Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

January 2, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjp1UYzaqQ

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications:  Good morning, everybody. Happy New Year. My name is Fabien Levy, and I serve as deputy mayor for Communications for the City of New York. We appreciate everyone joining us today for the first in‑person media availability of 2024.

While the year may be different, our priorities remain the same: protecting the public, growing our economy and delivering for working people every day. These efforts take all of us, which is why the mayor's once again convened senior leadership here at City Hall to answer your questions, address issues, and provide New Yorkers with crucial information about the work of their city government.

So joining us today we have Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor to the Mayor Ingrid Lewis‑Martin, Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres‑Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams‑Isom, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, and Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg. Without further delay, I'm pleased to turn it over to Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks to all of you, and Happy New Year to all of you, 2024, new year, really was exciting to be in Times Square. There was so much energy in Times Square.

And it's sort of hard to believe that in 2022, when I took office, we had the fourth-lowest tourism in over 20‑something years. And last year 2023, we had the fourth highest tourism in history. Over 60 million people visited, and every time I went to Times Square, walked the streets, you see a different energy out there, the excitement.

When you add to the fact that people come to this city because we're the safest big city in America. Crime is down. Jobs are up. That's what I ran on, and that's what I was committed to do every day. And the byproduct of a safe city is not only tourism, is that people are once again enjoying all that the city has to offer. In 2023, overall crime went down. We saw a drop in five of the seven major crime categories, including a 12 percent decline in homicides, and 25 percent decrease in shootings.

And also in 2023, we saw something that is very dear to me. Many of you may not be aware of it, but I don't like rats. And we saw rat complaints go down. Trash set out on the street for less time, and we got on track to putting garbage in containers, 100 percent of the city's garbage, and we want to get black garbage bags off the streets of the city. We have the right movement, right direction, right team with our rat czar and Commissioner Tisch who is really focused. People told me it was going to take four years to do. We're doing it in a little over two years, and I'm really excited about it because it's a change of the game on the landscape of our city.

We plan to continue making our city cleaner and safer in 2024, and really want to thank NYPD, FDNY, DOT, our subway system. If you really want to see the coordination, you could have hundreds of thousands of people at Times Square and within hours the place was not only clean but safe. There were so many questions about how are you going to manage any form of protest or any form of disruption. We saw what happened. NYPD came with a real plan, executed that plan, and people felt safe being out celebrating the coming in of the new year. Our first responders spent days preparing, and they did the right thing in the right time and executed a great plan. 

And it's about executing plan. Subway crime is down. Subway safety plan. Dealing with encampments on our streets. Our encampment plan. Dealing with public safety, even putting in place our anti gun unit, shootings are down. Each time you put in a plan, coordinate and execute, we're seeing results that we stated we were looking for.

So, I'm excited about 2024. I said 2023 was going to be my Aaron Judge year and it darn sure was. We hit it out of the park. A number of records we were able to break. Now I'm looking towards 2024. I don't know if I'm going to do a Steph Curry or LeBron James, haven't figured it out yet, but it's going to be a real year to win some real championship for the people of this city. Why don't we open it up?

Question: Good morning, everyone, Happy New Year. Mr. Mayor, how are you executing the plan now that migrants are coming in by train and trying to circumvent your bus order? And number two, how do you execute the plan to eject the vendors from the bridge?

Mayor Adams: First, what Governor Abbott has done in his total reckless disregard for using people as pawns, he has shifted, and he just wants to create chaos. We can't be so stagnant that we don't respond to his shift. And that is what we're going to do. We're going to be extremely calculative in how we do it, utilize our manpower and resources and utilize our executive order powers to not just be stagnant. We put out an executive order. If he's shifting, we're going to shift. That's what the corp counsel and City Hall counsel… Lisa has been amazing and thinking one step ahead.

And we coordinated and communicated with the municipalities in the area. They all should do the same EO. They should look at everyone that has the train line that leads into the city. Everyone that has municipalities around us, they should do the same thing with EO. This is what we learned from Chicago. He tried it in Chicago also. We're dealing with a person who just wants to disrupt. It's not just about raising the attention on an issue. This is a mean‑spirited way using people and disrupting municipalities, not only in this region and in other parts of the entire country.

We're going to pivot and shift and be prepared to send the right message to the bus operators, you should not participate in the actions of Governor Abbott. Brooklyn Bridge, do you have a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Deputy Mayor Levy: I'll get it. You can keep talking.

Mayor Adams: I was driving across the Brooklyn Bridge, I think it was Saturday, I called Fabien and I said can you get a photographer out here to take a picture of this bridge? People couldn't walk.

It's not only a sanitary issue, it's a public safety issue. People were jumping over the bridge onto the bike path because we came to a blockage. And so I'm not quite understanding those that are not clear that you can't have a bridge lined up on both sides with vendors selling all sorts of items and it created this bottleneck.

So, if you needed an emergency egress to get off the bridge, people would have trampled over each other. We need order in this city. That is one of our major landmarks, and, Meera, you can go into what our initiative, what we have started. We're going to clear that bridge of vendors. Now, if other electeds decide they want to counteract what we want to do, we can only do what we do.

