Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on WNYC

June 16, 2017

Brian Lehrer: And we begin with our weekly Ask the Mayor segment as usual on Fridays at ten o’clock with Mayor Bill de Blasio. Hi, Mr. Mayor, welcome back to WNYC.

Oops, do we have the Mayor? Do we have the sound? He’s there but I can’t hear him –

Mayor Bill de Blasio: I can hear you.

Lehrer: Now I got you. That problem was on our end. Sorry about that. Good morning.

Mayor: Good morning.

Lehrer: And listeners, our phones are open for anyone from anywhere at 2-1-2-4-3-3-WNYC, 2-1-2-4-3-3-9-6-9-2. Or you can tweet a question for the Mayor. Use the hashtag #Ask the Mayor.

Lehrer: Well, affordable housing is the perennial number one policy concern in New York City. I think you would agree. And we’re seeing that President Donald Trump has appointed a Trump family event planner to run the office that oversees federal housing programs in New York and New Jersey. As the Daily News puts it, Lynn Patton has arranged tournaments at Trump golf courses, arranged Eric Trump’s wedding, and other things like that but has zero housing experience and claims a law degree from Quinnipiac that the school says she never earned.

Are you familiar with Lynn Patton for this appointment?

Mayor: Never heard of her before and it’s surprising to say the least. Look, like many things in the Trump universe, we’re dealing with things we’ve never seen here before. Folks in that role historically have had, you know, substantial background in government or in housing, etcetera. But I got to try and find a way to work with her.

We’ve got 600,000 New Yorkers who are directly affected by HUD policies and HUD funding, a lot of which is on the line in the federal budget proposal that the President put out. So, I will do my best to work with her and with Secretary Carson. And I’ve spoken to Secretary Carson. I said, come together with me, look at some of our public housing buildings in our affordable housing programs to see how hundreds of thousands of people are relying on them. And you know I’m going to keep holding out that offer hoping we can find some common ground.

Lehrer: So, it’s how to work with her, find ways to work with her. It’s not, “Please Mr. President put somebody in who has some experience in this area?”

Mayor: Brian, we’re past that point. You know, we’re through the looking glass here in terms of so many things we’re seeing in the Trump administration and I think – I think it’s great for us to try and strive for normalcy. But I think it would be foolish to expect it. We will work with whoever they name the best we can.

But I think the real action will be on the ground not only in New York City but all over the country trying to change these policies in this fight over the budget up through September, I’m going to be working with mayors all over the country – Democrats and Republicans alike, by the way – who think the cuts to HUD would be horrible for their communities.

And then the bigger changes have to happen in 2018 and 2020. But asking the Trump administration to acknowledge historic norms and to think about what would make for effective government, that is whistling in the wind right there.

Lehrer: Last thing on this. What do you want – let’s say Lynn Patton is listening – what do you want from that office [inaudible] for the people of New York regardless of who is running it?

Mayor: Look, I’ll meet with Lynn Patton as will my Housing Commissioner and the Chair of the Housing Authority. We’ll meet her with an open hand and look for common ground. What we want is cooperation with the Housing Authority – 400,000 New Yorkers live in that hasn’t gotten the support it deserves for decades. So many buildings falling apart, $18 billion in repairs needed in NYCHA buildings. I’ll say to her, “Help us preserve the funding. Help us make sure that all the things that all the things HUD does now are streamlined and helpful to the residents of public housing and to all the other people who need affordable housing. There’s lots of ways that administrators at HUD could help make our work easier and faster. I’ll try my best to prevail upon her.

Lehrer: Let me ask you about your new middle-class jobs plan. Now, for people who might think, “Wait, you’re the inequality mayor whose core mission has been to help the working poor have decent wages and working conditions and preschool for their kids.” Why this new focus?

Mayor: It was – you know, first of all, I appreciate the question because I think it’s an honest question but I think it’s also a misinterpretation of what I’ve said all along. This was never just about the working poor. This is about all working people. This is about middle-class people, all of whom were having trouble making ends meet in this city.

