Transcript: Mayor Adams Announces Plan to Expand Harlem River Greenway to The Bronx

March 22, 2023

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: Good morning everyone. It is an honor to be here back as you know, someone that you to represent this Council district from Marble Hill, Inwood, and Highbridge Park, in half of the bridge up to Manhattan. I have been here, years after I was a commissioner with a great mayor of our city and our Congress member also that now represents this area. One thing that, Mr. Mayor and congressman, I said before is that few blocks away where we have... It is the first big hotel that we have in North Manhattan. And in that area we could named after Calle 27 de Febrero, it's 27th of February, which is the celebration of Dominican Independence Day. One thing that the congressman and I say that this bridge also reflects the connectivity. 500,000 Dominicans from the almost 1 million that we have in the city living both sides from the Bronx to Manhattan.

So they interact, they go visit the family, go to the doctor. Of course we are here to stand as one city together, but as a very proud, the Dominicans Americans. Very good to know that this is the area also where in the past all Dominican only used to be in that side. And now most Dominican live in the Bronx side, down in the Manhattan side. So my name is Ydanis Rodriguez, and I'm the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. It's a beautiful day for the bike ride and it was an honor to join the great Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan for the ride up here to the Highbridge Park. A lot of history in this bridge that we’ll be celebrating the 175 anniversary in this year in 2023. We hope you take a moment to enjoy this beautiful view over the Harlem River as we discuss how we are going to reconnect residents of the Bronx to the waterfronts. So it is my pleasure, [speaks in Spanish.]

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. This is a beautiful bridge. If many of you are on it for the first time, this is a great renovation that was done. And I really want to thank the partnership of everyone that's involved. This is an amazing announcement where we are making today. When I was Brooklyn borough president, we did much to build out the greenway in Brooklyn and when we talk about greenways and our waterfront, we often do not include the Bronx and Washington Heights in this initiative. But that ends as we are making this amazing announcement today that is going to have a major impact on this greenway and how we developed this area and allow Bronxnites and Manhattanites to use the amazing waterfront that so many other communities have enjoyed for so many years.

And it's a good freeway to engage families. We saw that during Covid-19, the role that greenways played in how we want to expand in this area here. We are starting this seven mile project and we're doing it the right way. We're doing it by having communities engaged and communities involved. This is something that both the congressman and the commissioner have always indicated. When you attempt to develop communities, you want to do it in a manner in which you will move and bring communities and allow them to be involved in the development. This is a multifaceted project. It is going to allow the people of this community to have a pathway along the waterfront. We have over 500 miles of waterfront in this city and all of it should be explored. All of it should be developed for people to walk, for people to ride, for people to just be encouraged to experience the outdoors and just a simple ride that we took here.

This is an amazing park and experience of free open spaces. Something that the commissioner of Parks and the deputy commissioner who's here with us today, something that they're going to continue to explore and make sure that we have a clear focus on how we develop this seven mile of greenway that we are looking at here in the Washington Heights and the Bronx area. What's important in this initiative is this is the kickoff of community conversations, getting people together, allowing them to play a role in the development of this initiative. And so I just really want to thank the congressman who's here with us and will be speaking in a moment, and the commissioner of DOT, and the commissioner — who's not here now — of Parks, Sue Donoghue, for this amazing opportunity. So we are excited.

We are expanding the Harlem River Greenway to the Bronx, connecting. All of the disconnections that we are making is really a symbol of the past. It's a symbol of the Robert Moses era. Bridges and highways that were built, that ripped apart communities such as the Cross Bronx Expressway, the BQE, bridges like ones we're standing on. In so many ways not only did we disconnect the communities, but we disconnect opportunities. But this seven mile of continuous walking and bike paths from Van Cortlandt Park to Randall's Island, that's a great ride. Great way to exercise, great way to get Michael Gardner off his car and have him ride a bike and participate and enjoy the city with his two beautiful children.

