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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability

May 5, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. Yesterday was a tough day. We had the funeral service for a good man we lost, Detective Anastasios Tsakos. And we all joined together with his family to say goodbye. And it was so painful to see this beautiful family, two young children, a grieving widow all going through so much. And we all felt it with them. And here's someone who served us and did so much for all of us, posthumously promoted to Detective – one of so many honors he deserves, and a true hero. We all are grieving with him and his family. We’re grieving with the family in honor of him, but we can do more than just grief. We can act to fight the scourge that took his life, which is driving while intoxicated. Reckless, driving, dangerous driving – we can do something about it. The fact is, the laws are still too lenient towards those who take a vehicle and turn it into a de facto weapon and drive under the influence without any regard for what it could mean for other human beings and for families. So, a family now is missing a father, a husband, a son, a brother, because someone drove under the influence. 

So, in honor of Detective Tsakos, there's something we all can do and our colleagues in Albany in the Legislature can do. We need to pass immediately in this legislative session, the Crash Victim Rights and Safety Act. This legislation takes very aggressive action against dangerous driving. This legislation does much more to support the victims of these crashes. This legislation mirrors the spirit and the approach we've taken here in New York City successfully with Vision Zero, which now, by the way, the Biden administration is using the New York City model of Vision Zero as the national framework for how to protect pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, everyone. We've got to do things differently. So, in this bill, the Traffic Crash Victim Bill of Rights. In this bill, Sammy's Law, and this is named after a young man, 12-year-old killed by a dangerous driver in my neighborhood in Brooklyn – 12 years old, whole life ahead of him, his life taken away because someone didn't do the right thing. And this bill would lower the legal blood alcohol level from 0.08 to 0.05. Every step to tighten up the law helps us to stop dangerous driving, driving while intoxicated. Also, this legislation overturns the ridiculous rule of two, which literally suggests that if you do two dangerous things, you've done something wrong, as opposed to one dangerous, horrible thing being enough. So, this is an opportunity to make profound change and I'm calling upon our colleagues in Albany, I'm pleading with you in the memory of Detective Tsakos, in the memory of Sammy, in the memory of all those we've lost, please pass this legislation and help make the people of New York safe. We also in the city will continue to be announcing additional Vision Zero measures. We're investing a lot in Vision Zero in the budget we're working on right now. This is work that never ends. And we'll have a lot more to say on this in the next few weeks. 

Okay, let's go to what we talk about every day. Our vaccination effort continues to grow and the numbers keep mounting, and it's a lot of work, and we have to keep working even harder at it, but we keep moving forward every day. So, as of today, from the very beginning, 6,737,641 doses administered. The walk-in initiative, crucial. Want to remind everyone at the City-run sites, over 50 sites across the city, walk right in. If you’ve got an appointment, that's great. If you don't, just walk right in. Easiest it's ever been to get the vaccination. If you haven't gotten it, this is the day to get it. If you want to make an appointment or you need more information, go to nyc.gov/vaccinefinder. Or, you can call 877-VAX-4NYC. And we want to have a great summer in this city. We want to have a lot of our freedom back and our joy back. To help us get there, you need to get vaccinated for everyone's sake – your own, your families, your whole city’s. Now, good news – a big milestone hit at Citi Field on Monday. Citi Field has been a great part of our vaccination effort. I want to thank the Mets, they've been outstanding partners. So, as of Monday, we hit 100,000 doses administered at Citi Field. It is easy to get a vaccination at Citi Field. Things are working. It is the right place to go. Everything's clicking. Go to Citi Field, get that shot. That's easy. What's not so easy, getting run support for Jacob deGrom – this continues to be a deeply troubling issue. We're going to come up with innovative new solutions, in addition to the previously announced Jacob deGrom Support Plan.  

Okay. Now, let's talk about our recovery. Let's talk about a recovery for all of us, because a recovery for all of us means bringing back the whole city, every neighborhood, for everyone. A recovery for all of us means people are safe and people can go about their lives. A recovery for all of us means that we change some of the things we used to do, we make them better. So, one of the things we're focused on especially is different approaches, new approaches to public safety. We want this to be the summer where New York City comes back strong. We announced our Safe Summer NYC initiative. It is about investing in communities. It's about cops in the right places. It's about bringing back the court system, gun prosecutions, all of this coming together to beat back gun violence. Well, that investment in communities is crucial. And we have learned over the years more and more that community-based solutions to violence make all the difference. This is the Cure Violence Movement and the Crisis Management System. This counts – and in this budget, we will be doubling the workforce this year for this summer for the Cure Violence Movement and Crisis Management System, and then we'll be tripling it for the summer of 2022.  

