environmental Protection, we've been steeped in this work for a very long time. We've made a lot of progress across the peninsula, whether that's building new developments with geothermal and solar energy. And we've certainly seen across the borough, the benefits of having the heat pumps at Woodside, which during a period like this, as borough president every year, we were praying, and “Faith without works is dead,” in my line of work.
We would literally be praying that people's heat would work, and I want to say Woodside has seen a stark improvement over this winter. So, we've upgraded the infrastructure here and we have a lot more work to do. And when we talk about sustainability, the NYCHA complexes on the peninsula need to be on the forefront of those efforts. Once again, I want to just thank you, Mr. Mayor, for coming, making this your first stop. We always say, “Queens get the money,” and B41st Street is getting it today. Congratulations, most importantly, the tenants and Eugenia, your fight was not in vain, and once again, “Faith without works is dead.”
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: And finally, we'll hear from our council member, Ms. Selvena Brooks-Powers.
Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to everyone who helped bring us together today. I will have to say, you're starting this relationship off well. When I first moved to Rockaway, none of my friends would visit me unless it was the summertime. So, if you came in the winter, that's love. And of course, I want to thank Ms. Gibson, our amazing tenant president here at the B41st Housing, as well as all of the residents here for their consistent partnership and engagement in this work.
Today is about families, about the 712 households who deserve homes that are warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and safe all year round. For too long, too many NYCHA residents in Far Rockaway have lived with aging systems that don't meet the basic needs. When heat fails in the winter or coolant isn't there in the summer, it's not a minor inconvenience. It affects health, stability, and peace of mind. Families shouldn't have to plan their lives around broken infrastructure. This $38.4 million investment is about making sure they don't have to. By installing modern heat pumps in 712 homes, we're delivering reliable heating and cooling, lowering energy costs, and improving everyday living conditions.
These upgrades mean fewer breakdowns, fewer emergencies, and homes that function the way they should consistently and reliably. And it's worth saying this plainly. Investments like this may not make for splashy headlines, they may fly under the radar. But this is what government doing the basics well looks like. When government stays focused, pays attention, and follows through, people don't have to carry the burden of accepting less. There was a problem here, government took it on, and today we're committing to fixing it. That's the job. And that's what people deserve. For seniors, it means safer, more comfortable homes. For parents, it means less uncertainty and fewer emergencies to manage. For children, it means a place to live that supports learning and rest and their ability to grow.
This community has been clear about what it needs, especially in the winter. When the heat goes out, our office gets calls as well. We hear from the residents here, from the families in the neighboring NYCHA developments, from Redfern all the way up to the Hammels, facing the same challenges. Today reflects a response rooted in action, action residents can feel in their homes every single day.
We also recognize how much more we must deliver for the peninsula. From finally bringing a trauma center to Rockaway, to ensuring our infrastructure is truly climate resilient and built to last. So today, again, marks real progress. But we should be clear-eyed. This is a milestone, not a finish line. There is more work to do, and we intend to see it through. I want to thank you again, Mr. Mayor, and your administration for recognizing the urgency and for making an investment that directly improves the quality of life for NYCHA residents and for Rockaway families. Thank you.
Question: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to know what’s the order of things. Does the leak get fixed first, and then the installation of the pumps, and when does that happen [inaudible]?
Mayor Mamdani: So yes, the order of operations is first the most immediate issue, which is the leak. And then this heat pump installation commences, it goes over a longer period of time than that leak fix will take.
[Crosstalk.]
Deputy Mayor Bozorg: That's going to be starting soon, this fiscal year, and it'll take about two years to get all of them installed. And the fixing of the steam is happening immediately.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I wanted to ask, I spoke with a couple of NYCHA residents outside before, kind of frustrated that you were here. They said that they hadn't really experienced real change from the mayor's office before and that your presence was just sort of seeking clout. What do you say to NYCHA residents about this new era your administration is trying to usher in?
