Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Announces Investments in More Crossing Guards and Street Safety Redesigns

January 26, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, my friends, it is not easy for a young man to get up in front of all of you and tell his story. Let’s give him a little more rousing round of applause for what he did.

[Applause]

You know, Doren went through what could only be described as a terrifying close call. He was showing me right over there at the intersection behind us – he had the light in his favor, he stepped into the intersection like it’s any other day, and a driver who was irresponsible and reckless blew through the light and almost took his life. You can imagine what that felt like for Doren and you can imagine what that felt like for his parents. I want to thank his parents for being here with us today because they know and every parent knows it is our worst nightmare to think we might lose our child; and think of a child going to school every day and knowing the dangers that are around. Parents worry – and I can say this as a parent myself – we worry from the first minute in the morning to the last minute at night. And for Doren’s parents that was a terrifying day. Thank God – thank God Doren is okay. And thank God he is here to tell us why it is so important to do more to protect our children; why we cannot spare any effort when it comes to protecting them.

Now, when we set on the path of Vision Zero it was with a fundamental notion that we could save so many more lives and that it was first responsibility of all of us in public service to protect life. It was not going to be easy, it was going to take aggressive action, and it was going to take things that had never been done before. That is what Vision Zero is all about. It is about breaking with the pattern of the past, changing the rules of the game. We have proceeded to do that.

Vision Zero is yielding real change. The facts are clear, we’re saving lives. 2016, the fewest fatalities ever in recorded history of this city and 23 percent fewer fatalities than three years earlier in 2013. And we have only just begun, there is a lot more to do. But let me talk about our children because here is some news for you that is extraordinary. As a parent, I am particularly proud of this fact; last year, 2016, the fewest children were killed in crashes in the recorded history of New York City. We had the fewest fatalities among our children under 17 that we’ve ever had.

We lost three children in 2016 – and losing any child is too many, but let me give you the comparison that makes this so stark; in the five years previous the average was a loss of eight children to traffic fatalities each year. As recently as 2004, we lost 17 children in this city to traffic fatalities – again, a parents’ worst nightmare. Last year, three children lost our goal is to save every child, to lose none of our children. And that is why the work of Vision Zero will now be intensified further. 400 million – almost 400 more dollars will be spent on Vision Zero bringing it to a total of a $1.6 billion investment over the next five years.

Now, I want to thank my colleagues who are here. They are all devoted to this work and so much of what we do to make Vision Zero work is the combination of the physical changes needed in our city with the enforcement we need to make people follow the laws. Our Commissioner of Transportation, Polly Trottenberg and her team, have done an exemplary job of changing the physical reality of our streets to make them safer. We have tasked Polly with a very difficult mission of constantly changing intersections and streets that for decades were designed the wrong way and were dangerous and she has taken on this mission with tremendous energy and setting records for changing our streets in record time. I want to thank Chief Tom Chan – Chief of Transportation for the NYPD – he has led the charge in the NYPD. And the NYPD has been full partner in Vision Zero. The enforcement efforts of the NYOPD have been unprecedented to begin with and they will grow. And I keep saying this every time we discuss this issue, the best form of public education for someone who is a reckless driver is when an NYPD officer pulls them over. That will be happening more. There will be more tickets for speeding, more tickets for failure to yield to pedestrians, more checkpoints because it will save lives and it will change behavior. So, I want to thank Commissioner Trottenberg and Chief Chan for leading the charge and Vision Zero is so much because of their great efforts.

Let’s give them a round of applause.

[Applause]

And then our elected officials have been extraordinarily supportive and they understand what this means in every block of their neighborhoods. I want to thank Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, Councilmember Brad Lander, and Councilmember Vinny Gentile for their support; and particularly in the case of Councilmember Gentile for his great help in guiding us on the work we had to do to make sure there is a school crossing guard at every intersection of this city where we need to protect our children.

Thank you very much to all of you.

[Applause]

And while I’m mentioning our crossing guards I have such appreciate ion for the work they do. As a parent, many times I saw them protect Chiara and Dante and all their friends. Thank you for all you do for the City. I want to particularly thank the president of Local 372 that represents crossing guards, Shaun Francois, thank you.

