Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on Power 105.1 with Angie Martinez

June 28, 2016

Angie Martinez: Hello Mayor de Blasio.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: How are you, my dear?

Martinez: You’re my mayor!

Mayor: It is my honor to be your mayor.

Martinez: The whole city’s mayor is on the phone, Bill de Blasio is joining us today on the Live at Five today on primary election day, very important day in our city. Have you voted already today?

Mayor: In my district in Brooklyn, there is no particular primary for Congress, but in other parts of the city, there’s very important primaries, so everyone should get out and vote up until 9:00 tonight.

Martinez: Yeah, 9:00. And if you don’t know where, you can go to 311 or we have information on the site, you can always go there. Anyway, other than that, how are you and what’s happening?

Mayor: I am good. I am happy to be on the show and I’m happy to be the bearer of good news Angie.

Martinez: I heard you had some good news and you’re in a good mood.

Mayor: I’m in a good mood – good mood does happen too, Angie. I want you to know it. One-and-a-half million plus New Yorkers are better off today because last night, our Rent Guidelines Board decided on a rent freeze for tenants who live in rent-stabilized apartments and have their lease coming up in the next year, from October through the end of next September. So this means if you have your lease coming up, if you live in a rent-stabilized apartment, if your lease comes up anytime from October 1 this year to September 30 next year, you can either do a one-year renewal for no increase whatsoever – zero rent freeze – or you can do a two-year renewal for just 2 percent, which is also a very good deal. And this has never happened in the history of New York City. We’ve never had two years in a row with a rent freeze. And anybody, any of your listeners who wants to understand what this means for them, all they have to do is call 311 or go online to nyc.gov and all the facts are there.

Martinez: Excellent.

Mayor: But I have to tell you, this is – talk about something that really makes a difference in peoples’ lives. Again, it has only happened two times in the last 50 years: last year and this year are the only times this has ever happened in the history of New York City.

Martinez: Wow. Congratulations!

Mayor: Thank you.

Martinez: Well done, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Angie, I seek your approval all the time.

Martinez: I know, I know.

Mayor: If you’re happy, that’s important to me.

Martinez: I do not frown upon this accomplishment.

Mayor: Thank you, that’s high praise.

Martinez: Since I’ve spoken to you last, I know there was a couple of things that happened. First I know you went to the Pride Parade, so how was that?

Mayor: It was amazing. You know, this was the biggest, the loudest, the proudest Pride Parade we have ever had in the history of New York City.

Martinez: Yeah.

Mayor: And I am so proud of our city, because after the tragedy in Orlando, not only were people not intimidated, but they came out in greater numbers than ever –

Martinez: Amazing.

Mayor: To stand up and be proud and be proud of our LGBT community, and I have to give NYPD props – they did a great job protecting everyone.

Martinez: And then – I haven’t spoken to you since the impromptu block party that Kanye tried to throw.

Mayor: Kanye, yes.    

Martinez: Yes. And he was trying to get you on the phone in the middle of the night, and it was on the Snap, did this actually happen? Was there actually a conversation? And would you actually be open to this type of event?

Mayor: Oh absolutely. Look, Kanye – I don’t think he had my phone number actually in the middle of the night –

Martinez: Okay, okay.

Mayor: But I took his inspiration to heart. We would love to do a block party with Kanye, and we’d love to do it as a benefit for the youth of New York City. So I put out a tweet the next day and said to him, you know, we’d love to be your partner but we want to make sure it’s something that is going to help our young people and something we plan well. So I look forward to that possibility, we’ve got to see if we can make it real, but I would be happy to do it.

Martinez: But there has to be some order here.

Mayor: A little bit of order is good, let me tell you.

Martinez: A little bit of order.

Mayor: But especially something where we could make it really, really generate some resources for the youth of New York City, that would be a wonderful thing.

Martinez: I love the potential of that. And if that does come to fruition at some point, you can count me in, whatever you need for support on that, I’d love to be involved.

Mayor: I will need support.

Martinez: Okay, good. Alright, well congratulations. Again, if you need information on the new – what is it – the rent freezes?

Mayor: The rent freeze, yep.

Martinez: On New York, where do we go again?

Mayor: 311. Call 311.

Martinez: Very easy.

Mayor: There’s one-and-a-half million New Yorkers who are going to benefit from this. If you’re not sure if you’re one of them, or how it’s going to work, either call 311 or go online to nyc.gov and you can get all the details. Thank you very much Angie.

Martinez: Always good to talk to you. I’ll talk to you soon.

Mayor: Igualmente.

[Applause]