Transcript: Mayor Adams Touts Success of Community Link's in Keeping Times Square Safe and Clean

December 13, 2024

Deputy Mayor Chauncey Parker, Public Safety: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Chauncey Parker, the deputy mayor for Public Safety, and on behalf of Mayor Adams, we are here to discuss the incredible progress of the Midtown Community Improvement Coalition, one of the mayor's key Community Link partnerships across New York City. 

Joining us today are incredible partners, Tom Harris, who is president of the Times Square Alliance, Barbara Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, DA Alvin Bragg, Councilmember Erik Bottcher, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Tony Simone, Brian Weber, the president of the Midtown South Community Council, Julie Coker, the president and CEO of New York City Tourism, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Captain Nick Miner, Inspector Maurice Williams, Sergeant James Losada, Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lojan, Chief Michael Saladino from Sanitation, and Small Business Services Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner Calvin Brown. 

We are all here today as part of the mayor's North Star, which is to keep New Yorkers safe, and that is basic principles of building partnerships, that is developing a strategy, and then relentlessly following up to make sure that we're making progress. The mayor and his partners have done this across the city with gun violence, retail theft, as he discussed yesterday, with ghost cars, and quality of life is at the top of that list, building multi-agency partnerships to improve quality of life. 

As the mayor discussed earlier this week with his Every Block Counts initiative, the mayor and his team [are] literally going to go block by block to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers across the city, and today we're going to focus on his premier quality of life multi-agency partnership, and that is Community Link. It's my honor to introduce the mayor of the greatest city in the world, and that is Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Well said. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor Parker. When you think about being here in a few weeks, we're going to have hundreds of thousands of people that will bring in the new year here in New York. And to those who are tourists, how many of you are tourists out there visiting New York? Okay, number one rule, spend money, spend a lot of money. Find a way, leave those George Washingtons right here in New York. 

Really proud, and I want to take my hat off to the police commissioner, and our law enforcement team that's standing here, and our partners throughout the city, but particularly Deputy Mayor Parker, deputy mayor of public safety, for his real initiative around Public Safety Week, and highlighting all of the initiatives that we're putting in place to keep people safe. Not only everyday New Yorkers, but those who are coming here to visit that ride our subway system, visit our theaters, and enjoy this beautiful place as Times Square, and knowing that you can come here and be safe in the process, and that's what Public Safety Week is all about. 

And the Times Square Alliance, you guys have been a partner with us from day one of this administration, and the role that the district attorney has played to coordinate all of our DAs in general, but specifically here in Manhattan, so we really want to thank all that it takes. It takes an entire village to keep us safe, and each aspect of that village must play its role, and our commitment is clear. I've stated this over and over again. The prerequisite to our prosperity is public safety. We have to be safe. Our families must be safe, our communities must be safe, and our businesses must be safe, and because the continuous decrease in crime, you are seeing the recovery of this city at a pace that no one thought was possible. 

More businesses are open in the city history. More small businesses are up and operating in the city history. Our economy is thriving. Our workers are returning back to the office space. Our ridership on the subway system continues to increase. You're seeing a city that is leading the way on public safety in so many manners, and I'm committed to public safety. As a former police officer, I know how important it is, and we intend to build on the last three years of success as we move forward, and we came into office with that clear mission and that clear guideline. 

But what's interesting here, and I said it in January 2022, and I'm going to say it now, the numbers mean a lot, how do people feel? The numbers have to reflect the feeling. People must be safe, and they must feel safe, and that is exactly what we will continue to do. 

Overall, major crime in the Times Square area is down 22 percent over the last 11 months. This reduction is robbery at down 6.9 percent, grand larceny is down 29 percent, and a 63 percent drop in stolen cars. The last 28 days have particularly been successful with major crime down 38.5 percent. That includes a 50 percent drop in felony assault and a 100 percent drop in stolen cars. 

We're committed to upholding the law and relentlessly going after those who break it, including the investigation of last week's brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson here in Midtown Manhattan, and I know the DA is going to allude to that, but this morning, I was briefed by the police commissioner. He has not waived his extradition yet. We're going to continue to move forward, but he should be, and I will continue to say, be prosecuted here in New York City. 