[Applause]

The almost $400 million that will be spent this coming year means that intersections like this will get safer. Now, as a Brooklynite I can say where Flatbush and Atlantic come together is a notorious intersection, one that all of us who have driven in the area and walked in the area have had a concern about. We’re going to do a whole host of things and DOT is going to lead the charge – new pedestrian islands, new turning lanes and signals, better signal timing. It’s going to take this exceedingly busy complex intersection and make sense of it and make it safe. And when you talk about safety this is an area where we need to particularly need to protect our children. We need them because this area has many schools around it in addition to all the commercial activity, all the residential space. This is an intersection that needs work and we’re going to put the money in to fix it.

And then back to the top of our crossing guards; they make a world of difference. I have seen it with my own eyes many times. They protect our kids and the presence of a crossing guard makes drivers slow down. It makes kids safe. But for too long there just wasn’t enough coverage. There was coverage on paper, but there were too many gaps in it. So, starting in September we will have 100 percent coverage at all intersections where school crossing guards are assigned.

[Applause]

We have the funding in this budget for 200 more crossing guards citywide and 100 more supervisors, meaning there will never be a time – even when someone is sick, even when someone isn’t able to come to work – there will never be a time we can’t replace them immediately with a crossing guard to keep our kids safe. And this area, again, just to put a point on  it – six schools within a few blocks of this immediate site we’re at  here – six schools reminder of why we need to make these changes.

So, we’re doing everything in our power to save lives. We’re going to keep sending a message to all New Yorkers who drive a car, ‘you have a responsibility to our children, you have a responsibility to our seniors; slow down, be careful.’ If you are reckless there will be consequences. If you break the law the NYPD will get you, it is as simple as that. That’s the message we’re sending. We’re asking drivers to help us achieve Vision Zero and help us save lives.

Finally, in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I want to turn to one of our key partners in Vision Zero. He has really been both an enthusiastic believer and someone who has helped us to make these changes, the Chairman of the Transportation Committee in the City Council, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.

[Applause]

[…]

Mayor: Okay, we’re going to take questions. First, on this topic and then we’ll take questions on other topics; questions on Vision Zero – Marcia.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Louder.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Absolutely Marcia – Marcia look, the NYPD has done an amazing job implementing Vision Zero. It’s one of the reasons why we had the fewest traffic fatalities in 2016 that we’ve had in our history – let’s think about that for a moment. 2016 was the safest year in our history in terms of reducing these traffic fatalities. Why? In large measure because the NYPD got out there in force and gave those summonses for speeding and for failure to yield to pedestrians in intersections. Also, the checkpoints that the NYPD uses at key points around the year – key times around the year when we know, unfortunately, there is too much driving under the influence. That has made a huge difference. You’re going to see more of that. You’re going to see an expanded NYPD focus on stopping this reckless behavior that is taking lives. And I think it really does change behavior. The way I say it Marcia is if you know that you’re going to go out there and speed and you’re absolutely going to get a ticket – if you are convinced you’re going to get a ticket – you’re not going to speed. If you think you’re not going to get away with something you don’t do it. And the NYPD’s presence is going to teach people that there are real consequences to reckless behavior and that is going to save lives.

Question: Do you have the number traffic fatalities in 2017 [inaudible]?

Mayor: Sure. And I’ll – I hope people can hear – I’m talking particularly to Chief Chan and Commissioner Trottenberg, you can join in – why don’t you come up. I’ll start so that was a multi-part – good multi-part question about this year to date which I will mention and then [inaudible]. Here’s what I would say, first of all, the answer to the numerical question – we’re about three weeks into the year – we’re pretty much exactly the same as last year at this point. And again, that is not our goal. Our goal is too constantly do better. What I have at this point is there have been 15 fatalities year-to-date, which is literally the same as this point last year. Vision Zero is predicated upon the notion that we have to constantly do better. We understand with anything, whether it is fighting crime or reducing traffic fatalities, you’re going to have a moment where the statistics go up and down, but the overall pattern has to keep going down. That’s the mission. I think in the last few months of last year we saw some real progress. That’s part of why last year – 2016 – was even better than 2015. And there was a focus that Chief Chan will talk about on the evening rush hour and new measures taken there. We’re going to expand upon that.

In terms of pedestrians I think it is really part and parcel what we’re talking about today, and the Commissioner can talk about it. The street redesigns, things like the traffic islands changed the experience and realities for pedestrians to make them safer; more enforcement makes them safer too. But remember a lot of the impact of Vision Zero hasn’t been felt fully yet because it keeps building each year. So, let me have Chief Chan speak and then Commissioner Trottenberg.

