Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls in Live to WABC's "Sid & Friends in the Morning" Radio Show

February 22, 2023

Sid Rosenberg: But joining me right now, guy that's become a dear friend, a man that works his tail off every day here in New York trying to improve this city, is the esteemed and honorable Mayor Eric Adams. Eric, my friend, how are you brother?

Mayor Eric Adams: Sid, how are you doing, man?

Rosenberg: I'm doing great. I got to tell you, a couple of weeks ago, I'm not going to mention his name and give him any more fame or his satisfaction. But some idiot wrote a story and you and I both don't like this guy, but he wrote a story about you and I. How a pro-Trump guy and a pro-Biden guy have become friendly and we talk every couple of weeks. And I have to tell you, Mr. Mayor, that more Democrats have stopped me over the last couple of weeks, and congratulated me on this relationship and said, "Let me tell you, the Adams-Rosenberg relationship is exactly what New Yorkers and politics need." So that guy actually did you and I a tremendous favor.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I agree. What is more American than people who could live among each other and have disagreements in certain areas? I don't agree with myself all the time, so how am I supposed to agree with other people? There's sometimes I go and grab a cigar with some friends, and they're totally opposite from me on some of the political topics, but we agree on the same foundational issue: our children should be safe. We should be able to educate our families. We should be able to walk through streets without someone causing harm to us. And we may have different ways of doing it, but why can't two working class New Yorkers be able to have some type of interaction and friendship when you want to foundationally say the same thing? So I agree, I heard the same from people saying, "Listen, to see you guys interact and talk." Your son is — I'm one of his favorite people.

Rosenberg: Yes. Yes. He was even in the story, my son. My son Gabriel has dyspraxia, you have dyslexia. He looks up to you. You're proud of him. And it's nice to see both guys with disabilities, you now the mayor and my son, doing some great things as well, including hitting baskets on the basketball court, which his doctor said he would never do. That's the beauty of all this. Right, mayor? That's the beauty here.

Mayor Adams: It really is. Let me tell you something. Learning disabilities or other disabilities, they do not have ethnicities attached to them. We both want the same thing. Just as my mom wanted the best for me when I grew up, you want the best for your son. And that is what's at the heart of the American dream. And so what? You disagree? Why should we be so insecure in who we are because we disagree? That's the problem, everyone wants to automatically cancel people out because they disagree with them on certain things.

Rosenberg: Right. Even the genesis of this conversation, if I'm going to be totally honest, Mr. Mayor, was a disagreement.

Mayor Adams: Right.

Rosenberg: I did not like the tweet that you sent out about Ron DeSantis. Now, I don't know DeSantis, he's not a friend of mine, you are. But I think he's a really good man, I think he's a tremendous governor. I think he's done a great job in the state of Florida. I don't think the stuff you put in that tweet was even accurate. He never said the word gay once in the Paternal Act though, so I'm not sure why he hates LGBTQ people, why he hates women because he may be pro-life. I happened to be pro-choice, so I thought it was inaccurate. I thought it was unfair, but I wanted to tell you that so you can answer me.

Mayor Adams: And isn't that the best part of our relationship? And people need to be clear on something, because you and I, we have a friendship, don't think that we don't debate on issues.

Rosenberg: Like right now.

Mayor Adams: People need to understand that, don't think that all of a sudden you believe he's a great governor. I don't line up to his political views on those important things. I'm not into banning books that are not harmful, or I don't think that we should do anything that's harmful to those who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. And I'm a big believer in women has — they have a right to choose of how they take care of their bodies. I'm a big believer in that. And listen, I'm a big believer on removing these guns up off the street. I don't support the Supreme Court decision of the open carry law. And those are the things that we are just in disagreement with.

Rosenberg: But I will say this, here's where it comes off tough for you. Okay, here's where it comes off tough for you. If all those things are true, and he's such a bad governor and so anti-American in all those respects, you're going to have to explain, mayor, why everybody in big numbers is leaving New York and going to his state. How do you explain that if in fact he's such a disaster?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that you look at some very important areas. It's extremely appealing and attractive when you look at our laws, our tax laws here and the tax laws in Florida. New York and California, we pay some of the highest income tax rates. That's real, that's a very real issue. But it's difficult when you have the city of this number, 8.5 million people. New York City has always had the Statue of Liberty in its harbor. You and I and others, our family came from different distant shores to come here and there's a lot of obligations that comes with that. But at the same time, this has been a place of prosperity and wealth.

