Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Announces Tenant Support Unit Helped 1,000 Tenants Fight Harassment, Secure Repairs

February 29, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much.

Welcome, everyone. We are glad to be here at the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation. For over 35 years this organization has done so much for this community -  has been on the frontline of helping to protect tenants, helping to protect New Yorkers and keep them in their homes, and really protecting the whole reality of a neighborhood that’s been in transition, but where so many people need to make sure that their rights are protected and they get to stay in the homes they love and the neighborhoods they love. And I appreciate deeply what Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation does for everyone in this community. And I am grateful to count them as an ally in our efforts to protect affordable housing and create new affordable housing for the people of the community.

And today we have something to celebrate, and this is a great place to celebrate it. Since last summer, our Tenants Support Unit has been going door-to-door in communities where New Yorkers are in danger of being forced out of their homes, where they’re in danger of being treated unfairly. And our Tenant Support Unit gives tenants the information that they deserve about their rights. They make sure they know in particular that they have support available to them if they fear they’re being evicted illegally or being harassed by the landlord; if they feel that repairs aren’t being made or any other kind of service is being withheld; if they fear they’re being overcharged by their landlords, our Tenant Support Unit goes out there and helps them. And one of the things they do is to get our Department of Housing Preservation and Development involved to help tenants and they can also be on issues like repairs. HPD does a great job making sure that when a landlord hasn’t done repairs that they are made to do those repairs or in some cases the city steps in makes the repairs and then charges the landlord. And that could be issues like mold and rodents and infestations and leaks, a whole host of things that really makes life so difficult for families. HPD steps in to address those issues.

So, the good news today, and I’m very proud of this - proud to announce that the Tenant Support Unit has resolved its 1,000th case - 1,000 New York families that have been helped by the Tenant Support Unit to get what they need. In some cases, they got repairs that should have come to them long before. In other cases, we’ve been able to protect them from eviction [inaudible] any other way make sure that their rights were not being trampled on. And this is so important to so many people. This is the kind of real bread and butter [inaudible] that people expect of their government - to be helped in their hour of need. And the tenant support unit has really done that beautifully and in part because of the hard work of the tenant support unit along with some other very important factors and other changes that we’ve made. We’ve seen a 24 percent decrease in evictions by city marshals over the last two years. So, it’s really two pieces of good news today - the fact that the tenant support unit has resolved its 1,000th case - helped 1,000 families fix the problems that they’re facing; and we’re proud to announce that there’s been a 24 percent decrease in evictions by city marshals over the last two years. That means 7,000 families who were able to benefit, and who in so many cases are staying in the neighborhood they love and in the home they love.

So, I want to thank everyone who’s here and has been a part of this. Two people from the administration in particular - I want to thank Steve Banks, the commissioner of HRA, who has a long history of supporting New Yorkers in need with legal aid, and has brought a lot of that capacity now into the work we do. And I’ll talk about the expansion we made in legal aid and legal services in a second; and Vito Mustaciuolo, who is legendary in this city - deputy commissioner for Enforcement and Legal Aid Services at HPD, who is doing extraordinary work. This is man who is beloved by tenants all over this city because he has used the power if government to take on landlords and get people the repairs that they deserve. I also want to thank Charles Corliss, the executive director of Inwood Community Services; and Raun Rasmussen, the executive director of Legal Services of New York City; and Magda Rosa-Rios, the [inaudible] director of the Tenants Rights Coalition. Thank you to all. Everyone has been together in this effort to protect tenants [inaudible] support of affordable housing.

Now, the reality is that housing is the number one expense in our lives, particularly for New Yorkers. It’s the number one cost we face. In this city, that’s a big bite out of our paychecks, out of the resources we have in our household budget. It is also the area where the quality of life gets determined in so many ways. So, when a tenant isn’t getting a repair that they need; when there’s mold; when there’s rodents; when they’re not getting heat; when they feel the threat of eviction leaning over them  - nothing’s more unsettling; nothing’s more difficult for a family then [inaudible] they’re going to be able to afford their housing or whether they’re going to lose the housing that they have; or if they can stay, but stay in conditions that just aren’t right for any family.

And you’re going to hear from a New Yorker in a moment - from Emily, who’s been living in an apartment with truly unacceptable conditions. She’ll go into them, but she’s had a host of repairs that weren’t made by her landlord. She’s been threatened with eviction. New Yorkers deserve better than that. They should neverhave to go through that. They should know the government is on their side, and we’re proving that with our Tenant Support Unit, and with the work of all these wonderful agencies and organizations. Overall, most landlords are responsible, but t here’s an unscrupulous group of landlords who are constantly trying to take advantage of tenants who we have to go at very hard. That’s part of why we’ve increased by tenfold - ten times the amount of legal aid and legal services available to tenants in this city. So, people can pick up the phone, call 3-1-1, and know if they’re being illegally harassed or illegally evicted that they can get a free lawyer provided by the city. And that’s something that has not been available on this scale before in this city.

