Transcript: Mayor Adams Participates in Live Interview on NEWS12 and Takes Questions From New Yorkers

July 22, 2025

Noelle Lilley: Good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us right here on News 12, where Local Matters. I'm Noelle Lilly, this is Ask the Mayor. It's a pleasure to be with you. Here for this next half hour we're giving you the opportunity to speak directly to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Ask him your questions right here on air. The number to dial is 718-861-6800. It'll be at the bottom of your screen throughout the program for reference, so get dialing. 

And with that, we welcome back tonight, New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for your time tonight.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be here with you.

Lilley: My first time sitting down with you one-on-one. Very excited. 

Mayor Adams: Good stuff. Good stuff. 

Lilley: So just, mayor, out of the way, we want to start off with something that, you know, we have to ask. The former commissioner, interim commissioner with the NYPD, Tom Donlon. We want to just get the lawsuit addressed right away. 

You know, he is saying, in this suit, claiming that police executives, former and NYPD had operated a criminal enterprise to benefit top officials. We want to give you a chance, just right off the top, speaking to New Yorkers. What do you want them to know about this?

Mayor Adams: Did you read that lawsuit?

Lilley: We did, yes. It was a long, long lawsuit.

Mayor Adams: 200 and something pages, typos, grammatically incorrect. I mean, the rush of getting it done, it is baseless. When you hear the narrative, the story, this is, you know, this is the political season. The coordination that seems to be happening at the same time. 

Listen, he was there as an interim. He did not live up to the job. And we have one of the best police commissioners we could ever have in Commissioner Tisch. And the courts would decide. But clearly, the attorney should be ashamed of himself to produce a product like that in front of the court. He didn't even proofread it. So let the courts decide.

Lilley: Fair enough. And we will get to some hyperlocal stories and topics now as well. We want to zoom in on the Bronx. The hub is a part of the South Bronx that has been spoken about by many local officials as well as residents. You've been there before. 

Recently, it was on our airways as we were discussing cleaning up the hub. Folks concerned about open drug use, crime. You guys have come in and really done a big change overnight. How do you think about long-term change and solutions for that area?

Mayor Adams: So important. And what I'm going to have the team do all over the city— you should see these before and after photos. When we came into office in 2022, the number of encampments, people sleeping in tents and boxes. I visited many of them. I saw spoiled food, drug paraphernalia, human waste, schizophrenic behavior, bipolar behavior. And these locations all over our city. 

And the Hub, we heard over and over again from Councilman Salamanca how important it was. When you look at some of these photos and pictures, you don't see this all over New York. Now, go Google other cities. Look at what's happening in other big cities. And it has been accepted. And we say no to that. 

And so what we're seeing here, we went in a few months ago, did an initiative and analysis. And we wanted to come back to say that we're not walking away from this. We're not walking away from this. We're not walking away from this. 

And drug use is a real problem, particularly when it comes to fentanyl. That's one of the top causes of overdose in our city. But we have to give people care, community, and allow them to get the services they deserve. And we know we're going to do it around the Hub. And we're not walking. It's not a one and done.

Lilley: Yeah. So, are there plans to come back to that area? And, like, more folks can expect more initiatives being done like what you're describing?

Mayor Adams: Yes, repeatedly. We have the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that's there to assist people with drug use. We have outreach workers that are coming to also participate. DOT is there to do everything from taking down the wooden chairs that were located there. We have six-day outreach services that's going to be there, cleaning the place to make sure we do several cleanups throughout the day. 

So it's a real focused attention because that's the Broadway of the Bronx. You know, many of those businesses around the Hub were negatively impacted by what we saw play out at the Hub for years. And we said no to that.

Lilley: That’s something we’ve heard from business owners as well. The challenges of operating your business when you’re dealing with some of that. Speaking to, sort of, a similar issue we wanted to talk to you about a viewer’s call that we’ve been getting from Bedford Park apartment building here. We have a video that we wanted to show you in the apartment. Residents have been saying, there’s a daycare that operates in the building as well. But tenants have had challenges with loitering in the building, a man as you can see, exposing himself, drug use. Some of the similar issues we’ve seen in the Hub.

