Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears live on FM 97.1 Ebro in the Morning

October 13, 2016

Ebro Darden: De Blaz –

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Hey.

Laura Stylez: Good Morning, Mayor.

Ebro: De Blaz – the Mayor’s back on the phone this morning.

Mayor: Good Morning.

Ebro: How are you today?

Mayor: I am happy to be alive. 

Ebro: I mean, like the rest of us. Having a blessed morning – on the way to the gym maybe?

Mayor: I’ve done the gym. I am feeling good about life.

Ebro: What’d you work out on today? Are you like an all chest, no legs kind of guy.

[Laughter]

Mayor: You know, I resent that editorial comment.

[Laughter]

Ebro: Are you like a cardio guy, you run some miles?

Stylez: Do you take spin classes?

Mayor: I do not take spin classes – cardio, weight machines, stretching.

Ebro: Cardio, weight machines, stretching – I like it. Well, de Blasio, it’s a crucial time. We are watching the Trump thing – whatever you want to call it. I don’t want to call it a campaign because it kind of hurts my feelings and it embarrasses me that this is a presidential campaign that we are watching at this level. I mean, we’ve seen craziness at the primary level, but to get this far and have this kind of disgustingness be a part of our election – I don’t know about you, but, for me, it’s kind of upsetting.

Mayor: It’s very upsetting, Ebro, and I think this is a situation where people need to take back their country by getting involved in voting and sending a resounding message that this is not what we expect from a presidential campaign.

Ebro: Right. You know in what ways, in your political kind of career and knowledge – where are we now with the Republican Party and the two party system, now that we are literally watching the Republican Party implode and they’re scrambling to try to pull it back together?

Mayor: I think Republican Party is going through a fundamental change. I think a lot of moderate republicans won’t be able to continue in the party after this. I think that’s been happening for a long time in the Tea Party and everything else.

Ebro: And do they become Independents and Tea Party and these other things?

Mayor: No, I think some of them become Independents, not Tea Party, because they are more moderate. I think some of them become Democrats. But meanwhile, this Democratic Party is clearly moving leftward and clearly a progressive impulse came out in the primaries that I think will continue to grow. So, in a way, I think it isolates the Tea Party as – you know, it’s not going away, but it kind of points out that this country is not going where the Tea Party is going.

And –

Ebro: And when you talk about that progressive – that’s something that Bernie Sanders led the charge of. And it kind of – it repositioned Hillary’s whole platform.

Mayor: Yes. I think Hillary had some very strong elements and progressive elements in her platform initially, but I think Bernie’s presence certainly strengthened it, and they came together in terms of the Democratic platform. It’s the most progressive platform in decades. And it goes right at income inequality. It goes right at structural racism and a whole host of issues. So, I am very proud of the Democrats that our party is very openly, clearly, unabashedly progressive and I think that will deepen and continue. Meanwhile, I think the Republican Party is in a fundamental identity crisis.

Ebro: Yes. It’s sad watching this Donald Trump thing. This is bad.

Mayor: Yes, but it’s the chicken is coming home to roost too, if I can borrow from Malcolm, because the fact is that they – they are reaping what they sow. They created the Tea Party. They aided and abetted it. Even the Republicans aided and abetted the growth of the Tea Party and now it’s coming back to bite them.

Ebro: Wow, it’s a crazy time. Voter registration – the deadline is on the way. What’s the actual date, or what’s the deadline?

Mayor: Tomorrow, Friday, October 14th. I want to emphasize to all your listeners who are conscious people because they listen to you – so, they must be conscious.

Ebro: Aw man, thanks man.

Mayor: Okay.

Stylez: And Mayor, you’re going to be at City Tech today, right?

