Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation

May 14, 2025

Watch video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVPiChRKS4s

Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Community Affairs Unit: Good evening. My name is Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. The Adams administration is excited to be here in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. First, we want to thank our host, Beacon High School, and its principal, Jeannie Ferrari, for welcoming this community conversation. This is the mayor's 39th community conversation. 

The mayor aims to be in all five boroughs in each neighborhood. We also want to thank Community Board Number 4 in Manhattan for partnering, engaging with New Yorkers in civic participation and addressing community issues. I want to thank the 10th Precinct, the 13th Precinct, Midtown North, and Midtown South. Those are the precincts that cover this area, and of course, Manhattan South. Lastly, the Times Square Alliance is a critical partner in the mayor's Community Link Initiative and is supporting a vibrant brand of New York City.

The main thing is of this community conversation, there are three components. The first part is a community conversation at each table for the first hour to ensure that your voices are heard. Members of the Mayor's Office and Community Affairs sit at each table, take diligent notes on the issues you bring forth in case your question is not asked to the dais. Within two weeks, we ensure that the questions that are left on your note cards, if they're not asked to the dais, get a response back. That's monitored by the Mayor's Office with appropriate follow-up with all the city agencies. Obviously, the other portion is your questions that are posed by each table. One representative is asked to ask the question to the dais, to the mayor, and it will be assigned from the mayor.

We're just proud and accomplished as City Hall is eager to work with the community. Without further ado, I'll introduce the mayor, but we just want to go through a quick dais of who's here today. Of course, we're going to ask everyone to hold their applause to the end. We have the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

The first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro. The deputy mayor for Public Safety, Kaz Daughtry. Deputy mayor of Health and Human Services, Suzanne Miles-Gustave. Deputy Mayor of Operations Jeffrey Roth. Deputy mayor of Strategic Initiatives, chief of staff, Jason Parker. Deputy mayor of Intergovernmental Affairs, senior advisor, Ethan Gural. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart. New York City Public Schools First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg. DYCD Assistant Commissioner Daniel Guillen. Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manny Castro. Health and Hospital CEO, Dr. Mitchell Katz. Department of Health Assistant Commissioner Mamta Parakh. Office of Community Mental Health, deputy executive director, Laquisha Grant. DSS, DHS administrator, Scott French.

ACS first deputy commissioner, Winette Saunders. End Gender-Based Violence Deputy Commissioner Tesa Arózqueta. EDC senior vice president, Adam Gross-Meager. CCHR chief of staff Jose Rios Lua. Mayor's Office of People's Disabilities Commissioner, Christina Curry.

To my right, we have SBS Commissioner Dynishal Gross. DOT First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione. Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lohan. Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo. HPD Acting Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. Department of Probation Commissioner Juanita Holmes. New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol. NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble.

We have Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice executive director, Elijah Hutchinson. DFTA, Department of Aging chief of staff, Edgar Yu. DCWP chief of staff, Griselle Baret. Mayor's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, director of External Affairs, Daniel Henry. DEP, Manhattan Borough Commissioner Martin Fatooh. Parks Manhattan Borough Commissioner Tricia Shimamura. DCP Manhattan Director Erik Botsford. Department of Finance director, Interagency Relations, John Mulvey. Fire Department Assistant Deputy Commissioner Jim Harding. Also, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice First Deputy Director, Jill Starishevsky.

And we have, of course, as I mentioned, the Principal here of Beacon High School, Jeannie Ferrari. Patrol Borough, Manhattan South, assistant chief, Jim McCarthy. 10th Precinct Captain Alexander Brathwaite, Commanding Officer. 14th Precinct, Midtown South, deputy inspector, Chris Treubig. We have 14th Precinct, XO, Kevin Russell. We have 18th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Robert Gault. 13th Precinct, Captain Wesley Fradera, Executive Officer. Community Board 4 Chair, Jessica Chait. And 18th Precinct, Captain Alan Kearns, Executive Officer. At this time, hand it over to the mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank all of you for coming out. Thanks to the entire team. And we're looking forward to having a real good dialogue and feel comfortable in asking your questions. And the only thing we ask as you ask a question, I'm going to listen. As I respond, we want that same form of communication.

When I walked in tonight, it was an example of what three years and four months, what it look like. A gentleman stopped me as I was walking in and he says, "Mayor, mayor, why are you trying to leave Rikers open? Why do you believe is to stay open?" Because there's something that seemed to have left our city and government. Common sense. Think about this for a moment. Right now, there's been a call to close Rikers. Something that should be accomplished has to be closed by 2027. We have over 7,400 inmates that are there right now. 7,400 inmates. We're going to build four more jails. One in each borough but Staten Island. The total population that those four jails can hold is roughly 4,600. It cost us eight billion dollars when they first created this plan.

You know how much it is now? 16 billion dollars. 51 percent of the inmates on Rikers Island have mental health issues. 18 percent to 20 percent have severe mental health issues. So we're going to close the jail. 16 billion dollars. Over 2,000 people won't be housed. So what people are saying, well, just let them go on the street. Do you know what crime you have to commit to be on Rikers Island right now? This is not jumping the turnstile. This is not theft of service. So what I said to my colleagues in government, why don't we do this? Why don't we take one of those jails and build a state-of-the-art mental health facility so we can give people the real mental health services that they deserve? Not only those who commit crimes, but those who want to call their family members and say, my family members need help. That's what you call common sense.

That's what I inherited when I became the mayor January 1st, 2022. COVID was everywhere. We were losing our retail shops. Encampments were all along our highways, in the subways, under train stations. All over the city. We didn't have a plan to containerize our garbage. We were not investing in foster care children. We were dealing with thousands of illegal guns on our streets. Mopeds going through our streets. NYCHA residents, when I was ball president, knocking on doors, giving them face masks. NYCHA residents did not have access to high-speed broadband. So their children could not do remote learning and parents could not get telemedicine. We were losing jobs in this city. No one wanted to be on our subway system.

Two years and eight months later, we have more jobs in New York in the city's history. We broke our record 11 times. We're paying the college tuition to foster care children and giving them a stipend and giving them life coaches until they're 21 years old. NYCHA residents have high-speed broadband. 21,500 illegal guns removed off our streets. 80,000 illegal mopeds and cars removed off our streets. Bond raiders increased our bonds. Managed 230,000 migrants and asylum seekers that came to the city. And people were saying, well, Eric, you're anti-immigrant. I reached out to national leaders, national immigrant leaders, and I said, come to the city and see what we're doing. They said, we don't want to come to New York because you're anti-immigrant. I said, well, at least come.