Mayor Mamdani: Look, I understand NYCHA residents and New Yorkers at large for whom politics has been nothing to find faith in. I understand that because just look at the history of how our city has often treated those who have been most overlooked. And I also understand that as having been an Assembly member of the largest public housing development in North America, because for far too long, what government meant was the inability to heat your home in an accurate and appropriate way. It meant that you would be unable to use the elevator and that you would be asking a senior to climb stair after stair after stair.
And so, it is not for me to tell New Yorkers that they should start to believe. It is for me to prove to New Yorkers that belief is something that is worthwhile. And frankly, what I appreciate is with the team that we have here, the elected officials alongside us, that we have an opportunity to prove that through our actions. You heard from the borough president, James 2:14, the critical importance of works. This is that work. And as the council member said, it has to continue. It has to continue until we have finally proven what New Yorkers have long been told. Because New Yorkers, they hear a lot of talk, what they want to see is action. That's what this is about.
Question: Favorite Bible verse?
Mayor Mamdani: I don't know if I should be getting in the business of picking my favorite Bible verse. It's up there.
Question: At times, heat pumps can lose efficiency below freezing weather conditions. I was wondering if there would be backup heat and cooling sources alongside the installation of heat pumps.
Mayor Mamdani: So, this is something that is critical infrastructure year-round. I'm going to pass it over to our chief climate officer to add some more specifics.
Chief Climate Officer Yeung: Yeah, that's a great question. Heat pumps are very widely used across the globe. They are very reliable when they are well-maintained. The pilot at Woodside Houses shows that they had no issues performing in cold weather. And the lifespan of the heat pumps is about 20 years. And so, these are very proven technologies that, with the right maintenance at which NYCHA is performing, they can be very reliable. We did not need backup power at Woodside Houses this cold snap.
Question: Two on the cold, one on public housing. First, have you been happy with how NYCHA and your government has responded to any complaints of heat being out, especially during this cold snap? And with things arguably getting even worse over the weekend, as you outlined at the beginning of this, are you bringing additional resources to bear to get people out of the cold? You were in a shelter, you mentioned yesterday, so you've announced a new policy. Are you doing anything different as it gets arguably worse?
Mayor Mamdani: I think we are continuing to explore every avenue that we have to keep New Yorkers warm. And that means ensuring that we are taking on any heat outages, whether they be at NYCHA properties or any property across the city, because we also know that there are a number of Con Ed outages over these past few days. And then beyond that, to ensure that we have warming buses, that we have warming centers, that we have safe haven sites, shelters, not only that are available, but also that we are having outreach teams do the direct outreach to connect homeless New Yorkers with.
And what I have appreciated is, in our team, an understanding [of] the urgency of this moment. Because we know that just because there is a cold front does not mean that there are not other issues that emerge in that same time. As the borough president was saying, one of the times that we met early on in my first month as the mayor, was at a fire that happened in Ridgewood. We know that there continue to be fires in this city, and also amidst this incredible level of cold, it only intensifies the need of those responses, those resources. And also, I would just have to lay out my appreciation for the Red Cross and the partnership that they have been doing in providing exactly that.
Question: To follow up, are you seeing enough urgency from 311? There have been a number of reporters, including myself, that have done what you've asked, that have called 311 and found ourselves in a malaise of trying to get to 911 and a slow response. Have you followed up at all with 311 and told them, “Hey guys, this is more urgent?”
Mayor Mamdani: We are continuing to follow up to make sure that these are the operations that are operating at the best possible level. Because what we know is, as you said, this cold front is not leaving. This is the coldest weather this city has seen for years. It's among the coldest weather we've ever had. So, what it requires from us is a level of response. We're pushing on every avenue to ensure that's the case.
Question: On the Jabez Chakraborty shooting that the NYPD released video on. One, is this going to be a policy that the NYPD releases bodycam videos so quickly, or just the ones the NYPD thinks may absolve the officers? And then I wanted to ask about the — if you could tell us what you envision your Department of Community Safety could have done in a situation like this, and what we can expect details on what this Department will look like.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you for the questions. I'll start with your first one, then I'll go to your second one. We are in the process of developing out a policy so that New Yorkers can know exactly what to expect when it comes to transparency. I think that transparency is something that is critical in ensuring that the facts that we have are also the facts that New Yorkers have. And as soon as we have something to share on that, we will be sure to update you and to update the public as well.
