Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on ABC 7’s “Eyewitness News at 5:00”

April 30, 2025

Bill Ritter: This week, New York Mayor Adams has been slowly unveiling what he's calling the best budget ever.

Sade Baderinwa: And part of that includes a plan today to inject 3.4 billion additional dollars into the NYPD to recruit new officers and build the force by 1,000 new cops by the fall of 2026 for a total of 35,000 officers.

Ritter: Lots of people want that new group of officers. The 110th mayor of New York joining us now from City Hall. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Great to be on with both of you. 

Ritter: So we see what you're going to do, and a lot of people will say, “Okay, great idea.” Why did you do this now? And why not do it in the last three years and four months where you've been mayor?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think it's so important to look at the numbers. I say this over and over again. We had to manage not only the COVID crisis, not only the migrant and asylum seeker crisis, but even the public safety fight that we were having. 

And with what we had, what do we do? More jobs in the city's history. You're seeing decreases in violence, particularly gun violence and homicide. This quarter was the lowest number in recorded history. We are seeing dropping unemployment. And so we have been successful. And we knew we had to save money in the beginning, over $8.5 billion in our rainy day funds, in our reserves. You're seeing good fiscal management. Not my opinion. This is what our bond raters have stated.

Baderinwa: And Mr. Mayor, just yesterday you announced another big change that you could have also done before, despite all the other things that you listed. $331 million to provide universal after school activities at no cost to families. This is a huge help for working parents, certainly given the economy that we're in right now. Why was this so important to you?

Mayor Adams: No, it was important and we could not have done it before. We didn't have the money. We're coming off a $7.5 billion hole in our budget from the migrant and asylum seeker crisis. We had to make sure we had the money during uncertain times. 

But this was important to me because if you created an environment for parents to know where their children are during after school hours, it allows parents to do the things that they need to do to really develop their lives as well. 

But also, socialization is something that is really misunderstood. Children socializing in a safe environment. Education shouldn't end after the school hours. We have all of these beautiful facilities and buildings. We want our children in a safe place as they continue to develop their full personhoods.

Ritter: Okay. Governor Hochul, as you know, as part of her budget plan Monday, proposed a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in schools statewide. Now, how will you support your vast number of schools in the city about how they're going to handle the ban on phones starting in September?

Mayor Adams: You know, I've been talking about this from my first day in office, what these phones are doing to our children. How it has contributed to an increase in suicidal ideations, increase in depression. 

What we must do is ensure that it's in all of our schools. We have schools now that currently have cell phone bans. But what the governor is doing is important. We have to match it with funding because there's a cost to buying those little pouches. And I'm sure if you have children or grandchildren, you know phones are expensive. So we must make sure the ideal is actually operationalized with the dollars that are needed.

Baderinwa: And, Mr. Mayor, let's get to the campaign right now. You're running as an independent, but also now as a member of several party lines, including two of them called EndAntiSemitism and Safe&Affordable. How are you going to differentiate your campaign for the man who is now the frontrunner, former Governor Cuomo, who has also spoken out against antisemitism?

Mayor Adams: Well, actually, a number of different groups and organizations that have witnessed what I stood for throughout the years have approached me on different lines. And that's what's good about our system. You could run on different lines that people focus on that are important. 

People approached me about education first line. People approach me about transit lines. So many people are bringing different lines and different ideas. They know what I stand for. But there's a process. 

You have to collect thousands of signatures to have these lines. And so those who have approached me, I said, you must be part of the hundreds of people on the street right now gathering signatures so we can actually make those lines materialize.

Baderinwa: Yeah, again, I think there's 3,750 signatures that you're going to need per line.

Mayor Adams: Look at you. You're an expert already. 

Ritter: She's caught up on that. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.

Baderinwa: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

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