When you look at everything – the pre-K, afterschool, affordable housing programs – everything we’ve done is to reach a whole swath of New Yorkers who are working people, middle-class people who are struggling in addition to low-income people.

And I think it’s a misnomer. I think it’s a mistake in terms of sort of the shorthand of public dialogue to think that economic inequality only affects those at the lowest end of the economic scale. No, in fact, I would say the 2016 election in this country was an outcry by working people and middle class people who felt they were being left behind by an unfair economy as well.

This plan will create 100,000 jobs paying $50,000 or more over the next ten years. And the idea here is to shift our economy towards better paying jobs, make those jobs get to New Yorkers. I mean it’s great when people from the suburbs come in and have jobs in this city but we want it more and more to go to New Yorkers of every walk of life, every borough, every background. And we want to also lean into the areas of our economy that need to build so we’ll have a strong economy no matter what happens. That includes life sciences, tech, film and TV. There’s a host of things here about building a future where working people actually can afford to live here.

We had a press conference at this extraordinary firm, SecurityScorecard, that is part of the cyber security field. We want to be the national center – the national headquarters, if you will, for cyber security in this country. That could be tens of thousands of jobs.

And a young man who was at the press conference named Josh from the Bronx, went to Queens College, went into this firm, is making a really good salary at the age of 26. He can actually afford to live in his own city now.

That’s what we want to see more of going forward.

Lehrer: There was a City Hall protest yesterday with the Strange Bedfellows Coalition of street vendors and mom-and-pop brick-and-mortar store owners who usually see vendors as unfair competition, to protest the power of commercial landlords to rent gouge in the city, and their view that you’re not doing enough to limit their greed with implications for jobs.

Were you aware of that protest?

Mayor: I was not but I’m happy to speak to the issue. Look, I think everyone knows I have a critique of the free enterprise system and I think it would be better if government had more ability to control some of these dynamics. But I’m not missing the fact that our current laws – our State laws, our federal laws – favor property rights greatly and therefore you have seen situations where commercial landlords make it impossible for mom-and-pop stores.

And then something that drives us all crazy – you know leave the vacant store front the way it is for a year or two and no one has that store front. That makes no sense for anyone. That drives me crazy. But I also understand the limits of the legal power of the City to change that right now.

On the question of the vendors – we have been working, over the last few months, with the City Council. I know it’s a priority for the Council to come up with legislation this year to rationalize what is a thoroughly irrational situation. The current reality doesn’t help the brick-and-mortar stores in terms of where the vendors are and how there are. It doesn’t help the vendors who are trying to do the right thing. It doesn’t help the folks who decided to go out and vend even though they don’t have a permit.

It’s mayhem right now and we need to create a set of clear rules that have a clear limit on how many vendors we have and where they can be but real enforcement so that anything outside those boundaries actually ends up with a consequence. And right now we don’t have that. We have to get there.

So, I think there is a pathway to reform here and I know the Council is very focused on it as well.

Lehrer: And advocate for the vendors sent me a question about the City Council bill saying it would gradually double the number of food vendor permits which they say have been frozen since 1983 but they say you’re holding it up and won’t say exactly why. And they add that 95 percent of street vendors are immigrants and you see yourself as an immigrant advocate.

Are you holding up that bill? And if so, why?

Mayor: No, it’s ongoing negotiations. There’s no holding up. It’s the negotiation process, the legislative process as always. Here’s the challenge – we’ve got to get the enforcement piece right. If you just add vendor permits and the current reality continues, that’s not going to help anyone meaning if there is not an actual enforcement regime, an actual consistency, then you’re going to have this continuation of people taking advantage of permits and using them inappropriately and lots of people not being able to get permits and brick-and-mortar stores dealing with unfair competition.

We’ve got to come up with a whole new vision here. I’m very sensitive to the mom-and-pop stores. They should have some special considerations in this situation because we need them to survive and it’s really tough for them to survive in New York City right now.