Today, we want to talk about a very specific effort to fight gun violence in a targeted way, in a place that needs the additional help that's gotten a lot of community support in Southeast Queens, focusing on the 105 Precinct – Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, a place where we needed to take this approach and apply it. So, it's a $1.1 million investment to specifically stop gun violence with these grassroots approaches. We're investing in two groups that are known and respected in the community that have a connection to the grassroots and can make a difference. King of Kings and 100 Suits for 100 Men, two extraordinary community organizations that are going to take what works in the Cure Violence Movement and the Crisis Management System and apply it in Southeast, Queens, and keep the community safe, and help young people on the right path, and help stop the violence. I want you to hear more about this first, a new Council Member from the community. She has hit the ground running. If you've ever seen an elected official hit the ground running, she is the definition of it. She came in to the Council just as we were working on all the police reform measures. She really helped. She contributed to it. She focused us on specifically improving and expanding Cure Violence in her part of Queens. She is a solution-oriented leader and a problem solver. My pleasure to introduce Council Member Selvena Brooks Powers. 

[…] 

Mayor: Thank you, Council Member. And thank you, I can tell how much this is passionate work for you to work with community residents, to make things better. And I really appreciate what you said, when there's an act of violence, everyone is affected, everyone's lives change. We've got to stop that violence with community-based solutions. So, thank you. And now, everyone, I want you to hear from someone who created one of those community-based solutions. I really admire when folks see a problem and they say, if there's not a solution, we're going to create one, we're going to make something new, we're going to bring the community together and be part of the change we need. It takes a lot of spirit, a lot of heart to say I'm going to step forward, I'm going to make the difference. And our next speaker is someone who did that – Founder and President of 100 Suits for 100 Men. There'll be playing a crucial role in stopping violence in 105th Precinct. My pleasure to introduce Kevin Livingston. 

[…] 

Mayor: Thank you so much, Kevin. And, Kevin, thank you again – it takes so much to say you're going to create something and make it work. You've done that, your colleagues have done that. It's making a difference. It's going to be one of the reasons we turn things around the summer and you're going to save lives. I just want to thank you for the profound work you're doing. God bless you. Thank you so much.  

All right, everyone, let's do what we do every day now and let's turn to our indicators, and again, we have had weeks of good indicators. Today is no exception. Let's keep going and I'll keep saying it, if you like these good indicators, if you like the fact that things are getting better, if you'd like fewer and fewer restrictions and you haven't yet gotten vaccinated, go get vaccinated. So here we go. Number one, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – today's report: 121 patients. So obviously well below threshold confirmed positivity also has gotten a lot lower 37.19 percent. Hospitalization rate also well below threshold, 1.61 per 100,000. So that's good news all along. Number two, new reported cases on a seven-day average. Well, that graph speaks for itself – continued progress. Today's report: 1,083 cases. Number three, percentage of people testing citywide positive for COVID-19 today's report: 2.61 percent – again, way below threshold and declining. So, that's good news all around. A few words in Spanish, as we conclude, and this is about again, how we work together with the community to end gun violence.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, let's turn to our colleagues in the media. Please let me know the name and outlet of each journalist.

Moderator: We'll now begin our Q and A. As a reminder, we're joined today by Dr. Chokshi and by Dr. Katz. First question today goes to Marla from WCBS 880.

Question: Good morning, Mayor, and good morning, everyone on the call.

Mayor: How are you, Marla?

Question: Good, how you doing?

Mayor: I'm feeling okay. We're moving forward.

Question: Okay. Alright. Well, I have a middle-schooler that's sitting on the carpet with no synchronous education, but anyway, that's beside the point. I wanted to ask you about the Department of Education changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, and when the decision was made to add Italian Heritage Day to Indigenous People's Day on the calendar, and, and can we get your feelings, as an Italian American, on erasing Christopher Columbus’s name from the calendar. We heard from a lot of elected officials who say that it's an affront and they're angry about it.