We’ve formed a special task force with the Attorney General and the state to investigate unscrupulous landlords who harass tenants and that can include bringing criminal charges against these bad actors. And with the City Council - very important piece of legislation that acted on the issue of the aggressive efforts of “buy-outs,” including some tactics that are now illegal where landlords would promise tenants buy-outs that were too good to be true, and in fact turned out to be too good to be true and left tenants without affordable housing. So, the pressure tactics that were applied unscrupulously have now been made illegal. All of these pieces are helping, and there’s always more to do but all of these pieces are helping. And our affordable housing plan, which begins with preservation. Remember, 120,000 units out of our 200,000 in the plan is preserving affordable housing in place. So far, that’s 26,000 apartments in this city that have been preserved in place over the last two years - enough for almost 70,000 New Yorkers, keeping our current affordable housing affordable.

What we did with the [inaudible] rent-regulated apartments that had a rent freeze this year because landlord expenses simply hadn’t gone up. All of these pieces come together to protect affordable housing in this city - and, obviously, two crucial proposals before the City Council now - Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning. That will require developers to provide affordable housing where the policy applies, literally making the requirement of the development process and zoning for quality and affordability that will make it much more possible and easier and quicker to create senior housing in particular - addressing some of the [inaudible] aspects of the law that are holding back our ability to create senior affordable housing. And seniors have certainly let us know how important that is to them. We cannot allow affordability in this city to become a thing of the past. We cannot allow this city to become only a place for those who have a lot of resources. It has to be a city for everyone. And these are the kind of measures we need to do that.

And what we have today is evidence that these approaches are working - Tenant Support Unit, my hat’s off to them for what they’ve done; all the families they’ve helped; all of those evictions that are not happening now; that is proof that these policies are working. And it’s a reminder to the tenants in New York City that their city government has their back and we will be there for them. And I have to tell you - you will hear from Emily - it’s so important to hear the stories of people who have really been put through hell and needed someone to have their back. And the city should be there for them - reminder that anyone feels they are being illegally harassed, or illegally evicted, or overcharged, or denied heat or hot water, they can call 3-1-1. Any New Yorker who feels they are being treated either in an unfair, in an illegal manner by the landlord, call 3-1-1. We will get you a lawyer, and we will fight for your rights.

Now, a few words in Spanish -

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

[…]

Mayor: Okay, we will take questions on the topic of affordable housing - in particular, the efforts to defend tenants - and then we’ll take other topics.

First, on this topic -

Question: Do you have any details about the 1,000th case that you resolved?

Mayor: The 1,000th case?

Question: Was is it a -

Mayor: See, if anyone knows about the 1,000th - that’s a, that’s a very good question.

[Laughter]

She’s one step ahead of you, Wiley. Damn good question, should’ve had it ready. Okay, thank you Jen, took us to school there. Okay, go ahead.

Question: Of the 1,000 cases, has everyone been able to stay in their apartment, or have you relocated them, or what’s the break down?

Mayor: I’ll define it - it’s a variety of cases. Some are about stopping evictions, some are about getting people heat, hot water, repairs. Now, remember, the two go together. Sometimes you got somebody literally being challenged by a landlord illegally - being told they have to leave when they don’t, being overcharged when they shouldn’t be, that’s one type of case. Sometimes you have landlords trying to evict people by making life miserable - taking away the heat, hot water, and repairs. Sometimes it’s not specifically to achieve eviction - it’s just that the landlords are not providing the service they’re legally obligated to do.

Each case is different, but the 1,000 resolved means in each case we got the thing fixed - either we got the heat back on, we got the repairs made, we got the eviction stopped, it’s a variety.

Question: Do you know approximately how many open cases there are?

Mayor: How many open cases - good question. Steve, would you know that? Who knows that? Do you know, Steve? Anyone?

Commissioner Steve Banks, Human Resources Administration: It’s a fluid situation.

Mayor: Why don’t you come over here? Come over here.

Commissioner Banks: About half the cases were referred to legal services, and like [inaudible] through various stages of resolution it’s a very fluid situation. Some of the cases are very simple in the sense that it’s a code situation that HPD get involved and fix it. Some are legal cases that go on, so we’re aiming to get resolutions to keep people in stable housing, and sometimes it takes a short period of time, sometimes a long period of time.

Mayor: Okay, on this topic.

Question: What the City’s track record when it gets involved in keeping people from getting evicted?

Mayor: Steve can speak to the history of the legal element of it, and Vito can certainly take about the repair piece of it. I will state the obvious up front - it’s not a hell of a lot better than when the City’s not involved. When the City’s not involved, historically, a lot of people have had their rights trampled. A lot of people have had no lawyer, couldn’t afford a lawyer, didn’t know where to get a lawyer. It’s positively sick what’s happened to a lot of people.

I’ve met so many tenants that if they had a lawyer in time - I’m talking about over years and years of talking to people - they might’ve been able to stay in their home. They certainly would’ve had a better standard of living. So, this is a big problem and has been for years. The most important thing is to get people the help they deserve while we can fix the situation.

In terms of - Steve you want to add? Or Vito?

