Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears On NBC's Ask The Mayor

April 18, 2016

Chuck Scarborough: Good morning and thank you for joining us. Mayor Bill de Blasio, thank you for being here.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, pleasure.

Melissa Russo: So good to have you. And over the next half-an-hour we’re going to get answers to your questions.

Scarborough: Questions you’ve emailed to us or sent to us on social media or posted throughout the streets of the city.

Russo: But before we start, let’s set the stage. Take a closer look at de Blasio’s New York almost two-and-a-half years into his term. As usual, New Yorkers are not shy about rating their mayor:

“Mr. Mayor, I think you’re doing a fantastic job.” “The worst Mayor I have ever seen.” Mayor: “I hold myself and my administration to the highest standard of integrity.” “[Inaudible] comments about everything.” “He has a great understanding of what is going on in the City.” Mayor: “A City that’s become more and more expensive to live in.”

The highpoint of Mayor de Blasio’s third year – the passage of his affordable housing plan. Mayor: “The cost of housing in this City had gotten out of control. We couldn’t just keep doing the same old thing.”

From now on the City will require developers to set aside affordable apartments anytime they build on rezoned land. “I think he’s trying to work for tenants’ rights.” “We use these cardboards to sleep on.”

More than half way through his term homelessness is still a crisis. Mayor: “I’m trying to be blunt with the people of New York City. This is problem is not going away overnight.”

This week after a 90-day review the Mayor promised cleaner, safer shelters, streamlined management and more help preventing homelessness. Mayor: “This is such important work.”

Crime is down under de Blasio. The NYPD says murders and shootings this year are the lowest in recorded history, but New Yorkers are nervous about a spike in slashings. “It makes me scared – a little nervous.” “Overall, he tries to help out every community.”

In recent news, the Mayor brokered a deal to include gay groups in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade – his signature pre-K program are growing each year; his relationship with the Governor is still tense, but the State passed a higher minimum wage after de Blasio helped put that issue on the map. The Mayor says he is working to improve his outreach to voters. “He’s interacting with the people more than he was at the beginning.” “I like that he is accessible.”

Now, Mayor de Blasio faces a new controversy – federal investigators say they are looking at his campaign fundraising. Mayor: “We are very, very careful about doing things in a legal and appropriate manner.” The feds probing whether two generous de Blasio donors in the real estate business gave police commanders lavish gifts and vacations in exchange for police escorts and private security. The Mayor says he barely knows these two donors and is unaware of any investigation. Mayor: “I am happy to take questions today, but I am not going to be speaking about this after today.”

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara gave the story new legs this week when he said this: Preet Bharara: “Both in City and State government – executive offices in government are far from immune from a creeping show me the money culture that has been pervading New York for some time now.”

Russo: And Mr. Mayor, you’ve said you don’t plan to take any more questions about this apparent investigation, but some of the voters that we spoke to are not quite satisfied with that answer. Voters like Gary Kaminsky from Glen Oaks:

Gary Kaminsky: Hello, Mr. Mayor. We have been hearing a lot recently about campaign contributions. I’d like for you to tell me the nature of the campaign contributions; who they were and what if anything they received in return from you and the City.

Russo: Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Well, the questions that Gary raises are good questions, but I’ve answered them all already. I’ll happily review for you – first of all, I hold myself and my administration to the highest standard of integrity. I have been in public service a long time – consider myself a reformer. I want to make sure that the people’s interests come first. We have a campaign finance system in the City that is one of the most rigorous and well-regulated in the whole country and I very much support that. In this instance, it’s a straightforward situation. We haven’t been contacted in any way shape or form by any federal agency. So, what I did – I instructed a lawyer from my campaign to reach out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and say we are happy to help in any way we can. We have still not been asked any questions. But the donors in question provided contributions to my campaign and what is very clear is they did not get anything back. And that was – asked a very good question at a press conference the other day – what should donors to a campaign expect back, the answer is nothing.

Scarborough: I was watching you during the tape we had there. And when Preet Bharara was making his comment I was looking to see what reaction you might have. And you had a pretty good poker face there.

Mayor: Yeah.

Scarborough: When you heard Preet Bharara – who has made it clear this week that he is shining a spotlight on your administration – say that your office is far from immune from a creeping ‘show me the money’ culture. How did you react to that?

Mayor: I don’t know what he is referring to because in fact what I talked about the other day at the press conference is the distance between the New York City of the past – which really was ripe for corruption – and today’s New York City, which has so many different oversight entities; the Campaign Finance Board, the Conflict of Interests Board. You know, so many different watchdogs who have been very, very effective – obviously, our Department of Investigation. Today’s New York City is a highly regulated place in terms of making sure there are high ethical standards. Albany, obviously we know very serious problems still pervade Albany. But to me it is a night and day reality in terms of our laws and the oversight. So, I was a little surprised by that. I in New York City over the last few decades have made a lot of progress in terms of cleaner and better government.