Highbridge used to be like the high line of the past and we want those great investments also in parts of the city that have been denied. We know what the Major Deegan and other highways have done to our communities, and now we're going to fix the problems that we've witnessed in previous years. I want to thank not only this administration, but all of the previous administration from back from the Bloomberg administration to Bill de Blasio. There was a real commitment and focus that we want to continue of how do we open up our greenways, our waterways to the public and allow them to experience these locations again.

So beginning next month, DOT will host a series of online workshops that the residents of the Bronx can have their voices heard in the design of these seven miles with real input. We will have two rounds of workshops and community visioning as part of this city funded planning process. Next year, we'll put our plan in and get to work to make this happen. The expanded greenway is part of a larger effort to connect the city through a network of greenways stretching across all five boroughs. No borough will be left behind. Earlier we talked about the one in Queens. I talked about the one we did in Brooklyn. When you look at these 520 miles of waterfront, we need to focus on how does it serve the people of this city. When you look towards the future, the future is green and clean and it puts people first. Great job, commissioner. Look forward to this assignment.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It’s an honor to make this announcement today right here on Highbridge Park. As the mayor said so well, today's announcement is about reversing history wrong for the Bronx community. This greenway will help reconnect the Bronx to its waterfronts and so much more. The goal is to craft a greenway for both recreation and transportation. This route will connect the Bronx to job centers like Bronx Hub, Fordham Plaza, and the 125th Street corridor in Manhattan. It will also connect Bronx to higher education institutions like Manhattan College, Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and also Community College. It will connect to cultural and entertainment destinations like Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Children Museum, and the Hip Hop Museum. But this plan will also return the waterfront to residents of the Bronx. Whatever possible, the routes will be along the edge of the Harlem River waterfronts. Bronx residents and elected officials have been asking for the greenway along the Harlem River for decades.

We're excited to partner with a robust advocacy community to make this vision a reality, and that's why we want to invite Bronx residents to our community workshops starting next week. We want to hear from you on how you want to use your waterfronts. No one will come from the outside imposing that vision. That vision will be the result of community engagement that Mayor Adams is so committed to help this to happen. So please join us. And members of the media, we appreciate you getting the word out to residents, as the mayors also committed to you, the ethnic community media to connect and inform those Bronx residents who are not necessarily English speaking, but others who doesn't speak English, but they pay taxes. They will be invited to be part of this conversation. 

We have much more exciting greenway news to come. Using city and federal funding, we are working to develop greenways across the city, primarily in underserved communities, communities that were left out in the past, to ensure all New Yorkers can benefit from the welcoming parks and safe cycling infrastructure that we have in our great City of New York. We thank our federal partners in the Biden administration and local leaders for supporting our work. I'd like to especially attend the talented DOT staff for all the great hard work, including Ted Wright, Margaret [inaudible], Paula Rubira, and many others. But we couldn't have gotten here today without the tireless work of advocates. And there has been one of the advocate who has really shined a light on this issue. His name is Chauncy Young of the Harlem River Working Group and he does a great job. [Speaks in Spanish.] I will give you our good friend, Congressman Adriano Espaillat.

U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat: Thank you, commissioner. Thank you. I want to thank the commissioner and commend him for his great work. Mayor, thank you. You're keeping your word. I tell my colleagues in Washington that I have the biggest parking lot in the country, and they don't understand, and there it is. It's called the Cross Bronx Expressway. Look at it, and all of that contributes to bad quality of air, contributes to asthma. You see the buildings there. The facade in the building turns brown and dark from the fumes coming from the vehicles crossing the Cross Bronx Expressway, and the quality of air right there in that neighborhood is very poor.

But this is a wonderful bridge, and it connects Highbridge Park, the Highbridge Tower to the Highbridge neighborhood in the Bronx. You have the pool there, the Highbridge Pool, which was featured in the movie In the Heights. So, this is a wonderful neighborhood, right? And it is the highest point in Manhattan. That's why it's called Washington Heights. Right there, the Fort George area of the neighborhood is the highest point of Manhattan, and on a clear day you can see the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. So, this is a great neighborhood.

