Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Participates in Town Hall Event in Bay Ridge

February 16, 2016

Marco A. Carrión, Commissioner of Community Affairs Unit: So, good evening everyone. And, thank you for attending our town hall in lovely Bay Ridge. So, before we hear from our mayor, I’d like to call up some of our special guests starting off with our Public Advocate, Tish James. Sure.

[Applause]

Letitia James, NYC Public Advocate: Thank You. So I welcome everyone to Fort Hamilton High School where Council Member Gentile and I graduated in year [cough].

[Laughter]

So it’s great to be back here at Fort Hamilton, a place where I used to run around the track and play a little bit of – with a volleyball, but it’s an honor and a privilege to be here with the Mayor of the City of New York; and, of course with Council Member Gentile and all of you. Thank you for having me. Thank you and I love Bay Ridge. Thank You.

Commissioner Carrión: Thank you so much. Next up I’d like to introduce your Congressman, Dan Donovan.

Congressman Dan Donovan: Thank you very much. Welcome Mayor. Thank you so much for coming to our community. And thank all of you for coming. You know, we talk about people who have no opinion. We talk about people who would sit home in inclement weather evening like this and not have an opinion not have coming out. We honor you for coming out to voice your concerns about our city, about our community. And we are here to listen. The Mayor’s here to answer some of those questions, but my folks and my fellow elected officials are here to listen to your concerns. You sent us to wherever you sent us. You sent me to Washington, you sent Tish James to City Hall. You sent us to places to serve you. We represent you. And so we are here to listen. I thank you very, very much for coming out tonight to share your thoughts with the administration and with all of us.

[Applause]

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for coming out.

Commissioner Carrión: Thank you so much, Congressman; next up your State Senator, Martin Golden.

[Applause]

Martin Golden, NY State Senator: How we doing? How many graduates here from Fort Hamilton, stand up? Stand up all the graduates from Fort Hamilton, stand up, C’mon. Stand up.

[Applause]

Be proud. I want to thank the Mayor of the City of New York for coming out here and for giving us an opportunity to hear and discuss the issues going on in our community. And of course we want to be able to talk about not just the agenda that is on today, but also about our MTA; making sure that we have that $29 billion budget that we get those express buses that we need. That we get the R train enhanced. That we get a reduction on that Verrazano Bridge like we get from the outer bridges coming into this great, great city. And I believe that the Mayor has full intent of doing that. He has appointments on the board and hopefully we can get those appointments to go along with that and to help us out and to making sure that we enhance those systems and of course our express bus service; and of course the illegal conversions that are going on through Dyker Heights and through Bay Ridge. We want to be able to make sure the impact that they are giving to our educational system – to our police, our fire, our hospitals – we want to make sure that that’s addressed, that we stop that. And I want to thank the Building Department, they stepped up to the plate. They are working but, we need more. We need more done on that issue. That is important.

Another issue that is very important to us is heroin. Heroin is killing our kids and our community; another one this weekend – 35 years of age, 27 years of age last week. Two doctors kids during the month of December. We have lost six kids in eight weeks. We need to do more in the area of heroin.   
         
[Applause]

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a task force coming up on heroin that will be at the [inaudible] on Columbus, on February 26th from two to five. We’re going to work with this mayor, work with this city and to make sure that we work with the state to address funding for this very, very important issue in our lives today. There’s also other issues that we can go on; the great job that the police department is doing. I got to tell you they are doing an outstanding job – our Fire Department, our Sanitation Department and the cleanup of that snowstorm – outstanding  job, but we need more.

We have a great institution here at Fort Hamilton [inaudible]. They need dollars to be able for capital dollars and you know what, there are mayoral dollars and some City Council dollars. And I am hoping that we can get in to our good commander at Fort Hamilton so that we can address those concerns and make sure that we address them correctly for our communities. There are so many more issues ladies and gentlemen, but I don’t want to take up any more time. I want to thank the Mayor. I want to thank the commissioners. I want to thank all of our units that are here today from the City of New York; our Council Member Vincent Gentile, my congressman, my assemblywomen, and of course Tish James and, of course, the Colonel of the military installation and of course the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for being here as well. Thank you very, very much.     
    
Commissioner Carrión: Thank you, Senator. Next up I’d like to invite up, Assemblymember Pamela Harris.

Pamela Harris, Assembly Member: You know, it’s an honor to be newly elected here and represent all of you because you were the ones who voted me in. I’m just – thank you, thank you very much.

[Applause]

Thank you, thank you.  I hit the ground running, day one. Day one, I walked in, I had no clue where the bill writer was but, I found them. And, I walked in with a illegal conversion bill already.

[Applause]  

Thank you. I walked in with a Medicaid bill and I walked in with a Medicare bill because we have to take care of our seniors.

[Applause]

It is so important that we make sure we take care of those that took care of us. We have a long night ahead of us. Again, thank you all so very much for believing in me. Thank you.

[Applause]

Commissioner Carrión: Thank you, Assemblymember, and now I’d like to introduce your Councilmember, Vincent Gentile.

Council Member Vincent Gentile: Thank you. Thank you all and good evening. Thank you for being here tonight. First I want to thank our co-host tonight also and that’s the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Carlo Scissura, who’s their president and CEO.

[Applause]

They both did a great job in promoting tonight’s town hall and you can see that by the turnout. You know folks, we in this neck of the woods of South Brooklyn consider ourselves a small town in a big city, right?

So as a small town, how do small towns get to know their leaders? They hold town halls, right? And that’s exactly what we’re doing here tonight – having a town hall. Except this time we have the leader of all the small towns in the Big Apple with us tonight, the Mayor of the City of New York.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

So I want to thank him for being here tonight and I also want to thank him for the access and the concern he’s had for this community. You know he is a Brooklynite and as a Brooklynite he knows – his house and his district were not far from here – so he knows what a good community is all about.

And so when I came to him and I said to him you know we don’t control the subways or the buses, but we have to do something to help commuters in this part of Brooklyn and he put together a five borough ferry plan and included Bay Ridge in that plan.

[Applause]

So in less than a year you will be able to take the ferry once again from the 69th Street pier and that’s great news because of the Mayor’s plan. And then he went a step further just the other day. He announced the BQX, the streetcar that you no longer will have to take public transportation to get to Queens. You won’t have to take public transportation into Manhattan then into Queens. You can go with the BQX and go straight from Brooklyn into Queens. It will be a great economic engine and that’s another plan by the Mayor. These are big visionary plans by the mayor and so I am really excited about that and all of the other things we’ll talk about tonight. I hope in the next coming months we’ll work together to other big vision plans. That includes as we said, curtailing the illegal conversions –

[Applause]

– and also curtailing the growing threat of the Shisha and Hookah smoking throughout with the youngsters in our community. So that’s something we’re going to continue. So, we have a tall Mayor with a big vision and that’s a good thing. And, we are so happy about. Thanks for being here tonight, Mr. Mayor.

Commissioner Carrión: Thank you Councilmember, and ladies and gentlemen your Mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank You. I want to thank you for this great chance to be with you this evening. I am so happy to be here. Now, I want to tell you – I want to tell you some good news. I want to tell you some of the things I’ve been working on, on behalf of this community and neighborhoods all over the city.

But, first I have to tell you there is a very strange situation going on. There may be a conspiracy afoot. We went into the records of Fort Hamilton High School to figure out what exact year Vinny Gentile and Tish James graduated –

[Laughter]

– and the files are missing, okay. This is like Watergate or something. It’s just, there's missing files, and we cannot get a straight answer from anyone. But, many moons ago, okay. Vinny has been a friend of mine for 20 years. We have worked so closely on so many things together. When – remember the old E.F. Hutton ad? When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen remember that? When Vinnie Gentile calls me I listen because he has proven himself time and time again. And I want to tell you, I am going to talk to you in a moment about the five borough ferry system, we are very proud of that. But, I have to tell you one of the people who had that idea, who pushed that idea even when it was not yet something people thought could happen. One of the people who really stuck with it and one of the reasons we are going to have five borough ferry service is because of Councilmember Vinny Gentile. So –

[Applause]

– you see once in a while, and even in politics, we give credit where credit is due. You saw it here first. Let me tell you.

I want to talk to you about a couple important issues. Mainly, I want to listen and answer questions and respond to your concerns. But, let me tell you about the lineup of people we have brought here this evening. Now when we do these town halls I say to all the concerned residents because I agree. You are here tonight and that says something about you and I want to applaud you and commend you because you care about the community. You came out to do something to improve your community. Well I hope I can help but, I can also tell you a lot of people over here can help because you have a lot of leadership here over the entire city government here. So, as you ask questions, raise concerns we are going to ask them to join me in some of the answers but, you can also corner them at the end of the meeting. They have no place to be. They want to spend extra time with you.

So I am going to tell you who we got here. The Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Protection gives us all our water, runs our sewers, etc., Emily Lloyd. Very important person in terms of legal conversions and so many other issues our Buildings Commissioner, Rick Chandler, our Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Julie Menin, the President of the School Construction Authority, Lorraine Grillo, our Commissioner of Finance, Jacques Jiha, Deputy Commissioner of Health. And, one of the people who is leading our efforts on mental health and drug addiction, Dr. Gary Belkin, Department of Transportation Commissioner, Polly Trottenberg. 

Now the next person I am going to announce is the president of the economic development corporation. I’m sure everyone likes him who believes in economic development and job creation. But, you should also know the economic development corporation will be running our five borough ferry system, Maria Torres Springer. Thank you. [Applause] Commissioner of Human Resources Administration, Steve Banks. Our Small Business Services Commissioner, Gregg Bishop. The Brooklyn Director for the Department of City Planning, Winston Von Engel.

And now, I want to echo what Senator Golden said I’m going to introduce leaders of the NYPD who are with us. We are going to talk about some very good news in the course this evening about what the NYPD has down to drive down crime and it’s absolutely outstanding and there’s more to come. But, we have to remember its takes leadership at the precinct level on the ground to make that difference so it’s my pleasure to introduce, I am sure many of you know him already, the Captain of the 6-8 Precinct, Commanding Officer, Raymond Festino.

[Applause]

Commanding Officer of the 6-2 Precinct, Captain Anthony Sanseverino –

[Applause]

– and from Patrol of Borough Brooklyn South,  the Executive Director of Operations Deputy Chief,  Eric Rodriguez.

[Applause]

I want to thank all the elected officials that you heard from before. Each and every one of them we work with constantly, I want to thank all of them for the great work they do, whether in Washington in Albany, here in the city. I want to give a special bipartisan shout out to Dan Donovan. Congratulations on the passage of the Zadroga Act.

[Applause]

And, I want to thank Senator Golden and Assembly Member Harris for all they do for us in Albany. And again bipartisan they each happen to be in the majority in their respective bodies.  We depend on both of them a lot. Senator Golden, in particular you look out for New York City’s interest in that body, we appreciate that. I also want to note and thank – we all know how important Fort Hamilton is to this community, I want to thank the Garrison Commander, Colonel Davidson thank you very, very much for all you do. And one other point before I go into my opening remarks. Again, I am going to mainly be listening and answering questions tonight but I will say a few things to begin. But I did hear of something I think a lot of people feel personally we lost a very great community leader, Larry Morrish, and his widow Philippa is with us. I want to thank her. Where is she? [Applause]

So let me talk to you about what’s going on. First, I am going to talk big picture for a minute then I am going to talk about this community. There is a lot of challenges in this city. There is no two ways about it. We will talk about a lot of them tonight. There is also some very good things going on.

There are 4.2 million jobs in this city right now. The most jobs we’ve ever had. 220,000 jobs created in this city in the last two years; the most that have ever been created in any two year period. Something good is happening because that means more opportunity for people. More good jobs that people could live on. And we see progress on a lot of other fronts that I focused on to try and improve the living standard of people in this city; whether its efforts to raise the minimum wage to get key benefits that people need like paid sick leave. I am very proud of the fact we added half a million people –

[Applause] 

– got paid sick leave in the last two years who didn’t have it before.

