Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In for Live Interview on WBLS 107.5 FM’s “Caribbean Fever”

August 10, 2025

Dahved Levy: Special guest, are you there?

Mayor Eric Adams: My brother, how are you? Rocking you.

Levy: Rocking you, rocking you. Mayor Eric Adams, how are you doing, sir?

Mayor Adams: Good, brother, good. You know, exciting day today. We had the Dominican Day Parade, as well as a few other festivities. And, you know, we also did a street [co-naming] for DJ Mister Cee in Brooklyn. Yes, really great moment. You know, hats off to all the DJs that came out and really showed their support for brother Mister Cee’s family who's there, just for some really high energy.

Levy: You know, sir, you look like if you were not in politics that you would be in music. Maybe a manager, maybe you'd be a musician, maybe you'd be a drummer. Have you ever seen yourself doing any of that kind of thing?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, talent, they say, jumps a generation, because that's what my son does. My son is a musician, he's a songwriter, and he also does documentaries. So he has a lot of talent. I had a lot of talent in my family. My brother as well, my brother under me, he's also a musician. And my youngest brother is a singer, he sings with gospel groups. So there's a whole lot of talent in the family.

Levy: They just missed you out. You know what, someone had to do politics. Talking about politics, sir, I don't know where you're going to fit this into, but the Citizen App, why the Citizen App and what is it doing for New Yorkers?

Mayor Adams: It keeps us up to date. You know, everything now, Dahved, is about instant information. And we have created a working relationship with Citizen App, that allows us to push notifications to the community, and we can localize it. For example, you know, we were dealing with the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem. So we were able to send out a notification to the community up in Harlem, where you didn't have to send it out throughout the entire city.

And it is, you know, just really part of our process of building a safer city. And now, we have a New York City public safety account on the Citizen App, and it will keep New Yorkers informed on threats and how the city government is working. And so, you know what, you saw what happened when we had that unfortunate incident at 345 Park Avenue.

We were able to send out a notification to millions of people, and let them know that the person, the threat was terminated, so people would not be panicking and living in fear. So this relationship with Citizen App is a great relationship, and just another way of, you know, keeping New Yorkers safe and informed.

Levy: New York City Mayor Eric Adams holds a press conference about afterschool for all. What does it mean to Mayor Adams, and what does it mean to Eric Adams?

Mayor Adams: Well, it didn't happen. You know, Rubén Díaz Jr. and I, we often laugh about our afterschool program that was inside some lot with an old mattress, and we would jump on top of it, or jump off a small garage roof onto the mattress. And, you know, he has done a lot building housing, and some of those same lots with Vanessa Gibson, the current borough president of the Bronx, but afterschool means a lot.

And when you do universal afterschool, what we're doing, this is a $755 million investment, and we're bringing 20,000 new seats online over the next three years. And our goal is to have 184,000 student seats in the next three school years. And this universal, where these children are getting this for free, and they're not just learning how to run and play, no, they're learning robotics, they're learning different languages, they're learning tennis, they're learning really to develop these skills that they need.

Once you leave high school, you can have the skills you need to be a productive citizen. This is a huge investment. When you look at what we did with Pre-K and 3K expansion, that's another $217 million that we baseline in our budget, meaning that it would never go away. These are all the investments we're making for our children.

Levy: Wow. So, you know, New York loves their horses and carriages. Horse and carriage animal advocates now rally at City Hall to end [the] industry after [the handler was found] not guilty. Where do you stand on this?

Mayor Adams: Important issue. I know former Mayor de Blasio attempted to address the issue. They designed some nice cars that the horse and carriage people can use. I have First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro looking into this, so we can come to some form of finalization of dealing with this issue.

He's going to come back with me in the next couple of days on how we're going to move forward. And I'll make sure once we get it resolved, I'll reach out to you and you'll be the first to know.

Levy: Sir, what is it? Is it bad maintenance of the horses when they're tucked away? Is it running the horses or working the horses too much? Is that the horses defecate all on the main streets where tourism is a big part? What is the real problem with the horses?

Mayor Adams: It's a combination of basically three things. One, many people think it's inhumane to have the horses carrying out this function, particularly during hot weather or cold weather. There are real restrictions on when the horses can be used in hot weather or cold weather. And advocates in this space believe that we should not be allowing the horses to be used in this manner.

The second, many people think horses should not be used at all, no matter what the weather is. They think it's inhumane treatment of these animals. And there's just real strong passion and advocacy around the humane treatment of the animals. There are farms of state where racing horses are able to have sanctuaries and retire there. And so there's just a real concern that we're seeing for this.