They came to the city and spent the day with us. They went to all of our HERRCs that I spent the night in with other immigrants and migrants. They visited our HERRCs. They saw what we were doing with legal services. They saw what we did with temporary protective status. They saw how we educated 40,000 children. They saw how we fed, housed, and clothed. At the end of the day, they came and had dinner with me at Gracie Mansion. You know what they said? They said, no one in the country is doing what you're doing. We want to apologize to you. We're going to write to Washington and state that the country should follow what Mayor Adams is doing. That's what they said.

We've turned this city around. 4.6 million people on the subway every day. You would think that there's crime rampant in our subway system. 4.6 million. We have five felonies a day. This quarter, we had the least amount of shootings in this city in recorded history. Then go look at our housing record. Year one, year two, and we're going to do it in year three. We built more housing, affordable housing units in a single year in year one, year two, and we're going to do it in year three. Move more people out of homeless shelters into permanent housing in those years in the history of the city. More people got subsidized housing through our voucher program in the history of the city. 8,000 people we took off our subway system that were living on our system and put them in care. Record after record after record after record. But you won't believe it from what you read.

This is the safest big city in America. Not my stats, but the stats of those who keep it. All these crises, all these crises that we experience, we handle them. These people here. The beauty of this that I like the most, this administration looks like the city. Each one of their stories are personal stories.

You look at Manny Castro. Came here with his mother from Mexico. He and I went down to Pueblo, Mexico, to look at what was happening to the migrants and asylum seekers and went to the Darien Gap, and we went to Ecuador, and we went to Colombia. When we went to Pueblo to see the city he came from with his mother crossing over the river to get here, he was a dreamer. Now the dreamer is in charge of other people's dreams. First dreamer to be a commissioner in this city of New York in Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.

Swell people here. These are real people that are here. Everyday New Yorkers doing this job. I'm proud of what we have done. Let me tell you something. It's not only what we have done, but what we've overcome. No matter what happened to me personally, from fighting for this city, I got up every morning. I lived to my commitment. Just as I did when I was a cop and someone shot out my car windows. I got up the next day and I put on that bulletproof vest and I stood on these street corners protecting the children and families of this city. I gave my life to this city. I'm going to continue to do that as long as I'm the mayor of the city of New York.

This is the greatest city on the globe. It's an honor to be the mayor of this city fighting for working class people. That's what I've done. So no matter what you read, no matter what you heard, I'm a working class blue collar mayor. I serve this city well. I'm here tonight to do what I've done over and over and over again. To answer your questions to the best of my ability. Let's go to the first table.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Table number one.

Question: My name is Katie Savage. I'm a resident of Hell's Kitchen. Our question is, what can be done to provide more accountability and oversight of social service providers, particularly related to the siting of new locations to avoid saturation, and having metrics to ensure the effectiveness of these organizations?

Mayor Adams: You've got to run that by me one more time.

Question: Basically, the social service providers. We are looking for more accountability and metrics to know are they providing success? How much outreach are they doing? What are they doing? Also, making sure that there's not a saturation of locations, particularly in this area. We do have a very high concentration.

Mayor Adams: Give me a case study, an example of when you say the metrics. Break that down for me for a little bit. Because all agencies are here. Give me a case study of what you're saying.

Question: So, I would say take Breaking Ground. I want to know how many clients Breaking Ground is serving. Who are the outside contractors they're contracting with to help provide them stuff? Like a financial audit as well. But also, how many people are they serving? Are there success? I don't know exactly what those metrics would be, but having some sort of metrics so we can know that there's something to know.

Mayor Adams: Are they success–? I think that's an amazing question. Two questions. I'm wondering, who do we have from DHS?

Commissioner Kreizman: We have Scott French.

Mayor Adams: Your question is an amazing question. Here's what I found, the dysfunctionality of government. Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated we spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river. No one goes upstream and prevent them from falling in in the first place. People are making money off of pulling people out of the river. That's just the bottom line. The frustration of that is just unbelievable. How do you have 30 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island are dyslexic? Yet we were not doing dyslexia screening to prevent them from on that pathway. How do we have a hospital system that we know we are giving people food that is feeding our healthcare crisis? That's why we're doing lifestyle medicine now in our health and hospital system.

When you look at all of the initiatives, what I did is when I was running for mayor, I looked at the downstream. I said, who are we pulling out the river? Then did analysis, but what are we doing upstream? And we weren't. We had a downstream mindset. It's going to take a long time before we turn this around in the manner that we want. It is challenging when you go into the subways. I go into subways a lot and talk to people who are living in the system. Some don't want to communicate with you at all. Some people are so used to it. When I got elected the first January and February, I went into the streets to talk to people who were in encampments, living in tents, homeless. Actually, an ex-cop was one of the people that I saw. Bipolar, schizophrenic, stale food, human waste, drug paraphernalia.

We were walking by them. We were saying it was all right. When I went back to the team in March and said, we can't continue to do this, they said, "Eric, it's suicidal. Leave it alone. You're not going to be able to solve the problem." I said, "Like, hell, we're not going to have a city like these other cities where people are living on the street, defecating on the street, cooking on the street. That's not acceptable to me."

So the metrics must show, are we successful in the products that we're doing? Are we oversaturating communities? Because we shouldn't. When you try to build one shelter in some of these communities, there's some council districts that they had no shelters at all. We try to build one, and all of a sudden, we were in a firestorm. You have people who are running for mayor saying, "I'm not going to build a shelter in districts where there are no shelters." It's not fair. So can we talk about that metric? Who's going to respond to that question for me?

Scott French, Administrator, New York City Human Resources Administration: I will, Mr. Mayor. Hi, I'm Scott French. I'm the administrator for the Human Resources Administration at DSS. So I know for DHS shelters, which I think you might be talking about, Administrator Carter and Commissioner Park, we have metrics that every shelter is measured against. So I'm happy to talk to you after about some of those, if there's specific providers you have questions about, but we measure what the shelters do in regards to connecting people to permanent housing. 

What are other metrics that can they do in regards to, you know, what's happening with the families and each of the families having a plan and a pathway to stabilization for themselves? Each shelter does get measured in those ways and is brought in and we talk to them. So if there's specific providers, you mentioned Breaking Ground, if there's anybody else, I'd be happy to talk to you after this to get specific concerns or specific providers that we can then look at and talk to about what's going on in this community.

Mayor Adams: Yes, but I want to dig into a question for a moment. How do we determine if we have, let's say, and I'm not picking on Breaking Ground, but let's say we have Breaking Ground. We're hiring them to, because people don't come here to be in the shelter. How are we judging are they getting them out of the shelter? Are they getting them services? Are they stabilizing them? Do we look at any metrics to make the determination that they're doing what we're paying them to do?