Commissioner Banks: Provision of legal services really makes the difference between preventing eviction and not. They have a tremendous track record, better than 90 percent over time, and they’re taking difficult cases. They’re taking the hardest cases. They are triaging, so the cases that they’re intervening in are difficult cases, and overall they have a 90 percent track record.

I would say also - in my prior experience representing individual homeless families, there are - among those most frustrating things is to stand with someone in a shelter with a court paper that you know that the provisional lawyer could’ve prevented that family form losing their home, and what these programs is doing now is making a difference and enabling people to stay in their homes.

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: Across the system, obviously different providers are working with different circumstances - rent-regulated apartments, non-rent-regulated apartments, but overall the success rate has been greater than 90 percent.

Question: Due to the importance of lawyers to keeping people from being evicted, I’m wondering what you think of a movement or a push or the idea of providing lawyers for everyone who appears in housing court.

Mayor: I think the focus on stopping illegal eviction and illegal overcharges is where the first focus needs to be. Look, we know there are people in housing court, sometimes the landlord’s in the wrong, sometimes the tenant’s in the wrong. We are focusing on making sure that any time the tenant is innocent and the landlord is illegally trying to evict that tenant or overcharge or harass - that they get a lawyer.

So I think we talk about a lawyer for every single case, we’re talking about a much bigger universe and a much more - a much clearer set of circumstances. But the reason we’ve increased legal aid ten times is that when it comes down to something particularly as crucial as eviction that people do have that legal outlet.

Question: I was wondering how many requests over the years you’ve had [inaudible] I was wondering how long it takes for this [inaudible] the wait time and how [inaudible].

Mayor: Well, Vito will come up and tell you.

I want to emphasize, it’s also very helpful to us to keep reminding tenants to call 3-1-1 if they’re not getting a response from their property manager. Look, the building manager is supposed to take care of it, if they’re not we need to know about it. Because again either we make the make the repairs or we do them ourselves and charge the building manager.

Vito can give you a sense of the numbers.

Deputy Commissioner Vito Mustaciuolo, Housing Preservation and Development: Thank you. As the mayor indicated - so, we do receive complaints. We also perform proactive inspections. Each year, we receive in excess of 600,000 calls through 3-1-1 that we respond to. We issue about half a million violations, and we spend about $12 million a year performing emergency repairs. So, as the mayor indicated, what we do is -  if we [inaudible] we charge the owner and if they fail to pay we place a lien on the property. I think the proactive initiatives that we have - the Mayor mentioned the task force, it’s been extremely aggressive resulting in the arrest of an owner in Brooklyn this past summer. So we’re not only being reactionary to complaints, we’re also being very proactive.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, the difference - and I want to be clear - this is the City’s tenant support unit as opposed to the state DHCR unit which is a different thing. And we also have the legal A legal services component through 3-1-1 - so two separate things the City has, different from the state. We’re on a very aggressive timeline, I can’t comment on the state dynamic, I can comment on the city one.

We want to find people right away. And we say to organizations like Northern Manhattan - help us target, if you know someone who needs help - we want to the find them, we want someone to go right to their door to get them the help, to make sure they’ve got a lawyer. We don’t want to just wait. We want to find out where there’s someone in need.

So, the City takes a very aggressive approach, both in terms of the legal aid side and the repair side. And from our point of view it’s urgent. In so many cases we’re going to save a family from being evicted, now what could happen to that family if they’re evicted? Imagine that, an illegally evicted family that ends up in a housing shelter - a homeless shelter, I’m sorry - a homeless shelter. Imagine what a horrible combination of outcomes that is. Something that’s done illegally that also results in a horrible outcome for that family. That’s the kind of thing that’s happened in the past that we won’t tolerate.

We have to get to people urgently to try and make sure everything’s fine. The other thing we find is when you lose an apartment - a family is kicked out of an apartment illegally, a lot of times that apartment is no longer affordable for anyone else, so you actually lose some of your stock of affordable housing as another negative byproduct.

So we take very seriously trying to get in there and trying to address each situation. These initial numbers are very promising, but this program is actually ramping up. We’re going to be doing a lot more community outreach, working with a lot more organizations, and again the legal services that are available to the public is increasing. It’s going up higher as a part of our budget.

Yes?

Question: I was wondering mayor, if there’s an average length of commitment that this is going to involve for the average resident who doesn’t [audible] how much time on average [inaudible]

Mayor: That they’ll have the legal help? I think that for the duration - until the war is won.

But let’s see if Steve has a more eloquent [inaudible].

Commissioner Banks: Again, the facts really speak for themselves. We’re taking a program that used to be funded annually about $6.5 million, and now it will be funded, starting the fiscal year over the course of 2017 $62 million. So, it’s a 10-fold increase in the amount of legal services that are provided or funded, and the provision of legal services is to be provided until the cases can be resolved. The organizations that we fund through a competitive bidding process including Northern Manhattan Legal Services of NYC and the Legal Aid Society all have long standing track records of successfully preventing eviction and preventing tenant harassment and correcting conditions.

