Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Announces Summer Rising Program for Youth K-8

March 11, 2022

Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Strategic Initiatives: Good morning. My name is Sheena Wright, and I am the deputy mayor of strategic initiatives. And I'll be your emcee this morning. We are here on this amazingly sunny day to announce a significant program for this summer. We are so excited here to be, on March 11th, talking about summer. Right? We can't wait. I talk to young people, I know they cannot wait.

Deputy Mayor Wright: So to kick us off, this is what it's all about – it's about our young people and about our families, and making sure that they have wonderful experiences and opportunities. So to kick us off, I want to introduce Liz Pizarro. I'm sure she has many titles, but one of the most important ones is that she is the mother of LaSandra Robinson, a fifth grader at Bronx Delta. Liz.

[Applause]

[...]

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. Before I get started, sir, can you come up for a moment? You. Yes, yes, yes. Come up for a moment. Yeah. I don't feel alone in the Bronx by being a Mets man.

Mayor Adams: That's right. Here in the BX. You know how the Councilmember Velázquez is all Bronx. In the Bronx, man. You know, just really happy to be here with our amazing chancellor, Chancellor David Banks, my Deputy Mayor Of Strategic Initiatives Sheena Wright, Deputy Commissioner, DYCD Susan Haskell, and my partners here in the Bronx. I'm seeing them so much.

Mayor Adams: Just shows you how we are an outer borough administration, and we're spending time in those boroughs that have historically been ignored, I believe, by City Hall. This is the borough of Borough President Vanessa Gibson. Michael Benedetto is an assemblymember in this area. Althea, we've seen each other so much, and this is your space. You know, it's about young people for you. You know? Michael is the chair in the Assembly of the education committee. Holding a series of hearings about these important issues. And Marjorie Velázquez, our councilmember and so many other folks here. Andre White, executive director of Phipps Neighborhoods. I'm sure the chancellor's going to go over so many others that are here.

Mayor Adams: Our children are starting out behind instead of starting out ahead of time. And that's why this focus is so important. But it's not going to be just a simple program of summer school. Children must be engaged. The real classroom is not in the sterilized environment of a building. Chancellor Banks states this all the time, the city is a classroom. Why do our children have to be isolated to the one square mile that they're born in? They stay in that one square mile. They go to the bodega in one square mile. They go to the park in one square mile. They stay right in the same place.

Mayor Adams:  He has stated for a long time that the city is our classroom. Why can't they go down to Wall Street and ring the bell? Why can't they visit all the museums that your tax dollars are paying for? Why can't they attend a corporate seminar and sit inside? Why can't they go into One Vanderbilt, one of the tallest buildings now in Manhattan, and look out at the entire skyline of New York City to see how life is above ground and not only on the ground? That's what we're talking about. This is what other children have.

[Applause]

Mayor Adams:  When you hear this amazing story of these educators who are committed, going and knocking on doors, bringing supplies. These educators love their children. They love their children. They have not been given the support that they deserve. And that is why it is crucial. I'll never forget my third grade teacher taking me to see Hamlet on Broadway. It inspired the love of Broadway. I was addicted to seeing that live performance. No other child on my block ever went to Broadway at that time. They had no idea what it meant to go to Broadway and see a live performance. It's just not acceptable. And that's what this mission is about today.

Mayor Adams: So I want to really thank Deputy Mayor Wright for really leaning into this. This was a commitment that she believed in and just put so much energy behind this initiative and how important it is. And just really want to thank her and want to thank Liz and LaSandra for their beautiful words today. Because this is what we're talking about. This is what this announcement is all about. It's about families. It's about young people. It is about giving them the proper start in life so they don't have to play catch up. They can start out where everyone else is. I promised this all on my campaign. People laughed at me when I started talking about a full year. I mean, who invented... Why do we do two months off of doing nothing? The audacity to say we should be educated throughout the entire year.

Mayor Adams: They said it was impossible, no one wants to do it. They were wrong. As they have been wrong so many times before when we talk about forward thinking. Now we are embracing a full year of education for our children. And even the children that are not in this specific program, the 110,000 that we are opening to, we are going to have a full engagement of children. We're saying to our museums, "You have our tax dollars. You better find ways to get our children inside your museums and go out and encourage them to do so." That museum now on 5th Avenue, can't stay to the people who live on 5th Avenue. You better get inside Brownsville, South Bronx, South Ozone, South Jamaica. I want to see active, creative ways of getting in those communities and encouraging them to come and visit these museums in these great places.

