Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Older Adult Town Hall

August 28, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams: Does anyone know Councilwoman Schulman?

City Councilmember Lynn Schulman: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I actually, with redistricting, I split this little piece of the district with Councilmember James Gennaro, but I want to thank the mayor for all that he's done for not only older adults, and by the way, I am an older adult, so this is very important to me. 

I also want to tell you that I am the chair of the Health Committee, and as such, about a year ago, the mayor and I and the commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene introduced HealthyNYC, and as part of that, the goal is to extend life expectancy to the age of 83 by the year 2030, and we have the mayor to thank for that, and I want to tell you something. This mayor has done more for healthcare than any other mayor that I can remember, and I've worked for a number of them, so let's give him a round of applause please. 

And I, in the last budget, and the commissioner and I go way back. Still, I will tell you in the last budget, we made sure that we had money for meals, and that we make sure our senior centers stay open. I myself have given my own discretionary funds to make sure that you have money if you need to go to a medical appointment, that the senior centers have money to do that, and also to make sure that you have arts and music and performances. So I want to welcome you, I see some of my constituents out here, thank you, and thank you Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. A real partner in the City Council, and really appreciate her, and appreciate you. So we're doing these town halls, this is number what? I think we're about 18. 18th older adult town hall. How many normal town halls have we done? Do you know, commissioner? 16? 16, 16. 

This is our 16th. Okay, okay. I know they add up, once you get to the teens, it changes. And the purpose is you really have to get on the ground and speak with people, and let them know what is happening in the city, because if you don't, your entire narrative will be hijacked what's on the front pages of our tabloids. 

So let's deal with some basic facts before we open up and then engage, and I want to hear from you. And trust me, be comfortable, you can ask any question you want. I am an ex-police officer, 22 years, I'm thick skinned. There's nothing you can say to me that has not been said already in 22 years. 

So whatever question you have, I'm here to listen. You elected me to serve, so I can't personalize this. I know the problem we have done, and this team that's in front of me, and my entire team. January 1st, 2022, what city did I inherit? 40 percent increase in crime. COVID was everywhere. No one was on our subway system. When I knocked on doors as a borough president, to NYCHA residents, they did not have high speed broadband there. Older adults could not do telemedicine, their children could not do remote learning. Jobs were not here. No one wanted to do employment. We were having Black and Hispanic unemployment. Black unemployment was four times the rates of white, decreasing unemployment. Tourism was decimated. Bond raters, those are the folks who look at your city to determine how successful you are. They did not want to increase our bond rating. 

Everywhere you look, and encampments were all over the place. I used to drive up and down the highway, people were sleeping up and down the highway, sleeping under railroad tracks, sleeping under overpasses. We were dealing with a real crisis with a city that any and everything was going. Two years later, folks, two years, we're now at two years and eight months, but we were at the two year mark. 

We have more jobs in the city's history right now in our city. More small businesses have opened in this city, in the city's history. We moved more people out of homelessness into permanent housing in the one and two year in the city's history. We financed more affordable housing in one and two years of my administration in the city's history. 17,900 illegal guns off our street, 53,000 illegal mopeds, ghost cars, and roadways that people used to ignore, we moved them off our streets and we destroyed them. 

Our children are outpacing the state in reading and math, so that we don't have our young people ending up in jail because they have learning disabilities, 30 to 40 percent of the people on Rikers Island right now have learning disabilities. So what are we doing? We're doing dyslexia screening for our young people at their early ages, so they don't go on a pathway of criminality. We went into the subway system, we removed over 7,000 people who were living on our subway system and gave them the care that they deserve. 

Then when you look at tourism, 62 million, fourth largest in the history of the city. NYCHA residents have free high speed broadband, so these children will get the opportunity of remote learning and get access to the internet so they can move on with their career. Subway system, listen, look at this number. We have 4.1 million people that use our subway system every day. Five felonies on our subway system every day. Out of 4.1 million, we have five felonies on our subway system every day. We want to get rid of those five. Our robbery numbers on the subway system is the lowest in recorded history. Lowest in recorded history. These police officers have done an amazing job. 

When I inherited the city, their contracts were still outstanding. We were not paying our public servants the contracts that they deserve. We were not paying our teachers, our police officers, our firefighters. They were all waiting for contracts. Our ferry boat operators had a 13-year delay in their contract. I settled 96 percent of our union contracts, and gave them the raises that they deserve so they don't have to leave the city. They could afford to live in the city where they deserve to be. The city has moved at a pace that was unbelievable in the first two years. Then what happened? 212,000 migrants and asylum seekers came to the city. 

Now, everybody stops me all the time. Eric, what are you doing to us? No. It's against the law for me to stop the buses from coming in. It's against federal law. It's against the law for me to take someone that commits a violent felony and turn them over to ICE. It's against the law. 

It's against the law for me to allow people who want to work to give them a job and allow them to work. It's against the law. It's against the law for me to say, why don't you volunteer and we'll give you a stipend if you help us remove graffiti, clean the streets, and do other services. It's against federal law for me to do that. And it's city law that I got to provide three meals a day, educate every child, I have to make sure we clean the clothing, and give a place to sleep. That's federal law. I mean, city law. 

City law is, you can come from anywhere on the globe, come to New York, and your tax dollars will go to pay for those services for as long as a person wants. I say no to that. We need to allow people to work, and if you allow people to work, this crisis turns into an opportunity because we need food service workers. We need professional people, secretaries, translators, lifeguards, all of these jobs we have in the city. 

We have 13,000 jobs that are open right now just in the city government, and we could employ people to place them on a pathway to be part of the American dream and pay into our tax base. This cost me $5.6 billion of your tax dollars. That's what I'm angry about. What I'm angry about, those $5.6 [billion] should have gone into the services that New Yorkers need and we should not be treating those who come to this country in a way that they cannot depend on their own way of giving back. There's nothing more inhumane than not being dignified to be able to have a job. That's the American dream. That's the person to sleep that allows you to experience the American dream, your right to work. 