We also know that this city has done an amazing job to keep everyday business leaders confident that this city will continue to be a safe place to operate your business, and today, with our partners at the Times Square Alliance, the Garment District Alliance, and from the Midtown community, we're here to celebrate the success of our Community Link program that aggressively enforces our quality of life issue. Quality of life is part of public safety, and we must ensure that we improve on our quality of life. This is a successful multi-agency effort that addresses the everyday problems that are so important to our daily lives, including removing ghost cars. Unbelievable initiative, almost 70,000 removed of illegal vehicles off our streets that were used to terrorize the people of this city, and we're moving forward today. But also those pesky vendors and the pedicabs that are trying to overcharge our tourists and visitors. 

We are focusing on these initiatives to improve the quality of life, and the Community Link program has been extraordinarily ordinarily successful in neighborhoods across New York City, in total, issuing nearly 16,000 summonses, conducting 1,000 operations, and resolving nearly 730 complaints since launching May of 2023. The program also helps us connect New Yorkers with support and services they need, including over 200 New Yorkers in need of shelter to make sure those in crisis get the help that they deserve and the help that they need. There's nothing dignified about living on the street. We were very clear on that. If you take an analysis and a view of this city, you don't see the encampments that are plaguing other cities. We are placing people into housing and making sure they get the services they want. 

So our goal is to increase the NYPD's presence and dedicate outreach teams, place over 70 New Yorkers in shelter, seize over 650 of those pesky illegal pedicabs, and issue 6,500 pedicab-related violations alone, and seize nearly 2,500 illegal items that were vended illegally on our streets for a total of over 57 million dollars. We call this Operation Front Door because Times Square is the front door to the globe, and we must make sure that it is welcoming, and it is safe, and it is the bellwether of how well we're doing as a city. It is its gravitational pull that allow people to come here to the city and to look at the other beautiful communities and neighborhoods we have in this great city called New York. 

No more anything goes on our streets, no more looking away, no more accepting an unacceptable atmosphere or climate. We came into office with a clear vision to make the city safe, and we have moved towards that vision, and Community Link is part of that. So the first time since 2018, 39 of the 40 Broadway theaters are open. 39 of the 40. During this week, Broadway increases attendance by 33 percent, and tourism this year is our city's fourth highest ever. 

As your mayor, you have my word. We're going to continue to bring people to this dynamic place to enjoy the city, enjoy all we have to offer, and that's the commitment that Commissioner Tisch has made as well, and all the agencies involved. So again, thank you to our partners. Let's continue to have this city as the safest big city in America. Thank you, deputy mayor. 

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, mayor. The mayor's vision is to transform the quality of life across this city by building multi-agency partnerships, a team of teams. And the bedrock of those teams are the Business Improvement Districts, and I'd like to introduce Tom Harris, the president of one of those fantastic teams, the Times Square Alliance, and that's Tom Harris.

Tom Harris, President, Times Square Alliance: Thank you. Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor Parker. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Thank you, DA Bragg, and a special thanks to all the city agencies. Public safety is a team sport, and we all need to be on the field fighting to win, and in Midtown, we are doing that. 

This Midtown Improvement Coalition focuses on smaller issues and looks to bring the resources from all of the city agencies to solve those issues, from providing service and support to our most needy on the streets, to addressing the predatory pedicabs or the rogue peddlers that are on our street. The coalition has had successes throughout these months. 

Just last week at one of our meetings, we focused on one of the unhoused individuals in the area, and we really wanted to provide all the resources to that person that we could. By Saturday night, he was in support of housing, and that's a win. That's a win for him. That's a win for the city when we can use the resources that we have to solve those challenges. A community that works together is a community that works, and we have shown from this coalition that Midtown is working with all of the city agencies to solve the problems. Thank you again, Mayor Adams. Thank you, DA Bragg, and special thanks to all of the city agencies. We could not do it without you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you so much, Tom, and now it's my honor to introduce another of our fantastic bid team leaders, and that's Barbara Blair, President of the Garment District Alliance.

Barbara Blair, President, Garment District Alliance: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Parker. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Thank you, DA Bragg, for putting together this fantastic group, and I also want to thank, as my colleague here did, DSNY, NYPD, DOT, and all the agencies that have really come together to address quality of life. 

