Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson, Operations: Welcome to a new era for public transit in New York City. “Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service” represents a historic partnership to build the fastest, best bus system in our city's history. The plan is designed to deliver for riders, to give time back to our neighbors, and make our bus system easier, more reliable and more comfortable for everyone. And it represents a unique spirit of collaboration in which Albany and City Hall do not hesitate to work together to improve working people’s lives. Because the city has the streets, and the state's got the buses, and together we are committed to delivering fast buses and better service for New Yorkers. Without further ado, it is my honor to introduce our mayor, Mayor Mamdani.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is an honor to be here with so many friends, partners, advocates and community members, transit riders and public servants. And also, an incredible remix of Madonna's Four Minutes. Thanks to your tireless efforts, we are here in downtown Brooklyn to say something millions of New Yorkers have been waiting to hear: the next stop for New York City is better buses.
And I want to acknowledge that we are here joined by a number of leaders at every level of government. We have our governor, Kathy Hochul, who is joining us today; our MTA chair, Janno Lieber; [and] our City Council transportation chair, Shaun Abreu. As you've heard from our deputy mayor for operations, Julia Kerson; our DOT commissioner, Mike Flynn; [and] our NYPD transportation chief, [Olufunmilola] Obe. And we have from Riders Alliance Betsy Plum and Andrèa Albayeros Abdalah. And I also want to acknowledge our borough president of Manhattan, Brad Hoylman-Sigal; Council Members Alexa Avilés and Amanda Farías; and our Brooklyn deputy borough president, Kim Council. Let's give them a round of applause.
It is such a pleasure to be here alongside all of them as we come together to make an announcement that speaks to a singular truth that every person who calls our city home knows: in New York City, time is money. And we are going to give New Yorkers some of that time back. Six minutes, to be precise. So, to illustrate what six minutes saved really means, I have decided to keep the rest of my speech to six minutes exactly. We're going to use this stopwatch to show that the clock starts now.
Now, for decade after decade, the working people of our city who rely on the bus have had their precious time treated with disdain. New York's bus system carries more riders than America's next four largest bus systems combined. And those riders commute on the slowest buses in the nation, many of which crawl at an average of five miles per hour. Too many New Yorkers walk faster to the bus stop than the bus they finally get on actually travels. Too many lives are planned around delays in commutes. Too many communities have demanded better: a devoted 34th Street busway, a redesign of Fordham Road in the Bronx [and] a rapid bus corridor down Flatbush Avenue. And yet despite all of the work of so many that are here and even beyond this event, they have found that their voices have been ignored by those who can deliver change. That ends today. Our streets are public spaces. How we design them reflects who we believe they are for. Today, we make a decision that puts working New Yorkers first.
Now, I am proud to stand alongside Governor Kathy Hochul this morning as we launch our bus action plan, Next Stop. This historic investment will make our buses faster and more reliable for millions of New Yorkers across the five boroughs. The Department of Transportation will work in partnership with the MTA to transform 50 priority bus routes citywide, some of which are currently the slowest in the city, many of which serve neighborhoods with few other transit options, and all of which deserve better.
Now, here in Brooklyn, we will deliver the first of five rapid bus corridors by 2030 on Flatbush Avenue. Now, Flatbush Avenue is a corridor used by more than 130,000 riders every day but slowed by some of the city's worst gridlock. The first phase of Flatbush is already underway and includes center-running bus lanes and new bus boarding islands. Future phases of the project include fully separated bus lanes, stations with level boarding, and fast, frequent service guaranteed. Now, Flatbush is only the beginning. Northern Boulevard in Queens, 116th Street in Manhattan, White Plains Road in the Bronx, Utica and Church Avenues in Brooklyn, Victory Boulevard on Staten Island — these streets and dozens of other routes across the five boroughs will receive dedicated rapid service and infrastructure improvements that finally put riders first.
Part of that means changing how buses stop and start with transit signal priority, queue jumps and yes, all-door boarding. These improvements may sound technical, but they deliver change that is anything but. Less waiting, faster trips and buses that arrive when they're supposed to. We are also making sure that bus lanes stay clear. By 2028, all 50 corridors will have Automated Camera Enforcement because these lanes should do exactly what their name promises — they should be for buses.