Our contractors are contractors who are there to ensure that whenever possible housing stability can be preserved so that’s not a question of time - that’s a question of providing expert legal assistance and that’s why we have experts involved.

Question: [inaudible] how are you going to ensure that the rehabilitation of residents [inaudible] how are housing residents going to be helped who might not necessarily be able to access - who [audible] get this information out to them?

Commissioner Banks: 3-1-1 is one just unifying way in which you call and you need a lawyer you can be referred to the local community agencies. But all over the City, there are organizations like NIMIC that are working together with legal services and legal aid on the ground - very connected to grassroots organizations, connected with elected officials.

My time, when I was with the Legal Aid Society - substantial number of referrals came from elected officials and community groups, and that will continue with these new programs as we expand them because we want to make sure that everybody has access and that everybody has the information they need in order to know their rights.

Mayor: Just to follow on that, as you heard the elected officials are actively participating - even sometimes having our representatives in their offices so people can come to them. So, you can go to elected office in some case, go to a community organization call 3-1-1, but the more community based organizations that want to participate, the better.

We shared this with houses of worship too. Anyone who wants to help us by either identifying people in need and literally telling our tenant support unit - in which case we’ll go to people, we’ll literally go to their door - we want as many people helping us at the grassroots level as possible, so we have plenty of room for more partners. But I would ask you to let people know it’s as simple as in the first instance picking up the phone and calling 3-1-1.

On this topic, yes?

Question: Hi, and thank you for being here. Just to touch on the cost of the rents, you know, in the area going high. There was - I know there was a group of people a few years ago that took their landlord to court because the rent they were paying in the Bronx because the landlord priced-up the cost much more than the previous tenants. Is that - does that still - I’m not clear on how much they’re allowed? Like, if someone’s paying a certain amount, that person moves out, gets priced-out - they can just raise to whatever -

Mayor: It obviously depends on the situation. What we’ve found for sure is people who are in rent-stabilized housing, for example, where there’s very clear rules - you know, we have the Rent Guidelines Board - decides what a rent increase could be. Under us, this year, it was a zero increase - a rent freeze for a one-year lease, or two percent for a two-year lease. But there are landlords who try to unscrupulously convince tenants that they have to pay a much higher increase - that’s one example. There are landlords that tell tenants something illegal and try and convince them of it. We have all sorts of situations, even with rent-stabilize apartments. We also have, in a variety of different situations, landlords trying to get their tenants out by not providing service - no heat, no hot water, no repairs - or doing - you know, doing work on the building at all hours to try and make life unbearable. So, it depends on the circumstance. We have particular protections that we can bring when someone’s in a rent-stabilized apartment. But even if you’re not in a rent-stabilized apartment, if your landlord is not providing basic standards of living, if they’re not giving you heat and hot water, if they’re obviously trying to harass you, there’s grounds for legal action there too. Do you want to add [inaudible]? Good? Okay.

Yes?

Question: [inaudible] starting when?

Mayor: [inaudible] when did we start? We started in the summer. Does anyone know the exact date?

Unknown: July of 2015.

Mayor: July of last year.

Question: What was the problem you had with your landlord? What was the landlord’s response? And was there a last-straw - a final straw where you said I can’t do this anymore, I’ve got to call 3-1-1? 

Emily Davis: Well, I did try to call 3-1-1 when there was no - when I had not hot water or heat, but then I was just - I don’t know, I was just living like that, and paying my rent, and then somebody from the Tenant Support Unit knocked on my door. So - then, from there [inaudible] help after that.

Question: And your landlord’s response [inaudible]?

Davis: Well, my building was bought over a year ago, and, after that, they wouldn’t answer the phone for me. I would try to call and they would never - I would try to reach out to them many times and I never got a response. 

Mayor: The landlord’s response was no response.

Davis: No response, yeah.

Mayor: Thank you. Thank you, Emily. 

Question: Thank you very much, Mayor, for coming out to the community. I think this is a great initiative for the illegal evictions that are a huge crisis in our community, but I have something else that I’m scared about, which is a legal eviction. I’m one of the people that pays over 15 - I mean, over 50 percent of my income on rent. I make $15 an hour. A lot of people in my neighborhood make less than that. We’re fighting to get that to be the minimum wage. I know you’re one to support that. But my question to you is, why doesn’t the new - our [inaudible] plan accommodate for the income level of our community? It seems like you’re going to be causing legal evictions. 

