Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Older Adult Town Hall

February 26, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams:  From the days of state senator, to borough president, to police officer. I was an executive officer in the 88th Precinct over here. So I know the area very well. Was the press here when they were clapping? You know? You know, because you never get that. You never get that.  

You never get, you know, what we have done. You don't get that. The Christmas dinners. You never, you never get where we were, folks. Listen, January 1st, 2022, when I became the mayor of this city, unemployment was high, particularly in Black and brown communities. Crimes, mopeds everywhere, COVID. We were locked inside. Businesses were leaving the city. No one wanted to be on our subway system. Foster care children were not getting the support that they deserve. We knew that child care was just too high.  

Two years later, two and a half years later, we have more jobs in New York City in the 400 year history. More small businesses, 20,000 illegal guns removed off our streets so it doesn't take the lives of our young people. We are paying the college tuition of foster care children and giving them a stipend, and giving them a stipend for the year after they graduate, and giving them life coaches until they're 26 years old. Drop unemployment by 20 percent in the Black and brown community, and across all demographics, we've dropped unemployment. 4.6 million people are on our subway system every day. And you know we have an average of six felonies a day out of the 4.6 million that are on our subway system. going to and from work.  

We have balanced our budget year after year, brought down childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week. We have built records numbers of housing in year one and year two, and we're gonna do it again in fiscal year three. More housing built in those individual years in the history of the city. Move more people out of shelters into permanent housing and year one, year two, and the history of this city. Gave more people participated in the FHEPS voucher program in the history of this city. You know, we took off over 80,000 illegal vehicles off our street that was being used for crimes in the process. And we managed the largest humanitarian crisis in the history of this city with 230,000 migrants and asylum seekers came in this city without the support coming from the federal government, we had to figure out how to manage the support.  

We did our thing as this administration. I could go on and on and on. 33 percent to M/WBEs, the support we've given to justice-involved young people who have had a difficult time in their lives. I've been on Rikers Island more than any other man in the history of this city talking to inmates and to Rikers Island officers who are there to give them a soft landing when they come home, but many of them come home to our communities. I lived up to what you expected of me. What I ran on, I delivered on. And you'll never read about it, you'll never hear about it. Because they wanna give you the impression that I'm not capable of managing the most difficult city on the globe, New York.  

And we've done it, we lived up to it, and I'm you. There's nothing, I'm your son, I'm your cousin, I'm your uncle, I'm your nephew. Just an ordinary blue-collar person that's now the mayor of the city of New York. And there are folks that's not happy about that, not happy about it. And let me tell you something, and I want to get to your questions, but I want you to really feel me, that it breaks my heart when I see people who know me well. I've been doing this for over 40 years, and And when I see people who slept on my couch when they were thrown out of their homes, or their children went through some crisis and they came to me.  

When I see them tripping over themselves saying, you need to step down, you need to leave. What is wrong with you? I would never step down and abandon this city. I'm going to step up. I'm going to fight for you. When they fight me, I'm going to fight for you. When they talk about me, I'm going to talk about your issues. We've got a blue collar agenda folks and it is a real agenda to make sure that this city can be a place where we can raise healthy children and families and I know you are in the prime of your life, you know, I know that you are enjoying life, I know this community so well, I've been through it so well and I want you to know I'm going to continue to represent you and continue to do what's right. I was voted by the people.  

The people should decide when I leave or if I stay. Not some trickology that someone is trying to do to try to move me out. You elected me and you should decide who's going to be the next mayor of the city of New York. And everyone who's running should come out and announce that they're running. Don't hide in the shadows and try to do a shadow campaign. Come into the centers and talk to you and communicate with you. Answer the tough questions. I'm willing to do it. You know who I am, so let's see everyone's agenda. Everyone is going to tell you what they're going to do for New York. I did it, and that's a big difference, it's a big difference.  

So why don't we open the floor? Let me answer the questions. We got the amazing Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez, whom I pointed to, whom I need– I'm sorry, 20th, 20th Senior Town Hall, and we always give out these magnetic cards, something that my mother had. What we do is you fill it out during emergencies, leave it on your refrigerator any way you want, so if ever EMS or someone has to come, first responder, you don't have to figure this out, you know. You could just look on your refresh and we could get the information and it's easy. So it has your name, your contact information, any allergies, medical, the whole package. Okay, so please take one or two. Take one for a family member, take it for your boo, take it for whoever you want. 

Question: Hi, my name is Bernadette Nicholson and I'm a resident of Walt Whitman Houses and a member of the Willoughby Senior Center and I want to know if you can help us to get our skylight clean and the leak from the skylight and the leak from over there where the heart is hanging at? Can you help us get that done and the broken windows that's in the center? 