Chief of Transportation Thomas Chan, NYPD: Again, what the Mayor mentioned in reference to speeding enforcement; prior to Vison Zero we averaged about 77,000 speeding summonses in the five years prior to Vision Zero. We averaged approximately 133,000 speeding summonses in the last three years. Last year, in 2016, we issued 137,000 speeding summonses throughout the City. And that is certainly a record number that we’ve had for last year and since we’ve been doing speeding enforcement. In terms of failure to yield, right-a-way summons, we have issued approximately 42,000 summonses last year, and that’s larger than numbers than we did prior to Vision Zero. In the category of DWI arrest we arrested 8,400 people for DWI. We are going to continue [inaudible] to follow-up on the enforcement. With the additional funding, we will be purchasing an additional 120 [inaudible] equipment lasers that will be used for speed enforcement. There are also 15 units that will go into highway cars that will be able to monitor speed also. School crossing guards, again, watching over our children as they cross – 1.1 million students in the New York City system. And again, at elementary schools – they are vulnerable crossing the street and having somebody watch over them as they cross is going to fantastic and having the ability to cover all the post there is phenomenal. It’s a problem that we’ve had for many years.

So, I thank the Mayor and I think that in the year to come you’re going to see more enforcement, speeding summonses, failure to yield, cellphone and texting, and I will mention one other item – that left turn [inaudible] device, one of the things that we see at Traffic Stat when we meet with the precincts of boroughs every week is we see that turning vehicles is certainly, one of the leading causes of injuries and fatalities to pedestrians who are crossing at intersections, but the left turn by far causes more injuries because the vehicles may be traveling higher than five miles an hour and therefore hitting the pedestrian and causing more injuries. So, I tell my friends and the public if you are driving pay attention. When you are turning at the intersection stop for a moment because sometimes people may not be in the crosswalk exactly and they don’t expect to see the pedestrian – they may be wearing dark clothing or something of that nature. You want to give yourself more time by slowing down and paying attention. And if we slow down at the tunes – left turn, right turns – we are going to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities dramatically. But we need the cooperation of all New Yorkers.

Mayor: Just one more point, Chief on the evening rush hour enforcement. How you changed the pattern the last few months of the year.

Chief Chan: When we started – Mr. Mayor, I certainly want to thank you and all the agencies for their guidance and support on that program. We started the Dusk to Darkness program on October 27th; in just the timeframe between October 27th through December 31st we reduced the number of fatalities by 29 percent, and the majority of that category were pedestrians. And that was certainly our target audience to reduce all fatalities. But again, the dusk to darkness it worked effectively. We are continuing through January, February, and March.

Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, Department of Transportation: I can [inaudible] a little bit more of the statistics. And of course, I always like to preface what I say, but these are not statistics there are our fellow New Yorkers, our friends and families and our neighbors. As the Mayor mentioned, in the three-year period of Vision Zero we have seen traffic fatalities overall in the City go down by 23 percent. And now, I just want to highlight is in very much contrast to the national trends where in 2015 fatalities actually went up seven percent, one of the highest jumps that the country had seen in decades. And last year, at least in the first three quarters have gone up eight percent. And even though, unfortunately, it is true progress in every way isn’t always going to be linear and we saw pedestrian – even though overall fatalities went down – pedestrian fatalities did go up last year. Overall in the three years pedestrian fatalities in the City have gone down 21 percent. And again, I want to thank the Mayor. I think the extraordinary resources he has given us and, obviously, we will be using next year to put to good work to help drive the trends in the right direction.

Mayor: Can you speak to the pedestrian reality and the work you’re doing; how it specifically helps avoid pedestrian [inaudible]?

Commissioner Trottenberg: Right, again, the resources that we’re announcing today I think a lot of you are familiar with that work we’re going to do, particularly upgrading intersections. The Mayor mentioned one here in Brooklyn that is so notorious – Flatbush and Atlantic, putting in pedestrian islands, shortening crosswalks, putting in more visible stripping, changing lighting, and signal timing, putting all those things together again with the NYPD’s extraordinary enforcement efforts.

It’s no secret this is one of the most complex intersections in New York City. You have a number of streets filling into together. And when you have streets that are at tremendously skewed angles like you have here that makes the crosswalks extra-long. The longest crosswalk in this huge intersection is like 120-feet long. So, that’s – plus as you all know – there is just an enormous amount of traffic, pedestrian traffic, with the subways, the stores, the Barclay Center, buses, truck; I mean, this is just an extraordinary complex intersection and we are going to be putting in pedestrian islands at that big intersection, which will obviously shorten crosswalks, calm the traffic, make it safer for pedestrians and up where the young man had the crash and thank goodness he wasn’t seriously injured; we fixed the signal timing and put in a blinking yellow turn signal to tell motorist to slow down and be alert when you take that turn.

