Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on AM 1280's Radio WADO

May 27, 2016

Yisel Tejeda: We appreciate he’s chatting with WADO Doce-Ochenta, and just speaking to our Hispanic community. That’s very important to us.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, my – my great pleasure.

Tejeda: Well, let’s get right into it because I know you have a busy agenda. One of the first topics I wanted to speak to you about was affordable housing in the city. You know, I know you’re working constantly to improve, like, the affordable housing in New York City. What are your plans to continue to do so?

Mayor: Yisel, affordable housing is unquestionably the number one issue for New Yorkers. And wherever I go, I hear people worried about being able to afford this city, being able to stay in the neighborhood they love, and a lot of people are worried about being priced out. So, we have the largest, most ambitious affordable housing plan this city has ever had. It’s enough affordable housing for half-a-million New Yorkers. Most of it is helping people stay in the very same housing they’re in now, and providing the subsidies to keep it affordable for the long-term. In those cases, people are paying no more than 30 percent of the rent. But we’re also going to be building 80,000 new apartments.

[...]

Tejeda: Mayor, another topic you feel very strongly about is education. What are your thoughts on the advisory group that is pushing to limit your control over the public schools?

Mayor: Look, mayoral control of education was started by Mayor Bloomberg – I agreed with him on this. It allows us to make the schools better and it allows us to make change quickly. Since mayoral control of education has been in place, our graduation rate in the city went from 50 percent to now over 70 percent.

[...]

Tejeda: How can New York City help Ecuadorians with the temporary protected status? I know you’ve –

Mayor: I think it’s –

Tejeda: I know you’ve spoken about this before.

Mayor: I have. I mean the Ecuadorian community in this city is a very large and important community – and growing. And we have to stand up for the Ecuadorian community, and recognize that this temporary protective status allows people to both stay here and support their families back in Ecuador, and not have to go back into a situation where there’s so much pain and so much difficulty right now in Ecuador.

[...]

Tejeda: Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Mayor, for chatting with WADO Doce-Ochenta. It was a pleasure.

Mayor: My pleasure, Yisel. And I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Tejeda: Likewise.

###