You’re welcome and thank you. I am proud of the fact that 50,000 city workers and people that work for nonprofits that help the city are going to get the $15, minimum wage. That is something we are committed to. I am proud of the fact that 20,000 city workers will now have six weeks full paid parental leave. And, for anyone who is a member of a city union in the room, we look forward to working with each and every union to extend that opportunity, that benefit to all city workers and we know a lot of unions want to get that done. So that’s a lot of good news in terms of where our economy stands and what we are doing to raise people’s standard of living.

There is so much more to do but it’s a good beginning and I mentioned to you the work of the NYPD. And these numbers are extraordinary. Over the last two years across the seven major crime categories the NYPD has driven down crime 5.8 percent and they deserve a lot of credit for that achievement. And there is a old proverb that says the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. And so this year, even as we are getting safer as a city, we are investing in greater safety and with the help of city council. And thank you again Vinny. We will be adding 2,000 more officers to patrol duty in the course of this year.

[Applause]

Two thousand more and that will be the first increase in the patrol strength of the NYPD in 14 years, and we need it. We need it, not because we fear going back to the bad old days, because so much has been done to strengthen this city and to protect us from going back to the bad old days, but we still have so much more to do. We don’t tolerate any violent crime, and there’s a lot of quality of life concerns that in the past the NYPD would’ve loved to put more time and attention into, but they have to focus on more serious and more violent crime.

Today’s NYPD is doing such an extraordinary job of addressing violent crime that now especially with the new troop strength, they’ll be able to go into more and more of the equality of life offenses and more and more of the things that affect every life. That’s going to be very good for this community and a lot of other communities around the city.

And, wherever I go people ask the question are we safe given what’s happening in the world around us. It’s been a very unsettling time the last year or two. Well, Commissioner Bratton and the whole team that leads the NYPD have very closely watched what’s happening around the world. And I always tell the story – after that horrible attack in Paris a year ago, there was another terrible attack more recently, but a year ago – that first really bad attack, I went to Paris, and I went to the site of the attacks. I came back and I talked to Commissioner Bratton about what I saw – and how much vulnerability there had been there. And he and his team had been working on plans, and we agreed it was time to fast track them.

So last June we approved the money for something New York City has never had before – 500-plus officers who are part of our Critical Response Command. This is an anti-terror force – they are full-time, highly-trained, well-equipped anti-terror force to keep us safe from any terror force that may be directed against New York City.

[Applause]

It’s the first time we’ve had this – and this is by far the strongest, best-trained, best-equipped anti-terror force of any police department anywhere in the country. This is part of why we’re going to continue to be safe in this city.

Let me tell you about a couple of other things. We – as I think a lot of folks in this room know – one of the things I’ve been most committed to is trying to give our children a better start in life, and that has been most importantly our effort to get every child full-day, high-quality Pre-K for free in every community in the City.

District 20 – District 20 is a district that had a very high demand for Pre-K seats. Just this last September we added 1,170 new Pre-K seats in District 20 to answer that demand. Now there’s been a specific concern raised about a potential Pre-K site at 621 86th Street – I am here today to announce that we will not use that site because we heard the community’s concerns, and they were very valid concerns about the safety of our children – and because Loraine Brillo and the School Construction Authority has done a great job of finding other sites that are better. I’m happy to share that news with you.

There’s a lot of other things to talk about, but I'm’ just going to go through a couple very quickly. I am very focused on a challenge I know we feel in this community and all over the city, which is housing for our senior citizens – affordable housing.

[Applause]

This is a city that is stronger and stronger all the time. It’s also a city that’s going to have more senior citizens going forward than ever before in our history, so we need to change our approach to build more affordable housing for seniors and to preserve a lot of the affordable housing we have. The plan that I have announced on affordable housing – right now we’re starting with an initial goal of 10,000 units of affordable housing – 10,000 apartments for seniors, of which 3,000 are already underway. What we’re trying to do is build all sorts of different things including buildings – brand new buildings that are just affordable apartments for seniors. The federal government used to do it – doesn’t do it anymore. We’re trying to do it now in New York City.

I need your help, there’s a big issue now before the City Council. I know councilmember Gentile is deliberating on it, but there are two proposals that we have put forward related to affordable housing – I won’t go into a lot of detail now unless people want to talk about it more, but I’m going to give you my simple point. I put forward a plan that will build a lot of affordable housing and particularly help us build more senior housing. If you believe that’s a priority, if you look at the plan and you like it, we need your help telling good public servants like Vinny Gentile what you think because I think that plan is crucial to getting the affordable housing for seniors we need.

Let me tell you, also quickly – we’ve announced something I’m very proud of - our new Clean NYC effort. This will be in every borough – this is an effort now to go much farther to keep our communities clean, and again it’s the kind of thing we become more and more focused on as we become safer and safer because one of the most important quality of life issues is how clean the community is.

We’re going to be adding, for Sunday and holidays, pick up at more than 5,000 litter baskets that didn’t get Sunday and holiday pick up. We will be cleaning an additional 100 miles of highways ramps – where a lot of time you see a lot of debris and trash and all – we’re going to clean that up. Every week we will be doing 100 miles of highway ramps to clean that up. I bet a lot of people have seen the graffiti-free NYC trucks – the white trucks that go around and clean up the graffiti. We are doubling the number of those trucks to clean up more graffiti all around our communities. And we’re going to be specifically – starting tomorrow – two crews from this new expanded graffiti free effort will be cleaning up 20 sites in Bay Ridge. Locations along 3rd avenue, 4th avenue, 5th avenue, and you’re going to see right away the effect of this new effort making this community cleaner.  

In the spring, next year, Vinny said it – at the 69th street pier, for the first time ever, ferry service that links Bay Ridge to the entire city. Not just one stop to Manhattan, but connects to the whole rest of the city.

There are a lot of things to talk about. I’m going to cut it short with a couple of last points. Two points that I want to raise – one is a very simple one, that’s one we don’t like to think about too much, but it’s coming up – it’s tax time coming up. I want you to know the City of New York, through our Department of Consumer Affairs, will have four tax centers in Bay Ridge offering - for people who qualify – to do your taxes for free. That might be something you want to take them up on. And also for anyone who qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit, it’s a chance to get money due to you. Those centers will help you get money you have due to you.

And then finally, something very serious that I know we’ll talk about it tonight, and Marty raised it – this profound challenge we’re having with substance abuse that’s taken on a new form. I talked at length yesterday with the leaders of the NYPD here with us. Everyone is deeply concerned about something that’s really changed in recent years. We see young people turning to these prescription drugs – obviously inappropriately – we see that often turned into heroin addiction. There is a lot we have to do to change our approach because this is a problem that came out of nowhere and has deepened in a very dangerous way.

We started a very important mental health and substance use initiative called Thrive NYC - it’s an initiative my wife has lead, and she’s worked very closely with the Department of Health and other agencies. One of the things that we knew we had to do was get the antidote drug that can stop an overdose from happening to be more available. It can be available for free, if you need it for free. If you want to get it at a pharmacy, now for the first time – we worked with pharmacies, including in this community – and we’re passing out tonight a list of 16 pharmacies – please pick this up. Even if this is not an issue in your life immediately, it’s important that anyone you know have access to this drug if they may need it for their family. We have been working with Rite Aid and Walgreen's and Duane Reade and CVS, and we have 16 locations in this community where you can get this antidote drug – Naloxone – which is so important as an option to stop something horrible before it happens.

There are many bigger solutions that we have to work on. We have to figure out how to work with parents more deeply, how to educate kids more deeply about the dangers, NYPD is doing a great job of more and more finding some of the people who do so much to prey on our kids, these heroin dealers – and they’re arresting more and more of them. But this is a very profound problem that’s going to take a lot of work, but I want people to know not only are we focusing more and more, but there is a drug that can stop an overdose, and anyone who feels they may need access to that drug – it is now widely available in this community.  

I want to thank you for this chance to spend time with you tonight. I really look forward to hearing your questions and concerns. We get a lot done in these meetings – I can tell you already, we get a lot of solutions achieved. I want to thank all the great people representing all the agencies that are here tonight.

And with that, I turn it to our moderator – Councilmember Vinny Gentile.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: You missed Commissioner Garcia [inaudible.]

Mayor: Oh wow – you know a week or two ago this wouldn’t have happened. Thank you, I’ve been handed a note. A couple of weeks ago the only person anyone wanted to talk about was the Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia – I’m sorry I failed to. I want to say that even though there are some things we learned we could do better in general when we face the second largest snowstorm in the history of New York City, Kathryn and her agency performed an incredible job and made this city safe. Thank you very much.

Gentile: We’ll start with the question and answer period now – I’ve got to tell you, you got to come up with a question, alright? Because I know how some of you are, so – you can preface your question slightly, but you really have to come up with a question, otherwise I’m going to have to curtail your talking because we want to get to as many as possible okay.

So remember – ask the question.

Raise your hand if you have a question, and then we’ll start. Yes, we’ll start right here.

Question: Thank you. Assemblyman Gentile, I spoke to you about three weeks ago. I know, it was a very short period of time – concerning the traffic light on 6th Avenue and Ovington being so short, and yet we have at least 100 school children every day, twice a day crossing at this cross. It’s only 30 seconds long, even at that less than 30 seconds – the white light, the walk light says 10 seconds, that’s it, and then it starts blinking. Sooner or later, unfortunately we may have a very bad accident. There have been a number of auto accidents on this. Secondly, the light coincides – the green light coincides with the light on 5th Avenue and they race down Ovington sometimes doing 40, 50 miles an hour to make that light.

Gentile: To make the 5th avenue light?

Question: Yes. What can be done about this?

Gentile: I think since we spoke, a request has been made to the Brooklyn Commissioner of DOT to take a look at that light and change the timing. That will happen, and we’ll check with the Brooklyn Commissioner to be sure –

Mayor: Let’s just go a little further because we have the New York City Commissioner. Stand up, Commissioner. Would you repeat the location so she can hear?

Question: 6th Avenue and Ovington.

Mayor: 6th Avenue – okay, let’s. I’m particularly sensitive on this point if the time of the light is not long enough for people to get across particularly children – we want to see if we can do something there. We will report back.

Gentile: Good. Great. Let’s go over here.

Question: Yes, thank you. You spoke about a lot of things that I think were very popular with the crowd. I’m going ask you about something that’s maybe not so popular – I’m looking at my assessed evaluation on my house went up 8 percent this year. That translates to property taxes going up 8 percent. I don’t think the expenses of the city are going up 8 percent a year - so what can you do to bring our tax increases more in line with inflation going forward?

Mayor: I’ll say two things. Obviously, I hear the concern in many places. What I’m pledging to immediately – I’ve said it many times – is that I’m guarding against a property tax increase. I’m talking about the difference between the assessment – I understand what you’re saying, the assessed value and therefore your actual bill goes up – but I’m talking about the tax rate first for a moment.

We know in the past 10, 15 years there were two times when the property tax rate went up. I am dedicated to not allowing the property tax rate to go up and to keep it where it is – and that takes fiscal discipline. Which is why we came up with fair, smart deals with all of our labor unions – or 95 percent, I should say, of our labor unions – which is why we have very substantial reserves in the City budget because we’re protecting against any kind of situation – including an economic downturn – that would force us to have to look at a property tax increase. I don’t want a property tax increase. I want to guard against it, so we have the rainy day fund to protect us against that. I’m a homeowner in Brooklyn, too, so I recognize the difference between the rate and the assessment, but I think protecting the rate as it is important.

On the assessment – look, we have to do something very big to rethink our property tax system in this city, but it is a very big piece of work we’re going to have to do there. I want to be clear. You pull one strand out and a lot of other pieces are affected. Clearly there’s not enough consistency in our property tax system, there’s not enough transparency in our property tax system. We’ve got to figure out how to address it and change it for a world where values have suddenly started rising in levels we never saw before.

I don’t have that answer today – I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t have it today. When we start that effort it will take months and months of work with all sorts of different people who are experts in this city to try and figure it out – but I am committed to getting that done, it’s something I care about a lot. But the short term answer is we will protect against the property rate increase.

Gentile: Next question? Let’s go right here – Peter?

Question: Hi, Mayor de Blasio, I’m Preston Ferello. I’m a sixth-grader at the Christa McAuliffe Intermediate School, and I’m very happy you came to Bay Ridge.