Question: So, if they're still there tomorrow, [inaudible] if they're still there tomorrow are you physically picking up their stuff, moving it out. How are you enforcing it?

Mayor Adams: Hold on one moment. I want to get this clear. This is a very important point we need to understand in the city. NYPD locks up people. The other parts of the criminal justice system on serious crimes, they determine if they're going to stay in. We're going to clean up the bridge.

If other forms of our legislative body decides we don't want the bridge cleaned up, we can only do what's in our power. And I'm saying to New Yorkers that the policies that are being implemented by some, a small numerical minority of electeds in the city, they're implementing policies that have been implemented in other cities, and we are witnessing the just dismantling of public safety in those cities.

We have been successful here in holding back some of those policies. But the policies that are being implemented: public urination, public injection of drugs, vendors everywhere, crime, we've been fighting back, this administration. But if we're saying that we want our city to go down the route of other cities, there's not much we can do.

We're going to confine with the law, but New Yorkers need to be clear. Look at other cities. And we need to ask ourselves, is this what we want for our city? And I say no to that. And I think the overwhelming number of New Yorkers embrace my belief that we don't want our city to look like some of the other cities and the policies that were put in place to create that environment. And the vendoring on our bridge is a symbol of the type of policies that people are trying to implement. Go ahead, deputy mayor.

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Thank you. I want to follow up and highlight what the mayor was talking about around safety. The Brooklyn Bridge is a major pedestrian thoroughfare, New York City is back, people want to be in public space. They celebrate the public space. It's where communities are made. It's part of our social economy.

In 2021, on an average weekday we'd have about 17,000 pedestrians cross that bridge. By 2022, that had gone up to 34,000. And the numbers continue to rise. This is something that's extremely positive and is a real sign of life in New York City. But it's also a safety concern. At its widest point, that bridge is 16 feet. At its narrowest, it's five feet.

It's crowded on a regular day. If there's an emergency, it's a life‑threatening experience. And so we have to make sure that our major pedestrian thoroughfares are there for pedestrians so that the public can use them. So, they're there for the greater good, and we are certainly understanding that some people have been vending on that bridge for a while.

We flyered, we let them know, the rules were initially published in October. There was a lot of press, thanks to many in this room, about the current conditions and what the rulemaking would do. It's been several months. We've gone through the administrative rulemaking process. Flyers went out. DOT will be holding property, if it's left on the bridge, at a safe and convenient location so people can come by and pick it up.

And it's absolutely about education, showing people where they can vend legally in the city, and there are many streets in the city where people can vend legally and making sure that they understand this transition is happening, and we will not tolerate disobedience, but we certainly are not going to be surprising anyone in terms of the fact that the transition is happening and we will help accommodate you getting your stuff off the bridge, but we're not going to tolerate continued vending on the bridge after the rule goes into effect.

And I think New Yorkers are going to really appreciate the change. They're going to appreciate being able to walk across that bridge, have the freedom to move freely. I was joking early, literally stretch their arms out because there is space finally, and it is really one of the most iconic and beautiful structures in the city, and it's time for us to be able to celebrate it and see it for what it is.

Mayor Adams: And Juliet, I just cannot emphasize enough that the overwhelming number of New Yorkers, they want clean streets. They want an organized city. There's a small number of people, they want to legalize prostitution. They think it's all right for someone to put a camp in front of your house. They think it's okay for people to deal with serious mental health illness and they should be allowed to stay on the streets although they can't take care of themselves.

It's just a philosophical difference in this city that I said it a few weeks ago and I'm going to say it again. The overwhelming number of New Yorkers want an organized, clean street and not anything and everything goes. When we went to clean up the plaza on [Roosevelt Avenue,] where you saw brothels, prostitution, you saw people selling food under pigeon droppings. We went out there to clean it up.

There was a small number of electeds that were saying no, leave it alone. This city is too diverse, too complicated, and too many different ways of life for us not to have clear directions on what we expect from our neighbors and what we expect from the residents of the city. That's the clarity I'm going to represent.

And I can do it within my power. And a small number of people are going to push back. But we're going to push hard to fight for this city to be a city that's orderly run. We shouldn't have mopeds driving up and down the blocks, going down one way streets and driving on sidewalks. You look at these quality of life issues that we are fighting for. A small number of people are trying to fight to not stabilize this amazing city that we have. And I'm just not going to surrender to the loudest. The loudest is not the majority.

Deputy Mayor Levy: The photos I was just showing we'll send it around as well. I just want to show this one video that we saw on Twitter. There's four here. Hold on, let me just get it up. Look at the danger of this. Someone literally climbing up on a barrier and jumping off from the pedestrian walkway onto a bike pathway. We'll send around this tweet. This is just a public tweet.

Mayor Adams: And imagine someone yells a fire, someone hears a car backfire and thinks it's a shot. You have a stampede on that bridge. Idealism can't collide with realism. Just throwing out these policies without understanding how would it impact public safety. I have to think that through.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I know that you signed an executive order to keep the buses from coming into New York City. I know that you've asked people in the surrounding communities to sign similar executive orders, which they have not done. But people are still being let off in New Jersey communities and coming into the city. Have you thought about the idea of sending NYPD police officers to stop the buses from letting people off at these places in New Jersey at the train stations to keep them from coming into New York?