You can see children being walked into the building, trying to be dropped off to daycare. Folks are telling us that they have gotten no response from their management. What should tenants do when they’re reaching out, they’re reporting to 311, they’re calling their local precinct and they feel like they’re not getting a response?

Mayor Adams: What I’m going to do, that’s 2850, looks like Grand Concourse. That’s not acceptable. We’re going to get the building owner to give us the authorization to do what we call verticals, to walk though the location periodically. Whatever sector that it’s in, I’m going to make sure that they walk through. We’ve done this before, really in NYCHA in facilities. But we’re going to zero in on it.

Those babies should not have to walk through conditions like that. So my team is going to speak with the commanding officer. This person looks like they're smoking crack, cocaine, there. So I'm going to speak with the commanding officer when I leave here tonight. And we're going to do walk-throughs in this building. This is not acceptable.

Lilley: Yeah. This is definitely something we've heard from residents that they're concerned about, as you mentioned, children having to see that. As we've been out and about in the communities across the Bronx and Brooklyn, we've been speaking to folks on the street, getting them a chance to ask you a question directly. We want to get to one of those questions now. 

Question: What's going on with this congestion, and all this pricing, and all this ticketing? That's what I'd like to know. The cameras, 35 miles an hour, you can't go. You hit 35, you're getting a ticket.

Lilley: Okay, sounds like folks are asking about congestion, traffic. Congestion pricing has had a lot of back and forth.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, what people don't understand about congestion pricing is that that's Albany. The mayor has no control over the MTA. The MTA is controlled by Albany. Whenever there's something in the city, people look at the mayor, but we don't have control of it. Are there things we would have done differently? Yes, but the reality is that the MTA is in charge of congestion prices. 

Now, he was talking about speeding and tickets. We have to slow down. The number of fatalities and deaths have decreased in the city because of what Commissioner Rodriguez has done. We don't want to be judged by decreasing fatalities to judge how safe our streets are. 

Public safety means also vehicle crashes, so we have to slow down. We decreased the speed limit on mopeds and two-wheelers to 15 miles an hour because people are concerned about fast driving and reckless driving in this city, and we must move at a slower pace.

Lilley: Is that a challenge, trying to strike that balance of looking after, of course, pedestrians, folks who rely on public transit, as we know many New Yorkers do, but also drivers who feel like they need parking spaces, they need to get to and from where they're going as well.

Mayor Adams: And finding that sweet spot is important. This is a city of 8.5 million people, 35 million opinions, trust me, and we have been able to do that, like the Bedford Avenue bike lane in Brooklyn. It was dangerous for pedestrians and children. We changed the shape of it to make sure that we didn't go through a community that would impact the children of that community, and the same up here. We weigh these decisions.

When the residents are vociferous around, this is going to impact our quality of life, how we exist in our communities. We hear them. We don’t just force it down their throats. But, when it comes down to speeding, that’s a major issue. Too many injuries, too many people hurt and the advocates, for years, have been talking about the speeding in the city.

Lilley: Yeah, and we’re going to get to more on that. Specifically, there’s an intersection that we want to talk to you about. In Brooklyn, actually, there is a specific intersection where two children, under the age of 12, have both been hit by a car. One child, unfortunately, that eight year old on June 28th being hit and killed at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Eastern Parkway. 

So speaking to some of those issues and, just today, a 10 year old in critical condition, being hit at that intersection. And as you talk about, you know, needing drivers to slow down, are there other things, potentially, that you think could be beneficial? More speedbumps? More traffic enforcement? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, and we have redesigned a significant number of street corners because, oftentimes, you have the left and right turns where innocent people are struck– of slowing down, speed bumps, traffic calmings around schools, being able to pass the legislation to get speed cameras in those locations. So there are a host of things that we're doing to really calm our streets and make sure that people know they can walk the streets in a safe manner. 