Mayor: Thank you, Preston.

Question: I have a question for you. My elementary school had no student government and other elementary schools did in District 20. And now my middle school has no student government. Don’t you want every student in New York City to have access to one day being in your position?

[Applause]

Mayor: First of all. First of all, Preston – Preston, I want to know why you’re wearing a nicer suit than me.

[Laughter]

Okay, that is very alienating to me.

I admire your poise and your intelligence, and the answer is yes – student government is a very important thing.

Question: Thank you.

Mayor: Someone I know was – were you class president? Someone I know was once the president of the student body at Fort Hamilton High School, he turned out okay. So yes, the answer is yes, and we will follow up with your school to see how we can fix that situation.

Question: Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much, and I want my team to note that down and we’ll follow up on that.

Gentile: Great. Right here on this end over here.

Mayor: Thank you – wait, we’ve got – Joanne we’ve got a microphone for you.

Question: By the way, there is no property tax equity in Brooklyn, and that’s something you really need to look at, but my question involves quality of life – back to quality of life.

What we’re seeing in this neighborhood and undoubtedly throughout New York City are more and more so called spas that are really sex shops. There are have been a number of enforcement actions by our DA – current DA, our former DA – but as soon as we shut down 10 or 12 or 19 of them, which we’ve done here through a lot of work throughout the community board, they pop back up.

They’re all over 3rd avenue, 5th avenue, 11th avenue. There’s lot of things we can do to enforce the law to bring this down, and we’ve got to do it as a city together. And we’d like to do that – so tell you how we can come together to close down these shops which are peddling human traffic –

[Applause]

– women who are humanly trafficked and a lot of them are minors – so we’ve got to stop that here and throughout New York City. So how can we do that together?

Mayor: Thank you. First of all, thank you very much for the question and for all of your efforts to address this. And I’m a believer in following the money because it – enforcement will have – we’ll have P.D. talk about this now. But I also want to say to the other agencies that deal with different storefronts – whether it is Consumer Affairs, or Small Business, or any of the others – I think the issue is to get at the root of the problem, which is to try and see what we can do to stop the owners from doing this over and over again. So I’m going to start with P.D. and then if any other agency wants to chime in, please do.

Commanding Officer Raymond Festino: From a precinct level, on the human trafficking, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scene. Who was I speaking to? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t see, so when we take action and we close down a place, there’s another unit that comes in behind to work on the human trafficking end of it. So, it might seem like it’s a futile effort, but we do gain a lot of leeway with this, okay. It is an issue. It’s an ongoing issue, but we constantly address it. We have vice units that work on this all the time. That’s all that they dedicate themselves to is doing the illegal spas.

[Applause]

Mayor: Okay; our Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin.

Commissioner Julie Menin, Consumer Affairs: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We’re happy to send out inspectors and look at this because clearly, it’s a violation of the city’s consumer protection law. It’s not only a bait-and-switch, representing they’re one thing when clearly they’re not, but it’s also a deceptive practice. So if we can get all the information from you, we will send out inspectors tomorrow.

Question: Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you. And Julie, you’ll follow up with Joanne after? Thank you very much.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay, let’s go over here. Yes, sir? Back here. Okay. Alright. We’ll come back.

Mayor: Who’s got one? You’ll come back around. Okay, go ahead.

Question: Hi. Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for supporting gun violence prevention measures, including recently writing to Congress to urge the closing of the terror gap.

Mayor: Yes.

[Applause]

Question: In the president’s executive actions on guns, he said the federal government needs to lead the way when it comes to smart gun technology. Would you consider implementing this kind of technology for the NYPD, which as you know, is the largest police force in the United States?

Mayor: Yes, so two points. First of all, our U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer did such an important thing on this. He brought to the eyes of the nation the fact that someone on the terrorist watch list could buy a gun in multiple locations in this country without any background check, without any restrictions whatsoever. So this issue – I believe this is one of the things that can change. And I understand why when we talk about gun safety, there’s understandably a lot of sense that things are stuck. But this is one of the examples where I think the American people actually can find a strong majority of say anyone on the terrorist watchlist should not have the right to buy a gun in this country. It’s as simple as that. As for smart gun technology, I’ve spoken to Commissioner Bratton about this. This is something that obviously has to be perfected, so it has to be done right. But of course, we’re receptive to it because if we could get it right, it could be a tremendous step forward for gun safety.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: Thank you. Let’s go over here. Question – yes? Wait until you get the mic.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor. My name is Joe. I want to thank you for the wonderful job you’re doing.

Mayor: Thank you.

[Applause]

Question: It was a pleasure voting for you, and we want to have you here for many, many more terms – as much as you can do.

Mayor: Thank you, Joe!

[Laughter]

Question: You are great. You’re one of the best –

Mayor: Only one more.

Question: Anyway, I’m with the Bay Ridge Center and our place is getting very, very tight. And we’re looking for a bigger place. If there’s anything you can do, we would gratefully appreciate it.

Mayor: Tell me more about what you’re looking for.

Question: Okay, we’re looking for a bigger place where we could have more exercises, more activities. And the place is getting too tight – where we are now. And we would appreciate anything you can do for us at the Bay Ridge Center.

Mayor: Okay, well I will – here’s my pledge because again at these meetings, we try and get a lot done. I will make a personal pledge to work with the councilmember to see if there is a site that would be appropriate, whether it’s city-owned or something else that we can help you get.

Question: We have one in mind.

Mayor: You have one in mind. It’s happening already, Joe.

[Laughter]

Is it City-owned?

Question: No, it’s State-owned.

Mayor: Okay. I know that Martin and Pamela will be ready to serve. So let’s see if we can get this done. Thank you.

Question: Great, okay.

Councilmember Gentile: Let’s go back here.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. My name is Chris Robles. I’m a lifetime resident of this community. I moved around a little bit. I feel it as a community – we have always been disproportionately affected by environmental issues, specifically unfair treatment with waste transfer. I know – I remember as a child going down Crosby Avenue, watching the incinerator burning trash. We have an incinerator in Sunset Park. We have a water treatment plant right here in Bay Ridge. Everybody in this room smells it whenever there’s an accident or something. And now we’re having a waste treatment facility being built in Bensonhurst – and other parts of the city – but I’m talking about Bensonhurst. Why are we – and in fairness to you, this was your predecessor’s plan – why are we not focusing on recycling, reducing waste and proactive, progressive waste management systems instead of building these very harmful waste transfer stations?

[Applause]

Mayor: Okay, let me get Kathryn to join me. We’re going to bring you over here Kathryn while I start. Look, I have to take responsibility first of all. I want to be very clear – whether something was done by my predecessor or not – if I’m continuing the policy, feel free to hold me fully responsible. But I do believe when it comes to waste transfer stations, the district I represent in the City Council and not far from my house in Brooklyn is the Hamilton Avenue station. Where I live now, I can look out my window to the 91st Street marine transfer station, up by Gracie Mansion. So this is not an abstraction to me. We have to do it the right way is the answer. So I want to first – and we’ll hear from our sanitation commissioner – but we have to do it the right away. So I pledge to you I don’t take lightly our obligation to make sure these facilities are run in a way that isn’t harmful to the community and that we look at all the safety concerns around it. Right where I am, the 91st Street station, there’s real concerns about trucks going by and kids playing nearby. And we have to put the safety measures in place to protect people in every community. But secondly in terms of recycling, we take that very, very seriously. This city is only scratching the surface of what we could do on recycling. There is so much more. And I think if we educate people more, if we make it easier for people, we’re going to be able to get a lot more done on recycling and take some of the burden off that you’re describing. So Kathryn, would you like to speak to where we’re going on recycling, so people get a sense –

Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Department of Sanitation: Sure. This is actually one of the very – one of the better neighborhoods for recycling. You ended last fiscal year with over 22 percent of all of your waste diverted. And you’re also – many of you may also be in the organics pilot areas and over 2,000 tons of organic material has been collected in Community Board 10. So you’re at the forefront of what we’re trying to do with making us drive to zero waste. But even as we drive to zero waste, we are actually having to move material out of the city that is still refuse. And so we are constructing facilities across the five boroughs – obviously the one in Southwest that’s in Bensonhurst is in construction now and will not be ready probably until 2018. The Northshore one near – in Northern Queens – is operating. And there have been no complaints for that facility since it started operating last March. The garbage is actually put in a container so there are no odors, and then transferred by barge to Howland Hook before going on rail. So it actually has been – once it was up and running – not very detrimental to the community. We literally have had absolutely no complaints since that one has opened. But we’ve worked closely with all communities about their concern. You know obviously they have the BJ’s open there now and other things along that, but we need to make sure we’re accommodating.

Unknown: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Garcia: Oh, in general, we’re doing a lot on recycling. So we’re going to be expanding organics across the city either to a conveniently located drop-off, but more likely in this community, we will be bringing curbside to you. We are expanding our electronics recycling program – there are 83 buildings in this community that are participating in the e-cycle program, where we come and pick it up for you. The drop-off location is actually right where the construction is going on now in Southwest. We’re looking to do single-stream recycling. It’s going to take us some time to put this together, where you – instead of having metal, glass, plastic separated from paper, it would be metal, glass, plastic, and paper all in one. So we’re trying to take away one bin as we add another bin. As we add your brown bin, we’re trying to take away the other one. But we’re really driving toward zero waste. We’re really trying to drive down the amount of material. So I don’t only think about the percentage of your waste that’s recycling, I’m really looking at how much has your tonnage come down in refuse? And you’re actually down about 5 percent over the last nine years. So you’re going in the right direction in terms of how much material you’re sending to landfill or to waste-energy facilities.

Mayor: Thank you. Thank you very much, Kathryn.

[Applause]

Let me just note very quickly that first of all, I just asked the Councilman that obviously we – Kathryn, let’s get the word out more about where the electronics recycling centers are, so that people have a better sense of that. Because I don’t  – I think in most communities people don’t have all that information. So let’s try and get that out. But the second point is this is a huge innovation. I say this as a homeowner. I spent a lot of time separating out the recycling. If the Sanitation Department actually succeeds in having a single bin that you can put your metal and your glass and your paper all in the same place – I can say from my perspective, that’s going to save some time, and energy, and aggravation. So I want to thank Sanitation for taking us in that direction.

Councilmember Gentile: Great. Okay, over here. Yes, Bob?

Question: Thank you. Hi, my name is Bob Cassara. I’m President of the Brooklyn Housing Preservation Alliance and welcome to Bay Ridge.

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: I’d like to thank you for your Vision Zero and a 25 mile per hour speed limit. I got involved in things in this neighborhood because of speeding and trucks going off the truck route. We have a big problem in Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge and that namely is the conversion of houses illegally to SROs, multi-family houses. Where a house might have been you know a few families, maybe 10 or 11 people. Now there are 30 and 40 people jammed in these buildings. And it’s overcrowding our schools and our infrastructure, etcetera. So we do have a big problem. We are – in this community we are working with our elected officials, and thank you very much – they are putting bills through. It’s great, but we do need more help. And the problem is not our zoning per say, but it’s the lack of enforcement –

Mayor: Right.

Question: Our zoning and our building codes in this community. And we are –

[Applause]

Thank you. Our group has worked with the City, with the community – the agency task force. And they are stepping up their game. They’re working with us, but clearly it’s not enough. As soon as a house gets shut down, a Stop Work Order – it doesn’t take but a week or so before they’re back in operation again. They’re digging out basements – totally changing the character of our neighborhood. So there are a lot of things that can be done on the state level and our community council. But we really need your help. You’re the guy to push the departments, the agencies to solve this problem. Because otherwise we will not have a community anymore. We have affordable housing – we had affordable housing and it’s quickly disappearing. Our taxes are going up. And why are our taxes going up? Our taxes are going up because the prices of these houses are going up. And why are they going up? Because they’re becoming very attractive for people who want to do illegal things with them.

Mayor: Right.

Question: Okay. And that’s one of the major reasons that our taxes are going up. [Inaudible]

[Applause]

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: So we need your help – please.

