Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on Ebro In The Morning on HOT 97.1

April 4, 2017

Ebro Darden: Ladies and gentleman, there he is, our Mayor of New York City, friend of the program, Mayor de Blasio. Let’s give it up for him.

[Applause and rap air horn]

Mayor Bill de Blasio: I always wanted “friend of the show” status.

Peter Rosenberg: You got it.

Darden: There you go. You got it. It took some years.

Mayor: I had to earn it.

Darden: That’s right.

Big headlines for you over the weekend. Rikers Island closing, it’ll take ten years. What I’m hearing – and maybe you can give us more information – the idea is to put smaller facilities all around the city, and there’s quote, you said this, “some tough decisions that will have to be made.” So can you a – address the closing, and b – talk more about these tough decisions.

Mayor: Absolutely, Ebro. It’s time to close Rikers Island. We’re going to do it. We had to be sure it could be done. That’s why it took a while to get to this decision. We had to be sure we could crime down our jail population to the point that we would not need Rikers Island anymore. And you know just yesterday we unveiled the crime statistics for the month of March, and crime was down 12 percent this March compared to last March. We had 11 fewer homicides. Overall crime continues to go down as it has in the three years I’ve been in office. Why is that so crucial? Because that was the number one thing we had to be certain about – could we keep driving down crime, therefore fewer people being arrested, fewer people going to jail. Get that population in our jail system – our whole jail system, Rikers plus three other jails right now – 9.300 people. We wanted to get that down to 5,000 people on any given day. That’s what allows us to get out of Rikers once and for all. No more inmates on Rikers.

And I came to the conclusion it could be done. The tough decisions are one – to keep that work going; keep driving down crime; keep doing the other reforms – the alternative sentencing, the jail – excuse me – the bail reform; the things that keep people out of jail to begin with; the mental health work my wife Chirlane is doing to address mental health issues, so people don’t end up in encounters with law enforcements. All of this has to keep going. We’re going to have to spend money on that. We’re going to have to make decisions about how we spend, but the other thing we’re going to have to do is find at least a few sites for new jail facilities. I think it only has to be a few. It is not – you said earlier all over the city – no, I don’t think it’s all over the city. I think it’s a few places that will allow us the capacity to no longer need jail. That’s something we have to do with the City Council. That’s an open, public process that takes quite a while for communities to weigh in, the councilmembers to get to a vote on that. But I think we can find a few sites that make sense, and we have ten years to do it because it’s going to take that long to get the population down to the point we can get off Rikers altogether.

Darden: And how do you –

Rosenberg: How do you go about doing that though? The population down in a direct fashion.

Mayor: One is driving down crime. I mean, you know, let me give you an example. Twenty years ago in this city our jail system had over 20,000 people in it. This morning we got about 9,300 people in all our jails combined. We’ve shown steady progress on that front – 55 percent reduction in mass incarceration in New York City over the last 20 years. We’ve particularly driven that down since I came into office – 23 percent reduction in the population on Rikers Island just since I came into office, and a lot of that correlates to driving down crime. We’re now confident we can keep driving down crime, and so, you know, that’s the building block. If you’re not arresting people cause they’re not committing crime, they’re not going to jail. And then the other thing we talked about –

Darden: Well and also – what Rosenberg’s asking about – some people don’t understand the purpose of Rikers. There are people on Rikers waiting for a trial and waiting for a long time, and sometimes the system gets bogged down, and people end up staying there longer than anticipated and not being able to get out and deal with whatever the issue is. Is some of that also addressing our system of dealing with these in a more efficient manner?