Mayor: No, I think - I understand the question, but I think it’s quite the opposite. I think what we’re seeing in a lot of communities in this city is that the market forces are driving people out consistently. And I’ve said this very bluntly, we’ve had, you know, 15 to 20 years of gentrification without any coherent government response. So, what happened in communities all over the city? People lost affordable housing. No new affordable housing was created. No legal aid and legal services were provided to stop harassment and displacement. There was nothing - all there were, were rampant market forces without any controls or regulation whatsoever. We’ve said, instead, we’re going to have the ability to create a lot more affordable housing - to require that developers create affordable housing in a lot of the work they do; to require the opportunity to create more senior housing, because our senior population’s the biggest growing demographic in this city, and a lot of people are on fixed incomes; and we’re combining that with the legal aid and legal services for free, with the protection of our Housing Authority, with the rent freeze and the other efforts that help strengthen our rent regulations. So, this, to me, is a coherent package that was needed a long time ago. We had none of those things - we literally had none of those things. So, I certainly understand the fear of development pressures - it’s perfectly appropriate. What our plan does is we devote a lot of our plan to folks at the lowest income levels, but we also make sure that there is affordable housing for people, for example, who work for the city - nurses, firefighters, you know, folks - teachers - folks who are working in the city as well need affordable housing. We try to accommodate both. But, remember -

Question: There’s no housing right now for people who make under $46,000. We met with our -

Mayor: No, no - we have - there certainly are options for people under $46,000. But, let me say to you that - remember that our plan - because I think this gets a little bit warped in translation - 120,000 apartments out of 200,000 are preserving affordable housing in place in communities, and that standard is people pay no more than 30 percent of their income. For [inaudible] that would be a big change. 

Thank you very much. Last call on this - media questions - just want to make sure they’re media questions. Yes?

Question: How many cases were won?

Mayor: How many cases were won out of the 1,000? So, 1,000 were resolved. Again, sometimes it was not a case of going to court. But, in terms of - are you saying how many of the court cases?

Question: Yes.

Mayor: Okay. Do we have a breakout or do we need to get that?

Unknown: Still pending.

Mayor: So, you need to get that? Okay. We will get that to you. We will publish that.

Question: [inaudible] you just mentioned senior housing - housing for seniors for your plan. What do you say to some members of the City Council who oppose the changes that your proposing that would create more senior housing? What’s your response? 

Mayor: Seniors need affordable housing - that’s my response. The reason AARP represents - I think it’s over 800,000 seniors in New York City - it’s almost a tenth of the people in this city - AARP is one of our strongest backers because they know for years the City of New York has not created enough senior affordable housing. The federal government used to have a very energetic senior affordable housing program. That was destroyed over the years since Reagan came into office, and then was made worse during the Gingrich speakership, etcetera. So, when the federal government really stepped off the stage in terms of senior affordable housing, there was nothing to replace it. The City of New York has to play a major role in protecting seniors and creating affordable housing. The zoning for quality and affordability is one of the tools that will allow us to build more, and build more quickly. So, my answer to folks who have a concern - and a lot of them we’re in real discussions with, and a lot of them have not made their final judgment - my answer is, this is something your constituents need. We want to work with you to make it work best for your community. But if our hands our tied and we can’t create more senior housing, a lot of people on fixed incomes are not going to have a choice in this city. 

Last call - yes?

Question: I think that there - I want to highlight something that in some ways has not been said with this initiative that the Mayor has undertaken, and that is - sending a clear message to someone who may be a property owner, a landlord, and may think that by being aggressive with tenants they can get away with - and I think that is something that we need to take out of this initiative - that what it does - if anybody has intention as an unscrupulous landlord of harassing, will think twice about doing so, because it won’t be so easy to get away with it. And I think that that’s a message that, I think, should be expressed here, because it is not just the 1,000, but perhaps the many others that could have been harassed, but, because there is an initiative, someone looking after, someone that tenants can approach - can make that difference. And I just want to make that point for you.

Mayor: Thank you - appreciate that. 

Yes, sir?

Question: On that point [inaudible] 1,000 cases - are there penalties against landlords that have brought these cases, or is the penalty simply that the tenant they’re trying to evict stays in the apartment. 

Mayor: Throughout these cases - respectfully, it’s not the right term. I want to make sure we’re saying the same thing. Again, some of these are situations where the tenant is not getting heat, hot water, whatever - we fix that either directly with the landlord, the building manager, or we do the repairs and charge them. Others are court cases where the tenant is being threatened with eviction - we step in and give them the defense. So, starting from there -

Question: I guess my question is, is there - making the point this may be a disincentive for landlords in the future to do this kind of thing. I’m asking, what is that disincentive?

Mayor: Oh, you mean - first of all, the fact that they’re going to be found out has a lot of ramifications. I think it’s quite clear that people who do illegal things don’t like to be caught doing illegal things. So, that’s the first point. And there’s an opportunity-cost that isn’t there if you can get away with it. And unfortunately for decades in this town you could evict someone illegally as a landlord and pay very little price or have very little chance of detection. So, the fact that there’s now legal services being made available on a wide level means a lot more people who are doing the wrong thing will be caught. In terms of legal penalties or ramifications - can either of you want to speak to that?

Commissioner Banks: In terms of violations, one of the remedies for poor conditions is the tenant can bring in an affirmative case and the lawyers that we fund can do those kinds of cases and clearly in those cases penalties and fines can be collected for violations. Similarly, when there’s a defensive case, and there are violations outstanding, penalties and fines can be part of that. But, you know, as the mayor said, a business model that once existed was tenants were unlikely to have lawyers in court. The vast majority of tenants were unrepresented in these kinds of matters. The vast majority of landlords were represented. Now that there’s a much higher likelihood, in these kinds of cases, that there will be a lawyer hopefully, that will have the impact of people understanding that they’re not going to be able to have the kind of approaches go unnoticed that they took to previously.