Mayor Adams: Lisa, can you go into what our strategy is around that? But we are going to really make sure we utilize all of the resources we have within the law. We're not going to do anything that goes against the law, but we have done a great job of communicating with the municipalities around us. I got a call, I'm going to do one with the governor of New Jersey who has just been a real partner with us, and we want to continue to utilize all resources that we have. Lisa, you want to go into some of our strategies?

Lisa Zornberg, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: First one correction, the town of…  I've never been accused of speaking too low so that's great. The town of Clarkson just for… Clarkstown, did issue an EO that's in the county of Rockland County. So, whether the town supervisor there knows it or not he joined the city's coalition and the city has in fact called upon and encouraged all surrounding counties in New York, New Jersey, elsewhere, to issue similar EOs to what New York City has done. So, we may be seeing others after the new year coming out of other locations. 

What's happening right now is bonkers. What Texas is doing is bonkers. It is financing a state operation to send hundreds and thousands of migrant individuals, recent arrivals to the United States, to New York City. The governor of Texas has proudly broadcast tens of thousands. He will not stop until national immigration policy is changed.

Will Texas coordinate in telling us when buses are departing or arriving? No. Particularly since September 2023, they have tried to shut off communications. So that we have ghost buses, buses arriving en masse, anytime of day, anytime of night, on the weekends, when we're least able as a city to staff and meet any emergent needs of people coming off the buses.

So, New York City responded, similar to what Chicago did, very commonsensical. Law and order to help us manage this humanitarian crisis. Executive order, give us 32 hours advanced notification. Tell us that the bus is coming into New York City. Let us know how many children do you have on board? How many adults, families do you have on board?

Since we issued that executive order, not one bus from Texas has complied. Not one. The strategy which we believe is being directed by the state of Texas is purposely to try to evade the executive order, and now what you're seeing is the same buses from Texas paid for by the state of Texas that were previously dropping off at Port Authority, are now dropping off at train stations in New Jersey, at Trenton, at Secaucus. Other places in Jersey and reportedly providing tickets, one way tickets from those train stations to come into Penn Station.

As the mayor said, we're going to explore every possible option. But just to be clear, our goal is not to hold any of this chaotic tactic against the migrants who are arriving; we're going to continue to be decent and humanitarian, this is a humanitarian crisis, but to be able to manage this crisis, we have to do everything we possibly can. And the bus companies themselves really need to take notice that they are exposing themselves if they purposely seek to evade this executive order and harm New York City by participating in what really is a bad faith plan at this point to hoist thousands of vulnerable individuals onto buses, on trains, to bring them to a city without any coordination whatsoever.

Question: I want to make sure I understand this. Basically what you're saying is that you're going to explore the possibility of using NYPD police officers to stop people from coming from New Jersey into New York?

Mayor Adams: I use this term often, everything is on the table that is in conformity with the law. We are dealing with a bully right now, and everything is on the table that conforms with the law. Our legal team and corp counsel and my special counsel here have spent the entire holiday weekend looking at every option that is available to us.

Question: Can NYPD officers go to New Jersey and get New Jersey police officers to help them to stop the buses from coming? What's legal? You talked about what are the options. What are the options?

Mayor Adams: That's what we're exploring. This is new territory, and we are looking over every authority that we have and really have to commend my special counsel and the corp counsel, they are looking over every authority we have because we're dealing with an unprecedented situation of a person that's trying to destabilize cities. Chicago, as well as Denver, New York City, Massachusetts. So, this is unprecedented.

What I'm pleased about that our voice was the single voice in '22, and now there's a chorus that's building that people are realizing that this administration, we're doing the right thing. But they're realizing that you can't ignore this problem. This is a real problem. And the governor of Texas continuously states that while you guys are a sanctuary city, that has nothing to do with this. These people are paroled into the country. They're legally here.

And being a sanctuary city has nothing to do with this at all. These are people who are paroled into the country. And while they're here, we are obligated by what the city has pushed. That's why we're in court now to say the right to shelter should not have an impact on this migrant crisis.

Question: This is a bizarre case of poker where you say I'm going to issue an executive order to prevent, only  having buses coming only in at a certain time. I'll see that bid but now I'm going to send them to New Jersey. It keeps going.

Mayor Adams: You do until he throws in his hand. We're going to win because we're on the side of right. We're on the side of right that human beings should not be treated in an inhumane manner. And so he's not on the side of right. Our country has always been a country of immigrants, a country of rules and regulations, and we will utilize those rules and regulations to stop what he's doing to cities in America. New York is a city where we fight bullies. And others are joining us.

Zornberg: And this cries out, again, for a federal response.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Zornberg: It's high time that the federal government step in with a national decompression strategy.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Let me just jump in one thing. One thing you just said, Marcia, it's a game of poker going back and forth. The mayor always talks about, and every time someone asks me about this, this is what I think about.

