Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on WCBS Newsradio 880

March 21, 2016

Wayne Cabot: There’s a proposal to build more housing for New York’s poorest – that goes for a vote this week, but joining us on the news line to talk about this and a number of issues, Mayor Bill de Blasio. First of all, Mr. Mayor, good morning. I think a lot of New Yorkers want to thank you for lifting alternate side parking rules today. It makes life a lot easier even though we didn’t get much snow. Where did the Mayor go?

Mayor: Right here.

Cabot: Mr. Mayor, are you there?

Mayor: Yup.

Question: Okay.  Hey, no alternate side parking rules – you don’t have to go running out at 11:30 am.

Mayor: There you go. It’s good news in the world.

[Laughter]

Paul Murnane: Are we saving a lot of money this year? I mean, compared to last winter. Is all that money that we’re not spending for plowing the roads and such – does that all go back into the kitty. How does that work?

Mayor: No, sadly because one storm we had was – you know – almost the largest in the history of the city in terms of snow. It actually ate up almost all the budget. So, really not the savings we would like given how mellow everything else was.

Cabot: [Inaudible] Go out of weather into our houses. We’d love to see rent in New York City at an affordable rate. That’s what you’re trying make happen – your housing plan. Tell us about where the City Council is taking us this week and who’s going to benefit?

Mayor: It will – well, people all over this city are going to benefit because this will be enough affordable housing ultimately for half-a-million New Yorkers. The legislation the Council will be passing today will be the most progressive affordable housing legislation for any major city in the country because it will require developers to create affordable housing. We never had this before in New York City. It used to be that developers pretty much got to do what they wanted, but now we’re saying under any major rezoning – anytime a neighborhood is rezoned or even a specific building is rezoned so it can become bigger – in the plan, the developer has to create affordable housing, literally, as a condition of building it. If they don’t create affordable housing they can’t move forward with the development. And this is going to give us so many more tools to create affordable housing. Our plan will build 80,000 new apartments for people all over the city. We have a particular focus on our seniors because we have so many seniors on fixed-income who need affordable housing. But we’re also going to be preserving 120,000 apartments that people are in right now. We’re going to be providing them the support, so they can stay affordable, typically, for at least the next 30 years. So, today’s a big day. It’s a day where we’re really secure affordable housing for the future of New York City.

Cabot: Do you see rent coming down ever in the city? One bedroom median rent is something like $3,100. What number would you like to see?

Mayor: I don’t know if I have a specific number. I can tell you I want to see rents come down and the couple of things I would say – we have to build a lot of affordable housing. That’s why this plan is so ambitious – enough for half-a-million people. We have to keep building market rate housing too. One way we help to the bring down the rents ultimately is to build more housing for the open market as well. And we want to see both kinds of housing built. We also have to protect the affordable housing we have. I’m doing a lot to protect the Housing Authority. We need to continue to protect the laws in Albany for rent-regulated housing, rent-stabilized, rent-controlled. So, it’s a lot of different pieces to keeping housing affordable. One of the things we’re very, very focused on is making sure people aren’t illegally evicted. So, now – it’s a brand new thing. You can call 3-1-1 and if you are being illegally evicted the city will provide you a lawyer for free to stop that. So, we need all of these tools, but in terms of does it ever come down – you know, across the long haul? I think that’s going to take creating a lot more housing to bring the rents down, ultimately.

Murnane: You mentioned the Housing Authority and what we’ve been hearing is that the federal government is taking a look at the issue of lead paint in NYCHA housing, and the possibility of some allegations that may be out there that there were maybe some false claims made. What can you tell us about this and the concern that you would have with the federal government taking a look at a city agency here on this?

Mayor: Of course we’re always going to cooperate with the federal government and work with them to find anything there is that needs to be found. But let me tell you what I think is really the good news here. New York City has had very, very strong legislation regarding lead paint for quite a while. We actually have some of the lowest incidents of lead paint poisoning of any major city in the country even though we’re an older city, and the kind of city you would expect to have the problem. For a long time the City of New York has been very stringent: lots of inspections, lots of remediation and that has certainly been true in the Housing Authority as well. So, that makes me hopeful. But look, if there’s anything that has been missed we got to find it. We’ve got to fix it. Our number one priority is protecting our people, keeping them healthy, [inaudible] and that’s the issue with lead. So, we’ll fully cooperate and anything we find we will fix immediately.

Cabot: Mr. Mayor, before you run do you want to visit Cuba at some point with the family? What do you think?

Mayor: Well, I have to tell you I’m so thrilled President Obama is there. I think this is something – you know – has been a mistake for a long time to have this rift between the countries and President Obama has done a lot to finally heal that wound and bring us together – where the country is 90 miles off our shores only. I’d love to visit at some point, but got to figure out when. But I think it’s a really important moment to see reconciliation, to see peace – and it’s definitely going to be good for the American people and for business with Cuba, and it’s absolutely going to be good for the Cuban people. And I think it will speed the day when it’s a more open democratic society.

Murnane: Let’s talk about some politics. Some of the candidates are jumping on the president’s trip to Cuba. But let’s talk about the Democratic side of this with New York State’s primary coming up – still about a month away – if we have a Bernie and Hillary fight going on in the New York primary. What do you do to try to and move the argument and how does this work for New York State if we still have this kind of neck-and-neck race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton when New York voters head to the polls on the 19th of April – I believe?

Mayor: Look, I think the New York primary is going to be important. Obviously, I’m a strong Hillary Clinton supporter, and I’ll be doing all I can to help her get out the vote. I think she’ll do very well here. I think this primary has been perfectly healthy for the Democratic Party. Real issues are being raised, the debates are serious and substantive.

I think people are encouraged, through this process, to want to get more involved and stay involved and certainly vote Democratic in the fall. So, I think it’s been very productive. I think Hillary is going to do great because she’s talking about the issues that matter. All of this frustration and anger that’s being incited around the country – that is about the fact that middle-class people and working class people feel they have been going backwards economically for the last 20 or 30 years. They are right, the numbers prove it. And Hillary is talking about the things that will fix it – raising wages and benefits – the kinds of things that will support families like Paid Family Leave and pre-k and paid sick leave; and raising taxes on the wealthy – so we can afford to do the things to fix New York City and so many other cities – invest in our roads and mass transit, schools – all the basics that the federal government hasn’t done enough of. Hillary would get that money by asking the one percent that has done so well to give their fair share. So, I think that message will resonate and everyone knows she has the capability. Everyone knows she can go into the White House on day one and know how to get things done. I think that’s what wins the day.

Cabot: Always great to hear the thoughts of the Mayor of the greatest city in the world, Bill de Blasio. Thanks again for coming on with us.

Mayor: And it is the greatest city in the world – once again, you’re right.

[Laughter]