But what is it that when you walk around New York City and you walk south of 96th Street, you see the investment on the waterfront, and you see places like the Highline, and you see places like the waterfront along the Hudson, and you see the Hudson Rail Yards, and you see all the major investment going on in certain parts of the city. It's called disparity, right? So, the mayor is not only trying to build a seven-mile ... Yes, the lucky seven. That's a lucky number. The seven-mile connector from Van Cortlandt to Randall's Island, a green path, a greenway in a community that, as you see, the pollution is a problem. But he's also trying to invest in neighborhoods that have been left behind.

In my district, for example, we have, mayor, three major projects that will help redefine those neighborhoods. The Second Avenue Subway, second phase, it will connect East Harlem and Harlem to the rest of the world. The Kingsbridge Armory — and the councilwoman is right there, Pierina Sanchez, who's with us today — The Kingsbridge Armory proposes to turn the Bronx around and show the rest of the planet that after Covid, the zip codes that were hardest hit by the pandemic are back and working and a first-class cultural center for this community here in Upper Manhattan that hasn't had one to express themselves with the rest of the city.

Those three major projects, along with initiatives like this, will help bring back our neighborhood and ensure that we're investing in them. That the disparity days are over. That there is fairness in this city in the investment practices of local government.

So, that's what this is about. What is it about investment that the Major Deegan and the highway lines here disconnected this community from the river? Why is that not the case on the west side? They have access to the river. So, we want to change that. And it takes deep-pocket investment because these are infrastructure initiatives that often are very, very costly. But the mayor is committed to doing that. And when you do that to neighborhoods, it lifts them economically, it lifts them in terms of the environment, it lifts families. They stay in the neighborhood.

So, this is a good thing, and this is a beautiful bridge. It's a walking bridge. You see this bridge, David Letterman had it as a backdrop to his setting, right? Every night you could see this bridge in The David Letterman Show. But it was deteriorated. It took Congressman Serrano to get the monies to do this bridge again that connects Washington Heights to Highbridge.

Two community communities that have invisible bridges, right? Because if you live in Washington Heights and your mother is there, when you go to work, you take your kids to be taken care of in Highbridge. If you live in Washington Heights and you go to the local bodega, I bet you that same local bodega is on University Avenue.

So, these are two communities that have invisible bridges connecting them together, but this one is a real bridge that brings them closer together. So, I thank you, mayor. We were steadfast in helping secure $7.2 million for this project, federal money. We have the transportation infrastructure jobs act, a trillion dollars with a capital "T" for the country. We've got to fight to make sure we bring those dollars to our communities. [Speaks in Spanish.]

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you, congressman. And now as she's coming here right now, we will hear from the Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson. One thing that the congressman highlighted about the need that we have on continuing investing in infrastructure is that last year, our DOT agency got an 18 percent increase in our budget.

Because that's how he put the money on his commitment to invest, to pull the resources that we need. And in the State of the City speech, he also added almost $400 million so that DOT will continue having the resources that we need to partner with the funding at the federal level, so that this commitment on the Greenway has the money there for us to do the job. With that, let me call on the Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Thank you. I made it, I made it. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Thank you so much to each and every one of you for being here. What an important and historic moment in the history of the Bronx and the City of New York. I am grateful to be here as the Bronx borough president on this historic High Bridge, the oldest-standing walking bridge in the City of New York that connects the Highbridge community of the Bronx to Washington Heights and Northern Manhattan in the borough of Manhattan.

This has really been a great connector for families, and children, and so many New Yorkers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike. Several years ago when we reopened this High Bridge, it was with the understanding that we wanted to create access and opportunity for so many of our families, access to the waterways, to our open space. And through the years, we've recognized Arbor Day, where we've planted trees on both the Manhattan and the Bronx side of the High Bridge. We've had events here working with the Parks Department.

And now today, we join our mayor, Eric Adams, our city DOT commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez, our Parks Department commissioner, Sue Donoghue, and our first deputy commissioner, our very own Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, as well as the Bronx Community Foundation, Dr. Meisha Porter, and everyone, all of our partners at the Harlem River Working Group. I want to shout you out. Chauncey Young, BCEQ, Joyce Hogi, and so many others. Karen Argenti. All of my avid environmentalists and park advocates that do this work every day.