And the vendors present, often, immediate competition right outside their door step. We need to figure out how to address that issue and how to have real enforcement which we just don’t have right now. And then as a result of those ground rules, figure out what the right number of permits is to have.

Look, immigrants in this city who I have championed in many, many ways. They work in many fields. It’s not just vending. There are many, many opportunities for immigrants in this city.

This one we’re going to get to a legislative solution, I believe, when we get all the pieces to align.

Lehrer: And just to finish the thought – if you get the enforcement pieces, you’re open to a substantial increase in vendor permits or not?

Mayor: I’m open to figuring out what the right number is. I’m not going to buy into your particular phrase – no comment on you, Brian, but I want to be careful about language on purpose.

First, we need an enforcement plan that we do not have right now. Second, we need to figure out how to protect the brick-and-mortar stores who I think have often suffered because of vending. And third, we need to figure out what is the right number of vendors we should have on the streets of New York City and where they should be, and then once we lock that down there will be real consequences for anyone who does not have a permit, has an illegal permit, or is in the wrong place.

Again, we’re not even close to that reality on the streets of the city right now. I think we can get there but that’s why it is a somewhat complex legislative process because we have to hit all those notes.

Lehrer: It’s Ask the Mayor on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. On usual on Friday 10:00 am to 10:30 am all our lines are full when people finish up and get in at 2-1-2-4-3-3-WNYC. Or we’re watching on Twitter and of course that’s got unlimited space. Just use the hashtag #AsktheMayor.

Brian in Manhattan, you’re on WNYC with Mayor de Blasio.

Question: Hi, Mayor. Thanks for doing this. I wanted to ask you a question about an incident on Monday. There’s [inaudible] where a rider was killed after a collision with a charter bus in Chelsea. After this incident, NYPD released details indicating the cyclists swerved into the path of the bus and went under the wheels, and the driver was dismissed from the scene without any charges or summons. Many details of this report didn’t add up to safety advocates and it turns on Wednesday, the news site Gothamist covered witnesses and video that significantly contradicted the NYPD report. And this incident keeps happening with traffic collisions particularly ones where vehicles and bicyclists hit pedestrians or they hit bicyclists. And I’m really concerned about how these reports get out to the news media and how dismissive these initial investigations are –

Lehrer: We should note this was the first Citi Bike fatality, Mr. Mayor, right?

Mayor: It is. It’s horrible. It’s very painful. The Citi Bike program obviously has been a massive success and has provided a real option for people in this city. But this death – and I must say, it’s a guy with an amazing future ahead of him and young children, devoted father. It’s horrible. And an athlete on top of that – someone who obviously was very good at handling his bike.

Look, first of all, I do not know the current status of the investigation. I will talk to Chief Tom Chan on where that stands. We take this very, very seriously. I can editorialize and say that the fact that the driver was released at the time does not end the discussion by any means. But I will look into the what is the nature of the investigation, where is it going.

You know, information leaking out on any kind of criminal incident in New York City is unfortunately a long term phenomenon that goes way beyond the question of [inaudible] or any other area. It is pervasive. I wish it wasn’t. I think it would be much better if everything was kept very, very confidential but I don’t have that allusion at the moment.

But look, it’s a horrible death and it is the kind of thing that causes me a lot of concern. We have to keep looking at every way to protect pedestrians and cyclists.

And every time there’s an incident we have to look and see if it’s something that we have to change in the approach in the particular street or intersection. And we are certainly going to do that here. But I will look into the state of the investigation and will be happy to update Brian and other reporters going forward.

Lehrer: Another one on the first Citi Bike fatality. Stuart in Carroll Gardens, you’re on WNYC. Hello Stuart.

Questions: Yes, hello. Thank you for taking my call. Just to ducktail on the Citi Bike situation, I’m a homeowner here in Carroll Gardens, when you were a City Councilman I helped picket to save the firehouse on DeGraw Street.