Mayor Adams: So a couple of things, a couple of things and give him a mic so he can answer the clean and skylight. This is the skylight here you want clean? How do you get access to this? Outside? Is there a window all the way up? Is the window all the way up or is it down? So all you have to do is climb down with a rope? Okay, how are you doing?  

Okay, okay, so first let me share this particularly for public housing. We have an $80 billion capital problem with NYCHA, $80 billion. The budget of the city is only 100 or something billion. And so everyone says to you over and over again, you know, the calvary is coming, the calvary is coming. It's not the calvary that you're hearing those bugles, it's tax.  

If we don't get it together with NYCHA, you're always going to hear this. Someone's going to come in and we're going to be complaining. We have to change the game. And so we went to Albany and we got the land trust passed where you can vote on it by leveraging federal dollars to come in and do the programming. Sheepshead Bay passed it. We went around, we looked at some of the locations. These buildings need a major overhaul. You can't just put a Band-Aid on the crisis that we're seeing in public housing.  

You deserve better, we gotta have the money. The federal government, the state government, they abandoned NYCHA. We included NYCHA public housing in our housing plan, never was done before. And we know that these repairs like this, they're real. The windows replacement, the roofs need to be fixed, we know they're real. But we need the money to do so, and we need for you to add your voice to other funding methods so we can get it done. Can we talk about this roof and how you got it climbed up? 

Daniel Greene, Executive Vice President of Property Management Operations, New York City Housing Authority: Yes, sir. Yes, so my name is, yes, I'm not climbing up there right now. My name is Dan Greene, I'm the Executive Vice President of Property Management at NYCHA, so I supervise all the properties throughout the whole city for NYCHA.  

So I apologize, first of all, for this issue, unfortunately our community centers, we often have these types of issues because they're, like our other buildings, they're a bit older. And when we have these older buildings, they have these leaks from above, which are a huge problem, and also the windows here are probably outdated.  

So we're going to have a team come and take a look at this, we'll have our Brooklyn team, but as Mayor Adams stated, the issue is money for NYCHA. The same money that would be spent on the center is the same money that we spend on on the apartments and we had a limited allocation each year for each development that we can spend so we try to do our best with the resources we have we do have skilled trades who are very good um and who can do uh some of the work but some of these repairs might get to the capital level so we're going to send a team here we'll send a team here maybe even as soon as tomorrow to take a look at to take a look to take a look to take a look take a look we're going to take a look I've already I've already exchanged information with with the center directors over here.  

So we're going to make sure that we're going to check, but again, we're going to have to first see how much it costs and what the repairs consist of. And then we're going to follow up and make sure that we tell you what the next step is on those. But unfortunately we do have these issues across the city. Glebe Avenue, a senior center in the Bronx affected by a steam leak. Beach 41st, a DYCD center out in the Rockaways affected by another major steam leak. We have unfortunately a lot of problems, infrastructure problems that are not like simple repairs. So we're gonna commit to look at this and then we'll get back to you on the next steps. 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, we'll find out. But we could talk about cleaning. If you say clean the sky.  

Greene: Clean the windows. That we could, yeah, that would be. 

Question: I'm Claudette Macy, the CEO and Executive Director for Green Council. And that's my commissioner and this is my mayor. And I just wanna say, it falls on me when it doesn't happen because they can't even sit here. Water comes like there's no ceiling. When it rains, like there's no ceiling up here, and they have their lunch.  

This is their largest area, and it floods. Thank God they finally did some tiles. It was horrible. And the cleaning of that, we were told years ago, it cannot be done because you gotta get a special thing to go up. When they build a building with a steeple and a circle, nobody thought of that.  

So I'm just saying to the mayor and NYCHA, they will be calling me as if I have the money and I have to do something. They'll call DFTA and DFTA say, you gotta do something. So before DFTA tell me, I have to move them in little, it literally is ridiculous. So please, I know you tell them they're gonna come to me if you don't come next day, look. So listen to what he's saying. He said they will look, not fix, they're going to look at it. Which they've been doing for the years I've been here. So, I don't know Mr. Mayor, do you want everybody to collect money to fix this roof? 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, but see, but I'm glad you said that. You said, notice what she said, what the director stated. She said this has been going on for years, for years. And so these systemic problems that we're facing is because people have kicked the can down the road for years. What we stated, we're going to go to Albany and we're going to fight to find different ways to fund this problem. If we don't do that, then you're going to be seeing it continue for years. That's why we came up with the NYCHA Land Trust and other ways of funding.  