Today we officially announce that the Harlem River is now going to expand access to the Harlem River Greenway with connections from Randall’s Island to Van Cortlandt Park in the Northwest Bronx. That is an exciting announcement. And remember, it's coupled with this administration's ongoing commitment to opening up our waterways and creating access to natural resources.

For us in the Bronx, this is a game-changer. Because we often deal with health disparities like asthma and air pollution. We want to reduce our carbon footprint, and encourage cycling and walking and jogging, and so many things that we know are important to our health. Mayor Adams always says, and I adopt it too, "Health is wealth, and wealth is health." And we want healthy New Yorkers. Our young people, our children, our older adults.

Think about the transformative work that's happening here on the High Bridge, and also recognizing National Water Day and our partners working with President Biden and his administration. We want to infuse even more resources into the Harlem River, across the Borough of the Bronx, the west side, connections that so many residents in Highbridge have not always felt. From Depot Place, Community Board 4, from Highbridge.

If you look to your left, you will hit Roberto Clemente State Park, the only state park in the borough of the Bronx. River Park Towers, University Heights, Fordham Heights, going all the way up to Marble Hill on the west side. Connecting the Harlem River, connecting communities that have often been divided and separated.

That is what this work is about. So, I want to thank Mayor Adams and Commissioner Rodriguez, and Commissioner Donoghue. Thank you to all of our partners at City Hall, as well as the Parks Department, DOT, DEP, to all of our parks groups, to all of our advocates. I want to recognize my Manhattan borough president, Mark Levine, because he and I do a lot of work together.

Finally, I also want to recognize Mr. Mayor. You all should know, this summer we are celebrating the 175th anniversary of the historic Highbridge. Right? Happy Birthday, Highbridge. 175 years is a long time. But we will continue to provide access and opportunity, stimulating our economy, and making sure that our residents and families have access. So, I want to say thank you again to our mayor and our commissioner for always being a part of these important conversations and making sure that the Bronx is included and not excluded. As a five-borough mayor, he gets it. As a friend to the Bronx and Manhattan, the mayor will ride here, he will jog here, he will walk here. He will do whatever is necessary to come to our great borough of the Bronx. And for that, we are grateful. Welcome, everyone. Thank you, and I look forward to our continued partnership. Thank you so much. Thank you, mayor. Appreciate you.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you our president now is here from Dr. Meisha Porter, CEO of the Bronx Community Foundation and former schools chancellor.

Dr. Meisha Porter, President and CEO, Bronx Community Foundation: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much. Welcome to the beautiful Bronx. And one of the things that is super exciting for me is no matter what job I have, Chauncey Young is always right there. And so I just want to give a shout-out to the advocates, the Harlem River Working Group, who have been really working to bring this waterway to life. And I know Mr. Mayor that they are ready to engage in a conversation and commissioner on how to get this done. We stand today in the shadow of the Cross Bronx Expressway and all of the highways that have cut off our communities for so many generations. And today you are answering calls, Mr. Mayor, that you don't even know have gone out. Our President Gibson and I traveled to Israel this last year with the Jewish Y, with MMCC, and other community partners. And when we came back we said we need to convene our young people because it's one thing for us to be having conversations about what we need to do in the Bronx, but what are our young people thinking about?

And so we convened them without an agenda and we asked them what's important to you? And they said the thing that was most important to them was to have more green spaces in the Bronx to have access to the waterfront. They didn't even know what was being planned. This is from the mouths of babes. And so this investment is not only an investment in us today, it's not only an investment in this borough, but is an investment in future generations at the Bronx Community Foundations we're we are focused on bringing new resources to the Bronx. We're focused on investing in building generational wealth and as the borough president and the mayor say, health is wealth and this is an investment in the future, healthy wealth of young people and communities in the Bronx. And congressman, I've watched my cousin ride the Invisible Bridge to drop his children off to his Dominican mother-in-law's house and go back to the Bronx to be a guidance counselor at a high school in the Bronx.

