Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on ABC 7’s “Up Close With Bill Ritter”

May 4, 2025

Bill Ritter:Mayor Adams, our guest this morning on UpClose. Mr. Mayor, good to see you and thank you for joining us once again on UpClose.

Mayor Eric Adams:Thank you.

itter:Good to speak with you. Okay. Let's start with the budget. You called it the "Best Budget Ever" in the history of the planet or something like that. Why do you think it was like that and how much did the tight economy hurt what you wanted to get?

Mayor Adams:Well, when you look at what we had to overcome for the last three years and four months from the migrants and asylum seekers from COVID, how we had to make the right fiscal decisions. And now we're able to invest in children and working class people, everything from after-school programs to our cultural institutions, to our infrastructure. It's just to really zero in on what's important. And we have record savings of $8.5 billion in our savings to deal with the uncertainties of the economy.

itter:What are those uncertainties, Mr. Mayor? Because you know as well as anybody that the president of the United States is going to be hard, they say, people say, on the economy of New York, despite relationships you may have with him or not have with him. That is likely to happen. He's doing it every day. And what happens if all of a sudden the economy takes a tank, which many people are predicting some sort of recession? Is that $8 billion enough money to have in the bank?

Mayor Adams:Well, it's $8.5 billion and that's a record number with a B, billions. That's a record number of savings, a record number of rainy day funds. And it's not only the uncertainties from Washington, everyone points out the uncertainties of Washington, but it's also the uncertainties of Albany.

We did not get the billion dollars that we were expected to deal with the migrants and asylum seeker crisis. We were told that an additional $300 million in child care vouchers, that is an Albany program that we have to fight for. And so I'm consistent, it doesn't matter who's in Washington or Albany, I'm going to fight for New Yorkers. And those uncertainties are in many places, including what happens on Wall Street. And that is why we have a record number of savings of $8.5 billion.

itter:Do you think that the federal government, under Mr. Trumpis going to take an attack on New York, economically speaking?

Mayor Adams:Well, we need to fight for New Yorkers. I cannot say it enough and I'm not going to allow people to distract me from the fact our fight is both in Albany and in Washington D.C. When the $80 million was clawed back from our city, the corpcounsel took actions and filed a lawsuit.

We believe we deserve that money. And now we are fighting with Albany to get the billion dollars that we need for the migrants and asylum seekers, the $300 million we need for childcare vouchers and look at discovery reform. Protecting this city is not based on what party is in charge, it's based on me fighting on behalf of New Yorkers.

itter:Well, let's talk about safety, that is one of your favorite topics, for good reason as well. One of your plans includes a plan to put in three and a half billion additional dollars into the NYPD to recruit new officers and hoping to get a thousand new cops, which would bring it, if my numbers are right, to about 35,000. Not a record, that was about 40,000, 25 years ago.

Mayor Adams:Yes. So true. Different circumstances during those periods of time that we're facing now and we want to get those numbers upto 35,000 by late 2026. And I'm really pleased with what the commissioner has done, Commissioner Tisch, on putting new officers on the train, having them ride during the overnight hours, going after guns and our city over 21,000 removed off our streets, the lowest record number of shooters during this quarter.

And so public safety, you know, me, I say it all the time. That's the prerequisite to our prosperity and we want to invest in the money and change the recruitment aspects. We're seeing high numbers of people joining the department.

itter:Yeah, no question about that. You have been mayor for, if I might, if my numbers are right, you know, three years and four months and a couple of days. Why didn't you do this before and get more cops on the streets?

Mayor Adams:Well, no, we were always pushing. We had a real recruitment issue all across the country of police officers undergoing a serious level of criticism. We saw the morale dropand it took a while to build back that morale. And then we change the requirements in the agencies on how we're bringing people on. We can give them additional college credits. We're doing different things under this police commissioner. And now you're seeing a large number of people responding to our recruitment efforts and we're getting the results we're looking for.

itter:The crime numbers are down, there's no question about it, but you know, there are a lot of people who are worried about it and we certainly do our share of showing when there is violence in the streets. It's scary for most New Yorkers, still nonetheless. Where are we in regards to that? And can we be doing more? You know that the governor put some money into more police in New York City and certainly in the subways.

Mayor Adams:Yeah. Our big problem is recidivism. We have repeated offenders and I've talked about this for years, of the revolving door of our criminal justice system is really hurting us and dealing with people with severe mental health issues who are having random acts of violence.

But when you look at the numbers, 4.6 million people in our subway system daily, we have five felonies on average, a little over five felonies a day on that system. And so what we had to do was use the omnipresence of police officers to match the success and driving down crime to make people feel safe. And that's important to do.

itter:You were working down there when you were a cop, you worked under Bill Bratton. He talks about you lovingly a lot about how you were a cop. The question is, can we do more underground and what can we do?