Quality of life has absolutely everything to do with how we feel about our city. So this, I call it low-hanging fruit, but so many of these infractions cumulatively have a profound impact on how we view the city. I'm looking forward to a strong partnership with our New York City Council members and state elected officials to relook at legislation that has occurred over the years that need to be tightened up and revisited in terms of giving tools to the City of New York to confront, deal with, and solve the quality of life issues that we're seeing on the streets. So thank you for being here, and I look forward to Senator Hoylman and Assemblymember Simone, and I saw Erik Bottcher here. We need legislation that addresses addiction and mental illness on our streets. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Barbara. It's now my honor to introduce Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is a great partner in all our public safety initiatives from gun violence to quality of life and everything in between. DA Bragg.

Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney: Thank you so much, deputy mayor. You are the convener of conveners, so it is fitting that you are spearheading this effort. I want to first start by thanking our mayor, who makes all this possible. All these mayoral agencies working together in tandem, and I think you say it best, mayor, when you say public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity. That's right, and that's what we're seeing day by day here play out in Times Square. 

So I'm thankful to you, thankful to all of the agencies that are working together in partnership on this, and then thankful to our co-chairs, Brian, Barbara, and Tom. I have been to a couple of the meetings. You have not been to a meeting until you see one co-chair by them. As Mr. Harris said, talking about that one individual, it's person by person, agency by agency. It's collaborative, and you just see the work getting done. It's like public safety in motion, and so I salute all of you. I saw Inspector Edwards in the back, always there, always vigilant, and so the NYPD is obviously a partner in all that we do, so thankful to him as well. And then our lawmakers, we partner across the board. We're in discussion. I thank you so much for your leadership as well. 

I wanted to, and the mayor mentioned it briefly, also did want to just touch upon the deeply disturbing shooting right here in the heart of Midtown of Mr. Thompson last week. Again, in partnership with the NYPD and under the phenomenal leadership of our new commissioner, we've been working hand-in-hand since the beginning. It has just been really, really great work by the NYPD, including also extending to law enforcement in Pennsylvania. I know the mayor mentioned quickly about extradition. I just wanted to say indications are that the defendant may waive, but that waiver is not complete until the court proceeding, which my understanding from court officials in Pennsylvania cannot happen until Tuesday. So until that time, we're going to continue to press forward on parallel paths, and we'll be ready, whether he is going to waive extradition or whether he's going to contest extradition. As you know, we've charged in a complaint, and we're moving forward to the next step of it, again, in partnership with the NYPD. So thank you so much. All of this is part of our public safety work, and we're honored to do it with the mayor, the police, and our great civic leaders and our lawmakers. 

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you. Thank you, DA Bragg. And now it's my honor to introduce our partner, Councilmember Erik Bottcher.

City Councilmember Erik Bottcher: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Parker. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Thank you to my great colleagues in government, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, my colleagues, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Tony Simone, as well as Tom Harris, Barbara Blair, and all the partners here. 

Thanks to the great efforts of the NYPD, of the Midtown Improvement Coalition that we're discussing today, crime is down from the depths of the pandemic and continues to come down. The truth is, though, that it is up from pre-pandemic levels, and New Yorkers are not okay with us sticking at these current levels of crime. I know the mayor is not okay with it, I'm not okay with it, our colleagues aren't okay with it. So we need to continue to use every tool at our disposal to bring down crime, including the long-term efforts involving the mental health crisis, our criminal justice system, the crisis of addiction, and the short-term efforts, which include ensuring that our precincts, our police precincts, have the resources and head counts that they need to do their jobs locally, addressing the quality of life issues that impact crime. 

Locally in Council District 3, since I took office, we've planted 500 trees, street trees, we've invested heavily in graffiti removal, sanitation, working to get business improvement coverage for Hell's Kitchen, and this kind of level of coordination for our residential blocks, and we're going to continue to fight to bring down crime to the levels that they were at before the pandemic, which were the lowest since the 1950s, and then continue to bring them down lower. We can do it, I know we will do it, with all the leadership that you're seeing here today. We've been through incredibly difficult times as a city throughout our 400 years. We always come out higher after these crises. That's what we're going to do again. Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Questions for the mayor and his partners? [Crosstalk.] The NYPD will be doing a walkthrough next.