All of us, think about it. Think about if your ancestors came here, went through the Statue of Liberty, ended up here, and they were told for two years they could not provide for their family. Just wrong. That's what I'm fighting for, but let's not be mistaken. We got 8.3 million New Yorkers, and if you wake up every day and you look at the worst things that can happen in a city of 8.3 million people, you begin to believe you're living in a city that's out of control, and it is not. 

Go Google other cities. This city's in control, and we're not coming back, folks. New York City is back. We're back. This city is strong. This city is resilient, and we're going to make sure we keep progressing, and we're not going to allow the numerical minority that really enjoys tearing down New York. 

I was here September 11th. I was a lieutenant at the time in the 88th precinct. My kid brother was a sergeant. I saw the buildings collapse before our eyes, and people reflect on September 11th, and we honor those that we lost, and in a few days we're going to do it again, but let me tell you the day I remember. I remember September 12th. 

We got up. Teachers taught. Retailers sold their goods. Builders built. We showed everyone what we're made of, and when we got up, the country got up. That is who we are. This is a city of tough people that know how to respond to a crisis. We don't surrender, and I tell all the mayors all over the country, don't ever bet on New York. You'll lose your money. Not places like New York. The greatest city on the globe, so let's open it up to a few questions. I'm sorry. Did you go over this, commissioner?

When mother was alive, whenever we had to respond in an emergency, all of us lose where we are, what we're doing. These are magnetic strips that you can put on your refrigerator, your basic information. Fill it out, so when first responders come, they can look at your name, your emergency contact, if you're allergic to any medication, so feel free to put it so people can know when they have to respond, how they can get that basic information, because seconds matter. Why don't we open up to a few questions? How are you?

Question: Hi. Thank you for coming, mayor. Thank you. We'd like to know about the e-bikes. They should have license plates. How often are they inspected, and what's the current situation with the fires caused by illegal self-made lithium batteries? 

On a personal note, about three years ago, I was driving on a Saturday night, 11 o'clock at night, and I was going 20 miles an hour. I don't know if you're familiar with Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard, but it was right there. A dark figure went right in front of me, which unfortunately I hit. It was a 22-year-old boy on a unicycle, motorized unicycle, no reflective gear, dark clothing, no lights on his unicycle. Anybody else would have killed the man. Thank God I was going 20 miles an hour, he broke his leg, and he admitted it was his fault to the police. So what's being done about all this?

Mayor Adams: I don't think we ... That's why the Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez was smiling when she heard it, because we have not done one town hall that we don't hear about scooters and illegal bikes. As I stated at the beginning, we removed 53,000. 

These bikes are almost like the Gremlins. Every time you take them off the street, they pop up again. Here's what we're doing. We want to partner with Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar that's introducing legislation around licensing and insuring. 

I believe before they drive off of the stores, they should have the necessary items in place, because right now, there's just a total disregard. Part of that problem happened because after COVID in the 20s, people started ordering food more and more. Now, we want the delivery apps to get on board, proper training, proper equipment, following the basic rules, stop driving on sidewalks, going down one-way streets. 

It has turned into a real free fall that we are leaning into. I spoke to [the] commissioner a few months ago. We're going to increase our enforcement, but we do need some legislation. We need to stop these bikes from coming on. Commissioner Kavanagh, who [was] the FDNY commissioner, she became a national leader around the lithium-ion batteries. We're doing a SWAT program. We're really educating people where you should and shouldn't park your bikes. A lot of people are parking their bikes indoors by the exit, which is a real problem. 

If you have someone that's using these bikes, you really need to see the videos on how these fires take place. It's an explosion. It's not just a fire, and it's challenging to put out. That's why we're losing lives, because of how rapidly it passes, but we are so focused on getting these e-bikes under control. Over the years, the last few years, we've seen this real outburst in the use of e-bikes, and the police commissioner and the team, DOT, we're focused on getting them under control. Thank you for your question.

No, they know they need licenses. You were just saying they don't have licenses on them. You're right, and that's what we want to do. Right. Agree 100 percent. Hold on, we'll do an order, we'll come back to folks and we can get through the table. Let's get through the table. Go ahead, ma'am.

Question: Okay, hi, good afternoon, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm very well, thank you for asking. So, collectively on this table, our concern has to do with resources by way of, well, resources, right? But with safety being the primary issue, I think the consensus here is that for this neighborhood, the demographics have changed. So that becomes worrying in terms of personal safety. So I guess as seniors, we want to know what's your vision in bringing some level of safety and comfort by way of the resources that the agency offers?

Mayor Adams: Can you drill down into that a little more?

Question: Police presence, thank you. Okay. Police presence. So I know, first of all, this is a wonderful city. I wouldn't trade living anywhere else. But the point is there are resources that are out there that seems to, I wouldn't use the word slight, but it's just that we don't have enough information. Perhaps maybe the agency can think about bringing liaisons to senior centers to let us be more aware of things that we can avail ourselves to.

Mayor Adams: I like that, I'm glad you asked that. Yesterday we held a press conference, Money in Your Pocket. What I found when I was borough president, we send back billions of dollars to the state, federal, and city government of resources that are available to you. Number one, people don't know about. Number two, it's just too difficult dealing with government. You know, when mommy used to go to a governmental agency, she'd walk in feeling more broken than when she went in in the first place. 

So we have this initiative now that we're going out into the streets, knocking on doors with a simple iPad, doing a basic profile of who you are, of your income, your insurance coverage, everything, and we're telling you the resources that are available for you. And this initiative that we just put in place, we're having city agency personnel go into the streets. Because we can't sit inside the sterilized environment of our office spaces when there are real problems in the street. 

