Transcript: Mayor Adams Celebrates Historic Progress Revitalizing Coney Island, Announces Partnerships to Build Roughly 1,100 New Homes, and Holds In-Person Media Availability

June 17, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Good afternoon. Always the best place to raise a family in this amazing city we call New York. Last week, it was one of the things that we hear about all the time. Mopeds and four-wheelers and all of these illegal bikes on our streets. 

Every town hall, people stop me on the street all the time. We just took action. Historically, we witnessed after COVID, there was just this mass flow of illegal two- and four-wheelers on our street, and we went after them. And we removed over 100,000 of these vehicles since 2022. Many of them have forged, illegal, or no license plates at all. If you are a victim of a crash with them, you would find yourself not being able to identify who the individual was. 

But the NYPD really started under now Deputy Mayor Daughtry, just really took a very aggressive stance. Many of these illegal transportation vehicles were used in robberies, jewelry snatch, and all other types of crimes. And so we were happy last week when we sent over 200 of these illegal vehicles to their final destination, the scrap heap. 

And just really hats off to the full plan. And the plan is broken because we witnessed an 86 percent decrease in grand larceny patterns, as well as a 68 percent decrease in robbery patterns involving mopeds over the last year. And more broadly, there has been a 57 percent decrease in all index crime reported involving mopeds year-to-date. 

So identified the problem, implemented a plan, and the result of that plan is sending these guys to the heap. If you haven't noticed, Deputy Mayor Carrión is here with his team. What they are doing around housing, breaking record after record. The Aaron Judge of housing, just really impressed with the D.M. 

Not only when he was in the role of the commissioner, we had a very broad and aggressive plan of being the most pro-housing administration in the history of the city. And we're doing just that. And making it a place where you can raise families and children here. And I don't know how many times we've stated it. We're going to state it over and over again, a pro-housing administration. 

Everyone talks about versions of our plan. Even Chat GPT talks about [how a] great housing plan comes from this administration. And we are advancing five ambitious neighborhood plans to bring more housing and jobs to areas from Brooklyn to Manhattan to the Bronx. 

And this year we launched our City of Yes for Families plan to build on this work and create more family-friendly neighborhoods across all five boroughs. This is not rocket science. It's about building more housing. That is the goal and that is what we push to accomplish. And now Deputy Mayor Carrión and his entire team is doing just that. And hats off to Dan Garodnick for what he did with passing the City of Yes. And that's why today we're advancing three key projects that will bring approximately 1,100 new homes to Coney Island. 

Deputy Mayor Adolfo Carrión, Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce: Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. I think we can declare with great confidence that this is the most pro-housing administration and the strongest pro-housing mayor in New York City history. And you all know that we have broken production and preservation records over the last three years. 

And I am pretty confident that once again this year will be another record-breaking year, sir, where we will see the production of more housing than we've seen in the entire city's recorded history. And I want to share with you all some of the projects that we're rolling out today. One is called Coney Landing. It is a 15-story building with 178 units of affordable and supportive housing. Over a $40 million investment from HPD and the New York City Housing Development Corporation. 

Coney Island Phase 3, which is a 430-unit development of 100 percent of affordable housing with a community facility. It's a $90 million investment from HPD and HDC. And then we have 1,500 units that will be triggered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation's invitation to developers to partner with us. This will deliver 1,500 new homes and invest in the reconstruction of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk. 

The city will invest in new streets, sewers, public realm improvements, including a $42 million renovation of the Abe Stark Sports Center. This RFP was released back in February. We've gotten the responses and it will deliver for that part of the city, a transformation of an iconic neighborhood and a globally known place called Coney Island. 

All told, mayor, in fact, when you add up the 1,500 units triggered by the request for proposals, the 430 units of 100 percent affordable housing and the 178 units of affordable and supportive housing, we're talking about more than 2,100 units. 

