Rush Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on NY1

November 10, 2015

Roma Torre: Earlier today, Mayor de Blasio joined with workers to push for immediate action on establishing a $15 dollar minimum wage. The mayor joins us now by phone with more on that issue and others. And, Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for calling in.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: You’re very welcome, Roma.

Torre: Alright, you’ve long been a proponent of raising the minimum wage. But now – some breaking news that just came into the newsroom – we hear that – and it has been confirmed that Governor Cuomo is going to raise the minimum wage for all state workers in New York. And I just want to ask you, is that something you’re prepared to do for all city workers?

Mayor: Well, I commend the governor for his action, and I’m proud to say that our city workers are already on a pace that’s well ahead of the state minimum wage as it is and I think would be very consistent with what your governor put forward. Our workers are almost all at a minimum of $12 dollars an hour now, and that’s going to keep going up over the next few years. So, we’ve been addressing this issue already to make sure that city workers are better paid. What we really need is a new minimum wage for the entire state and for the entire city for all workers. And that should be, for the city, certainly, $15 dollars an hour. And we need that vote to happen in Albany next year. We’ve been trying to get that done. You know the city doesn’t control its own minimum wage for all workers, but it’s time for Albany to act and provide a minimum wage increase statewide. 

Torre: Statewide – so, would you be willing though to increase the minimum wage for the municipal employees to $15 dollars an hour? And from what I understand, this would be phased in over a period of several years. The city workers – excuse me, state workers who are in New York City under the governor’s plan would have their wages increased – their minimum wages increased by the year 2018. Is that something that you could find some [inaudible] with?

Mayor: Again, we – just like you, we just heard about the governor’s plan, so I’d have to look at it. But I’m proud to say again, our city workers right now – every single one, making no less than about $12 an hour, and increasing, according to our current plan. We’ll certainly have more to say once we take a look at this new plan.

Torre: Alright. Mr. Mayor, homelessness has been a very daunting issue for you. You campaigned on bringing down homelessness here in this city, but the homeless shelters are packed still, from what I understand. And you – your administration has been accused of undercounting the homeless population. Now, where do we stand right now?

Mayor: Well, we’ve counted very clearly and accurately, and we’ve been blunt with the people of New York City. We have a real substantial homelessness problem. I would say this – what’s been clear is, the number of folks in shelter – way too high by any count. We’ve been able to stabilize it. You know, it actually was a bit higher previously, but it’s not acceptable, and I’ve been very clear about the fact that we have a structural problem around homelessness that’s more and more an economic problem than it ever was before – more and more families in shelter than ever before; more and more working people in shelter than ever before. And the best tools we have – and we’re using them more and more – are the ability to get people out of shelter, into better options through rental subsidies; the ability to stop people from becoming homeless to begin with through anti-eviction legal services and subsidies. Obviously, the biggest affordable housing program in the history of this city – 200,000 units we’re building and preserving over the next 10 years. The information we put out today – over 50,000 people have exited from our shelters in less than a year-and-a-half. So clearly, our efforts to get people to better solutions are working. Over 90,000 people have been served our prevention efforts. A lot of them would end up in shelter if we hadn’t intervened. So, the tools are working, but the additional number of people who are threatened economically has really continued, and that’s what we have to address. 

Torre: You know, we heard recently from Police Commissioner Bratton that the best solution in dealing with panhandlers is to just not give anything to them. And so, I have to ask, have you ever given to a panhandler who has confronted you or approached you?

Mayor: Absolutely. And look, what I think the commissioner said is such a common-sense point. The things we’re trying to do to help people are much more effective than anything that happens through panhandling, let’s be blunt. We are trying to get people into shelter and then ultimately into permanent housing. There are some people who don’t want to go to shelter, but we have things called Safe Havens that we’ve increased greatly with the help of a lot of houses of worship that are a more informal solution that works better for some people, particularly if they have mental health issues or substance abuse issues. We have a lot more mental health services and drug treatment services – they have a lot more outreach workers. The real solution is to alert 3-1-1 when you see someone in need, and we’ll send outreach workers out, obviously NYPD will go out. We don’t want someone out begging. We want them to get the help they need, and ultimately to get off the streets, and that’s the real solution.

Torre: And, Mr. Mayor, sadly your Vision Zero policy is getting a lot of attention after 12 pedestrians were killed in traffic-related incidents in the past ten days alone. Obviously something isn’t working. What – what can we do here?