French: Yes, absolutely. Every shelter has a monthly target of move-outs to equal a yearly target of move-outs. So we measure that every single month for shelters. If we see a provider not actually hitting their marks, we'll call them in. We'll have conversations about what specifically are you doing? Where does it seem you're falling down? So we can strategize, how can you up this? Because your goal ultimately is stabilize a family, stabilize an individual, and then connect them to permanent housing, whether it's supportive housing, subsidized housing, or some type of placement. So everyone's measured on each month across metrics with, obviously, connection to housing being the key one for those in shelter.

Mayor Adams: You're raising a good point. My mother used to say, you have to inspect what you expect or it is all suspect. You know that? First deputy mayor, we should build out a dashboard, each site, each location, who's the provider, how many people have they turned out. Because what she stated is right. How do we know we're getting the product that we deserve? We should look at that. We should look at legislatively. I see you, deputy mayor. Hold on one moment. We should look at legislatively, just as we did with City of Yes. Every community should have their share of these services. They don't now. Some council districts have none.

We should not pack everything in Hell's Kitchen. The name is Hell Kitchen. We should not create a hell here. It should be shared across the entire city. That's something we need to look at. I think it should be part of the legislative package that everyone must have their percentage of these services or providers. DM, you wanted to add something? Your mic is off.

Deputy Mayor Suzanne Miles-Gustave, Health and Human Services: Just want to add quickly. I know Scott was completely accurate with all the stats that we do track. we meet about those stats quite regularly. I want to save FDM a homework assignment because we are thinking about a dashboard. So I am personally all about full transparency. I asked my team to look at how much data can we put out publicly. We collect a lot of data. Now, some data is confidential. We can't put personal information. We track all of that. But I know we're all about full transparency. 

I think we need to be more transparent with the public. So we're thinking about working on putting together a dashboard that can be more public. To just punctuate the mayor's point about saturation, we also spend an inordinate amount of time looking at our shelter pipeline, making sure that we aren't saturating neighborhoods. To the mayor's point, fighting where appropriate to get shelters in other neighborhoods just so we can all share the wealth.

Mayor Adams: Because we're not. We're not. I'm telling you, we're not. We're trying to open a shelter out in I think it's Bensonhurst. One shelter. One. the fight we're having is unbelievable. When I go to places like the Bronx, Salamanca District, 30-something shelters. I go out to Councilwoman Won's district, 30-something shelters. There's no way you can-- when I came in and I did an analysis of all of my city council districts and I looked at the shelters, you may have two, you may have one, you may have three. Then you have 20, 30 in other districts. That's not fair. It's not fair. Thank you for your question.

Commissioner Kreizman: Table number two.

Question: Good evening, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm well. How are you?

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: My name is Yadira Jimenez, and I am here wearing my Assemblymember Tony Simone's hat as a representative. But I am also a Hell's Kitchen resident for 15 years. I love this neighborhood. So our question is, what does the on-the-ground integration of safety for the city look like? As there is a distinction of saying it is safe than actually feeling safe.

Mayor Adams: So true. I used to have this uncle who used to shake my hand, and he'll hurt my hand, and I'd say it hurts, and he'd say, boy, that doesn't hurt you. How the hell are you going to tell me what hurts me? Back when we got elected and I started talking about, I can't just show you stats. You have to feel safe. That lack of safety comes from a combination of things. Number one, cleanliness. We brought on board Commissioner Tisch, and we knew that we had to deal with the cleanliness of the city. We wanted to containerize our garbage. They told me it was going to take five years, and I said, like hell it is. We're going to get this done. We were able to get 70 percent of our garbage now is containerized. Some people have not received a memo, but we're digging in on that.

We're now doing an opening, starting a quality of life division, like our CompStat model, to look at and make every precinct. We have 1,500 officers that are going to be assigned to quality of life. People using drugs on our street. Abandoned cars. People dumping in illegal sites. Loud music playing, loud noise. I hear it all the time. Scooters. We're starting to crack down on all of these darn scooters that are not following speed limits or driving on sidewalks. So we're zeroing in on quality of life because people must be safe and feel safe. They go together.

We hear you loud and clear. We hear it at all of our town halls, our senior town halls. We hear it all the time, and we're zeroing in now. We've done the job of bringing down the crime numbers. Not what we want. We want more. But now we have to bring down the anxiety that people are feeling. That's why we zero in on the removing people off our subway system, because you don't have to have a personal encounter with them. But if you see someone yelling up and down the train station, thinking that you're going to be pushed to the track. I was a transit cop, so I know the fear of that system. If people don't feel safe, you have to feel safe on your block. Our officers need to walk the beat. They need to interact.

That's what the commission is doing with this new initiative. We're going to have a quality stat to face what we've done with CompStat. I was part of the– I'm a computer programmer, and I was part of the original team that did the precursor to CompStat. It was called OLTPS. I wrote the source code for that. So we know that you have to inspect this daily, if not hourly. The goal is to do just that, and that's what the commissioner announced. Thank you very much. Where am I going?

Commissioner Kreizman: Table three, Lamona.

Mayor Adams: How are you, ma'am? Hi.

Question: My name is Doreen McGill. I'm a member of the– a resident, rather, of the Chelsea-Elliott Houses, and we are being told that we are being forced out of our apartments so that big developers can come in and raise the rents and build casinos. I've been going to the meetings. It's very scary, the level of deception that we are being told about what's happening. One day it's a done deal, the next day they still have to take votes and do surveys. People in the senior citizens building in [inaudible] have already been receiving letters that they have to move by July.

Where they're going to move is also a lot of deception. People have ended up all the way out in Coney Island. We are being told that we have the right to stay and go into the apartments that are vacant, but that's not necessarily going to happen. I'm a licensed family daycare provider. I'm going to be 74 years old in July. That's the only income that I have. If I move, and I move out of the area, I won't have an income. How am I supposed to live? It's very scary. I mean, what's happening?

They even asked the people at the Board of Ed, I was told last night that they want to tear down the school, P.S. 33. For what? How do we tear down the school that children in the neighborhood go to, so that rich people can come into the neighborhood?

There's already enough rich people there, and they just want to raise our rents and turn us away from Section 9 into Section 8, which is a whole different situation. We have more protections under Section 9. We just really don't know what's going to happen.

Elders have limited mobility. How can they ask seniors, send them letters and tell them that they have to move by July? When are they going to move to?

Mayor Adams: So, who do I have here?

Commissioner Kreizman: Chief Operating Officer.

Mayor Adams: This is news to me. Talk to me.

Eva Trimble, Chief Operating Officer, New York City Housing Authority: Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for that question. I'm not sure what letters people are receiving. Sometimes there's incorrect information that's being out there. So let me share some facts and try to reassure you about this project. First of all, the Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea plan is right now in its public comment period, which we've extended through May 19th to get additional community feedback. So we really encourage anyone here who has additional comments to please submit those. I can give you the email or regular mail address to submit those comments.

The Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea plan is the culmination of years of engagement with residents, and our goal really is to bring this community finally to have modern, new homes for all of you that you've waited way too long for. That's our ultimate goal. Only about 6 percent of residents will have to relocate. Believe me, I understand that relocation is very hard. It's really tough to have to leave your home and settle somewhere else.

We have been working very hard to create units within the current campus for everyone to relocate. We want to keep you in your community, close to your schools, close to your neighbors, close to your medical appointments. So our goal is that everyone will have a unit within the campus to relocate to. We will be working hand-in-hand with residents to match you to units so that you will have a say in where you will be relocated. But none of those relocations will start until after this environmental review process is completed and we have the final go-ahead.

Mayor Adams: Now tell me about this relocation. What is this for? Is it a permanent relocation, temporary?

Trimble: It's a temporary relocation.

Mayor Adams: Until we build out?

Trimble: Exactly, until we complete the construction on the new buildings.

Mayor Adams: Okay, so give me a quick overview. Is this similar to what we're doing at the Riis Houses? Is this the project where we're tearing down and moving tenants into the new location?

Trimble: Yes, so we will be conducting demolition of buildings, two buildings to start. Then all of the residents in those buildings will be relocated, and then we will build the new buildings, and then you'll be able to move back into brand new homes, brand new construction.

Mayor Adams: Right. Now remember, great project, great project. Let me share this with you, ma'am. NYCHA has an $80 billion capital problem. $80 billion to fix up NYCHA, the roofs, the elevators, the hallways, the pipes, the lead. $80 billion. Every year people come along and they say, NYCHA deserves better, NYCHA deserves better. The bugles you hear, that's not the cavalry, that's taps. NYCHA is dying.

We went to Albany with a group of NYCHA leaders and said we need to come up with options for NYCHA tenants. One of those options we put in place was the land trust, where tenants can vote on it. Tony Herbert is here, who's our NYCHA rep. Where tenants are able to vote on it if they want it or not. Some voted for it, some didn't. But this project that's being done here is revolutionary for NYCHA.

Okay, we could disagree, but we're not going to call out. If you want me to have you listen, I'll listen to you and we'll come to you, okay? But here's what the project calls for, and I believe in the project. The project calls for tearing down buildings that should have been torn down. Their lifespans is just beyond repair. Moving the tenants into a temporary location. When the building is built back up, the tenants move into a new apartment. Not an apartment where the pipes are bursting, not an apartment where the lead is all over the place, the cabinets are falling off the walls, the paint is peeling. The tenants will be moving into a new apartment.

Zero displacement from the area once it's built up. Using a creative way, and the tenant association voted on it. We didn't force this down anyone's throat. They sat down, they looked at it, they examined it, and they came up to this conclusion. Whomever believes, those of you who are in NYCHA, whomever believes that we're going to repair NYCHA with an $80 billion budget hole, our budget in the city is only $115 billion. Federal government has moved away from NYCHA for years. State government, they have moved away from NYCHA for years. We're the first administration that included NYCHA in our housing plan. No one did that before. We have to find ways to deal with the crisis of NYCHA. NYCHA is not recovering if we keep kicking the can down the road.

This was a smart way. Land trust is smart. Other methods are smart. This frees up federal dollars, and it's come up with a partnership to do so. Somebody was saying, go ahead, ma'am, stand up. Go ahead, go ahead. Let me hear your thoughts. 

[Crosstalk.]

Question: First of all, the tenant association has not signed on it. In Elliott-Chelsea, it has not. I am its president, and I am newly elected. I have not signed on. I will not sign on. So I don't know who told you that one.

Mayor Adams: You said you're newly elected. Was someone elected before you?

Question: Yes. You met Darlene.

Mayor Adams: Did they sign on it?

Question: I don't know. I heard she has.

Mayor Adams: Come on, sister. Come on. We got to [inaudible]. See, this is what I keep saying about common sense conversation.

Question: I know, but you're not listening to me. You're talking. I was quiet. You said it's $80 billion. It's $78 billion over a 20-year period, which is the thing everyone forgets to say. That means it's $4 billion. You have a $6 billion surplus. Let's be very real. 
Frankly, if that was the case, HOU should not be calling the seniors and telling them they have to leave in July, which is the thing that you neglected to mention. We know it's been happening. They're telling us it's been happening. So acting like they're just going to be staying there and they're not being told that they're going to leave in July, and that is what's happening. I can bring you to seniors, and they will tell you that. They are being terrorized and harassed.

We have people from HOU, Sylvester C. James III, who is on our development on a regular basis and trying to get them to call Erik Bottcher and say, we want a demolition. By the way, I also have film of that one, too. So when everyone say we've asked for it; we have not. We have voted for it; we have not. It is a survey, a survey is not legally binding. Whoever's telling you this is lying. Frankly, Simon Kawitzky has said the only reason they've come to Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses is for the capital value of the land. No other reason. It is purely a land grab.

So this is not strategic. It is not innovative. You are using us to balance the budget of NYCHA. Frankly, if you have that much money, $15 million you gave to the preservation trust, it means you have money. So when people say that, it's not the truth. NYCHA is being killed by everyone else who seems to think that they can make buck off of us. That's what's really going on.

Mayor Adams: So let me share this with you. I did not have the money to pay for my son's college tuition. Know how I got it? I had equity in my home. So NYCHA has equity. You're the president now. You're going to have a real balance. You know as well as I know as the president of NYCHA. Let me tell you something, folks. 

There are 8.5 million people in this city. There's 35 million opinions. If you think everyone is going to agree on your position and no one is going to disagree, you're in for a real rude awakening. Trust me when I tell you, the most opinionated people I know in this city are those that live in NYCHA. You need to use that equity that's in NYCHA to deal with– you said it's not an $80 billion, it's a $78 billion. That's darn close to $80 billion to me. So we need to use– NYCHA has equity. We need to find smart ways of using that equity to deal with a $78 billion budget. We need to– 79? So what happened?

Question: [Inaudible.] Are you taking the subsidize away from us? Are you taking the subsidize away from us? Then they're going to create more homelessness? We have enough homelessness. You know, I believe in equality. I believe in civil rights. I believe in all that. I'm not happy with New York. I'm a 70-year-old woman. 

I see changes, bad changes in New York City. Very bad. I was a Democrat. I was a Democrat. I don't even want to vote for Democrat for anybody. Because the Democrats are not helping the community. They're not doing anything for us. You know? I feel bad because one day I was walking down the street, and I saw this guy. He was homeless. He didn't have shoes. You know? Everything is about development. You are selling to rich, wealthy people. So is NYCHA. Now, well, you're the boss, anyway. You're selling it and you're doing it on our homes. The little that we have, you want to take away and you want to make investments. That is wrong.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you, sister. Listen, let me tell you something. I understand. The problems in NYCHA happened before January 1st, 2022.

