Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on News12 and Takes Questions from New Yorkers

October 23, 2024

Amanda Bossard: Hello, everyone, and thanks for being with us here on News 12 for Local Matters. I'm Amanda Bossard, and this is Ask the Mayor. It is a pleasure to be back here with you for the next half hour as we're giving you the opportunity to ask New York City Mayor Eric Adams your questions right here on the air. The recorded dial is 718-861-6800. It will be on the bottom of your screen throughout the program for reference, and it is our pleasure to welcome back Mayor Eric Adams once again. Thanks so much, Mr. Mayor, for being here.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good to be with you.

Bossard: Absolutely. As we wait for some of those questions to come in, I do want to kick off the conversation tonight by asking for your reaction to everything that has developed since the last time that we spoke with you here on News 12. And of course, specifically, that there is now a federal case and charges that you are facing.

Mayor Adams: And it's, you know, there's a natural desire to respond to the one-sided presentation that was shown. All of us would want to defend ourselves. I've lived my life as a member of the law enforcement community, and I've always held myself to a high standard. And there's going to be an opportunity for me to answer the inquiries that I'm faced with, and I'm looking forward to doing that. But I must continue to do what I have done when this investigation first came to light. I must continue to run the city, and that's what we're doing. 

The numbers are clear. Back in October, when this investigation first came to light, our team continued to make our city safe, create jobs, educate our children, deal with the issues around public safety, both in our subway system and on the streets. And that is what I must do. And I want New Yorkers to know this is hurtful for me, hurts a lot, but I am dedicated and committed to carrying out the job I was elected to do, just like many of you are doing every day. Give me an opportunity, and I'm sure I'm going to be clear of what is taking place right now.

Bossard: Last time you were with us, we also talked about some of the recent changes in your administration. At this point, when can we expect to see permanent replacements named for several of those roles that are being filled right now on an interim basis? Specifically, I'm thinking NYPD commissioner and health commissioner, specifically.

Mayor Adams: Right, two. Those are the only two that are interim. The others have been filled. But I say this over and over again, New York City and our administration, we have a deep bench. There are so many people that want to serve in both those positions. I think I'm up to 10 different resumes who would like to be the police commissioner, a coveted position in law enforcement across the entire globe. 

Right now, we have Interim Commissioner Donlon, who's continuing what Commissioner Sewell and what Commissioner Caban [were] able to do, and that's drive down crime, nine straight months of decreasing crime. I'm so proud when I think about the month of August, which is traditionally a place in a time when we have major shooters in our city, we have the lowest number of shootings in the recorded history of this city. 

And the same when you look at robberies on our subway system, the lowest number of robberies on our subway system in the history of the city. So the question is not, are we going to take someone from interim to permanent? [But] are we going to continue to drive down crime? And that's what we're doing, making this continue to be the safest big city in America.

Bossard: Back to the larger looming issue, if you will, if you are ultimately found culpable of any wrongdoing at trial, would you resign?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I would, you know, a jury of my peers, but I'm not going to speculate. I'm going to move forward and allow the process to take its course.

Bossard: All right. I appreciate you addressing those issues that are at hand. I do want to get to our first caller of the evening. We have Janine who has dialed in from Flatbush. Janine, thanks so much for calling in. And what's your question for the mayor tonight? [...]

Janine, are you on the line? Can you hear us? All right. As we tried… Oh, there we go. There we go. 

Question: Hello?

Bossard: Janine, go ahead and ask your question when you're ready. Yes. We hear you, Janine. Can you hear us? Go ahead.

Question: Yes. Yes. Good evening. Good evening, mayor. Good evening. Good evening to you. Thank you. I live in Flatbush and the authorities have closed down a couple of months ago, all the weed shops on Flatbush Avenue and thereabouts. 

Now the people that were inside the stores are outside the stores selling, still selling. People go up. They don't go inside. They're sitting in tables and they're still selling the weed. Can you do anything about that, mayor?

Mayor Adams: Yes. And as you indicated, we closed down 1,200 illegal cannabis shops, 1,200. Tens of millions of dollars in confiscation, millions of dollars in fines. What I need for you to tell me [is] the exact location you're seeing this and I will have someone go there tonight, do an observation, and start the process of addressing the illegal weed that you're seeing that's being sold on our streets. 

Which area are you talking about, or give me a stretch of real estate that you're talking about and we want to get someone over there.

Question: Flatbush, from the junction all the way down to Avenue [inaudible], all the way down to King Highway practically.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Now on Flatbush itself?

Question: Yes.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Well, I'm going to get my Deputy Commissioner of Operations to do an observation and we'll put a plan in place because we're not going to allow people to be displaced from indoors selling illegal cannabis and on our streets.

Bossard: Mr. Mayor, a quick follow-up to that question. I know in the Bronx we had been tracking a deli that was shut down for allegedly selling illegal cannabis and I believe it was part of a bust that was worth a million dollars in illegal products that had been confiscated. 