Mayor Adams: Our children grow every day and we need to take advantage of that. They don't stop growing in June. This imaginary clock that we stop learning once we finish June? No, they don't. They continue to grow and it's time for us to catch up. Let's not kid ourselves. There was a two year challenging, and in some communities, a substantial learning loss. A substantial learning loss for two years. Mental health issues. Nutritional battles. Not having access to educational opportunities for two years. So we're not just playing catch up. We're playing, how do we exceed where our children are? And so, a few weeks ago we did an amazing announcement. The largest summer youth employment. A hundred thousand young people will have summer youth employment from 14 to 24.

Mayor Adams: And check out what we're doing, we're not waiting for the children to find the jobs. We're going to have a team go to the homeless shelters and show these young people how to sign up for the jobs. We're going to actively go out and encourage them to get engaged. I'm going to partner with my team to say every child that goes through summer youth employment and this program here, we're going to teach them also life skills. Breathing exercises, meditation, brain development, financial literacy, how to tie a tie. How to dress for success. How to separate the white clothes from the dark clothes, so the Clorox and bleach does not destroy them. How to hem your pants. What's the proper way to shave? All of these life skills we take for granted that children know this automatically.

Mayor Adams: Some of our parents were never given this. So we have to start giving these life skills to our children, that they can take throughout life. That's what these programs must be about. They can't be just cosmetic, symbolic, "Okay. We gave someone a summer youth employment." Then at the end of the summer, they know nothing about balancing a checkbook. Nothing about how to take care of themselves. How to deal with the stress and challenges to do so. It's more than just a counselor for a child. It's brain development and self care for a lifetime. And this is a bold initiative that we are doing. So today we are announcing our expanded K-8 Summer Rising program. We are supercharging last year's successful program, and this is about taking what's worked and building on it.

Mayor Adams: Your favorite saying, David Banks says, all the time the chancellor says, "It's not about dismantling something because you did not create it. It's about taking what's worked and building on it." So we are going to take what was successful about Summer Rising and we're going to build on top of that. This year, we'll have more hours, including 6 PM for middle schoolers, more programming, like including Fridays and more students. Over a hundred thousand students in grades K-8 will make it the largest summer program in our city's history, focusing on our children.

[Applause]

Mayor Adams: Every young person that participates would get a chance to grow, to learn, to explore their talents. And we need to hear from them as we expand from year to year to year. Ask them, what do you want in the programming? Because it's not about us. It's saying, how do we keep you engaged? These are bright young people who are... They have their journals here. Hold up your journals. Let them see your journals. They all have their journals here. And it's about asking them, what do you want to see in your program? And how do we make it better? We're going to teach math, science, English, ELA, social studies led by DOE instructors. But we will also personalize enrichments for each school: programming for our students around life experiences, experiencing the great city that we live in, walking through these great parks and stadiums, great places, riding the subway system and seeing the history of the subway system.

Mayor Adams: We want to deal with the increase in hate crime, allow children to cross pollinate ideas by going to cultures and communities that they know nothing about. Learn why someone wears a hijab, a yamaka, a [inaudible]. Learn the experience and the rich history in the Chinese community, in the various communities – our Caribbean diaspora, the African diaspora, the Jewish community in Williamsburg and in Crown Heights. There's so much our children can learn if we allow them to learn. Children want to learn. All we have to do as adults is get the heck out of the way. All of our baggage, all of our issues, all of our biases is tarnishing these children.

Mayor Adams: They are ready to embrace. And they're bringing in our police department, building new relationships. The survey – is despicable that our children, particularly Black and brown men, don't have a relationship with the law enforcement community so they can go into law enforcement. We got all these walls that have been built that segregated this city and we act like we don't. We got to be honest with ourselves. We are living in a segregated city where it's destroying our children, and we have to stop. That's what we are committed to doing.

Mayor Adams: We're going to put parents in the process, engage them. No one does it better than Chancellor Banks. So many of them are struggling during summer months. When we put their children in a safe space, they can then go on with their lives. Employment, training, and getting their life skills and their work skills so they can move up in their jobs as we rolled out our economic plan. It's about improving and helping families. Childcare should not be one of your issues.