Question: I don't care. We can stay with what we have [inaudible]. 

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Hold on. We're not going to have the whole table have a rally. Listen, you said I should do something about it. I did a proposal. I did a proposal. And this is the proposal. I'm doing something. 

[Crosstalk.] 

Mayor Adams: Alright. Thank you. Life comes with repercussions. Life comes with repercussions. What's the next table?

Commissioner Kreizman: Table four.

Mayor Adams: Hey, folks. NYCHA has, as they admitted, a $78 billion budget. She's newly elected to her position. Prior to her position, there was someone that was in office that represented the tenants and they voiced their concern. 

This is the reality of what we are dealing with and how we have to deal with the housing crisis. We have a housing crisis in our city. Sitting by doing nothing is not the answer. Sitting by saying we're just going to keep saying what ideally we can do, that's not an answer. 

We have to come up with an answer [to] the NYCHA and housing crisis. Not only NYCHA, we have a housing crisis. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate in this city. Our record has been clear in the number of housing that we have built, the number of people we moved out of homeless shelters, the number of senior housing that we're doing. This is a very clear record.

The problems we're talking about in NYCHA, the problems we're talking about in shelters, it didn't start January 1st, 2022, folks. But we refused to sit on the sideline and say we're going to ignore the problem. We took aggressive steps to fix the problem. When you take those aggressive steps, you know what? 

Everybody's not going to be happy. Everybody's not going to be happy. Some people are going to call you names. You know what I learned about being mayor? New Yorkers have five fingers, but they love that middle one the most. You better have thick skin to people to see you want to do more. 

They're going to call you names. They're going to argue with you. But trust me, when these folks move into that new unit, instead of the dilapidated, elevator not operating, doors not working, rodents all over the place, water [doesn't] work, heat not in the Summertime. 

All of that came with those units. When they're in those new units, they're going to look back and say, “Remember that guy we gave a hard time to?” He had a vision for us. That vision is going to create a better environment for NYCHA residents. Go ahead, sir. I'm sorry.

Question: I think this will be a little easier than that one.

Mayor Adams: That wasn't hard. I should show you hard.

Question: You handled that very well. So my question goes to scaffolding in the city. It's been an issue for a very long time. I just wanted to hear what maybe you had as a plan for dealing with it because of the encampments and the drugs and oftentimes lack of light. So maybe you could talk to us about that.

Mayor Adams: I hate scaffolding. People hide behind it. They hide on top. Not enough light there. It just creates an unhealthy environment. Jimmy, this is your time.

Commissioner James Oddo, Department of Buildings: So the mayor hates rats. He says he hates scaffolding sidewalk sheds, but he only means a certain universe. Sidewalk sheds are an important safety tool, right? They're put up to protect pedestrians so they're not hit with anything flying if there's active construction happening, maintenance happening, or the building facade is unsafe. We have around 8,500 sidewalk sheds in New York City right now. That's down around 500 or so since the mayor announced Get Sheds Down back in the summer of 2023. That's really not the impressive number. The real impressive number is 300 now and 43 longstanding sheds. Those are the sheds that have been up five years or more. Of those 343 that we've taken down since the mayor announced Get Sheds Down, around 70 of them are our own. 70 of them belong to city buildings. So we're going to have sheds in New York City.

But the mayor is clear. Sheds that are up with no underlying work happening are the enemy. Building owners have made a decision. It's cheaper to put the shed up and leave it up than to actually fix the facades. We are working towards that universe. The council just passed a series of bills that are going to give us additional tools that essentially are going to make building owners come back to DOB on a much more frequent basis to show us that, in fact, they are doing the underlying work. That's only part of it.

Someone talked about the perception, and the mayor always talks about the perception and the reality of crime. Same thing holds here. There is the reality, which is the raw number, around 8,500. Then there's the perception that wherever I go, I'm inundated with these sheds. Part of it is the sheds are so crappy. They're dark. They have that crust bracing that makes you feel like you're in a cage. We are close to unveiling. Sometime this summer, we will unveil four new designs of sheds. They will be lighter. They will be brighter. They will be more open. There's an emphasis on natural light. So that you won't feel, wherever you go, like there seems to be a shed. It will address a lot of the quality of life issues that make sheds so unwanted.

So we are close. We're a few months from releasing that. We're also a few months from releasing an A to Z analysis of our facade inspection program. We think we're going to, with all of those different efforts, reduce the number of sheds overall, but obliterate the perception that these damn things are ugly, they're grimy, they lead to all kinds of nefarious activity. So we're close.

Recapping now. The mayor hates rats. He hates only some sheds. We're going to reduce. We're going to get sheds down because that's what the mayor asked.

Mayor Adams: A real legitimate issue. It was out of control. Hats off to Councilman Powers. It was out of control. People were just leaving them up. They were not doing repairs. The local law that was put in place after an incident, everyone was putting up the sheds. No one wanted to do the repairs. It just got out of control. We put in place an initiative of Get Sheds Down. We're watching the decrease.

But we need to make it more expensive to keep them up than to take it down. Right now it's just the opposite. They're basically saying we're just going to leave them up. Then we need to do what Commissioner Daughtry, I mean Deputy Mayor Daughtry has done. We have to use technology. There's technology now where you can do a scan of the building by using a drone and determine infrared technology to see where the loose brick is actually located. It's better to go in, make that repair, instead of having someone go through and do an entire inspection of the building when you could identify where the problem is. So matching technology with proper enforcement, we should start rapidly seeing these sheds come down. But it is a problem that has been ignored for far too long. We're tackling it head on. Thank you for that question.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next, table five.

Mayor Adams: How are you, ma'am?

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing?

Question: I'm okay.

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: My question is to you, what is New York City doing to eliminate the barriers of the housing? what can New York City do to improve the longevity of low-income housing and making sure that the rent stays affordable to the long-term residents of New York City? I've been living in this community for many of years. I have vouchers.

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that. I have a small three-family house. When my tenants moved in years ago, probably 15, 16, 17 years ago, they signed a lease, and on that lease I wrote, I could never raise your rent as long as you live in this apartment.

There's a whole lot for human needs. There's not a lot for human greed. It should start on a personal level. Every landlord is not going to do that. Some are going to try to raise rent and get whatever the market can bear. That was never my mindset. When the rent guideline boards put up for 7 percent increases, we said clearly New Yorkers can't afford that, and you guys need to really think hard about it, and are we going to continue to advocate for it.

