Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on BronxNet “Diálogo Abierto”

August 12, 2025

Javier Gomez: Eric Adams, el alcalde número 110 de la ciudad. Bienvenido de Nueva York. Bienvenido, welcome.

Translation: Eric Adams, 110th mayor of the city. Welcome from New York. Welcome, welcome.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, welcome, great to be here.

Gomez: Thank you for joining us today. This is a great preamble to the beginning of the program's 30th anniversary season, which is in September 2025. Probably one of the longest public affairs local programs in the history of the city.

Mayor Adams: 30 years, you have to be doing something good to last 30 years.

Gomez: It is a joy to really continue to serve the public and pretty much sometimes even carry the torch of the messaging and the stories that mainstream commercial media is really not carrying these days.

Mayor Adams: Well said, well said. And I think that that's why it's important to have the local outlets like BronxNet because it gets down into the granular surface of what's important to those who are here in the Bronx and really across the entire city.

Gomez: Now, mayor, we have a lot to talk about. We would need a documentary series to cover everything. So let's get started. The Latino community in New York City, a lot has been said throughout the years. 

It's very important. It's the future. But can you give me an x-ray, an overview of how you see it? What is the status of the local Latino community these days?

Mayor Adams: I think it is extremely important on so many levels. If you talk about public safety, the number of Latino officers that have come into the Police Department and part of our public safety apparatus, our hospitals, our community workers, when you look at how we have done so well in building housing in the city, many of those contractors and developers are Latino. 

And so every aspect of our lives, you're seeing the Latino community. And it's not monolithic. That's what people tend to forget. Yes, we have the largest Puerto Rican population outside of Puerto Rico, the largest Dominican population outside of the Dominican Republic. 

But when you look at some of the other communities, the Ecuadorian community, the Mexican community, the Colombian community, go to Queens and you see the level of diversity of all of these communities. And so when you think of the Latino community, it's not one dimensional. It's not monolithic. It has many different variations and opinions.

Gomez: In talking about variations, in your experience, what would you say are the most pressing issues facing Latinos in New York City as of 2025?

Mayor Adams: I love that. Because we often hear that and it's the same thing that's pressing to all communities. When I'm in my various Latino communities– if I'm up in Washington Heights with a large Dominican population, they're talking about public safety. They're talking about housing. They're talking about the cost of living in the city. 

If I'm in Sunset Park with a large Latino population or if I'm out in Queens in Councilman Moya's district, they're talking about the same things. So, yes, there are specific areas of that, [that] is concerning such as making sure we have access to language translation and governmental services, something we are really leaning into. 

And making sure of the immigration issue is extremely important to Latino community on many different fronts that a lot of people don't realize is not even monolithic when you talk about these important issues. And so they want the same things that many other New Yorkers want. But they're also concerned about specific issues that impacts the community.

Gomez: In breaking down the issues, there seems to be a disconnect with what the real people on the street are saying and the working class and what the mainstream commercial media or the political elites are reporting. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Gomez: In terms of public safety and these issues, what are people telling you on the street? What are you hearing?

Mayor Adams: Well, when you hear what is being put out not only from the mainstream media, but even some of the elected officials– 

Gomez: And of course, social media to people putting up… 

Mayor Adams: The Latino community is strongly in favor of public safety. When I do my town halls in Latino communities, they talk about not defunding the police, not getting rid of the police. They talk about where are my police? I want my police on the street. They're big on quality of life issues. They don't want loud music playing on their blocks. They don't want illegal behavior, gambling. 

All of these quality of life issues are huge for the Latino community. They tell me all the time, “Eric quality of life is everything for us. We want our parents, our grandparents, and our children to be able to be safe in our city.”

And people give the impression that they are not strongly pro public safety, just the opposite. And as I indicated, the rank and file of Latino officers are increasing at a substantial rate in the Police Department.

Gomez: In terms of public safety, a lot of people talk to me in [the] community and they have all sorts of reasons for why things are the way they are, look the way they look. And some of them have cited in terms of contributing factors, bail reform, soft on crime policies. Do you have any thoughts about why this is happening and what can be done in terms of addressing crime and public safety?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, and they're right. They're right. What our lawmakers did to erode the quality of life and public safety in the city is wrong. When you look at the revolving door criminal justice system, just the other day we had a custom border patrol officer who was out with a friend enjoying a beautiful night in the city– he was off duty. So no one knew he was a custom border patrol officer. 

