Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on WBLS 107.5 FM's "DJ S1 Saturdays"

February 10, 2024

DJ S-1: New York City, you know what it is, as I promised y'all, my man is in the building. I want y'all to welcome him strongly wherever you at. I don't care where you're listening at, I need y'all to welcome him strongly. His Honor, y'all call him the mayor, I call him my brother EA. Eric Adams is in the building.

Mayor Eric Adams: Hey Brother. It's just really good to, you know, just check in with you. And I just, I love the combination how you do current events with entertainment. And you know, folks get all their news from TikTok, Instagram and others, but this talk radio is powerful in our community. So, you know, thumbs up to what you're doing. Love it.

DJ S-1: I appreciate it, man. I mean, we call ourselves the key to the street, so. We gotta make sure we entertain them. You know what I mean? Entertain them and [inaudible] them, all right?

Mayor Adams: That's right.

DJ S-1: I know your show is tomorrow, but we're going to touch on a couple of things today. One of the big things that I saw out there was the World Cup finals coming to the New York, New Jersey area. Tell us about that.

Mayor Adams: Listen, this is so huge. You know, New York City has been in the media on a global scale for the wrong reasons, you know, from Covid, being ground zero, to other crime issues. And so now we get an opportunity to show how this city has recovered. Crime is down, jobs are up, tourism is back.

And we vied to get the World Cup finals here— not only the games, having eight games, but the finals. And now we're going to be on a global scale, billions of views, a million people are going to come here and visit and spend money in our community. We're expecting $2 billion in economic revenue.

And so everybody should get their hustle on and find ways to benefit from this. This is going to be a major, major event in the New Jersey, New York area. And they stated that they picked us over other municipalities because we're the safest big city in America and our diversity.

You know, we've got everybody from all of the Caribbean islands that love soccer, to, you know, part of the South America, Central America. This is a big win for us, and it says a lot for New York.

DJ S-1: Oh, man, it's incredible. I'm looking forward to it. I'm trying to figure out a way that I could benefit a little bit something, too. I mean, right? That's what New York City's about.

Mayor Adams: Right. 14,000 jobs are going to come out of this one event.

DJ S-1: Right. Right.

Mayor Adams: It's really huge.

DJ S-1: Right. Right. Which leads me to thinking, um, there's an initiative that you got going on in concern with the credit card system.

Mayor Adams: Right. Right.

DJ S-1: Can you tell me about that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. No, there was a report that, hey, they're giving credit cards to migrants, you know, to buy whatever they want. Listen, that is just not true, and that's so important why having conversations on talk radio like this, because you can dispel the rumors.

What we said is that we were spending too much money on food that by law we have to feed the migrants and asylum seekers. The team got together, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, they got together and said, let's find a less expensive way of doing it and invest back into the community.

So, we teamed up with this minority‑owned business called MoCaFi. They were able to get debit cards that will allow people to spend $13 a day on food and it will bring down the cost and the food waste we were doing. Imagine being given food that you don't eat, you're gonna discard it. This is going to save us $600,000 a month, $7.2 million a year.

And they're gonna take the debit cards and invest it in bodegas, supermarkets in the community. It's gonna be recycled back in our community, and not like it was done before, where you're like allowing large conglomerates to do it. This is a huge win for us, hats off to the team for figuring this out and partnering with the women and minority owned business.

DJ S-1: That's major. That is incredible. Great job by you and the city.

And I'm gonna hold you there for a second. If anybody is just tuning in, we have the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams on the line, and we're gonna take a quick break, I gotta pay some bills. And when we come back, we're gonna talk about another initiative you got going on, all right?

Mayor Adams: Yes sir.

[Intermission]

DJ S-1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you just joined me, I got my man EA, I call him EA [inaudible]. His Honor, the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams on the line. We just chompin' it up a little bit. You know, his radio show is tomorrow. Make sure y'all tune in, all right? I know you're getting ready for your Super Bowl, but make sure y'all tune in tomorrow morning because Eric Adams is on your dial and you're going to be talking to the city.

But in the meantime, I got him here now. EA, let's talk about this trash removal situation that you got in the works.

Mayor Adams: It's so important. You know, we're probably the last big city globally that still puts trash in plastic bags and it causes an unsightly conditions, rodents, smells. And so what we've done over the last two years, people said it was going to take us four years, but we've done it in a little over two years, we're transitioning all of our trash into bins.

We started with the food service business, then we went to small businesses. Now, those are small residential buildings; and eventually, we're going to cycle into residences as well. We're going to have a very low‑cost garbage container.

So, imagine, New York, no more passing by plastic bags with rats running out of them. You know I hate rats. You know, we're going to have a cleaner city. It's going to be aesthetically more beautiful, and it's something that people thought was not possible.

We even designed a side-loading sanitation truck that could pick up the garbage without a problem out of these large bins that we're gonna put in place. This is again, it's a huge W for us and it's a real transformation of the cleanliness of our city and how our streets are going to look.

DJ S-1: Mmm, that is incredible. I'm looking forward to it, because I can't stand rats, either, my Brother.

Mayor Adams: [Laughter.] Yes.

DJ S-1: Super Bowl is tomorrow night. Without putting you under pressure, but I'm gonna put you on the spot. Who you got? Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers?

Mayor Adams: I think, listen, I really think that San Francisco may pull this out, man. I wait for the Jets and the Giants to be back in it. You know, when I was growing up, my dad used to always say it doesn't matter who's on the field as long as it's a good game. I just want a good, competitive game where, you know, it could go down to the ending like, you know, remember the game with the Giants that they were going into the Super Bowl, that last game where they pulled it out.

That's what you want. Sports should be competition and excitement, and so long as it's a good nail biter, should come down to the last play of the last quarter. And that is how you get a good Super Bowl game to watch.

DJ S-1: That's what's up. Okay, I heard you say San Francisco, though. But that's all right.

Mayor Adams: [Laughter.]

DJ S-1: More importantly, 'cause I know my wife gonna wanna know that I said this. Are you looking forward to the Usher concert?

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt, man. You know, think about how big the halftime concerts are. You know? I know you had to had to see Mary J...

DJ S-1: Yes.

Mayor Adams: ...when she's performed. You know, let's think about it, Mary is still rocking, you know? And so Usher's coming on and performing. And you got to take your hat off to the NFL, because they realized that they needed to diversify their performance, they diversify their teams, they diversify in their attitude.

So, that's so important. Having Usher on a main stage when you have been, I think they have almost a billion views. It's a real good look. And you know, the brother is talented, his music repertoire goes back so many years just on the days when he first started out to now. I'm looking forward to the concert.

DJ S-1: With that being said, let 'em know about your radio show tomorrow so they can tune in.

Mayor Adams: Looking forward to it. We're on tomorrow on WBLS. I look forward to taking your calls, hearing from you and just getting your feedback. That's what it's about right now. Right now it's about some good conversation.

Instead of guessing and hearing from others what we're doing, call right in and speak to me one on one, just as you hear all the time from my Brother DJ S1. Good to be on with you, Brother. Let's keep doin' what we're doin'.

DJ S-1: I appreciate it, my brother. Listen, I'll be tuned in tomorrow. I'm gonna make sure these listeners are tuned in tomorrow. It was great talking to you. You know how we do, I talk to you soon.

Mayor Adams: Take care. Peace.

DJ S-1: Peace.

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