That's what we have to do. And every time we do it, folks who don't live in public housing, I see you, I see you. Folks who don't live in public housing yell and scream about don't do it, don't do it. And we say, okay, well, what is your plan to deal with the funding? Throwing a rock is not a plan, folks. You need real methods to address the problems that we're having. And so I'm not afraid to come up and show you these real methods of fixing these systemic problems. You should not be sitting in the room where the roof is leaking, but the money has to come from somewhere. And we have to be willing to go find that money, and that's what our team was willing to do.  

So we're going to come and look. It may be a simple patch job that we can do, it may be a simple correction. But if it's in the walls, and it costs a substantial amount to do, it's just we got to be honest. How do we get that done? So we're with you.  

Question: When they opened the outside, it was dangerous. The man had to make sure he didn't step off the roof up there because it's slanted. But they did clean it as possible as much as they could. It takes a great deal more than just, say, one person. It takes a great deal of jobs to do that, and I know it's been done, and it can be done. Right, right. Okay, so I just want to let you know, don't think that it wasn't, that someone can't, because they can. 

Mayor Adams: It may be another way we could drain the water. 

Question: They didn't, they went outside. 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, okay, all right. 

Question: It's a window crack or open up there, that's why it's leaking. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, alright, alright, thank you for that. But we'll look, and we're gonna come back and let you know what the prognosis is. Okay, who knows that? You know how to get up there? Huh? You wanna come back? Yeah. 

Question: I'm from, my name is [Anthony Mabry.] I'm the founder of Men in Transition and Lives, 50C3. I'm happy to see this going on because we take it upon ourself to throw them parties in here. We don't ask the government for nothing, no disrespect, but we take it upon ourselves because we know that the seniors have left out a lot, and they're here to rouse for it.  

We come Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and we do parties in here. So to get up there, we could get up there, because we from here. When we was young, we used to be up there. I might be the cause of the crack, to be honest, running up there. So to get up there and clean, it's just, it's nothing to do. but I'm also happy to see that y'all here.  

We're worried about the seniors because, you know, they the foundation, they the root of the community, and you know, everybody living on Baruch time. So to see them here, see them happy, that's all we want to do is make them happy. So, yes. 

Mayor Adams: What's your name, brother? What's your name?  

Question: My name is [Anthony Mabry.]  

Mayor Adams: Anthony?  

Question: Yes.  

Mayor Adams: You know, first of all, thank you. And this is what intergenerational love is about, you know? And there was, on my block, there was a woman named Ms. Brown. You know, I would stop by her house every day, she was in her 80s. I would stop by her house every day, Ms. Brown, you need something from the store, I would make sure I shovel her snow. I would make sure I paint around, move the leaves in front.  

And so we need to lift this brother up for what he's doing, you know? And the real, you know, and, you know, we want to, I have a non-profit, you know, so God works in mysterious ways. Someone just called me, someone just called me and said that they wanna contribute to a non-profit of my choice. And I'm gonna see if they can give you $5,000 to do this stuff that you're doing. You know what I'm saying? 

Really appreciate you. Tommy, give him, exchange numbers, give me your number. Okay, so let's get in contact, you know, and you a cool dresser so I want to hang out with you and find out where you shop. Thank you. So thank you. Right, right. Really appreciate you man. Community building. Where am I going? Uh-huh, what's your name, brother?  

Question: My name is [Carlos Jones.] I'm the CEO of Switching Lifestyle. I deal with all the gang violence, the gun violence in this community. That's why the gang violence is down, the crime is down, because of my work with Switching Lifestyle. And I learned from the Czar, A.T. Mitchell, he's my mentor. He showed me the game. He showed me what to do when it comes to crisis in our community, because we know this disease is crazy. It spreads like wildfire. And it's called violence, right?  

And this is what we do. These lovely people here know what I do for them in this community. I stop families in here I bring the party to them. I do Mother's Day for them here. Anything for them. Thanksgiving Day. I come to this community to change the community norm. This is what we do. This is my cousin. We out here. I mean I'm a real mentor out here. People look up to me. I was once the problem, now I'm the solution. I do the work.  

That's why the crime is down in Fort Greene. 2024 we We got the safest summer ever in history. Because of the work I do and my mentor, [Dazar,] AT Mitchell taught me this. And we here, we can climb up there together. We've been climbing through all our lives. I was here in daycare in this school, right? In this nursery when I was a kid. 

Mayor Adams: Love it, switching lifestyle. You know, AT is my guy. We've been running for about 30 years. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna tell AT next week sometime, come over to Gracie, man, let's have dinner. Let's smoke a cigar, sit on the back porch, and just, you know, and just talk, okay?  

Question: And I'm gonna bring my, these my ladies. I love, they my mothers. I love them and they love me, man. 