He railed about crime. When people don't realize that when you look at the status of Florida's actually has a higher murder rate than New York City. Last year had a double digit — we had a double digit decrease in murders, and we are down 12.5 percent this year. But when you look at Florida per 100,000 residents, they have a 7.3 murders per 100,000 residents in '21, and ours was with 5.5 per 100,000. So when you rail about something about New York crime is an issue, the numbers just don't add up in comparison to Florida.

Rosenberg: Let's talk about crime for one more moment here. Then we'll move on to some of the good things that you've done the last couple of days. I love that Handschu agreement by the way. And you were up in Albany a couple of weeks ago and you are frustrated with Kathy Hochul. You are not going to say it publicly, I'm going to say it for you. She wants a lot of money from you. That's the bottom line. And I know how you feel Mr. Mayor, about crime in the city, bail reform and all those things. Yet there are some that said to me, "Once again, your friend had the opportunity up in Albany a couple of weeks ago, to really take Stewart-Cousins and Heastie and Hochul to task about bail reform. And again, he left and wasted another opportunity." Look, I think it's a bit unfair. I think that's piling on. I don't think they understand the nuances of your job on a daily basis, but that is something I heard about your last visit to Albany. Want to remark on that?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, you said the most important word, the nuances. When you look at last year, it was unbelievable how it was reported inaccurately that we had a terrible year in Albany. When you look at about the 12 things that we asked for, it was only two things we didn't get fully. We moved towards some real alterations in the criminal reform package. We wanted more. We didn't get everything we wanted, we wanted more, but we were successful in childcare. Unbelievable what we did around childcare and the money we got for low-income New Yorkers. We were successful around NYCHA Land Trust. People have been trying to do this for years, they couldn't. We got money to fix NYCHA and start moving in the right direction. We were successful with earned income tax credit, the first increase in over 20 years, putting money back in the pockets of families who are in need, real money.

We were successful in hotel conversions, so we could convert them into apartments. I could go item by item by item, knowing Albany, when you able to walk out of Albany with those substantial victories, that is a banner year. And we're going to do it this year, but you don't do it by just yelling and screaming. Carl Heastie, the leader of the Assembly, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leader of the Senate — they don't agree on everything, but we agree on the foundation and we have agreed to sit down. Let's lean into our agreement. Let's find ways to deliver for New York City. People can say what say they want about Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Carl has always been a protector of New York City. He will protect his entire state, but he's always made sure that New York City was not unfairly treated.

And one area of focus right now is the MTA dollars that are being levied on New York, half a billion dollars a year. No other municipalities being called on to do this. And it's just unfair. And I disagree with the governor on it. I shared that with her. And I'm going to fight like hell to make sure New York City is not treated differently throughout the state…

Rosenberg: Yeah, go ahead.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Rosenberg: Go ahead.

Mayor Adams: No, I was saying that when you look at it, when I needed her during the Subway Safety Plan, she rolled out the numbers becoming safe in our subway system. I was down in the system last night with the Channel 7 reporter. We were riding throughout the night. You see a qualitative difference with our police being out there and the decreasing crime. So there's a different energy, and we're trending in the right direction in this city.

Rosenberg: Yeah. I do tell Sliwa and Giuliani, not to your biggest fans, every day that when I hop on that 4 train, man, every morning and every afternoon, I do see cops every day and I take pictures sometimes and I send it to them to go, "You see that? The mayor ain't lying."

One thing that you and I are on agreement with, but again, people are like, "Well, now we're not so sure." Charter schools. Again, a couple weeks ago in Albany, it seemed like you were kind of wavering on your support for charter schools based on the money. You said once again coming from Hochul that it would cost this city. So people are — want to know straight up, Mayor Eric Adams, are you for charter schools or not?

Mayor Adams: And you know, the term wavering just came from the reporting. I have never wavered on my support of all schools in general, but specifically, with your answer, charter schools. Yes, I support charter schools. I support good schools of the district schools, which are also our public schools. Many people forget that charter schools are public schools and what we supposed to be doing, we should be looking at the successful schools and scale them up, duplicate them, not tear them down. And some of the terminology that was used to describe charter schools, you threw them all into one bucket and just attack just the name of the type of schools. And I do not believe that. We should not be saying that schools are bad just because of the types of name that they're called. I have been in good district schools. I have been in good charter schools and I've been in failing charter schools and failing district schools.