Mayor Adams: Healthy meals, academic and social skills are so important. How to shake someone's hand. How to look at someone's eyes when you're speaking with them. How to sit down. How to use a knife and fork correctly when you're at a meal. These are just important issues. I didn't even know that there was a special fork for salads. It's just embarrassing. Everybody's looking at me because I didn't put my napkin on my lap. Well, who taught me? Who taught us these things?

Mayor Adams: So this is a win for the entire city. A huge shoutout goes out to everyone involved: Department of Youth and Community Development, Chancellor Banks, Department of Education, the entire team, all of us coming together to make this happen. And my elected officials, I cannot say enough about them. The willingness to be a partner, because they see firsthand what these communities and children need to move forward.

Mayor Adams: We're going to push the envelope, and when you push the envelope, I'm going to say this over and over again, you make mistakes sometimes. You don't get it right all the time. Because all we can do is just duplicate programs that are already in place. You don't take chances. You remain on the shores of certainty instead of willing to get into the sea of uncertainty to find new lands. We are going to destroy the anti Christopher Columbus theory believing if we stay on one ground, that's the safe place. There's a horizon out there. And our children are going to explore that horizon because we're a forward thinking administration, and that is our focus and that is our push.

Mayor Adams: So I thank you for being here with these children and letting them know that they matter/ I'll turn it back over to our amazing deputy. Man, I cannot thank you enough for this program and what you're doing in this area. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much, Mayor Adams, for continually challenging us to be bold and to be effective. GSD. So at this moment, I'd like to introduce New York City Education Chancellor David Banks.

Chancellor David Banks, Department of Education: Good morning, everyone. It's a great day. I feel this energy out of here in this place. First of all, this is a beautiful campus. It's a beautiful campus. When we're done with this press conference, I can't wait, I'm going to go inside and visit the schools and see some other students and see this facility. But it's great outside, I can tell you that. And doesn't it feel good just to be outside? I mean, you saw the mayor. As soon as he got here, he took his coat off, headed straight to the basketball court. He got beat by the young lady on the court, but that's all right. That's what it's all about. But it's a great energy. It's a great spirit here, and we thank you all for welcoming all of us here today.

Chancellor Banks: I, first of all, want to acknowledge the principals of this school. I was a principal for 11 years, and I understand that you can't have a great school unless you have a great school leader. In this school, in this building, they have three leaders. So I just ask that you would stand. Principal Rogalle, please, from Bronx Delta. Remain standing. Principal Partridge from the Urban Institute of Mathematics and Principal Basile from Mott Hall Community School. We salute you. We thank you.

Chancellor Banks: There's a reason why we chose this school and this building, to be at this facility, because your leadership and how you work together exemplifies everything that we're talking about, how we all need to work together. We thank you, and we appreciate you. Thank you very, very much. There's no better representation of all three of you than all these beautiful young people that you see right here. And the mayor talked about just the potential, the promise, the skill, the ability of each one of them. LaSandra, come back up here again. I want to see you for a second because... As she came, the mayor told her, he gave a little tip. Breath, right? But I knew, I said. Because when I shook her hand before we started, I said, "Oh, she's got this." When you see a young person... What grade are you in? Fifth.

Chancellor Banks: Fifth grade. But with a level of poise, a confidence, right, that says, "I know who I am." There's a young man, I shook his hand over here. Come here, in the red... Anybody that really wants to wake up, I invite you to meet him and just shake his hand. This young man right here. I mean, it was like, whoa, you got to be ready. But what that says is, that says confidence. People are pouring into them to let them know that they are somebody, and that when they stand up in front of all these adults and all of these cameras, you don't have to be afraid. You remain confident. You know that you are somebody, and you continue to represent. I want to thank both of you so very, very much.

Chancellor Banks: The students here who told me that they're representing student government and the student journalists, who are those folks that are representing the school newspaper? Raise your hand. So you got to make sure that you interview the mayor before he leaves today. And you got two more, so don't let him get away. So two of you get the mayor and the other two, make sure that you get the deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, because she is a force of nature. She is the person that is leading all of this work, bringing the DOE, DYCD, all of the community based organizations around the entire city. She is the person that is leading all that work. Let's give her a big, big round of applause.