Mayor: Yeah.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: If you could talk a little bit more about when you got hit, what happened to you physically [inaudible]?

Doren Johnson: The car just like hit my side, I was pretty bruised up but I didn’t face like a really major injury so I was pretty lucky considering what happened to people at my school.

Question: [Inaudible]

Doren: Yeah, I went to the hospital.

Question: [Inaudible]

Doren: Yeah, I was kind of in shock. It hurt a lot, but –

Mayor: I’m just going to add one point – if you just assumed when you walked across that intersection each day that you would be totally safe; was it a shock to you to think that a car could come out of nowhere and [inaudible]?

Doren: Yeah, I didn’t really think a car could come out and hit me like – because like – I knew my friends had been hit by cars before and it was fatal, but I didn’t think it could happen to me. It was kind of a shock.

Question: [Inaudible]

Doren: I’m sorry.

Question: [Inaudible]

Doren: Yeah, I was really close friends [inaudible]. I think about her a lot.

Question: Was the driver who hit you caught?

Doren: No, he wasn’t caught.

Mayor: The Chief’s going to talk to you about it – thanks Doren – about some of the things we’ve been changing on that front.

Chief Chan: When his accident occurred we didn’t have the benefit of [inaudible] the administrative code where our officers can either make an arrest or issue a summons to an individual. At that particular time, barring leaving the scene an individual who [inaudible] injuries or hits a pedestrian or bicyclists would be a civil matter. Now, the officers can make an arrest when specifically a person is walking in the crosswalk, has the right-a-way, and they cause an injury. NYPD officers can make an arrest or issue a summons that goes to [inaudible] court. So, again, through the legislation and through the Mayor’s Office – their guidance and their support we have legislation that increases the penalty for leaving the scene and also for people who injure pedestrians and bicyclists

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Chan: My understanding is that it was possibly leaving the scene. I don’t have all the particulars on the driver and the information on that at this time.

Mayor: Okay, other questions? Anything Vision Zero related. Looking round – Vision Zero? Yes?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Louder.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: We definitely need more speed cameras, and they have had a very positive impact in terms of reducing speeding and protecting children and protecting seniors in particular. We have them now functioning around schools. We could do more around our schools if we got authorization from Albany, so we’re going to be working with an extraordinary group of people – the families who have lost loved one and have lead the charge for Vision Zero and for these changes. They have a very strong presence in Albany, and they’re going to be going up with us this legislative session to try and win the right for the City of New York to put more speed cameras in particularly around our schools.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Louder.

Question: Chief Chan said that he was going to be getting over 100 more radar guns [inaudible] deploy this at intersections all around the city?

Mayor: Yes, more radar guns mean more ability to stop speeding. So we want to give the NYPD all the resources it needs. Now remember, as I said yesterday, this is the first month – January 2017 – the first month we’re feeling the full impact of 2,000 more officers on patrol. That’s going to help give us more capacity to go after speeding and reckless driving, but the radar guns are giving the NYPD more capacity technologically to catch speeders as well. You want to come over and speak? Where will they be?

Chief Chan: They will be deployed throughout the city. Currently we have – individual precincts have LIDAR units, and those will be distributed throughout the city, so that in case one of them breaks or defects have to be repaired, we don’t have to shut down our work in terms of speeding summonses, and so therefore our officers will be concentrating, and I would expect a dramatic increase in speeding summonses. So if you’re speeding, be aware because the NYPD will be out there.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: We’ll get the facts, but it’s a 50 percent increase in radar guns.

Okay, yes?

Question: Any action for those pedestrians that cross the street against the light?

Mayor: One more time.

Question: Any action for those pedestrians that cross the street against the light?

Mayor: Look – again, so this is the bigger question of how we go at this problem. First and foremost, this is about the drivers. This is where the vast majority of problems come is drivers not following the law. So let’s be clear – and I am someone who used to drive myself around. I rode a bike, walked on the streets, so I can look from all the perspectives. But the number one problem is reckless drivers. They’re the ones with, you know, two tons of steel at their disposal, and if they’re speeding, if they’re going through a light, if they’re failing to yield that’s where the vast majority of our problems come from. Now, if a bicyclist violates the law in a reckless, dangerous fashion we’re going after them too, and NYPD has done enforcement and will do more enforcement of that. Pedestrians – there are pedestrians who should be smarter about what they do particularly when it comes to devices. This is one of my real pet peeves for drivers and pedestrians alike. Too many people are not paying attention, and they’re focused on their cellphone or their smartphone, and they’re missing what’s happening round them. But – and we’re always going to get public education out there, and there have been times when PD has even done enforcement on pedestrians. We always reserve that right. That’s a precinct by precinct decision, but the vast majority of this problem is about reckless driving.