And I think on the second question, the Department of Community Safety has long been a focus of our administration, and frankly, over the time that we were running for this position. And the north star of that department is safety. Ensuring safety for the affected individual, for the family, for police officers, for any responding city personnel. And so, right now what we are doing is exploring every potential avenue to create the Department of Community Safety. That includes supporting legislative efforts like that of Councilmember Restler, but it does not limit itself to that either.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Mayor Mamdani: That is the work that we're focusing on. We'll share any updated timeline as we have it.
Question: Outdoor dining, for a colleague of mine, he wants to know about outdoor dining, do you support it year-round?
Mayor Mamdani: Yeah, I do support outdoor dining year-round.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: So, two questions. The first one is Rockaway related for my friends and neighbors. A lot of talk of the frozen harbor. If you crossed over the Cross Bay Bridge, you would have seen the frozen Jamaica Bay. The limited transit options here at Rockaway means that ferry service has been out since last week. Any updates on when that might resume? I know you can't control the weather, but concerns for when that might come back and what it means for those workers?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it only highlights the importance of every single mode of transit in this city and also how, as the borough president and the council member have said, both today but also prior, how for too long the transportation needs of this neighborhood in our city have not been thought of when it comes to the focuses and the priorities of City Hall. And what I appreciate is in my conversation in the summer with Borough President Richards as well as having served with Assembly member Khalil Anderson, the emphasis on the importance of buses also comes from neighborhoods like this.
Because we're talking about the need for a wide variety of modes. So, I'll tell you in terms of ferry service, a lot of this is dependent on the weather. I think what is very difficult is that we are seeing the kind of cold front that is not typical to follow the level of snowfall that we had. So, we will keep New Yorkers updated. We want to expedite all of the avenues of transit. We also want to be safe in each and every decision that we make. I know you had a separate question.
Question: Totally unrelated. Recently there was a series of fake AI-generated images depicting you and your mother with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. They continue to circulate online. So, my question is, one, just personally, how does it feel to be subject to that type of misinformation? But then more on the policy standpoint, how alert is the city to the dissemination of this kind of AI-generated misinformation when it comes to city services, public health, elections?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I can tell you that just earlier this morning, I was having a policy conversation with our schools chancellor and his team on the question of AI within our school system. I also know that the governor had put forward a proposal in her State of the State around AI as it pertained to elections. So, this continues to be work that we have to do. At a personal level, it is incredibly difficult to see images that you know to be fake, that are patently photoshopped and AI-generated, and yet can reach across the entirety of the world in an era of misinformation.
And there's the old adage about how quickly a lie can spread with a comparison to the truth. I think what we have to know is what the truth is. We share it with those [impacted]. And then we also have to work to ensure that we have a city, we have a state, we have a country that actually has a regulatory system when it comes to AI. Because, frankly, what it looks like today is a system that is ill-equipped for the speed and the reach of the technologies in front of us.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I have two questions. The first question is about NYCHA. You talked a lot in the campaign about renters, but as we know NYCHA [inaudible] in the city. I'm wondering, could you step back a second, talk a little bit about your vision for NYCHA, particularly for the fact that there is an $80 billion deficit that has led to these types of things that have been going on over the last couple of years?
Mayor Mamdani: I think one of the most frustrating things you can do as an elected official, I'll tell you this as a former Assembly member, is when somebody calls your office and you tell them, “Actually, that's not your jurisdiction. Actually, you should call your City Council member. Actually, you should call your Congressmember.” And for too long with NYCHA, we have told New Yorkers both the truth and also the limitation of it. The truth being that there is an immense federal responsibility as it pertains to NYCHA, that the $80 billion in capital needs are ones that the federal government should be playing a pivotal role in meeting. And the limitation of that is that we know that we cannot in good conscience expect that assistance to be coming this year or the next year. It has not come for many years.