I also want you guys to think about this for a moment. There are small property owners that their entire life savings is in that 14-unit building, that 18-unit building. That's all they have. Everything around them is going up. Heat is going up. Electric costs is going up. Repairs to the roof is going up. We need to find a way to separate them from those who own thousands of units of housing. If you lose the small property owner, their entire life savings is in that building. Then when tenants went through hard times and we canceled rent, many of them were not getting their basic rent. Foreclosures were happening. If you lose the small property owners, the large property owners are going to come in and absorb all of those properties.

Your financial stability for many people in middle and working class communities, that's the home that they own. I don't know what I would have done without that three-family home to pay for my son's tuition by taking that home equity loan. So we have to find a balance. This is a city of renters, but we can't hurt small property owners in the process. There's a way to do it that we don't raise the rent increase at a level that is unsustainable and unaffordable. that's what we're going to continue to advocate for and push for.

That's the balance that you have to do as the mayor of this city. The small property owners, and we've got to balance with the everyday renters that are in the city. That's our goal. But let's talk about housing. Talk about how many units of housing the first time. Homeowners, because we want to get people into homeownership. Let's talk about that program and what we have done around housing and what the City of Yes meant for us.

Acting Commissioner Ahmed Tigani, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Yes, sir. So address your first question.

Mayor Adams: Tell them who you are, not just some good-looking guy that's sitting behind the table.

Acting Commissioner Tigani: That's very fair. That's a fair start. My name is Ahmed Tigani, I'm the acting commissioner at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Those who know us, we create housing. We preserve housing. We plan to build more housing. And we work with the fifth largest provider of rental assistance in the country, alongside with NYCHA, making sure that people can stay in their homes and they have the resources they need to have stable lives.

You brought up a really important question, which is how do you reduce the barrier to housing? One way, as the mayor pointed out, is making sure that those who are providing that housing, our owners who are struggling with those costs, have the ability to keep that housing in place. Dealing with the expense is the reason why the mayor pushed so hard for a renewal of J-51, which is a tax abatement that allows repairs to happen but not have that impact and cost go down to the tenants. 

The flip side of that is that we have tenants who are struggling to find affordable housing. As the mayor mentioned, 1.4 percent vacancy rate. In fact, for units under 2,800, it's .93. It's effectively zero at the lowest level. So how does HPD work to deal with that? 

As a city, last year, we hit a record number of new construction units. Overall, we financed over 27,000 units of housing across the housing agencies. We financed over 14,000 new units of construction. We preserved 13,000 units of existing housing. That's how we keep people in place who live in affordable housing, and that housing needs to be repaired so it can last another 10, 20, 50 years.

Additionally, in this community board district, which we've worked with a lot, just recently, in this administration, we were able to get approvals for two projects that are in construction now, [inaudible]. That's 270 units of both deeply affordable housing and supportive housing in Community Board 4. In Community Board 4, we've also preserved over the last 10 years, we've created and preserved over 5,000 units of housing. This administration has doubled down on all of those programs to make sure that we're creating more housing for New Yorkers.

As the mayor said, it's not only about rental housing. We also have to create home ownership opportunities for New Yorkers. Whether that's one to four family homes or if that's multifamily cooperatives, we have tools for that. The mayor and this administration has doubled down on down payment assistance. We went from $41 million to now $82 million in down payment assistance. In the City of New York, eligible people can get up to $100,000 for down payment assistance if you're looking for a home. 

That's backed by the homeowner programs that we have like the Homeowner Help Desk. You can now call 311, who will direct you to a centralized program. It's citywide for the first time in this administration, where they will give you technical assistance on how to figure out which homeownership counselors you can reach to in the City of New York and how to get access to this if you're eligible.

But, if you're an existing homeowner and you need help, you can also get assistance from the city to stay in your home. Making sure that housing is accessible is important for renters, but housing access can also be undermined for people who are homeowners. That's why this administration has the Home Fix Program. We can give up to $150,000 of financing to help make repairs in homes for eligible homeowners, and these programs are definitely focused on seniors and our most vulnerable homeowners.

From the rental side, we're building in record numbers of affordable housing. We're not just doing it on projects that are 100 percent affordable. Because of the work that we've done at the state level and the mayor advocated, we were able to get an extension of the tax abatement known as 421-a to 485-x, but not just the old brand. We cut out the highest cost units, we deepened the affordability, and now that's the program alongside our subsidy that will deliver thousands of units. Just last year, that program delivered 6,000 units of new construction. We're converting commercial buildings into residential buildings, and this is a part of Manhattan where we hope to see some of that success. They're building it with abatements that require units that are affordable at 80 percent and 60 percent AMI and lower. Multiple programs, multiple fields to make sure that we're creating housing and also preserving housing that exists in the city of New York, both for renters and for homeowners.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Someone told me about our rental assistance. Talk about the rental assistance. People are hurting, falling back on their rent. Let's discuss what we're doing around rental assistance for people who are hurting.

French: Absolutely. At HRA, we have a variety of different programs. I think what people know most about is CityFHEPS, which is the city's rental assistance subsidy that, along with NYCHA and HPD, is one of the largest in the country to help keep people in their homes. We stepped in where it was absent for others in supporting families. Other things we have, though, if someone's not eligible for CityFHEPS, there's other things folks can apply for. If you're behind on your rent, you can come and you can apply to HRA for a one-shot deal where we'll look to see if we can actually pay your back rent because you have the ability to pay it moving forward.

Just something happened and you got behind, so you should reach out to HRA to see what we can sort of offer and help you with. There are some other rental assistance programs we also can connect people to if CityFHEPS isn't one of them. I would say one-shot deals is really something that folks should reach out to and apply for to see if we can help you in that way, because that often can help stabilize a situation that maybe is a little unstable, but just needs a little help, and then the household can carry it from there.

Deputy Commissioner Tesa Arózqueta, External Affairs & Community Initiatives, Mayor's Office to End Domestic & Gender-Based Violence: Hi. You mentioned housing for people who are hurting. You mentioned the one-shot deal, so I would love to plug a program that our office oversees. My name is Tesa Arózqueta. I'm the deputy commissioner of Community Initiatives and External Affairs at– it's a really long name– Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. We go by ENDGBV for short because it's a very long name, and I wanted to talk about Home+. Home+ does three things to help keep survivors of domestic and gender-based violence in their homes.

This is important because domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness in the city. We don't often think of domestic and gender-based violence when we think about housing, but it's a major underlying issue for housing concerns. Home+ operates in all five boroughs, and the three things that it does, number one, it offers personal alarm systems for people in their homes. If they have a stable home and they're experiencing domestic violence, they have somebody stalking them who's making them feel unsafe in their home.