Mayor: I hear you loud and clear. And thank you for all you’ve done for the community and thank you for what you said about Vision Zero, which we’re very devoted to. Let me speak to this issue. So first let me say – again, giving credit where credit is due. I have had a conversation with each and every one of your elected officials in the last few months where they brought up this issue independently. Each and every one brought up the illegal conversion issue. And again, that matters. I know people look at the democratic process and sometimes see its imperfections. But I want people to feel some contentment that each and every one of your elected officials has come to me personally and said this is a growing problem. What did we do about it? In the budget that we passed a few months ago, we authorize 100 new inspectors for the Department of Buildings. And one of the reasons we did that was we see this illegal conversion problem and we know we need more firepower. Because clearly the laws aren’t worth much if they’re not enforced. My view is – I certainly get the point that there could be some very negative impact of these conversions. But I have a simpler point – it’s illegal. It’s illegal. It’s not supposed to happen.

[Applause]

And so – so when people purchase a house, they understand the ground rules if they’re following the law. No, I’m not saying that people aren’t trying to cheat. I’m saying for all the rest of us, you buy a house, there’s a set of rules, you live by those rules. If you want to suggest something different, you need a permit from the Department of Buildings. I bet a lot of people – good, law-abiding people in this room – have gone and gotten your Department of Buildings permit. It is not always the most fun process. But you’re law abiding, so you went and did it. These bad actors you describe left out that part and went and did something the Department of Buildings would never have approved anyway and did something thoroughly illegal. We don’t accept that. So we’re putting a lot more firepower into the hands of Commissioner Chandler and his team to be able to go out and do the enforcement and we’re going to penalize everyone we find. Now, I want to be straightforward everyone. We’ve gotten a lot of complaints of illegal conversions. Not every complaint turns out to be an illegal conversion. I want to be straightforward and honest with people. But when we find an illegal conversion – when we get a complaint, we will now have an inspector who can go out in real time, find it, stop it – we will do Stop Work Orders, we’ll do fines – we take it very, very seriously.

Question: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Councilmember Gentile: All right, let’s go back over here. Yes?

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and good evening. I am a program director for the NIA Community Services Network. Your administration has done a great job in the realm of education with universal pre-K and also the SONYC programs for middle schoolers. My question is will there be initiative or is there an initiative in place or in the works for fiscal support of elementary school programs? Because I do and I see a lot of the groundwork that helps the academic and social growth of New York City’s youngest citizens like this young man over here. And I just wanted to know if there is a way that my colleagues and I can extend the fullest extent of our educational capabilities as after-school educators in order to help make the SONYC programs more comprehensive because now the students understand exactly what they’re going to expect. And we can also fill in the gaps that working-class and low-income families can’t always do because the parents work and they don’t have quality child care. So can you answer that?

Mayor: Yes, I’ll give you an answer. I wish I had an answer that would fill in all the blanks that you’re raising. But let me start with something I feel I have had the joy of working with the Neighborhood Improvement Association, NIA,  for many years – an extraordinary organization. I want to thank – I see Mario Costantino and Michael Bové – and many other good people are part of this. I thank you for the great work you’ve done.

[Applause]

The – we have now in this city something we created – we’re very proud of it. We doubled the amount of after-school seats for middle school kids. And as you said, the SONYC program and everything else we’ve done. So now – and actually a lot of parents don’t know this yet. Just like full-day pre-K is free anywhere in the city – any neighborhood, anybody qualifies if you have a four-year-old – you get free full-day pre-K. But we have the same promise for every middle school child, in terms of after school. Sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade – you are guaranteed a free after-school seat, typically 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. – someplace safe, where you continue to learn, where you continue to get the kinds of tutoring, and support, and recreation, and arts programs – that is guaranteed now in this city. We have not been able yet – for budget reasons – to reach that same guarantee at the elementary school level. It is in my mind as a place I would like to go, but I don’t have the money yet. And that’s something we’ll see if we can do in the future. But obviously we want to work with any organization to see – even though we can’t guarantee it for everyone – if there’s some way we can help – because we’ve seen the great effect it has had on the middle school kids.

Councilmember Gentile: Great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[Applause]

All right, let’s go over here. [Inaudible] Great. Okay. Sir, right here.

Question: Hello, I’m John [inaudible]. I’m a psychologist and a professor at City University. And I thank you for the efforts –

[Applause]

Mayor: City University fan club is here.

Question: Thank you for your efforts on mental health services.

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: I know you mentioned before about having medications for people with heroin overdose – to prevent that. My question is what could be done earlier on in term of preventative services? What kind of efforts can be done to expand and strengthen prevention first in the schools and also in the community?

Mayor: I’d like Dr. Gary Belkin from Department of Health to speak to that because we’re really trying to figure out what we can do to educate young people, to educate parents, to change things. I don’t want to tell you we have a secret formula yet because we don’t. We’re trying to figure out the right approach, but let me have Gary speak to you about it.

Mayor: We’re really trying to figure out what we can do to educate young people, to educate parents to change things. I don’t want to tell you we have a secret formula yet because we don’t. We’re trying to figure out the right approach, but let me have Gary speak to you about it.

Dr. Gary Belkin: Thank you and good evening everyone. As the mayor indicated we really have to face this problem as the epidemic that it is. It’s not just heroin and related painkillers – are not just affecting youth in certain places and certain groups, it’s really affecting the whole city. And so, the mayor also mention Thrive NYC which is a package of very new and exciting and scaled mental health interventions that try to expand access to treatment but also to think about prevention. And there’s a lot in there, and I urge people to really check out Thrive NYC at nyc.gov/thrivenyc – there’s a lot in there about schools. The footprint for mental health in the schools is changing and will continue to change dramatically.

The mayor started a little over a year ago working in the community schools and really bringing school clinics to those very high-need schools. But we’re also going to be unrolling providing mental health – school mental health-based consultants to every school in the city that doesn’t have a clinical presence currently. And that’s a huge thing because we found there’s a principals that aren’t sure – they see a problem in their building and their not sure what are the best practices to use, what are the best curriculums to use, how do they skill-up their teachers to be part of this preventative solution. And now they’re going to have a phone-a-friend expert to lean on for us to – one, help them directly but two, to get a better sense of what the gaps are and what the problems are. But I also want to identify not just the issue of naloxone that the mayor mentioned, which is sort of like an epi-pen to prevent the overdose from progressing to death. But also in Thrive NYC are efforts to really expand access to treatment. Buprenorphine which is a medication which is much more easier to get from different providers – we hope to train up to 1,000 more providers that will be licensed and able to deliver it.

So, we are really trying to take this on many fronts, and I urge you all to look at this document, Thrive NYC, there’s a lot in there. But also to let us know in the Health Department the neighborhoods that we’re not reaching. And we have an email address OCA@health.nyc.gov, which is my Office of Consumer Affairs. We study this problem but we don’t see real-time affects, and we really like hearing from community-based organizations that can give us real-time information, and partner with us to try to be active in your communities.

Mayor: Let me add to that just a couple quick points. The – as I said my wife led this effort, and it’s a passion of hers to address mental health issues and substance abuse issues. There’s two things we’re doing that’s a little different from the question you asked but it points to the bigger picture we’re trying to address here. One that’s going to start soon – I’m very proud of this, it’s called NYC Support, and it takes the idea of what we used to know, a hotline that you could call when there was a problem, and it expands on it greatly and says if someone’s having a mental health challenge or a substance abuse challenge, and you’re trying to get them help, you might call – it might be your won situation, a loved one, a family member, a friend – this new approach says, we’re not only going to tell you here’s where you go for help right now, but you actually stay in touch with this hotlines for weeks and weeks thereafter to make sure you’re actually getting the service you need on a regular basis. Because what’s happened too often is someone has an emergency, maybe they get help the first day but a week later, two weeks later, three weeks later they’re not getting the treatment they need, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, we’re committed to getting someone constant mental health or substance abuse treatment so they can actually turn their life around.

The second thing we’ve created is something called the HUB, and this gets at a very specific problem but it’s one every single one of us can relate to as New Yorkers. There’s a small number of people in this city who, unfortunately, are in a very troubling situation – they have a profound mental health problem, and they have a history of some kind of violence. They’re very few but they make a very impact on the city. And when you really look at this – because I’ve spent two years now working very, very closely with the NYPD and looking at different incidents where someone had a mental health problem and turned to violence – when you look at it the most startling thing is people who we knew has a problem, people who we knew had some proclivity to violence, and those two dots weren’t connected, and they weren’t getting care, and there was nowhere in the government trying to make sure they were in a treatment program or in an appropriate mental health institution – if that’s what was called for – or in some cases, not a shocker, somewhere in the criminal justice system, something fell down because some of these individuals, obviously should have been incarcerated. Depends on each individual.

But there was nothing connecting the dots. Now, literally each individual we identify with that combination of problems is being tracked very specifically by our Office of Criminal Justice working with Department of Health and NYPD to try and make sure they are in treatment or wherever is the appropriate setting but not simply floating out there in a dangerous situation – a situation that could be dangerous to others or themselves. I say that to say, we have barely scratched the surface on what we need to do on mental health and substance abuse. So, we’re trying to actually change the rules of the game and change how we approach it from the foundation.

Councilmember Gentile: And I must say our First Lady has done a tremendous job in the area of mental health services.

[Applause]

Okay, let’s go over here and then we’ll come back around.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilman, Senator, NYPD. My name is [inaudible]. I’m a physician in the community. I work in the local hospital as well. The two issues I’d like to discuss briefly – the naloxone use, the heroin/opioid abuse. Naloxone, just for clarification, is not an antidote. It’s a reversal agent. Side effects are cardia effect. Having it open to the public especially addicts is dangerous. Unfortunately, I’ve seen way too many of them – the abusers, I mean. And so, if it’s not prescribed appropriately it could be fatal. So, to have it available for free at local pharmacies might promote bad behavior and at the same time could lead to a very poor outcome.

Mayor: I’m just going to say, I want to hear the rest of your comment. I think we – you’re going to get a better description of exactly how we’re handling it from Dr. Belkin. Second, I think we don’t agree on the concept that its presence creates a danger. We think it actually helps save lives and NYPD has proven that. But I want this to be a fair discussion after you finish, Dr. Belkin – so, you’ll be speaking doctor to doctor. We’ll address your concerns. Go ahead.

Question: I’m glad if that’s the case. The second issue which is just as important is the health care issue of the senior citizens. So, with the housing tied into this discussion, you creating the specific housing for the senior citizens, it has to be made aware that health care needs to be – or those facilities need to be close to appropriate health care. In the times of the recent snow storms, you know, one excellent job, by the way, for the DOH and the Department of Transportation. It’s very difficult for those patients there to reach quality care. So, I think it’s important as we proceed in the housing development sector for the senior citizens, there should be some discussion of how health care is accessed to them or how can they reach health care.

Mayor: Thank you. I think that’s a very important point. As I said this is a city that will have a bigger and bigger senior population. So, your point is very well taken. What I’m hearing from senior citizens all over the city is the number one concern is affordable housing because so many people are being forced out of their neighborhoods.

[Applause]

So, what I would say is you’re right that as we build that housing, we’ve got to figure out to the maximum extent how to connect health care to it. But I think job one is to get the housing so people have somewhere decent live, and then build those services around it. Dr. Belkin for everyone’s benefit, could you speak to the question at hand?

Commissioner Belkin: Yes, so you’re right. Naloxone is a reversing agent. If you take too much of heroin or painkillers, opioids, sort of substances that can make you stop breathing and diminish your consciousness, this reverses that effect. It sort of interferes with the receptors in the brain that the opioids are working on, and fairly immediately can reverse an overdose.

So, I think in common parlance, and antidote is a reasonable concept. But you’re technically absolutely right. It’s a reversing agent. We based our naloxone program looking at some other cities that had taken this to scale and within a state legal framework that specifies, sort of, how this rolls out – that is proven to very safe and very effective. The doses and the delivery system, which is a very simple syringe or dose to be safe even if it’s not appropriately administered; and also, we’ve done some follow-up work with people who we’ve given this out to, in terms of their use of it and the outcome. So we are feeling very confident that this is the right way to go to put in the hands of [inaudible] people, of users, of the people in their support system because that’s where overdoses are prevented. And we are now tallying up our estimate of how many overdoses we have prevented because we’ve followed some chain of people we’ve distributed this to, and find that for every person we train, every 30 people we train, we reverse an overdose, which is among medical interventions, a remarkably effective intervention. So, we need to scale this up and we’re confident that we’ve done the homework that it’s the right thing to do and protects the public.