Mayor: Look, I think this process wasn't handled, right. I certainly didn't hear about the change nor did the Chancellor. So, we spoke about it and we both agreed this was not the right way to handle things. Saying very clearly that we honor Italian Americans, I'm an Italian American, I could not be more proud – I focus on my heritage all the time. You know, I honor my grandparents, Giovanni and Anna came here from Southern Italy. I've been to their hometowns. I could not feel my heritage more strongly. We have to honor that day, as a day to recognize the contributions of all Italian Americans. So of course, the day should not have been changed. Arbitrarily. I think saying it's a day to celebrate Italian American heritage is absolutely right and appropriate, and that's the way to talk about it and to think about it. I think also saying as has been done in many parts of the country, it's a day to think about history and honor indigenous peoples as well. I agree with that too. So, the process wasn't right, but the end result is going to be a day to honor Italian American heritage, a day to honor indigenous peoples. I think that's a good way forward. Go ahead, Marla.

Question: Councilman Mark Levine tweeted today that we're not paying enough attention to the steep decline in vaccination with a 67 percent drop in first shots compared to peak, and 45 percent of New York City adults still haven't gotten their shots. What is the city going to do about that? You have talked about incentivizing people, but we haven't seen it thus far.

Mayor: Yeah, and you're right, exactly. Marla, and so I'd say two things. I think Council Member Levine is right to say, we've got to change our approach, given some of the new facts. I think you're right to say you haven't seen the new incentives yet, and we want to show them to you very quickly. We're nailing down the final details, but you're going to be seeing a lot more. We know there's a lot of places where we could create really exciting opportunities. I mean, the other day, what we did with the Museum of Natural History is that is the shape of things to come. You know, folks are coming there. Getting vaccinated under the blue whale and then getting four free admissions to the museum. We're going to be working across the spectrum, sports teams, entertainment venues, restaurants. We're going to be looking do incentives, just like that to give people great opportunities when they get vaccinated. So that's exciting. We're going to have that real soon.

I would say to you, Marla. Yeah, we we've seen the rate go down, but we still have to recognize a lot of people are getting vaccinated and I don't want that to be missed in this situation. I was looking at the national numbers the other day, and you still got millions of people getting vaccinated every single day. Once upon a time, we would have thought that to be a miracle. You know, we remember when we thought it was a big deal if we could get to 1 million vaccinations in a day in this country. We're well, well above that now. The same thing here, we now have places get vaccinated all over the city. It's easy, it's fast. You can walk in and lots of people are still taking advantage of it, but we're going to keep innovating. So, we can keep moving this forward. Every single, additional person who gets vaccinated helps us, and one more thing, we're going to be doing a lot of work with doctors, with pediatricians to encourage their patients that direct contact with trusted healthcare providers is going to make a huge difference.

Moderator: The next is Michael Gartland from the Daily News.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Hey Michael, how’ve you been?

Question: I’m okay.

Mayor: Michael, you always sound doubting when you answer well, what is that?

Question: God, it's a tough question sometimes. I wanted to ask you about Shelly Silver's release. Do you think that was the right thing to do, and what kind of message does that send? You know, that he's, he's getting out early after, you know, what he was put in prison for.

Mayor: Yeah, look, Michael, I really think we have to put this in the past. I mean, let the courts decide that. People who have done things wrong, have to suffer the consequences. It's up to the courts to decide what's right. I'm comfortable with that. Go ahead, Michael.

Question: Thanks, also, do you have any updates that, you know, I, you talked about a few days back, an investigation into these allegations against Scott Stringer, and yesterday we learned that a formal complaint was filed with the Attorney General. A source with the Attorney General's office last week said, you know, they think the more appropriate options here would be the Department of Investigation or the City's Human Rights Commission. Have you heard from either of those agencies, is there any agency on the city level that you know of, that's going to be looking into this? Is there any update you could give us on that?

Mayor: My understanding is Department of Investigation did say publicly they did not think they had jurisdiction because he wasn't a city official at the time. I don't know about Human Rights. I think it's a fair question. We can check on that. I thought Attorney General might be an appropriate venue, but again, I don't, I don't know the nuances. I still think there's time to get the facts out, and the truth out, the full truth, whatever it is the people deserve to know as much as possible, as independently as possible, as they make their judgment on the next mayor. I think that's the bottom line.

Moderator: The next is Erin from Politico.

Question: Mr. Mayor, just wanted to get your reaction to Governor Cuomo announcing May 19th as the date that most restrictions will be lifted. Obviously, you had identified July 1st, so if you get the vaccine it's okay. Do you think it's too early? Do you have any concerns? And how do you think it's going to work under the model he's kind of put out of no capacity restrictions, but you still have to do social distancing.