Question: Just to follow up -

Mayor: Just let me answer one more point, and then to your follow up. Remember now that we’re doing the task force with the attorney general, there also are circumstances that rise to criminal charges. So, to be clear, there are some that get to that point. It’s not just about civil problems and fines, sometimes there are criminal issues as well.

Question: I was just going to add - have you seen that there’s any decrease in the number of cases that are [inaudible] in the instances where this sort of thing is happening, yet? I mean, obviously this program is new.

Mayor: So, the 7,000 fewer evictions by the City marshals over the last two years is the best piece of evidence we have. The dynamic around evictions isn’t as clear and easy to track as some other things. But the evictions by the City marshals are a leading indicators and the fact that there have been 7,000 fewer families evicted in the last two years certainly says that some combination of things is working. We think the Legal Aid Program is a part of it. In some cases our other preservation efforts and the work we’re doing with grassroots organizations, which is making sure people are supported and defended. So, you know, there are a variety of factors - the Rent Freeze also. The Rent Freeze clearly had a role to play here. But the one thing we know for sure is we’re seeing fewer evictions, and that’s before we’ve been able to provide the legal services at a higher level, which is kicking in right now, and over these next months. So, we think it’s going to have even more impact. The biggest problem is a lot of people don’t know they can get a lawyer for free, which is why we’re standing here - to let people know if they feel they’re being illegally harassed or illegally evicted, that we will give them a lawyer for free.

Last call on this topic. I have something to say before we go to the next topic. Last call on this topic. Going one, going twice, going three times. Okay.

It is 2016 in the United States of America and Donald Trump cannot disavow the KKK. This is unbelievable. It is disgusting. It’s literally beyond the pale. And I was watching Morning Joe this morning - I don’t always agree with Joe Scarborough, but he came up with the exact right phrase - he said it’s disqualifying. This is the year 2016 - we’re talking about ending mass incarceration, we’re talking openly about structural racism, we’re talking about addressing the mistakes of our nation’s history and making the nation whole. And you would think one thing that could be agreed upon by Democrat and Republican, conservative and liberal, is that the KKK played a horrible role in this nation’s history - a heinous and violent and fundamentally un-American role in our history. But I watched the interview - I watched Donald Trump being given repeated opportunities to disavow the KKK, and he didn’t do it. And then his second-day response was as minimalist as humanly possible. He tried to use as few words as possible to create any separation with a violent, white, supremacist organization. That’s what’s going on here. So, Trump has now taken his xenophobia to a whole new level, where he’s literally unable to separate himself with a full voice from a white supremacist organization. This is just unbelievable. And I think this is the kind of thing that will ultimate undo him.

And by the way, just for good measure - and I say this as an Italian-American, and someone who believes in democracy - I don’t a lot of people who are comfortable quoting the Benito Mussolini. Most people would find that to be a problem. You know, I think we can say, if I told you, here’s a great quote, oh, it’s by Stalin, or, oh, it’s by Hitler - but still it’s a great quote - that’s what he said about Mussolini. He said it was an acceptable quote because it was a great quote even though it was uttered by a fascist dictator. It gets not only stranger by the moment, but more dangerous by the moment. The good news is, this is a freedom loving country and people are not going to watch a candidate who’s going to talk favorably about dictators and be unable to separate from the KKK. They’re not going to leave that be, they’re not going to take that lying down. I think a lot of people who may not have been motivated to be involved are going to get motivated in this election because Trump is showing his true colors. So, I just wanted to say that upfront.

Open to any questions at this point.

Question: What do you think of Christie’s endorsement of Trump?

Mayor: It’s opportunism. I think he sees, you know, what he thinks is the front-runner and is trying to play out his own agenda. But again, Chris Christie fancies himself a Northeastern, Moderate Republican. What does he have to say about the fact that his candidate can’t really disavow the KKK? I think Governor Christie should be asked that question.

Question: There were three fatal hit-and-run crashes over the weekend, and the numbers of hit-and-runs have continued to rise even in your Vision Zero era. I’m wondering is there something that you think the City is not doing to crack down on hit-and-run drivers. And if so, what is that?

Mayor: I will say first, it’s very, very sad what’s happened in the last few days and my heart goes out to the families. And it’s disgusting that anyone would kill another human being, or hurt another human being and drive off. There’s absolutely no excuse. And the penalties are severe but they should be even more severe and we’ll certainly work for that. NYPD has a very good track record of finding these people. There’s a lot more ways to find people than in the past. There’s a lot more video out there and I have confidence that, you know, someone who thinks they’re going to get away is not going to get away. In the vast majority of cases, we’ll find them and we’ll prosecute them. But we’re going to do everything we can to keep strengthening Vision Zero. Vision Zero has brought us a lower speed limit. It’s brought us a lot more enforcement by the NYPD of speeding and failing to yield to pedestrians. We’re doing a lot more interception of people who might be drunk drivers, so there’s more check-points. But they’re not everywhere. They’re not 24-hours a day. But we’re definitely ramping up enforcement, now, in a variety of ways and the numbers prove that Vision Zero is working. But this is an area where we’re going to keep doing everything we can and we certainly want to see tougher penalties.