We checked back in last week and they were preparing to reopen because I believe the court ordered that they could resume conducting its business at the premises. Do you find that situations like that are happening often as the process plays out in court, and does it undermine the crackdown on the illicit market?

Mayor Adams: Well, they may be allowed to open as a supermarket. I don't believe they were given authority to operate as an illegal cannabis location. But we go back and monitor any shop that we close. 

That was why it was important to get the New York City Police Department to be partners in this and that was some of the legislation we were able to get passed in Albany because it allowed the normal sector patrol to do drive-bys and see if someone reopened the shop and they continued to do illegal sales. So this was extremely important. We constantly monitor the locations that were closed.

Bossard: All right. We do have another caller joining us from Riverdale. I believe [Mary Anne] is on the line. [Mary Anne], thanks so much for dialing in. And what's your question for the mayor this evening?

Mayor Adams: Yes, thank you for listening, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Adams. I'm sorry. The reason why I'm calling is I have a concern for my daughter who lives in NYCHA that's located at 140 West 174th Street. My daughter is in a mobile wheelchair. She has a young daughter that lives with her. At the end of September, she was told by an abatement surveyor under NYCHA that her paint had lead in the apartment and that she had to vacate the apartment for three months, which to me sounded very unreasonable and irrational, disrupting her life like that and her child's life. 

She's in a mobile wheelchair. It sounded like really unreasonable. Why three months to paint an apartment? I googled it, how many days it takes NYCHA to do the lead paint abatement, the cleanup, and it said it shouldn't not take any more than two days. So this has me very confused. They're disrupting her life. As I said, she's disabled, you know, we're trying to help her, you know, pack up. I use a cane, you know, and she's really depressed behind this. You know, she's expressed it to her psychologist counselor that she speaks to. And also her daughter is very unhappy.

Mayor Adams: And it's enough to be, to be displaced under normal circumstances for three months is extremely traumatic, and I can only imagine being in a wheelchair and especially needing to take care of her child. Let me look into this. My understanding [is] outside contractors handle this, but let me look into this. 

Please leave your contact number and I'm going to reach out to your daughter when we get offline. I'm going to reach out to NYCHA and find out what exactly is taking place here. We can't have her outside her location for three months. We're going to find a resolution to this, but please leave your number. And when I get off the station, I'm going to reach out to your daughter or you, whichever you prefer, and we need to get this expedited.

Bossard: We will absolutely connect you with that information offline, Mr. Mayor. Real quick, does that timeline at all indicate to you the backlog of cases that NYCHA has to address currently?

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt, and you know, doing lead paint abatement is so important, particularly when it's exposed. You know, you saw we just announced how we're looking at private water lines to deal with the lead that are in some of the pipes. Lead can be extremely dangerous to children. It could impact brain damage and it could be harmful if it's not addressed accordingly and covered up through paint or some form of abatement. 

But that isn't indicating, I will find out tonight, how far the backlog actually is. But listen, every once in a while, you have to take special circumstances into account and you can't have a person that's in a wheelchair—

Bossard: Alright. 

[Commercial Break.]

Bossard: Welcome back to Ask the Mayor with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. If you have a question for him this evening, the number to dial is 718-861-6800. And before we get right back to your calls tonight, I do want to touch on the topic of street safety, Mr. Mayor, because we have covered several deadly hit-and-runs in our boroughs over just the last couple of weeks. 

I know that traffic deaths are up in both the Bronx and parts of Brooklyn so far this year. Just today, the governor signed new legislation that will quadruple the number of red light cameras here in the city. Do you think that will help drive down those numbers?

Mayor Adams: Yes. And before we do that, I had my team look into the question about the lead paint. And they shared with me that NYCHA did a record level of lead paint remediations last year. But I'm going to find out exactly what's going on with the timeline. 

Street safety is important and it's something that Ydanis Rodriguez, our commissioner of DOT, has pushed forward. And these red light cameras, they work. And whomever believes that they do not is just untrue, particularly around our school zones and other areas. The red light cameras, unfortunately, sometimes you have to give people fines before they regulate their behavior, but there's more we're doing. 

Everything from making sure we redesign our intersections, how we are lighting the intersections, how we are making sure we go after those ghost vehicles on the street. Over a thousand have been removed. Many people who are speeding and driving without any registrations or license or insurance. So it's a full court press that we are going after dangerous drivers in our city.

Bossard: And as we talk about street safety, I believe we have Joe who's dialed in from Borough Park this evening. Joe, thanks so much for joining us. And what's your question for the mayor this evening?

Question: Thank you. Hey, Mr. Mayor. The perfect segue to your topic now about street safety. I'm a constituent and I voted for you, Mr. Adams, but, however, my problem that I see in the streets now are these unregulated e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mopeds that go up to 70, 80 miles an hour. 

On Ocean Parkway, and particularly with the big accident yesterday, I've seen a group of kids, no older than 15 years old, with five or six of these mopeds, popping wheelies, no regulations, no safety, no nothing. I've also seen families of four with like a two-year-old child with no helmet on the front, just driving around with no regulations. 