Mayor: I am going to be at City Tech downtown Brooklyn, Jay Street and Myrtle – along that promenade there. I will be out there 2 o’clock, we going to be registering voters from 12:30 to 2:30 there. But listen, come see us if you’re there and register to vote. If you’re not there, go online – voting.nyc – v-o-t-i-n-g.n-y-c – or call 3-1-1. You have until tomorrow. And it’s easy, it takes a few minutes, and then you’re in the game. But if people miss this deadline tomorrow, they are going to have to watch this whole national drama without participating in it.

Ebro: Yeah – no, we can’t have that.

Stylez: No, not at all.

Ebro: We cannot hire somebody that is this type of person to be the highest executive in our land and represent us to the rest of the world and be the face of what our future is going to be.

Mayor: That’s right and people need to feel a sense of ownership. Look, there is so many things we see in the national discourse that discourages us. I think the answer is, fight back; take control of the situation; you know, use that vote; vote for change. By the way, in this state, we have a lot more change we are going to have to achieve to make it easier to people – for people to vote. We have to start early voting in this state. Thirty-seven other states have it. New York State does not.

Ebro: Why – and why, is that just us voting that we want early voting, or how does that? What would be the steps to make sure that – that happens?

Mayor: It has to be done by the Legislature and the Governor in Albany and it’s long overdue. 37 states including a lot of red states have early voting, which means for the average voter it is much easier, it is much more convenient. You vote – you have weeks in which to vote and you find the time and place that works for you. We have same-day registration – another example – lots of states have it. You walk in on election day, you register right then. You do not have to register like we do right now, weeks in advance. These are fundamental reforms if we are going to create a healthy democracy. New York State is actually way, way behind the rest of the nation –

Ebro: Well, how about this – not to cut you off Mayor. For those of us that live here in New York City, obviously, New York City does not represent the entire state, right? But, it is a large, large piece of it. Our state is embarrassing on a number of levels, whether it’s the raise-the-age issue that we talk about a lot on the show. The fact that us and North Carolina still put teenagers –16-, 17-year-olds in jail with adults. And now we are hearing about this – really red states – there are states – Republican – ass – back-asswards confederate states that are more progressive in getting people access to vote than we are – that’s embarrassing also.

Mayor: It’s embarrassing and it’s a good analogy to put the two together, Ebro, because, you know as New Yorkers, we love to think of ourselves as a progressive vanguard. But let’s look under the hood a little more. You know, if we can’t do raise the age in what is supposed to be a blue, progressive state, something’s wrong with this picture, and, therefore, a lot of young people are being treated the wrong way. If we can’t do early voting and same-day registration we’re disenfranchising people. I think we should call it what it is. We’re disenfranchising essentially millions of people who would vote if the system was easier to work with.

Ebro: Wow, I mean there is a lot of issues. I know today is not the day, Mayor, for us to talk about because I know what’s going on in Queens. They’re actually – I don’t know if you guys are paying attention to this. I don’t know if the Mayor even has a position in what’s going on. But, in Maspeth, over there in Queens, right, they are protesting a homeless shelter. They took a hotel and they and going to turn it into a homeless shelter. Now, I understand working class town, working class area, they don’t want a bunch of people that they might think might be hanging out all day with nothing to do, no jobs just hanging out in their neighborhood – I get that, because that attracts a lot of things – drugs, that attracts alcohol, that attracts a lot of things – people around kids that they don’t want around. But what they’re doing is putting people with jobs –

Stylez: Exactly, that’s what I was going to point out –

Ebro: People that go to work everyday

Stylez: Yes –

Ebro:  –That are having a tough time trying to find a place to live and they are protesting that. They don’t want that in their neighborhood. Now that’s their right, but at what point – and we talked about this earlier – if you want to be understood, you’ve got to try to be understanding, right? These people are trying to work their way back in society, work their way back into having a place to live. If we are going to address our homeless issue, that’s kind of like an all-hands-on-deck sort of scenario where we all got to work together. And there’s going to be neighborhoods that are like look, you know we have to put up a homeless shelter. We have a building that is a facility that can accommodate – we need to figure out a way as a greater community to provide opportunities for people –

Stylez: That’s right.