Now, we are not just improving our bus lanes; we are improving our buses too. The MTA will replace 40 percent of our aging fleet with 2,500 brand new vehicles. Taken together, these investments will increase speeds along our 50 priority corridors by 20 percent on average. That means riders will save up to six minutes every trip [and] up to 12 minutes every commute.
I'm just going to check — we have one minute and 53 seconds left for me to hit this goal.
Now, if you take the bus to work, that adds up fast. Within six months, you will have spent 24 fewer hours on the bus. By the time a year rolls around, you'll have saved more than two days of commuting time. That means breakfast with your family. It means having the time to argue balls and strikes at your kid's little league game. It means getting home for bedtime. It means agreeing with your friends that Egypt [was] robbed yesterday. Above all, it means time returned to New Yorkers who don't have nearly enough of it.
And as we do so, we are also ensuring that the time spent on our bus system is a little more pleasant. No longer will the majority of bus stops in New York City be a rusty pole and slab of concrete. That is not good enough. By the end of this year, we will install 100 new bus shelters citywide and 300 more by 2031. We will add benches and leaning bars at 875 bus stops each year, with seating guaranteed at every single bus stop in the city by 2035. And we will plant more trees around stops to provide shade and protection from the elements.
At every stop of this work, the working people who ride our buses every day will shape the decisions that we make. Input from street outreach and community workshops will be incorporated during the design and development [phases]. And even after construction is completed, we will continue to solicit feedback to make sure that each project is delivering exactly what we promised. Years from today, when we take measure of whether this plan succeeded, we'll calculate it by how many New Yorkers get home earlier, by how many buses arrived when they were supposed to, by how many working people got some relief from the heat and the rain, and by how I can't even speak as fast as the savings that we're going to receive. Because what we're going to see is that New Yorkers will spend six fewer minutes on the bus and six more minutes living their lives, because I want a city where Christopher Leon Johnson has enough time to come and yell at a press conference. I don't want him to be stuck on the bus on the way to the press conference. That's the city I want. A city where you can heckle your public officials because the bus is running on time. And our streets should work like the working New Yorkers who use them, quickly and efficiently.
With this bus action plan, we are taking a huge step towards a future where our buses run as fast as everything else in this city we love. One where every New Yorker’s commute is defined by ease and dignity. Thank you. This is for Christopher. This is every New Yorker who takes the bus. And this is for everyone who knows that a world-class city deserves world-class buses. Thank you so much.
Deputy Mayor Kerson: Thank you, Mayor. Now I'd like to introduce our governor, whose leadership and partnership [are] foundational to this vision.
Governor Kathy Hochul: Hello, New York. You want to go faster? Well, so do I. And I want to thank our mayor and his team for working so closely with us. You know, we've wanted to do this before. This is not a brand-new idea, but we never had the partnership and the leadership in City Hall that we have right now. And I wanted to give them a huge round of applause. And to all the transit advocates, the Riders Alliance and everyone else, let's give them a huge round of applause for always being on the front line of what is right. I want to thank Janno Lieber for running an extraordinarily complicated system but does it in an incredible way. Let's give him a round of applause as well. Betsy Plum, the executive director of the Riders Alliance, and all of you, I thank you so much. You are an important part of us getting congestion pricing over the line. Thank you very much.
We'll continue to stand up to the Trump administration and say, “That ain't going anywhere, Mr. President. We're keeping our congestion pricing because it's 27 million fewer cars on the roads in our city.” You're also helping me with the next phase of the Second Avenue subway so we can eliminate transit deserts and let people have an opportunity to get to the better paying jobs. Thank you, Riders Alliance, for being me with me on that one. And how do you like the sound of the Interboro Express? You ought to be able to go from Brooklyn to Queens without a nice stop in Manhattan. We're going to make that happen.
