Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on 94.7 The Block's "Jonesy in the Morning"

May 15, 2024

Tarsha Jones: Mayor Eazy-E, AKA Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: What's happening? How's it going?

Jones: Good. How're you doing?

Mayor Adams: Good. Hats off to the Knicks, you know.

Jones: Oh, yes. Wayne's over here grinning. I'm a Philly fan.

Wayne Mayo: You from Queens. What are you talking about?

Jones: I know, I know.

Mayor Adams: They're going well, rocking and rolling. Grinding.

Jones: Yes. This is a good week. New York needed that injection. It's a lot going on. You have been busy, what was popping at the Vatican?

Mayor Adams: It was a real pleasure. I've been there almost 30 years ago, but I never had an opportunity to meet the Pope while I was there. It was a real pleasure to go and just – He had a whole meeting around humanity and what we're going to do about what's happening globally in the country.

A lot of people are talking about what's happening in the Middle East, but people don't realize the number of deaths in the Sudan and Africa, what's happening in Haiti, what's happening in Yemen, so there is some real violence, Ukraine – Right, exactly. It's about how do we stop this global conflict that we're seeing.

Jones: I appreciate you reaching out and having this conversation because I stay away from it just because it's so controversial. Thank you for that.

I didn't appreciate Governor Hochul. I don't know if she was talking about you, but she was complaining about the rollout of the cannabis shops and how that whole debacle was pretty much ass-backwards. Was she trying to…

Mayor Adams: No. She was talking about, what happened was, when it was first passed by the lawmakers, they said they legalized cannabis, and folks on the street, they don't read the fine print. They think it's just totally legalized, and people started opening up shops all over the place.

She was talking about the Office of Cannabis Management. It was their job to manage the rollout and they didn't do it effectively. She did a real cleanup of bringing in a new team there and changing the laws so we can use the team to go after those illegal shops. Those illegal shops undermined the legal shops. Now we closed 75 in the week but now going to zero in on all of these illegal shops.

Jones: That's Operation Padlock to Protect?

Mayor Adams: Yes. That's the goal. Also similar with Jenifer Rajkumar who's been a real hero around this, she proposed a bill of Operation SMOKEOUT, The SMOKEOUT Act and they used part of that bill to really give us some of the power we needed to go in to close down these shops.

These shops are targeting our young people. You wake up in the morning and you're a young person, you're being high every day in school. It's just not effective in learning.

Jones: Right. Absolutely not. We were talking about how some of the kids are driving in their parents' cars, young kids, and they wind up at school smelling like the weed, and then the faculty in the school has to do what they have to do by pulling them to the side, making sure they're not high, and that's embarrassing. It's a lot.

Will you ever be able to put something in place to get in front of that? Or are we just trying to save what we could save right now?

Mayor Adams: Well, that's the goal and we got a great sheriff, Sheriff Miranda. They have a real operation going in and you should see some of the stuff that is being confiscated. One day you should come and see one of these field operations on how they do it. You talk about everything from gummy bears to packaging that young people look at. It's a real illegal operation that's happening.

Jones: Sounds like even targeting our kids with gummy bears. Come on.

Mayor Adams: Yes. That's what I'm saying. Everybody in schools. On the way to school, children are picking up some gummy bears. You can tell the unique smell of marijuana, but when your children are using gummy bears or some of the other edibles, that's the problem.

Listen, adults should do what they want. They need to manage their control, but when you start targeting young people, the brain development is impacted at a young age when you are having an overuse of cannabis.

Jones: Right. Hiding it in candy or covering it like it's okay. Candy is just the gateway to destruction and disaster in my opinion.

We're talking to Mayor Eric Adams this morning as we do every other Wednesday. Mayor, can you hold on a second?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I can.

Jones: We'll be right back with Mayor Eric Adams on the block.

[Music break.]

We're back with Mayor Eric Adams. Do you want to tell us what you've been doing over in Red Hook? Then we'll go to the Drink Champ visit.

Mayor Adams: Red Hook is huge and there's a lot of projects that people have been trying to do for decades that they haven't been able to land. That's why we call ourselves the finisher.

Like the Willets point Project, people have been trying to do that for decades. It's the largest housing project in over 40 years, has failed many times. Governors Island has failed. We've been able to land that project, but this is one of the big ones.

Over in Red Hook they have often been denied so many of the services. We are going to redevelop that port. We're going to invest over $95 million and we are going to have a combination of housing, that beautiful waterfront, also have a full port usage. We are going to change what's going to happen over there. It is really exciting.