Russo: Mr. Mayor, an exclusive new Wall Street Journal/Marist/NBC-4 poll came out just late last week and it shows how voters think you are doing right now. Your approval rating has dropped slightly to 35 percent. It is the lowest point since you have been Mayor. And we know it is not uncommon for mayors to have similarly low ratings during the midpoint of their term, but what are doing to try to improve your marks with New Yorkers.

Mayor: I think it is about doing to work. I really do. I believed this throughout my public career. As you mentioned earlier, we passed that landmark affordable housing legislation. Now, that is going to be a crucial part of allowing us to create affordable housing for half-a-million people; full-day pre-K for all our kids; crime going down. At the same time we are able to reduce an unconstitutional policy of stop-and-frisks. I am very, very proud of what we have done. The bottom-line is keep doing it. And, of course, it is important to get out to the people, spread the message in every neighborhood. I have been doing town hall meetings and I will be doing a lot more. But the bottom line to me is always, do the work and have an impact on people’s lives – and a positive impact.

[…]

Russo: Welcome back to Ask the Mayor – and more questions from the neighborhoods of New York City.

Scarborough: And we’ve heard from several New Yorkers who say they’re concerned about the recent spike in knife attacks. Mr. Mayor, our next question comes from Kate Sherman. She’s a mom who says a recent slashing on her block in Clinton Hill has made her nervous. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, I would ask you, what is your plan and approach to random acts of violence in seemingly safe neighborhoods to make families feel more confident living in New York City?

Mayor: Well, that’s a fantastic question, and I’ve heard this from a lot of New Yorkers – it’s a real concern. Look, first of all, it’s important to recognize – we’ve, in this city, over the last 20-plus years, faced a series of challenges. This used to be a profoundly dangerous place. The NYPD systematically – because of CompStat, and originally the leadership of Bill Bratton, and again, today, the leadership of Bill Bratton – we’ve turned the situation around as a city. So, for the first-quarter of this year – the lowest number of murders and shootings in the recorded history of New York City – an incredible achievement by the NYPD – but we still find specific types of problems we have to do better at. And the slashing issue is real – we’ve seen the statistics grow. What the NYPD is now doing is taking the very same CompStat approach, focusing on where we see the problem, and putting additional police resources and new strategies in place. For example, a very substantial number of these slashing are occurring on Friday nights into early Saturday-morning hours – Saturday nights into early Sunday-morning hours, particularly around night life locations – legal and illegal night life locations. NYPD is now flooding those areas with additional officers as a preventative measure, and we think that’s going to have a real impact. 

Scarborough: Let’s talk about Operation Cutting Edge here – is it showing any actual results yet?

Mayor: From the very initial results, because it’s only a few weeks old, we see some good signs. The rate of growth of slashing has started to slow. We think we’re going to be able to turn it. And, by the way, we had an uptick in shootings in the last year or two – we were able to turn that. We’ve seen time and time again, when the NYPD drills down on a problem, they have great capacity to turn the tide. I’m convinced they will do it here too, but it’s going to obviously take some weeks for this really to play out.

Russo: Mr. Mayor, the next question comes from New Lots Avenue in your home borough, where residents are bracing for rezoning, and also hoping that new development there will bring rents that they can afford.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I live in East New York, and my concern is will the affordable housing that you plan on bringing to East New York be more affordable for the people already in East New York, or for people trying to move into East New York?

Mayor: That’s a great, great question. The affordable housing plan for East New York – and there will be a vote very soon on this rezoning – is conforming to the community. The idea is – we know what the income – typical income level is, we’re planning a lot of affordable housing for that income level – and this will be brand new affordable housing. So, we’re adding a resource that doesn’t exist. But, at the same time, we’re preserving in place affordable housing for many residents of East New York in the apartments they’re in now with a guarantee of no more than 30 percent of their income going into rent. And further, we’re applying more legal aid and more legal services than ever before in the City’s history to stop illegal evictions, to stop harassment of tenants in neighborhoods like East New York.

Scarborough: But I think the question was there – are you going to allow people from outside that neighborhood to come in and take those affordable houses, or are you going to confine it to the neighborhood?

Mayor: The law says that when we create affordable housing, we have the right to split it 50 percent for people from the surrounding community – 50 percent city-wide lottery open to all – to community members, and people in any other part of the five boroughs. 

Russo: But some of it reserved for people already living there?

Mayor: 50 percent is reserved for the community board district in which the rezoning occurs. 

