Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In for Live Interview on 77 WABC’S “The Cats Roundtable”

August 7, 2025

John Catsimatidis: Okay, now we have the mayor of the city of New York. We have Eric Adams with us. And, well, Mayor Adams, we want New York the way the old-fashioned New York is, safety. Safety and quality of life. Tell me, you know, I was with President Trump last week, and I said that Eric Adams said to me that he's just like John Paul Jones. I have not begun to fight yet.

Mayor Eric Adams: Well said. Well said. And I think that in the long run, people are going to see why, how strategic we have been as we continue to move forward. But I think that when you listen to some of the stories about what the judge just stated on what's happening and playing out with young people, we're seeing similar actions like that here in New York with the legislation that Andrew signed into law, raise the age, you're seeing people exploit young people, giving them guns to carry, or shootings, and we can't continue to move in that direction. You know, we've been successful in bringing down crime.

Catsimatidis: The most devastating thing, Mr. Mayor, has been the bail law.

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. And there was a series of criminal justice packages, the bail law, the discovery law, the Raise the Age. Just an accumulation. And in spite of that, we have found ways to ensure that we can bring safety to the streets. 

You don't go through the summer with the least amount of shootings and shooting victims in the recorded history of the city. That says a lot about how we are able to fight crime, even if we have lawmakers that are making it challenging for us.

Catsimatidis: And I understand you're launching your new policies, and I heard you're working very hard. You're going to all the boroughs. Tell us a little bit about your new objectives.

Mayor Adams: Well, there's a few things. We announced today one of the things that millions of New Yorkers are having to deal with is dealing with a student loan debt. The young lady that was with us, she said, she's an HRA employee. 

When she came out of school, she had over $200,000 in loan debt. You know, you think about that for a moment. That's a mortgage payment. And the first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, and his team, we came up with new initiatives to deal with just that. And we were proud to roll it out today to deal with student loan debt. 

But you also saw yesterday at Madison Square Garden, where we, we saw close to 1,000 new recruits are going to be on our street to continue to take us throughout the summer. They graduated from the police academy, and they're ready to serve. They're excited about that. And here's one for you, John: 25 percent of the class, they were born outside the country. 25 percent. 

So when you think of your story that I think of all the time, how you came to the country, worked hard, worked hard. People see your empire now, but that's your glory. That's not your story. And I share your story often with people. And we're going to do some major announcements tomorrow. $2 billion and a new capital rollout. 

There's going to be a lot of new housing that we're going to build. We're excited about that as well. And you're seeing that we are moving throughout the city. We opened our first campaign office today in Brooklyn. My borough. My borough that I work for. My borough that I love. And we're going to just continue to open up our locations throughout the entire city and do what I do best. I enjoy campaigning. I enjoy meeting New Yorkers. And I enjoy sharing the story of how successful this administration has been.

Catsimatidis: I agree. And I agree we've got to build a lot of low-income housing. And when I ran for mayor in 2013, the fact is I said transit-oriented development. You've got to build low-income housing. Around where the subway stations exist now so people can go to work and not fall short of not being able to get to work. And Coney Island, which I saw you broke ground last week, we have three more sites in Coney Island. I look forward to building some more housing in Coney Island.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no. And you think about Coney Island. That's where I started my law enforcement career, in Coney Island, as a transit officer. And you think about Coney Island. There's a great deal of opportunity that's in Coney Island. You were one of the pioneers who decided to build out in the area. But I think there's far much more. And you're right, transit-oriented development. Look at what we did in East New York. And how we were able–

Catsimatidis: That's the only way to build affordable housing. You have to put it where people can get to work every day.

Mayor Adams: And we did that in East New York. One of the major hubs over in East New York near the A-Line, the L-Line, the J-Line, the C-Line. The Broadway Junction is an important cross-section of that entire community. So when you build it in these communities, you're able to provide for working-class people. And that's what we have done.

Catsimatidis: Governor Paterson, you wanted to ask the mayor a question. 

Former Governor David Paterson: Mayor, I just wanted to know if you would give us an update on the Legionnaires. This disease, it put 73 people in Harlem in the hospital. One has passed away. And what you've been able to do to limit the damage in that situation.

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that, governor. And actually, we, unfortunately, we had three deaths. And as you said, over 70 people were impacted. I was in Harlem yesterday walking the streets, giving people basic information. Because I got a call where someone asked me that, Eric, I shook someone. Can I get Legionnaires?

And I shared with them, no. It is the cooling towers. We've conducted inspections. And if we identify any trace of Legionnaires, you have to rectify the situation within 24 hours. And so we're going to do our part. You're not going to catch it because of drinking water or shaking hands. There were a few buildings that we saw in the Harlem area, and we did remediation of those buildings.

Governor Paterson: Thank you.

Catsimatidis: Rita, you wanted another question before we go to break? 

Rita Cosby: Yeah. Mayor Adams, quick question for you. You talked about the police recruits. You have been such a big supporter of the men and women in blue. And quite frankly, in contrast to some of the others out there, talk about how important it is. I mean, we just saw, sadly, Didarul Islam lose his life. It's so important to support our men and women in blue.

Mayor Adams: Now, it is crucial that it's important. And you can't show your support when you're running to be mayor. You need to be supportive throughout the time that you're in this city. And that is what I always believe in. Public safety is our prerequisite to prosperity. And when you see the life of a young detective Islam, when you saw the life of Officer Mora and Rivera, Officer Diller, when you look at all these young men who run towards dangers while others run away, I will always support our law enforcement community because this city supports the law enforcement community.

Catsimatidis: We've got another 30 seconds left. Anything else you want to tell New Yorkers? I mean, you haven't begun to fight yet, I told them.

Mayor Adams: That's right. And they're going to see how well I do fight for this city and defend this city. And I'm looking forward to being in the streets to show the success we've had in this city. I've got to do a live interview, so we will talk soon. Thank you. 

Catsimatidis: Thank you so much. But the quality of life, you've got to get rid of those bicycles going the wrong way. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. 

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