So, we've done an awful lot to help people on our subways and make our trains faster, and rider satisfaction is up. But you know what? Let's focus on the bus riders! I want you to have the same positive experience that you deserve. This is a way that people get to their jobs. The nurses wake up at the crack of dawn and need the bus to get them to the hospitals to take care of us and our families. The schoolteachers who show up every single day. The people who work the night shift and have to go home. The bus is their lifeline.
And the students who go to school every day. I remember being a student. Yes, it was a few years ago — I get it. But I remember being a 16-year-old living in a blue-collar suburb outside of Buffalo. And I used to leave school every day at noon — don't tell my teachers. And I went and volunteered at the Democratic headquarters. I had an hour bus ride every day. I would have liked somebody to say, let's make those busses go faster. And that's what we're doing today.
So, it's about putting the money where our mouths are, right? This could have happened, but the resources were not there. And that's part of my historic $68 billion investment in public transit. That's how we're able to get 2,500 brand new buses. You're going to love these buses. They're incredible. You're not going to want to get off the bus. You're going to want to go the next stop [because] it's going to be so great. But also, we're going to make sure that we speed it up at 50 priority locations. We're going to allow people to be able to come off the back, on and off the back. Think about that, how it's going to speed things up. We'll get that done as well, use every door for the boarding. And we're going to complete the transition of tap and ride.
So, I'll be shorter than the mayor's six minutes. How do you feel about that? Got you beat there, mayor. Because I know these people are in a hurry. They're in a hurry to finally have faster buses in New York City. We got it done. Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Kerson: Thank you. Next, I'd like to introduce MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO, Metropolitan Transportation Authority: I did ask for Empire State of Mind as my walk-up, but you know, they already promised that to you-know-who. Look, thank you. Thank everybody for being here. This day has been a long time coming. When I first became the MTA chair — when Governor Hochul appointed me — one of the first things I did was to actually crash a Riders Alliance rally protesting against slow buses, protesting that buses were slower than walking, as everybody knew. I showed up uninvited, and the press corps kind of laughed at me, because I was the first MTA chair ever to show up in a protest against the MTA. But as I told everybody at that event: This is a new situation. You know who hates slow buses? The MTA leadership. And we have been fighting every day, week after week, month after month, every six years for more bus lanes; more enforcement of cars and trucks that are double parking; faster buses; and congestion pricing, which has such a positive effect on traffic.
[Crosstalk.]
No secret [that] we had Governor Hochul’s strong support, but the support at the local level in the prior City Hall was, shall we say, uncertain. Not the case anymore. Our partners today — this mayor, this DOT commissioner, this governor, who's been a supporter of faster buses from the get-go — all want to make sure that buses are way faster than walking. They want to follow up on everything that's been promised: the overdue commitments to build bus lanes, which by the way are a matter of law in the City of New York, a matter of law; and the ramping up [of] traffic enforcement. We all see the illegal parking that blocks buses. A little bit is going on right here, by the way. [You] might have noticed that. But buses can only move as fast as the traffic. So, if you are a bus rider, this is what's going on here. Today is terrific news.
We have been trying to move the ball forward the last couple [of] years. Everybody knows about our borough-by-borough bus redesigns, which have actually led to increases in bus service. Thank you, Governor Hochul, for funding that. Brooklyn is next. We're going to stop running buses on routes that people don't go to; we're running to terminals that were tore down fifty years ago. That's what we're going to change, among other things. We're going to increase Automatic Camera Enforcement, which is already showing huge benefits. You know what? New Yorkers are smart. When they get that first ticket, the overwhelming majority of them don't get a second. Automatic Camera Enforcement works. It protects New Yorkers the same way that speed cameras do. We're going to buy a ton more buses, because older buses spend a lot of time sitting in the maintenance depot rather than out on the road. Thanks to the governor, we've got a billion and a half dollars in our new capital program to buy new buses, and we're fast on the way.