However, if we hit them, our insurance goes up. Now, there's no regulations on them, but, however, you just talked about putting new red light cameras that hurt regular drivers, law-abiding drivers. I also have a possible solution. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I know it's tough to regulate with all these food-sharing programs and everything, but there is a solution if you'll let me voice it.

Mayor Adams: As long as you can give us a quick one so we can get some more callers in.

Bossard: And we want to make sure he gets an opportunity to answer your question, too, Joe. 

Question: 30-day grace period. In 30 days, full-blown campaign. After 30 days, all these e-bikes that go to anything above 25 miles an hour need license and insurance. You need to be over 18, and you have to be regulated. 30-day grace period.

Mayor Adams: Got it. Got it. We got you. We got you. Let me respond. So, first of all, I want to peel back, because you said several things. Number one, the red light cameras don't go after innocent New Yorkers. They go after people who speed, and vehicles cause serious injuries. I was one of the early advocates that lowered the speed limit and pushed for it when I was a state senator. We need safe streets no matter who's driving on those streets, and even pedestrians need to be wise on how they don't cross in the middle of the road. 

Now, let's specifically talk about these three-wheel, two-wheel scooters and dirt bikes. We have removed over 30,000 off our street. Over 30,000. And we have destroyed many of them so they'll never be placed on the street again. And I agree with you, because after COVID, we had a large number of people who started to deliver out and started to use these alternative to transportation, but they have to be regulated. 

We have to catch up to the explosion of dirt bikes and scooters on our streets, what we call micromobility. That's why we're going to need state help to do so. I don't think we should be selling any in the city where they can go over a certain amount per hour, like you stated, and they should be registered and insured with license so that if someone does strike an innocent person, they can be held accountable for it. So you have some great ideas. I want you to reach out to your local state elected. Your senator, your assembly person, share those ideas, because I support much of what you were saying.

Bossard: And Mr. Mayor, we just learned new details today. We're talking about e-bike safety, of course, on the roads, but just overall, sometimes the hazards they pose if they are unregulated batteries. More details have been announced now about this trade in programs citywide for delivery workers in order to get rid of some of those unlicensed or unregulated, I should say, mobility devices and in return get certified equipment. How is that going to work out? What's the timeline for when we could really see that at play?

Mayor Adams: Yes, and it is so important. And what you were talking about are lithium ion batteries. We're allocating two million dollars starting early 2025. This is the first exchange program in the country. And we're doing it in conjunction with our City Council members, our deliver easters, the men and women who legally deliver food to many of us who call all of the time and as well with FDNY. 

So it's a combination of education, enforcement and getting these illegal batteries off our streets. It has taken lives. We've been extremely successful this year. This year we're down from from 14 last year, down to four deaths this year because of the education and the other initiatives that we put in place. But we're very excited about this exchange program.

Bossard: And something we'll continue to follow closely as it rolls out. Still much more conversation to come here on Ask the Mayor, (718) 861-6800 is the number to dial if you have a question. We'll be right back after this.

[Commercial Break.]

Welcome back to Ask the Mayor, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams here on News 12. Already a lot of good calls tonight, and I do think we have time for one more, Mr. Mayor. So with that, let's hand things over to Lisa, who is dialed in from East New York. Lisa, thanks so much for your time in the call. What's your question for the mayor?

Question: Goodnight. Thank you so much for having me, and goodnight, Mr. Mayor. You recently visited the prestigious, and I think one of the best, if not the top, daycares in all of Brooklyn, Friends of Crown Heights. 

And we're really honored that you graced us with your presence. But one of the questions that I do have is in reference to the pay parity, pay parity in reference to, in comparison to the Department of Education. As we know, daycare is not babysitting. We nurture and we take care of the young children, the young babies, until they are five. 

And a lot of complaints are that in comparison to the Department of Education, even though we're working just as hard, the pay is minimal and almost next to nothing. Is there anything in place to consider a raise when it comes to that, or what, is there something to, is there something else in place to, a top going, or…?

Bossard: Lisa, I just want to make sure, I apologize for the interruption, but I want to make sure he has enough time to address the question. Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: At first, the entire organization, Friends of Crown Heights, the work you do is commendable. And I strongly agree with you. And I know we just settled a contract with the employees where they had a respectable increase. I believe it was ratified. If not, it's going to be ratified. And you're right, we need to make sure that you are paid a salary that is respectable to the work that you're doing, particularly for our children. 

Early childhood education is something that we've leaned into in this administration. We believe it's important, the expansion of seats, reaching out to family members, getting them inside the childhood facilities. And this is not only professional for me, it's personal. Many people know my mother was a cook at Amstead Daycare Center. She actually opened that center for many years and it is still there for the most part. And so our commissioner of Labor, Renee Campion, sat down with your unions and your representatives and we made sure that there was a respectable rate for you.

Bossard: Mr. Mayor, not to interrupt, I apologize, but thank you so much.

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