And this is just part of a larger package of investments that we will continue to roll out later on this week, in the coming months, and again, breaking all records that have ever been set in terms of housing production and preservation.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. And, you know, it always surprised me. I think Coney Island is a wonderful place to live. I remember as borough president, we saw many of the developers wouldn't develop because the infrastructure was not built out. And we're tackling that problem. But living in Coney Island, waterfront property, we think there's a lot of excitement. And what you're doing there, I think is so important. So I want to thank both [of them]. 

If there are any questions on that, we should ask that now before I go into the final, before we go into any questions. Any questions on the project in Coney Island? Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you, commissioner. I just realized we are all bald headed. 

So, you know, you heard me talk about over and over again about collaborating with our federal partners, ICE, FBI, HSI. And yesterday, I think, is a real indicator of that. We took down yesterday with this collaboration, a transnational gang called 18th Street Gang. They decided they were going to take advantage of New Yorkers and they were the bullies of Roosevelt Avenue. 

We spent a lot of time there with Councilman Moya. Prostitution was a huge problem. It impacted the quality of life to residents in that community. They asked us over and over again. I went there [at] 1 a.m., 2 a.m. in the morning and walked the streets. And it was just unbelievable about the open prostitution. I don't subscribe to the belief that some of our elected officials in this city and state believe that prostitution should take place in our city. 

I think it's a quality of life issue and it leads to other levels of violence. Yesterday, [with] our partnership with our federal authorities, we took down the 18th Street Gang. And they were relatively unknown because many of the individuals were victimizing undocumented residents. And the undocumented residents were afraid to come forward because they believed that they would have been deported because of the reporting of this action. 

And we were able to put together a task force and cross-collaboration and 11 out of the 12 case subjects are in custody. Job well done. Remnants of the assaults, robberies, and extortion of New Yorkers on Roosevelt Avenue. This is going to have a major impact on that. And we also recovered printers used to make false and fake passports, green cards, and social security cards. 

And so I really want to thank the NYPD and all of our federal partners and the Queens District Attorney's Office, D.A. Katz, for this important initiative and this important takedown. This is why the collaboration works when we go after criminal enterprises of any level. 

Not only were they preying on innocent, documented New Yorkers, but they were preying on undocumented New Yorkers. These are the individuals that I will continue to fight to remove from our city. And so with that, why don't we open for a few questions.

Question: On Sunday, President Trump promised that he would bring immigration raids, big ones, to New York City. Have you gotten any information from the federal government about what their plans are? And relatedly, do you have any thoughts on when you think ICE will actually be able to get onto Rikers?

Mayor Adams: You speak with Randy about ICE on Rikers. As you know, I turned that over to my first deputy mayor. And Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry is speaking with our federal partners to get an understanding of if there's any new changes. And we will adjust based on those changes. 

Question: I just wanted to know, are you guys, just a little bit further on that question, are you guys making any moves in terms of prioritizing, making sure people know what resources are out there? Or have you been in contact with any of the federal law enforcement partners about exactly where they're targeting?

Mayor Adams: That's the goal. And D.M. Daughtry is going to identify exactly what new changes, what new policies. My message stays the same. Your children go to school, call the police if you need help, get medical care if you need it. Make sure that you go to your houses of worship if you desire. 

But D.M. Daughtry is working closely with the federal authorities to find out if there's any new shifts and any new changes. Again, the federal government is in charge of immigration. That is their role. And I would encourage everyone, again, to speak to our federal partners. They should be briefing us. 

Our federal partners should be briefing us on what changes are happening on a federal level. I'm a city elected official. I represent things that happen in the city. And I look forward to them coming in and giving a briefing of any new changes that's happened on a federal level. But we're going to do our job to communicate with our federal partners to find out what's taking place. 

But we have done a great deal of work around this. Commissioner Castro has a Know Your Rights information, has been doing a great deal of seminars on this, on kiosks in the streets. We put up our Know Your Rights. We have pamphlets about Know Your Rights. We have reached out to our partners to say tell your constituencies about Know Your Rights. So we are huge on the more information we give to people, the more that they will know their rights and how to respond.

