Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on WCBS Newsradio 880

November 4, 2015

Pat Farnack: Alright, first of all, many people, including myself, may be surprised by the 530,000 manufacturing and industrial jobs in New York, but your new action plan looks to expand that. How are you going to do it?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, listen, it is a surprise, because for a long time, obviously, the city changed – changed economically, and we lost a lot of those kinds of jobs. But the amazing thing is, over half a million industrial and manufacturing jobs still in New York City. They’re very different than the kinds of parents and grandparents had, but they employ all those people, and – you know what? – the average salary is over $50,000 dollars a year – I mean, these are good quality jobs. A lot of them come with good benefits. So our new plan is to add 20,000 more jobs on top of that over the next ten years. And again, the kinds of jobs we’re talking about are jobs you can actually take care of a family on. I was out in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for the announcement yesterday. And there’s the Greenpoint Manufacturing Center that we were at; we went and toured some of the businesses there. And what we heard is, the people who work there come from Brooklyn, they come from Queens, they come the five boroughs, and typically make $50,000 or more, and stay with those jobs for a long time. So, our plan – 20,000 new jobs over the next ten years – it’s a $115 million dollars in new city investment, on top of some things we’ve already started. And this is going to mean a lot more families are going to have opportunity.

Pat Farnack: Now, where is this money going to come from?

Mayor: Well, we’re going to use city resources, and it’s going to go to a couple of different things. Some of this will be in the kind of loan funds that will help businesses to build out. And we’ll get that money back and then we’ll, you know, provide loans again to others. But some of it is investments in the physical plan. Here’s what we found – not only in this city, but all over the world – if you build the situation that a business can thrive in, it’s a great payoff for the people of the city. We have places like the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Hunts Point – lots of high quality jobs, in fact, all growing in terms of employment because the infrastructure works. We’re investing further in that infrastructure so more and more businesses will come in – so that it’s the kind of environment they want to invest in. And this is what has been proven time and time again – when the government invests, looks at what’s really happening – things like 3D printing and a whole host of areas of manufacturing – they’re actually growing right now. They have a huge marketplace in New York City and the metropolitan area – obviously, tens of millions of people in the greater metropolitan area. You know, we want those businesses that need to be local to know they have a place in the five boroughs. And so we’re investing and giving them the physical spaces and the kind of infrastructure that they need to grow.

Pat Farnack: Would – before we get to the bail system, wouldn’t it be great if a “Made in NY” label was as common one day as a “Made in China” label?

Mayor: It would be. Now, look – I want to be clear. We’re not talking in general about huge assembly line productions, like you would find today in China, or that used to be common in this country more. What we are talking about is, a lot of smaller businesses, a lot of businesses that do very specialized work that are able to bring in a lot of profit because it’s highly specialized, highly skilled work. But that also means the workers get a higher salary. And that’s what we’re looking for – those quality jobs. So, I think what you are going to find is “Made in NY” is going to be more common here, in terms of what we experience in our marketplace. It’s a different kind of manufacturing, but I have to tell you, it is going to play a crucial role in the history – or I should say, in the future of the city.

Pat Farnack: Another topic we wanted to cover, as I mentioned, is the New York bail system and your desire to change it in the wake of the murder of Police Officer Randolph Holder. Now, you’ve pointed out that the law doesn’t allow judges to consider risk to community in making their bail decisions. Are you surprised at the pushback that the idea has received in some circles?

Mayor: Well, the first thing I was surprised about was that the law is so unhelpful to judges, in terms of considering how dangerous someone is. It makes no sense. In 47 other states in this country, the dangerousness of the individual in front of the judge is something the judge is allowed to consider – but not in New York and only two other states. Judge Lippman, as the Chief Judge of the State, has been calling for change on this for quite a while. I couldn’t agree with him more. This is crazy. And I have said, we’re not going to let Officer Holder’s death be in vain. We have to create this reform. We have a chance to do it in Albany in the next legislative session. So, anyone who is a danger – this – this horrible assailant, you know, had – had a career of crimes, one after another after another – and he had violated parole and probation regularly. There’s plenty of evidence that he was dangerous and was not going to abide by any commitment. He should have been in prison – there’s no two ways about it – but the judges were not given the tools. So we need this reform. At the same time, I’ve said – and this is what Judge Lippman says, this is what the Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance says. We also have to reform the other side of the reality, which is there’s a lot of low level offenders that didn’t do anything violent, who can be redeemed, but who end up in jail or prison for – for very minor offenses, or because they don’t have enough money for even a low amount of bail, like $250 dollars. We don’t want to see someone in Rikers Island who is a low level offender, who just can’t make a modest amount of bail. We don’t want to see someone in a – in a jail setting when a diversion program could work. Those kinds of opportunities are for people who have not done serious crime, are not repeat offenders. But those who are truly violent, career, hardened criminals – they need to be in prison, and our judges need more ability to act on what they see before [inaudible].

Pat Farnack: Well, thanks a lot for going on live with us. We appreciate it.

Mayor: It’s very much my pleasure, Pat.

Pat Farnack: Okay. Thank you.