Listen, this work is going to have a much greater impact now that Albany and City Hall and MTA and everybody are on the same page. I want to thank the folks on the city team who contributed to getting us to this report but especially the MTA folks; Dara Goldberg, your team; MTA policy; the bus team at New York City Transit; Demetrius Crichlow, Frank Farrell and everyone who works for them. Final point — I always say it: busses are the engine of equity in our city, and they are the engine of affordability. They allow — mass transit is what makes New York City possible. It's what makes the density that is the source of our dynamism, our specialness, and not to mention that mass transit is always the antidote to climate change. And if Washington's not going to worry about it, we in New York are, let me tell you. So, by improving the bus system, mayor, we're going to strike a blow for equity, something that you always talk about. We're gonna strike a blow for affordability, something that you and the governor always talk about. This report is just the beginning. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, advocates. On to faster buses.
Deputy Mayor Kerson: Thank you. Now, it's my privilege to introduce our very own DOT commissioner, Mike Flynn.
Mike Flynn, Commissioner, Department of Transportation: Good morning, everybody. Thank you, deputy mayor. Riding the bus in New York City, you could be forgiven for feeling like it was an afterthought of government. Buses are slowed in traffic, blocked by double-parked vehicles and crowded at stops where it takes too long to board. As a result, it can feel like there's two types of relationships New Yorkers have with their bus system. There's New Yorkers for whom buses are a lifeline. For these New Yorkers with no other option, buses are often a source of stress and anxiety. And there are New Yorkers who actively avoid riding the bus or don't think of the service at all. This can change. This will change.
We can have a world-class system for a world-class city [that is] fast, comfortable and reliable. Enough so that every New Yorker sees the bus as a convenient and affordable way to get around their city. This administration will be flipping the script. These 50 new priority corridors serve 25 of the slowest routes in the city. Improvements along routes will begin as soon as this year. It's not just about speed gains that the mayor mentioned. It's also about reliable and consistent service, knowing the bus will be there when you need it. Regularly arriving buses mean that New Yorkers no longer need to take an extra 20 or even 30 minutes baked into their commute because who knows when the bus will arrive and you can't get to work late.
This is a key part of our administration's affordability agenda. Delays can cost bus riders wages if their bus is late. It could mean late pickup fees at daycare. And if you live in the outer boroughs today in certain parts of the city, you might be forced to make sacrifices in order to dedicate thousands of dollars of your wages every year towards owning a car, maintenance, insurance [and] gas if it feels like the only reliable way to get around. Faster buses mean expanded and easier access to jobs, healthcare, culture, education and so much more. I'd like to thank the incredibly talented teams at New York City DOT that will be delivering on this plan and everyone standing here with us today: Mayor Mamdani for finally prioritizing the needs of bus riders; Governor Hochul and Chairman Lieber; as well as City Council Transportation Committee Chair Shaun Abreu for his incredible support at the city level. Thanks everyone.
Deputy Mayor Kerson: Thank you. Next up, I'd like to introduce Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu.
Council Member Shaun Abreu: Good morning, everyone. We all know how much New Yorkers are in a hurry. We don't like to wait around, and we don't to sit in traffic. As chair of the City Council's Transportation Committee, I hear time and time again from New Yorkers across the city that they want fast, affordable and accessible busses. Is that right, Mr. Mayor? This bus action plan sets a future for our transportation network that is befitting of our great city. And I'm proud that in the budget we passed last week, the Council helped secure the funding necessary to make sure that the Department of Transportation can deliver exactly these kind of projects that make it easier for everyone to get around the city. We will continue to work closely with the mayor and the governor to create the bus network that New Yorkers deserve. Thank you, Governor Hochul, Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Flynn for making this possible.
Deputy Mayor Kerson: Thank you. And finally, we would not be here without the bus riders whose years of experience and advocacy is behind every advancement today. I'd like to introduce Riders Alliance member-leader, Andrèa Albayeros Abdalah, an artist, poet and lifelong bus rider from Flatbush.
Andrèa Albayeros Abdalah: Hola, buenos días. Hello, good morning. My name is Andrèa Alvalleros Abdallah. I'm a lifelong New Yorker and Flatbush bus rider. I am here representing Riders Alliance and bus riders across the city. I'm excited to speak alongside our mayor today to talk about how a successful city-wise bus plan will change my life and the life of my community. There are people like me who have lived in New York City our entire lives, relied on city buses for as long as we can remember. The bus is how we get to work, school, move to the neighborhood we call home. Public transportation is not a luxury. It's our livelihoods. Our livelihoods depend on it.