Mayor: And doctor, I obviously appreciate your concern. I wanted you to hear our perspective. Now, I want you to hear an NYPD perspective. Captain?

Captain Sam Serrano: How are you? Captain Sam Serrano from the 6-2. We actually started using this program in our precinct last year, and since its inception we’ve had five or six, even with the most recent one two weeks ago. So, we’ve seen great success because five saved lives, six saved lives – you can’t put a price on that.

[Applause]

Mayor: Thank you. Okay, moderator, it’s your turn.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay, okay. I’m back, I’m back up okay. I think the last row – someone in the last row had a question there?

Question: Thank you for the opportunity. You Honor, I have to commend you for your commitment to education noted by your expansion of the pre-k programs and other steps your taking in that area.

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: However, there is a crisis in the education of blind children in our city right now. My generation of blind people has an 85 percent literacy rate. That is to say we were taught braille, we were taught the skills of blindness, we were taught all the things we would need to become tax paying citizens, which many of us did. This generation of blind children – and this is not my statistic, it’s the federal Department of Education statistics – has a ten percent literacy rate. If there was a ten percent literacy rate among sighted children, we’d hear a hueing cry from this city that would go to California. But nobody seems to do anything about it, and these children will be tax consumers not tax payers. We are educating – or not educating the next generation of people who be dependent for the rest of their lives on the [inaudible] of the city, and that’s not what people ought to be. They ought to going to work and be part of the 4.2 million that you talked about earlier, and not wait for the third of the month to come around. So, I need to ask you, Sir, what can you do or what can we do with you to help reverse that abysmal rate of ten percent and bring it back to 85 where it was when I was a baby boomer?

Mayor: Well, I appreciate that question a lot.

[Applause]

Thank you very much for that because I take that very, very seriously because I think you’re exactly right. We don’t accept the notion that anyone is being given the basic skills so they can thrive in this economy and have opportunity ahead. So, here’s what I’ll pledge – the statistic you cite is news to me, and I’m saying that very straightforward. I have not heard it before, I have no reason to disbelieve you. And so, what I’m going to do is I’m meeting with the chancellor of our school system this week. I’m going to put this on the agenda. We will follow up with Councilmember Gentile so that we can get an answer back to you directly of what we are either already doing or what we plan to do to address the issue. I take it seriously and I’m very glad you raised it.

[Applause]

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’m going to have the councilmember and our own teams exchange information with you so that we can contact you directly with an answer.

Councilmember Gentile: Can I get my staff member –

Question: Thank you, sir.

Mayor: Thank you.

Councilmember Gentile: Thank you, thank you. Okay, over here. Habib, I think you have a question.

Question: Mr. Mayor and elected officials thank you for being here. My name is [inaudible], I represent the Arab-American Association. We met many times before. As a matter of fact, I would like to make a clarification then the question. But first I would like to mention [inaudible]. Thank you for mentioning him. I think he is looking at us now and smiling – he says, “Oh, my way is still continued.” And you know, thank you for that.

[Applause]

We are having a problem with the drugs, true, but we’re having a problem that is going neck-to-neck with drugs which is the tobacco problem. These places – the hookah places – what we call them hookah places or shisha places, they are nothing but a habit. It’s not cultural. I would like to just say these two words – they are not cultural. I am a Muslim. I am an Arab. I have never seen it in my culture. I don’t know it about my about my culture. This is a habit that was gained by users, that they use tobacco. These places became a place where our youth are going, and it is destroying their mentality – their time. There is a legislation I believe Councilman Gentile is going to introduce soon to put these places under the Smoke Act. That will help us, and I hope that you’re going to vote for that. That will help us to regulate these places, and not to put them out of business because everybody is saying, “out of business,” “out of business.” Though I would live to see them out of business, but anyway –

[Applause]

Mayor: [Laughter]

Question: I wish I could but Mr. Mayor, are you going to support that? That’s one question. The second question of course about our hate crime that is really increasing in Bay Ridge, in different areas, whether it’s against Arabs, Muslims, or Jews, or any other. What are we doing to that? How are we going to educate the people through your administration? Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. I don’t know if any of our agencies wants to speak to hookah. We know – I don’t know if we’re doing any kind of enforcement now and if not we will talk about the legislation. The legislation Councilmember Gentile talked to me about last week – always lobbying me. And I look forward to seeing it. I understand the concern. I’m not an expert by any stretch but I understand the concern and certainly if there are unintended health consequences that people don’t realize, and all that – I take that very, seriously. So, I’m going to give you the answer. Honestly, I haven’t seen it. I look forward to seeing it. I’m sympathetic but I can’t give you a final answer until we actually see the legislation at which point we certainly will.

On the bias crime. Look, we don’t tolerate acts of bias in this city. We just don’t. It’s one of the very good things about New York City. We’re the most diverse place on the planet, and one thing you can depend on – if someone does an act of hate against another person, if they are violent towards another person with hatred as their intention, the NYPD will equal-opportunity go after that perpetrator. And they’ve shown it time and time again. And I think the best way to inhibit hateful activities is strong enforcement and clear universal enforcement. So, I’ve spoken to the two precinct commanders about this issue, when we met yesterday. We take it very seriously, we follow-up very intensely. I think in one of the most recent incidents, we found the perpetrator. But I guarantee you, if anyone reports an act of hate it will get our full attention. We take it very seriously.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: Let me just say that there will be a package of bills that address the hookah smoking, both in restaurants and in lounges – hookah lounges – that will be heard by the health committee of the City Council on February 25th, a week from this Thursday. And in essence, what it will do is curtail some of the lounges, particularly, in some of the areas that people smoke indoors. By making it part of the Smoke Free Air Act, we will be able to curtail some of that. Moreover it will curtail some of our youngest teenagers going into the hookah bars – 13, 14 years old – and smoking thinking it’s safe, and it’s not safe. And we’ll show that at the hearing on February 25th. So thank you for bringing that up. Thank you.

[Applause]

Okay, anybody over here? Yes. Yes.

Question: Thank you very much for joining us in Bay Ridge, Mr. Mayor. Someone said to me earlier this morning, what are your most issues in Bay Ridge? And she summed them up –transportation, sanitation, education, preservation, and recreation. And I could ask you a question about anyone of them but there’s a very specific problem we have in Bay Ridge. And there’s a chance the people who are here to discuss it would not get that opportunity – and that’s a place called the Prince Hotel. It’s where the most recent overdose in Bay Ridge was. It is – it has a very questionable certificate of occupancy. There are drugs, prostitution, there was confiscation of guns there. Almost a year ago in March of 2015, Community Board 10 hosted an interagency council at the community board office on this issue and the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs said they would take the lead. And here we are, two weeks short of a year later and nothing has happened. What are we going to do?

[Applause]

Mayor: Thank you. I’m very glad you raised the issue. Let me be very plain about this – I find this situation with the Prince Hotel absolutely unacceptable. I’m not going to stand for it. We will do aggressive enforcement and it should have happened already, is the blunt truth.

[Applause]

And tell me your first name –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Doris. You’ve heard of the phrase, the buck stops here. So it is my personal responsibility – everything that everybody does in my administration, I have 350,000 employees, but I’m responsible for all of them. When you were told that there should have been action, there should have been action. There’s no reason it should have waited that long. So, I have to take responsibility for that, and apologize to you and the community. But I guarantee you now – because I’m making a very personal guarantee and all those cameras are running – that there will be enforcement action at the Prince Hotel.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: That, Mr. Mayor, is a relief to many of us in Bay Ridge – a great relief. Thank you, thank you. Yes, back, with the white sweater.

Question: So, Mr. Mayor, my name is Mary. I’m actually 15 years old. I attend one of the New York City public high schools, and we have a fabulous assistant principal [inaudible]. And every week she sends us a list of programs and opportunities. A lot of these are non-profit, and we’ve discussed many issues from the environment, to drugs, to mental health, to guns – and there are a lot of teenagers who are curious, how can we get involved. Because non-for-profits are wonderful opportunities but at the end of the day, a lot of are still looked at as lazy teenagers. And I understand your son is also a teenager, and in reality we are the next generation. We are going to be the ones who essentially run the show. And a lot of us are viewed as people who couldn’t care, it’s not important, but a lot of us like myself are interested. I interned over the summer at my local community board, and a lot of people looked at me like – like nobody takes teenagers seriously but we care, and we need our voices to be heard.

[Applause]

Mayor: Amen. So, first of all, I think it is Night of Articulate Poised, Young-People here in Bay Ridge. I commend you.

[Applause]

Again, I have certain responsibilities. I also have certain powers. I’d like to extend you an offer of an internship at City Hall this summer.

[Applause]

Because I can tell already, you’re absolutely ready for it. But we’re happy to work with you and any other young people who want to have a bigger impact in this city because some of the things we’re talking about – the heroin situation for example – we need young people to be leaders in addressing that problem. Because one of the things we found in schools all over the city, the strongest voice, the most influential voices in helping people on a more positive path are their fellow young people. So, we have to help organize you to do that. We’re very happy to work with you, how we can do that with you and young people that you know. But I think it’s a broader thing we have to do more of. You are correct. I have a son who is a teenager. I have a daughter who was just a little while ago a teenager. They are very clear with me that they are going be taking over.

[Laughter]

And, they’re kind of like, “Okay, you can move on now.” But there’s no question, we have to show respect for young people as future leaders but also as people who can solve problems right now in this city. Thank you.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: So, Mr. Mayor, we have the younger generation, we have senior citizens here tonight. We spanned the years. Right here.

Mayor: Spanning the globe.

Question: Thank you, Mayor. I’m Giovanni. I’m from the New York State Veteran Chamber of Commerce – a lot of veterans have been spoken to about this afternoon. But my question is in my neighborhood, within half a mile, there have been approximately seven hotels that have opened up in the last five years. So, we’re thinking great – tourism. Unfortunately, they gave the community board one week notice before they changed the hotel into a homeless shelter. Now, it is your objective. I know we need them but there’s got to be a better way – if it takes six months to a year to get a hotel approved, why would give the community one week to voice their concerns?

[Applause]

Mayor: Fair enough. So, this is another example where I want to level with people about the problem we’re facing. Right now, we have just over 58,000 people in shelter. That is a situation that has gotten worse in the last ten years, very consistently. The – and I got to give you this background for a moment to make sense of this – we used to know of homeless as essentially single adults, vast majority of whom had a substance abuse problem or a mental health problem. And a lot of that was the de-institutionalization of the 1970’s and all sorts of other things that lead to that. After the Great Recession we saw something start to change.

Question: Unfortunately, they gave the community board one-week notice before they changed the hotel into a homeless shelter. Now, it is your objective – I know we need them.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: But there’s got to be a better way – if it takes six months to a year to get a hotel approved, why would you give the community one week to voice their concerns?