So each agency is gonna go out, we're gonna hit communities, the commissioner, our teams are gonna go into our senior centers, because there are folks with food insecurity that don't know they qualify for SNAP. There are folks who can freeze their rents through SCRIE. There are folks with disabilities that can freeze their rents through DRIE. There are folks who can get low, reduced fare MetroCards. There are some of your children that may have childcare. When I became mayor, childcare was $55 a week. If you made $55,000 or less, we dropped it to less than $5 a week. We are now doing medical debt, paying off medical debt because the number one cause of bankruptcy, we now have a program where we're allocating the money with a partnership of a non-profit where we're going to be paying off medical debt to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. 

So I'm getting it for you, I gotta now get it to you. That's the goal. As we're making all of these changes, I can't do anything about inflation, I can't do anything about the cost of living, but I can put money back in the pockets of everyday New Yorkers. And those dollars matter, and the initiative is now getting it in the street and getting the information to you. But also, Commissioner Mark Stewart has been doing some amazing things around some of the stuff we're doing. I'll see you. Why don't you go on to that, commissioner? Good afternoon. Ready?

Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, Community Affairs, Police Department: I just have to tell you, it's always a pleasure that I get the opportunity to come here and speak to you. I always think about my mother and the care that when we first started in community affairs that was being left out in our police department, that was our older aging adults. And Commissioner Vázquez and myself, we took great pride in having a police officer in every precinct that you could go into. 

You could go into, gotcha, we got a police officer in every precinct that you could go into and speak to if you have any needs, or if you need any resources in older aging in the communities. Now, the community affairs officer who is in the 112 is out, I heard, on maternity leave. Is there someone else from CAS here from the 112, crime prevention? Okay. 

So this man is a man that if you need something in the Police Department, you need a 61 filter out a complaint report. You need a ride to the DA's office if you're a victim of a crime. Even if you need something to go to the hospital that he will get in contact with the older agent on the commissioner's team and they will set it up. 

But we also have to explain, too, I also have my crime prevention captain here. We did over 200 initiatives in Queens. That means scam alerts that we go and teach you about the latest scams. We did GLAs with the car thefts in our neighborhoods. Now, all of this information is right in the precinct. I just met the captain a couple of minutes ago. Go to the precinct, bring a cup of coffee, say hello. This is the man that you should know in the 1-12. We have a fear of the Police Department that people do not like to come to the precinct. This is why we are here. 

We shouldn't have to come to a town hall because the mayor is here and hear your concerns. You could come to the precinct every day, it's 24/7, walk in there. My mother's the mayor of the block. If there's somebody, if you see a car on her block, she's gonna call me. No, but that's very important though, because the responsibility has to be shared. Now, I can sit here and run off a lot of numbers to you, but my thing is, if you don't feel safe, then we have to make you feel safe. 

And to make you feel safe, you have to let us know. We have to know. So, go to the precinct, teach community affairs officers with the smiles on their face, at least eight of them, one doesn't, go in there and talk to them. We have a lot of information, we're doing a lot in the communities. We have a scam alert coming up on September 6th, what's the address? Yes. 

Go to the scam alerts. My mother hears scam alerts every day and she calls me about them. I said it's the same scam alert, you know, so we have to make you aware of all the scams because people are trying to get over on you, you know. They tried me too. They just called me on my phone about five minutes ago. But reach out to the Police Department. here for you and we do care for you, so like the man says he was a police officer for 22 years if he calls me at 2 in the morning I better answer and get on the job because he doesn't want to hear I'm gonna pick up the phone tomorrow morning and answer him. Okay so any questions, community affairs officer here before you leave, reach out to them okay thank you. 

Mayor Adams: And if you have any other ideas that you believe we should do, please let us know. We want to change that relationship with police and community. Commissioner Stewart is teaching our children flight. He just landed a major airline that's going to teach our children how to be pilots. He's teaching them golf. He's teaching them real estate license on how they can become real estate agents and brokers. He's doing language translation. He has turned to community affairs to make sure it is proactive. 

Because policing is not just putting handcuffs on someone. It is preventing crimes. And we invest in our young people with some of the stuff that the commission is doing so important. And I thought it was brilliant what he's doing with the older adults liaison in the precinct because it's challenging navigating the government sometimes. That's what that older adult representative is in each precinct. The role is to help you navigate, even if it's not law enforcement. That's your one stop and your comfort of being able to talk with that officer. Yes, ma'am. You wanted to ask something, ma'am?

Question: Yeah. Yeah. We used to have a patrol car every night in this neighborhood. 

Mayor Adams: I'll repeat what she said. I'm going to repeat what she said.

Question: In this neighborhood. We used to have a patrol car every night in this neighborhood. I'll repeat what she said. In this neighborhood. We have nothing now. And we have three additional buildings that the 112th has been here more in the last six months than in the 49 years of the three original buildings being here. We need more patrol. He keeps emphasizing that and we get nothing.

Mayor Adams: And let me, let me explain, let me, let me tell you that. And that's it. And everyone is saying that, now let's, let me deal with the very real parts of policing. We're losing police officers. Our numbers have dropped substantially. We've been on a major recruitment campaign. When I came out and Commissioner Stewart came out, we were in a class of over 2,000. We're now lucky if we get 600, lucky. 

And we're dealing with thousands of protests that are taking place in the city, where we have to protect the streets. Since October 7th, we've had over 3,000 protests that are taking place in the street. We're still under serious terrorist threat. So when you add the drop of manpower, we're seeing a large number of officers that are retiring. We're seeing a smaller Police Department. Many of these officers have been just beat up for the last 9, 10, 12 years. And they no longer stay around anymore. They're retiring as soon as they get 20 years. So we would love to have that patrol car there. We would love to have more police officers on our street. We have to use the manpower we have to sort of maximize as much. And when I was a police officer, if I had to do overtime, I was jumping up and down happy to get that overtime. These young cops, they're not, what? They're not trying, you tell them they gotta do overtime, and, right, they don't wanna do overtime. 

