Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on PIX11's "PIX11 Morning News"

February 13, 2024

Hazel Sanchez: Mayor Eric Adams and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch joining us right now with the latest update. Good morning to the both of you. Thanks for joining us. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, Dan, Hazel. Good to speak with you. 

Dan Mannarino: Good morning. 

Sanchez: So, how are things shaping up? 

Mayor Adams: You know, we see and we want New Yorkers to see, actually don't underestimate, and you come outside early this morning. I was out around about 5:30, 6:00, and people may believe that, okay, it's not all that bad. No, let's allow Mother Nature to do its thing, and the Department of Sanitation and Commissioner Tisch, we're going to do ours. 

And the name of the game is to keep our roadways clear and we're hoping that people use public transportation, or if they can stay home, please do so. 

Mannarino: You know, Mr. Mayor, when you look outside your window, like you said, let Mother Nature do its thing. But you look out the window right now at 7:22 and you're like, okay, should we have canceled school and gone remote? Do you stand by the decision to go remote, and why not overall? I know you're getting a lot of pushback. Just give folks a snow day overall. You have them in the bank, right? 

Mayor Adams: [Laughter] Well, especially with our schools, Dan, we are required to have 180 days, and that's by law. And fortunately for us, we have this thing called remote learning that we could continue to make our increases due to the learning loss that we've had over Covid. 

A lot of people forgot that, but it's still there. We've outpaced the city and state in reading and math, but we need our children to get as much instruction as possible and we do have this tool and we want to use it. 
I know people would rather go and just sleigh ride all day, but unfortunately, we have to do a lot of catching up and we have to be committed to that. 

Sanchez: All right, fair enough, fair enough. Commissioner Tisch, I mean, right now there's no snow sticking to the ground. So, what are your crews doing at this hour, and when will you actually send out the plows if need be? 

Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Department of Sanitation: So, we've had thousands of sanitation workers working all night and they're going to work through the day. The overnight operation has been largely a salt spreading operation. 

We've had hundreds of salt spreaders out. We've hit every street, every highway. We're working on the bike lanes now and we're going to keep going and doing more passes of all of the streets in the city. 

We don't break out the plows until we get two inches of snow, which we think we might hit in northern parts of the city around 10:00, 11:00 a.m. But we will be ready to plow every street in the city if need be. 

Mannarino: Understood. Yes, I saw this I saw the salt spreaders out there this morning when I was coming across 42nd Street. Mr. Mayor, schools certainly going remote, what are you saying to workers overall both in City Hall and city government and overall in New York City, what should they do? 

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, private industry is going to have their own policies, but we're saying to city workers if you could do it remotely, do so. Our team is going to be out to make sure that those first responders and emergency personnel, that they are available. 

And due to the technology that we have that the commissioner talks about often we can see what streets of plow and we can ensure plowing equity. That's something that's important to us. 

Sanchez: And Commissioner Tisch, as far as residents and businesses, what is their responsibility as this storm plays out the rest of this day? 

Commissioner Tisch: So, this storm should end this afternoon. Residents have four hours from the time the last flake falls to clear the sidewalks in front of their property of snow and ice. I just want to remind New Yorkers, this is a safety thing. We have children, seniors, all 8.5 million New Yorkers use those sidewalks almost every day. 

Mannarino: And Mr. Mayor, for the migrant shelters in our last dorm you had moved some folks out of the tents and into a school. Are you going to need to do that today, or no? 

Mayor Adams: No, and you know, that was due to high winds. We were expected anywhere from 40 to 50 miles an hour winds, and out of an abundance of caution we did that. But this is snow, and although we will have wind gusts and potential coastal flooding, the pitch of the roofs is going to allow the snow to just really glide off. 

Mannarino: And Mr. Mayor, off topic just while we have you here, because it was big news last night, this fatal Mt. Eden shooting in the subway, six people shot in the platform. What's the latest this morning? I know the search continues for the arrest, but were you... Was this a targeted attack, and are you worried about, you know, any other kind of things happening because that shooter is still at large? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, Dan, great question. You remember the beginning of my term we had a shooting on the subway. That is not the situation here. This was not a random act of violence. It appears as though this was some form of a fight between two groups, and the gunman is still at large. 

We're going to find the people responsible for this. It's unfortunate one person lost their life and we had five people who were shot during the melee, but it's very unfortunate. This is why we continue to pursue removing firearms off our city streets, 13,000 removed since I've been mayor. And we're going to continue to be aggressive to do so. 

Sanchez: All right, Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for that update and for keeping us up to speed on the storm coverage this morning. We appreciate both your time and Commissioner Tisch. Thank you. Take care. 

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