Mayor: Correct. Yes, and a more fair manner. Look, the city part of the equation is policing and jails, but we depend on the State – the State runs the court system. The State is the part that regulates the prosecutors. They’re part of the puzzle here, too. The court system has to become more effective and more efficient. Prosecutors have to do all they can to move cases along. You’re right. There’s a lot of people who are on Rikers awaiting trial. We’ve got to make that process faster. There’s a lot of people who are awaiting trial who shouldn’t be there to begin with because we need to do more to provide alternative approaches to bail, so that no one sitting in Rikers because they can’t afford a modest bail, and that’s something we’re working on, too. So there’s a lot of different ways to reduce the population and reduce the amount of time people spend there.

There’s another group of people, about 8,500 people a year, who are sentenced to spend time on Rikers. You know their conviction leads to a sentence – but it’s a brief sentence – one year or less, they can be on Rikers, too as opposed to going to an upstate prison. For those folks, we want to make sure they never come back to jail, so this last week I also announced we’re going to do a series of things to provide education and training to everyone who is in Rikers to help them get back on their feet and rehabilitate. We’re going to start talking about reentry to society literally the first day they come into jail. We’re going to say this is your first day in jail, we want it to be the last time you’re ever in jail. And for folks who are sentenced, serve their time in Rikers, we’re going to have a transitional job waiting for them when they come out. For 8,500 people there will be a transitional job waiting, so they can be right back in the workforce and never have another encounter with law enforcement. They’re all about reducing recidivism.

Rosenberg: That’s amazing.

Mayor: That’s – I knew that you would – it’s good humanly, but it will reduce recidivism. That’s another way we drive down the jail population.

Darden: So Mayor, I read that that number you were setting aside - $10 million for these jobs. Is that correct?

Mayor: Correct.

Darden: So where’s that money coming from?

Mayor: It’s a part of the city budget, and we think it’s a good investment. Ebro, you will be shocked – shocked and amazed – to know that the New York Post attacked me and said I was going to give jobs to criminals.

Darden: That’s right. We talked about it on the show. You want every criminal to get a job. All you have to do is commit a crime, and de Blasio will give you a job.

[Laughter]

Mayor: And they have it entirely backwards. We’re in a city right now that thank God we have over 4.3 million jobs in the city. The city economy is very strong. The lowest unemployment we’ve had in decades. There are a lot of jobs out there for everyday people, but what we want to do is make sure folks coming out of jail – who in this case, if they served time on Rikers, they did modest crimes in the scheme of things – we want them back on their feet, rehabilitated, redeemed, and never go back to jail. Small investment to make sure people get on the right track. Whenever we succeed, we are not only doing the moral and humane thing toward that individual, we’re also from a tax payer point of view – someone never goes back to jail? – it’s one of the smartest investments we ever made because if they go back to jail we’re going to spend a whole lot more money that we ever would on a transitional job.

Darden: Well said.

Rosenberg: Can I transition to something else, mayor? How are we doing with this city cost to protect Trump Tower and all that stuff day-to-day?

Mayor: Yeah, we’re waiting for an answer from the Congress. They have to make the decision, but Commissioner O’Neill was down there in Washington talking to key members of the Congress about getting that reimbursed. You know our colleagues in Florida and New Jersey also want to get reimbursed where Trump has been as well, and we’re hoping to get a substantial amount of money to make up for the time between the election and the inauguration, and then to be put on some kind of formula going forward to pay for the recurring cost. There’s no reason, you know, a locality whether it’s us or Florida or New jersey – no one should have to pay for what is obviously a federal cost of protecting the president.

Rosenberg: Where’s the bill at right now as we wait to send that invoice?

Darden: Good question.

Rosenberg: Do you have an idea of what this invoice is going to look like when you send it over?

Mayor: You know it’s about $24 million now for the period before – between the election and inauguration, and then going forward it got less per day because when the president left the expenses went way down. He hasn’t come back to Trump Tower since, so that’s kept the expenses down. You’re still talking tens of millions for the remainder of the year, but not as much as we originally thought it would be, thank god.

Darden: And the businesses in that area, you know, a lot of people are saying they have some complaints?