Question: In your career in law enforcement, which goes back decades, I would just be interested, was it your experience that undocumented individuals who are in the community have a higher propensity for crime?

Mayor Adams: A higher propensity to do crime or to be the victim of crime?

Question: To do crime and to do or commit crime.

Mayor Adams: Well, no, I haven't found that. What I've found is that they tend to be preyed on because people exploit the fear of reporting when they're the victim of the crime. I talk about when I was a rookie officer in District 2 in Manhattan and someone was a victim of a robbery and they were afraid to communicate that they were a victim of a robbery. But it's about opportunities. 

And I thought it was a big mistake under the previous administration to have people come to the country and they're not able to work. People need to provide for their families. And if you put people in circumstances where they can't provide for their families and loved ones, no telling what could happen. 

And I stated that last year and I will continue to believe that. If you come into the country, you should come into the country knowing exactly where you're going and what you're able to do and you can provide for yourself. To tell someone to come into the country and spend two years without being able to provide for yourself is just wrong.

Question: Follow up if I may. The conservative media, which has Fox News and the rest and The Post, if you were to follow those headlines and listen to the top of the hour, there's a perception that there's chaos in urban America and there's often discussion about a lack of law and order. 

Why is it that the success story of New York City, which is extraordinary, whatever party you want to be or say you are, if you look at the decline in homicides in events like a Sunday Memorial Day without a single shooting, why is it that certain outlets continue to create this notion of great urban decay and decline?

Mayor Adams: Well, well, you don't have to go to Fox. You could just go right to the local press or listen to the candidates. All the candidates are running around saying that the city is out of control. The city is out of control. Lowest number of homicides and shootings in a recorded history of the city. 

We broke the job records 11 times, decreasing unemployment. We're seeing 100,000 illegal mopeds and dirt bikes off our streets. You're seeing a city in recovery. But if you were to listen to the noise, you would believe that this was a city in chaos. And it's not. 54,000 people are on our streets exercising their rights to voice their concerns. And out of those 54,000, only 14 were actually arrested and for really nonviolent actions. We didn't need the army here. 

As I said from the beginning, I said it on Friday that we got this. And I will continue to say that 4.6 million people on our trains every day, 5 felonies on average a day. I don't know what it's going to take before you talk about Fox News. I'm talking about the Fox that in this room that's not reported what we have done in the city. 

We turned the city around, folks. What is it going to take before people realize they thought we were going to fail? And it's going to take five years. We did it in three years and six months. And people need to catch up and read the memo. We have been successful.

Question: I just want to ask you about the interview you did over the weekend with Sneako, the podcaster. By now, maybe you've heard he has said some antisemitic things or things that were construed as antisemitic in the past. Were you aware of any of his history? And do you think, you know, in hindsight, maybe there should have been more vetting of this person before you did an interview?

Mayor Adams: First of all, there's no one in the city where we state that Eric is antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Sikh, anti-African-American. No one can say that I'm anti. My record is clear. It's a very impressive one. Everyone knows what I have been doing around hate crimes in the city, Islamophobia, antisemitism. I could go on and on and on. I have a long record for that. 

Every day, all day, people stop me on the street and ask me questions. And they have phones in my face. Many of you do it, you know. And if my job is that everyone who asks me a question, I need to vet. I won't be talking to the average New Yorkers. Everyone is a streamer now. Everyone is a reporter now. No one takes private conversations anymore. People stop you. They talk to you. Little did you know you were answering a question [while] the person held the phone in your face. 

Last night, I was on the back porch smoking a cigar with a group of crisis management teams. And, that was recorded. So regardless of what his positions are, I'm going to communicate with every New Yorker. And I'm going to push back on those things that I disagree with. And so he's a streamer. I've been sitting down with streamers often, sometimes walking the street, talking to them. 

