Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In for Live Interview on WBAI 99.5 Fm’s “Harlem Live on Lenox”

May 3, 2025

Dr. Iesha Sekou, Founder and CEO, Street Corner Resources:Mayor Eric Adams, we've been waiting for him. I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about education in our city, to talk about gun violence and to talk about the rollout of initiatives around quality of life. There's some great initiatives and of course some people are saying, wait a minute, what's going on? So Mayor Eric Adams, are you on with us?

Mayor Eric Adams:Sister Iesha, how are you?

Dr. Sekou:I'm great. I'm excited to hear your voice. I'm excited to have you on Harlem Live on Lenox with me, Dr. Iesha Sekou, our Mayor Eric Adams.

So, I'm going to jump right in because we lost a little time. I know that you are all over the place, busy taking care of this city and we, for that, we thank you because this is not as easy as people think, right?

Mayor Adams:Well said. I was actually in Harlem Hospital visiting one of our reverends and I told her I had to hop on and see you and she said, make sure I give you her love. So I am all yours, but this is not a one and done.

Dr. Sekou:No, it's not. We have actually, we have young people and, you know, Street Corner Resources, the program of which I'm the CEO, is funded by city dollars and we're excited about that and those young people will be hosting a podcast. And so they're learning how to interview and that kind of thing. So we look forward to you coming on that. And here on WBAI 99.5, I want to talk about the issue of, one, the quality of life issues and the rollout. How is that going?

Mayor Adams:Going well. And, you know, I know you alluded to on your call because some people think, well, okay, well, maybe this is a throwback to Stop and Frisk, this is a throwback to people with petty offenses. And no, no, it is not. In fact, we want to make sure these are things I fought against, you know, and sister Sekou, you know, folks just got to really remind themselves, you know, as the song say, let me reintroduce myself.

I fought to make sure we didn't have heavy handed policing in our communities. But we don't want the failure of quality of life. I hear from working class people all the time. You know, Eric, there's a dice game in front of my house that later turns into a shooting or people lines up cars in front of our building and they're playing loud music and smoking and drinking.

You know, listen, Black folks and brown folks, they want to live in safe, clean environments. They don't want abandoned cars in front of their homes. They don't want people being disorderly. And so there's a way to do it without being heavy handed. And that is what we instituted in this quality of life initiative where these officers are going to be trained to correct conditions, not to aggravate communities. And this is what communities have asked for. They want these quality of life people not sitting in front of their buildings, injecting themselves with drugs, just disorder in our communities that have been normalized. And I'm responding to that call.

Dr. Sekou:Well, we're grateful for that. You know, one, you know, I have to say I'm grateful that there is a focus on quality of life issues. One, I hear a lot of complaints about people smoking weed and inside people's hallways, not just on the stoop, but in the hallways and it's permeating through their walls and under their doors. And for folks who have breathing issues, particularly our elders, it's causing harm to them. So I'm glad that we're dealing with that.

But let me tell you what I'm hearing also as a concern. And I'll ask you to address it. People are saying, Iesha, we saw you at the mayor's press conference on quality of life issues. What we don't want is for police officers who are not equipped to engage with people on small issues to create bigger issues out of that smaller issue. So how is the oversight going to happen to ensure that there is a way that the quality of life issue is dealt with, but not to always criminalize the person who may be part and parcel to that?

Mayor Adams:And that's a great and legitimate question, you know, because remember, you should point and share with them that, hey, we're talking about a brother that spent his life with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, to testify in federal court in the case Floyd versus the NYPD on overaggressive Stop and Frisk policing.

And the federal judge that did the case, her ruling against the Police Department, the role my testimony played. And so we're not going backwards. And that's why these 1,500 officers are going to be trained. This is just not 1,500 uniform officers that's just going to go out and do this initiative. No, these officers are going to be trained in conflict resolution, how to correct conditions, how to interact with people.

This is in addition to the training that they already get in the academy. We are going to have them trained to respond to exactly what that person asked you, because it has to be done right. If it's not going to be done right, it turns from addressing quality of life to harming everyday people. And that's not acceptable.

Dr. Sekou:Absolutely. Okay, well, you know, one of the things that I would tell folks, I said we have to address the issue in order for the issue to be taken care of. And they said, but Iesha, we need to keep all eyes on it. So I will, too.

I encourage people to keep their eyes on the way that things are being handled. If they're uncomfortable, one place that folks can go in. I know folks don't always want to interact with the police. But the way that we have to get to sometimes something better is to have voice. And so we encourage people to take part in the precinct council meetings where they can raise issues about, even misconduct. So I want to move on to the next thing–

Mayor Adams:Before you do, think about this for a moment. We can't throw up our hands and say, well, you know, we don't want to deal with police. So we're going to be stepping over people, injecting themselves with drugs in our hallways, smoking in our hallways where our elders have to deal with this. We're just going to deal with this abandoned car. No, we're not.

We're not throwing up our hands. Police and all agencies are going to give us the services that we pay for. It shouldn't matter if you're on the Upper East Side or if you are in East Harlem. We need— We deserve the respect and services that our tax dollars pay for. And we are not going to throw up our hands and we're going to make those agencies do the job correctly.

Dr. Sekou:Absolutely. Well, I know I'm doing a full court press. So I want to just a little bit, you know, and so I want to just pivot to the blueprint to end gun violence. Can you tell us about that? Can you tell us what we can expect? What has transpired so far?

You know, of course, Street Corner Resources has been on the ground doing this work. But there are a whole host of other organizations within the crisis management system within our churches and other orgs that are doing this work. What do you see? What is your vision within this blueprint?