The mayor always talks about his love for Madam Secretary. I like comic book movies. And “The Dark Knight,” this line that comes to mind when I think about Greg Abbott. Alfred is talking to Bruce Wayne about the Joker and his evil tactics.

And there's a line in it that some men can't be reasoned with or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. Greg Abbott is that man. He can't be reasoned with. He can't be negotiated with. He just wants to watch this country burn.

Question: The same as Marcia’s question, I wanted to ask about the executive order. It seems to be backfiring not going the way you wanted instead of coordination seems to be getting more chaotic. Is there any thought that maybe the executive order could have been written differently?

I'm also wondering, the communication with these New Jersey municipalities, what does that look like, what's their understanding of how the executive order works and what prior communication you had with them before the order went into effect? Separately, can you talk about the earthquake that happened in Queens earlier today. Any information you can give us about that?

Mayor Adams: The executive order is not backfiring. We spoke with our colleagues in Chicago who told us that this is what Governor Abbott did in Chicago. He started dropping people miles away and telling them that you are in Chicago proper. And so we are continually anticipating the move of his actions. And what I am really excited about is that we are not willing to be just stationary. If we have to change the EO. We'll change the EO. If we have to alter the EO, we have to alter the EO. 

This is what we're dealing with now. We're looking at a person who is focused on disruption. If we don't address it based on his goal, we have to be clear on his goal, his goal is to disrupt. And so the EO is only the first level that we're going to continue to modify, shift procedures, processes, to really push back on what Governor Abbott is doing. Let me talk about the earthquake. I didn't feel it.

Camille Joseph Varlack, Chief of Staff to the Mayor: I think we generally know that there was an explosion on Randall's Island, but it turns out it was a earthquake, probably along the lines of 1.7 and we're waiting to get additional information.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Roosevelt Island not Randall's Island just to be clear. 

Question: So there wasn’t an explosion?

Deputy Mayor Levy: No.

Joseph Varlack: No. Correct.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Happy New Year to the team. I was going to ask a question along the same lines of Marcia. Two Saturdays ago I hosted an end of year gala for the Reset Talk Show and the big talking point was about the migrant crisis, and a few people stated, listen, the mayor at least try to push back one bus. It will make us feel better.

And it's reported that there's this executive order. So, I'm glad you could expound on that a little bit simply because it will make some of the New Yorkers feel better if they know that you're fighting for them. My second question is, minimum wage. It's a new law. Is it across New York City?

Mayor Adams: Maria can go into minimum wage. But, listen, I'm blown away at some of the most intelligent New Yorkers in this city, when I move around the city. I say this over and over again, who are not aware that we can't stop the buses from coming in. Who are not aware we do not have deportation status. Who are not aware that we cannot turn those who commit crimes over to ICE.

They're just rules that everyday New Yorkers are not aware of. And we need to really continue in 2024 educating New Yorkers on the fact that over 57 percent of those who came in, we were able to self‑sustain. That we have been educating the countless number of children, that we are operating within the restrictions of not only federal law, but city and state law.

So, we were dealt a hand, using Marcia’s poker analogy, we were dealt a hand and we played the hell out of that hand. What this administration has done, international and national leaders have looked at it and said, it's amazing what you have done in this administration.

And so this is the hand we were dealt. And everyday New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet, they're not weeding through all the layers. All they know is we have a mayor and we have a migrant crisis and the mayor did not fix that migrant crisis. We have to show them that the national government has dropped this into our lap. Let Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer.

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: On your second question. Happy New Year to everyone in the room. Minimum wage did increase from January 1st from $15 to $16. That's obviously really good news for New Yorkers, more money in the pockets of workers.

I think in many ways part of what has been a concerted effort from day one of this administration to make sure not only do we grow jobs in New York, and if anyone followed the job numbers from last month, we are now at 4.132 million private sector jobs. That is the most number of private sector jobs in the city's history.

But part of that work, in terms of our economic recovery, isn't just the number of jobs, but also making sure the quality of jobs and the increase in wages. And so the increase of the minimum wage is a good thing. It really complements other efforts like all the work we have done, for example, for app‑based delivery workers to make sure that they are now earning more sustainable wage. All of the work in terms of free tax prep, all of the work in terms of consumer protection, really a panoply of different tools to make sure that we're getting money into the hands of New Yorkers. And that will continue this year so that we not only increase jobs, but really increase opportunity for families across the five boroughs.

Mayor Adams: Crime is down, jobs are up, tourists are back. That's what I ran on.

Question: Mayor, you said you want all these municipalities to do their own EO. You also said to a couple of folks that the idea of outsmarting Abbott is that eventually he'll fold his hand. But until and unless those other two things happen the net effect of your EO so far is that the migrants who are coming here have a longer journey. They're on a bus. They get off in Secaucus, now they have to take a train as well. You said at the outset it wasn't your intention to punish the asylum seekers, but right now isn't that what's happening?

Mayor Adams: No, I don't think so. I think there's a process to get to an end result. The first order of business was to demand the coordination with Governor Abbott and the bus companies. Demand these bus companies comply. That's the first line we're saying if you come into our city you're going to comply with these rules.