I don't believe what he believes. And there are many people I don't believe what they believe. I think that, you know, people speak to [journalists]. I think some journalists are anti some things. But I communicate with folks. I've always been this way. This is not new. I disagree with his positions. And if I knew those were his positions, I would have engaged in a conversation to tell him why I believe it was wrong.

Question: I guess, you know, there's if I could just push back on like people come up to you on the street. This was at your residence. This was a prolonged discussion where maybe there could have been vetting beforehand. I don't know.

Mayor Adams: I beg to differ with you. The number of people who come into Gracie Mansion throughout the year that have never been there before. I was on the porch smoking a cigar with my son. Folks reached out and say, hey, are you around? Yeah. Come by and see me. 

Happens all the time. And many New Yorkers come to Gracie Mansion. I've never been to Gracie Mansion before. We call Gracie Mansion the people's house. And there are people who come into Gracie Mansion. We agree with and we disagree with. But we have to engage in conversation. 

I've said this over and over to you. I remember inviting Hawk Newsome into us into Borough Hall and people say, why would you invite him in there? We are diametrically opposed on many topics. And so I'm always going to do that. I can. I'm a communicator. And the Gracie Mansion belongs to the people of the city. 

People I agree with and people I disagree with. It is the place [where] the people of the city come. And if you don't engage in conversations with people, you would never alter their thoughts on things. And I'm not going to exist in a silo. And I'm happy that I speak with all New Yorkers, even when I disagree with them. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, I would like to ask you about the expansion of city bikes. That's been announced a couple of months ago. But there is a recent discussion around favorite area. But this discussion is also valid in Greenpoint, where I am in Queens. And your plan to create a city of New York that is the best city to raise a family. 

People are complaining there is no parking spaces and it's difficult to transport two kids on a bike. So how would you address that? Then those New Yorkers who feel like it's very difficult to raise a family, if you need to rely on a car and there is really no way to even park a car in your residence, in your neighborhood.

Mayor Adams: There's not one time I recall that I didn't hear people in Bay Ridge complain about parking or in Park Slope. They call it no Park Slope. New Yorkers always complain about parking. Always. We need to create an environment where we share in the streets with those who are using alternative methods to move around. That's why we decrease the speed limit of mopeds to 15 miles an hour. And we communicate with our residents to make sure that whenever we build our bike lanes that we have inputs from the residents in the community. And we're going to continue to do that. 

We have to make modifications, adjustments, and we have to compromise because we're in a new environment. A lot of people are riding bikes now. A lot of people are using mopeds for deliveries, etc. And so we got to make the right modifications.

Question: How are we going to address those families who just need the car? They will never ride a bike. But it's so much harder to have it here. It's the same as it was. It is worse. 

Mayor Adams: Now you say it's harder because of the bike lanes?

Question: Because of, yeah, people are saying the stations for a city bike, they take so much space. They're often full, like in Queens, some of them in mass, but they're always full. So it's like the bikes are there. No one can park a car. So people are getting frustrated seeing those full bikes, but driving around for an hour to find a parking spot. 

Mayor Adams: That didn't start now. Trust me. You know, the goal is how do we create our streets that it deals with both those bike users? Because trust me, the bike users are saying the same things. 

You know, we don't have enough bike racks. We don't have enough lifts and city bike. And so we have to make the modifications to make sure our streets will be accommodating to both. And that's the balance, finding that balance. And when we have to adjust like we did in Williamsburg, we're going to adjust. But the goal is to find a balance in both of them. 

Question: I have two questions for you. Yes. Just following up on what Matt is asking, can you explain a little bit more about why Sneako was there and how he got invited? Like, I know you were talking about how Gracie Mansion is open to all sorts of people. But I feel like you usually have to have an invite. You can't just walk in and start smoking cigar with you. So could you explain a little bit more how that happened?