When they finish that eight hours and 30 something minute, they want to be gone. And so we are dealing with, and I'm gonna tell you something, folks. We're dealing with a criminal justice erosion across the country. We're losing district attorneys because they can't keep up with the discovery laws, then being inundated with paper. We're losing probation officers. We had code red on correction officers. We're losing correction officers at a rate across the country that's unbelievable. 

And so we're seeing the criminal justice apparatus is eroding and then you have those who with their far left mindset are saying defund police, make police give insurance because they're on duty, revolving door criminal justice system when people they commit a crime, out the next day, that's what these police officers are up against. So we want them to do that patrol that you're talking about, but the reality is we don't have the manpower. Now, I see you, but I want to get through the tables and we'll come back to those few that we can get back to, okay? But I'm with you, ma'am. 

Question: Hi, dear Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Thank you for... I'm good, and you? Good, good. for having this cohort meeting in this community. You're welcome and thanks for the Aging Department. We the senior citizens, you know, more senior citizens are here. But my question is, we need more funding for the New York senior citizens, especially the Forest Hill Community House. They manage this, you know, community so well. 

So every day, more people are coming to this center and I'll give you an exact example. Two years ago, I played ping pong, practice, doing exercises, keep health. So we have only 20 some players here, but now we have more than 40. You know, in this room, so we have about 12 table, so put here is so crowded. And also the kitchen, it's so we need to upgrade. 

Sometimes the ball goes into the kitchen, we go into it, oh, it's so hot, you know. So my question is that we need more funding, we are, you know, we need to be educated. Some of them are a lot of immigrant here, we teach them English, Chinese, English, Spanish, English, and the printing and, you know, calligraphy. 

But some of the teachers, they are leaving. They're leaving because we have no funding, have less funding for them. So, dear mayor, please, this community goes so fast. A lot of people come here. We are aging so fast. We need more money, and so I would like you to, you know, give us — I know your budget, your budget is very controlled, but give us a little bit. Help us. Our table tennis players, we pay — we donate the money to buy some of the table. Okay, thank you, yeah.

Mayor Adams: The, I have not, I have not been to one town hall, one community meeting, one organization where people say give us less money. It doesn't allow, it doesn't happen. You know, we have over $111 billion budget, $111 billion, but out of that $111 billion, there's only about $30 billion that we can actually move around. The rest is fixed costs. Salaries, keep the lights on, $30 billion. 

Out of that $30 billion, $5.6 billion came out. Out of that $30 billion. And when we sat down and looked at, we said, where do we have to make up for that $5.6 billion? And we had all the agencies go into the agencies and say, you got to find savings. Because by law, we have to balance our books, by law. If you use the analogy of those of you who are homeowners, if you have a fixed cost to run your home, to pay for the light, the gas, the food, and everything else, then all of a sudden, the roof caves in. You go to your insurance policy and say, listen, I need you to pay for this roof. Because you've been paying your policy. And all of a sudden, the insurance company said, we're not paying for it. You have to take that money from somewhere. That's what the federal government did to us. We came up with, the migrants and ssylum seekers, that's not our price tag. 

So we had to go into what normally runs our household and find $5.6 billion. And we did it without cutting our senior facilities. We had to cut other places, But we said, we're not cutting our seniors' facilities. So when you stood up and you put on a recorder, I thought you were going to say, Eric, thanks for not cutting our seniors' facilities. I thought that was your message. 

Because everybody else is criticizing me, why did you cut here? No agency said, Eric, cut here, none. And we looked at our schools, we put money back into our schools. We looked at our libraries. We put money back in our libraries. We looked at our museum. We put money back in our museums. We save our senior centers. 

So we're making smart decisions to navigate us out of this. That's what we need. The same way all of you navigate your families out of emergencies. That's what we're doing right now. Making these smart decisions to get us through this. That's the goal, but I'm gonna come and play you in ping-pong.

How are you ma'am?

Question: I'm doing well, thank you mayor thank you for the opportunity to ask this question The table number one spoke about illegal scooters. Yes. Our concern is in the last maybe six weeks there has been an influx of [inaudible] Lime and those kinds of bikes and it not only because they are they popped up all of a sudden, but there are so many on the corners and then they die out you see them on the sidewalks. You sit in front of people's homes. You see them near the mailboxes. They have become more of a hazard than a help. I don't know how many people are using those things I think they're unsafe. You are asked to not ride on the sidewalk, which is a normal law. But you're not asked to wear helmets. You are seeing too many of these scooters and they're being left at unexpected places. If you're not careful, you could trip over one on the sidewalk. What can be done about that?

Mayor Adams: Deputy Mayor Phil Banks was the first one that brought this to my attention. You know, my family home is on 167th Street and 111th Avenue. And there were a bunch of them lined up on the street, on the corner. This is a model that has been brought into communities like these, particularly in two fare zones, where they have this ride sharing. It's not a good model. And I spoke with the regional when I was in in Chicago at the DNC it's just so happened as faith would have it I spoke with the regional person to say we got a real problem with this, and who's here from DOT, yes, so we need to… I was going to speak with the commissioner about this but share your observation, can we do something about these scooters? 

Queens Deputy Borough Commissioner Albert Silvestri, Department of Transportation: Hi good afternoon, my name's Albert Silvestri, I'm the deputy queens borough commissioner for the Department of Transportation. So what you're seeing is the expansion of the e-scooter program. There was a pilot program in the Bronx that was successful and really helped people as another option to get around, to help bring them to parks, public transportation, kind of fill that gap in the last mile of their trip. 

So as the mayor mentioned, the program was brought to Eastern Queens from Flushing roughly down to Jamaica. So you're going to get some in this neighborhood. And the general idea is we could do corrals where scooters have to be left, or it could be more of a free-flowing parking area. 