Sometimes people feel like their only option is to leave their stable housing and go into shelter, and that starts a cycle of homelessness. We all know how hard it is to find an apartment, to get out of shelter, and so these programs are aimed at helping people so that they can stay in their home and never have to leave because of a safety issue. It provides alarm systems to use inside their home. What's great about it is that the survivor can choose where the alarm rings to. It can ring to law enforcement.
If they don't want to engage with law enforcement and it gives them other options, they can ring to a trusted service provider, a family, a friend. It also provides free window, door, lock changes and repairs. That's a big deal as well on an emergency basis, so sometimes as soon as 24 to 48 hours. It also provides low-barrier microgrants to survivors, and they can use that funding towards whatever they want to keep them safe and stable in their homes. Rent arrears, equipment, because they work from home. If they can work from home and they're getting harassed on their way to work, and that's an option for them, they can use it for that.

It puts the control back in their hands. There's a bunch of other things that our office is doing around stabilizing housing and increasing access to housing programs for domestic and gender-based providers, project home, rapid rehousing. We're also doing coordinated entries so that folks who work with domestic violence survivors can use the same systems to access shelter and housing programs. I just wanted to say it's going to take all of us to address housing and stabilize housing, and our office is also playing a big part in that.

Mayor Adams: That's a good point that you raise because there's a large number of people who experience homelessness because of domestic violence. What I have discovered in my time in government, in community also, what I've discovered in my time in government is that the resources, people don't know they're available. That's probably one of the major things we have to figure out, how do we get that resource out? Because those one shots, a woman stopped me on Staten Island at a town hall.

She was $6,000 in arrears. She was dealing with a whole lot of other crises. She was in tears saying, "I went, and I never thought I would get that one shot." They gave her the $6,000. She was able to stabilize her life. She went through a period of unemployment. She was able to stabilize. Your tax dollars are here for you. It may not be you directly in this room, but you may know someone who's going through this. Reach out and find out how can I get the help that I need.

As just mentioned, it could be a domestic violence issue. It could be you fell back on your rent. It could be a health care issue. There are a ton of services that this city could provide, and people need to tap into them. Don't struggle alone. You wanted to raise something?

[Crosstalk.]

John Mulvey, Director of Interagency Relations, Department of Finance: The city does offer SCRIE and DRIE, which is Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption and Disabled Rent Increase Exemption, two programs that once you qualify, the income qualification is $50,000. Once you qualify, as long as you remain eligible, your rent will never change, and the city will pay the difference in whatever the change in rent is. You continue to pay the same amount for as long as you live in the unit, and the city pays any change, any increase. That is for rent-regulated and rent-controlled buildings. It's not for private buildings, but it's a great program for folks who qualify.

Mayor Adams: Good point. SCRIE is for seniors, DRIE is for those with disabilities, and you should apply. If you need information or a loved one, a family member, please reach out on the end. Yes, Commissioner?

Commissioner Christina Curry, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities: It's on. Thank you, sir. I was actually going to mention SCRIE and DRIE, and that there are nonprofit organizations, independent living centers, which are non-residential, nonprofit, that will assist in compiling and filling out those applications, and that MOPD, I am the commissioner for Mayor's Office with People with Disabilities, can also assist. DRIE is good. SCRIE gives you actually a little bit more in terms of freezing your rent, as opposed to DRIE. We're still working on that. They're both really good programs to look at.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. What's interesting, as the commissioner just stated, filling out these forms can be intimidating. They're nonprofits, and our city agencies will assist people in filling out the forms. Many people will go without these services because of how intimidating it is to fill out the forms, the documents. It's so bureaucratic, but there's assistance that helps you get through that.

Jose Rios Lua, Chief of Staff, New York City Commission on Human Rights: Mayor, if I can add one last piece on the housing bandwagon. Hi, folks. Jose Rios Lua from the Commission on Human Rights. My colleagues have talked about amazing programs to help you get through, but there's another piece here. You can't be discriminated against because you have a voucher, because you're part of CityFHEPS, because you have SCRIE or DRIE. If you're experiencing that kind of discrimination, our office is here to support you with that, and we've delivered some tangible wins for the city on that front.

In September, we had a landmark settlement with Parkchester in the Bronx because they were discriminated against voucher holders, and it was a million-dollar civil penalties, but more importantly, 850 set-aside apartments for voucher holders. If you are a member of one of these programs that are offered by the city or by Section 8, and you're having trouble getting a callback from a realtor, getting shown an apartment, or trying to get pushed out because of your voucher, come to us, and we'll support you.
I will say this. Last year, the mayor met with us and said, "I want this enforcement to go into hyperdrive," and so that's what we've been doing. We've been pushing source of income because it is still one of the highest forms of discrimination in housing in our city today. If you're facing that, please contact the Commission on Human Rights.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. So true. Lot of voucher, FHEPS voucher discrimination, and we wanted to zero in, do testers, and make sure we identify those who are doing it. Yes?

Question: I'm happy to report, maybe not so happy, that the Knicks are tied going into halftime. You may want to know. That's not my question, but you know, go Knicks. Our question actually was about enforcement. Two primary issues. One around bike, e-bike, scooter safety, traffic safety. We have, as I'm sure across the city has, people riding on sidewalks, going the opposite way, and limited traffic enforcement or enforcement of traffic laws.

The second issue is around illegal cannabis. We know there are issues around jurisdiction, but we really feel like this undermines the city's ability to stand true to our concepts of law and order. Many of us are supportive of legal cannabis, but see illegal cannabis as a serious problem. We'd like to hear from you on both of those.

Mayor Adams: Great, great question. I don't think we're at a town hall where those questions don't come up. First of the– Kaz, you want to go into– deputy mayor, you want to go into the– are you looking at the Knicks game? What are you doing? 

Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry, Public Safety: It is tied.

Mayor Adams: We hear all the time, especially when we do our older adults town halls. They really– can you walk across the street? There's a total disregard. Go into the enforcement that we're doing around the illegal mopeds, scooters, three-wheelers, the whole game.

Deputy Mayor Daughtry: Yes. Thank you for the question. Like the mayor mentioned earlier, the police commissioner did start a new quality of life division. We actually have one of the individuals, Inspector Williams, from that team here. Let's talk about the mopeds. I know everybody in this room seen at one time at one point last year, the year before, seen 40, 50, 60 mopeds, scooters, dirt bike zipping up and down the streets, especially in this area, down First Avenue, down Second Avenue, down Sixth Avenue, right. You don't see those anymore.

You want to know why? Because the department, the NYPD, along with the Community Link program, have taken about 92,000 of them so far since this administration has started. We're making it extremely harder for them to get it back because they're not registered. I think we're doing a moped crush, Mayor, sometime this week or next week. This administration, the NYPD, under the mayor's leadership and direction to aggressively go after these mopeds, dirt bikes, scooters, ghost cars.

