Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on NY1'S "Mornings On 1"

March 15, 2024

Pat Kiernan: The focus of the investigation into the altercation on the subway yesterday involves three people now, that train in Brooklyn yesterday, the incident ended with a shooting during the evening rush. It started as a fight between two men and then it escalated on a Manhattan bound 8 train, the train in motion here as you see this video.

You see the moment here where a woman comes in to this altercation between the two men and appears to stab one of the men in the back with a sharp object. Seconds later, the man, who started bleeding, moved to the other side of the train and pulled out a gun.

You see the gun in his right hand in this still frame from the video shot by a passenger, who was at the other end of the car. The police say the gun was at some point after the camera turned away. The gun was taken away from him, and then shots were fired.

The man who pulled out the gun initially hospitalized in critical condition, the other man is in police custody and may face charges. Police say charges are pending. Mayor Eric Adams is with us for more on a story that has been developing. Mr. Mayor, good to have you with us this morning.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you very much. Great to be here. Great to be here with Gary LaBarbera as well.

Kiernan: Oh, and then we'll get into that discussion in just a moment. It was a frightening moment on the subway, and it comes after a couple of weeks where the focus of your administration and the governor's administration has been on trying to add security to the subway.

Mayor Adams: And if you look at these random acts of violence, when I looked at this tape and broke it down piece by piece and frame by frame, it is clear that it personifies what our pursuit is in Albany around those with severe mental health illnesses. 

And as the investigation unfolds, we're going to see the nexus between the actions that took place there and many of the random acts of violence that, it just unnerves New Yorkers. 

Now, we should also examine that part of our initiative of having an NYPD personnel being in the subway system outside of the transit police personnel, we were able to make a quick apprehension. We weren't able to prevent the act, but the officers were there immediately and made the apprehension of everyone that was involved.

Kiernan: We were talking about earlier this morning, you could not have police get to a scene any faster than this. There is a police presence permanently in that particular subway station. There were officers nearby. This wasn't a case where police were far away, which makes this all the more frustrating, right? 

Because you've got the presence of the officers in the subway, but if a guy is on the train with a gun, there's only so much that people can do. 

Mayor Adams: Right. And what's important here, Pat, is that when people look at public safety, they look at the police aspect of it, but there are other connections that must be filled in that are not, such as what we're attempting to do in Albany around dealing with those with severe mental health illnesses and voluntary removals. 

When you look at many of these random acts of violence that you're seeing, you're seeing that it's dealing with people who are dealing with some real severe mental health illness. 

Something simple, as just being able to engage them and give them the help they need. The woman who struck the cello player over the head, she was repeatedly involved in mental health removals from time to time. And you see it over and over again. We have to give our law enforcement, our outreach workers the proper authorization to give them the help that they need. 

Kiernan: Mayor Adams, I don't want to get into second guessing what one passenger did, what a passenger might not have done, but I do want to tap into some of your experience from when you were a cop out there in a situation like this. You see this fight unfolding. What can be done to de‑escalate there? 

Mayor Adams: Well, and you're right, it's extremely challenging, particularly when you are dealing with someone that is just engaging in violent behavior. And I don't want to go into the thrust of the investigation, but I'm sure as New Yorkers see this unfold and what we can release, you will see there was a passenger that was merely just minding his business and using transportation like millions of people do. 

And a person with severe mental health illness, what appears to be severe mental health illness. got engaged in a very violent way. But the investigation is going to take its course. What one should do is attempt not to engage with the person, just attempt to just remain calm and don't engage with them in a back and forth of dispute in any way because you're dealing with someone that does not seem to be in a proper frame of mind based on what I saw in that tape. 

Kiernan: Mayor Adams, as far as the presence of police, will deployments change as a result of this, or is it the same strategy that was in place 24 hours ago? 

Mayor Adams: Well, the strategy was the right one. We had police officers there and we have police officers who are complementing the traditional transit patrol who are going into the system and doing inspections. And because of that, we made a quick apprehension and we were able to prevent an additional act of violence from that firearm that was in the system. 

Kiernan: Mayor Adams mentioned that he's got someone there with him this morning. Gary LaBarbera is the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, that labor group teaming up with the city on a program to bring more affordable workforce housing to New York. 

Gary, thank you for being there. Can you explain for me, trade unions will be investing pension money to try to create apartment buildings that are specifically for the unionized workforce. 

Gary LaBarbera, President, Building and Construction Trades Council: Yes, and it's good to be with the mayor this morning. Yes, that's what we have done. We, over the last 18 months, thought of a way that we could bring a solution to the workforce housing crisis. 

I want to compliment Mayor Adams, first and foremost, for embracing this concept. No mayor has built workforce housing in decades in the City of New York. He's the first mayor, as I said, in decades that has taken this initiative. 

And what we did is we raised the first $100 million into an equity fund, the Cirrus Workforce Housing Fund, through building trades union pension funds. And we will be able to bring equity into the project through union pension funds. We are also able to bring debt through union pension funds. 

And then partnering with the city for some subsidies and maybe some land, in turn, like a Mitchell‑Lama type program, we will be able to have a financial construct that does a number of things; one is a very strong investment for investors. 

But two, and most importantly, we'll be able to build housing for essential workers in the City of New York. And we will be able to do this under a negotiated project labor agreement so that the projects will be built with union construction labor. 

So, this is not a new model. This is what was done with Coop City in Electchester, Penn South. But again, we said to the mayor about a year ago, we're going to pursue this concept when we reach our first close of $100 million, we would be back. 

And we came back and the mayor embraced this and we're going to be able to build thousands of units with a union construction model providing good homes for New York City's essential workers 

Kiernan: So, Mayor Adams, let's talk about that, because you've been documenting the housing crisis and what your administration hopes to do about it asking for help from Albany as well. Who would get those affordable apartments? How will that be determined? 

Mayor Adams: Everyday working class people. We've stated this over and over again. We are watching the hemorrhaging of working class people leaving the city because it has become unaffordable, and one of the top items on the affordability list is the ability to have housing. 

And so here we have this win‑win. I cannot be more excited with the construction industry has come together. We're going to build it by union workers. We're going to make it affordable for working class people in the city, and we're going to use our resources such as land and subsidies to make this marriage happen. 

And so this is a really exciting moment for those who have long stated they wanted to stay in the city, but it has reached a level of unaffordability and employment. We're seeing it numerically in Black and Brown and underserved communities. 

These are, Gary, union members that are now going to be a part of building their housing, working in the city and living in the city. This is a very exciting moment for us. But we still need help from Albany. We have to incentivize building in the city and being able to build more in the city.

That's what Speaker Adams talked about. hats off to her as she says she says she's going to lead from the front with a major potential project at Aqueduct. But that is what it's going to take, all of us understanding a one percent vacancy rate is not what this city needs right now. We have to build more and increase the inventory. 

Kiernan: And when we've said before this solution is not going to come with one 50,000‑unit development, this is going to come [with] a thousand apartments here, two thousand apartments there. It'll all make a difference in the end. 

Mayor Adams and Gary LaBarbera, thank you for joining us this morning. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. 

LaBarbera: Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Great to be on. 

LaBarbera: Thank you very much.

###