My whole life, I've taken the B41 and the B44, two busses that are critical to Flatbush riders like me. I'm an artist and working florist, juggling multiple jobs and traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan to make ends meet while continuing to do the work I love. Too often, I leave home not knowing whether the bus is a viable option [for] getting to and from work that day. Having to choose between waiting for the bus that may not come on time or taking a longer route by train shouldn't be a decision that could cost someone their job. But that's the reality for working New Yorkers every day. In a city where the cost of living keeps rising, we cannot afford to lose income or hours of our lives because the system we depend on is failing us. Working people deserve reliable public transportation. We should not have to keep waiting for it. The rider power that's been built to get to this moment is going to give more dignified commutes for the 2 million New Yorkers who ride the bus every day. Our city streets are public space, and New Yorkers deserve a much more equitable approach to how that space is used.
Buses are for the people. [Most] New Yorkers ride the bus, which makes them an integral part of our city streets, and [they] need to be treated as a priority. A city-wide plan for fast buses is the way to move forward in creating fair commutes for everyone using our streets. But to do so, it must put bus riders' needs at the center. It must deliver real-time savings for bus riders, and it must use clear communication to riders. Buses have always been and will always be an important part of the city and its people. I want to thank the riders, the bus drivers and the community for continuously showing up to demand the transportation we deserve. I want to acknowledge how powerful it is that the mayor and governor are here together to show riders that we are going to work together to deliver on a plan that will change the lives of people. We need a government that will listen to the people, and I am grateful for the chance to speak alongside Mayor Mamdani as we work to make real change for millions of New Yorkers. Thank you.
Question: So, you know, how are you going to meet these benchmarks, especially? And the union is protesting here. They're an integral part of making the buses work. How do you plan to bridge that gap?
Mayor Mamdani: I think the union is here about their contract, not about the bus action plan.
Question: Part of it is maintenance and making buses faster. They can possibly lose overtime from that if the buses are more efficient and getting certain standards into the contract. So how are you going to address that? Because obviously there's a very contentious contract negotiation. This may be more for Janno, but I'll also let you—
Mayor Mamdani: I think you know whenever I've had conversations with union members and union leadership, there is a shared commitment to a desire to make our bus system — our public transit system — the envy of the world, and we know that we consider our city to be a world-class city; it's time to do everything we need to deliver that world-class public transit, and when we're talking about this plan, you know, I just want to distill what this will actually mean.
We're talking about speeding up buses 20 percent on 50 priority corridors. We're taking about New Yorkers saving up to six minutes per trip. And what we're also talking about is doing all of these day-to-day improvements alongside the kind of capital investments that really have an impact on what bus riders' experiences are, whether it's how they wait for the bus [or] whether they know the bus is actually coming.
And I'll tell you, as a bus rider myself, there have been times where I look at my Bus Time app. I'm told the M60 is coming — nine minutes — it's about two minutes away; that bus disappears. And we need to make the actual investments necessary to ensure that New Yorkers can trust what they're seeing and that they can get on that bus and that the buses are so good that they might not wanna get off that bus. I'm gonna pass it over to our MTA chair as well as our DOT commissioner for anything additional.
Lieber: The mayor's got it right. We have enormous amounts of investments in here that are going to change people's lives. We finally got a commitment to execute on the law that says there [has] to be a certain number of busways and bus lanes built every year. That was the law for the last six [or] seven years and that wasn't happening. That's a big breakthrough. The commitments to make bus stops more accessible, to make sure that there's seating [and] to make sure, as the mayor says, that the technology that tells you when the bus is coming is reliable — is important. Also included in this, though apropos of your question, is that we need a partnership with the union to make sure that the maintenance that's happening in the depots is happening on time.
