Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In For Live Interview On 77 WABC’s “Sid & Friends In The Morning

March 15, 2024

Sid Rosenberg: He's the mayor of New York City, my friend Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, good morning. Happy St. Patrick's Day. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, how are you? And you know, I often say when I'm at flag raisings or at other events for particular countries and cultures, I always use the capital of their countries to signify how this is the center. We probably have more Irish Americans here than, you know, many of the other cities and states, and so I would say we are the Dublin of America. 

You know, this is where we are right here and I'm looking forward to marching tomorrow. The parade is always lively and you know, you get, you're able to have some Irish coffee before you get on the road, so it's going to be a great day. 

Rosenberg: Isn't Irish coffee beer? [Laughter.] I don't know. So, I know you had touched on... 

Mayor Adams: I know there's a lot of traffic you want to cover today... but before we get lost in the current events, I'm joined by a real true New Yorker, Gary LaBarbera from the Building Trades, and we made an announcement on Saturday while I was in Miami on something that we've been waiting for for a long time. 

So, before we get into the hot seat topics, I just would love for him to, you know, talk about what we are doing around housing for working class people. Your listeners, you have a working class audience. And this is something that I think that was long in the making. So, Gary, can you go into it?

Gary LaBarbera, President, Building and Construction Trades Council: Thanks so much, Mr. Mayor, and good morning. 

Well, yes, I almost want to thank Mayor Adams for his interest and commitment in what we announced over the weekend. And it really is a demonstration that he truly is a blue collar mayor. 

We in the union, Construction Union Pension Fund, we were able to put together and create work with the Workforce Housing Fund, it's a Cirrus fund, and we raised the first hundred million dollars through union pension funds and an equity fund to work along with the equity and work along with the City of New York. 

And about a year ago when I approached Mayor Adams about this concept, he embraced it. I will say that there's been no mayor in recent decades that has really thought about a way to really address workforce crisis, housing crisis. And we were able to do that. And we brought in union pension funds on the equity side. We also able to bring in debt from union pension funds. 

And working with Mayor Adams, we'll be able to work with the city for certain subsidies and perhaps some land like in the Mitchell‑Lama model, and we will be able to build with the union construction model workforce housing for essential workers, the people that keep the city moving and running every day.

And again, this is an investment that will provide strong financial returns for investors, but at the same time, it will create an opportunity for the essential workers of New York City to have really decent housing, affordable housing, be able to stay in the City of New York. You know, many workers, city workers are struggling to be able to stay in New York City. 

And so I really, again, I'm here to thank Mayor Adams for his commitment. Again, it must be noted that this hasn't happened in decades. You know, there was 50 years ago, you know, with Mitchell‑Lama, there was Penn South, there was Coop City, Electchester, the Amalgamated Houses, it was the same model. 

Why the city walked away from that concept, I don't know, but this mayor didn't. And with his relationship with the construction unions and unions in the city as a blue collar mayor, he embraced this, and we're going to be a to do real good things by providing meaningful housing for New York City's essential workers. 

Mayor Adams: And this is good stuff Sid. And so union members will be building the housing, union members will be able to afford to live in the housing, union members are the bedrock of this city. 

So, all of those members that are listening to your show from Connecticut and Pennsylvania, we're saying come back home, because we will have housing in the city. 

Rosenberg: You know, what you're saying, I'm in Miami right now Eric, Mr. Mayor, doing the show, too. And it's beautiful here. But look, I'm a fair guy. You know that, right? I mean, that's why you and I get along. Yes, this housing thing is great. I like the job numbers, they've come back, very favorable for you. I even like the work you're doing with the governor on what I don't like, to remove ghost cars. 

So, you're doing some really good stuff, but you know this, Eric. All this goes away every time there's a shooting on the A train or every time there's a shooting on a bus in Brooklyn or Queens. I'm not saying that's fair but I'm telling you that all this good work you're doing— highlighting that stuff just now— seems to go away when people are more worried about safety in the streets. 

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt. And you know, if there's one four‑letter word that does not go with being mayor, it's fair. There's other four‑letter words that people... [Laughter.] 

Rosenberg: That's very good. 

Mayor Adams: So, and New Yorkers have a right not only to be safe statistically, which we are, the subway system, the climate is going down and we're the safest big city in America, but they have the right to feel safe. When you have someone that what I saw in that video is dealing with severe mental health illness to spark that type of encounter in our subway system, this just really reinforces what I have been attempting to do. 

You've got to give us more power, Albany, to deal with involuntary removals for those who are dealing with severe mental health illness. When you look at that video, you'll see the nexus between someone who appears to what I saw to be dealing with severe mental health illness sparking a dispute on our subway system. 

And that is why we're approaching this from many different levels, from our police personnel doing their job, but also we need other entities in the criminal justice system apparatus to do their job. 

Rosenberg: Oh, I agree with you. And that's why, you know, and you've used this word in the past, so has the governor, "perception." You know, perception, Eric, is the reason why 80,000 people go to Miami. Perception sometimes is every bit as important as reality. 

And it's not perception, because there is crime. And I know the numbers are down, you know, I love Michael Kemper, but it's all over the place, and here's what I hear. Here's where Mayor Eric Adams would do himself a huge favor. While he talks about all these issues, and he talks very generically, he needs to call them out. 