He could have been an off duty teacher. He could have been an off duty firefighter, waitress, waiter, cleaning person. The mere fact [is that] individuals approached him, shot him twice, attempted to rob him. And then when you looked at who they were, they were repeated offenders of very violent crimes from kidnapping to stabbing. Yet they are back on our streets. 

They were in our criminal justice system, but we have a revolving door criminal justice system that came out of the bail reforms to Raise the Age, treating young people differently, when they're in possession of guns. When you have a 14 year old shooting, a 16 year old girl taking her life in the Bronx, that is something that we need to be focusing on these laws that are hurting public safety, a revolving door criminal justice system. And the Latino community, they are extremely pro public safety and they don't want repeated offenders on their street. 

Gomez: How can the changes [be] achieved for that? 

Mayor Adams: Well, we advocate strongly. Several times we went to Albany with my deputy mayor of Intergovernmental Affairs, Tiffany Raspberry, and we fought to modify some of the laws that were put in place and some of the laws people don't understand the name of them. Like Raise the Age, like discovery, but trust me when I tell you they have a major impact on public safety. 

And we want to modify them like we wanted to get something called involuntary removal. I hear all the time from the community about those who are dealing with severe mental health issues and we wanted the authority to go to people who can't take care of themselves are harmful to themselves [and] harmful to others to involuntarily take them in for care because if you're schizophrenic bipolar and not taking your medication, you don't know you need medication. Those are the types of areas where lawmakers have hurt us and [are] not allowing us to do the job in our city 

Gomez: In terms of immigration, I won't go into history. It'll take us forever. But what is happening now? And what are we doing moving forward? I know you have been very vocal about the sanctuary city status and the thin line between enforcing the law and compassion.

Mayor Adams: Yes. You know without a doubt and compassion should be at the forefront of what we do. So there's a narrative that's out there that just totally does not add up to the facts that we are doing the bidding of Washington D.C. 

There's a narrative that's out there that just totally does not add up to the facts that we are doing the bidding of Washington D.C. – President Trump. When we agree with the president, we stand fast. When we disagree, we go to court and fight. We have taken the White House to court more than any mayor in the country. 

No other man in the country has taken the White House to court. But at the same time, when we needed the president for the Sunset Park, lifting the stop work order, a multibillion dollar project, many union jobs in a Latino community. We needed that stop work order lifted, and he did so. 

We saved 1,500 jobs, 500,000 homes were going to receive electricity. So we know when we're supposed to fight for New Yorkers and when we're supposed to speak with the president to bring resources to the city as the mayor. 

So let's deal with the immigration issue, which is very important. New York cannot coordinate with ICE for civil enforcement. We don't do it. It's against the law, and we never have. But we will coordinate when it comes down to criminal behavior. 

And we've witnessed dangerous gangs that have preyed on not only documented New Yorkers, but undocumented New Yorkers. They have been forcing women into prostitution, taking their documentations, holding on to them, threatening their family. 

And so it doesn't matter if you're documented or undocumented. You should not be a victim of a crime. And if you commit a crime, documented or undocumented, you should be held accountable.

Gomez: Mayor, in terms of affordable housing is another biggie on the street. What is the latest on that?

Mayor Adams: Well, think about it. Look at our administration. When you want to build more, you have to do something called zoning changes. That allows us to build higher, get more buildings and more apartments done. 

Many people talked about the zoning changes. But when you do an analysis of our administration through our City of Yes proposal, and through some of the rezoning proposals that we put in place, neighborhood rezoning, and you add the number of potential housing that we are creating, is more housing than 12 years of Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined. 

That's how much housing we are producing. And then when you do an analysis of individual years, we built more affordable housing in those individual years in the history of the city []. Built, funded, renovated, [and] preserved more affordable housing than any other mayor in individual years. And we moved more people out of homelessness into permanent housing in those individual years. And more people participated in our FHEPS voucher program— that's a subsidized housing program— in the history of the program. We're a pro housing administration. The top housing administration in the history of the city, we put $5 billion into NYCHA, $25 billion into our capital plan, it just all adds up to a pro housing administration.