Mayor: Yes.

Questions: I’ve been here a long time –

Mayor: That is a long time. That’s 2003, I’m impressed

Questions: Yes, well we sat there in front of it with picket signs with you. The Citi Bike program, I applaud the concept of it but as homeowner and a person who also owns a car, we’re being squeezed by the parking spots that are being taken away. No one really informed us or gave us a chance to put input about it. In addition, we have a double whammy because years ago the MTA decided that this neighborhood wasn’t important to keep buses like the B71 which connected Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, you know Brooklyn Museum, the library, the Botanic Garden. So that’s been taken away, and now there’s threats about you know instituting express F-Train service bypassing Bergen and Carol Street –

Mayor: Okay there are a lot of different pieces here –

Questions: – and I kind of feel like we’re just being – our neighborhood is being squeezed and unnecessarily punished for no reason.

Mayor: I – I don’t – let me jump in because again you’re throwing a lot of perfectly fair points but I’m having a little trouble connecting the dots. You’re talking about Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, neighborhoods I represented in the City Council that are neighborhoods that I think are doing very, very well on many levels. But have – obviously these are all legitimate challenges.

So let me break them a part. Everything MTA – look there’s more and more conversations about the MTA now. I’d like to remind everyone the State of New York and the Governor have control of the MTA but that also is not in a vacuum. We’re going to push hard for the changes needed in the MTA, and that means that anything like if a bus line is taken away or if there’s a decision to move to express service on the F-Train, everyone has to recognize these as point in time decisions that can be altered if they don’t work or there’s a greater need. For example, when a bus service is taken away we can fight to get the bus service back if there’s a real need.

So I don’t want anyone to think in this moment in history things are fixed, because I don’t think they are. I think more and more energy is going toward the question of the MTA which is going to create more and more a call for action in lots of different ways.

But on the question of Citi Bike, look I understand having been a car owner in the very same general area of brownstone Brooklyn that you live in, and having spent many a night looking for parking. I fully understand why people were more than surprised even shocked when those Citi Bike stands came in. And my message has been clear, I’ve talked to my neighbors in Park Slope about their feelings about it and I’ve said look this is part of a bigger plan to create more transportation options. It’s in the same bucket as ferry service, light rail for Brooklyn and Queens, select bus service.

Citi Bikes right now, this is pretty stunning, Citi Bikes has had 43 million trips so far since it was begun. So it’s obviously a huge part of how people are getting around this city and it is taking a lot of cars off the streets, and it is helping the overall situation. We put in those stands or those you know docking stations that again does not have to be forever. If there’s a real demand then it proves its worth in that particular location. If there isn’t, we always have the option to make a change. So I think this should be – I’m not negating your frustration, I’m saying I think this should been seen as something we are trying right now and it will, like ferry service, we will determine based on actual usership whether that is a priority for that space or whether it should revert to something else like parking.

Lehrer: And since you mentioned F-Train service, that delay on the F-Train – that massive delay the other week has become sort of the symbol of the recent decline in subway service and I see that you said yesterday that maybe the City should take mayoral control of the MTA. But you acknowledge that that’s not a realistic possibility politically any time in the near future. So what is for you to exert your influence?

Mayor: Well it’s very clear to me the – and I’ve said it over and over, the MTA has a very substantial budget. The budget needs to be applied more equitably to the subway system in the New York City which is the number one service the entire MTA provides. Look of all the things it does subway and buses in the city, LIRR, Metro-North, by far the vast, vast majority of MTA users are New York City subway riders. Which by the way, are not just people from the five boroughs there are clearly many, many people come in from the suburbs to work. We have three million people who come into the city each day for work and that’s overwhelmingly suburban residents who benefit as well from our subway system and use it all the time.