Mayor: Erin, look I think what the City announced July 1st, full reopening makes all the sense in the world because it gives us some more time to keep an eye on the trends. It gives us more time to get people vaccinated, as we originally planned through the end of June. It's also a full reopening. That's what I'm talking about. A reopening with very, very few restrictions. What the Governor's put forward, we’ll work with is the bottom line. It's obviously different things in different phases. We'll work with it, but we'll keep an eye on it. We'll keep an eye to make sure that the data and the science tells us everything's okay. I mean, that's the bottom line. That's why we go over these indicators every day, and if we see something wrong, we'll talk about what needs to be done to make the adjustment. But, you know, hopefully all these plans lead us to the exact same place, a fully reopened New York City this summer, and I really do think we're poised for an extraordinary summer in this city of just a huge amount of activity, and the city coming back to life, and I'm very, very excited about that. Go ahead, Erin.

Question: Okay, thanks, and then I can probably guess the answer to this, but did he consult you on this decision at all?

Mayor: Erin, I know you'll be shocked, shocked and amazed. I hope you're sitting down. No, he didn't. Go ahead.

Moderator: The next is Odalys from Telemundo.

Question: Good morning, Mayor

Mayor: Hey, Odalys. How are you?

Question: Nice talking to you today, Mayor. I wanted to talk about immigration and the border. As more migrants, kids in this case, are crossing to come to the United States, has the Biden administration reached out to the City to be able to accommodate some of these children until they're reunited with relatives?

Mayor: Odalys, I don't have all the details for you. I can tell you that our broad message to the Biden team is we think it's so important to keep families together, and it's so important to avoid the mistakes made by the Trump administration, where families were separated. Kids were sent all over. Sometimes they weren't reunited, so we'll work with them in every way, but I think we'd need a very different approach than what was used in the past. Go ahead, Odalys.

Question: Thank you. Vaccination is going well, but the numbers are showing sort of like a slowdown of the people going to get the first shot. What more can the City do to encourage people to get vaccinated? Connecticut, in this case, is doing an amazing job, also the City, but we need to encourage more people, especially in those counties that are much needed.

Mayor: Yeah, Odalys. You're right. Look, I think we should be proud of where we are. You know, we've got a huge, huge number of vaccinations that have been done and very successfully. The process has worked, you know, the team has done a great job, all those wonderful vaccinators out there. I want to thank them again. It's been very safe. We've seen just a great, great track record, and if you talk about people who've gotten at least one dose, we're almost 74 percent on the way to our five-million-person goal and overwhelmingly people get one dose do come back to get a second dose. So, there are actually some very, very good facts here, but Odalys, you're right. We got to do more. I think this is going to be about focusing on the doctors and pediatricians, reaching out more consistently to their patients, you know, let's face it, no voice is more important to people than the doctor they trust for a parent, the pediatrician's voice is so important. I think more of that contact, getting that encouragement will make a difference, definitely more incentives, and we're going to say a lot more about that in the next few days, a lot of exciting incentives and I think continuing to educate people, and also, I think we're going to hear news in the next days, confirming that hundreds of thousands of more people are now going to be eligible, kids 12 to 15, I think are going to be eligible very, very soon. That's a whole other audience we need to reach. So, I think you could put all those pieces together, we really get somewhere.  

Moderator: The next is Yoav from The City.  

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to clarify on the change of the Columbus Day holiday name. You said the Chancellor wasn't aware of it either. How did that announcement get made without the Chancellor's input?  

Mayor: Yeah, again, Yoav, we've got an obviously a huge, huge operation, and in that operation there's a lot of different elements. So, the fact that a calendar naming didn't come to her attention or my attention on one hand doesn't surprise me, but it was not the right thing to do. We needed to hear about it, and we needed to make sure it was right, the original idea wasn't sufficient. and we addressed that. Go ahead, Yoav.  

Question: Somewhat relatedly, one of the action items – one of the few action items that came out of your statue review committee back in 2018 was a decision to add some markers to the Columbus Statue at Columbus Circle and also to commission a monument honoring Native Americans, most likely to be placed in central park. It's been three years, what's the status of that? And why is that taking so long?  