[Applause]

Mayor: Fair enough. So, this is another example of where I want to level with people about the problem we’re facing. Right now, we have jus over 58,000 people in shelter. That is a situation that has gotten worse in the last 10 years very consistently. The – and I’ve got to give you this background for a moment to make sense of this. We used to know of homelessness as essentially single adults, the vast of whom had a substance abuse problem or a mental health problem. And a lot of that was the deinstitutionalization of the 1970s, and all sort of other things that lead to that. After the Great Recession, we saw something start to change – homelessness unfortunately, tragically became more and more families – not single adults, whole families, working people – a parent or two parents with children who were working, or who had recently been working. And, so, now, we have a situation that we’re trying to address a much bigger problem than we had in the past. That’s the bad news – and it’s very bad. The good news is, in the last year in particular, we have found some solutions that are starting to stick. So, since I came into office, we got 22,000 people out of homeless shelters and to permanent housing – 22,000. So, that you think – well, that’s amazing, that’s wonderful –

[Applause]

But other people have come in to fill those beds. We’re trying to find a way to get ahead to that – to make the tools that we have work better and better to stop people from being evicted illegally – so, we put a lot more legal services into that effort – to provide rental subsidies to hardworking families so they can stay in their apartment rather than end up in a shelter. By the way, stupidest thing in the world is for a family that’s trying to do everything right to end up in a shelter when we could have saved them and kept them in their apartment – stupid on every level –

[Applause]

– Not only for that family, for the taxpayers, because it costs three times, or more as much to have a family in shelter than to help them stay in an apartment. So, we’re trying to put all the tools in place to actually reduce that shelter population substantially. But, at the same time, we’ve had shelters that aren’t good enough that we need to get out of – so, that’s going to reduce the number of shelters. We want to get out of some of these hotels that we’ve had to use. So, we’ve got a real challenge of the number of people that need help and the space we have. What that causes us to do, very honestly, is, when we can get an appropriate facility, we had to grab it and put it online, and we have to bring people to it very quickly. And that has not been – I understand, having represented many neighborhoods when I was in the City Council and the school board – I absolutely understand why that frustrates people. I’m going to be honest that we will do that when we don’t feel we have any other choice – when we simply need the beds because there’s people in of a place to sleep. But our obligation to the community is the figure out what will make it as acceptable as possible. Often times, a community wants more security, for example, or other things that will help make the situation better. We will get those things for the community. But the ultimate goal is to reduce that shelter population, and not need to be in a lot of these sites – that’s where we’re trying to do. It will not happen overnight. It’s going to take building – I have a 200,000 apartment – affordable housing plan. I have a 15,000 supportive housing plan. If these things build up the way we hope they will, we will be able to start shrinking down the amount of shelters we need. But, I’ve got to be honest with you, we are not there yet. It’s going to take time.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: That’s proof-positive that our Mayor understands our concerns. Yes?

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I’m Dave [inaudible]. We’ve met before.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: Coming down the other end from the Belt, pitch-hitting for my son in Bay Ridge. We have a problem – two-fold – concerning transit. One, we really, for transit equity, need City fare to be a 24/7 reality for those of us who live in the City in the vast transit wastelands. And as a result of those transit wastelands, you have these van drivers who are driving high as kites on marijuana, or whatever else, and they killed a kid in Rosedale last week. I think if we can improve the transit through City fare, we might be able to put some of these high van drivers out of business.

Mayor: I appreciate that. Remind me, is City fare the proposal to link with the LIRR? There’s another name for it. I’m trying –

Question: City fare is the weekend fare – $4, I believe – but it only covers the weekends in zone three – the City of New York – and zone two, and zone one. What I think would be helpful is if we could increase City fare to be a 24/7 reality so that the residents in my area, in Rosedale, the other end of the Belt, where we don’t have a subway within 45 minutes of us – that we could walk to our railroad train, get on it for a reasonable fare, as opposed to right now –

Mayor: Okay, I got you.

Question: – it costs three times a subway fare. 

Mayor: Thank you for raising it. I spoke a few weeks back to Councilmember Daneek Miller, who’s been one of the leading advocates for this. It’s not something on the table yet, but I guaranteed to him that we would look at it as part of our budget process. I can’t make any guarantees to you, but we’re going to give it absolutely a real look. 

Councilmember Gentile: Okay. We haven’t been to this group in a while – yes?

Question: Thank you, Vinny. Mr. Mayor, I wear two hats tonight. The first one is on the chair of the Bay Ridge Center, the Community Advisory Board, and I have all our civilian citizens here from the Bay Ridge Center. The second is, I’m the president of the Bay Ridge chapter, AARP. And one thing I hear from my AARP members – and, Vinny, I think you’re getting close to that age –

[Laughter]

Mayor: You found the missing transcript. 

[Laughter] 

Question: And from the seniors at the Bay Ridge Center, at the Fort Hamilton Senior Center is – they want to travel. They want to get on our subways and they want to go to the Barclay’s Center, and they want to go to Manhattan, which the school was named for, and which the fort was named for. We need – very importantly, we need elevators at the 86th Street station and at the 69th Street station so our citizens can take the elevators down to the platform. What about that?

Mayor: Okay. So, look, as everyone knows, the MTA and the State of New York run our subway system, but we are trying to work with them on some of the long-term things that have to be done. And the City made a very substantial contribution to the MTA – $2.5 billion to try and address some of the long-term problems. There’s no question that accessibility is one of those problems that has to be addressed. So, we have pushed the MTA for certain locations that we think were particularly necessary. So, we’ll go back – and Polly is here – we have a MTA board member. You can come join me – and she’ll speak to this as well. But I also want emphasize, in everything else we’re doing, and the ferry is the next big thing that will support people in this neighborhood who want to move around – we’re going to make sure that that ferry is accessible for sure. And that’s going to be a great opportunity for our seniors. So, Polly, to the question of priority station for elevators –

Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, Department of Transportation: It is a huge issue. And as the Mayor has mentioned, the City has made an unprecedented contribution to the MTA – $2.5 billion. And in addition to helping with their capital plan, one of the things the City has asked for is to have a bigger seat at the table to bring some of what are particular City priorities – stations we want to rehabilitate and make accessible. And so, we’re now – we’re hoping we’re going to have an opportunity as soon as our legislators up in Albany pass the MTA’s capital plan to bring some City priorities further into the MTA’s work. So, we’re looking forward to that. I would just like to say, Mr. Mayor, on the gentleman who asked about City Ticket – we actually – that is something we have started to talk to the MTA about. We have raised it as something that the City is very interested in seeing. It would be a wonderful opportunity for those folks who do live in what’s called the transit deserts who could make better use of Long Island Railroad and Metro North stations that are within the City limits if it was a more affordable price. So, that is actually something we are pursuing with them.

Mayor: Okay. First of all, I want to do a couple of things. Marty Golden has some specific information about 86th Street. 

Senator Marty Golden: I do believe it’s on a plan. It is funded and it is coming up – 86th Street. But we still need a lot more stations than 86th Street done because when you go down, how do you get up? So, that’s going to be one of the issues that we’re looking at. But 86th Street is funded. It is on the map. I don’t know if it’s for next year, but I do know that it is on the agenda. 

[Applause]

Mayor: You know that moment in the movies when someone walks into the room and hands someone a note? This is not a bad note, by the way. This is a good note. But I did not know this – so, our Congressman Dan Donovan, just today, was named the chairman of the Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. We thank you. Take a bow.

[Applause]

And, Congressman, that is exactly where the people of New York City want you to be. So, we thank you for that very, very much. On the previous point about options for people with mass transit, I want our Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin to add another point that people should know about. 

Commissioner Julie Menin, Department of Consumer Affairs: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, certainly on the City fare issue, and just in general on mass transit – we are [inaudible] to the Department of Consumer Affairs to be implementing the law Mayor de Blasio signed on commuter benefits. What the law provides is for any company or not-for-profit or has 20 or more employees – you can save up to $800 a year on your commute. So, if you want to learn more about this, or have any questions, please contact us, call 3-1-1, contact us at DCA, and we’d be happy to answer your questions. But it’s a big savings and it’s a win for both employees and for employers. 

Mayor: So, just – a lot of you know the Transit Check Program? This is the same thing, but now expanded to more people who didn’t qualify previously. So, now, any employer – 20 or more employees is obligated in New York City to offer their employees the opportunity to participate in Transit Check. And again, if you’re not part of it now, and you do pay a certain amount each month to get to work, it could mean as much as $800 in savings for you.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay, I think we have another young generation question right over here.

Mayor: They’re getting younger. 

[Laughter]

Councilmember Gentile: They are getting younger.

[Laughter]

Mayor: We’re getting older, they’re getting younger.

Question: I’m Anthony [inaudible], and I go to the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, which is a fairly new school, and I’m currently in sixth grade and 11 years old. I would like to ask about classroom sizes, because in the school that I go to, we have 33 kids in our class, and we have a pretty small building. We don’t have space for lockers, and we have K through seventh right now, and, next year, we’re going to K through eighth. And we have four floors in our building, plus a cellar, and plus a basement with three schools in that building. So, it’s pretty stuffy in there.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

Question: So, I think that if we had bigger classrooms, and less kids in each classrooms – like, less than 30, at least – it will benefit our learning, because teachers will be able to have conferences with more students rather than having only a few conferences a day with the students that need extra help, and leaving out the students that are doing well, and forgetting about them.

Mayor: Thank you, Anthony. 

[Applause]

Anthony, if only most of the adults I work with were as reasonable as you.

[Laughter]

But look, in this City, school overcrowding is a very big issue, because we’ve had some neighborhoods that have just been booming in terms of demand for school space for years and year. I’m going to have Lorraine Grillo speak to this – the president of the School Construction Authority. District 20 now, for 15-20 years, has been an outstanding district, but also a district that’s had lots of schools that were very full. So, in District 20, there has been a particularly strong effort by the City – began with my predecessor, but has continued now. We’re adding a lot more to it. So, Lorraine, tell people what’s happened in the last five years, what will happen in the next five years for District 20. 

President Lorraine Grillo, School Construction Authority: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, at the School Construction Authority, we’ve been very busy, particularly in District 20. Over the last five years, we’ve built 5,000 new seats in this district. And in this capital plan, under this Mayor, we have allocated $400 million – over $400 million to District 20 for new seats. Now, the problem for us, unfortunately, is finding sites. So, we welcome, and have always welcomed, any information that anyone has on appropriate sites for schools – and we’ll be out there looking. We love to build – that’s what we do for a living. So, any help we can get, we really, really –

Mayor: How many new seats are you ready to build with the money we gave you?

President Grillo: 5,000 new seats, in addition to the 5,000 –

[Applause]

Mayor: So, 5,000 seats for the district have been built in the last five years. The new plan, which takes us three or four years ahead in time will add 5,000 more on top of that. But we need your help on locations. And literally, a lot of times the elected officials have helped us to find an appropriate location. Sometimes it’s been some City-owned land that can be turned over for it. Sometimes it’s been a former Catholic school. But whatever we need to find locations – because we have the money, and we’re ready to build to get more sets for this community. 

Councilmember Gentile: Great. Okay, we’ll go to this section right here. 

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Welcome to Bay Ridge. My name is [inaudible]. I live in Bay Ridge, and we worship at Beit Elmaqdis Islamic Center on 62nd Street and 6th Avenue. We have – between 61st and 62nd Street, there’s a ramp right over the bridge where the train passes. There have been buses parked at that location, which consumes a huge amount of parking space. They are not City buses, they are private buses. I would like to ask if someone’s looking into that issue. 

Mayor: So, you’re saying they’re illegally parked there?

Question: We’re not quite sure. We’d like that to be looked into. 

Mayor: Okay.

Question: We’ve been working with the 72nd Precinct, and they’re doing a great job in assisting us, especially on Fridays, where the place holds about more than 500 people on Friday prayers. So, we’re really starving for parking. The second issue I would like to raise is quality of life and noise. I love around here, and, especially in the summertime, we have a lot of noise coming around – and there are cars that pass through 83rd Street speeding. We have a playground at the corner. And the second issue that – especially late at night where they park their cars right around the perimeter of the school and they’re blasting music loudly between 1-2 o’clock in the morning. And every time I made phone calls to 3-1-1 – basically, they take the information, but nothing has been done. Now, it’s the winter time, so we don’t have much of an issue, but spring comes –

Mayor: Right.

Question: – and the weather gets warmer. Are we going to have more issues as far as noise and speeding cars between Narrows and Colonial? There’s like a race between this intersection to Narrows.

Mayor: Okay, let me speak to those points.