So what we're hearing a lot of from communities is the corrals is a better option because it's more controlled, they're not left all over in a haphazard kind of way. So we're actively working to do that, to bring that more to a reality in the expansion area that we've seen. And we're happy, I'm here with my colleague, Craig Chin, he's the borough planner for Queens. We'll link up with you and if there are problem areas that you're seeing, we'll go and we'll bring this directly to the unit and directly to the companies who are operating it.

Mayor Adams: So we're, thanks a lot, I'm with you, and we're going to modify what we're seeing, because it's all over the place. And it just, you can't have these schools littering the entire street, but I saw the guy in Chicago, and Deputy Mayor Banks brought it to my attention, so we're going to move and see exactly how to address this issue, because it is a problem, this ride sharing. Speaking of sharing. I am so hungry and I 

[Crosstalk.] 

Mayor Adams: I agree. Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. Everybody don't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee. So we on it, ma'am, we're on it.

Question: Hi, good afternoon, Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: My name is Minister Renee Simms from the Tabernacle of Prayer in Jamaica Avenue, America Boulevard. Used to be the old Valencia Theater. My question is, we're having a problem for years and years where vendors and businesses are selling their products illegally in front of our doorposts, and they won't move. 

Mayor Adams: Where is that? On Merrick? 

Question: Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Boulevard. A little tea for your cake? Yeah, could I have just a little, a little cream

Mayor Adams: if you have any? A little cream? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to be picky. On? 

Question: Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Boulevard. Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Boulevard, the old Valencia Theater. It's a landmark.

Mayor Adams: Got it, got it, got it.

Question: The big church there. When we're not having our services on Sunday, they just scrawl all in front of the church and they sell pocketbooks, they sell sheets, and people think it's a flea market. Can anybody do anything to stop this?

Mayor Adams: Trust me, it's going to be done. I'm gonna be out there next week to inspect what we expect or it's all suspect. So I'll be there.

Captain David Cordano, 112 Precinct, Police Department: Good afternoon, I'm Captain David Cordano from the 112th Precinct, the commanding officer. So Jamaica Avenue is a little out of our jurisdiction. By a little, it's actually a lot out of our jurisdiction, but I'm happy to pass the information along to our colleagues in the 103 precinct about that. 

I know we have some vending issues on Austin Street. I don't know if you're seeing anything over there, but we are addressing that. This week alone, we've issued over six oath violations for unlicensed vendors, and I appreciate your question, and I'm gonna pass that information along to them over there.

Mayor Adams: So, I'm going to go over there this weekend and… What days, what days, during the week? Okay, okay, so commissioner, can we have Kaz and team over there, we're going to fix that problem. 

Question: You got to make sure that you don't have it in front of the church. 

Mayor Adams: You gave me the problem. We're going to resolve the problem. On what, on Austin? Tell me. Where this is on [Austin?] We did a great job on Main Street with the council person. Okay, give me the location, all right, all right, commissioner?

Yeah, we're gonna get the location, and we're gonna clean it. Yeah, yep, yep, the illegal vending is a quality of life. We closed down the illegal vending on Brooklyn Bridge. It was unbelievable how it was. We did it on Main Street also, and we were able to address it. So we're gonna get on top of it.

Question: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for taking my question. My name is Victor Bermeo. I'm a property manager here for these Forest Hill Complex here. So my quick question is a growing problem concern are for these buildings that are predominantly elderly residents and they need facility upgrades. They need, I'll give you an example, new elevators. It used to be NYCHA, and it was converted, but that's a long story we could get into.

Mayor Adams: [Inaudible.]

Question: They're rentals. So the problem that we're facing is that most properties don't have the money to upgrade their systems. Is there any type of budget or any type of program that can help these, because they can't go into loans or things of that sort because their rents are kept low. We can't raise their rents, obviously, because of a life factor, and they're on fixed incomes. Is there anything that the mayor's office can do for this?

Mayor Adams: Give me your thoughts, okay?

Justin Donlon, Project Manager, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Hi, how you doing? My name is Justin Donlon, I work for HPD. So we have a multitude of preservation programs that are actually designed for exactly that. To be able to stabilize buildings, to be able to keep the rents low, and also to be able to do critical upgrades and rehabilitation work. So, if you're able to, I'd like to come up afterward and go through some of our preservation programs with you and connect you with those resources to see if that would be something that can work for your buildings.

Mayor Adams: Okay, all right, thanks a lot.

Question: Good afternoon.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm good, thank you. What can be done to address the issue of people with mental health problems within our neighborhood and within the MTA?

Mayor Adams: Great, great, great, great question. We hear that. That's another question we hear all the time. As a matter of fact, stand up for a moment. This is part of our PEU. Where's PEU? All the PEU, stand up, stand up. This is part of our PEU, our public engagement unit. They are out, you know, one of my favorite agencies. They are out on the ground and just working, and they're never tired. They're just really committed to giving back to the city. Thank you so much. 

So we have a mental health crisis in the state, in the country. Something happened after COVID that just aggravated it. And what happened many years ago, we closed our psychiatric wards because they were, you know, being honest, they were inhumane. The Creedmoors of the day, the Willowbrooks of the day, they were just warehousing people. The problem was that after closing them, we said that let people just take care of themselves. When many people were dealing with severe mental health illnesses, that they couldn't take care of themselves. They didn't know that, listen, you're off your medication, that you need to go out. When I became mayor January and February, I went into the street and visited people that were living in tents and in cardboard boxes. I saw schizophrenic, bipolar, drug paraphernalia, human waste, stale food, and that's why we pushed forward with an initiative of something called involuntary removal. 

We said, listen, people who can't take care of themselves, we have to go in and bring them into care. I got a lot of pushback on that. Everyone said, Eric is being inhumane, he just wanna round up people. No, it is not humane to allow people to live on the street where in inclement weather, they don't have any shoes on, they're yelling and screaming, they're dangerous. So here's what we did, the city estate. We put people back in the street, put them in a revolving door. They do something. We put them inside for one day, give them medication, and put them back out. Until they committed a crime, then we arrested them. 