Mayor Adams: You know, I appreciate you here, man. All right. Definitely. Thank you, man. Thank you for the road, you're saving lives, man. Saving lives, you know, switching lifestyle. So, Tommy, make sure, make sure that we connect, you know. What do you, what do you drink? Tito's… [laughter.]  

Question: My name is [Renita Reed.] Born and raised in Bed-Stuy, but I reside now in Williamsburg. In spite of it all, the beat goes on. I would love for you to come to my community, to our senior center, which is in independent houses and [inaudible]. Right now, I'm going to present the question here at this table. And we would like to know, what support can your office lead us to getting a community center to foster greater integration of programs? 

Mayor Adams: What I say all the time is that we have a ton of community centers that we are ignoring. They're called school visit buildings. We open our school buildings at 7 AM, close them at 2 PM, and tell our children not to come back.  

We have gymnasiums there, we have auditoriums there, we have classrooms there. Some of our schools have pools there. What we're doing in this administration, we're opening these buildings up. And we should utilize them because they should be a focal point for our community. People are comfortable in going in there, no matter where they come from. And it is our goal to give you access to the school building. I bet you in that community you're talking about within blocks there are several schools that are located that should be utilized.  

Now, we also are building new centers. We did the Shirley Chisholm Center within a short period of time in Flatbush. And so if there are areas you want to partner with your local elected like we did with Councilwoman Louis to build that Shirley Chisholm Center. We would love for Councilwoman Louis to connect with some of your local electeds and community groups and see how she built it fast track so we can do the same thing in other parts of the city. But in the meantime, before we can put a brick in the ground, we need to use what we have right now. And there are school buildings that should be open and utilized.  

Commissioner Howard from DYCD has been identifying on programs in the different communities. We can connect you with him and he'll tell you what school building in the community could be utilized. Okay? You're welcome, thank you.  

[Crosstalk.]  

Question: Good afternoon, mayor. Welcome to the center. My name is Debra Brown, and I am from Fort Greene. Born and raised here, 1975, my son graduated from this daycare. My question to you is that, how will we be able to get more funding for the program that we have in this community center? 

Mayor Adams: We'll turn it over to our amazing commissioner to talk about the funding. We went through a serious funding crisis, but we were able to hold a lot of these things harmless. Why don't you go into that, Commissioner? 

Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Department for the Aging: So we were under the threat of closing 80 older adult clubs. And with the work of the administration, and the commitment of OMB, we were able to stand that. The commitment is going forward, or anything else that happens. The commitment is that our centers will stay whole, because as the young woman just said to us, we don't have enough of them. So that's what our commitment is. 

Mayor Adams: And is there a particular program you're talking about? 

Question: Yes, we have sewing and we have jewelry making. 

Mayor Adams: Sewing and jewelry making? And what is the, we used to do that knit at Borough Hall. 

Question: And we crochet. 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, crochet. We used to do that at Borough Hall. And what is the cost of those programs? 

Question: Well, we have Reggie right here at the house… 

Mayor Adams: Who knows the cost of the program? Hey, what's up, Reggie? How are you? What's the cost of the program?  

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Mayor Adams: There's no way you're asking for money if you don't know what the money is. Hold on, hold on, hold on, one more time. Who's going to do it? You going to do it, Kenny? Who's going to do it? Okay, go ahead. 

Reginald Humphrey, Director, Willoughby Neighborhood Senior Center: How you doing, Mr. Adams? Yeah, how you doing? For the crocheting and sewing, for like, we're doing a fashion show, so that's about $400. But for basic supplies, probably run from like $200 and then some of the sewing machines are not working. So we do a lot to make everything last, but there's a lot of stuff that we're missing in the center that we need. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, okay, so since you asked the question, I don't have a lot of money, I'm going to tell you now. But I love to invest in the happiness, for every year I did something, especially for Mommy when she was alive. I lost her when I was running in 2021. And each year I try to dedicate, donate it to something that she would love. So I'm going to donate my mother's gift to make sure those two programs is done. Contribute to what you're doing right now. Okay? 

Humphrey: Thank you very much. And I want to say one more thing. Yes. Thank you for the invitation for Gracie Mansion. I was there for the Caribbean day festival. 

Mayor Adams: That was you dancing up a storm. Alright, Tommy, Tommy. So connect with the director, all right? And I'm gonna come in and hang out with y'all when y'all do. So I could hem, I could take in my clothing. Mom taught me how to do all those things because she said, you know, so make sure Tommy, you got to connect with him across the way. We're gonna come back to you since we get to the tables and I'm gonna come back.  

Question: Afternoon, mayor. My name is [Ernest Callender,] and my table is presenting the problems at night for more police presence.  

Mayor Adams: More police presence?  

Question: Yeah, and locks on the doors.  

Mayor Adams: And a lot of what?  