Ebro: – If we are going to continue to fix the problems that we have. So Mayor, I don’t even know where you are on this issue.

Mayor: I appreciate it. This community, Maspeth, has 250 people from that community district who are in our shelter system. But, when we say we want to put one facility to help people get back on their feet to put a roof over their head in that district, they protest it.

Ebro: And these are homeless people whose last known address was in this community?

Mayor: Correct. Two hundred fifty people, more than the size of what we were talking about in terms of a shelter facility. Every community has to be part of the solution. And I understand why people get concerned, but rather than attacking the very people who are suffering – and you’re exactly right, people who are working, you know, more and more the folks in the shelter are working people, or people who recently had a job and are trying to get another one. What’s happening nowadays is that homelessness is an economic phenomenon – it is because the rent is too high and wages are too low.

Ebro: That’s right.

Mayor: And we need to support people who are trying to get back on their feet. Now, we’ve been able to get tens of thousands of people out of shelter and into permanent housing, but, when the bottom drops out for a family, we have to catch them when they fall. We have to give them a place to live on the way to getting them back on their feet. And every New Yorker should think that’s part of making the City better.

Ebro: Now, Mayor, with all the buildings that everyone is seeing going up this year in our city, whether it’s in Long Island City, whether it’s in Manhattan, whether it’s in the South Bronx, whether it’s – I mean, even in Staten Island, Brooklyn. There’s tons of buildings going up – high-rises. And I know you’ve been on the forefront fighting anyone that wants to come and put up one of these high-rises in our city. Not only are we going to get tax dollars but we’re also going to have more affordable housing, right? For middle and low income? How is that fight going? Where are we at today? And will we have that in these new buildings going up?

Mayor: Because the City Council did the right thing, we now have a law in this city that says whenever a developer applies to build something, and they need City approval – alright, they want to build higher or different than what’s currently allowed – in exchange for that approval, they must create affordable housing. If they refuse to create affordable housing, they are not allowed to build.

Ebro: And is there like a number – is there – do you know, today, with these new buildings going up, a number of units that will be available for affordable –

Mayor: It’s a percentage – it’s 25 percent or 30 percent depending on the development and the specifics –

Stylez: Wow, that’s a large percent.

Mayor: So, think about that. Whereas previously, they could have gone in – and this was a long history in this town where developers got their way all the time – gone in, built something bigger, gotten all the approvals, gotten everything they want, and we didn’t get anything back as the people.

Now, by law, either give us affordable housing or you’re not allowed to build. And that was a huge step forward but the next thing we need is help from the State. The State used to give away a tax credit – they used to give away basically, you know, give a tax break to these huge developers.

For example, that building on 57th Street – that huge tall, slender building you can see all across the skyline – luxury condos. Under State law, they got a tax break. We ended that. We said we’re not going to accept that anymore. We need a new law from Albany that actually says we’re going to create affordable housing anytime that people get a tax break to develop a building. And Albany has not followed through on that yet, and we need that so we can build more affordable housing.

Ebro: Got it. Alright. Well, it’s a good update. I appreciate the information. Your last day to register to vote is tomorrow. If you don’t get out and join a part of the process, you know what we say here – Ebro, Laura Stylez, and Rosenberg – stop bitchin’ then. Stop complaining if you don’t want to be a part of the process.

Mayor: And help us – everyone get involved today. Come down and see us in Downtown Brooklyn, or call 3-1-1, or go online – voting.nyc. It’s easy, it’s quick, and you get to actually decide the fate of your nation.

Ebro: Mayor de Blasio, ladies and gentlemen – always a good time, man.

[Applause]

Stylez: Thanks, Mayor.

Mayor: Thank you, guys.

Ebro: Have a great day down there at City Hall. I know you’re going through some heated stuff, so check back in with us when you can talk about.

Mayor: I look forward to it. Take care, guys.

Ebro: Alright, man. Take care.