Over 50 percent of the people on Rikers Island have mental health issues. That's a failed system. And we need a state-of-the-art mental health facility that treat people with humane. And when you have someone in your family that's dealing with severe mental health issues, you should be able to refer them somewhere proactively and give them the care, the support that they need. We don't have that at the capacity. We close a lot of beds during COVID, those psychiatric beds, we close them and we use them for medical beds. I think we need to use, we're closing Rikers Island, we're building four new jails, I think one of those jails should not be a jail, it should be a state-of-the-art mental health facility where we can treat people in a dignified way to give them the care that they deserve. 

But in the meantime, First Deputy [Commissioner] Tania Kinsella has partnered with our mental health professionals, and we have rolled out a program called SCOUT, and we just rolled out another program that we're announcing, I think the next day or so, we've learned in the Police Department, we have a lot of people who are former nurses, former psychiatrists, former social workers, they're now partnering with us to go into the street and engage people to get them the care that they need. 

It's very challenging to get someone with severe mental health illness off the streets. You have to build up that trust, Norman Siegel did it with some volunteers, but it is a Herculean task of getting someone that has lived on the street for so many years and get them inside and get to care. And we are really leaning into it because we know it's just not right for people to live in this condition. And then they become dangerous to themselves and dangerous to others. That is who you see in pushing people on the subway, attacking people randomly. These are people who are dealing with severe mental health issues that we abandoned when we closed psychiatric wards years ago without having a landing place for folks, but we we're on it, we're with you, this is a national problem that we have to deal with this severe mental health issues that we're facing. Thank you for that question.

Mayor Adams: Yes. How are you, sir? 

Question: Howdy. My name is Mark Cruz, and I'm a, excuse me if I get nervous. 

Mayor Adams: I'm always nervous. 

Question: But I'm a proud member of Queens Community House in Jamaica and also Queens Center for Gay Seniors out in Jackson Heights. And all of our questions before we're taken, we agree with all that's been said here today. And my concern, or I live in Jamaica, and I understand that they are the bus terminal, the Jamaica bus terminal.

Mayor Adams: 165th Street.

Question: Right, on 165th by the Coliseum. I hear that that's going to be developed, torn down, relocated. I want to know what's, you know, what's to do, what's the plan and when.

Mayor Adams: Got it, got it. I took the Q5 bus home throughout my entire high school experience, you know, and I shopped in the Coliseum, I shopped in the mall. I went there to get my sneakers and everything else. HPD, do we know what's happening with that location? because I heard something about they're getting ready to do a major development. Are you aware of it? Anyone?

Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Department for the Aging: It's a, it's an MTA question. We'll, we'll, we'll get you some information.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, let's find out. I know they're doing something there. I know they're going to relocate the bus. I can't even, can I, the, the, the amount of time that bus has been there, that shelter, that depot has been, there's been a long time, you know, yeah. No, it has been a long time. Because if I'm 23, and it's been there all that time. So let me get your contact, all right? And let's find out what that project is going to be and what is happening there. I don't know if they sold it. I'm not quite sure, but we're going to find out. The whole block. Yeah.

Question: Because they already started development on Hillside. And they've done, by the, what's it called, the library, they already developed there as well. The parking lot. 

Mayor Adams: What are they doing with the library? The library across the street from the bus terminal. Right, right across the street. For many days there. So there's a big complex. Okay, let me find out, let me find out.

Question: It's a concern of the neighborhood.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, let me find out, we're gonna find out. I appreciate it. That's, who's council district is that? Lynn?

Councilmember Schulman: I think it's Natasha, but I'm not totally sure.

Mayor Adams: Okay, we should connect you with the Council person's office, because if there's any change of zoning or anything, it has to go through the ULURP process. So let's find out from the Council person to do so. 

Tommy, do me a favor, text Tiffany… oh, I didn't see you, Connor. Can we, can we, right here, so just see if we get a quick answer of exactly what is going to happen over there. Okay. I didn't even see you. I thought you was one of the older adults. 

He's getting ready to get married, you know. Pray for him. We're going to come to you. How are you, ma'am?

Question: It's an honor to be here today, not only to see you, but to speak to you. Thanks to my mentor, Sarah.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Question: My name is Fawzia Samsir. I'm from the Queens Community House. And on behalf of Table 10 and the wonderful people here, our issue is how come the police or the city is not ticketing the double park vehicles that are parking in the bus stops in front of our homes and shopping areas in the streets for a long period of time blocking other people.

Mayor Adams: I love when I get questions like this from law-abiding New Yorkers. Because when I go after those who are breaking the law, everyone says, okay, there go Mayor Popo again. He's always trying to go after people. 

But people don't realize we don't want a city where any and everything goes. And when I get questions like that, it helps us. I know our numbers, and I don't know what's here in the precinct, captain, but our numbers of enforcement are going up. We're going after fare evaders. We're going after double-park cars. We've been taking in these scooters. We need a city of order and not a city of disorder. You know, what do you, give me your thoughts, captain. Services for double-park cars.

Captain Cordano: Good afternoon, ma'am. So we, it's something, double-park cars, parking enforcement, It's something that we're always doing in the 112 precinct. We're up in enforcement and we're down in crime for the year. So that just goes to show some of the really hard work that's going on with the police officers in the 112 precinct. 

If you have specific locations, we're interested to hear those. We could do blitzes in those areas to work on anything problematic for you. So if we'll get with you, this is our community affairs officer right here. You give him those exact locations. We'll set up some operations and hopefully we could make things a little better for you with the parking in that area. Also, we have our community council meetings every third Wednesday of every month. So anyone else that is interested in coming and giving us specific stuff that they're seeing in the community, we're happy to have anybody, and it's open to everybody.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, so important to go to the community affairs meeting, because you can learn a lot. But let's look at it, there's a specific area, let's look at it, okay? Okay, thank you. How are you, sir?