Question: Locks on the doors.  

Mayor Adams: Locks on the front doors?  

Question: Yeah, the front doors.  

Mayor Adams: Yeah, major problem, major problem. And there are a lot of doors that are broken, because people don't have their key. They lose their key, they break the door. And I don't think we have figured out well how to do a presentable reinforced door. I saw that when we were at the polo grounds, just about every other building, the doors were, they were destroyed. So we have to really figure out how do you do a good door that it doesn't go through the vandalism that we're seeing. But who has a PSA? What's up, captain, how you doing? Go ahead, man, good to see you. 

Captain Elton Cohn, Commanding Officer, Patrol Service Area 3, Police Department: So all of the directors of each development through the five precincts that I cover every night text me which doors are not working. Every night I get a text from each one of them, every door in their development. And what we try to do is we have the officers that are in the development go to those areas and make sure they patrol up and down the stairs.  

As far as the manpower goes, we have a dedicated— There's multiple, multiple buildings with doors that aren't locked. And I do have a field report, which is towards NYCHA, to repair the door. And that's what's within my scope, as far as repairing the door. So I make that report, and then we try to attempt to make sure we hit those buildings.  

We do have ten officers, one sergeant dedicated to Ingersoll Whitman here from 17:30, Sorry, which is 5:30 at night till 2 o'clock in the morning. And even on their days off, I have officers covering, I have eight officers and one sergeant covering this area besides the normal patrol. And you should see them out here because I watch their body-worn camera videos and I know where they are in this development. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you, and I would encourage you to, we're doing a real recruitment. I really encourage you to tell the young people in your lives to join the police department. Join the police department. You want the quality police that you want, like having these two brothers here.  

Imagine if they were in the law enforcement community, given back in a real way. And these cops, Commissioner Stewart, what he has been doing with community affairs, he came in, he was a detective in 84, right? District 30, okay. He came back, Detective Stewart is teaching young people golf, how to fly planes, how to get their real estate license, how to do language.  

What he has taken the community affairs with his team, community affairs stand up, all the community affairs folks who are here, and who's the senior liaison that's here? Okay, you know, what he has done, thank you.  

What he has done, he has really put the community back into community affairs. And so we need more police officers. We're going to have a large retirement, because many of them are reaching their 20 years. So we need to encourage our young people to come into the department. It's a great career, and they can give back in their community in a real way. Okay? Where are we? I'm not going to leave you, brother. Let her do, they got this little organizing stuff. Then I’ll come back. How are you, ma'am? 

Question: Greetings. 

Mayor Adams: Greetings to you. 

Question: And Mr. Adams. Yes. And greetings to everyone here. My name is [Anne Maldonado,] and I belong to Willoughby, but I'm also a member of all the senior centers in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Because once you join one center, you belong to all the centers. 

Mayor Adams: Love it. 

Question: So I go regularly to [Grace Yeagard and Ms. Macias,] at 966. That's where I regularly go to. I live on DeKalb Avenue, which is closest, so it's easier for me to get there. But I love here also. Here it's very active, and I love to come here. So I visit here one week, and next week I'm going to Louisiana. So I spread myself through all the centers. I visit other centers also.  

So my question for our table is with reference to funding for food. What's happening is that the older adults enter the food course are fixed. And not reflective of current course. This affects the quality of the food and we are asking what can be done. And do you understand the question? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do. 

Question: Because I can break it down for you in a minute. 

Mayor Adams: No, no, I got it. What's happening with the food? How do we do the food? 

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: You're happy to, you will be happy to know that one of the unmet needs that we submitted to the city in recognition that not only food costs, but fuel costs have gone up, and that the number of older adults going to older adult centers has also grown. So we've put in a request for additional food costs.  

But the only thing I don't agree with you on, I don't think [inaudible] cook say that the quality of the food has gone down. But, and we also do plant-based food, so— 

Question: [Inaudible]. 

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Oh okay, great, I'm sorry, I misinterpreted. But we are aware that we need to get more food dollars in for food costs, and so that's a request that we made. 

Mayor Adams: Great, great, great. So our budget director's going to factor that in, and hearing directly from you matters. Where am I? 

Question: My question is, I grew up in this neighborhood in the 1970s. All my children were born in the Cumberland Hospital, and now I'm a senior. I live in housing, but it's regular housing. I would like to know why there's no more seniors housing for [inaudible], like to be in a piece of place.  

Because I live on the 13th floor, and sometimes I got to walk 13 flights up because the elevators are down. And that's many floors. Right now, it's been doing okay, but I think the older we get, the worse it's going to be for us. And not all of us can do it, so why there's not more senior building for us in NYCHA? 