And third, people don't believe the condition, the smell, like you said, the urine, the horse waste on the street. They just don't believe it's a real fit for that area in Central Park. And so it's a combination of those different entities. Now, we have the Union TWU represent the horse drivers. They represent them. So there's a balance of making sure we can deal with the union issue that this is about, but finding a solution to this problem.

Levy: Okay, sir, when you take a look at the persons running against you, what about them makes you confident? And what is it about them that makes you work harder? So you've got one competitor that drives you more and you've got another competitor that you say, ah, I'm not worried about that person.

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, there are four people in the race or five, I'm sorry, five people in the race now. Three of them don't have a record at all. They have nothing to show what they have done in government or really even out of government. And one of them is running from his record. He passed the bail reform. He, you know, the psychiatric issues we're having on our streets right now. He closed psychiatric beds. He passed the law of cannabis that opened these cannabis shops, illegal cannabis shops throughout our city. So you can go and look at his record.

And the other three, you can't because they have no record. I have a clear record. The reason people are able to analyze what I did or didn't do is because I have a record. And that record showed that I built more housing in individual years in the history of the city, passed comprehensive housing reform so we could finally get more housing in our city. There's no income tax for low-income New Yorkers.

We were able to successfully do that. We lowered the cost of child care from $220 a month to less than $20 a month, paying off medical debt for New Yorkers that are low-income. When you think about it, $30 billion I put back in the pockets of working-class people. So people are engaged in a conversation about affordability with idealism, but I have shown realism, real policies that are for working-class people in this city.

And that's why you [can’t] critique me, because what I said I was going to do, I did. 23,000 illegal guns off our street []. We had the least number of shootings and people being shot in the recorded history of this city. The first six months, that includes the lowest number of homicides in the recorded history of this city. So safety and making sure people can have resources in this city is what we have produced.

Levy: Sir, I'm curious, do you get a good laugh anymore? When's the last time you had a mocktail? When's the last time you went to a good concert? When's the last time you read a book? When's the last time you had a mocktail, mayor?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question, because I enjoy life. I'll sit on the back porch of Gracie Mansion and have a nice cigar and drink either Single Malt Scotch or Tito's Seltzer. And I'll just sit back and enjoy life and reflect on the day. People say, “Listen, being a mayor of a City in New York is hard.” But I say, how could you complain if you're the mayor of the City of New York? This is the greatest city on the globe.

And so you're fortunate to be able to serve this city and show how you impact the lives of everyday people. And now when you talk about a book, I'm an audible book guy. I read a really good book the other day, The GI Factor. It talks about how to prevent your spike in your glucose level. And it's important for people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. And it's a really good read. And it gives you some good information that you can look at.

And I love a good movie or a good play or just sit down and listen to a good TED talk. So trust me, it's not all work without relaxation. Because if you don't, then you're not investing in yourself. And I believe you have to invest in yourself so you can invest in others.

Levy: Mayor Adams, we're going to give you the last say. That's the last say, sir. What do you want New Yorkers to know about you that they haven't known about you yet?

Mayor Adams: This is probably one of the most, if not the most important election that this city is going to see. And we have to ask ourselves what direction we want to move in. When you look at some of the platforms of people believing that we should not have families anymore in our city. Families are everything. And the government should not take over families. Families should take over families.

When people believe that we should have police officers not go to domestic violence incidents, which is one of the most dangerous incidents you can have, you can respond as a police officer. Emptying Rikers Island, where you have 7,400 of the most dangerous criminals in our city that go back to the communities that they preyed on in the first place. It's about what direction we want this city to go and continue the work that we have witnessed.

The number one thing I hear all the time, Dahved, when I share with people what we've done in this city, people say, “Wow, I didn't know that.” So now I have the opportunity to get the message out to New Yorkers and continue the success that we have witnessed. We went through a lot these last three years and three months, and I never stopped fighting for New Yorkers, and I never will stop fighting for New Yorkers.

Levy: Sir, thank you very much. Read your book. See your movie. Ah, I forgot. As far as music, what do you rock with? Are you the guy that rocks with the Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament, Funkadelic, Brothers Johnson? Or are you going with Nas? Are you going with Hov? What does the mayor lean with musically?

Mayor Adams: I love all music. Afrobeat. I love classical. You come past the office where I have a little gym and you'll hear Beethoven playing sometimes. I love some Calypso. I love some of the great Dominican and Spanish artists. I love all music, all soul music. I think music, you should never limit yourself, I should say, in your love of music. And I just love all types of music. And most importantly, I love tuning in to you, brother, rocking you, rocking you.

Levy: Thanks for making my weekend, sir. Thank you very much for rocking with us, and have a good week.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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