Question: Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you. I’m going to speak to a couple of broad points. Chief, I’d like you to speak specifically to the 7-2 Precinct issues. On the speeding issue, Vision Zero is this initiative that we’ve done – NYPD has played an extraordinary role in it, as well as Department of Transportation, and Taxi and Limousine Commission. Vision Zero says that the things we used to tolerate, like speeding, we don’t tolerate anymore, because too many people have died. And it gets back to the point I made earlier – as the NYPD has done a better and better job of driving down violent crime, to historic lows – and we intend to go farther – we’re also adding 2,000 more police officers so we can get at many more of the quality of life problems, but also problems that aren’t violent crime, but still are very dangerous, like the speeding, which we’ve lost so many lives to. So, we’re going to have the capacity for precincts to have more personnel to go after these kinds of problems. The same with the noise complaints – I take the noise issue very seriously. When I lived in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, when you hear noise in the middle of the night like that, it ruins your whole night, it ruins the next day. And we want to see real and intense enforcement on those kind of problems – so, I take that seriously. And obviously, I don’t know the details on the bus parking, but I get the point to how that’s disruptive to the community. So, in terms of the specifics, I’d like Chief to speak to the 7-2 Precinct issues. Now, the speeding, is that 7-2, or – where’d you say it was? Colonial? 

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Okay. So, Chief, you start, and if anyone else wants to join in –

Deputy Chief Eric Rodriguez, Executive Officer for Operations, NYPD: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of programs in the re-engineering process that came out – one program was the NCO program – Neighborhood Coordination Officer. That program’s getting unveiled in the 7-2 Precinct in April. So, in another month-and-a-half, you’re going to see extra police officers, like the Mayor said, going into the 7-2 Precinct, and the precinct’s going to be broken down into four sectors. Each sector’s going to have a neighborhood coordination officer to deal specifically with those problems in that sector. There’s also going to be three sector cars – a [inaudible] four to 12, a midnight car who work with that specific NCO officer in that specific area. They don’t leave that sector. And they’re going to take care of any quality of life issues you have. So, you’re going to have a contact – an NCO officer – to take care of some of these chronic problems that you have, and a sector that they [inaudible] each tour to make sure they’re taking care of that problem. I just want to bring up two other issues – [inaudible] brought up the issue with the prostitution and the heroin epidemic. If you saw last week, there’s also another program that we’re going – they’re merging the OCCB into the Detective Bureau. So, when that happens, there’s going to be an Investigative Chief added to Patrol Borough Brooklyn South. So, instead of having two chiefs – and Operations Chiefs and an Administrative Chief – there’s now going to be an Investigative Chief who looks at these issues that you’re talking about, because some of them take long-term investigations instead of shot-term problems. This Investigative Chief is going to get involved with all that stuff – and that’s coming out in the next couple of weeks. The Investigative Chief will be assigned, and he’ll be looking at all these issues that you’re talking about – high-level heroin, and the prostitution inside some of these locations. And then, in a few more months, the 6-8 will get that NCO program, and you’ll see the whole process come together. Thank you.

[Applause]

Captain Raymond Festino, NYPD: Who am I addressing? I’m sorry, I don’t know your specific speeding area, so, after this, I’ll have my officers come over to you – we’ll get more details on that. But with Vision Zero, we’ve been – I can’t eventual you as far as speed enforcement – it’s off the chart as far as how much – I mean, how many summonses we’ve written for speed enforcement. And it’s taken it’s toll because fatalities have come down. So, after the meeting, I’ll have one of my detectives speak with you as far as the location, okay?

Mayor: Thank you. And I want to tell you, to the point about Vision Zero – we’re very proud of this. In just two years, this approach proved to be so high-impact. So, NYPD has doubled the amount of enforcement on speeding violations, tripled the amount of enforcement on failure to yield to pedestrians. That, plus the speed cameras around the schools – the zones around the schools where we’re trying to protect kids by putting in the extra protections – and thank you to Senator Golden, who played a crucial role in that. On top of that, what we’re doing with changing a lot of the intersections, changing a lot of the designs of the roads, the reduced speed limit – the impact of all of that in just two years is we had the lowest number of fatalities for pedestrians, and motorists, and bicyclists. 

[Applause]

But this is amazing, and it’s really a reason – you know, there’s lots of things that are wrong in the world, lots of things we all have to address, but this is an example of what the NYPD, and Department of Transportation, and TLC did together. They deserve so much credit. In two years’ time, they not only lowered that number, they brought it down to the lowest number since 1910 – a century. It is the lowest numbers of death in one year in a century because of vehicular traffic. I mean, that’s absolutely outstanding. So, we’re going to continue to deepen those approaches. Another thing I want to say – this new neighborhood policing strategy that Commissioner Bratton is putting in place – keep an eye on the impact this is going to have. Commissioner Bratton is the finest police leader that this nation has known in decades. What he’s done is absolutely outstanding – what he did her in creating CompStat and the Broken Windows strategy – what he did in LA, and he’s come back here – driven down crime more. But what he’s trying to do now is create real neighborhood-based policing where officers know the people who they’re serving, and vice versa, in a real, personal way. 

[Applause] 

And again, that’s going to allow us to get at more of those quality of life crimes, and more of the problems that neighborhoods have had, but weren’t addressed in the past. Now, there’s going to be people taking very personal responsibility for solving the problems. Where it’s been started already, we’ve seen really impressive reductions in crime. So, we’re excited that it’s going to be coming to this community as well.

Councilmember Gentile: That’s great – that’s good news. Okay. We’re rounding third, but let’s take some more questions. Sandy?

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Welcome to Bay Ridge. In your opening remarks you mentioned the illegal conversions and there was also [inaudible] to that also. What I would like to bring up is the alarming rate of illegal subletting, not by landlords but by tenants. There are a number of tenants that I have seen that have rented out rooms within their apartments and also there was one tenant that I – that I evicted. And when I evicted that tenant there were 18 people living in that apartment. He was renting out beds. There were beds even in the kitchen. So, I would like to know what either you or the Commissioner of DOH can do.

Mayor: Let me ask for – because in terms of illegal sublets, and I’m glad you’re raising it. And the example you give is horrifying. Illegal sublet enforcement – tell me whose got that or if it’s an agency that’s not here. Anyone? Steve is going to speak to us. Steve Banks knows a lot about government. Go ahead Steve. 

Human Resources Administration, Commissioner Steve Banks: One of the issues that you’re raising is too many people at one location. And some of you are familiar with the phenomenon of three-quarters houses in which people – landlords or subtenants – tenants rented out an apartment for more people than it could be occupied there. This is something the Mayor is concerned about. It existed for years. We developed an analytic to see where the City was paying rent to ten or more unrelated people at a particular location. We’ve been inspecting those locations and we’ve been removing people who are there in excess of occupancy levels. So, we will continue to work with anybody that identifies a building like that and use there analytic tools that the Mayor has asked us to use to address that problem. Issues about subletting, as you know those are complex landlord-tenant issues, but where the city can play a role, which is to see where are we paying rent to places where there are more than 10 unrelated people in that building – that’s what we’ve been focused on.

Mayor: And to the question specifically, I just want to – folks from the Community Affairs Unit of the Mayor’s Office. Who’s here? Raise your hand. Raise your hand high. If you’re from – one, two looking around – Community Affairs Unit of the Mayor’s Office; sir, we’ll make sure one of the folks here – right there – you’ll follow up that weekend. If you have any reports of this kind of problem we will personally follow up and see how we can provide the enforcement. Go ahead; let him have a follow up.

Question: They are closing off rooms and putting up partitions that intentionally stop off fire escapes. And that’s going to lead to more problems with our police officers, Fire Department, and EMS getting to people.

Mayor: So anything physical like that, where they start to violate law and create safety hazards goes to Rick Chandler.

Department of Buildings, Commissioner Rick Chandler: Hi – Department of Buildings, absolutely. If they’re putting up partitions I would venture to guess that that’s not without permits. And you’re required to file those. And I would also – that’s what I said they’re doing it without permits. They’re doing it without permits. And it’s very like that if they did try to get a permit it probably wouldn’t be approved. So – put in a complaint; get a hold of your community board, and 3-1-1. I realize that we’re challenged to get out there in a timely way, that’s number one; number two, our second challenge is getting access. So, what we’re doing every week is we do go out with FDNY and we try to nail down as many of these as we can too because FDNY – as you might guess – helps us to get access frequently. So, we’ll try to be responsive –

Question: So, does the landlord complain directly to DOH when he sees an issue like this?

Commissioner Chandler: I’m Department of Buildings. And if you think that the work is being to [inaudible] partitions by all means you should make a complaint to 3-1-1 as work without a permit.

Question: What about padlocked doors within the apartment? There are doors –

Mayor: Same idea – same idea. Any complaint where you think there’s a violation of health and safety rules; you can call 3-1-1 and register it. Department of Buildings is the main enforcement entity, and as Rick said when Department of Buildings cannot get access the fire department can. So, they team up and I know Julie Menin wants to add.

Commissioner Menin: And also, if you see for example in local community newspapers – if you see these kinds of advertisements and people are advertising for this please contact us at 3-1-1 because anything in terms of [inaudible] advertisements we at Consumer Affairs can crackdown in terms of a violation of the city’s consumer protection law.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay. We’ll take three more questions. We’ll end up – okay, yes. Okay, we’ll come back down.

Question: Finally. My name is [inaudible] and I work for 3-1-1. So, any questions –

Mayor: We thank you for that.

Question: – any questions, you know, just call me and I’ll answer them all for you.

[Applause]

My question is kind of two-parted. As far as tax rates for – like you said you wanted to keep the tax rate from changing usually in November, correct? Would that be the tax rates for one – for one to four classes like commercial buildings or would one year the tax class rate we go down for one family dwelling and then it would go up for a tax class four properties? I’ve been noticing a trend in that because I worked for the Department of Finance for 10 years prior to 3-1-1. That’s one of my questions is the tax rates and how they would be applied say to like a commercial building. Plus, I would like to know about exemptions like the 421-a, 421-b, J-51. Will they – I think the 421-a is no longer in effect.

Mayor: Correct.

Question: Right.

Mayor: It was being debated again, we hope, in Albany.

Question: That’s what I was hoping for, which will ultimately lead to my last part – my son is disabled he broke his neck four years ago – five years ago. So, for him to – he’s 30 now. So if we could develop these commercial buildings with the help of finance, DOT, all of the people that are needed – I find that there are no buildings – he’s a young man and for him to try to get his own apartment in Bay Ridge has been difficult for us to try to locate an apartment with disability internally; where he can roll in, reach things. And so it’s kind of like a three part question.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay, let the Mayor answer. Let the Mayor answer.

[Laughter]

Mayor: On the last point, with all of our affordable housing efforts – again, our plan is 200,000 apartments – there is a specific percentage set aside for people with disabilities. That does not – we also know there’s a lot of people who need apartments so I’m not trying to say, you know, snap your fingers everyone gets an apartment. I’m saying we’re very conscious of the fact that people with disabilities have a special need for affordable housing. So, we’ve set aside a substantial amount in our plan. On the question of the property tax, well first of all, on the 421-a; yes it has lapsed. Our representatives in Albany are going to consider what happens next. We believe there should be a plan that provides tax incentives when affordable housing is created, not when luxury housing is created, but when affordable housing is created; and a plan that will spur the construction of affordable housing in a way that’s fairer to the taxpayers. We’re hoping that that can help emerge from Albany this year. On the question of the property tax rate; so you’re right, within the four classes for property there’s different things that happen each year distributing the tax obligations among the four. That changes every year. But what I’m talking about is while acknowledging that we need serious overhaul of our property tax system. The thing I am committed to is not allowing an increase in the overall property tax rate. We experienced one after 9/11. We experienced another one as a result of the Great Recession. This time wat’s different is I’ve made very clear it is the philosophy of this administration to not have additional property tax rate increases. And the way we are putting that into action is to put a lot of fiscal discipline into effect and a lot of reserves into effect. So, right now we’re running almost $5 billion in reserves because we know in the event of an economic downturn that money gets burned up very quickly. And in the past – I understand why – mayors have turned to the option of increasing the property tax rate. My goal is to not turn to that action; to have those reserves to protect us. So, that’s how we’re handling it.

Councilmember Gentile: Great. Okay – we have this young man right here.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, I’m speaking up for the [inaudible] the Bay Ridge Center. In front of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church there is no place to park the van – the senior van. When the van comes there’s always cars and trucks and vans in front of it. Can’t do nothing.

[Laughter]

Can you do something about that?

Mayor: Alright, let’s see what we can do about that. [Inaudible] is there something that you think we can do Councilmember?

Councilmember Gentile: I know the location.

Mayor: Okay, so have we done any kind of follow up so far?

