Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on News12’s Evening Newscast

March 20, 2024

Kurt Semder: Right now here in our city there are concerns about everything from subway safety to being able to afford rent or even put food on the table. And joining us tonight is the man in charge of it all. Live from City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being here with us tonight on News 12.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be here. And you're right, there are just so many issues. And when you peel back each layer from housing to the cost of living, transportation, public safety, you'll see that each issue needs a partnership with the city, state and what we're doing here at City Hall, and that's how we come up with the solutions.

Semder: Absolutely, and we're going to get to some of those issues I just mentioned. But tonight, I want to begin with the allegations that were made against you this past November, and then this past week, the court filing, revealing more details about these claims of sexual assault made against you by a former colleague 30 years ago.

My question for you tonight, did you read the court filing, and what do you want to say to the people of the city regarding these allegations?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think my life story speaks for itself. It did not happen, and I am not familiar with ever meeting the person who made the allegations. It is painful, because I've dedicated my life to uplifting women and protecting people in general as a law enforcement officer. You could see it really here in my administration.

And when you think about just my family having to hear this, it is a painful moment to experience that. This is what I've dedicated my life to doing, and I'm going to continue to do so. I'm focused on running the city. The corp counsel will handle the allegation. But again, I want to be clear to New Yorkers, this did not happen.

Semder: And I know we can't get into the specifics of the case, but I'm curious, in light of these allegations, the ongoing FBI investigation, are you at all concerned that New Yorkers may be losing some faith in your ability to lead the city?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that when you look at the results, think about this for a moment. Decrease in homicide, decrease in shootings, decrease in our other major crimes, you look, over four million riders back on our subway system, more private sector jobs in the history of the city, bond raters who determine how well the city is being managed have increased our bond rating, real victories in Albany every year.

I think the proof is in the pudding. We are moving our city forward. We're not just surviving, we're thriving, everything from 62 million tourists are back in this city. We're moving in the right direction, and that's the key here. Every mayor that I communicated with told me that, Eric, you must stay focused because there's always something that's going to happen in the city. And that's why my motto is stay focused, no distractions and grind.

Semder: All right. Well, Mr. Mayor, right now there's a lot going on with our city's subways, and I want to speak with you about safety on the subways. People still on edge following that shooting on a Brooklyn subway last week.

I want to play this for you and for the viewers with us tonight. This is cell phone video of New Yorkers on that train during the fearsome moments. I want everybody to take a listen.

[Video plays.]

Mr. Mayor, what's your reaction when you hear the fear in those people's voices? What do you want to say to them to ease their fears, let them know the subways… Or, are they safe?

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, that is terrorizing for anyone. It was terrorizing for me just to look at it, hearing my fellow New Yorkers being in a state of just fear. Any time you hear a gunshot, it brings chills. Throughout my law enforcement career I know about the impact of that.

And these moments, when you see random acts of violence, we cannot allow these random acts of violence to be the narrative of who we are and what we are. We have over 4 million riders on our subway system a day, six felonies roughly a day.

When you do a comparative analysis, you have to walk away with millions of riders are using our city safely. Yes, we want to get rid of those six felonies and we want to make sure we don't have guns on our system, but we have a safe subway system. And as I showed last week, when you saw the bar graph of big cities in America, New York City is the safest big city in America.

People must be safe based on the numbers, and they must feel safe. That's why we infused 1,000 more cops in our system, because the visibility of that uniformed officer would deal with the aspect of feeling safe.

Semder: Should we expect more, though? Should we expect more security measures, more bag checks at more stations, or perhaps cameras that can detect weapons on riders? What is your administration planning on doing moving forward?

Mayor Adams: Well, one thing for sure, we always want more. I want to get rid of those six felonies that we have a day. I want to always push and do more. But we are doing a lot now. Arrests are up, quality of life enforcement issues are up. Police officers are doing the job that they need to do every day.

And we have to take our hats off to the men and women who are in the New York City transit system. Public safety is not only the officer in the blue uniform. All aspects of the criminal justice system must participate. Prosecutors prosecute. Judges must make sure dangerous people are not placed back on our streets.