We need a partnership with the union to make sure that the buses leave the depot and the workers are showing up every day because it's no secret that we're having challenges putting every bus out. So that is part of our challenge: to work with the unions to do that. They are protesting here today; it's not a secret that there are mixed feelings about faster buses because it does cut down on overtime, as you said. That is something that that we sometimes deal with the union on, but at the bottom is that we have to do this for New Yorkers. The riders are our priority and we're going to deliver for them based on this plan.
Question: So, there are a lot of moving pieces here, a lot of different agencies involved. Can you talk about how going forward with the 50 priority corridors and ongoing redesigns of the network across all five boroughs, are you going to have regular check-ins? Is there going to be a task force? How are folks going to, from the city and MTA and state, check in with each other over the next several years?
Mayor Mamdani: I would even go so far as to say the check-ins are happening on a near daily basis at this point between a lot of the people that you see here on this stage and even just in terms of my own time, this is a priority for me in terms of our administration. We are speaking about a form of transit that millions of New Yorkers rely upon. A form of transit again that serves more riders than some of the largest cities in this country combined, and yet, a form of transit that at times is crawling at a speed that New Yorkers are walking.
And that is an indictment of the policy decisions that have been taken to this point. We are proud now to put ourselves forward as partners to the MTA [and] to the state in delivering. And again, delivering means the work on the expense side, the work on the Capital’s side and also the work on the streetscape. And when we’re talking about that — that, you know, I’m so proud of leadership we’ve seen from our DOT commissioner in looking to make decisions that will speed up our buses and that will ensure that safety is a priority for each and every person no matter how they are getting around this city.
Question: I'm just wondering; obviously you ran on a campaign message to make buses fast and free. Does this investment today delay your initiative to make busses free? Do you think that this delays at all your push to make it free? And then for Janno, I know you're very against making busses free, so I just wanted to see if this — if you're hoping that the faster buses will delay making buses free.
Mayor Mamdani: Not at all. Not at all. I've been very clear with New Yorkers that my commitment is to make buses fast and free. Today, we stand together on how we deliver the fast. And I want to be very clear that that speed is something in terms of what New Yorkers can depend on, what they can see on the bus and then also the investments we're making around the whole bus system.
That's what's so exciting about this is it's not just about the bus; it's also about the bus stop. It's about the streetscape. It's about every single thing that delays New Yorkers when they're trying to get around. We're excited to be in partnership with the MTA and with the state on doing that. And we'll continue not only to believe, but [also] to work towards making our bus system free as well.
Lieber: And we just gotta recognize that. You want government to work where people are solving problems. Not everybody agrees about every single thing. Ed Koch famously said, if you agree with me on 70 percent, vote for me. If you agree me on 100 percent, you got to have your head examined. Not everyone agrees on everything. We do agree about affordability. And a blow was struck for affordability last week when the City Council and the mayor increased the eligibility for Fair Fares. Which is going to make riding the bus and the subway — not just the bus but also the subway — way cheaper for 300,000 New Yorkers, including people who work 40 hours a week on minimum wage who couldn't get the discount up to now. That is an equity and affordability victory, and I'm glad to share the credit with the mayor and the Council.
Question: The bus lanes make way for faster buses, but what, if anything, will you be doing to make sure that the other traffic isn't slowed down in the process? And if you will, I don't know how much you ride the bus anymore, but what would you do with your extra six minutes?
Mayor Mamdani: With my extra six minutes, I would probably just watch the replays of Egypt getting robbed again and again yesterday. You know, just gotta throw up the VAR. I think the other thing about [these] six minutes is what it means for New Yorkers. New Yorkers go to great lengths to catch the bus. I'll tell you, you now, I used to live in Astoria. My parents in Morningside Heights, I would take the M60 to visit them. And there would be times that I knew if I missed the bus at 116th and Broadway, I would have to get on a Citi Bike to cut across to catch that bus at 125th and Second Avenue and just pedaling as fast as I could to get there. Part of that is because I didn't know when the next bus was coming.
And now we know that buses are going to be more frequent [and] they're gonna be more reliable. And to your first question, Melissa. You know, what we want is for the greatest number of New Yorkers to be able to get where they're going in a way that is both safe, reliable and also frequent. And what we've seen time and time again is on our streets we are speaking about millions of New Yorkers who are relying on the bus and they're being trapped in traffic. And what are excited to see is that for more New Yorkers now, they can get where they're doing and they can do so at a time that actually allows them to breathe at the end of the day.