So here is the core reality of transportation in this entire region is our subway system. It needs more attention from the MTA, more – a bigger share of resources and a plan to get to the fundamental fixes that are necessary. We know it’s the signal system, it’s electrical issues, it’s things that can be fixed with enough focus. It won’t be fixed overnight, but it can be fixed with enough focus. So its shift resources and have a clear recovery plan to address the immediate problems. And then on the emergency side of the equation we will be very, very clear that we want to maximally use the FDNY and NYPD to respond in any emergency. And I think we can do a lot to help the MTA to speed support for people when there is such an emergency.

Lehrer: Joe in St. Albans, you’re on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello Joe.

Question: Hi, good morning guys. I want to preference my question to the Mayor with a little statement. I’m a retired union official in the City of New York, all my life almost in the City of New York, in fact I worked with your cousin John.

Mayor: Oh wonderful.

Question: Yes. Good guy.

Lehrer: And what’s your question Joe?

Question: Yes. I paid off my mortgage last year and I now get my taxes for the City, for the real estate billed to me at my home. And so I wrote a check the other day and I mailed it, and you were talking about jobs for New Yorkers, and my checked got mailed to PO Box 680 in Newark, New Jersey. Why is Newark, New Jersey handling our taxes?

Lehrer: That’s –

Mayor: You mean you send – you send your property tax bill –

Question: Property tax bill.

Mayor: Right, okay I got it. Yes I – that’s a great question, I don’t understand that either and I will follow up on that Joe because it does not follow to me. I mean we obviously want our friends in Newark to do well, but I would think to the max extent possible things should be handled right here in the city with jobs right here in the city. So I will ask our colleagues at the finance department if there isn’t a different way to do that. Maybe there’s some good reason, but I sure don’t know it but I will follow up and be able to report back on that.

Lehrer: An article in the Times today says there are lots and lots of municipal jobs and that you’ve expanded the city workforce significantly from the Bloomberg years when they tried to trim tax payer expenses on municipal employees. Are you going too far?

Mayor: No. It’s simple, I mean – look choose your favorite category Brian. I’ve talked to many, many thousands of New Yorkers at town hall meetings and I talk about how with the City Council we added 2, 000 officers on patrol with the NYPD. People believe that was important, it is clearly related to the constant reductions in crime and in the improving relationship between police and community through neighborhood policing. So, I think that was a success. Pre-K, we added a lot of teachers and other staff to achieve pre-K, people like that. Go down the list of the things that we’ve done, more security in and around homeless shelters which people believe in and is part of solving the larger problem.

What we’ve been doing, Brian, is we’re hiring front line workers, people who provide a real service to the people of New York City. We’re not hiring bureaucrats, we’re not hiring administrators, we’re hiring people who provide a direct service, and I think it’s working. It’s having an impact on our economy, on our safety, and on the ability to build a stronger future. So, look there are ideologues out there who’d like to never increase the size of government. We had a press conference yesterday and I talked about this, I believe if government is done right, if it’s done effectively you invest a lot to achieve bigger economic and social goals.

Those examples – more police, more pre-K teachers are right on the money for taking this city where we need to go.

Lehrer: A question from Twitter from listener Nick who asks, “What does the Mayor think of the 46 percent increase in overdose deaths in 2016? How will he end this crisis?”

Mayor: It’s horrible. It’s deeply, deeply troubling humanly and in terms of everything we need to do as a city. It’s obviously also a national trend. And what’s really driving it is fentanyl, the chemical that is being added in to heroin but exceedingly unscrupulous people.

And that’s what’s driven up the deaths very quickly in recent months. When I announced our plan to address the opioid crisis these statistics were known to us and we talked about them very openly at the time because the uptick just over the last months and the last year has been unbelievable largely because of fentanyl.

The plan is straightforward. More and more people need to get treatment through 1-8-8-8-NYC-Well. Anybody dealing with an opioid problem can be connected to treatment. We need a lot more work by the NYPD to interrupt the supply of heroin and particularly heroin laced with fentanyl. We need to stop doctors and other medical professionals from thinking it is normal to prescribe a huge number of pills that are [inaudible] like oxycontin that hook people on to opioids.