Mayor Adams: Let me do that and I'm going to move on, okay? I invited him to sit down and chat with a celebrity, Amber Rose. My son and I were sitting down. As you know, my son is a musician and an artist. And Amber wanted to come by and I wanted her to meet my son and speak with her. She says, I want [to bring] some friends. Can they come? And I said, yes, you could come as well. 

The back porch of Gracie Mansion is used often to sit down and communicate with folks. And when she came in, she brought a friend and the friend she brought, he was the friend that she brought. And we sat down and started chatting and he said, I would love to interview. It happens every day. And that is how it came. I didn't know him before that. And my son was excited to meet Amber Rose and engage in a conversation with her. And that was a how that all came about.

Question: Just a quick follow up. The Board of Elections, or this is a separate question, I think. The Board of Elections had said you can't run on two independent ballot lines. Do you have a strategy or are you just going to pick one? And if so, can you tell us which one you're going to pick?

Mayor Adams: The legal team is doing that because they didn't say what the board election did. And I think I challenge the constitutionality of that. The board election is saying that if you are in one of the primary lines, a Democrat or Republican, you could have two lines. 

But if you are an independent line, you only can have one line. I think that's unfair. I think that the rules for everyone should be the same. And so our legal team is now looking at that to determine if it's constitutionally sound. 

I don't think that running for general election should be tilted towards the primary lines that are in the city. If it's one line for independent, it should be one line for one of the major parties as well. And so what we said in essence is that Curtis or Zohran, they could run on two lines. That just seems unfair to me. 

Question: I want to ask. The FARE Act last week came into effect and you are always proposing yourself as a pro-housing mayor. I want to know if you would ever consider lowering rent costs or freezing rent, such as the other mayoral candidates currently in the race.

Mayor Adams: That's such an important question that you're asking. And this is this is explains the complexities that are associated with being a mayor. One of the candidates states that they're going to want to freeze rent. And the question we should be asking, should rent ever go up? That's the question we should ask. Should rent ever go up? 

Second, their policy of freezing rent is that they're going to do a tax on the one percenters income tax. Mayors don't have that authority. Who has that authority? Assemblymen and senators. So if they couldn't do it as state lawmakers, how are they going to do it as a mayor? And then when you look at small property owners, and I've been saying this over and over again and no one is really catching it. 

If you own if you own a 10 unit building, an 18 unit building and you are a single small property owner. And if you're told that you could never increase the rent while the electric cost goes up, the gas cost goes up, repairs will go up, taxes go up. Everything is going up, but you could never increase your rent. And then you add that with the same group of people who said during Covid, freeze the rent, no rent. 

So you had a large number of small property owners, small mom and pop property owners where all of their capital and their wealth is tied up into their buildings. You saw them have tenants who were not paying rent. You saw no increases. We were killing small property owners. So we're not talking about those who own 100,000 or 50,000 units of housing. We spoke. We're talking about Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones, that all of their wealth is tied up in their property. And you're saying everything is going up around them. But you cannot ever raise their rent. That doesn't make any sense. So when you have people who are running to be mayor, saying freeze rent, no rent, you're going to lose small working class property owners. 

They're going to lose those buildings that they own, and large landlords are going to come in and take those buildings, either buy them or they're going to lose them in foreclosures. I cannot tell you how often I hear from small property owners who talk about how challenging it is to hold on to their primary source of wealth because of the policies that we have put in place. 

The goal is to build more housing. As Deputy Mayor Carrion stated, we have broken records on building more and more housing. That is how you drive down rent, by building more housing, not making idle promises that you can't live up to. 

City of Yes, building more housing, breaking records on building more housing, moving more people out of homeless shelters to build more housing. We are doing it in a way that a smart mayor will do it in the right way. 

I want to make one more point to you before I forget. I'm a small property owner. I have three units. And the tenants that have been in my building, I think for about 14 years, 14, 15 years, I've never raised their rent. Never raised their rent because as long as I have enough to pay for my mortgage, I don't have to. I'm not trying to, you know, as Gandhi said, there's enough for human need. There's not enough for human greed. I'm in a position to do that. 