And so these communities have always been connected here and the most important places, Council member and commissioner, right? Here, we've been connected. But the investment in the Bronx, is an investment in the pathway forward for the city. It's an investment in people who've been left behind, but not the spirit of a community who's never allowed itself to be left behind. It's an investment in education, it's an investment in healthy communities. It's an investment in mental health. To have a place to go to that is clean and beautiful, we deserve it. We don't deserve to have our neighborhoods interrupted by highways and byways. We deserve what every other neighborhood would get without question. And it is an honor and a privilege to have a mayor who gets that in New York City. Thank you so much.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you, doctor. I also want to acknowledge, have been mentioned before, the first commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, and also Council Member Pierina Sanchez. Having Iris Rodriguez, Valerie and Leonardo Conjelo. They know the Bronx, they're big in the Bronx and that's the difference. The mayor is not sending anyone from the outside, but he's working with leaders who know about the need of this borough. With that… 

Question: Hi, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good, how are you? There's a lot of talk about connecting the two communities on both sides of the bridges or on both sides of the river. The city controls 11 bridges over this river. And about five years ago there was this major report on how they could connect them better for bike pedestrian access. So far I think the only thing that's happening is the Washington Bridge and maybe the Broadway Bridge, but all the other bridges still have very poor bike and pedestrian access. Do you intend to improve that maybe by even just making this bridge 24/7 access?

Mayor Adams: And that's the goal. The goal is to continue to do so. There were plans that were interrupted during Covid. We have to be very clear, Covid changed a lot of things for us. And we have to reflect on those, look at how the dollars flow, use the dollars from the infrastructure dollars that's coming from Washington thanks to our Congressional delegation and others. But the goal is to open up all these bridges. I ride across the bridges all the time on my bike so I know how important it is and that's our goal as we move towards the future.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Mr. Mayor, The speaker appeared to criticize yesterday projections that NYPD is going to spend $740 million on overtime this fiscal year, nearly double what they were budgeted for. What do you think of… And she said, it seems like this would not happen if any other agency. I'm paraphrasing, but what do you think of that criticism and then also just the overtime spending in general?

Mayor Adams: Well let's do a real analysis because when you do the numbers that the speaker is talking about, she didn’t factor in the money that Albany is picking up the tab for to get our subways safe, which many of you have pointed out so eloquently last year. And we're seeing the results of the investment in our subway system, which is probably one of the top things that's important for our economic recovery of the grants we receive on a federal level of the dollars we get for overtime for so many initiatives. There's a real explanation for the overtime course and the desire to reign in the overtime course.

And so you have to dig into the numbers because you can't look at just the overall numbers and say New York City taxpayers are paying for it. The governor was clear, she understood that we needed to stabilize the public safety issue in our subway system. All of you know it because you wrote about it and we accomplished that task. You don't see the encampments on the system. You see customer satisfactory surveys have shown that people are pleased with seeing their police officers. Our city must be safe. I have never shied away from that. That's the foundation of the economic recovery and the stability of this city.

But dig into the numbers and you'll see that this is not a wasteful use of taxpayers’ dollars. I know because I review it that all of our parades and major events, I look at to see how do we reduce the coverage of overtime for police officers throughout 2022. I know how much we've done that and I'm going to have them turn over to you each one of the major events, how we have substantially decreased the overtime. Because I watch it and I monitor it. But I want to be clear so no one can misunderstand this. I'm not compromising on public safety. That's not going to happen. Public safety is the foundation of this city. That's what taxpayers say. That's where my businesses are saying. That's what everyone is saying. We want to be safe and we, I'm not compromising on that.

Question: Mayor, honestly, all eyes are on Lower Manhattan this week. We've just been reported at the Manhattan grand jury not meeting today so this is going to drag on at least another day. How is this putting a strain on NYPD's resources on the city's resources?

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. There's a lot of speculation of what is happening in the district attorney's office. We do not police based on speculation. The NYPD is fully equipped to deal with whatever circumstances may come about in the city. We've shown that throughout the years. This has been a place where we've always adjusted and so when an action happens, we'll adjust based on that action. We're fine. We have a job to do. This is New York. This is the big city and I don't know if everybody realize it, but we love New York.