We’ve got to change that culture which we’re doing a number of things to achieve. There’s a lot of pieces to the equation. I just want to say one thing, humanly, anyone with an opioid problem or anyone with a loved one – often this is a parent or grandparent trying to figure out what to do with a loved one who has an opioid problem – pick up the phone and call 8-8-8-NYC-Well and get your loved one connected to treatment. Treatment is available right now but too few people are taking advantage of it.

One last point, our officers – our police officers, firefighters all now are being outfitted with naloxone which is the reversal drug. They’re having amazing success at stopping overdoses before they kill people. That’s obviously, you know addressing the problem at its worst point.

We want to do much better but I do want to give a lot of credit to the NYPD and FDNY for saving more and more lives all the time.

Lehrer: We just have a few minutes left and then Senator Elizabeth Warren is going to be our next guest –

Mayor: Please give her my best.

Lehrer: I certainly will. And I want to get an update from you on what’s going on with mayoral control of the schools with the State legislature almost ready to adjourn for the year in a matter of days possibly without passing a bill. Senate Republicans want a better deal for charter schools.

Mayor: Well Brian, look there’s six days left in the Albany legislative session so everyone up there should be feeling real urgency on behalf of the children and parents of New York City – 1.1 million children and millions of parents and family members who care about them. This has to get done. And look, I want to paint the picture of what happens if it doesn’t because I don’t think a lot of people remember what it was like when we had the Board of Education and the 32 local school districts, and the local school boards. And I remember those times vividly. Those times will begin again on July 1st, this year, weeks from now if this is not addressed.

What will it result in? I will show you at some point, Brian, all the all lurid headlines, how many school boards unfortunately became corrupted, jobs made available literally for a price tag, totally un – incompetent people, people without any appropriate background being hired into jobs that are supposed to service our children, massive educational failure across school districts and no accountability. No one held accountable. If – I say those days were typified by chaos and corruption. That begins again. We start down that bad path down again on July 1st if this does not resolve.

Now the good news is the Assembly has been exceptional. Speaker Heastie and the Assembly said weeks and weeks ago they have a two year extension of mayoral control on the table, and they’ve been very fair to everyone else including counties all over the state that want tax extenders, that’s all on the table. That can be voted on right now, everyone could achieve something good.

The Governor said yesterday it should be three years. So he’s been very clear, we should go even farther, and that would be the best thing for our children, to finally have some stability as Michael Bloomberg had. He has seven years and six years, those were the terms of mayoral control under Michael Bloomberg. So it’s time for the Senate to work with us to get this done so that we don’t take what’s almost been 15 years of consistent progress in our schools, higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, higher test scores, all that is all the line. If that – if mayoral control is no longer here that progress starts to immediately be stalled, and then if you get – if you have 32 local school boards again there’s no way to achieve change across the system anymore.

Lehrer: If I understand the situation correctly, the Assembly Leader, Carl Heastie, is saying no deal on charter expansion as part of this. That should be a decoupled, separate issue. Would you recommend any kind of a compromise to get to yes in the next six days?

Mayor: That – there are all sorts of ways to find compromises in life but I want to get people clear about the essence of what Carl Heastie is saying which I think is very fair. He’s saying here is a system of governance that has achieved pre-K for all, computer science for all, AP classes in every high school, high graduation rates, we’re putting air conditioning in every classroom, and there’s so many things that happened in the last three years only because mayoral control allowed it. All those things will stall or reverse, or become you know things in some parts of the city but not others if you go back to 32 local school districts. So, what Carl Heastie is saying is that should be treated onto itself and approved onto itself the same way we would approve anything else that’s a part of the normal function of government.

There are lots of ways to get to compromise, Brian, and that’s fine, compromise is always part of the process. But, the notion that mayoral control should be treated onto itself, not some part of some give and take is a very, very fair notion.

Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, thanks as always. Talk to you next week.

Mayor: Thank you Brian.