[Applause]

Chancellor Banks: Thank you so much. And so I'm going to be here very, very quick and simply say this. Our parents, you have no idea how much we love you. We respect you. We're going to continue to partner with you. All of our parents that are out here in the crowd right here today, please, love you. 

Chancellor Banks: One of the things, we had a meeting the other day with some of the parents, and we talked about the name of the program. We were considering lots of names for this summer program. And we had a lot of different names we were looking at. And one of the parents, many of the parents said, "Well, Summer Rising was just fine." I mean, as a name, we need to improve the program, but the name was fine. And it's what the mayor and I talk about all the time. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Let's just continue to get better, to get bolder, to make it just – improve it each and every step of the year. And so that's why we are so thrilled. Summer Rising is what we are all about.

Chancellor Banks: And so I'm going to take my seat, but I simply want to say an echo of the mayor's words earlier today, which I couldn't have stated any better. Everything that he said was just right on point. The power of possibility for all of our children is just limitless. What they need is for all of us as adults to see those possibilities ourselves and not limit them. You can't be a global citizen of the world with a neighborhood mentality. You've got to get outside of your school, outside of your neighborhood. And we have an opportunity to do that beginning this summer in a very big, bold, bodacious kind of way. And to make sure that all of our children understand that learning doesn't happen simply within the four walls of a school. And to make sure that we are creating all kinds of wonderful opportunities for them. So I'm pleased, thrilled to be working with all of you. Can't wait for the summer. Summer Rising. Let's get it. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much, Chancellor Banks. As you were talking a little stuff about the mayor and his basketball skills, I do want to point out there is a track here and I might want to… There's a race that is pending. So we shall see, but thank you.

[...]

Deputy Mayor Wright: The next person I want to introduce who is such a tremendous leader… When we talk about the historic nature of this program, 110,000 young people will be impacted five days a week until 6 PM. It is just historic. Seven weeks. All of that, that helped us get to this place… is Councilmember Althea Stevens, who has been a leader championing young people. She challenged us to do more, go further, go deeper. Thank you, councilmember. Could you come up and say a few words?

[Applause]

[...]

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much and really the design of this program was really the work of the Department of Education and DYCD. I want to just give them a round of applause for the tremendous collaboration and really amazing work that they've done. Next up, young people, this is a person you absolutely have to interview. She represents you. Your councilmember, Marjorie Velázquez. I love also the woman power, the woman power in the Council.

[Applause]

[...]

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much and next up we have one of our longtime leaders in education, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto.

[Applause]

[...]

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you. Thank you so much and last but not least the executive director of Phipps Neighborhood Community, representing all of our community based organizations who really are the backbone of this work. Thank you. Andre White.

[Applause]

[...]

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you. Thank you all so much. Summer Rising, here we come. Thank you.

Question: I have a question for the leaders. I love your speech. It was amazing. I have a question because you were talking about learning in [inaudible] and helping children. What was your favorite subject in school?

Mayor Adams: Oh, great. Great question. The question, what she stated, if you couldn't hear her, she stated, “I love you as the mayor. You are amazing and you are unbelievable. I think that you are adorable and you're one of the best mayors I've ever known.” I don't know if you heard all of that.

[Laughter]

Mayor Adams: She stated what was my best subject in school. It was writing. I just finished a book and I just enjoy creative writing and I enjoyed it so much. That was my best subject in school.

Question: If you could change anything about public schools, what would it be?

Chancellor Banks: If you didn't hear, she said, “You're the greatest chancellor that we've ever had in the history of New York City.” And that was it. 

[Laughter]

Chancellor Banks: No. She asked if I could change one thing for our public schools, what would it be? That's a phenomenal question.

Chancellor Banks: I haven't even had any adult journalists ask a question like that. You see what I mean? Out of the mouth of babes. I would just hope that every adult, who works with children, whether they are a teacher, a counselor, a school safety officer, a food worker, a nurse, I would hope and pray that every one of those adults loved the children who go to that school like life itself. That's what I would hope. I think there are some who do. I think there are many who do, but there are some who don't love it quite that much. For some people it's a job. But if everybody who came into the space, to work with young people, loved them deeply, there's no walls that we would not knock down. The possibilities for our children would be endless. That would be the one thing that I would change.