Gomez: One issue that I hear about on the street commonly that might be related to this is job development and in the era of AI and robotizing of jobs that also impacts housing affordability. What is happening in that regard? And how much is it a factor in having New York City remain affordable? Where are people going to work? Which is what people tell me on the street.

Mayor Adams: Always listen to the folks on the street. And it is not having an impact. Many people have created this boogeyman of artificial intelligence believing that it's going to displace workers. No, it's not. It's going to make workers be able to be more productive. Let me give you a great example. 

You know how much time a teacher spends grading papers every night? When she could be creating a lesson plan, communicating with families. AI is available. Instead of her sitting there grading papers and making corrections, let AI do it. And now let that teacher do her full job of really staying in contact with the students, being creative. 

And so those are examples of how AI can be a benefit. Or someone walks into the Department of Buildings. They don't speak English. They speak either Spanish, Urdu, or any other language. We now can use AI through Chat GPT, through Google Translate. And you have real conversations without needing the language line. 

This technology is so advanced so now you go into a building, you only speak Spanish, or go into a school and you only speak Spanish, you no longer have to worry about talking about what is needed for your child. So we shouldn't be afraid of AI, we should embrace it and make sure there's a pathway to employment.

Gomez: Vamos a una pausa y al regresar hablamos con el alcalde acerca del panorama político en la ciudad de cara a las próximas elecciones municipales, su candidatura a la reelección, que ha dado mucho de qué hablar, y la posición del voto latino. Continuamos.

Translation: We'll take a break and when we return, we'll talk with the mayor about the city's political landscape ahead of the upcoming municipal elections, his much-talked-about reelection bid, and the position of the Latino vote. We'll continue.

[Commercial Break.]

Gomez: Continuamos la conversación con el alcalde Eric Adams. 

Translation: We continue the conversation with Mayor Eric Adams.

Gomez: Now, mayor, before I pivot drastically into other topics, wrapping up about current affairs, two other issues that people talk to me frequently on the street, education and health.

Mayor Adams: Both of them are important issues. And what we have done by bringing on our chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, to really deal with education, we are beating the state in reading and math. We're leading the state. But we're doing more in our education than what others are doing. We– I like to say we're developing a full personhood of our children. 

We're teaching them healthy eating habits, meditation, breathing exercise, mindfulness. We want our children to be not only academically smart, but emotionally intelligent. And we're changing the school environment and preparing them through internship programs, paid internship programs, Summer Youth Employment. I mean, you look at all year round school, what we're doing, 110,000 children went to our Summer Rising program. 

So education is imperative, but we have to think differently about it to prepare children for the challenges of tomorrow. And health as well. It's a game changer. We introduced lifestyle medicine in our Health and Hospitals, which– you don't only feed the healthcare crises by giving people pills and medications and operations. We're showing people lifestyle changes. Many people knew my challenge with diabetes and a lifestyle change assisted me in managing having diabetes. And that's what we're doing in healthcare, because healthcare can impact the quality of your life.

Gomez: Mayor, pivoting into the upcoming municipal election, Mamdani recently won the Democratic primary as a Democratic socialist with policies that include free buses, city-run grocery stores, some still questionable stance on funding the police. His policies seem to be resonating with a portion of New Yorkers. Why do you think that [is]?

Mayor Adams: Well, there's a couple of things we should look at. Number one, you know, nine to ten percent of voters came out and voted in the primary. Ninety percent have yet to speak. And the policies, when you start peeling back the layers of it, you realize they hurt working class people. And just looking at something that's important to the Latino community, the government-owned grocery stores, that will decimate the bodega industry, the independent supermarkets, NSA, others, our Korean community built up an entire supermarket industry, our Arab-speaking community, our Spanish-speaking community, our Chinese community. 

So government should not compete with private industry. That hurts jobs. And it also hurts the quality of food. Like, I've been to Cuba, and I know what a government-run grocery store looks like. I've been to Venezuela. I think that when people are hurting, they start to think we just want something new. And particularly if you don't have the full understanding of how much we have changed the lives of people. That's so important because the story has not been out. We really don't know what this administration has done. 