Scarborough: Alright, Mr. Mayor, thank you. I want to share another question about housing from one of our Facebook followers. Susie Palau from Brooklyn wants to know this – what do you plan for the seniors who need apartments right now? Many, like my 82-year-old mother, who have been on waitlists for several years can’t afford to wait for new construction. Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Well, first of all, our affordable housing plan will reach half-a-million people and a lot of them will be senior citizens. So, that means, literally keeping apartments in place, providing the rental subsidies so people can stay in their apartment. Now, I hasten to add, our plan is half-a-million people – there’s never been as big an affordable housing plan in the City’s history. We have tremendous support, for example, from AARP, because – which represents seniors – because they know this is the approach that gives us the best chance of reaching seniors. But I know the demand is even greater, and I want to be real about that. The fact is, even at half-a-million people reached, there’s still going to be other people in need. Our goal is every day to speed this plan – both preserving apartments in place, and building new. And this is the other point – the federal government used to play a major role in the creation of affordable senior housing. They really don’t anymore. That’s why this vote that we took a few weeks ago will now allow the City of New York to build senior affordable housing in places it never could before. It allows us to speed up that process. So, yes, there will still be waitlists – no doubt – but we’ll be able to create new affordable housing faster than ever before because of the new law. 

Scarborough: Just one more question – can developers build affordable units off-site? Can they – or are they required to build the affordable units under your new law in the building they’re constructing?

Mayor: There are variations. The preference is always in the same building to have the affordable housing. There are some situations where there are multiple buildings – one may be more focused on affordable housing. There are some off-site options too. It really depends on the specific plan that’s put together, but our preference always is to mix people of different income levels in the same building. 

Russo: Thank you, Mayor. In our search for questions, we heard complaints in person and online about road conditions, particularly potholes, especially in the outer boroughs – here’s John Newton, from Brooklyn.

Question: What are you going to do about the potholes? It’s very important – they are killing us, and I damaged two of my vehicles. 

Mayor: John, speaking his mind. Before I became Mayor – had the privilege of being Mayor, I drove my own car, and I parked in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, and I spent many nights looking for parking spaces, and I hit those potholes too, so I absolutely understand why people are so concerned about them. We have – since I took office two years and three months ago, we’ve filled over a million potholes in this town – very, very fast rate of dealing with potholes – faster than in previous years. But, more importantly, we’ve put unprecedented resources into repaving. Filling potholes is necessary – you know there’s so many that develop, particularly because of the climate we have, but the better solution is repaving. We just did a mammoth effort over the last summer to repave the FDR Drive, for example – something that hadn’t done in its previous history in such an extent. We’re doing that now in all five boroughs – major thorough fairs that need to get – you have to get to the root cause and actually repave the thing. We’ve put in tens of millions of dollars into that effort. 

Russo: Mayor, our next question is on the topic of schools. It comes from [inaudible] Lee of Forest Hills, who says her child’s first grade class is overcrowded with 32 children in it. Let’s hear from her.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I have a daughter, she goes to public school in Queens, and I want to know what you’re going to do about the overcrowding issue in public schools?

Russo: Mayor, some of the parent groups on this subject also say that you made a campaign promise to lower class sizes and that you have not kept it.

Mayor: We’ve put hundreds of millions of dollars more into building more seats, particularly in overcrowded districts. Central Queens is a great example of a place that desperately needs more school seats. We’ve put not only as much as the previous administration, but we’ve kept adding each year additional resources. But the fact is, even with these new investments, we’re not going to be able to get class size where we want it in the near term, because, in some neighborhoods, they’ve grown so rapidly, and it takes so long to build a new building, that we’re not going to be able to address the situation ideally, and I’ve been very public about that. I don’t want to promise people a rose garden. I want to be honest about what we can do. But, if the question is, are we investing and, in fact, investing more than has been invested in years in building new seats for our kids – the answer’s yes. 

[…]

Scarborough: Welcome back to Ask the Mayor. We let Mayor de Blasio choose the topic for this segment, and he selected homelessness.

Russo: Earlier this week, the Mayor kicked off the results of his 90-day homeless review with an emotional presentation from a woman named Keisha Wood. She’s a single mother of three in Bed-Stuy who was facing eviction until she saw an ad on the subway for the City’s Homebase program to prevent homelessness.

[Start of clip of Keisha Wood]

Wood: I had nowhere to go, no resources, but Homebase was there for me. It was my lifeline. Today my son is thriving because I’m a full time – I’m working.

[Applause]

Mayor: You’re doing great, we’re so proud of you. You’re doing great.