Question: There was a rally yesterday at City Hall. Human services workers who are contracted or work in CBOs, like the ones that are going to be running this program, talking about the fact that many of them still make at or near poverty level wages. And so, how do you make the most of a program like this if there's still concerns like that? How does that affect recruiting staff to run this program? And is there going to be investment to improve the salaries of those workers?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question. I'm looking forward to sitting down with them. No one has reached out to the office to meet with me to talk about that. I want to, in the next couple of years, build the culture of talk first before we protest. We should show children how it's about engaging. We have a real challenge. We're dealing with economic crises. The Council and my administration, we have to figure out how to balance the budget on our priorities. We have to look at those institutional jobs where people are not paid the adequate salaries that they deserve. And part of the contractual negotiation is what we have to look at. But we also must do what we're doing with the current comptroller, Brad Lander, and getting the money faster to the nonprofits. That is something we're doing.

Mayor Adams: We're doing real nonprofit reform. The payments are too bureaucratic, too difficult. I'm sure that you acknowledge how long it takes to get the payment to them. That is the partnership we're doing, and to get the dollars to bring up those salaries, because it's very important to. You should not have to worry about feeding your children while you're helping children.

Mayor Adams: That is what our budget director is looking at. How do we... The more we become more efficient, the more we get our corporate entities that we have been meeting with to sponsor some of these programs and to allocate the dollars that are important, the more we align – as Deputy Mayor Wright is doing, all of our nonprofits together to be focused on the one or two things we want to do each summer – we will have the money we need to increase these salaries. Because we have to make sure we're paying people a salary that's suitable to the work that we're asking them to do. And it's a challenge. It's a challenge, but we need to overcome that challenge.

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you tell us who will be candidates for this program? Typically when we think of summer school, we think about it being for children who need some remedial help. Is this that, and is it more? I mean, can any child participate in the program?

Chancellor Banks: No, we traditionally think of summer school as remediation and for students who've fallen behind to catch up. We're trying to change the narrative on that. This program is designed for all students, parents who would like for their child to take advantage of a real enrichment program. The first part of the day will be spent on academics, whether there's some form of remediation that is necessary, we'll do that. Otherwise, there'll be academic acceleration as well. And the latter part of the day, in the afternoon, is essentially where we will be fully engaged in the community based organizations in the enrichment activities. And that's when we really have an opportunity to open up a different kind of experience.

Chancellor Banks: One of the exciting things about it, again, is that it's going to run from eight in the morning until 6 PM at night. And that really helps parents, right, who sometimes even if it ends at three, that doesn't always work well for a parent who's still at work trying to make arrangements to pick up their child. So we're going to have busing opportunities as well – will be a part of the program. But it's not limited to any specific subset of students. It will be widely available for anyone who seeks to register.

Question: On the topic of busing, actually, for Summer Rising, one of the complaints we heard last year about the program was that it was difficult to access for certain students, particularly those with disabilities or those living in shelters because they didn't have adequate transportation to get to Summer Rising programs. How are you going to make sure that that changes this summer?

Mayor Adams: Number one, we have to make sure the transportation is there. And we factor that into the Summer Rising plus how we are increasing. And we looked at all of the complaints. The chancellor in his series of meetings, he sat down with parents and others and looked at what their complaints were on how do we make the program better. And transportation, you're right, transportation is an issue. We're zeroing in on homeless shelters to find those children who are there to make sure that they can have access to the programs. But what's the use of having a great program, if children who are really in need are not having access to them? And we have to address those issues that we heard of from the previous years.

Question: I know you are a Mets fan. I know you're in the Bronx, but how important is baseball returning now to the city?

Mayor Adams: I'm so glad that the boys of summer are coming back. I hope in the next year we start seeing the boys and girls this summer. It's time to allow women to play professional baseball as well, but I'm happy that they are back and the economics. I was up in the Bronx by Yankee Stadium the other day, and when people look at all of those shops, they depend on the baseball season. There's an entire economy that feeds off of baseball. So you may have millionaires on the field, but you have people who are just basically trying to make it, that are providing – the shops selling foods in the stands, selling items. So it's very important to come back. All of those businesses around Yankee Stadium and the industry is so important. We're happy to see that they're back playing ball and we're looking forward to finally having a season that the Mets is going to be in the World Series.

Question: We've reported that some of your high ranking staffers have been involved in one of the Brooklyn district leader’s race. That some of your staffers have been working to challenge [inaudible] in your office. Given the problem and issues that are currently facing the city, do you think it's important for the mayor's office to be involved itself?