Question: Fine, thank you, mayor. Three major pharmacies have closed in this area. And we're talking about Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid. We're all senior citizens here. We have to walk further to purchase things. What can you do to change the penal code so that the police can do their jobs?

Mayor Adams: It's a great question and it's just so important that, you know, as we record this stuff, team, we need to put this out because, you know, those who are the loudest get in the way of how do we ensure that we don't impact our quality of life. It's unbelievable. 

We're losing a lot of them because of shoplifting. We have 342 people who have been arrested 7,600 times, 38 people who were arrested for assaulting MTA employees have been arrested over 1,100 times. And when you walk into a store and you believe you could take whatever you want and walk out, people don't see how it impacts what you just said. Now you have to travel further for your medication or whatever. 

It's such a national problem, this shoplifting that has gotten out of control. So Deputy Mayor Banks, we put in place a program where you install video cameras and right away it's connected to the precincts that we can go in and make these apprehensions. And there are other things we want to do to identify the shoplifter as soon as he walks in and let everybody on the stretch know. 

But at the heart of this is this revolving door system and this mindset that people could commit crimes and just get away with it. There's just a total disregard. And you're online paying for your item, and you see somebody come in, walk in, and just walk out. And then you gotta lock up everything, like this is a place where we can't feel safe. 

We are leaning into shoplifting. We believe that we were able to get some successes in Albany on some of their stuff around shoplifting, but it needs to be done more because it impacts exactly what you say. And when I say it to folks who feel we should not do anything to shoplift this, hearing it from you and others means a lot. Because I can say, this is a problem that we want to address. Thank you for that question. How are you, ma'am?

Question: Hello, Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing?

Question: I'm okay.

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: I'm going to speak in Spanish to you, I have the Spanish interpreter, Maria. Cuando construyeron tres nuevos edificios, nos dijeron que íbamos a tener, íbamos a tener acceso al gym para los seniors, pero no se, it's all easy, I'm low-maintenance.

Mayor Adams: Okay.

Question: ¿Por dónde voy? De los edificios. Voy a empezar porque se me fue el avión.

Translator: I'm gonna start again because the airplane left. Okay.

Question: Cuando construyeron los nuevos edificios,

Translator: With the new buildings,

Question: Nos prometieron…

Translator: They promised us…

Question: Que tendríamos accesos al gym.

Translator: That we were gonna have access to the gym.

Question: De uno de los edificios.

Translator: From one of the buildings.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Translator: But they lied to us. We never had the opportunity to use that benefit that was offered. 

Mayor Adams: This is a building they were giving access to people who lived in the area? Or people who live in the building?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Translator: To the seniors that live in the three buildings that they live in, they built three more buildings.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: It's here. OK, hold on. We're going to, yeah, yes, yes, yes. Go ahead. OK, we're going to get to the bottom of it. Go ahead. So there are HPD-sponsored buildings that they have gyms.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Access to the gyms.

Question: But we never had access to them… 

Mayor Adams: Ok. Oh, and now they're saying you can't use them. So let's look, Karen, can we, can we, are you familiar with this at all?

Question: From my understanding, it's a new building that's up, they were promised when they came into the community, the seniors from the area will be able to use them, but now they're not allowing them.

Mayor Adams: Right, right. Are you, are you, are you.

Question: The manager's here.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, yeah, let's get him. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to get a bunch of seniors upset. Go ahead, brother.

Question: I manage their complex, so I manage their, they're the older buildings here that you see here. here. What they're speaking about is when the time came that they, apparently, because I wasn't manager at the time, that these new buildings were being erected and they had to give their permission to, you know, if they sold the land off so then they can do that.

They were given many promises by the new complexes, for example, using the gyms or even using the laundromats, the newer laundromats that they have. So there's been a lot of discourse between the projects and just that was part of my question about the the facilities with HPD being that these new buildings were erected, but the older buildings didn't get any attention that they should have gotten because they gave up their land for these buildings for HPD for housing.

Councilmember Schulman: Yeah. Yeah, there was, I mean, it's not now in my district, but yes, so Phipps Housing, Phipps bought those buildings and negotiated, and this was way, this was many years ago, to get to run the buildings and stuff like that. I don't know if that's the specifics of that.

Mayor Adams: So, first of all, the mere fact that our older adults wanna use the gym to stay in shape, everyone should be encouraging that. They should be good neighbors and make it happen. Let us drill into this and find out, and if it was an agreement that they had, they have to live up to that agreement. So let us look into this and find out. Karen, let's get the contact and let me bring in. Okay, and let's get the council person and HPD. Let's find out, was there a written agreement? And they're not looking at it, and if it's not a written agreement, let's sit down with the operators and say, listen, you need to open these gyms up for the seniors. In the laundry room, yes, yes. So let us look into it. Good. Who's repping this table?

Question: Good afternoon. How are you? I'm okay.

Mayor Adams: Good, good.

Question: Okay, we have few seniors, like vegan or vegetarian. So they would like to know how often the senior centers offer vegan or vegetarian meals?

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: I'll do that.

Question: And [Lorraine,] I know you from years from 1980, I used to work for the department for [inaudible].

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: Thank you. Oh, I was so much thinner then. Well, Ben, you can also amplify. We started out with one meatless day. We started out with one meatless day, and now because we are really looking at food as medicine, right now it is mandated that we have one plant-based day. But for many programs, for many programs, it goes beyond that. And it is one thing that we are really looking at. And also that is true for our home-delivered meals, right, Ben? 

So it's one thing that we're really looking at. And if you'll get familiar, our menus and our nutritionists are getting very adept at taking cultural meals and making them plant-based, because we know that you want to have meals that you're accustomed, but also now in this new fashion. We really do see food as medicine, and we want to make sure that as a city, we're following that through and in all our older adult clubs. 

