Transcript: Mayor Bill de Blasio Appears Live On 1010 WINS

March 16, 2016

Brigitte Quinn: Mayor de Blasio is joining us live this morning on 1010 WINS to talk about a deal on affordable housing expected to pass the City Council next Tuesday. Mr. Mayor, thanks a lot for being with us.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: You’re welcome, Brigitte.

Quinn: Some critics were worried that this wouldn't mandate enough housing for low income New Yorkers - does it?

Mayor: Oh, absolutely. Let me tell you, this is going to be such an improvement over past policies. This is going to be the most progressive affordable housing plan of any city in the country, because, for the first time, developers are going to be required to create affordable housing when they do major redevelopment in this city. Whenever there’s rezoning, whenever there’s a major opportunity for new development in this city, now there will be a requirement of affordable housing. And depending on which plan a developer chooses, it could be 25 percent of the apartments are affordable, it could be 30 percent of the apartments are affordable. And the City Council really wanted to make sure we reached a range of people - nurses, car wash workers, custodians, but also folks with very low incomes. We’ve managed to make some improvements in the plan, working with the City Council, so we could reach folks with very low incomes as well. It’s going to be a lot of affordable housing for people who need it.

Quinn: And about the builders - do they get decent enough profit to build?

Mayor: Well, absolutely. The idea here is to say, look, in today’s day and age, we need a lot more affordable housing than we needed in the past.” You know, a few decades ago, there was a pretty decent supply of affordable housing in the city, but we all know what’s happened to the cost of housing and how rents have shot up. You need new rules for a new time. In this day and age, there has to be a requirement of the creation of affordable housing, but what we’ve done with the builders is say, look, we’ll provide some of the opportunity they need, some of the heightened density that makes it financially viable. But the deal is, unless you create affordable housing, you’re not going to be able to build.

Quinn: Another worry you mentioned about renting shooting up was that rents might actually shoot up in other neighborhoods. Is that a concern?

Mayor: I think that it’s a big concern, but it’s something that’s happening anyway. This is what I argue all over the city - at town hall meetings, churches, wherever I go. I say, look, development is happening - rents are going up. Rather than just sitting on our hands and doing nothing, the city government needs to step in and ensure that that development will also include affordable housing. And I said to the tune of - in a lot of these locations - 25 percent, 30 percent affordable housing. If we do nothing, then the market forces will just keep displacing people and raising the rents, and a lot of folks won’t be able to afford their neighborhood. If we put a requirement of affordable housing in that’s financially viable, we’re actually going to have a lot more options for people to stay in their neighborhood - and that particularly is important for seniors, Brigitte.

Seniors are one of the fastest growing populations in this city. A lot of them are on fixed incomes - Social Security and other fixed incomes. They need more affordable options. One of the biggest priorities in this legislation was to create more affordable housing for seniors. That’s one of the reasons AARP was one of our biggest supporters. If we don’t do this, there just not going to be enough choices for seniors.

Quinn: Mayor de Blasio, the morning after another Super Tuesday, I have to ask you - big wins for Trump again. You’ve been very clear saying he is a racist, and yet he does seem likely to get the nomination. Why does he keep winning?

Mayor: I think there’s a lot of very legitimate frustration all over this country with the state of the economic reality. Middle class Americans, working class Americans have actually been going backwards economically in real terms over the last twenty, thirty years. Certainly, a lot of people in this country know that their children have very little chance of doing as well as they did economically, and that frustration breeds real anger. Unfortunately, Trump tries to take that and push people towards the most negative attitudes - you know, blaming immigrants, and blaming people who aren’t like us, and turning into a very negative dynamic - instead of saying what are we going to do to change it?

I say - and I think this is what Hillary Clinton will do - we need to raise wages and benefits for working people. We need to tax the wealthy so we can make the changes we need in our economy, and our government can do some of the things it needs to do really create opportunity. That’s a productive way to do it that Hillary’s put forward.

But I ultimately believe we should ultimately note that the folks who are voting in the primaries are one piece of the electorate. In the general election, a much bigger slice of America comes out. I think Hillary’s going to have a strong majority when all’s said and done.

Quinn: Mayor de Blasio live with us on 1010 WINS - thank you, Mayor.