Question: A doctor who was working at Rikers for about five years was banned recently after publicly criticizing a lot of the way it's been run. Do you agree with that decision to push that doctor away? Do you view it as retaliation in any way? What do you think of that situation?

Mayor Adams: Of my understanding — and our legal bureau would handle any action that he wants. First of all, he was not an employee, let's be clear on that. To put out from what I read, something that was in contradiction with the CDC, that's inappropriate. And he's a doctor, he should know a level of professional standards that he should carry out. He put out information that was in contradiction to the CDC.

People were putting fentanyl in mail. They were soaking it in mail. His statement was in contradiction of that. And so I think that it's just inappropriate to have someone that is going to openly contradict the CDC to be on Rikers Island and not just have the utmost faith in Molina. He dropped slashings on the jail against inmates and offices. At the beginning of 2022, we were having a problem with officers returning. He has drastically improved that. This guy's doing a good job. And if we're not going to spend our time talking about a doctor that wasn't an employee, we have major things to deal with on Rikers Island and that's my focus. The courts will deal with his lawsuit.

Question: Mayor, there's been a lot of concern about your cuts to the public libraries and the budget. Tony Marx and other advocates have said that the cuts could lead to elimination of weekend days, elimination of hours, especially at a time we need it after the pandemic. I'm wondering how do you respond to those who are concerned about that? Especially given your focus on working class people and the working class people who rely on the library and all the services they offer?

Mayor Adams: Love Tony, love Linda, love Dennis Walcott in Queens' Library system. From Staten Island to the Bronx, all of them are doing an amazing job and I think that it is a misreporting to state that we are making cuts. We've asked every agency in the city to look for efficiencies and the jobs that were not being filled. Vacancies. No vacant position is providing service to the city. Vacancies. That's what we told people to focus on, vacancies, and I think the libraries are doing an amazing job.

We told them, "We want you to focus on vacancies and efficiencies that's not going to have layoffs and that is going to ensure that we don't cut the delivery of services," and they have stepped up. And listen, I know it's hard on all of these agencies. We understand that. And we can stand here at the press conference and you can talk about every agency that we said, "Find efficiency." Everyone is saying, "No, don't do any form of efficiency savings." Everyone is saying that. Tomorrow you're going to be out here asking me about another agency. Here's the reality, you have a $4 billion issue. Migrant seekers, $4 billion. The money will come from somewhere and there's a reason that Fitch raised the bond rating in New York City. It was dropped down when the pandemic hit. They raised it. They raised it because they said, "The mayor is navigating through these crises and he's doing what's smart to stabilize this city."

There is a financial crisis that we are facing and so I understand what they're saying. I respect it. But I need for all of my agencies to focus on how do we weather this storm? A storm we've been before. We saw this before. We saw it after 9/11. We saw it during other economic challenges in 2008. We're going to weather it and we have to weather it, but it's going to call for efficiencies in doing so.

Question: Hi Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How's it going?

Question: Good. Going back to the Trump indictment, have you spoken to DA Alvin Bragg? On Monday, you said you didn't. Have you since then and are there any particular threats that the NYPD is looking at right now related to Trump?

Mayor Adams: No threats towards the city, and how are you doing? Good to see you. Pleasure's mine. 

There's no credible threats to the city at all and the private conversations I have with people, I don't release those. But we are comfortable that we are ready for whatever happens. And again, these are all speculations. I don't recall the DA indicating what was going to happen or not happen, so right now all of us is just speculating and I'm just not going to join the chorus of speculation.

Question: Hi Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm good. How are you?

Mayor Adams: It's interesting that your paper were able to do this extensive Twitter research on everyone they can find that complaint about, "We Love New York," something we put in place to say, "Let's volunteer" and it was just most elaborated, extensive Twitter research that I've ever seen of everyone that disliked the logo. You couldn't find anyone in all of your extensive Twitter research to say who liked the logo and who sees that, "Let's boost up what we should be doing in volunteering in the city." Is there anything that the New York Times like about my administration, anything at all? Anything?