We now have control. Control that's been turned over to the city. We're going to coordinate with the community over there and really use the waterfront the way it should be used and the community can finally get some real energy.

Now what we're doing is going to take tons of trucks off the road. Because think about this for a moment. We get produce that comes in, we have to ship it over to New Jersey. New Jersey then takes it over the bridge, of course, the George Washington Bridge. Then to the Bronx Farmers Market. Then we truck it back down here to Brooklyn. It just made no sense.

We are going to create a blue highway utilizing our waterway more. We're going to start reinvigorating all the ports around our entire city area. This is one of the many operations we are doing on our ports. This is a huge, huge thing that we accomplished that no one was able to accomplish before.

Jones: I applaud you and I hear your excitement. I have a little bit of concern because typically when things like ports and riverviews and waterfronts come into play, the poor people get pushed out, and those that can afford those views come rushing in.

Mayor Adams: That's a great, great point, but when you look at what we are doing, because that's built into the community involvement. You saw what we're doing over at Willets Point, I keep pointing to that. 100 percent affordable. New school, new stadium, new park. That's the same thing we're going to do here. We're going to make sure the price point of affordability is there, so we don't …

Jones: You have to, you have to. I'm going to stay on your neck about that because I know what happens. I know what happens. Somewhere along the line, oh, in order to afford the upkeep, we need a certain element, which always equals a certain income, and then the poor people, or the people may not even be poor. You could be making $80,000 and that's not poor to me, but it may not be affordable or sustainable for what you're trying to do. The plans to keep it upkept.

Mayor Adams: 100 percent. No, but we're going – Since we are getting the land, it's been turned over to us. That helps. Oftentimes the real cost that's attached is when you have to acquire and pay for the land. This is government land which will allow us to keep that of course the way we did in Willets Point.

Trust me, I'm with you on that. It has to be affordable for the residents.

Jones: Right. A realistic affordability, based on what's going on today.

Shifting gears real quickly, can you help me and the community get a street named after DJ Mister Cee? Or can you put me…

Mayor Adams: Oh, we got to do it. We got to do it. The way this is done, the community can go to the local council person and the community board. They put in the petition, the council person brings it to the city council, and they vote on it.

I need his exact address of where he lived and we'll work with you and my team and we'll work together and we will get a street named after him. I don't think the council person would get in the way of it…

Jones: Because I'm like, that's too many steps me and you are friends now.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I'm on it.

Jones: The paperwork be damned. Let's get that done. Then lastly, I wanted to ask you what the hell, what were you doing on Drink Champs?

Mayor Adams: I love those guys. N.O.R.E., those are guys that grew up with. It's just enjoying a good group of people. I'm an urban mayor, and I want young people to grow up and understand you don't have to stop being your authentic self, just because you rise to these levels of prominence.

You can maintain your discipline, your urban, still do big things. We're doing big things, we turn around the city, we turn around the economy. We're moving the city in the right direction, bringing down the safety, more jobs in the history of the city. You still should be able to go to the barbershop when it's closed down at night and hang out with your friends and enjoy yourself.

We should be authentic in the roles we can do. I just want people to see that you can still be yourself and hold these high positions of authority.

Jones: Yes, young people, you should be able to see what success looks like and emulate it, right?

Mayor Adams: Yes, without a doubt.

Jones: That was a brilliant marketing move. I have to go always and make it about me. You know that I have the sister podcast to Drink Champs, right? I did a deal with N.O.R.E. and EFN I have Pink Champs.

Mayor Adams: Are you serious?

Jones: I am. I would love for you to come be a guest on Pink Champs.

Mayor Adams: Let's set it up. Our teams know how to rap and connect, let's set it up. I love that.

Jones: Yes. N.O.R.E's real people. Queens get the money.

Thank you, Mayor Eric Adams, everybody. Jalen, say good morning to the mayor. This is my son Jalen.

Jalen: Good morning. I'm Jalen. Nice to meet you.

Mayor Adams: Hey, is that Jalen? How's it going, brother?

Jalen: I'm good. How are you this morning? It's a pleasure to be talking to you.

Mayor Adams: Good. Are you in the industry also?

Jalen: I'm getting into it, getting my foot in the game as we speak.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I'm going to shoot you my son's number, Jordan. He goes by the stage name Jayoo. He's just doing a music documentary. You guys can connect. Young brothers need to connect with each other.

Jalen: That sounds awesome.

Jones: Excellent. Thank you so much for that.

Jalen: Appreciate it.

Mayor Adams: All right. Take care.

Jones: Have a great day. Mayor Eric Adams.