Any other vision zero questions? Vision zero going once, going twice – new questions? Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor, I was hoping Councilman Rodriguez could also answer on this. The councilmember put out a statement yesterday praising a lot of your investments like in Vision Zero, but also said he wants to see the reduced Metro card fares and public money into Citi bike expansion put in the budget. Can you address those two concerns, and maybe the councilmember can [inaudible]

Mayor: I will address them, and we will – sometimes –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: We can have a live debate? Sometimes we respectfully agree to disagree. Look, I’ve said that the proposal around reduced fares for lower income New Yorkers is a good, meaningful proposal. We just can’t afford it. It’s just not something we can get into this city budget, and also I think it’s a state responsibility. I think, you know, the State can’t have it both ways on the MTA. They control the MTA. They have to pay for the MTA, so if people believe this is the kind of thing we do, the State should pick up that responsibility. On the question of Citi bike, we have no plans for public financing of Citi bike. It’s a discussion we’re always willing to have with the folks who run Citi bike about how we can work with them in terms of their future and allowing it to be strong and hopefully continue to expand, but we have never committed public funds, and we do not have plans to.

Now you can do the counter point.

[Laughter]

Councilmember Rodriguez: Well, first of all – on the first one, I – this is important for the city. I also understand the Mayor had to be very responsible when he put the money in his budget for 2018. We will continue this conversation knowing that – what the administration has done on that particular issue. With the Citi bike, the Mayor also through his spokesperson – they already have shared that they’ve been in conversation. We motivated the company who runs Citi bike. I hope that the conversation will continue. I believe that we can look at possibilities at some point to bring the public dollars though. So this is something that the private sector, they had to do more in order to bring Citi bike through the whole five boroughs. When the Citi bike was created it was mainly created thinking about the financial center. Now there’s a lot of transportation desert that we have in the South Bronx, that we have in Brooklyn, that we have in Queens that they can be benefitting, too. And it’s happy to know that the administration has been in conversation with Citi bike in whatever it takes to expand Citi bike. That’s the most important role that we have together.

Mayor: Thank you. Yes?

Question: Mr. Mayor this plan, is this part of your agenda when we go on Monday? Will you talk at the budget hearing in Albany about the reduced Metro card, or is that not on your agenda?

Mayor: It’s something I’ll certainly address if I’m asked, but I would say our agenda in Albany is about the state budget itself and really focusing on that. If we see – and obviously Commissioner Trottenberg who’s a member of the MTA board – if we see an opportunity to push the State towards that, we’re certainly going to take it, but I think the central focus in Albany on Monday is the core of the state budget – the items I brought up in the presentation yesterday.

Question: Chief O’Neill just announced at the [inaudible] breakfast this morning that the City plans to make public the results of the NYPD trial against the officer that shot Ramarley Graham, also [inaudible] policy to make final outcomes of NYPD trails against officers public. Could you explain? That  seems like that’s a discretionary decision [inaudible] but it was my understanding that the reason that that information was withheld was the same law that you said [inaudible] seeing officer disciplinary records? How do you reconcile that?

Mayor: First of all, the trials are public, as you know, which is different from a lot of other disciplinary situations, and second, there’s a fundamental question of following the state law. I’m sure what the commissioner says conforms to the state law, so I haven’t seen this statement. We’ll look at his statement. I’ll be glad to comment further after I see it.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Again, it’s a preliminary budget, and as we’ve said we’re coming out with an expanded vision of how to address homelessness in the coming weeks. We’ll talk about additional spending if that is needed, and then that will be reflected in the executive budget. The preliminary budget is a step along the way. The real decisions will come in – the final decisions will come in for the executive budget.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Again, I wouldn’t – it’s a perfectly fair question, but I’m trying to signal to you don’t overrate it because a lot more is about to come out, and you’ll see the whole picture.

Yes?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’m having a sound problem with you.

Question: What kind of things do you think you need to add to your homeless initiative to help bring the number of homeless down?