Mayor Adams: Great, great, great. Now, you know, the question was more senior buildings. We have a real housing crisis. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. That is why we pushed what was called the City of Yes. A lot of people didn't know what we were talking about.  

Our city is divided by community boards, 59 of them. 10 community boards out of the 59 was building more housing and affordable housing than the other 49 combined. Those other 49s were basically saying, we don't want builders in our community, we don't want more housing. But we were successful in getting past that whole City of Yes that you heard about, because we got to build more. If we don't build more, then we won't be able to allow people to make that transition that you're talking about. And we have to build more senior housing.  

So, we got a project we're doing now, it's called Elizabeth Street Garden. It's one of the biggest fights we're having right now. We want to build 100 percent senior housing, affordable housing in that location. But people say they don't want us to move because they have a park there. We're going to build new housing and a park that everyone can have access to. And so they're suing us now, but we're going to continue to fight because we need housing. That's the number one thing, because you're right, you should be able to transition into another space. 

Question: But the thing is, if I go to housing, I still transfer, right? I will ask for a lower floor, because of my condition. I showed letters from the doctors, because I still perform, kind of issue. So they gave me transfers, but all the way out of here, two places, so how does he know? Because I want to be in the area where I grew up, where everybody knows me. I got my doctors around, my friends around, so why they got to send me some place that I'm going to be lost? 

Mayor Adams: And the demand, because everybody wants to stay in the community where they grew up. The demand of housing, and now we're getting more and more older population in housing, they're making a similar suggestion. They want to move to a lower floor, and because of the demand of housing, it is difficult to accommodate people within the same community. They want to move to other locations, and so it's a sacrifice.  

Greene: Yeah, so I want to get your information. We do have a lot of vacant apartments around here that we can work with you and if there's a lower floor in one of these in Whitman or Ingersoll that might be able to accommodate you. It's not a senior building, but we can look to see if there's any lower floors, and our selection process is governed by a very complicated system, but we will work with you and look at your documentation to see if we can arrange that, because we do have a lot of vacants in these two bells in particular. So let's talk after the meeting to see if we can arrange that. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, you got the right man for the job, to see if we can accommodate. Where am I?  

Question: Mr. Mayor, I got my first job here giving out pamphlets when I was about 13. I'm from the Gowanus houses. And I remember when I came up, the [inaudible] and how you had to look all over the place because they were all over.  

But so many people talked about that, so I had to go to the table and I had to ask you the second question. And the second question is, are the homeless shelters in Clinton Hill, specifically on Hall Street, going to be closed? 

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, you should applaud your former district leader for the work that she did on advocating. Yes, [Renee], who is a long time family in this community. We did a street naming when I was born president about your family member. Was it your dad that? Yes, yes, you know, her family was here long before Starbucks, you know. And she called, she reached out, she advocated for the community. Went over, had a meeting with some of the residents there in their block. We sat down, had dinner with them, spoke with them, and that center would be closing.  

We closed 53 centers in the last year of, you know, folks, let me tell you how hard that was for, you know. We had 230,000 migrants and asylum seekers. I was getting roughly 4,000 at one time a week. 8,000 every two weeks, 16,000 a month. And I was required to find them housing, feed, educate 40,000 children, get them on a pathway. I couldn't stop buses from coming in, it was against federal law. I couldn't allow people to work, I was fighting to say at least allow people to get a job. I couldn't even allow people to volunteer and give them a stipend. They said that's against federal rules.  

And we did it, 180,000, we transitioned to be self-sustaining. Because we put real programs in place. And when we put those programs in place, people criticized us. No matter what we did, they was criticizing us, criticizing, criticizing. We did it anyway. We kept our heads down and we did the job.  

And you know what's interesting, what I find really fascinating? The same people that was criticizing me back then are criticizing me right now. You know what I'm saying? You know, you just gotta ignore people. You'll get nothing done if you listen to them all the time. And not one of them went to Washington. Everybody's complaining about what this president did with the $80 million. We lost $7 billion and none of them went to Washington. No one wanted to complain, you know, they had, what is that when you lose your voice? Laryngitis, right?  

So, yes, we're closing it, we're closing it. We are trickling down, our numbers now are down to about 30-something thousand out of 230,000. With Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom, Camille Joseph Varlack. What they did was unbelievable. They were up all times of the night. 1, 2 AM in the morning, another bus comes into the Port Authority. They had to get there, take the families, put them inside, put them in the educational system. And they did it in commitment, commitment after commitment. And all they got were people who did nothing. They were home in their pajamas while we were doing the job. They're going to sit up and complain about, they didn't do the right job.  