Now, that doesn't the officers have to utilize their discretion when they stop in a delivery worker. We don't want to mess up nobody's Uber eats if we're not looking for that. We're not going to mess with the DoorDash people. However, they have to have the proper registration, the proper insurance. What did the Community Link team do under Inspector Williams' leadership? He went out there and educated with the stores– sometime I think he's this– what does that call the Shake Shack? Shake Shack, the– what's the other main one? Chick-fil-A.

Well, you'll see a bunch of all of these scooters and dirt bikes, and mopeds– I'm sorry, all of the scooters and mopeds in front of the stores. Him and his team, inspector and his team, went there and gave out literature from the Department of Transportation, from the NYPD on how to get your moped and scooter legally registered so it can operate on New York City streets. Secondly, the smoke shops. Over 3000 smoke shops closed. 3000. Remember when– I think her name was Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar with the SMOKEOUT Act.

They weren't giving the Police Department and the mayor the authority for the NYPD to go in there and shut down the smoke shop. The Sheriff's Department got the authority. They deputize the police department, certain individuals. They went in there and was doing inspections over 15000 inspections done at the smoke shops. Guess what? If they're not operating up to par, we're going to go there and shut them down again. I think the mayor had a press conference today in regards to after a year they can are allowed to reopen up again. If they are that the city, this administration has given them the ability to become a legal authorized cannabis retailer.

If they don't want to follow the rules, we're going to go back to that same location and open up and we're going to shut them down again because we want people to follow the rules and the law here in the city. That's something that the mayor has made it very clear to me as a deputy mayor for public safety. I'm making sure that all of the public safety agencies, especially the Sheriff's Department, abide by those rules.

Mayor Adams: It was a real problem. When they passed the legislation, it was just a wild, wild west. They were opening the smoke shops everywhere. The Police Department can go in and do enforcement. The enforcement was just a small summons. They were laughing at it. We went back to Albany. We got real authority to go in with DCWP, with the Sheriff's Department, the Police Department.

We've been going in and it's unbelievable what you find inside some of these shops. Some of this stuff is just dangerous to you. We closed down fourteen hundred. We seized $95 million in proceeds and everything from mushrooms to cannabis to all sorts of things, vape items. We also have helped the legal cannabis, half a million dollars. Half a million dollars, right, commissioner?

Commissioner Dynishal Gross, Department of Small Business Services: 160 legal cannabis shops currently operating in the city. As the mayor, the sheriff's office, DCWP has enforced against the unlicensed shops their revenue is growing. The event today was an amazing success story. We have a site in Queens that was previously an unlicensed cannabis shop that is now a thriving pizzeria owned by an Italian immigrant, his Dominican wife, his diverse staff on a beautiful corner. We didn't want a vacancy in that neighborhood that impacts quality of life, that impacts perceptions of safety. Instead, we have a new thriving small business in that location. So as this program matures, we're going to see more of that. The recovery of these commercial spaces and adding to the city's diverse small business environment.

Deputy Mayor Daughtry: One last thing. Somebody in this room, mayor, particularly at table number four, will have my number on speed dial when I was in the Police Department. Tom remember about all the smoke shops around Times Square, all the weed trucks that were in Times Square. Did we not take all of them? How many smoke shops did we shut down in Times Square, Tom? How many are open? We're going after them, too.

Commissioner Kreizman: Before we go to the last table, last question.

Mayor Adams: Hold on. Wait. I want to finish with something else we stated. Those mopeds that you were talking about, e-bikes and mopeds, they were also being used to commit snatch and grab robberies. It was one of the number one feeders to a lot of the pattern robberies we were having in the city. They were snatch, grabbed. They were grabbing people's cell phones, their jewelry. They were actively using those modes of transportation to commit a lot of crimes.

We started zeroing in on those patterns and going after those e-bikes. In the cannabis shops became a magnet for robberies and shootings because it's all all-cash business, because you can't get a credit card to open an account because of it. They became magnets for shootings and crimes. When we leaned into those illegal shops, those 1400s, we saw the crime numbers drop down on it. You're right on target with that. It was a problem.

Mulvey: Mr. Mayor, John Mulvey from finance, but I'm representing the sheriff as well. Just, some numbers to supplement what Deputy Mayor Daughtry said. In 2025, since January 1st, they've done 791 inspections of cannabis shops. They've issued over $21 million worth of civil penalties. 37 folks have been arrested. 63 shops were sealed. That's Operation Padlock to Protect. While that's led by the sheriff, there's a whole bunch of other agencies, DCWP, DOB, Police Department that are part of that operation as well. They're out there. They're out there every day.

Commissioner Kreizman: That's just one component of the closures that Deputy Mayor Daughtry emphasized in the grander scheme of the closures. Before we go to the last table, I just want to thank Robin Forst, our Manhattan Borough director, who helped put this event together and being in touch with the community board, the civics, the bids in the community. The last table.

Question: Hi.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm fine. Thank you. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: I'm Fran Caravelis. I live a couple of blocks away in the armory, and I currently serve on my co-op board. There were many concerns here that I also share, and a lot of good issues that I think have to be dealt with. The reason I'm here tonight is I'm concerned about all the discussions of casinos coming to New York City, and particularly in this neighborhood and Hudson Yards, and Hell's Kitchen.

I think it brings a certain element, more traffic, quality of life issues, property values. I grew up in New Jersey, saw what happened in Atlantic City when casinos came into Atlantic City and not in a good way. Did it affect the city, in my opinion? What can we do? Is this definitely moving forward that we're going to have casinos coming? Is there something we can do to stop that?

Mayor Adams: It's a process, and your local electeds are part of the process. There will be hearings. You should come out and voice your concerns. It's not an automatic deal anywhere. We don't know if New York is going to actually receive the casinos there. I think there's sight in two locations, two or three locations. There's definitely a process. You should participate. Your local elected, I think Bottcher is in this area. If Liz Krueger may be your state senator.

There's an entire process where you're going to get feedback from the local communities, and they're going to have input in it. It's not a done deal. The state came up with the methodology that's going to be used. Part of that is getting feedback from the residents. It's imperative that everyone comes out and sit down, and be part of the process to voice your concerns on if you want a casino or not in your area.

Before we leave tonight, we had a cameraman, Anthony Austin, an amazing, amazing camera person that worked with City Hall. He passed away unexpectedly, and he would be here doing these town halls. We all loved him at City Hall. Tomorrow's not promised to us. We should just try our best to be as kind as possible and love those who are in our midst. You never could spread too much love. I thank all of you for coming out tonight. Let's go Knicks. 

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. To staff at each table, please collect all the cards to ensure we follow up. Thank you to NYPD at each table that's here with us.

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