Clarity is the key. Now, we get our other municipalities to put in place the same order. Clarity, if you're coming here, coordination. That's what we're asking. We're not stating that if a migrant or asylum seeker comes here we're not going to do what we have done for this period of time, but we must lay down the rules of if you come to our city, this is what's expected of you.

And I keep saying this over and over again. On everything we do in this city, New York City is a place of rules. It's a place of law and order. Not unlawfulness and disorder. And this is no different. We're saying that if you come to our city, you're a bus operator, this is what you must comply with. If you try to go to other municipalities outside our region, we want them to join like they're doing in Chicago.

Question: …Talked to Governor Murphy, is that today, and are you asking him to maybe do a statewide EO that would obviate the need to go to every single municipality?

Mayor Adams: The team, Tiffany Raspberry, IGA, she’s reaching out to the governor's office and we're seeing how we can collaborate together. Cause we don't want to spill over into another part of the city or our neighboring state.

So, we think there's real room for collaboration, like we've done with the other cities. Our goal was very clear. We want to build a coalition of mayors and governors like the Massachusetts governor has been strong on this issue. That's our goal. And I'm going down to the Associations of Mayors and we're going to raise it as well.

We all need to be responding to this. And I think that we're making a big mistake that we are looking at the sink that's overflowing and not the faucet. The national government needs to fix this problem. We've got 3,000 migrant asylums last week. 3,000. The national government must fix this problem. And I'm surprised our attention is not on the fact that this should not be happening to New York City, Chicago, Denver, Houston, El Paso, Brownsville, Texas. This should not be happening to cities. I'm clear about that. It's not just about New York. No city should be going through this, and it's not sustainable.

Question: Happy New Year, Mr. Mayor, everyone else.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm good. Thank you. I just wanted to ask you a question about something you said. Last week, something you said, this morning on our air on FOX 5 and something you just said a few moments ago. You said migrants are responsible for some crime here in the city. So I want to be very clear, do you believe that migrants are committing crime here in the city, and what data are you using to back that up?

Mayor Adams: Do I believe that there are some migrants who are committing crimes in the city? Yes. Yes. There are people who are committing crimes in all walks of life. It's not just migrants and asylum seekers. I think that we have a number of migrants who have committed crimes. We have a number of nonmigrants who have committed crime. I don't want anyone walking around the GLA increase we saw in the city was just migrants. No, it was not. It was long‑term New Yorkers who committed GLAs also. But are there some crimes that migrants have committed? Yes, there are.

But remember what I said last week. You place a person in an environment where they can't work, can't provide for themselves, they have to just sit around all day, that's not a good scenario. That's not a good scenario. And that is what we need to focus on. What environment are we creating in these cities?

Question: What data are you using to back that up? What data, what data points?

Mayor Adams: There was a robbery pattern, for instance, that when we looked at it, we identified that robbery pattern, there were some migrants that participated in that robbery pattern. Every robbery pattern we have in the city is not done by migrants, but we identified that this was a robbery pattern and there were migrants who participated in that robbery pattern.

Question: Happy New Year.

Mayor Adams: Hey, Mike, how are you?

Question: I'm good. So I had a couple of questions. The first one has to do with sanctuary city status. You talked about this a bit earlier today. And you said something to the effect that the law isn't being used the way it was intended. So, this is with Rosanna Scotto, I believe. So, from your point of view, can you clarify that? How was it intended to be used from your perspective? How should it be used? And do you feel that it's time that the sanctuary city law and the city be suspended? That's the first one.

The second one, real quick, is…

Deputy Mayor Levy: Can you repeat that question, Mike?

Mayor Adams: I know what he said, but I…

Question: Should it be suspended? The second one has to do with, I was out on break for this, but Phil Banks was I think referring to clown hour, clown time, something with clown came up while I was away. I want to ask you, it seemed a bit ad hominem to me.

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry. You need to tell me what you mean by that.

Question: An attack against a person, like a disagreement over the thing. So, do you feel that that sort of thing is appropriate, like that kind of decorum? Do you feel like there's some onus on the administration to kind of foster decorum that's not along those lines?

Mayor Adams: No, I think that is a great point that you raise. First, let me deal with… I was talking about right to shelter. If I said sanctuary city, I want to be clear. I'm talking about right to shelter.

We don't believe right to shelter should apply to a humanitarian crisis. That's what we believe, and we're in court right now, clearly articulating that the forefathers and forewomen, mothers of that law did not think that one day we were going to talk about 160 something thousand people showing up at our door. That is what I believe we need to modify. So if I use the term sanctuary city, that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about right to shelter.

Zornberg: Can I just jump in there to provide what I think is a purposeful mixing up of terms sometimes that you see, for example, from Governor Abbott and others. When Governor Abbott tweets out that he's going to direct busloads or planes with asylum seekers to sanctuary cities, let's be clear just for a moment, I think he's trying to confuse that with right to shelter.

So, in New York City, we have the Callahan decree that we're in court about, which imposes certain obligations under a decree. Chicago, as far as I know, Illinois, has no right to shelter. Denver, as far as I'm aware, has no right to shelter. So, you have the situation, I think there's an intentional conflating of terms.