Mayor: Good question, obviously the last year plus, everything's been thrown off by the pandemic, but I think it's a fair question. Let me get you an update right away on where all those pieces stand. We do in everything we do, and I think the monuments commission did really important work, really hard work, and their idea was strike a balance in all things and show the different perspectives on history. So, we want to follow through on that. We'll get you an update right away.  

Moderator: The next is Abu from Bangla Patrika.   

Question: Hello, Mayor, how are you?   

Mayor: Good, Abu, how you been?   

Question: Good, thank you so much. Mayor, I would like to know the Pfizer is going to get the permission - hopefully – for two to 12-years-old kids. How is it preparing and what kind of program they have to motivate the kids as well to get the vaccine?  

Mayor: I'll start Abu, and I want to turn to Dr. Chokshi, this is going to be an important new development. Look, I'm speaking as a parent now, if my kids were in that age range, that 12 to 15 age range, and the news came through that they could get a Pfizer vaccine, the second it was approved I'd be at one of those vaccination centers with my child to get them protected. I think a lot of parents are going to react that way. But I do think there's also a lot of questions people. Have a lot we have to do. We have to work closely with pediatricians in particular. I think that's going to make the biggest difference. Dr. Chokshi, why don't you talk about that initiative?  

Commissioner Dave Chokshi, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Hi, yes, sir. Thank you. We have a three-pronged plan that is ready to go. As soon as we hear about the green light from the FDA and the CDC with respect to using Pfizer for 12- to 15-year-olds. The first part of it is leveraging our existing infrastructure, the clinics, the hospitals that already have Pfizer to make sure that they're prepared for some of the special considerations for that younger age group, particularly that consent requirements associated with it. The second part of the plan is to work very actively with pediatricians who may not be currently part of our vaccination efforts, but who will be critically important to have these conversations with parents and get adolescents vaccinated as well. And the third part is very importantly working with our colleagues in the Department of Education to ensure that we're communicating through schools with parents in the mechanisms and the avenues, you know, that they're already aware of. The final thing that I'll say, if I understood your question correctly, Abu, you were also asking about the two to 12 year age range, and Pfizer did indicate yesterday that they're planning to submit results from that later on in the summer and it could be authorized for use in children younger than 12 as soon as September of this year. So, we'll of course have to follow all of that out and see the data ourselves, but that's certainly a very promising development for later in 2021.  

Mayor: Thank you, Dave. Go ahead, Abu.  

Question: Second question is the same kind, is the – is this vaccine will be the same, like, you know, for the for the adult or it will be a different kind of vaccine for kids?   

Mayor: I'm going to turn back to Dr. Chokshi. My understanding is its exact same vaccine, same approach, but Dr. Chokshi you can explain.  

Commissioner Chokshi: That's exactly right. It's the same vaccine for adults and for children.  

Mayor: Excellent.   

Moderator: We have time for two more today. The next is Dave Carlin from WCBS.   

Question: Hey, Mayor.   

Mayor: Hey, Dave, how you doing?  

Question: I'm real good. I have a question for you about what we're seeing on West 36th Street and add some other hotels in the Times Square area, and they appear to be real busy cleaning and renovating, and now we're being told that this is because removing the homeless from them appears to be eminent. Now, is that the case?  

Mayor: Dave, I don't know that particular hotel you're referring to. I can tell you, I've said for a long time, as the situation improves and we have less and less of an issue with COVID, of course we intend to return folks who remain homeless back to shelters where they can get the best support. That's been the plan from day one. So, we'll have more to say on that when the right moment comes, but unquestionably that will happen sooner rather than later, because that's been the plan all along. Go ahead, Dave.  

Question: If there's any kind of threshold or schedule for that, because of, you know, we appreciate that you've said soon, eventually, is there any kind of idea that it comes within weeks, months?  

Mayor: Well, it's definitely connected, Dave, it’s connected to the health care situation overall. Obviously, we're looking for the sign off of the Health Department and Dr. Chokshi. We're looking at any appropriate federal and state guidance we have to align to. I think the bottom line is as more and more people get vaccinated, as COVID is pushed back, we're getting close to that point where we can act, but we've got to get all the different pieces together. So, we will certainly be talking about it, Dave. I think if part of your question is, you know, are we going to talk about it when the time comes and be open and transparent? Of course. But we're not at that point just yet. I do think it's coming soon. By definition, as I said, if we're looking at July 1st as a time for a full reopening, we expect a lot of things to be acted on by that time.  

Moderator: Last question for today goes to Gersh from Streetsblog.  