We should be proud. And when history is written, you're going to see what they did when we had the greatest humanitarian crisis in our city, and we did it. National leaders came here, they didn't even want to come here. They said, we hear you're anti-immigrant, we don't want to come and talk to you. We said, well, come and see what we're doing. They came to the city, they spent the day looking at our operations, then they met me at Gracie Mansion and had dinner.  

They said, no one in the country is doing what you're doing. We want to apologize to you. We read all these headlines, but when we came here to see what you're doing, no one in the country did what you're doing. No, they didn't.  

Question: At this table, a lot of their questions was answered, Mr. Mayor. But they want a follow-up question with the vacancies. They like to know why is there so many vacancies? And with folks leaving apartments, why aren't they being filled? 

Mayor Adams: And vacancies could be a problem because people hang out in there, they do bad things. 

Greene: So, good question. This is kind of unique to this neighborhood here. We have vacancies citywide, but this neighborhood here, we held apartments because we have some other large projects nearby, particularly at Gowanus Houses. They're doing a big comprehensive modernization there. So this was gonna be used, these vacants were gonna be used as units for those folks while they do those big repairs.  

Unfortunately, that didn't– the community wasn't so receptive of that. So now we have a large backlog that we have to get through. Now, every apartment at NYCHA, we now make asbestos safe and lead free before anybody moves in. So that was never done before. Back in the day, NYCHA just used to turn these things over and they were in such great shape. Now we make the asbestos safe, we remove the VAT floor tiles, replace them with nice new floors, like are in here. I just was reminded that we did actually replace the floors in here very recently, November, that's why we have nice new floors, so we are investing in that center, just want to note that.  

But we also make it lead-free. We are obligated to obey all the lead in our apartment. So that adds some time, because lead and asbestos is technical work, you have to do filings and whatnot. And then we do have a backlog, so we do this with our in-house trades, but I do want to say, At NYCHA, two years ago we only had 1,800 people move in NYCHA, last year over 4,000 people moved in. We more than doubled our move-ins last year and we are going to continue to roll ahead this year with some assistance from the city to ensure that we are moving these vacancies as quickly as possible.  

But because we have vacancies, we do have a little bit more flexibility at places like this for intra-transfers and so there is some good things about that, but it is a backlog. So that's why we have vacancies here, but it's harder processes and also just some of those past decisions have come back to haunt us. But we are working hard to try to– every development is subject to a certain number they have to do every month. In Brooklyn, they turn over about 180 apartments a month consistently across Brooklyn, and every development is subject to participate in that. So we're going to monitor it. It will get better over the next couple of years, and we are going to make sure that, number one, that we're doing the work properly, so you're getting good-quality apartments when you move in. 

Mayor Adams: So, so, so, so important– 

Question: [Inaudible.]. 

Mayor Adams: To move in? 

Question: Yeah, I live here on the other side, and I've been here for 30 years, and in my building, I have an apartment over me. Kids go in there, I don't know what days you have, you know, three o'clock in the morning. So obviously, and it's over the door. So they're able to go in because it's left open, so now you can open it. And it's pretty much bothering me. I wake up at three o'clock in the morning knowing that there's people and nobody lives there. 

Mayor Adams: Right, right. All right, captain. So can we have somebody look into that? Just let the captain know the address and the apartment number, okay? Alright, thank you. 

Question: Okay, so my table was a little shy, so I'm gonna ask a question. I know you're not. Okay, so it's two questions, but we're gonna combine them into one. So the first one is the sidewalk over at Park Avenue where the B62 bus stops. Apparently the sidewalk is messed up for years. One of our 10 years, Park and Navy, or more than 10 years has been damaged and apparently it has caused for your walker to be damaged and [inaudible]. Yes, a man fell out of his wheelchair. 

Mayor Adams: You went far from being shy. 

Question: I didn't say I was shy. And I'd just like to say thanks for caring that I'm in that building. So this– for over ten years, someone did come to look at it, but they didn't do anything. I also complained about PS6 and 7. They fixed that sidewalk and did nothing to the sidewalk on Park Avenue. 

Mayor Adams: Got it, okay, let's get that done. Who's that, DOT? 

Question: And I'm tired of bad walkers. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, get that man a mic.  

Leroy Branch, Borough Planner, Department of Transportation: Give me the location, we’ll work with NYCHA in terms of getting that taken care of. All around the NYCHA facilities, all the sidewalks, we work with NYCHA to take care of fixing all the sidewalks. So definitely give me the location. I'll leave you my card and give me the location and I'll work with NYCHA. 

Mayor Adams: We're going to fix it. We're going to get it fixed. What was your second part? At the shy table. 