But these small property owners that I speak with that are struggling, that are scared, that are afraid. And when they hear candidates say they would never raise their rent. So the question to ask those candidates, is there ever a time you should increase rent? Because that's like saying don't ever raise anyone's salary if they work somewhere. 

You know, so is there ever a time that you should ever increase rent at a modest amount to help those small property owners? No one wants to answer that question because that's a tough question that a mayor has to answer. A candidate can throw out anything. The mayor must answer those questions.

Question: I wanted to ask you about that immigration enforcement here in the city. About the immigration enforcement here in the city. Why has there been such hesitance to communicate with your administration on that? What do you think is the issue there? And then separately–

Mayor Adams: No, say the first one. I don't understand that question.

Question: So Trump over the weekend said that he's going to surge, you know, some immigration authority resources to cities where he's going to, you know, look to deport more immigrants. You had mentioned that Kaz Daughtry is leading that effort, speaking to federal authorities when it comes to immigrants. But you said that you're waiting on them. You said we're waiting to have a sit down to get communication from them. I'm wondering what's taking so long. Why are they hesitant to come and speak to you about that?

Mayor Adams: I don't know. I'm not sure if I articulated that they were hesitant to do it. He just made that announcement. We're going to find out what that announcement means. So there's no hesitant. And in areas that we felt that it was improper, you know, such as, you know, the apprehensions that were made in the court, we signed on to amicus brief to voice that. So I don't understand what a hesitant. He made an announcement on it. We're now seeking to say define that for us. You know, what does that mean that you are doing something new? 

If there's something new, we need to find out what it is. And so there's not a hesitant. We've been in constant communication to find out any new shift or change in policies. And that has not that has not changed in those areas that we disagree. We've taken action. But we need to be clear. The federal government is in charge of immigration enforcement, not cities. Federal governments like I have a City Council that I have to deal with city issues. Federal electors deal with federal agencies. They should be giving us the report that you're asking about.

Question: You're going on to the general election. You're not in this primary. [Crosstalk.] I was wondering, you know, there's this reporting that you were courting Republicans for your independent bid. I wonder, are you open to having Republicans, you know, come out for you or even throwing Curtis Sliwa off the line and you get a major party?

Mayor Adams: No, this is it. This is this is what the beauty of a general election and a general election. You're not restricted by party. I want all New Yorkers that have understood that this guy has turned around the city, folks. You know, this guy has decreased crime, increased unemployment, build more housing, record levels of people out of homeless shelter to permanent housing, invested in foster care, children, brought jobs back to the city. Broadway had the greatest 12 months in the recorded history of the city. 

I want them to say no matter if you're Democrat or Republican to state that this is the mayor that turned around the city, because if you go into the store and you want to purchase a loaf of bread, people are not asking you, are you Democrat or Republican? When someone does a crime in the city with one of the 22,000 illegal guns we took up the street, they don't say stick them up if you're a Democrat or Republican. 

I have been a good mayor, no matter what party you belong to. And I want Democrat, Republicans, Independents, Working Families, whomever you are. I want you to vote for New York Mayor Eric Adams. And so 8.5 million people in the city, I'm going to be a good mayor for everyone in the city.

Question: But if Curtis were to vote on the [inaudible] him?

Mayor Adams: Those are hypotheticals. I'm on the [Safe&Affordable] line and the EndAntisemitism line. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: You're calling out a lot, Chris. Stop calling out. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: You must have done that in school. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: You must have done that in school. Stop calling out. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Listen, if he does that again, he's not to come into our conferences. You're not going to be disruptive in our conferences. You're going to stop at the gate. You do that again, you're going to stop at the gate. You're not going to come into this conference, my off topics, and be disrespectful, and call out, and think you're going to do what you want. You won't come through that gate if you do that again. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: He did it again. Make sure security knows he's not allowed back into this room.