Yes.

Question: The weather gets warmer in this area and the motorcycles are out of control. Like it’s really dangerous the speed that they going, they do really [inaudible] stunts, and it seems like it’s not changing. Everything is still the same. Nothing’s slowing them down. Nothing is -

Mayor: Well, that’s a Vision Zero area too. Anybody who is driving recklessly, endangering others, speeding - that’s where we’re doing more enforcement than ever. And I met, just in the last week or so with Commissioner Bratton and Chief O’Neill, and we all agreed you’re going to see even more NYPD enforcement on speeding, on reckless driving, on failure to yield to pedestrians. So, anyone who thinks they can get away with it, they’re going to be pulled over a lot more than they’ve ever been in the past.

Question: I wanted to ask you about the real estate deal with Boston Properties and the MTA -

Mayor: About the building - [inaudible] headquarters building? Yes?

Question: And asking your opinion on that and we spoke to Polly Trottenberg [inaudible] at that MTA board meeting [inaudible]. That also brings up the issue of the three seats that are still empty and have been appointed. So if you could address the deal first, and then talk about those appointments.

Mayor: Well, there’s three appointments pending in Albany and they’re all outstanding human beings.

[Laughter]

One of them is Ydanis. Look, I certainly think the Senate should move forward with those three appointments so we can fill our representation on the MTA Board. And I think the very smart, heads-up actions of Commissioner Trottenberg are an example of why you need great board members on the MTA - they’re an oversight board. You want them to look for things where there might be an issue and she did a great job with that. That was obviously a transaction that should not have moved forward and had to be looked at very carefully. There were legal and other problems with that transaction, so, kudos to her. But my hope is that the Senate will move and I’m certainly been clear to Leader Flannigan that we hope to move these names forward as quickly as possible.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Look, I think it is important to have every seat filled so the voices of New Yorkers are represented and there’s a maximum oversight over, you know - MTA is obviously a state entity but it has huge impact on the everyday life of New York City residents.

Question: Are you nervous that the City may not get as much money as you had in the past?

Mayor: Do I look nervous?

[Laughter]

Question: Are there discussions -

Mayor: I think this proposal’s being roundly criticized as being bad policy. The editorial boards have spoken, the state assembly has spoken, and there’s obviously an existing approach that works - that has created a lot of affordable housing and should move forward. The governor has raised a very valid concern about upstate New York and economic development plans. And that’s something that should be treated, but not treated in this manner.

Question: Mr. Mayor, the level - would you comment on the level of discourse in the Republican campaign. Mr. Rubio decided to speak about Mr. Trump’s small hands. Is there a new level of discourse that this has been reduced to? Is it trivializing a presidential -

Mayor: Yes, of course it is. And I don’t think it’s ultimately what’s going to find the favor of the people. There is - I don’t want to ever do punditry - I want to note something though. I see three very distinct things happening. One is xenophobia, in the case of Trump. A second is an appeal to people who feel economically dislocated and feel their government has not served them. And a third is a sort of sensationalism or as someone had said the other day - I think it was Van Jones - said the Kardashian-ization of the political process, and those are three distinct pieces. That second one is very real. I’m not saying I agree with Donald Trump’s plans or vision, but he is pointing out a lot of the economic justice that people are experiencing and the fact they feel their government has failed them. But that is a very different matter than the guy who’s clearly xenophobic, who has spoken out against women, Muslims, Mexican-Americans, immigrants, and cannot condemn the KKK and David Duke - versus the guy who is a showman. And I think it has taken a while for all of us. I’ve certainly - it has kind of revealed itself in waves to me - to understand that there are a lot of different things happening at once here, but that last one is dangerous, because, you know, we’re not electing a showman-in-chief. You know we’re not electing an entertainer-in-chief. This is a very serious time in history and if we’re going to address these problems, you need someone serious. And you know I support Hillary Clinton. I think she’s a smart, effective, experienced leader - that’s who we need in the White House. But - again - I always believe the public figures it out. Right now, we are seeing a relatively small number of people who vote in Republican primaries and caucuses weighing in. There’s a very different discussion when we get to the fall and people are actually going to choose a commander-in-chief. I think at that point you’re going to see something different.

Question: Mayor, you have a town hall tonight in Bayside, Queens. I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but State Senator Tony Avella is saying that you intentionally are snubbing him for tonight by sending an invitation to him late yesterday via email - so that you could say that you invited him, but so that he wouldn’t have enough time to actually plan to attend.

Mayor: He’s been invited. And certainly we welcome all elected officials. It’s as simple as that. Yes? Wait, wait, wait, wait - behind you first.

Question: Going back to this conversation about your budget dealing - what are the City’s next steps toward [inaudible] resolve the CUNY budget crisis that many of these people in this audience are desperately concerned about. And then secondly, did you join the first lady in watching the Oscars last night?