Question: The second part was, so this is another bus stop location. So where the B26/B25 bus stops over in Fulton and Grand Street. The bus stop was moved from in front of the 966 Older Adult Club Grace Agard-Harewood Club, which has benches for the seniors to wait on that side of the street. The bus stop was moved across the street to the next corner of Grand, which does not have any covering or benches for the disabled or elderly. So the concern was to have benches for the elderly or disabled, if possible, to be placed at that stop. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, we don't, a lot of people think the mayor controls the MTA. We don't, but we are going to reach out to the MTA, can we?  

Branch: Yes, again, the location and benches are under our auspices. We will definitely take care of that for you. Just give me the location and we can put it on the list for a bench and a shelter, okay? So I'm coming to that table before I leave, alright? 

Mayor Adams: Alright, my man. Okay, see you soon. There was some folks, go ahead with you. Did I get on the tables? Okay, there was some people that have–Yes ma'am. 

Question: [Inaudible] When we were speaking about schools, I wanted to say that the schools, now I'm speaking about Manhattan, but the credibility goes to you, because the schools are also used as a center for social workers, because seniors with domestic violence and all that, in the afternoon or during the day they have appointments so that they can still go to the school.  

Another thing I wanted to say was, that gentleman in the front there, don't remember his name, many times accessorize when I'm stranded out there, he would assist me. And the last thing I want to say, it is said in the Bible, The good that man do is badly or evil spoken of. Amen.  

Mayor Adams: Amen. I will bless the Lord at all times, all times. There was, hold on, there was someone else. 

Question: Good afternoon. I grew up in this community, I was born right across the street from  Cumberland Hospital. The 84th Precinct, which is located now on Tillary and Gold, as I remember, before they moved there to Harper Street, Brooklyn Heights. And my question is, you talk about safety here in the community. Why is it that we don't have a beat cop anymore at all? I mean, I'm tired of seeing police officers in patrol cars playing with their phones. We need to see more police out here on the street, walking the street, not in the squad cars, I would feel more safe with that issue. 

Mayor Adams: Got it, got it, got it. And so you'll know, what I learned is that many times officers are on their phones, many times, now the technology– we used to have memo books we write in. We used to have the ways of doing our inspection. Now it's all on their devices, it's on their devices. So many of them are actually doing their police work on their devices. But let's talk about beat cop, captain. 

Captain Stephen Leuze, Commanding Officer, 88 Precinct, Police Department: All right, good afternoon. So I just got to the 88th Precinct two weeks ago, and one thing I'm trying to bring back with me is, we send the cops on what they call directed patrol. So if there's a crime spike or, you know, vehicle collisions or, you know, whatever it may be, we send them on the corner in their cars with their lights on. I have them actually getting out of their car and engaging the community.  

So they'll be out of their car walking up and down the block and engaging in the community. That's something I'm trying to bring back. As far as the beat cops, we do have the community affairs officers. I have my NCO officers. I have different officers, but one thing I have them doing is engaging the public. So instead of always being in their car, stop off on Fulton Street, Myrtle Avenue, walk up and down the block, visit the businesses, so on and so forth. 

Question: We had a patrol 24/7 when I was growing up, I mean, it's not just a once in a while thing. It was a notice where our police presence was at all times. We don't see that anymore. Like you just said, just like you just informed me, it's only in a situation. It shouldn't be like that.  

Their presence should be known just like they– like I'm saying, we knew those police officers. The police officers knew us, they knew the merchants and everybody. This is the issue I'm bringing, their presence at a constant time. 

Mayor Adams: As the captain stated, he wants to get them back doing that foot patrol that you're talking about. But I want everybody to be clear, our manpower is an important issue. It's an important issue. Not only that, we did over 3,000 demonstrations that we had to pull officers from different commands to go and handle those demonstrations.  

We still have a very serious terrorist threat we're under. We gotta move officers to operate with that as well. And so the luxury we had, when you go back to when we were children, we weren't dealing with terrorists. We weren't dealing with 3,000, 4,000 protesters taking place. We weren't dealing with the decrease in manpower. The complexities now of policing is unimaginable.  

And the police commissioners have to move around the resources and make sure that the manpower that the captain has, that he would have, or the PSAs. We got to make sure that when we got to pull those officers, I was just speaking to the police commissioner and the Department of Correction. We had to pull officers out of the police department to help inside the courts because of decreasing correctional officers.  

So these officers are being moved around the board, and we would love to see them walking around doing that good old fashioned patrol where everyone knows their cop. But the challenges now are just so huge. All of these protests that we're receiving, constant threats that we're receiving as a city because we're a top terrorist target. moving them to deal with other things that are happening. They got to move them around, and it's an awesome responsibility. Being a captain and knowing how to move that manpower is crucial. 

We have some commands that we put out about only three cars or two cars on the midnights. You know, so that's why we got to encourage more and more to come into the department.  

Okay, I got to bounce.