Mayor: Yeah, but it’s gotten – it’s not perfect at all. We sort of had a perfect storm before because he got elected right as the holiday season was starting, and that sort of was a double hit on those businesses to have everything be so difficult during the holidays, but it’s settled down a lot. Fifth Avenue is moving a lot better. People are able to get around a lot more. I think they’re going to be fine in the long run.

Darden: I would say that you and Governor Cuomo’s relationship is somewhat like Meek Mill and Drake.

Rosenberg: Wow. I didn’t see this.

Darden: You guys are a bit of a nemesis, according to what we see in the press. Is that true?

Mayor: I think it’s a situation that is about having – my job is to defend the people of New York City and defend New York City’s interest. I’ve said, when the Governor does something that helps us, you know, I’ll say amen. I’ll support him. I’ll praise him. When he does something that hurts us, I’ll call him out.

I’m not sure I would compare it to a beef between rappers.

[Laughter]

It’s a little more complex, Ebro. But I –

Darden: I have no idea what’s going on with Drake and Meek Mill.

Rosenberg: How dare you Mayor?

Mayor: But I say this, it’s the same thing – some people have said to me, you know, how do we deal with the federal government; how do we deal with the President and all – the basic formula has to be show strength and standup for the people of New York City. It’s a really simple thing. And fight when we see something that is a problem. It’s just consistent. I think some drama gets added into it. I don’t think it is particularly dramatic. It’s like do something good for New York City and I can be very friendly. 

Rosenberg: A lot of people here about the station worried about these MTA prices. When – could there – when can the end come? It just feels like it’s gotten to the point of really higher and faster in terms of the inflation than we ever would’ve inspected.

Mayor: Well, you’re talking about like the Metrocard fare? Is that what you’re saying?

Rosenberg: Yes. Tolls I’ve given up all together. I assume one day I’ll just have to bring a $100 bill with me. But yeah the subway fare in particular.

Mayor: Yeah, look, I like to educated people. The MTA subways, buses are runs by the State of New York. That is their process to work through. We contribute money to the MTA, but the ultimate decisions are made by the state of New York. That being said, what the city is doing which I’m excited about is we’re creating alternatives for people. We’re going to have citywide ferry service starting this year, and including some communities that have really been left out of the equation like Soundview in the Bronx and the Rockaways are going to ferry service connecting them to the rest of the whole city. That’s going to be very exciting.

Darden: Really?

Mayor: Yes, that’s going to start this summer. We’re talking about a light rail system from Astoria, Queens down to Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Darden: That will be under your control?

Mayor: Yes, those are both under our control, and that’s why we’re excited about it. It takes a long time for the MTA to do anything that’s big and new. We’re able to do these things a lot quicker. We’re starting them up now, and we’re doing a lot of the select bus service in parts of the outer boroughs that were underserved, so those are, you know, faster buses that are very appealing to people because they can cut their commute a lot. So these things are going to keep moving, but the fares – that’s a decision by the state. And you know I hope whenever they make those decisions they think about what working people are going through in this city and how hard it is to make ends meet.

Rosenberg: Do you think that fare, the current fare for the MTA is very high?

Mayor: I don’t know if I’d say very high. Obviously it’s part of how we pay for it. I think they need to be very careful going forward to not put it out of reach of people who have to make ends meet. That would be my bottom line. In the meantime we’ll keep investing to create more transportation options for people who, you know, are [inaudible]. The subways are so crowded now, streets are so crowded. That’s why we said let’s go to the waterways. Let’s create a ferry system, we’ll give people a lot of alternatives and for the same price as a subway ride, so I’m excited about that. That will start this summer, and that will open things up.

Darden: Mayor de Blasio. We love you, bro. Thank you for calling in.

Rosenberg: That’s it. No more. Get out of here.

Mayor: No more? Then I love you even more.

Rosenberg: Thanks, Mayor.

Darden: Mayor de Blasio, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much.

Mayor: Bye.

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