Mayor: Well, the First Lady was in California last night with our daughter watching the Oscars. It was parent weekend out at my daughter’s college. So, they were watching, but we were sometimes comparing notes during the show.

Question: You did watch it?

Mayor: Some of it, yeah - not all of it. I watched Chris Rock’s monologue, which I thought offered a lot of important points that people needed to hear.

Question: On CUNY?

Mayor: CUNY, yes. We’ve made very clear that these cuts are unacceptable. Cuomo proposed CUNY and Medicare cuts, and I assume that’s what you’re referring to ­- unacceptable to the city of New York; would have a horrible impact on our students; would have a horrible impact on healthcare; would have a horrible impact on the City budget. We know that many, many members of the Assembly share our deep concern and made clear they’re unacceptable to them as well. Governor has said he will not cost a penny - that these costs will not cost a penny to New York City. I’ve said many times that I appreciate that clarification and I will hold him to it. So this will play out now over the next four weeks or so, and we intend to keep the governor to his word. Yes?

Question: Can you talk about Times Square - specifically the recent survey that says Broadway ticket sales are down because of the costume characters. Is there an update in terms of the proposal perhaps to make zones for those characters. Also, I know that Commissioner Bratton supported tearing the plaza down. So could you possibly bring us up to speed on that?

Mayor: Yeah, sure. Report in question does not present the whole reality. Broadway ticket sales are very strong - in many ways have reached historic levels. And they represent folks who go to Broadway from the metropolitan region, from all over the country, all over the world. So, Broadway’s doing great. The report was theoretically talking about a subset of the customers. But again, that’s not a City report - that’s one organization. We value Broadway a lot. Broadway’s doing great. The plan that we announced for Times Square is proceeding. There’s a lot more NYPD presence - that’s quite obvious. And the NYPD is being very assertive in terms of enforcement of all kinds. In addition, we will have the separate zones where certain activities will be allowed and un-allowed. And of course, the current work that’s being done physically will be completed I think over the next year or so. So that plan continues on pace.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, the NYPD’s latest statistics near to date say that subway crime is up 17 percent. There was another subway slashing this morning. And now a new poll says that 51 percent of New Yorkers are afraid to ride the subway at night. I just wonder what your response is to that?

Mayor: I certainly understand why people are worried. And I want all New Yorkers to know that we’re doing a lot to keep them safe. Now, the overall numbers we’ve talked about over the last couple of years are still true. You have basically a one in a million chance of being a victim of subway crime. And that is primarily property crimes. That’s what really is happening. The crime that we have in the subways is overwhelmingly electronics being stolen. But I understand why people are concerned. And they’re going to see more police presence. Our strategic response group - which is one of our special units - is going to be deployed to provide more presence in the subways. Even though these instances have been random - there’s no connecting pattern to them. And many of them as you’ve seen have been really fights between two individuals - got into some kind of beef or altercation - not random acts. We still take it very, very seriously. So the answer will be - and Commissioner Bratton and I talked about this over the weekend - more detailed plans will be laid out over the next few days. But you’ll see expanded police presence.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, can you talk about the NYPD officer who was killed - also in a hit-and-run over the weekend? And then the last thing is there’s another report saying that the FDNY response times were under-reported.

Mayor: I haven’t seen the details, but we know that report is not accurate. That’s coming from a labor organization that did not - you know if you look at all the facts. We have been very careful about response time. In fact, as you know, we’ve added ambulance tours to help randomness response time. And we constantly monitor it - all FDNY, whether it’s the fire apparatus or the ambulance side of the operation. So, that’s just not an accurate report.

On the officer - my heart goes out to his family. Someone who served this city and was killed again - this is the most heinous of acts to kill another human being with your car and then leave. In this case, killing an officer of law - someone who protects us - and not even having the decency to stay and own up to it. Now you could say well probably, maybe that person was drunk. Well, they’re not drunk anymore and they at some point sobered up, even if they were drunk. And they owed it to that officer’s family to turn themselves in, and they still do. So it’s not acceptable and again, one thing I’ve found - NYPD gets the man or woman in the vast majority of cases and we’re going to be doing a lot to find these people.

Question: A judge today prevented the City from enforcing the salt ban. Do you want to comment on this?

Mayor: I believe that the - it’s not a salt ban - let me remind you.

Question: The shakers on the menu, sorry.

Mayor: Gotcha. You know you got a point earlier. Point taken back. Okay.

[Laughter]

We are providing the public with information. And why people appreciate that - they want to know what their salt intake is. Their doctors are telling them - be careful about how much salt. A lot of times people don’t realize how much you’re getting. By the way, as my wife likes to lecture me all the time - when you eat out, you’re going to get a lot more salt in your food. It’s just natural. That’s what restaurants do. So this is just giving people information they need. We will prevail in the end. We’re certainly never surprised when there’s a setback in a judicial process, but we believe we’ll prevail in the end. And we’re going to help people stay healthy by giving them the information they deserve.

Thank you, everyone.