Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Calls in Live to 1010 WINS' "Morning Drive"

January 27, 2023

Susan Richard: Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul, and the MTA chairman, Janno Lieber getting ready to make an announcement about subway safety downtown this morning. Ahead of that, Hizzoner is here on 1010 WINS. Good morning, sir.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning.

Richard: Your speech yesterday focused on what you called four pillars, job, safety, housing, and care. I want to touch on some of those areas. Let's start with safety. What can you tell us about today's big announcement?

Mayor Adams: Thank you very much. Good to speak with you. It's going to be, I believe, good news. I've stated from the onset that we knew we had to take New Yorkers from what they felt to what they're feeling. And the governor and the MTA is going to be releasing the results of their comprehensive customer satisfactiory survey and the numbers. And I'm looking forward to joining them this morning.

Richard: Okay. So if that survey says that crime is down, can riders expect the increased police presence to continue on the subways and for how long?

Mayor Adams: Our goal is clear. The goal is to make sure we pivot, shift, put manpower where it is needed, and there is no price tag on ensuring New Yorkers feel safe in our state. [Susan], when you think about it, we have 3.9 million riders on our subway system, six felony crimes a day. But we were dealing with homelessness, the feeling of disorder. We knew we had to have a comprehensive approach and that's what we put in place in the second wave that was in October.

Richard: What about the issue of mental health and the homeless? You talked in your speech yesterday about offering free healthcare to anyone who spends at least a week in a city shelter. Where would that money come from to pay for that?

Mayor Adams: I have to take my hat off to the commissioner of Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and our policy team. We see their ways of using federal dollars to ensure that people are able to get the proper healthcare that they need. This was not being utilized in the past. And the team put together the plan to do so because if you don't give people healthcare when they need it and wait until they use the emergency room as primary care, that is too expensive, too costly and normally people are in chronic conditions at that point.

Richard: And how is it going involuntarily taking homeless people out of the subway system and off the streets?

Mayor Adams: Our mental health outreach workers are doing an amazing job. We have removed over 3,000 people off the subway system, over 1,000 are still in some form of care, Safe Havens or other supportive housing. But as we move into this next wave of it, using what's called the Clubhouse model, we know that people who are living on the streets or dealing with severe mental illness, they need community, they need care, they need support. And that's what we're going to deal with our Clubhouse approach to this.

Richard: Well, let's move on to housing now. You are proposing rezoning parts of Midtown. Do you have any more details on that? How long would that take? How many affordable apartments do you think that would create?

Mayor Adams: Well, at first I have to say thanks to our two Councilmen, Councilman Erik Bottcher and the local Councilman, Councilman Powers. They understand that we have 10 million square feet of unused real estate. We have to think differently. We need to open childcare centers. We secured $4 billion from the state last year to bring down the cost of childcare. We need to look at housing. Our work environment has changed and we need to adjust with that change. And one way of doing so, like we did in Wall Street after 9/11, is to convert some of that space into housing and that is what we're looking forward to doing.

Richard: And do you have the support of local lawmakers for that?

Mayor Adams: Yes, they were extremely supportive. I have to commend… Many of our lawmakers have started stepping up, understanding that housing is a right and that right is to build within their district. That's how we got the Willets Point project, 100 percent affordable housing. That's how we got Innovation QNS, that's how we got the Bruckner project. You'll see more and more local lawmakers that are partnering with the administration and say, "Let's take this housing issue head on."

Richard: Where is the city at regarding the housing of migrants coming up from down south and is there any movement on getting aid from the federal government?

Mayor Adams: That's our goal and that's up to our congressional delegation. Senator Schumer and Congressman Jeffries, the minority leader, they were able to secure over $800 million and we're looking to see what dollar amount will come to New York. We were able to get assistance from them to get $8 million from FEMA. But that is not enough on what we need to accomplish. This is a national problem. We need to have real comprehensive immigration reform. The Republicans have been blocking this for years. We need to stop, we need to get it done. We need to place people on a pathway to citizenship and we need to expedite the right to work because it's unfair for cities to tell people to come to a city and they can't work for up to six months at a minimum. That is the strain on our city. And so we are hoping these dollars start to flow within the next few weeks.

Richard: A strain on businesses in the city, shoplifting. You got CVS and Duane Reade locking up all the deodorant because people are stealing stuff left and right. You've been talking about using special crime prevention teams to help with that. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. And it's important that we break down this big problem of repeated shoplifting in several levels. Number one, there was organized crime in many of these cases. Thanks to the Attorney General James and the New York City Police Department, we were able to take down a major ring who was stealing and hiring boosters and then selling the items on the internet. That is a category that is straight law enforcement. The other two areas is individuals who have drug problems. They have substance abuse problems. There are many repeated offenders. They have been arrested a substantial number of times.

We need to give them the treatment they need. Because just arresting them, placing them on Rikers Island is not going to fix the problem. As soon as they get out, they do it again. So we have put in place a plan to make sure they get the treatment they need. And lastly, there are people who are stealing because of their needs, who need to feed themselves, et cetera. We're zeroing in on that population to show here is how you get access to food, there's no reason to steal. People who take these options of support, we're not going to use criminal justice. If they don't take those options of support, we're going to follow the traditional methods of then arresting them and ensuring that they're removed from our streets.

Richard: I have one final question. In Memphis today, police are expected to release the body cam footage in the Tyre Nichols case, and that is prompting fears of major protesting really all across the country. How is the NYPD bracing for that here, and what is your message to New Yorkers about that?

Mayor Adams: Well, two areas. As you know [Susan], I spent my life moving to diversified police departments because I think it's a way of ensuring we have a well-balanced law enforcement. It's really troubling to me personally to see that those officers are reportedly five African American officers that broke the law. That personally is troubling to me. And I think it's imperative that New Yorkers exercise their right to free speech in a very peaceful way. And that's what we're expecting from the city. And I'm hoping that takes place all across the country, that people peacefully exercise their right to free speech. A gentleman was killed and according to the report, the actions were inappropriate, and I think the criminal justice system now must do its job to determine the outcome of the case.

Richard: All right, Mayor Eric Adams, thank you so much for your time.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.