But when we talk about chaos and we talk about humanity, let's be clear. The state of Texas is purposefully sending thousands of migrants to cold locations who have no system or legal requirement to provide a right to shelter. And I just think that we should be clear about what the terminology is.

Mayor Adams: Listen, we should always show the proper decorum. Use proper communication. We should not be mean‑spirited on what we do, and I know it's hard for many people who are sitting in the seats where you are to clearly identify that. Some of you have been very mean to this administration. Some of you have distorted what we've said.

There are days that I would leave press conferences and I would ask myself were we all at the same press conference? So there are some people in administration who have been fighting on behalf of New Yorkers of… They express themselves, and I think that some of the meetings that we've had where people just look at the comparisons of what we have done and they walk away saying, like, what is the mission here?

What are we attempting to do? What are we trying to display? How do you walk away after two years of me being in office and not realizing how I manage the city. I mean, how do you not see? I ran on bringing down crime. Crime is down. I ran on returning our economy. The economy has returned. More private sector jobs in the history of this city.

Education. Our education numbers. Outpacing the state. Tourism. Fourth highest in history. I mean, so when you get someone like Phil and many of our others, I think the patience that this team has shown of just the unwillingness to say, okay, let's critique this administration, but darn it, part of that critique should be that they inherited Covid. They inherited 165,000 migrants, a city larger than Albany, and in spite of that, our numbers on housing, our numbers on jobs, Earned Income Tax Credit, getting stuff done in Albany, so when you get a response like that, no matter who we are, we're still human beings, and people respond differently of how people treat them.

I don't know that decorum has been 100 percent even the side of who has been reporting this administration. I remember the story you did when you talked about the fact that… What did you call that list, the DMO list? You didn't even mention that the other elected officials were on that list. It's like you guys are conveniently, you conveniently…

Question: We did the story.

Mayor Adams: Okay. I'm sorry, you did the story?

Question: My colleague did.

Mayor Adams: Okay. My apologies to you. But your paper conveniently missed that other electeds are on that list. It's as though I'm trying to figure out the goal. Sometimes we sit down and we talk, it's like what's the goal here? What's the goal? Is the goal to say that my administration is incompetent? When all of the data shows not only are we competent, but we have weathered the storm that… What other administration has gone through this? And we have weathered the storm.

And look at my other cities and my other colleagues. When I speak to my other mayors, they say, Eric, how the heck are you guys doing this? But you pick up the dailies and you would not think that. You would think from picking up the dailies that this is a group of people that are not doing their job, and we're doing the job.

So, we need to have decorum and that's something I believe in. I joke and kid with you guys. There's nothing personal here. Our job is to be critiqued, but I know this administration is doing a great job under very difficult circumstances.

Question: Mayor Adams, Happy New Year to you and the team.

Mayor Adams: Happy New Year.

Question: Have you considered a push to reverse sanctuary status?

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Have you considered a push to reverse sanctuary status or do you believe in the tenets of it?

Mayor Adams: Sanctuary status? No, because that's not the case here. These people are paroled into the city. They don't fall under sanctuary city status.

Question: But to come to the city, though?

Mayor Adams: When I went down to the Darién Gap, it was clear to me that the desire of people coming to America, the propaganda that's being used. One of our colleagues was saying that they were on a plane coming from Arizona and almost 80 percent of the people on the plane were migrants and asylum seekers taking pictures of themselves saying we're here in America. And so I don't know if that's the answer. The answer is for our national government to resolve this issue. That's the answer. Tinkering around the edges is not going to, I believe, do the job.

Question: Happy New Year Mr. Mayor and everyone. Mr. Mayor, I want to pivot to education and to this upcoming legislative session. So, first question on education is, are you planning on seeking any changes to that unfunded class size mandate law? Because it's already starting to have an impact and a very negative impact and it's unfunded.

And then my second question, Mr. Mayor, with regards to mayoral control, what are you seeking with renewing mayoral control and are there any other changes to the current governance system that we have that you are seeking perhaps changing the number of members; it's a bit unwieldy right now. And last but not least what are your legislative priorities, your other legislative priorities, for this session?

Mayor Adams: I met with the team: Tiffany Raspberry, Ingrid, Diane Savino, former state senator. We had a conversation the last few days about focusing in on that. Number one, mayoral control, I want the same thing that my former mayors had. We have two public school, we have a public school mayor and public school chancellor.

We understand the importance of quality education and both of us had two different experiences. I would like the same thing they had. They were allowed to turn around the school system. We're seeing some real productivity in the Department of Education. Everything from giving our children quality food to what we've done with Summer Rising, through the test scores outpacing the state. We're seeing some real Ws, I think give us the opportunity to continue like we gave to other mayors.

Second is cannabis enforcement. It needs to be localized. We need to close down these cannabis shops. If I'm given the enforcement opportunity we'll close the shops down in 30 days. They're making a mockery of the process and we need to make sure that we close them down. Housing, everyone talks about the need of housing. Yet we got nothing out of Albany last year in housing. That just can't happen. We have to deal with the inventory issue that we're facing. We're doing our part here with Dan Garodnick and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer. We’re going to do our part and we'll push through, but we need help in this issue around housing. And the migrants and asylum seekers. We need the support on the state level to make sure that we can manage this crisis that's impacting the economic engine of the state, which is New York City.