Eric Adams needs to call out Kathy Hochul for bail reform. Eric Adams needs to call out Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart‑Cousins. Eric Adams should not be endorsing Joe Biden unprovoked when Joe Biden is shipping thousands and thousands and thousands of illegals into the city, making your job more difficult. 

Eric Adams should not be at an event calling Adrienne Adams my sister from another mother when all she does, quite frankly, is disrespect you and do a terrible job making this city better. That's the frustration. They know your heart's in the right place. But you seem reluctant to go out and name people by name. People want you to name and shame. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, and when they say that to you, then all of a sudden they leave and go home and figure out how to mow their lawn; I have to figure out how to run a city, and I have to figure out how to deal with a governor that is going to assist me in mayoral accountability, to build more housing, put police in my subway system. I have to deal with the City Council that is going to assist me in passing a budget. 

So, you can get the emotional victory of name calling, or you can get the substance and victory of improving the city. I've been able to navigate the city through Covid, through 180,000 migrant and asylum seekers, take 13,000 guns off the street, decrease shootings, decrease homicides, get our children to outpace the entire state in reading and math, to bring back more private sector jobs in the history of the city, to get bond raters to increase our bond rating. 

I've been able to do stuff because I don't just yell at people, I have to sit in the room and come to conclusions. Yes, I don't get everything I want from Albany, from the City Council, from the federal government, but we got a lot. The city is not surviving, we're thriving, and we're going to continue to thrive, continue to drive down crime. 

This is the right moment for a blue collar mayor to do the things that Gary and I are doing right now to turn around the city. So, this is going to be a retrospective appreciation. People are going to look back later and say, damn, we had a good mayor when Eric Adams was the mayor of the City of New York. Finally, a blue collar mayor to deal with blue collar issues. 

Rosenberg: You know, one thing about you, Eric, I know is that you do appreciate the Jewish people and I know that most of your friends are Jewish. And the Jewish Heritage Month you do a great job at Gracie Mansion, all that stuff. And Jews like me, we're sick and tired of these animals, of these assholes— I'm sorry to use that word, but you're the mayor, you've got to hear it— blocking stuff in our city and spitting at cops and causing all these issues.

Do you know, Eric, that in London they've actually started to arrest protesters for just showing up, just showing up. Could we ever get to the point in this city where these pro‑Palestine protesters who are out there supporting murder, that's what they're doing, they're supporting murder. 

Could we get to the point where by just showing up, you can going to arrest these people? They've really become a nuisance. 

Mayor Adams: We get to that point when we decide to ourselves we no longer want to be a democracy, because if we arrest people just showing up, then we arrest people just showing up for every time we believe that we stand up for what America is. 

America is not London, that's why we're the greatest country on the globe. America is America, and at the foundation of America is the right to voice our right. And I would never want to be a place where if I decide I want to march against what Hamas did, that I'm going to be arrested just for marching against what Hamas did. I don't want to ever get to that point. 

But we're going to be extremely clear. 100 of 100 people showed up at the Times Square building and decided they were going to sit in and disrupt the work atmosphere there, we made arrests. If people peacefully voice their concerns, we may not like what they're saying, but that's what this country is. If you go to the origin of all of our ancestry, you'll see at one time or another our ancestors protested for something. 

I remember how hard the Irish people protested for what they saw as draconian actions on job sites. I remember Italian Americans protesting hard for how they were treated during the times of earlier days. All of us protested one time, but that's what makes America great. 

You have the right to protest, and that's why people are at our borders trying to get in and not at our borders trying to get out. 

Rosenberg: Mr. Mayor, I know you've got to run in like 30 seconds. So, you know, look, we're going to start talking about election time again and your new, you know, campaigning again. And you know you've heard this name, Andrew Cuomo, former governor. 

And he is as we're talking right now you and I considering running for mayor. What are your thoughts on the possibility of being in a primary up against Andrew Cuomo? 

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all I think that people get in office and they often try to figure out how to get reelected. I'm figuring out and [inaudible] my city while I am elected. Let the campaign take for itself. 

One thing I learned from many boxers that I speak with, don't start training for someone that's not in the ring yet. Wait until you get in the ring. [Laughter.] You know, we [will] know who the opponents are. 

Remember last election, I think it was [in] 2020 and everyone was saying Andrew Yang is getting in the race and we were 20 points behind in the poll. And what did I say? Stay focused, no distractions and grind. You know what you call me today? You call me mayor, you call Andrew Yang [a] citizen. 

Let's just stay focused. I got a city to run and I'm focused on the city that I'm running. And if you look at the analysis, you know, this has been a great moment for a blue collar mayor to show how blue collar workers can run the city of this magnitude. 

This is a city of working class people. I'm a working class mayor, union card, union pension, union healthcare. And that is why we're going to build some union housing with Gary LaBarbera and the building trades. 

Rosenberg: Yes, Gary, great job. Mr. Mayor, great job, too. Thank you for stopping by this morning. Enjoy the parade tomorrow, and I'm sure we'll see you at some point next week. Thank you so much. 

Mayor Adams: All right, take care. 

LaBarbera: Thank you. 

Rosenberg: All right. guys, take care.