But let's look at the ones, district schools and charter schools, that are successful and let's scale them up; let's find out what are you doing differently so we can improve the education of our children. My job, Sid, last week was to say to the lawmakers, if we move forward with the proposed bill, this is what it would cost New York City. New York City is the only city in the state where we are handed the bill. If we don't put a charter school in a district school building, we must pay for the independent area that we place the school in. That's going to cost something. And I needed to share that with the lawmakers. And that was no way of saying I'm against charter schools because I am not. I'm in favor of good schools that educate our children, and I have witnessed the best in districts and charters.

Rosenberg: Mr. Mayor, I don't expect you to say anything negative about her personally. Again, you're on the same team. She's a Democrat governor; you're a Democrat mayor. But one of the things I took in all honesty, Eric, when you state in Albany was, and I kind of joked about it about five minutes ago, was that Kathy Hochul is placing way too high a burden on you and this city financially. Are you ready to say that the governor is really putting too much financial burden on you as the mayor of this city?

Mayor Adams: Well, I don't think that I have been leery about critiquing those who are my colleagues in government when I believe they are harming our city. I have never been leery about saying that. That is not the case with Kathy. Governor Hochul has been a friend and a partner on so many of these tough issues. I have visited her, spoke with her, communicated with her. When we were going through the crisis around Covid, I had to call on her several times. Had to call on her with the Subway Safety Plan, not once, but twice to put over 1,200 officers in our subway system when we were dealing with the concerns that people were having. Had to call on her with the migrant seekers and asylum seekers of when she brought the National Guard to come in.

And so I could call on her several times. And anyone that has a relationship with someone, there are times you're going to say, "Hey, I disagree." And I think that New York City, not only through this governor, but governors throughout history. People have always looked at New York City as the ATM machine for the state, and it's just wrong, particularly now when New Yorkers are facing some real issues and we're going to need Albany to really help us as we need the federal government as well.

Rosenberg: I have to tell you on the way out, Mayor Adams, that the story I really like, and I mentioned the Handschu agreement, which I think is terrific because it does do a really good job of a, respecting the certain Muslim community and at the same time respecting our police — so that's a great job, Eric. But I really love the reopening of the Boathouse. Can you tell the listeners about that, which is coming soon and all of the really cool people that are involved in getting that thing done?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, and I was excited about that. We were concerned because running the city of this size is not only substantive, but it's symbolic that the Boathouse was representative of where we're going, what direction we are moving in as a city. It was closed. People thought that we would not be able to find a vendor that would respect union jobs, and we were able to find Legend, the organization — a real entertainment company, we were able to ...

Rosenberg: That's the same Legend that the Yankees have, right? Same one, right?

Mayor Adams: Yes, it is. It is the same company that the Yankees — they're currently using as well, but in other entities across the entire country. But we were able to keep those union jobs pathway into the middle class. We were able to have a fine dining and entertainment, the boat rentals, all that. I was kidding with the joking. When I was a rookie cop, I used to rent those boats. It was a cheap date… (laughter) … didn’t make a lot of money, and it was just a real victory.

And really it's an indicator, Sid, when you look at it, of that just upgraded New York City's bond rating to an AA from an AA-. That upward revision comes just one year into our term, and it reflects the administration's strong fiscal management and our ability to make the tough but necessary decision. That's Wall Street looking at this mayoralty and saying, this guy is making these tough decisions, he's moving the city in the right direction, and those who are investors in cities are looking towards what I'm doing as a mayor of the city and this amazing team I have, and New Yorkers who are really able to put their head down and grind. That is our secret weapon. You can never count this out. We will complain and go at it with each other, but at the end of the day, we all walk away saying, Hey, we are New Yorkers and we are going to continue to stand strong together.

Rosenberg: Certainly you and I do that, Mr. Mayor. I can't thank you enough. Again, another great conversation. Thank you for coming on today, and really I enjoy when you're on. I enjoy meeting with you and I look forward to dinner next week with me, you, and DeSantis.

Mayor Adams: [Laughter] All right, brother. Take care.

Rosenberg: Mr. Mayor, thank you. You were really great. Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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