If you look at the four huge areas, those are huge areas for us, and as you said with the class size, manner, I think that the ideal of that legislation gets in the way of the real of making sure we're not taking resources from those schools that are in greater need. That's going to be part of our agenda when we go to Albany.

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm great. Happy New Year. I know you mentioned previously to go down to D.C. taking faith leaders with you, I want to know when do you plan to visit D.C. next. And my question related to what other people asked, when you announced the executive order did you not foresee that people would somehow circumvent the rule and have you had conversations, I know there's things on the table but were you surprised… I don't know if Lisa Zornberg wants to answer, but were you surprised to hear even hearing the executive order the thought they're just not going to come in the city, they're finding other ways, what was your initial reaction was?

Mayor Adams: First, D.C., I think I'm going to D.C. on the 17th or 18th to meet with the mayors across the country because I want them to get more engaged in this.

And we learned about the layers of doing this from Mayor Johnson in Chicago. And he stated that they started after he put in his EO, they started dropping off outside. And so we knew there was going to be layers, and we're going to continue to respond based on the layers because this is a diabolical plan by this governor and we're going to have to respond based on what he's doing.

And we did have communications with our other municipalities in the region. We did speak with them, communicated with them, and we want to encourage them all to put in a similar EO. That's our goal. We had 164,000, almost 165,000 people who have come here, 57 percent we have been able to get stabilized because of the job that this team is doing.

And so Governor Abbott and the bus companies need to coordinate to make sure we can use our manpower correctly, make sure we could have the space correctly and do it in an organized timeframe that we could do it correctly so we don't have disorder in our city.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Katie, I would add again to the point the mayor made. We were in contact with officials in both New Jersey and in New York State and the surrounding counties before the EO was issued, specifically because we knew what he did in Chicago. So, we wanted to make sure that did not happen. 

That's why the mayor has been very clear. Every town, every county on a Metro North line, on a New Jersey Transit line should be issuing a similar EO right now to stop Abbott from, we've spoken… No, no, we’ve spoken to a number of counties and towns in Jersey and in New York state both right around here and even upstate. If he wants to go to Albany, for example, we're ready for that.

Mayor Adams: And the one that was issued…

Deputy Mayor Levy: We've spoken to a bunch.

Mayor Adams: The one that was issued, he doesn't realize it, but he joined our team. We want everyone else to do what he's doing. So, he blames me that he's issuing the EO. Actually, he can blame me as much as he wants. Just get more EOs. Call others to do it as well.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: And Katie, sometimes people don't realize the scale magnitude of what's going to hit them until it hits them. So, now that we've issued our EO and the other states have been impacted by it, maybe they'll understand the magnitude and scale and they'll join with us.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. Two questions. First, then, Is it fair to say that the goal of the EO is to spark, like, a large web of similar EOs across the region in a way that will somehow ultimately stifle the Abbott bussing? Is that the idea and do you plan to also seek an EO that would apply to planes coming through the Port Authority and whatever other means of transportation people use?

And then second question is, you've talked a lot about how average New Yorkers seem not to understand that you can't just deport migrants. If you could deport them, would you?

Mayor Adams: Let me peel back each level. One, the goal of the EO is to coordinate people coming to our city so we can utilize our manpower better, so that we could utilize how to have spaces for people. So, that's the goal. The goal is not to have this cascade of EOs go out. That's a byproduct. The goal is to coordinate so that I don't wake Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom at three o'clock in the morning saying a bus was dropped off at a location in the Bronx somewhere. That's the goal.

The second is what people didn't understand, what are my abilities? And so when I talk about the list of things, it's because people came to me and said hey, why don't you deport people? I don't have that authority. The federal government that is that authority. Why don't you stop the buses from coming in? I don't have that authority.

So, my goal is to answer the questions that people are giving to me that everyday New Yorkers have been giving to me and some of them are very knowledgeable but not aware of my authority. So now, would I deport or not? I'm not going to respond in hypothetical. If you do something that's harmful to the city repeatedly, I don't think you should be in our city. Our city should be a place of safety. It should be a place for those who appreciate being part of the American experience.

Question: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. Circling back to your meeting with Governor Murphy in the coming days or today. So Governor Murphy and a growing number of New Jersey towns are saying they're not going to welcome migrant seekers.

Aside from the executive order, what are you going to ask them to do? And why hasn't this united coalition been created prior to this, because now we seem like we're in this whack‑a‑mole situation of going to different train stations and there’s no executive orders. And to circle back with Fabien saying you guys have been in contact with all these towns. Was it before or after the executive order was issued?

Deputy Mayor Levy: Before.

Mayor Adams: He just said before.

Deputy Mayor Levy: And more after, but before.

Question: But coming in back to, are you looking to expand the executive order further building off what Dan was asking. In Chicago, they’re bypassing the executive order by sending people on planes. So what power does the city have and what are you exploring differently?