Question: I'm flattered you think I work for the New York Times. I actually work for Politico.

Mayor Adams: Oh, okay.

Question: I'll pass that along to Jeff.

Mayor Adams: Whoa. Oh, Jeff Mays. Jeff Mays. You shouldn't be flattered. You should be flattered being at Politico. Jeff, was there anything y'all like about this administration? Anything? I'm just curious.

Question: I can ask another question.

Mayor Adams: Can you ask… I mean, who could be angry about "We Love New York." You have to be so creative in your dislike of this administration to be upset with "We Love New York." Yeah, and it was Twitter research. They found every bad tweet and said, "Let's find every bad tweet." You can find a bad tweet about anything.

Question: Did you like the design?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. Look, I'm wearing two stickers. I'm wearing two stickers. I mean, I'm thinking about getting a tattoo that says, "We Love New York." But y'all, just think about this for a moment. They went in and did research on Twitter and said, "Let's find everyone that hates, "We Love New York." "We Love New York." How could you be upset about, "We Love New York?"

Question: That's a good question.

Question: Is it such a bad thing though, Mr. Mayor? It brings attention to at least maybe you can do a redesign too. Maybe get…

Mayor Adams: Go ahead. My apologies.

Question: It's all good. Got to get it all here. The Senate and Assembly released counter proposals for the budget for the MTA. They rejected increasing the payroll mobility tax so far. They proposed other revenue raisers, one was a residential parking permit system. Do you have any thoughts on that and do you think that the governor should still go forward with the payroll mobility tax increase?

Mayor Adams: Right now, no. Albany, both houses released their One House, the governor releases her budget. Now they engage in the conversation. I have been speaking with the speaker and the majority leader and I'm just really excited with how we went into this year and we all agreed that let's communicate, let's allow the process to take its course. They have been just really helpful to the city, and I am really happy of the energy that we are having in Albany with both Carl and Andrea. And all the leaders that are from New York City, they're focusing on New York City. They know we need help around asylum seekers. They know it's unfair to hit us with $500 million every year for these subways. We are already paying over $2 billion. So they understand that and I think they're going to work this out. This is the purpose. Right now, they're in this negotiation period and I'm excited about it.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: No, let me get a question since I made the error of thinking she was New York Times. What was your next question?

Question: What do you think of the idea of a residential parking permit system for some city neighborhoods?

Mayor Adams: I've heard it float around for years. They have to do the study and see, does it work? I've heard it float around even when I was in Borough Hall, so it's up to Albany. Albany's going to sit down and work this stuff out and we're just going to weigh in. We've been up there a lot. I'm going up I think next week. We want to really land the plane on housing. We want to look at 421-a and some of the other issues that we're looking at that are barriers to continue to build housing, and I'm hoping that everyone is on the same page.

Question: We're speaking about the economic crisis within the city and you mentioned the migrant crisis, the $4.2 billion just before. There's a new study released from the Federation for American Immigration Reform that found illegal immigration…

Mayor Adams: Oh, I'm sorry. You got to talk like a New Yorker, loud.

Question: A new study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform found illegal immigration, which includes asylum seekers and programs that serve immigrants, cost New York taxpayers nearly $10 billion in 2023. Your number's $4.2 billion for the two year projection. We're wondering, does the city have a plan to pay for this? How are you approaching this?

Mayor Adams: I think I heard you say how we plan on paying for the $4.2 billion and the…

Question: A new study, though, that says it's going to cost New Yorkers $10 million. Sorry, $10 billion.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. Well, and I think some people don't really get it sometimes. January 1st, 2022, we had 35,000 people in our shelter system. In a few months we have, in addition to the 35,000, I think we have to 52,000 right now. 52,000. And it keeps pivoting and shifting and every day we're still getting asylum and migrant seekers. We're doing what no other municipality is doing, and so the numbers is going to keep… We didn't even realize it was going to be as much as it was when we first rolled this out. This is going to continue to shift, pivot, and we have to respond to it no matter what.