We hear it from our elderly all the time, our older adults, they talk about not feeling safe when they cross the streets, particularly around the large use of mopeds that you see often on our streets. This is a heavy focus for us and the commissioner, Commissioner Rodriguez has been extremely focused on this. 

Lilley: For folks just joining us, a reminder that you can dial right now to Ask the Mayor your question. We’re going to, again, take those calls from you. We’re talking everything you want to know from Mayor Adams. This is your chance to tune in so dial in any moment now and we’ll be right back after a quick break.

[Commercial Break.]

Lilley: Welcome back. You're watching Ask the Mayor on News 12. I'm Noelle Lilley, joined by the one and only Mayor Eric Adams. Now we do have callers standing by waiting to speak directly to the mayor. So make sure you get in line so you get a chance to ask him your question. First up, we have Carl from Brownsville wanting to talk about NYCHA buildings. Carl, can you hear us?

Question: Yes, I'm here.

Lilley: Hi, Carl. Can you ask the mayor your question? Go ahead.

Question: Oh, my question is, Mr. Mayor, how you doing, sir? Last month when you was on there, I asked you about the situation where I was missing– I didn't have a stove for almost two months. So now I was watching a report on News 12 last week where a senior citizen didn't have a stove or hot water in their buildings now. 

So I just want to make sure, you know, actually, can you find somebody to really get involved with this to help these people that live in the residence in NYCHA with stoves and water? 

Mayor Adams: Did you get your stove, Carl? 

Question: I mean, not you, but can you just please help these people? 

Mayor Adams: Yeah. Did you get your stove… from the problem? 

Question: I did. I spoke to you two days later. They did come and bring me a stove. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. I want to make sure. When I reached out, they told me they were going to resolve it. NYCHA has a hotline to deal with problems like this. You know what many people don't understand? NYCHA is under a special monitor. And the direct power that I need, I want to be held responsible for it. Like we saw what happened in Riis Houses. I couldn't fire the people that were responsible. They said, wait a minute, you don't have the authority to do so. 

We need to give the authority directly back to the mayor so that he can be held responsible and make sure the people that are there are doing the job that they're supposed to do. Now, we have a great head there that's conscientious, that understands what we need. But when you look at, NYCHA has an over $80 billion capital problem. The federal government for years have abandoned NYCHA.

The state has walked away from NYCHA and not funded it the way it's supposed to. And we have done all sorts of ways of getting the funding, such as the land trust. We were able to get that passed in Albany. We're doing the RAD programs. We have to finally understand that NYCHA should not be living in this condition. But I think one of the starting points is turning back over to the mayors. Let them be held responsible for running NYCHA.

Lilley: Shifting that control might help.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. Because right now you don't know who to point to. You don't know who to say, how do we get this done? When there's a problem in our school because we have mayoral control, people could come directly to me and say, mayor, you're responsible for this. And, you know, you're looking at our children are outpacing the state in reading and math and some of the things that we're doing around Summer Rising and other things because we have the control with the panel to make these decisions. That's the same with NYCHA. NYCHA has been under the special monitor for years and nothing is getting done to deal with the systemic problem.

Lilley: And you mentioned the possible challenges with funding to NYCHA as well. Are those things you anticipate could continue being a problem going forward?

Mayor Adams: Yes. You can't have an $80 billion capital problem and you're not putting the money in. Now, under this administration we put $25 billion into our housing and $5 billion to NYCHA. First time NYCHA has been included in the housing plan. No other administration has done that. We have been zero focused on NYCHA and making sure that we can use what we have to assist them. But there's going to be a need for real federal help and real state help to get NYCHA on its right footing.

Lilley: Thank you to Carl for that question. We do have another caller, Tony from Morrisania dialing in. Tony, go ahead, ask the mayor your question.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you, Tony?