Mayor Adams:Of course. Always. One crime is one too many, Bill. But I cannot tell you again, 4.6 million riders, a lot of riders– with an average of five felonies a day. We want to get rid of those five felonies.

But at the same time, our call to have involuntary removal for those with mental health, severe mental health issues is crucial. And that's what we need Albany's helpfor. Because when you speak to riders, they would tell you it is seeing those who are homeless, those who are dealing with severe mental health issues that play on this psyche of not feeling safe, and that's why we need action. We put PATH and programs in place. We put our SCOUT program in place with mental health professionals, with police officers to get them off our system.

itter:In our next segment, we're going to talk to the new chancellor of the New York City schools. David Banks was a very good chancellor, a pal of yours. He left after all the turmoil of your federal indictments. People liked him. This new chancellor is very smart, clearly.

Where are the schools? Where would you like them to be? When you started Eric, when you became you became mayor, you really pushed a lot on all what you wanted to do for improving the schools. A lot of things came in the way, a lot of new news came in the way. And was there a dropin your attention span to the school district? And what would you like to do on a second term?

Mayor Adams:Well, I think just the opposite. It was a refocus and Chancellor Banks did not leave because of a scandal. He left because he had a predetermined amount of time he wanted to serve and to turn it over to his handpicked successor, who is the current chancellor now. But look at our focus: after-school programs. We're going to a universal afterschool program. Every child that needs to see some Pre-K and 3-K will have access to a seat.

We've changed our reading and our math curriculum. We're outpacing the state and reading and math in the city, healthier foods in our school, better cafeterias in our school, teaching our children mindfulness and meditation so they can be better prepared to handle anxiety, putting money into nurses and baselining. So we didn't lose focus. We doubled down and we continued the success that we started out with.

itter:Okay. Well, fingers crossed because the kids, as you well know, sir, our future. Let me talk about, uh, we have three minutes left and I want to get a lot of things in. The rent control guidelines board met this last week. They came upwith some numbers, a two year lease, 7.75 percent, one year lease ranging from 1.75 to 4.75 for one year. That's a lot of money. It's always a no, no, you know, no one wins on this whole thing, but you came out strong against those kinds of numbers.

Mayor Adams:Yes, too high. Seven percent is too high. We know that working class people are struggling, but we can't lose sight of those small property owners. You are a mother or father, you own a 14, 15 unit building. Your costs went upas well. Rent costs went up. Repair costs are going upas well, even insurance costs. So we have to find a sweet spot. How do we protect those small property owners and at the same time allow tenants some form of relief? So I'm hoping this independent Rent Guidelines Board comes upwith a suitable number that we can accomplish our goal.

itter:Alright, let me talk about a couple of things that, politically stated, and looking at your attempts to run on different kinds of platforms, but not as a Democrat and not as a Republican for a second term. The campaign finance board is saying that they're not gonna meet anyway till July.

And they're saying that no matter what, they could go back and take a look at your indictments, no matter what, no matter that the charges have been dropped by the president and by the president's attorneys. So what does that mean in terms of your funding for this campaign?

Mayor Adams:Well, one, I'm still a Democrat. This process allows you to run on lines, but maintain your party affiliation. I'm still a Democrat. I'm running on an independent line as a Democrat. But we still have millions of dollars that we raise. And the legal team strongly believes, as I do, that we should get our matching funds.

Were there people who were volunteers that did things that appear to be inappropriate and that we should not have trusted? Yes, and I apologize to New Yorkers for that. But the campaign did nothing wrong. We did not break the law. I said that over and over again. And we're going to continue, as I run the city and run the office, the legal team will deal with our fight to get our matching funds. But we still have millions of dollars on hand.

itter:Mr. Mayor, Eric, I have a quick question to end the show. When you first got elected, we talked, and you talked as if you had the world in your hands, and it seemed that you did back then. Things changed, and yet you still are optimistic, seem like the world is in your hands still, or at least you're talking like that.

A lot of people will look at you, Eric, and say, how does he stay like that? And I'm asking you an honest question, no politics involved at all in this. It's amazing you keepthat. Deepdown, do you feel differently?

Mayor Adams:Think about this for a moment. I was at Bayside High School yesterday–

itter:Your alma mater.

Mayor Adams:eleasing the best budget ever. I was a child with dyslexia. I went from being dyslexic and called a dumb student to being elected the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. How could you not be optimistic?

This is the resiliency of this great city. Everyday New Yorkers are going through stuff, but they get upevery morning, they deliver. And so I'm extremely optimistic. I have the world in my hand. I'm the mayor of the greatest city on the globe. I cannot complain about anything. I love my job, and I love my city, and I'm gonna deliver for them.

itter:And on that note, we thank you for joining us once again on UpClose. Mayor Adams, good luck to you, sir.

Mayor Adams:Thank you, take care.