Mayor Adams:Well, it must fall into three categories. And oftentimes people believe in a one dimensional approach. And I don't, you know, Dr. Bishop Desmond Tutu stated, "We spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river. No one goes upstream and prevents them from falling in in the first place." And so the approach must be three pronged.

Number one, we have to have intervention. We've got to deal with those issues that are happening right now. Like you and I were together when, you know, 61 year old grandmother was shot in the head. We got to get the person who did that shooting. We can't. That's the same person that was involved in a shooting was just involved last year in the stabbing of two people that he attempted to rob. And so that's the intervention right away.

But we got to have a prevention model. How do we prevent this? And that's what we have been heavily focused on. Everything from Summer Youth Employment to our Summer Rising full year round school to justice involved. Young people get skilled training for good jobs, plumbing, carpentry, electrician. We have to do preventive stuff. Dyslexia screening. When I'm on Rikers Island, I learned those brothers and sisters have learning disabilities and dyslexia. We can prevent some of this stuff if we have the real energy to do it.

And then second is the supportive system of those who I believe are on the line. They can fall either way. But if we do real support to stop retaliatory shootings like what Street Corner Resources are doing, if we give people incentives to not go in the wrong way but move in the right way, we can prevent them from falling in the river. And so what we did, we took that role of the crisis management team, bumped it up to be partner with the first deputy mayor when Sheena Wright was there and we continue to do so.

We moved things over to DYCD, that's the Department of Youth [and Community Development,] which is crucial because we want to tie in the crisis management team, the preventive model with the services that we're giving to our young people. So we took over 21,000 guns off our street. That's the intervention. But we also have helped thousands of young people find employment, return to school, get the support that's in school.

So we want to match our intervention and our prevention and our support. And that's what our blueprint to end gun violence [is]. And we didn't think of this on our own, you know, I want to be clear on that. We got a lot of feedback from those like yourself who are doing the work on the ground, about this blueprint.

Dr. Sekou:Absolutely. And you know, one of the things that I want to make sure is that people like myself and my team here at Street Corner Resources, but the other sites across the city, continue to not just say enough is enough because that's not that doesn't really move anything. But to continue to have voices where the blueprint is concerned to help to continue.

Sometimes things need to be shaped and reshaped until we, you know, and it's really no final end because things change. Things get better. They get worse. But we need to continue to have a place and a face with you as our mayor to influence what happens with the issue of gun violence and education. So we have about five more minutes. They just handed me a sign, you know, I can go on all day with no problem. I want to make sure that I get to a few of these things that I had here to talk about.

One is the subway safety plan. I was talking with a young man out here today. We're in Harlem on 110th Street in our mobile unit where we provide services, but we're helping with the community engagement. So young people were invited to come help clean up, plant flowers, and they're doing all of that. But I told the young man he could come and work with Street Corner Resources. And he said, but I don't like to take the train. And I said, why? Because I always like to know why they feel how they feel. And he said, because I don't feel safe. What can we do to create or what have you done? What's the plan? Because I see the subway safety plan. So what is the plan to ensure that our subway system is safer and what's already been done thus far?

Mayor Adams:You know, sister, that's such an important question, because I hear this all the time. And no, the number one thing I hear all the time when I talk to people, I hear I did not know that. I did not know that. I did not know that. And each time people hear what we have accomplished in the city, they're blown away.

Because it's unfortunate that we have a print media, for the most part, that just enjoys talking about the negativity in the city. And nothing personifies that more than the subway system. Sister, do you know we have 4.6 million people on our subway a day? 4.6 million. That's a lot of folks. And do you know, we have an average of 5.4 felonies a day on our system with 4.6 million people. Right.

Dr. Sekou:So that's really a low number. People hear what's announced on television, radio, and they look at the whole system. It's kind of painted with broad brush.

Mayor Adams:So if you take five felonies and you find the most horrific felony and you plaster it on the front pages of the tabloids, or you lean into it, people tend to believe that they're not safe. And then you add it to the number of people on our system that deal with mental health issues, severe mental health issues, and you see it, you begin to believe that, okay, everything's out of control. That's why we went in and said, we're going to focus on giving people who have mental health illness, take them inside and give them the care. We took over 8,400 people from our subways to shelters, giving them the care that they deserve. But we need help from Albany.

Dr. Sekou:You know, there's a concern, mayor. I'm glad that you brought that up. Mayor Adams, there's a concern that people are being taken against their will. Can you speak to that in our last minute and a half? One minute, they're telling us. One minute. Can you speak to that? And of course, we have to have you come back. I know you're busy, but can you speak to that particular issue? Because that's on the table right now.

Mayor Adams:Right. And you know what? Yes, they are taken against their will. It's called involuntary removal. If someone is dangerous to themselves, dangerous to others, they're schizophrenic, bipolar, been off their medicine, any day they could push someone to the subway track or slash someone in a random fashion. Or, like we had the other day, a gentleman held a knife to his throat, to his mother's throat, and basically said, if you don't shoot me, I'm [going to] stab her.

Yes, there are people that can't make the decision that they need help. And we got to stop romanticizing this like many people are doing, and we have to be honest about it. If you walk in the subway track with no shoes on, you have defecated on yourself, you're yelling and screaming, I'm going to kill someone, we should take them against their will.

Dr. Sekou:We have to make this a hard stop. Mayor Eric Adams, right here on Harlem Live on Lenox. I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. It was a heavy push to get you in. You did a fantastic job. Thank you.

We'll continue to talk about the issues, and we'll continue to look at the difficult issues, and how do we get resolved with those. I want to thank you again.

Mayor Adams:Love you.

Dr. Sekou:On Harlem Live on Lenox with Dr. Iesha Seku, and I want to thank Common and The Last Poets for the music. Peace and blessings. Enjoy the rest of this day. Thank you, WBAI 99.5. Peace and blessings