Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on WCBS 880

May 19, 2016

Pat Farnack: We are talking now with Mayor de Blasio, live this morning. Thanks so much for fitting us into your schedule this morning, Mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: My pleasure Pat.

Farnack: Well, first of all, let’s talk about control of schools. You explained to reporters yesterday why you were not at the hearing today by that State Senate Committee, but do you see why lawmakers might be upset by that – that you didn’t show up.

Mayor: Again Pat, the facts here are so stong. First of all, mayoral control of education – it has worked, it has been proven over and over again. Michael Bloomberg was right to achieve mayoral control of education. It’s something that he and I and Rudy Guiliani agree on and that doesn’t happen everyday. But what he has shown in his time was he was able to make real progress and we’ve been able to go a lot farther. So, easy example – mayoral control of education, at the time it came into place only 60 percent of our kids were graduating from high school. Today, over 70 percent are graduating, that number is going up. That was what was possible because we finally got accountability into our school system. So, it is a proven system, no one has offered an alternative. And look, when Mayor Bloomberg went for an extension to Albany in 2009 for six – six-year extension, he didn’t attend a single hearing, but he still got a six-year extension. I went to a four hour hearing in Albany a couple weeks ago, answered every question from every Senator, and laid out the facts. So, I think I have shown a lot of respect for the Senate – answwered their questions and now it is time for them to decide.

Farnack: Do you think it is getting personal with you about this?

Mayor: It shouldn’t. It should be about our children, it should be about our parents. But 1.1 million kids depending on policymakers in Albany to do the right thing. I’ll give you another example, pre-K – we went from 20,000 kids in full-day pre-K to now almost 70,000. In the course of two years we made that change. That would have been impossible without mayoral control of education. The previous approach to running our schools was filled with chaos and [inaudible] corruption as well. I don’t think our legislators in Albany seriously want to take us backwards, so if they know this is the only system that works, why don’t we get to the point of moving forward and then working on the substantive issues of how to make our schools better. But I think, again, the facts are clear, the evidence is clear, we’ve presented it. Now, we need the State Senate to support the children of New York City.

Farnack: Mayor, how is it going getting those landlords to repair those cluster homeless units? There have been a lot of violations.

Mayor: There have indeed. And we have made very clear that we’re going to be getting out of those cluster units [inaudible]. Just for your audience, a clarification, these are apartments that were used to house folks who were homeless. And for many years there has been real concerns about them in terms of the quality of the housing standards. But we have been very clear with the apartment owners – the landlords, but also with some of the community organizations that we’re working with. We will not tolerate inappropriate conditions for homeless people or any New Yorkers. So, we have initiated action in terms of one organization in particular called LCD Community Services. We have begun legal action toward them and some of the building owners to get these situations fixed. And if they are not fixed we will move aggressively to change the operators involved because the public has every right to know that we are treating people properly and we owe it those who are suffering that they not end up in a situation that it is unfair to them.

Farnack: What can be done immediately about some of these Class C violations that are – for example, rodents, no heat, no hot water. Is there some way that somebody can come in immediately and shut them down and move these people out?

Mayor: Well, I’d say two things. One – the City’s made very clear, we’ve done now inspections throughout all of the different shelters repeatedly. We’re doing them constantly and we’re updating the public monthly. We’ve been able to resolve a huge number – thousands and thousands of violations – simply by constant inspection and constant pressure on landlords and on the non-profit organizations. But on top of that, when we see someone not doing repairs we go and do them ourselves now. The City goes and directly does the repairs – charges the landlord. We’re going to do that very, very aggressively, and if a landlord is consistently unresponsive again, we are going to act to get them out of that situation entirely.

Farnack: Your Honor, the Metro-North fire earlier in the week has caused a lot of troubles and the generator caught fire on City-owned land. What impact, if any, will this have on the City continuing to lease out land under any kind of elevated tracks in the future?

Mayor: That’s a very good question. Look – first of all thank God that situation was resolved. You know, we were able to deal with that. FDNY did a fantastic job. There were no injuries and Metro-North service is back up and running. It will be fully normal, we believe, by tomorrow but it has been running. Look, at the same time it raises a very real concern. There is a full investigation going on. If any laws were broken, if anything was done inappropriately, clearly we want to take action, but in terms of having facilities there, this urban garden center, which was the location, is a very important site for the community. In fact, after the explosion a few years ago in East Harlem, those buildings that exploded – this is one of the places that the community turned to as a rallying point and a place to get a lot of support for the community and the owners of that company did a lot to help their neighbors. In that same stretch is La Marqueta, which is a famous and pivotal site in East Harlem. So, of course, those kind of facilities are important to the community. We have to make sure they’re safe. So we are going to find out if any laws are broken, we’ll take very aggressive action and if we need to put in any additional safeguards we will certainly go ahead and do that.

Farnack: What about horse-drawn carriages? There has been a temporary ban we were hearing about in Montreal. Any plans for addressing the issue in the near future?

Mayor: My views on the issue haven’t changed. I don’t think horses belong in horse-carriages or that horses belong in Midtown traffic. I think it’s a mistake in terms of safety, in terms of congestion, in terms of these basic humane values. But as you know, we had the attempt to pass legislation in the Council that ended up not going through. So, at this point there’s not an immediate action pending, but my values remain the same and I look forward to the day when we can finally address this issue.

Farnack: Well Mayor, you’ve been great. Anything you want to get off your chest or speak to this morning before you go?

Mayor: Well, I would like to talk about one thing. I appreciate that very much, Pat. You know one of the issues we are going to be working on a lot in the coming months – New Yorkers are going to hear a lot about this – is mental health. And it’s a huge issue Pat – one in five New Yorkers suffers from some kind of mental health challenge each year, but it is not talked about enough. So this weekend something very big is going to happen and my wife, Chirlane McCray, is leading the way. We are going to have in 1,000 houses of worship all over New York City – all faiths, clergy and members of our administration talking about mental health. Talking about the need to be open and honest about it to destigmatize it, to get people the help they need, and in the Fall we are going to start a brand new service called NYC Support. That is going to allow any New Yorker to pick up the phone, call 3-1-1, get connected to mental health services and then get follow up to make sure that those services are helping them and they’re getting the appointments they need. So, this is going to be a whole new approach, a much more hands on, much more aggressive approach to something that is quietly one of the biggest problems this city faces and we are finally going to be able to do something about it.

Farnack: Well thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us. We appreciate it, as always.

Mayor: You are very welcome Pat. Take care now.

Farnack: Thank you. That’s His Honor, Bill de Blasio – joining us live.