Question: I'm a recently retired Child Protective Services from ACS. And it's a two-part question. First, I want to thank you for cracking down on the ghost plates. The next thing is, crime has gone down in every other borough except the Bronx. And what are we going to do to change that statistic? And the second part of the question is, how can I help your campaign? 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. That’s really nice of you. Number one, getting rid of those ghost plates were part of the problem. Those illegal scooters, those illegal ghost plates, they were committing crimes, fleeing the scene, and we weren't able to track them until we do many chases and apprehend them. 

The real problem we're having is a small number of people who are repeated offenders, particularly here in the Bronx. The number of people who even participated in the snatch and grab of the jewelry you saw, almost 42 percent of them were repeated offenders. And I'm not talking about one time. I'm talking about three, four, five times. One person was arrested almost 30 times. 

And so the way we get it done is by telling our lawmakers that we cannot have repeated offenders committing these crimes over and over again. So you're right. Getting the ghost plates off. The reason crime shootings have dropped is because we removed 22,000 illegal guns off our streets. That's important. And we have been focusing here in the Bronx, because a number of shootings are really being driven by gang behavior. 

Too many of our young people are participating in gang behavior. A lot of the music videos that they are having retaliatory shootings is really problematic. We made a big mistake with Raise the Age. This was a bill that was passed under Andrew's administration. Where we’re now seeing younger shooters and younger victims. That's a problem. 

Our goal is number one, to find alternatives for our young people, our Summer Youth Employment, our Summer Rising programs. This is all year round for our children and school system. We have several other programs, CRED, for justice involved young people. So it is going to take a proactive and a reactive force to make sure we bring down these crime numbers. But I'm zero focused on the Bronx and the team up here, the electeds have been amazing.

Lilley: And you mentioned those chain snatching incidents. We had many of those in the Bronx, repeat incidents. We will continue to talk about that and all these other topics and questions coming directly from you. Remember, call in now while you have a chance to ask the mayor your question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

[Commercial Break.]

Lilley: Thanks for joining us tonight on Ask the Mayor on News 12. We've got the one and only Mayor Eric Adams joining us tonight to answer all your questions straight from you. We want to speak to [Joanne] from Throggs Neck. She has dialed in asking about a question a lot of folks in our community have been tuned in and paying attention to. The Bally's Casino Throggs Neck. Joanne.

Question: Yes, Mr. Mayor. I would like to know, are you in favor of Kristy Marmorato knocking down the Bally's project?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that the Bally's project, the one in Queens, the one in Brooklyn, the one in Manhattan, they all should have a fair ability to be able to state that let's put it in front of the committee so that everyone could have a fair shot. And I don't think it should have been prematurely removed by the City Council. I think it was the wrong thing to do. Why should the Bronx be treated any differently? 

I think it's unfair to the Bronx not to have an opportunity to put their best foot forward and so, it should have gone through the process. To use one council person or to use some type of action by the City Council to not allow the Bronx to have their fair opportunity, I don't think it's the right thing to do– and I'm not leaning towards one project or another. I just want it in New York. I think it's… I was the former chair of Racing and Gaming and I know that casinos can bring jobs, union jobs, tourism, development can come around it, so I think it's unfair if the Bronx did not have an opportunity to get their fair share of producing the product that they wanted.

Lilley: For folks who aren't familiar with the latest on this the City Council just voted against rezoning plans that Bally’s would need to bring the casino to the Throggs Neck  area of the Bronx and then the debate has often been the economic benefits as you mentioned. 

We've heard from some residents who have concerns over maybe added congestion over potentially changing the culture of the neighborhood. How do you feel that we need to weigh those two things as the residents concerns?

Mayor Adams: Great question. We know this, you know we put a lot of money into Hunts Point to develop. We remove the barge from the area so that the Bronx would not be treated in a way to dump everything bad in the Bronx. But to anywhere in the city to have a major casino that will bring jobs will bring housing, and bring other opportunities. It really is something that everyone should have a fair share to have it voted on. That's what we're saying.

Lilley: And we're almost out of time. You do have veto power over that City Council vote.

Mayor Adams: And that's what the team is looking at, how we're gonna move forward.

Lilley: Okay, thanks for joining us for Ask the Mayor with Mayor Eric Adams.

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