Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on News 12

February 13, 2024

Asha McKenzie: And for more on the city's response to all this, we are joined now by Mayor Eric Adams and Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch.  

Thank you both for joining us this morning. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. And I know you ladies have been on the air since 4:00 a.m., so it's different from when you came in. Trust me. 

McKenzie: We've seen the video outside. 

Kristie Reeter: Yeah, we all do our part to track this and every storm is so different, too, you know, with the different accumulation, how it's coming down. So, what is the plan of tackling this one? 

Mayor Adams: That is such a great point. Each storm has its own fingerprint or DNA strand and you have to approach it differently. And that is why having Commissioner Tisch and her team, they are just professionals on how to use technology to analyze and make sure you get plowing equity, but also the layers to doing this, putting down the salt, two inches before you're plowing. 

I'm really encouraging New Yorkers to participate by staying off the roads, and all of those plans are executed seamlessly. 

Reeter: And that's happening, commissioner, too? 

Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Department of Sanitation: It sure is. We've had thousands of sanitation workers out there all night. This has been largely a salt spreading operation so far. As the mayor said, we can't plow until we get two inches of snow. 

We expect in some parts of the city to hit that threshold, maybe 10:00, 11:00 a.m. We may be able to break the plows out. But until then, we've hit every street, every bike lane, every highway in the city and we're going to keep making passes to make sure that the roads are as safe as possible. 

McKenzie: Yes, we know the crews are working hard out there. And Mayor, this question is for you. And a lot of people are reminiscing about the old school traditional snow days. Some parents are frustrated. But you talked about this yesterday. What was the reason for doing remote learning and not just closing schools in general? 

Mayor Adams: Well, one is the number 180. We're required by law to have 180 schools days by law. The second is many people forgot that after Covid, we had severe learning loss in reading and math in particular. 

And we have to catch up. The chancellor has done an amazing job. We're outpacing the state in reading and math. But our children need as much instruction as possible, and we have this tool called remote learning. Let's use it. It is going to get better and better each iteration of it, and it was a smart decision by the chancellor. 

We don't close schools for no reason at all and we don't do remote learning for no reason at all. We're using the tools that are available to us. 

Reeter: All right, and real quick because we don't have much time. The storm, it's not done. We're in the middle of it. What do you have to say to anyone that does have to get out there? 

Mayor Adams: Use public transportation. It's the best way, when you keep the roadways clear we allow the Department of Sanitation and Commissioner Tisch and her team to do their job, and they do it so well. We get the snow off the streets and then we can go remove the garbage because we both hate rats and we want to make sure we get the garbage off our streets. 

McKenzie: I'm sure the rat czar's busy, too. All right, Mayor Adams, Sanitation Commissioner Tisch, thank you both for joining us. 

Commissioner Tisch: Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. 

###