Question: Hello, Mayor, how are you?   

Mayor: Gersh, I'm doing well. How are you today?   

Question: I'm living the dream. My son is in remote learning so he's learning nothing, but that's fine. We can talk about that some other time [inaudible] –   

Mayor: Gersh, you do have a pension for the soundbite.  

Question: Well, I'm the last call for today and everybody's hung up so we can just talk like gentlemen –   

Mayor: Yes – go ahead.  

Question: Mr. Mayor, just as in other calls, just as in other press conferences there have been discussions of shootings around the city and what you intend to do about them, but as you well know, from your seven-year Vision Zero campaign, there are far more injuries caused by car drivers than by gunman. Roughly 140 New Yorkers are injured every day by car drivers, and your call for state legislation is a part of the solution, no question about that. And you should be proud to know that one of the safest places in the city right now is the Open Street that you created on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, where crashes are down 80 percent during the hours when the barricades are in place to prevent through car traffic. So, I don't know if we know this, residents of that neighborhood who started a new petition drive on Sunday, they started this calling on the city to turn 34th Avenue into a linear park. And as you know, parks contributes so much to our mental health, our physical health, from pollution, and of course from crashes. So, what do you think of this proposal to turn what your own DOT calls the gold standard of Open Streets into a linear park?  

Mayor: I think it's an interesting proposal. I think we clearly – look, Gersh, we are learning every day and changing all the time and that's good. There are places, we've talked about before, where we'll be doing different approaches in terms of pedestrian spaces, for example. So, we're going to look at a whole lot of different options. Some places might say, here's something we want to do permanently, other places we'd say here's something we want to do temporarily, but we're constantly looking to do more because it's working. So, I take this as a helpful nomination. I'm glad you raised it and we'll look at it. I'll talk to DOT about it, and we'll come back and let you know what we're thinking. Go ahead, Gersh.  

Question: You know, as a follow-up, I'd like to get Dr. Chokshi to comment as well because, you know, the Department of Health could do so much more to demand car-free spaces for residents given the research that shows the negative health and mental health impact of pollution, noise, and obviously the crashes caused by cars and car drivers. In my extensive back and forth with the Health Department Press Office, I have not been made aware of anything that Department of Health has done under Dr. Chokshi or his predecessor to combat the crucial public health crisis of cars.  

Mayor: So let me turn to Dr. Chokshi, but, Gersh, again, I really do appreciate – you’ve raised a lot of important issues over the last few years, and many of them have helped us to focus on changes we can make - so this is, I dare say it's advocacy journalism, but it's productive advocacy journalism, and I appreciate it. I would say at the same time, Health Department has been part of the most fundamental change we've made, which is Vision Zero and I really want to come back to this. We – this city decided to do something that almost no place else in America did, said we're reorienting our entire strategy, and it has worked and we're going to go a lot deeper with it and now it's become the national template. So, I do think the fact that this city was moving in a very forceful direction to change the reality of street safety is something the Health Department saw and liked and approved of, and it did not happen before we came along with that. With that, I turn to Dr. Chokshi.  

Commissioner Chokshi: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I think that's exactly right. There has been so much that has been done by the administration to ensure that the way that we think about the spaces and, you know, the places where we are evolving, you know, our transportation infrastructure do so with health in mind. We serve as a key technical partner for the Department of Transportation in a number of different avenues, you know, to actually do that. We studied the impact of noise on health. We think about the ways in which the built infrastructure, you know, can contribute to health outcomes, and I'm grateful that you pointed out that this is not just about physical health, but about mental health as well, and I do think that we have an opportunity to carry that forward as we emerge from the pandemic. So, I'd be happy to speak with you more about that, Gersh.  

Mayor: Thank you so much, Dave. Hey, as we conclude, everyone, look, this comes back to a crucial point. We all together innovated Open Streets. Innovated Open Restaurants. We now are putting the pieces in place for an extraordinary summer and the streets of New York City. It's going to be, I think, greater than anything we've ever seen before, because it's going to combine so many wonderful new outdoor activities, opportunities, but also people feeling that comradery, that sense of we're coming back together. We're creating a recovery for all of us together. Everyone is going to be a part of the comeback story of New York City. Again, you want to do something right now to make sure it's going to be an amazing summer, go out and get vaccinated because we all deserve the greatest summer ever in New York City and you can help to make it happen. Thank you, everybody.  

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