[It’s] an administration that has broken records on diversity. First Dominican deputy mayor in the history of the city, first Spanish speaker to be a police commissioner in the city, first [inaudible] Department of Correction, Spanish speaker. 

So when you look at all of the things that we have done, building housing, taking away income tax, you know, if you're a low-income New Yorker, you don't pay any income tax in the city because of our Axe the Tax plan. Universal child care. In our city, we're moving towards universal after-school program, paying off college tuition for foster care children. 

You know, in this city, we pay off medical debt for low-income New Yorkers. And so when people start to realize, they say, okay, affordability, affordability. Government must use their office to address the issues that New Yorkers are facing. 

The worst thing you could do is promise to New Yorkers something you know you can't deliver. I grew up in poverty. I didn't study poverty, I grew up in poverty and I hated when my mother was promised something, just to turn out we can't get it. So the free buses. He can't do it. It costs $3 billion. 

In order to raise it, he said he's going to raise taxes on 1 percent of high-income earners. Mayors can't raise taxes. Assemblymen raise taxes. He's an assemblyman, you know. And so when you start doing an analysis of government-run grocery stores, that is going to decimate the grocery store, independent supermarkets, our bodegas, all of these communities that built out these stable food industries and hire people locally.

Gomez: In terms of the voter turnout that contributed to the results of the primaries, we know them, it was pretty low. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, it was– 

Gomez: Why is that, and how can that be changed, and how much is a predictor of what's going to happen in the– 

Mayor Adams: That's a great question, great question. It was high for a primary. Primaries hover around 1.1 million. It was high for a primary. But what we're seeing is that there's an energy in the city of new voters, first-time voters. And when you look at a lot of the polling, they look at likely voters. 

Those are triple primes and sometimes double primes, meaning people who come in the last three elections. They voted. We have seen a level of energy now, both on the side of the Democratic primary winner and both on the side of those who said, we can't go down this road and have policies that are going to be harmful to our city.

Gomez: For the municipal election, you have switched party affiliations to Independent. Do you have any thoughts on the current Democratic Party? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. I'm still a Democrat. I want to be clear. The process allows you to be a Democrat and run on your own line. Like, Mamdani will be running on the Working Families line, as well as the Democratic [Party] line. And other candidates are running on Independent lines as well. 

So I'm still a Democrat. I haven't changed that. But when you look at the party itself, we have gone too left. We're not dealing with real issues that impact working people. Working people are concerned about public safety. They're concerned about quality of education for their children. They're concerned about housing. All of those areas we have focused on, how do we uplift the lives of working people?

Gomez: Any thoughts on opposing candidates Cuomo and Curtis, who is running for the Republicans?

Mayor Adams: Well, when you look at Andrew and what he has done, he has a history of trying to sabotage the elections of people of color. He did it with the governor– when Carl McCall ran to be the first governor of color, he got in the race. Same thing he's doing now, he did before. He did it to Charlie King, someone that was running to be the first person of color to be AG. He did it with David Paterson, who wanted to be the first person of color to be elected for a full term. 

He sabotaged their races. And now he's trying to do it here. That's his history. He lost in the primary by double digits. Spent $25 million. Voters heard him. They know his message. He didn't campaign. He thought he took New Yorkers for granted and thought that he could just walk into the seat because he was 36 points up in the poll. 

Day before the election, he stated he was 10 points up in the poll. He lost by 13 points. It's obvious the polls are not accurate on his race, but it's also obvious that New Yorkers heard his message and they don't want him to be the mayor. He never wanted to be mayor. He thought this was a consolation prize. And it's not. Serving the city needs to be your primary focus. And that has been my primary focus for three and a half years. 

Gomez: Thoughts on Curtis? 

Mayor Adams: How could you have thoughts on Curtis? You don't know who you're dealing with with Curtis. He goes in different places at different ways. He states whatever comes out of his mouth. You don't know if it's accurate or inaccurate. 

Listen, he's a habitual runner. This is not his first time running. I think the last time I beat him by 70 to 30 percent. You know, there’s not much you can say about Curtis. He's a radio host and a prankster. And, you know, he should just continue to do what he's doing.

Gomez: Thank you, mayor, for joining us today. I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Mayor Adams: Yes, thank you.

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