Mayor: There’s two things I want to say about where we are now, and then I’ll tell you we’re going to say a lot more soon. Two things we see – one, HOMESTAT, which is the number one strategy for addressing street homelessness, we’re encouraged – it’s been just under a year – but we’re encouraged by the number of people coming off the street and staying off the street. That number’s about 700 right now. Now this is early, but if that holds then that means we’ve really struck on something here that could make a huge difference. In terms of shelter population, it has stabilized in recent months. That’s a good sign. There’s a lot more to do. This is a long, long battle. As I said I’m not going to foreshadow, but in the coming weeks we’ll be talking about some new strategies that we think are going to add substantially to the approach.

Yes? Coming to you, hold on.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: [inaudible] grand jury? No, absolutely.

Question: Mr. Mayor, just wondering what your understanding is in the case of Michael [inaudible] what’s your understanding of why he wasn’t removed from the home, and also do you have any concerns about the [inaudible]?

Mayor: It’s too early to know at this point. There’s a full investigation underway. I will say from what I’ve heard so far, which is only preliminary and partial – one, it’s not clear what was the cause of death, but from what we’ve heard so far from the medical examiner it may be a health situation not anything related to abuse or neglect. We need to know more though to confirm that. Two, my understanding – I think some of the reporting didn’t portray the timeline necessarily as well as it could of. My understanding is a lot of the ACS focus on that family was many years ago. There was some recent activity, but I’m not seeing at this point enough to understand if there was a lost opportunity here. My view of these things is if we are looking at a family, we need to look for any sign that could tell us what more we could do. But sometimes those signs are not evident. That’s what we need to know here – were there evident signs that were missed or were they simply not evident? That’s what the investigation will uncover.

Mara?

Question: Mr. Mayor, President Trump is expected to sign two executive orders today and take three actions. One executive order is expected to take action possibly against sanctuary cities. The second is expected to expedite a move toward building this wall with Mexico. And then he’s also expected to take a third action to possibly limit or completely end the refugee program from Syria and other similar countries. Do you have any reaction to this? And also does that news make you expedite plans here? Are you in talks or reached out to the President?

Mayor: It’s a very fair question, but I’m going to tell you we want to see these executive orders. There’s been a lot of rumors in the course of the last week about what they would be and what they wouldn’t be, so I want to wait to see them later today. I assure you there will be immediate comment at that time, so there’s going to be a lot more to say later on today.

Question: On the – I’m just following up on Mara – on the sanctuary cities, any plans changed –
New York City’s approach to immigrants who are living here illegally should the president indeed sign that –

Mayor: [Inaudible], we are – we are not going to speculate on the wording in an executive order. When we see it, we’ll look at it, we’ll respond immediately. And I’m sure it will be a lot we have to follow up on legally and otherwise. But we’re very confident – I’m very confident we’re doing the right thing here in New York City. We have half a million New Yorkers who happen to be undocumented immigrants, and they are part of the fabric of this city, and a lot of their family members are documented. We’ve said time and again, if you start tearing families apart – if you start leaving children here, taking their parents away, taking breadwinners of families away – this is going to be very destructive to this city, and it’s also immoral. And on top of that it’s going to undermine law enforcement’s ability to protect this city, and Commissioner O’Neil has made that very clear because it will hurt the trust between police and community. So we are doing the right thing. We have a city that is working economically, that is more harmonious, and that is safer. It’s working – we’re not going to deviate from that. When we see what President Trump is putting forward, we’ll then tell you how we’re going to address it.

Question: Do you have a message to New Yorkers who are undocumented today who are seeing [inaudible]?

Mayor: Again, we have seen the news yet to comment on, but the message to New Yorkers who are worried about the policies of the Trump administration – the folks who are fearful that they may not be able to stay with their family members here – is that we’re going to do all in our power to protect them. We’re going to do all that we can with the powers in New York City to protect them and to get them support.

Question: [Inaudible] to follow up on Willie’s question – have you been notified that you’re a target of the grand jury?

Mayor: No.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: To a grand jury? No. No formal proceedings. The Manhattan DA’s office asked for an interview, and we did an interview.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Say again?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: We’ll get to you the facts. It was a few weeks back.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’m sorry, when you say we?

Question: When you say we – they asked we –

Mayor: Me and my lawyers.

Question: What did they ask you?

Mayor: I’m not going to characterize it. It was fine.

[Laughter]

That’s good. Again, guys, not going into any details – lawyers can fill in for you – just told you the factual answer to your question.

Thanks, everyone.