Questions: I have two questions for you. Yes. I'm interested in what you think about all this DoorDash money that's going into the race. There's one million dollars that they've given to an Andrew Cuomo super PAC. 

There was a story just now in the city that they're also funding a political committee that's paying for ads for Adrienne Adams. You know, you've done some work in raising the wages for these app-based delivery workers. What do you think they're trying to get done here in City Hall by giving that money? And then my second question is, are you going to vote in the primary? You have said you are a Democrat still.

Mayor Adams: Yes. First, the DoorDash, the DoorDash money. Listen, let's be clear that I raised the wages for the delivery workers. I've been very clear on their obligation and responsibility on making sure that their employees get the license. It should not pass on to the workers that they need to pick up the task. 

They have an obligation and responsibility. And, you know, I'm a working class mayor and there are some companies that will say, okay, Eric is just really trying to do much too much for workers. And so you put a million here, a million there. So you're right. There's a lot of DoorDash money in the race. You know who they're not putting money in for. So that's a real signal. So, you know, I have to stay focused for working class people. That's what I'm going to do. You had a second question?

Question: Are you going to vote in the primary? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, I am– No, I'm going to wait. When you say am I going to vote in the primary for my City Council? There is no mayoral candidate on there that anyone should be voting for. 

So I'm a vote for my city. I'm going to vote for my city councilmember. But I can't imagine any of you voting for any other candidate. You're going to vote for somebody else? Please don't tell me that. I'm voting for my city councilmember.

Question: Two questions. About the [inaudible] fight, speed limit, e-bike speed limit. Is that an executive order? Or does that have to get something approved by the City Council? And how actually does it get enforced? Do we have to at least put radar guns in the bike lanes? Like they do on highways?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, great question. For speed limits on our streets, the state, the state handles that. But there's a carve out for mopeds, et cetera. And there's going to be a whole rule making process to make sure that we comply and follow the laws. 

So there's a carve out that allows us to do e-bikes and scooters. And we're going to utilize that carve out to do so. And the police is going to come up with the methodology to ensure that it's enforced.

Question: Right now it's a concept, an idea. It's not actually being enforced yet because you've got to get all these bureaucratic things in place.

Mayor Adams: It's not a concept, it’s an idea. It is going to happen. And we communicated with Lyft as well. We are implementing. Anytime you have to implement something new, it goes from the announcement to the actual implementation. We want to make sure we do it right.

Question: Second question. About a year or so ago that we had Anthony Miranda's hookup with the cannabis crackdown. And for a couple of weeks we heard a whole lot about how many illegal cannabis shops were shut down. 

And then it seemed to be there was a long period of silence on it. There were some court cases saying it was illegally being implemented. Do you, where does that all stand now? Do you have any rough idea how many were shut down in the year that it's been in operation? And is it still an ongoing operation with the sheriff and the city?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Exciting. You know, I think we did about 1,400 illegal cannabis shops. And matter of fact, we did an initiative of I think last week in Queens. When you look at the dollar amount, ninety five million dollars in illegal products we removed off the streets. Really hats off to Sheriff Miranda of 5,400 over 5,400 inspections, 1,200 over 1,200 close to 1,300 locations. 

We sealed 1,400. Over 1,400. And you look at the numbers across the Bronx. You look at some of these numbers, 297 in the Bronx, 400 over 400 in Brooklyn, over 300 in Manhattan, over close to 300 in Queens. And we issued violations equivalent to 193 million dollars. We took 98 million dollars off our street in illegal products. Huge success. And there's been court cases. 

People have been challenging all sorts of things. But, you know, we've made up a clear decision that Governor Cuomo put a bad law in place and I had to fix this mess. I've been fixing this mess for three years and six months. If I didn't have to fix this mess, we could have been continuing to do so much more. Thank you.