[End of clip]

Russo: The City came up with $12,000 to help Keisha pay her back rent and block that eviction, and Mr. Mayor you’ve invested a lot of time and a lot of tax dollars in preventing evictions both by helping people pay their past rent and also giving them lawyers to help represent them in housing court. Is this making a dent, though, in the virtual tsunami of homeless people coming into the city’s shelters?

Mayor: Absolutely it is. Keisha’s story was very, very moving. She was on the verge of eviction with three kids. She had been abandoned by her husband. Because she got that helping hand, and she was able to get help paying the back rent she’s now in a stable situation, staying in her apartment in Brooklyn. She is now becoming a nurse. She is doing homecare right now for a living, but she’s on her way to becoming a nurse, getting an education, and bettering herself. What an amazing story? That wouldn’t have been possible if she ended up in a shelter. The human cost here is the most important thing to think about.

To your question – there’s about 58,000 people in our shelter system today, which is not an acceptable number. I want to be the first to say that. But we project, had we not put in place the programs we did it would be 71,000 people. 32,000 people who were in shelter we got to permanent housing. Over 100,000 people we were able to reach and help them in many cases avoid eviction, avoid homelessness like Keisha. So I believe when you add those facts together – you say it’s a tsunami – it’s a real crisis – but these programs are actually starting to turn the tide.

Russo: You actually announced a number – that 24 percent of evictions had been averted in the last two years, which is significant. You’ve also spent some time in the last few weeks touring homeless shelters, surveying the homeless about how to improve the system. I was fortunate enough to be able to go with on one of those visits late at night at Bellevue. We want to know what you learned specifically from the homeless about what you needed to do better.

Mayor: It’s very striking when you talk to homeless folks. The vast majority nowadays are people who are either working or have worked or want to work. The historical stereotype was folks with mental health problems and substance abuse problems and single men. Today it’s families and working people. What I heard over and over when we went to visit the Bellevue shelter was folks that asked could you help me get a job? Or if it was a veteran for example, we have a lot that we’re doing to help get veterans to permanent homes. We don’t want a single veteran to end up on the streets of this City. That’s a commitment that New York City has made. We had veterans who said I didn’t know I could take advantage of that, or who do I call? Or someone called me, but I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.

We’ve got to do a lot better at reaching homeless folks and showing them a pathway out of shelter. Or for folks on the street, the kind of engagement we’re doing through our HOMESTAT initiative – very constant, heavy engagement to convince them to get off the street and to give a different kind of life a chance.

Scarborough: Very quickly – Melissa did a story some time ago about a little girl, a little boy who were in the homeless system, trapped in there, and they had just a terrible time getting to school. It took them hours to get back and forth to school. What are you doing to improve the lives of children who are caught in the system?

Mayor: Well, I’ll give Melissa credit. Because of her reports we looked at the situation, and we realized even though it was an expense, it was a worthy expense to invest in school buses specifically for kids in shelter who were no longer in their home neighborhood and needed to get to that school. Now, we’ve provided that school bus service. Look, that’s something we’re doing temporarily. The goal is to not have those kids in shelter in the first place, or God forbid they have to be in shelter to at least keep them in their original neighborhood. That’s what we’re trying to do.

Scarborough: Mr. Mayor, thank you very much.

[…]

[Start of clip of the Mayor performing at the Inner Circle Dinner]

Mayor: My left wing cred is epic and biblical. If you get one guess – who’s the most liberal? I make Bernie Sanders look like Trump. I’m down with Sandinistas and the Donald’s a chump. So I come out blazing with heavy artillery for the queen of the Democrats, my home girl Hillary.

[End of clip]

Russo: Throwing it down at the annual Inner Circle show. If this Mayor thing doesn’t work out –

Mayor: I’ve got another career ready. I’d probably make a lot more money too.

Russo: Probably? Definitely.

Scarborough: You know, we can’t let you go without a political question.

Mayor: Please.

Scarborough: Forty-eight hours from now New Yorkers are going to vote in the states presidential primary. According to all the leading polls right now, the winners are going to be Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I want your opinion about what you think the odds of an upset might be in the election.

Mayor: I don’t see an upset. I really don’t, on either side. Hillary Clinton is running a great campaign. There’s a lot of enthusiasm on the ground in New York State – by the way, all over the country she’s leading nationally by 2.5 million votes cast so far. I think she’s going to have a solid win here in New York State.

Scarborough: Why did you endorse her instead of Bernie Sanders? You just said you’re to the left of him.

Mayor: Because I believe that we need someone who can get these big progressive ideals achieved. Her platform, once she’s president of the United States, will be the most progressive platform of any president we’ve had in almost half a century. I think she knows what she’s doing, and she’ll get the job done.

Scarborough: Mr. Mayor, we thank you very much for joining us here today.