When you look at the fact that we had 38 individuals who assaulted transit employees, participated in over 1,100 arrests in our city, that's a recidivism problem that we have to get under control. And that's also when you look at shoplifting, you see a large number of people, over 7,500 shoplifting, little over 500 people participating in that. That is what we need to be focusing on, not only what the police officers are doing. They're doing their job. And we're going to do more, everything from gun detection to making sure that we are moving throughout the system. But there's other aspects that we often overlook.

Semder: Mayor Adams, I want to move from public safety to affordability now, because a new report from the United Way of New York City and the Fund for the City of New York shows half of all families in the city can't afford to live here without some kind of support. How is your administration going to address this issue?

Mayor Adams: Well, there's a number of things. It's about putting money back into the pockets of low, moderate-income New Yorkers. And you start with making sure you have employment here in the city. As I stated, more private sector and public sector jobs in the history of the city are right here. We need to zero in on Black unemployment, because we're still seeing dismal numbers in that location.

But also what we did in Albany, bringing down the cost of childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week, partnering with the City Council in looking at reduced fare MetroCards and broadening who can receive them. Giving free broadband to NYCHA and other residents. Leaning into the support for our foster care.

So, we need to look within our span of control of what we can do and place the money back in the pockets of New Yorkers, including settling 94 percent of our union contracts and giving them the fair wages they deserve, 100 percent of our uniformed officer contracts.

It has always been my focus from day one, how do we put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers and build more housing? We need help from Albany and the City Council, hats off to Julie Menin who did one of the first Mandatory Inclusion Housing in her district. Everyone must deal with these issues of making sure this is a livable city for all New Yorkers.

Semder: And still the situation with the migrant crisis is still hanging over a lot of what's going on here in the city. The question for you tonight, is there any kind of slowdown in the number of people that we're seeing arriving here in the city? Has there been a any kind of relief on the city shelter system?

Mayor Adams: Well, we made it clear, I told the team last year, middle of last year, that we had to come with a two‑pronged approach. Number one, we need to continue to push Washington, D.C. to give us the resources of this national problem, a little over $100 million. We welcomed that, but this was a $4 billion price tag we spent, and it was projected to be $12 billion. We had to come up with a plan, since Washington was not acting, we were going to act, and we did just that. Over 60 percent of the migrant and asylum seekers who are in the city have become self‑sustaining.

We did our 30 day intensive care information, because people need to take the next steps in their journey. You cannot live permanently in a shelter system. And we're seeing a slower number than we did earlier last year, but the crisis is still here. Summertime, we may see an uptick because the governor of the State of Texas has made it clear he was going to inundate our cities with migrants and asylum seekers.

But this is a national problem, and it should be resolved by the national government. New Yorkers have done their share. We need to be clear on that. Over 180,000 migrants and asylum seekers, 30,000 children. We have stepped up as New Yorkers, now the national government must do its share as well.

Semder: Mayor Adams, very quickly. You announced this week electric school buses being added to the fleet, and of course, that charging depot in Hunts Point. What's this going to mean for the green economy here in the city?

Semder: Oh, it means a lot, particularly in the Bronx. When you look at the number, $77 million, roughly [180] buses will be electrified. This is an exciting opportunity. The Bronx has always been left behind in so many places, particularly around health issues, even when we heard the EPA director talk about her asthma and having an asthma pump for many of our young people there.

This is saying to our children, as you board that bus, you could board a healthy future at the same time. This matches our electrification of our schools that we're looking to do and cleaning our environment in the Hunts Point area. We want to get rid of the terminologies of Asthma Alley.

Semder: Mr. Mayor, Mets or Yankees, who's having a better season this year?

Mayor Adams: My fingers are crossed for both of them. As long as they have New York next to their name, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to go to a parade.

Semder: All right. Me, too. I appreciate that. Mayor Adams, thank you as always for your time tonight. Looking forward to speaking with you again soon.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.

Semder: You got it.

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