Mayor Adams: First of all, I'm not aware of it. And you know, the important is to always have a firewall between politics and governance. We have that. We have an amazing council. We have an amazing team. We have a real firewall between the two. I've made it clear in my Senate office, my borough president office, what people do in their personal lives is up to them, but we would never bring politics into City Hall.

Mayor Adams: And you know, all of that is noise to me. That noise can get in the way of the mission. You can get caught up in all of this noise that's going around. That is just not urgency. When I walk the streets, mothers are not asking me about, are you supporting a district leader or not? They're saying, what are you doing about my children? And I need to stay focused on the mission. No distraction. Stay focused and grind. No distraction, stay focused and grind. That's all I'm doing. I'm focused on improving the lives of the families in the city. So I have no idea what that is all about. No one would campaign in City Hall. We are clear on that, and they’re going to follow those rules.

Question: I'm here representing 231 parents that would like to talk to you. So my question is, are you willing to have a meeting with us and talk? We want to look over the data for the masking of children four and under. So we're very concerned. We have mothers who are nurses, teachers, psychologists. I mean, we have 231 of them. And we would like a meeting with you.

Mayor Adams: You can reach out to the chancellor’s staff, but we don't need a meeting to know what I'm going to do. I'm very clear on what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to do. I made it clear. We're going to do this in waves. The first wave is to lift the masking of our children that was K through 12. The second wave we would go to our children that are four or under five. That's our second wave. I should not – it would be irresponsible of me to do it all at once. First, when the Governor announced that we could lift masking, I said, hold on for New York City because we are dense. Let's hold on. Let's first see. The children are coming back to school. When they come back to school, let's see if there's a spike.

Mayor Adams: We did not have a spike. Great. We're going to lift starting Monday. We lift it. Now we're going to see after lifting, do we have a spike? If we don't have a spike, we're going to lift for your babies as well. We’re going to live for the children. I don't want my children wearing masks, but I don't want to be irresponsible. I want them taking the mask off. People heard me say this over and over again, but I have medical professionals and there's a lot of debates on people saying, we don't need masks. We do need masks. I hear all of that, but nothing is going to convince me to move at a rapid pace.

[...]

Mayor Adams: They know that everybody's looking for a meeting with me. We... So they know that. Oh, no. Let her finish, let her finish. Don't interrupt her. Let her finish.

[...]

Mayor Adams: Yes. Let me show you what else is important. And let's be clear, upstate is not New York. New York is the most densely populated city. And how people do things in the county is different from how it's done here in our county. So we're with you. We want the mask off the children also. So don't interpret it as… We want them off. I'm pushing every day. We're going to get to the normality that we want. As you are a parent, I'm a parent. And we want to do the best for our children. I have a responsibility as the mayor of this city to make sure that number one, we don't harm our children. Our schools don't close down again. Our city does not close down again. And we could do it in a safe manner. We're going to get there. I need for you to trust me. I hear you. I heard you. I met with several parents on this topic. We will get there. We'll get there together.

[...]

Question: You said writing was your favorite subject and that you just finished a book. Did you just finish writing a book?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I did creative writing. I wrote a book on – Healthy at Last – healthy food, healthy diets, and how bad food is connected to some of the misgivings in life. Now, nowhere in the book did I say I ate fish. I only dealt with the healthy food, plant-based food that we have. It's called Healthy at Last. And this is not an advertisement because I don't need anybody writing a story. Eric was trying to push his book. I answered the question from the reporter.

Question: Mr. Mayor, my colleague wrote a story about a report from the union representing fire inspectors that there was a fire inspector who's supposed to go to the building where the Twin Peaks fire happened, but was diverted to inspect restaurants. And I was wondering, were you aware of that policy and do you think it's a sound policy?

Mayor Adams: No, I was not aware of it. As soon as we became aware of it, we immediately stop it from happening. But there's also an important part that was missing from the story. That would not have prevented a fire in that circumstance. They inspect the external parts. They would not have expected the internal parts about the heater and other things. And so, the job of those fire inspectors are for the external parts of the building, inside the hallways or what have you, not the internal parts of the building. But once we learned about the issue, we immediately stated that this is not a practice that we are doing. We understood that there was an emergency, but we should never get out of the way of doing those fire inspections. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.

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