Question: So today there's a lot of revelry around you guys working together and all that. But how do you make sure that this partnership continues to work? It doesn't become a blame game of, “Oh, the state isn't doing this, or the city isn't doing that?”
Mayor Mamdani: I think by following through. We've heard announcements before. What makes today different is not only the shared commitment to following through on those announcements, [but] also the fiscal commitment behind these announcements. When we're talking about from the city level, we're looking at a commitment of $254 million in expense funding over the next five fiscal years. We're talking more than $600 million in capital funding over that same period of time.
And what we're also talking about is an understanding that bus riders are so often the ones who are thought of the least when it comes to our policy conversations. And these are the riders who are typically being hit by the affordability criticism the hardest. They're being asked to sit in traffic the longest. And now with these fiscal commitments, with these policy commitments, but also with these political commitments, we are going to actually deliver on that. I'm going to pass it over to our MTA chair [or] DOT commissioner for anything additional.
Lieber: I just want to say, there's a revolutionary idea that sometimes gets forgotten in public life: accountability. Accountability. We're putting out a report today that has specific goals and specific commitments. And every month, Ethan, you're there at the MTA board meeting and you ask me questions about whether we're meeting our goals. And the MTA has the biggest open data platform in the state.
Accountability is part of the culture of the MTA, and I dare say it's part of this administration's approach to this issue and many others. And we're thrilled. I mean, the DOT commissioner and I were just talking in the back about how we are going to address the choke points on a daily basis that develop. That level of accountability and responsiveness is not always observed in government, but I'm telling you, this is an MTA and a city that are going to make good on that.
Commissioner Flynn: I have to say it's been an incredible collaboration between the city and MTA, all the way from leadership down to staff. And that means having clear benchmarks, as the chairman said. It's also developing a series of performance indicators, things that we can actually measure to say, “Are we meeting the goals?” And as the mayor's been clear about, we are going to come back and revisit things if we're not hitting those goals. We're keeping an open mind, and what we're really focused on is those targets. And we're getting in the weeds, right? We're working out SOPs and processes that we're going to use together — our two agencies — to follow through. So, the plan is the starting point, now comes the follow through.
Question: I'd love to commiserate with you about how Egypt was robbed, but—
Mayor Mamdani: I mean it — you know? If you're going to call the foul on the first disallowed goal.
Question: Yeah. And all small soccer nations for that matter. Totally. Anyway, let's go on. I gotta follow up on the Pfizer Building collapse, though. It's raised a number of red flags from concerns about union labor hiring to if these conversions are easier said than done. While you were in Albany, there was a package passed giving, you know, permission to do this, including tax breaks. So, I'm wondering this, as we move forward with this, do you still consider converting office buildings into apartments as part of the solution to the housing crisis? And if so, will your DOB inspect these properties differently moving forward?
Mayor Mamdani: So first I'm gonna answer your question. Then I'm going to go into just a broad overview of what we're looking at right now. Yes, I do continue to consider the conversion of office space into residential space as part of our answer to the housing crisis. I also consider that we have to do so safely and in a way that is fully accountable. And so as soon as we answer the emergency questions around safety in this moment, we are going to be conducting a full investigation as to how we got to this point. Because this is not a necessary consequence of an office to residential conversion. This, however, is clearly a breakdown in that process.
And just to give an overview for everyone about the state of affairs when it comes to this building. So as of 8:30 a.m. this morning, temporary shoring and beams have been completely installed on floors 18 through 23. And additional shoring beams will be added throughout the day. As of 10:15 a.m., floors 17 and 24 are also in progress. They're going to be working through the day to get all the way up to the roof and all the way down to floor nine. It is a 37-floor building. Now, as of this morning, again, we have also reduced the number of evacuated buildings. That number is now four under a full vacate and one under a partial vacate of the ground floor restaurant. The contractor has had crews working around the clock and DOB continues to closely monitor the situation. DOB is currently on site doing so.