Mayor: Well, no, I would disagree, respectfully. Vision Zero has been working. There’s so much evidence of that fact – last year, the lowest number of pedestrian deaths since 1910, in over a century. This year, the number of pedestrian deaths and traffic deaths decreased again year-to-date. It’s working, but, you know what? This has been a very sobering week or ten days. We’ve lost people who, you know, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be walking among us today. It reminds us of how much work we have to do to change the way people drive, and that’s a lot of public education, much more consequences for people who drive the wrong way. That’s why we’ve tripled the number of tickets for folks who fail to yield to pedestrians; we’ve doubled the number of speeding tickets. Vision Zero is working. We need to do a lot more. And this is a program that’s just over a year old, and you’re going to see a lot more of it play out, but the model is working. That doesn’t mean we don’t have these horrible tragedies that remind us of how much more we have to do.

Torre: You know, Mr. Mayor, the cabbie who struck and killed the woman over the weekend on the Upper West Side admitted to having driven – it was at the end of what? A 16-hour period in which he was driving that cab. It’s obviously against the rules of the Taxi and Limousine Commission – they have a limit of no more than 12 hours at a time. But obviously there are loopholes. What can you do or what can we do to better enforce those rules and make sure that cab drivers are not driving for such long periods of time?

Mayor: We are obviously waiting for all the details of what happened – that investigation continues. But the broad point – Taxi and Limousine Commission has an aggressive education effort to remind drivers in those companies that those rules must be followed. We’re going to look at additional enforcement mechanisms we can use. Look, this situation I take very seriously, because if someone’s at all impaired, they can’t drive safely. And I think the fact is – think about the other things we deal with – obviously people driving under the influence. That’s why the police have been very effective setting up roadblocks or check-blocks – checkpoints, I should say, at different points to find drunk drivers. Obviously going after speeding – all of these are part of how we change behavior; a lot of enforcement and changing the way a lot of our streets are. We’ve changed a lot of intersections and the design of streets to slow people down. We obviously lowered the speed limit. We’ve added the speed cameras. And we see real changes in behavior, but there’s more to be done. 

Torre: Finally, Mr. Mayor, you’ve done a lot of traveling outside the state, lobbying for various issues, including the Zadroga Act, which sadly expired recently. But you’ve taken quite a bit of criticism for your out-of-town trips. Now, I understand you’re going to be traveling to Iowa next month for a presidential forum, and I just wanted to ask you what is the status of that? And what exactly is your involvement?

Mayor: Well, look, the overall concept of going where I can make an impact for the people of this city and on the concerns that matter to the people of this city is absolutely appropriate – and I think every mayor has lived by that notion. I was in Israel a few weeks ago at a very sensitive time for Israel – obviously something that means so much to many people in this city. I was in Puerto Rico fighting for federal support for Puerto Rico to avoid not only financial collapse but what could be a real humanitarian crisis around healthcare. I’ve gone to Washington and to a few other places in this country to talk about the changes in federal policy we need that will affect the people of New York City. You know, we need the federal government to set a higher minimum wage, particularly as this state and other states have not. We need the federal government to invest in infrastructure, mass transit, education, affordable housing – the things it used to do. The only way we’re going to do that is by changing the way we tax the wealthy. The only way there’s going to be the resources to actually invest in our cities again is with a progressive approach to taxation. These things don’t just happen. They have to be the result of a change in the political debate, and the fact that more and more Americans are demanding the change. And that can’t all be done just here within the five boroughs. A lot of what New York City needs is in Washington and is affected by the debate nationally. So mayors have always pushed for changes on the national level that would support New York City. And I’m working in a tradition that actually goes as far back as Fiorello La Guardia, who was one of the cofounders of the U.S. Conference of Mayors explicitly for this reason – to get changes in federal policy during the Depression that would help the people of New York City. 

Torre: And just to confirm, though, will you be in Iowa next year – I’m sorry, next month?

Mayor: Again, that situation we’ll have more to say on soon, and the point is when I see an opportunity to make the changes in these policies, I’m going to obviously take that opportunity. 

Torre: Alright. Mayor de Blasio, thanks so much for sharing the time with us. We really appreciate the discussion and feel free to call us in the future anytime.

Mayor: Thanks a lot, Roma.

Torre: Alright, thank you.

Mayor: Take care.