Councilmember Gentile: My staff will make sure we get a card to him. We’ll get his information and we’ll call him back.

Mayor: So, you’re saying the senior center van itself does not have a place to park in front of the senior center?

Okay. Let’s see if between the councilman’s office and NYPD we can find a way to help address this issue. Thank you, sir.

Question: I want to welcome you to Bay Ridge.

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: My name is Renee. Bay Ridge is very difficult to find parking first and foremost. Secondly, we also have the machines that most of them do not work.

Mayor: The muni-meters?

Question: Yes, the muni-meters do not work – [inaudible] right in front of my office. I’ve put in complaints to 3-1-1. Nobody has come to fix it. People have come to pick up money from the machine. I’ve addressed it to them and they say they are not the ones responsible to fix the machine. I purchased the DOT cards. They do not work. We run the risk of getting a ticket because we have to cross; we have to try to find another muni-meter that will accept the cards. And also occasionally sometimes it takes quarters. It’s hit or miss whether it takes the money. Now, I understand that you have a program that’s coming out.

Mayor: Brand new plan. I’m so glad you raised that.

[Laughter]

Question: I wanted to bring this up.

Mayor: And Polly why don’t you come over to talk about how we fix these specific ones, but what we’ve announced just in the last couple of weeks is that we’re going to put the technology in place that anyone can pay the parking meter using their phone either with texting –

[Applause]

– they can tap it. They can text it whatever it is, but you can pay from your phone. You do not have to get out and get the ticket. You don’t have to put the ticket in the window. You don’t have to race over to get it before an enforcement agent comes. You literally can do it with your phone, and this is a wonderful bonus, anytime you don’t use will get credited to you for the next time you park.

[Applause]

So, Polly you can talk about this excellent plan, but also if there are in the meantime muni-meter that are broken what we can do to immediately fix them.

Commissioner Trottenberg: No look, and obviously if there’s a muni-meter having a problem we’ll get that down. We do try and stay on top of repairing them particularly, I think, in the winter months when you have cold weather and salt that can have an effect on it. But I think as the Mayor has said what we’re hoping starting this summer is we’re going to migrate to a much better technology, which will be much more convenient. You‘ll be able to do this on your phone. You won’t have to deal with the meters. You can still use them if you want to, but a lot of people it will give you the chance to just pay on the phone.

[Applause]

Mayor: Tell us where the problem is again. Where is it? So, Polly your folks will follow up.

Question: It’s in front of 9012 Third Avenue.

Mayor: 9012 Third Avenue.

Councilmember Gentile: Allan’s had his hand up all night. Allan?

Question: In order to agree with your [inaudible] I prepared a letter for the Mayor, if you will take it. I apologize for not standing up.

Mayor: No worries. I don’t stand on ceremony.

Question: Good. There are several things that I wanted to compliment you for. First and foremost is being able to bridge the Mayor’s stonewall that he put up and to take over all of the things that he ignored –

Mayor: You mean the previous mayor?

Question: – to finally get things done.

Mayor: You’re saying the previous mayor?

Question: Well, you call him mayor, I call him something else, but –

[Laughter]

Question: – we both speak the [inaudible] and he did not like me at one point. I agree with most of what you’re doing. I have a little disagreement with you regarding commissioners. But my question basically is how I can arrange to meet you and Polly somehow for seven to 10 minutes and talk to the people in charge and see whether or not there are things that could be done here. We’re living in gridlock, which hasn’t been this bad since 1950s when it really was bad and you couldn’t move at all in New York. And we’re getting close to the point where commerce is going to leave us because if you can’t travel; if you can’t move around you’re not going to stay there. And good old Tom Watson and his ideas of making everything work by computer – where you could put on a shirt and a tie and sit behind a desk but naked and still be considered doing business is not the way the world works yet.

Mayor: Allan, you do present your ideas in a colorful manner.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

Mayor: Here’s what I’m looking for, you’re exactly right about the congestion. It’s been a growing problem. The congestion is happening in part because more and more people own cars then was even true 10 or 20 years ago, that’s point one. Point two, whether we like it or not we have the largest population we have ever had at eight-and-a-half million people – literally, the largest we have ever had in our history and its growing. That is an indicator of success that so many people want to be here, but it comes with a real congestion problem. The third element is construction. We’re in the middle of a construction boom. Generally, we like construction booms, it means jobs, and it means more housing and more businesses. It also means more congestion because it [inaudible] the streets. So, I’m happy to tell you, you are not crazy. You are seeing what you’re seeing. And in the budget we just authorized, 327 new traffic enforcement agents to get at the congestion problem. So, 327 new traffic enforcement agents who will be focused on clearing out congestion because a lot of times the only way it will work is if there is a human being there to do it. And my office will follow up with you about your other ideas. And I will read your letter. Thank you very much.

Councilmember Gentile: I’ve kind of lost count so let’s make it three quick questions.

Question: Hi, I’m Victoria. I’m involved with several preservation groups [inaudible] group, Councilmember Gentile‘s preservation committee and the Bay Ridge Conservancy. And it’s to the illegal conversions. It’s just a thought – there isn’t enforcement being done and one thing I think can be very helpful is for us to look at the post-approval amendments.

Mayor: Say that again.

Question: Post-approval amendments. So, people are putting in to do the least amount of work with the plan to do the most amount of work and they are getting it approved illegally. And if that could be revoked people wouldn’t be taking such liberties I think. So, it’s something I think should be revoked.

Mayor: So, wait you’re saying people say they going to do one thing and do another thing.

Question: Yes. And then no one comes in and checks to see if –

Mayor: [Inaudible] speak to it Rick.

Commissioner Chandler: I’m sorry, but yes that’s true. You’re right. It’s a very simplified version of one of the problems. And there is no job that starts from the largest building to the smallest project that starts as the way it was planned. And I think anybody here who has done any construction knows that nothing every goes as planned. I can’t start off reviewing an application saying somebody is not telling me the truth. However, I want you to know that we absolutely are stepping up our enforcement. The Mayor has mentioned the increase in our staff, which we’ve gotten and are very grateful for. And I said, we’ve been working with elected and we’ve got a much improved system on being responsive to the request. We’ve identified a couple of contractors in this area who have been cited numerous times and I can tell you that we’re taking increased enforcement action to bring criminal charges against them; as well as design professionals who have lied to us. So, we’re working on a couple of design professionals who have lied to us and are working to take extreme action on them as well.

Question: The problem is it’s after the fact, so we’re doing nothing preventative. So, all the work that community boards are doing, the Councilman is doing, the Senator is doing – everyone is doing – the tenant, the people here; Josephine Beckman doing. It’s useless because it’s already done. So, you’ve destroyed our affordable quality housing stock. That’s what’s happening. What can we do to prevent it? If these were not given out people would not have the incentive to do this. They’re doing excavations without permits. They’re doing huge major things.

Mayor: Okay. So, the – look, I understand what you’re saying.

[Applause]

You’re raising a very valid problem, and Rick is raising a valid challenge that we have that we can’t presume everyone is guilty upfront. What we can do is exactly what he’s saying. 100 new enforcement agents that are going to allow us to get over on situations earlier and more intensely; more serious use of fines and criminal prosecution, which again was not done substantially in the past – criminal prosecution for contractors who are engaging in this kind of work. That’s the plan we have to try to get at the core of this problem.

Question: Yes, but you still have lost the housing stock. So –

Mayor: No, not if we get there the way we’re talking about is not when it’s too late. It’s to get to the problem as early as possible when we get a complaint, so we can go right at it. That’s what we think is going to work.

Councilmember Gentile: Thank you. Two more questions and we’ll wrap it up, okay?

Gentleman, right there – yes you.

Question: Hi, I’m Allan. I’m a Bay Ridge resident and live not too far away. My wife and I have a son in public school here. My wife works at a UPK rollout here with – where’s Justin Brandon, he’s around here somewhere – Vice Mayor we call him. Anyways, my question is regarding CUNY. I’m a CUNY professor and it’s getting harder to teach and learn at CUNY. And you’ve been quite supportive I would argue as well as Letitia James, thank you, for CUNY funding. But it seems to be a tale of two CUNY supporters. There’s yourself and there’s the Governor who seems to want the city to take the tab and meanwhile tuition is going up; class sizes are increasing and it’s getting harder for us to do our jobs. Pretty soon my union may consider vote authorization on a strike. I’m ready to do it if that means – I’m ready to do it if it means a raise that we haven’t had in six years and it means that my students get the quality education that they deserve. [Inaudible] I know that there are CUNY graduates in this room, am I correct? And I know that they were there when it was a tuition-free model and it was open enrollment. What could you say to us to empower us to get to a place where CUNY receives the right amount of funding from the [inaudible] level? Thank you.

Mayor: Well look, obviously I’ll tell you what the city is doing. I’ll tell you what the city is doing. First of all, we have invested additionally in CUNY because we put more and more money into the community colleges for STEM programs in particular. So, we’ve been steadily increasing – we already have a base level of commitment we make to CUNY every year. We’ve been increasing that voluntarily to cover more and more of the kinds of programs we think will help get young people the jobs that are available today. We’ve also said very clearly – because 95 percent of the workers that are – or 95 percent of the unions I should say – that are representing the city workers of New York City are now under contract because we made it a priority to come to fair contracts with them. We’ve said very clear to your union that the percentage – the historic percentage the city would have to pay to give you a similar kind of increase is what we’ve given city workers; we’re ready to pay our share of that. We’re ready to do that right now. I think obviously working with our representatives in Albany there needs to be a deeper conversation in Albany about resolving this issue because we want to see all of the CUNY professionals under a fair contract. But we should be very, very careful to not allow in the middle of that discussion the State of New York to try to shift more and more costs on the City of New York because we cannot allow that.

[Applause]

And I know our delegation in the Senate and the Assembly has been very eagle-eyed on this point. In the dead of night, we heard a proposal to add huge new costs – hundreds of millions of dollars – to the City for CUNY. That’s not the way to do things. We can work together to settle your contract and the City stands ready to do that.

Councilmember Gentile: Okay, one more question. Let’s see. I told you earlier, I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Question: My name is Michael. I represent one of the board members of the Moroccan Association in Bay Ridge. My question is, first of all, I want to thank you Mr. Mayor for being here it means a lot to us seriously.

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: I see all beautiful faces happy seeing you around, it means a lot. My question is voting – among our community they all come from different countries – they been here for 20 year, 30 years. But when it comes to voting is the lack of education. As we all know, voting it’s a beautiful right and – you know – we love to go out there and express ourselves by voting for the person we feel comfy with. But our communities from different ethnics – Spanish, Chinese they’ve been here for a long time, but when it comes to voting they don’t go out there and raise their voice. They want things to be changed; they want good things to happen, but they can’t because there is a lack of education. So, what can we do to educate these people to go out there and raise their voice and make their voice heard for everyone to benefit out of it?

[Applause]

Mayor: I think it’s a couple different things. I will say it quickly. I think one part of it is the responsibility of all of us who are elected officials to provide a good example to show people that there is a reason to vote; to show them that something actually can get done because I don’t blame anyone who’s cynical. There’s been a lot of reason to be cynical so we have to restore some faith through our integrity and our actions. Second, we have to make the information available in the languages that people speak. We’ve made some progress on that. We’ve got more to do. I’ve been pushing the Board of Elections to go farther to make information accessible so people feel comfortable. Third, in this State we do not have particularly advanced voting laws. In a lot of other states around the country you can register the same day as the election; you can vote by mail; they have early voting, so it’s very convenient for people. In this state, it is harder to register and there’s only one day when you can vote. And for a lot of people, because of their work schedule or whatever, that’s a struggle. So, we need to – and this is something we need to do in Albany – actually get New York State up to date with so much of the rest of the country and make it easy to vote.

[Applause]

Councilmember Gentile: Great. Well, what did we learn here tonight? I think what we learned here tonight if nothing else is that we have a Mayor who is knowledgeable, engaged, and concerned. So, that’s good to know that our Mayor is all those things. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor for being with us.

[Applause]

Thank you all for being grate.

Mayor: Thank you, everyone. Thank you very, very much. Thank you for being here.