And so, what that requires us to do is look at every avenue we have as a city and as a state to start to confront this ourselves. Part of that is transparency. I can tell you one of the frustrations I've heard from NYCHA residents over years is not necessarily how long something might take, but that they don't even know the length of that timeline until they get to the end of it. The other part of it are the kinds of investments that can do more than just one thing.
And what I mean by that is these heat pumps, they are heat pumps that save money. They are heat pumps that have a positive impact on our climate. They are also heat pumps that have a positive impact on our quality of life. And I can tell you that in Western Queens, for example, we speak about Asthma Alley, the particulates that come from so much fossil fuel generation that is disproportionately in Western Queens. And that was a concern I would hear from NYCHA residents again and again. Heat pumps also have a relationship to that, to ensuring that we are using the cleanest possible technology.
And I also have looked at the clean energy challenge as a successful example of what private and public partnership can look like. You know, it was NYCHA's issuance of an RFP that created the mini fridge in this country. That is technological innovation that was a result of NYCHA's own needs. We can bring that era back to make this a place where New Yorkers look at as the site of where we develop new answers to old problems. That's what we have to do. And I'm proud to be here alongside others in doing so today.
Question: Does that mean that you plan to double the capital budget as you promised during your campaign? And my second question is about job growth and EDC. You seem to be, you know, tinkering with the mission of that agency a bit. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about that.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I wonder if you could talk about your plans for job growth in relation to those.
Mayor Mamdani: I'll go with your question on EDC and then you can bring me back to the other question. We are proud of this city's legacy of generating prosperity. You know, the Assembly member who's not here today, most people know him as Khaleel Anderson. His middle name is Musa, named after Mansa Musa, historically one of the wealthiest individuals in world history. Now, what we want to do is to ensure that that prosperity reaches the lives of each and every New Yorker. This is the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And yet one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty.
And EDC is a critical part of generating that prosperity and being a leader within city government on what economic development looks like. And I am excited, frankly, at the opportunities we have in front of us for how this EDC underneath our administration can build on its own legacy and also start to reach the very New Yorkers who spoke to Judge Street Journal outside, about why they have a diminishing faith in government. Because for many of those New Yorkers, what has economic development meant? We need to make it something that you can feel, something that you can actually use in your day-to-day lives.
One of the earlier times during the campaign, Borough President Richards and I rode the bus together. We talked about, with New Yorkers who were there, what making buses fast and free would look like. We need to have policies and then implementation of those policies that New Yorkers, working class New Yorkers, can live and breathe. And then you had — we continue to be committed to increasing the city's preservation capital commitments. And that's going to be the focus of the budgets, the ones that are upcoming and the ones that follow.
Question: On the police shooting last week, you should have an opportunity to clarify your opinion on this. You're not being specifically critical of the NYPD's tactics in that encounter, or are you?
Mayor Mamdani: What I am speaking about here is a mental health system in this city that burdens police officers with being the only form of response to issues of crisis such as these. And our focus has to be on safety. That safety extends to the affected individual, to the family, to the officers, to any additional responding city personnel. And I'll tell you as well that in a moment such as this where we are sharing the facts that we know with New Yorkers, and we know that Jabez Chakraborty, who has had schizophrenia for years, we know the pain that his family is living through in this moment. That it is, to me, incredibly clear that what he needs in this moment is mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution by a district attorney.
Question: Do you expect a police officer to respond to that call specifically? They're calling for involuntary removal, they're saying that he's breaking glass. I mean, you would agree, right, that a police officer should be responding to that?
Mayor Mamdani: I think that the questions at the heart of our pursuit of the Department of Community Safety are looking to answer exactly what mental health crisis response should look like. And I think what we are seeing is what it does look like today. And we know that for far too long, we haven't asked these kinds of questions of this system. Those are the ones we're looking to answer with our work and our policies.
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