Mayor Adams: That is so important because New Yorkers have continuously asked why is this happening to us? And people have said, hey, mayor, why are you allowing them to do this to us? That's why we're in this important communication and education to let New Yorkers know I'm angry. They're angry. And where we need to have the anger pointed to. Because they didn't know. I mean, this is so new to everyday people watching their city being consumed like this.

And our goal is to educate New Yorkers where your anger should be pointed to and how we're going to use everything within our powers to make sure that, if there's things we can do to stop planes, like I said there was a plane that was diverted to Philadelphia because of smog. But it was coming here.

So, those who, like Governor Abbott, who want to do things that are disruptive, they're finding different ways to do it. So, we have to find different ways to stop them and fight on behalf of the city.

Question: Are you looking to expand the EO to cover things like planes, and what are you going to ask Governor Murphy to do, what can New Jersey do to help?

Zornberg: Let me jump in here. We are exploring together with our partners every legal option. And I think that's all we can say at this time. You used the word whack‑a‑mole. I use the word bonkers. Maybe another way to say it is wake up, federal government. Because it should not be, there are people's lives at stake here.

And to use the term whack‑a‑mole, which is what the state of Texas is looking to do, doesn't that just feel weird and out of alignment when we're talking about families with children? Just pause for a moment on that. But as New Yorkers, we're not going to take this lying down. We are going to continue to pursue and consider every legal option to maintain order and our ability to manage a humanitarian crisis.

Question: Happy New Year, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Happy New Year to you.

Question: I wanted to ask about New Jersey and just in general this idea that you called for which is a decompression strategy. Now, the governor of New Jersey last year rejected the idea of creating an emergency shelter in Atlantic City.

Given what's happening now, are you disappointed that he's not stepping up in this way to accept some migrants? And I wanted to also ask if there was an update on the outcomes of migrants who went upstate and whether you would like to ask the governor if she would do more in that regard and whether that's another option, which she did last year, which is relocating some people to other parts of the state who might need jobs.

Mayor Adams: And you said the magic term, who may need jobs. That's why we've been fighting for allowing people to work. When I look at any municipality… And we have many communications, we've had a great deal of communication with our colleagues across the state, and they're saying, Eric, we don't have a problem with taking migrants and asylum seekers. We just want them to be able to work.

I'm not angry at the governor who is saying let's let people work. We're all saying the same thing. The challenge of this policy, which I think is just so anti‑American… We allowed the Ukrainian citizens who came here, we allowed them to work.

We allow our immigrant communities to come here, we allowed them to work. This is so anti‑American. And if we don't get to the corner of this, okay, you could keep expanding this, but it's not sustainable. And we want to go to fix the problem while we are dealing with what Governor Abbott is doing, we want a strategy of dealing with the court strategy of the entire right to shelter. That's why we're in court tomorrow.

We're going to deal with the strategy of how do we get people to be self‑sustaining, that’s what Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom is doing. But we also need a federal strategy to slow this down, we have to turn off the faucet. So, Governor Murphy, I'm sure if we had people the right to work, he'd be more than willing to accept people into the state of New Jersey.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams‑Isom, Health and Human Services: Happy New Year. I have a cold. Everybody, make sure to test yourself. Covid and flu are going around. Make sure, everyone, stays well.

I wanted to talk about Governor Hochul. So, I think yes the folks that have been resettled up state are doing well and we have from the very beginning talked about needing to really resettle 1,250 families upstate. I think thus far Camille it's 80 families who have moved.

Joseph Varlack: …Eligible that are waiting to move up.

Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom: That's a problem because we can't be the only one on demand, provide shelter and do everything with the mandates that we have right now. And so I think it would help a lot if there was some way that the state could expedite that even moving people up who are eligible until they find the housing. I understand that it's a challenge, but I think all of us have to be in this together.

Question: What is the hold up that… 

Joseph Varlack: I think you would have to ask the state and I would encourage you to do that. But we have clearly created the pipeline that is necessary. They gave us criteria. They said that individuals needed to have completed their asylum application. Again, there are 300 families that are ready and willing to go upstate. Even if they need additional assistance. It's not assistance that any other county, any other city could not provide. What we're doing here is not unique.

Zornberg: [Inaudible] There have been a few questions to the mayor about New Jersey and I want to publicly thank the authorities in New Jersey who all weekend and since we entered our executive order and since before we entered the executive order, have been coordinating and completely cooperative with the City of New York, and it is greatly appreciated.

Question: Hi, mayor. Just a quick question about the Gowanus emergency shelter at 103 3rd Street. I just want it to be clear that the administration is aware that the site itself was being investigated by the [DDC] for soil vapor intrusion. And if that's the case, why make that decision and, lastly, are there any plans to either move migrants or find a new shelter if it's found that the air has contamination that's above the state standards?

Mayor Adams: Anne?

Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom: That shelter, from what I understand, I don't know if it was particularly for migrants, I have to look back at my notes. But it would go through the regular process, all the regulatory precautions we would need, including an environmental one. And if it was not fit for people being sheltering there, we would not have people there.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: And essentially saying that's the requirements we have with all of our regulatory agencies, they have to all of the centers have to go through the checklist. Ensure it's habitable. If it's not then we take it off the list.

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