But if you want more than one day a week, you would just say that to your advisory council at your older adult club center, and then that's the way that more food is introduced that way, okay? And great to see you, and thank you for reminding me.

Mayor Adams: Last question. Yeah, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, cause we gotta answer to the question. But everybody applaud Connor who's getting married, did you feel that?

You know, did you, can you use a gym? Got to answer to your question, the depot, they are going to electrify the depot, it's going to turn into using electric buses to deal with the environment, but the buses are still going to stop there, okay? Yes ma'am.

Question: Yeah, hello. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good, thank you. First I want to, before my question, I want to thank the mayor and your team. You are very good for me. Thank you. And I want to say, I came here over one year, so maybe later I say the question. If you don't understand, I need someone to help me. And then I say that for me, I came here as I feel this place to the immigration, education is very good, wonderful. Except that to the English, you have a skill, including here, there's a building that have a skill, an English skill for the, for maybe waiting, we find a job here, waiting, find a job. So, thanks again. 

And I will say, my question is, if you can, I joined the, okay, NYC Housing Connect, I want to get some place can live in. But I always until now, I move many place in here. So, but every place is, for some reason, but I have to, the price is very high to rent a place. And then I rent to the, how can I say, NYC Housing Connect, they always, they say, have waiting maybe two year. And then after they send me the picture later, they say, okay, this house, I don't have chance because lots of people, they register. 

So from most of the people, they choose 200,000. So I'm not inside. So I lose the lottery. And I joined different place, the private about the house. and that they say, yeah, I receive you later. You have to waiting five or six year. I think during that time, I'm not sure I can stay alive in that time. I have to say that. So I'm not sure. I'm senior, yeah. 

So if I can, I hope you can do more opportunity for the housing for the many people. But I say, my daughter stay here over 40, Oh, no, about 20 years old, but I'm here not too long, so I'm not sure another people, maybe most of the people that have a house, I don't know, but I'm not, it is true, including my daughter. 

Mayor Adams: Right, right, no, and thank you for that. We have a housing crisis, folks. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. We don't have enough units. When we do our projects, Councilman, when we do our housing lotteries, let's say we have 200 units. How many respondents do we get on average? 

Hear that? Hundreds of thousands. If we put up 200 units, hundreds of thousand people put in for the lottery. We have to build more. We have 59 community boards in the city. 10 of those community boards built more housing in one year than the other 49 combined. That is what the City of Yes initiative is about. 

We are saying the entire city should be building a little more housing throughout the entire city. You can't have communities with good schools, good transportation, good access to food, a good access to medical care, and they're saying we don't want any housing in our community. That's just wrong. It's wrong. And we need senior and adult housing. 

We have a project that we're trying to do downtown that's 100 percent senior housing, and people are pushing and fighting against us. So I am with you that we need more housing. We don't have enough, we don't have enough housing in the city. We have to build more housing. 

If you have 200 units and a few hundred thousand people trying to get to 200 units, that's just a bad equation. And some people are moving out of their homes, independent living, our children wanna come back from college, they wanna have their own home. The city must build more housing. That is what we're fighting for right now. and you could be a perfect poster person to talk about the need to build more housing. We don't have enough housing in the city.

Question: I just wanted to add, I do agree with what you said, we do need housing. My request, and I don't know who else feels this way in this room, while you're building all those buildings, could you give us some green spaces where we as older adults with the new buildings have green spaces where we can sit and look at flowers and gardens because we are surrounded with tons of buildings and very, very little green spaces.

Mayor Adams: And what we have been successful in doing is saying, hey developer, with the housing you're building, you need to build green space. You need to build green space and connect it. And this way, it's the right partnership. You're 100 percent. And you know what, you're right more than you think you are. I just finished a book that talks about the importance of our mental health in green space. Yes, you know, so, yes.

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: You also have a Project Greenway that you might want to talk about. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes, yes, yes. 

Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez: And Councilmember Gennaro's.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I just saw Jim came in, the councilman for this area. He escaped the hard questions, you know, but it's good to have you here. Why don't you say a few words to your constituents?

City Councilmember James Gennaro: Let me just reinforce something the Mayor just said about green spaces. Not only is it important for everyone to enjoy green spaces and all the enrichment that that brings, but the mayor's administration is working very assiduously with the council to take care of storm water and flooding. And the more green spaces we have, the more natural absorption into the earth that we can get with storm water and less that has to go into the sewer system. 

So he, and I happen to chair the committee that deals with DEP. They're doing a great storm water management program. Very important, not only to have green space for how it looks and how it makes you feel, but how it absorbs rain water. And I went out of my way to avoid the hard questions, I'm just telling you. I'm confessing.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I got a, who's that? There you go, ma'am.

Question: Hello, sir. Good afternoon. Good to see you. I'm from Queens Community House, Jamaica Older Adult Center. Our general consensus about the housing situation was that we are all having this issue with New York City Housing Connect. We have lots of seniors coming in asking for housing. They have questions, they have needs, but the rents are so high everywhere.

Mayor Adams: And the goal is, which is very important to me, we have to have low income, we have to have middle income as well, because I need my teacher and accountant to be able to afford here, because they're struggling. Everybody's struggling. We want to do several income bands, but think about this basic principle about supply and demand. When the supply is at 1.4 percent, their landlords are able to charge higher because it becomes a rare commodity. We build more, it will bring down these prices the way we want.

Question: That's the idea. Thank you so much. And another point, we have three ping pong tables. You are welcome to come anytime.

Mayor Adams: I'm gonna, yeah, now you don't do, what's the other, I'm gonna come and play again. Pickleball, I'm a pickleball guy also. Listen, I gotta bounce. I see another hand in the back, but it would never stop. I gotta bounce. I got a lot going on today. Give it up for this team for coming out. Thank you.

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