Again, one of the questions that we were asked yesterday was about the question of the movement of the structure. I wanna confirm for all New Yorkers that there has been no additional movement of the structures since yesterday morning. This continues to be monitored as that emergency work is underway.
Now, just to restate one more time, as soon as this emergency work is concluded, DOB is going to be conducting a rigorous assessment and ensuring that the plans and the site are fully compliant with all codes before any non-emergency work moves forward. And just want to bring, we have our Deputy Mayor of Housing and Planning who is here with us, if there's anything you want to add to that.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: Mayor, I have just a follow-up on the building and then I have another question. In terms of your building commissioner said the building is stable, but it was still going to be tense over there. So, I'm wondering for New Yorkers—
Mayor Mamdani: Still going to be?
Question: Like tense in the area, like it was T-E-N-S-E. Tense. So, I am wondering what exactly does that mean to you? I mean, is there concerns about safety? Should people in that area be, you know, continue to be worried about what's happening?
Mayor Mamdani What I would first say to New Yorkers is thank you, because for the New Yorkers who are in that area, they have been following the instructions being provided by first responders on the ground, and they've been doing so both calmly and yet still with the urgency that the situation requires. In addition to narrowing the number of buildings on a vacate order, we've also narrowed the frozen zone. That is going to continue to narrow as we get more and more information from the building.
As the DOB commissioner said, the building is stable and yet, we are going to continue to prioritize the safety of all in that immediate area. That's why we continue to have vacate orders for those four buildings, that one ground floor restaurant. I am also incredibly thankful for the fact that there have been no injuries thus far and that every single worker has been accounted for. And I just want to understate that being a construction worker in this city is one the most dangerous jobs and we are incredibly thankful for their work. And the fact that as of today, safety is something that has continued to be extended towards them as well.
Question: And then, a group last week filed a petition to create open primaries in New York City. I'm wondering, what is your position on open primaries, and do you believe they're intended to prevent candidates such as yourself from winning office?
Mayor Mamdani I am quite content with the system of primaries that we have thus far. I think that we've seen it's a system that's been in effect for quite some time. And it's also a system doesn't preclude greater participation. And one of the things that I was so excited about our election last year was that we received more than a million votes, which was the first time a mayoral candidate had done so in decades. And it shows that the system of primaries that we have, and more and more New Yorkers participating in them are not a contradiction, or in any way at odds.
Question: I wanted to ask you about Legionnaires’. My question is: there is a law that requires building owners to inspect these cooling tanks like every 31 days — that had been an update from ‘91. Do you know if, in fact, that was happening? And also, do you see down the road doing some sort of proactive work before the hot weather — like you do storm drains for, you know, bad rain — in just requiring inspections for all of them before the hot weather, because that seems to be exacerbating the problem?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think we've seen that Legionnaires' is an issue that continues to affect our city, and what we wanted to show is that we are going to go beyond what the typical response has been, because this is a situation that is urgent. We are talking about 28 confirmed cases. We are thankful that thus far, there have been no deaths associated with this cluster. And we are, going to — to your first question — that's something that we're going to follow up on.
What I will say, however, is that I am appreciative of the work of our Health Dpartment, in that they identified this cluster quite early. At that point, there were about two confirmed cases. And what they have done is to work with both those who have contracted this illness, as well as building owners across the neighborhood, to ensure that we are able to inspect these cooling towers as quickly as possible. We've also — we're going to be taking the step of releasing the addresses of wherever has been impacted because we know that that transparency is also a critical part of how New Yorkers can continue to go about their day.
I want to both use this as an opportunity to say two additional things to New Yorkers. The first is that if you live, work, or have visited the area since late June and are experiencing flu-like symptoms — whether that means a cough, a fever or difficulty breathing — I would encourage you to contact a health provider immediately. And second that, residents in the area are completely safe to continue to bathe, to continue to drink tap water, to continue shower and cook, and using their air conditioner at home. I live in this neighborhood. This is something that I know is of concern to many in the neighborhood, and this is an absolute priority for the administration as we move forward. Thank you so much.
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