Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Announces City to Stop Issuing Violations on Homeowners for Damage Caused by Street Trees

September 10, 2019

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, George. And George, I know that you and everyone at Community Board 12 here in the Bronx have worked on this issue for a long time and it has been a cause of tremendous frustration. And I've heard this from homeowners all over the city, in all five boroughs. This is something that just has not made sense that needed a very, very different kind of approach. And I want to thank you for all the work you've put in to address the situation, even with all the challenges, and I know it's made a difference for a lot of homeowners. Let's thank George and all the members of Community Board 12.

[Applause]

So, homeowners have dealt with that confusion, that stress, that anxiety, that sense of not knowing where to turn. And let's face it, for so many homeowners, the reality is they just didn't have $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 to fix the sidewalk. It just wasn't going to happen because they didn't have the money. And then, God forbid, they wanted to refinance their home or sell their home, then they found out on top of everything else they had a lien on their home and that made their lives worse. This never was the way things should have been, this burden should never have been put on homeowners to begin with. And we are here today because a very important discussion happened – a recognition that homeowners are dealing with so many challenges as it is and we've got to do something to relieve that stress and anxiety and make sense of this situation. And I want to give credit where credit is due – you’ll hear from him in a few minutes, but we in City Hall and in Department of Parks, Department of Transportation, everyone was trying to figure out what to do, and the man who kept our focus on the situation and kept relentlessly demanding that there had to be better way was the Speaker of the State Assembly, Carl Heastie, and he deserves a lot of credit today.

[Applause]

And, you know, you might think that someone with so many responsibilities in terms of the whole state of New York wouldn't have the time and energy to focus on the really local issues, but he does and to his great credit. So he'll tell you, I'm sure, what he heard from homeowners and why it made such a difference to him and why he pushed us so hard to think entirely differently about this situation. And that's why we are here today. 

I want to thank our Parks Commissioner Mitch Silver and everyone at Parks for the good work that they have done on this issue; and the Chief Operating Officer at Department of Transportation, which has responsibility for sidewalks, Margaret Forgione. Let's thank everyone from Parks and DOT.

[Applause]

So, I want to just take a moment to put this all into context. And we love our trees in this city and we have 5.2 million trees, and that's a really good thing – 5.2 million trees and 8.6 million people. And the trees are a blessing in so many ways, but every homeowner will tell you they come with challenges too. And I can tell you that I've seen this again all over the city, the roots of the trees pushing up the sidewalk, and then what happens? It's hard for seniors to get by on the sidewalk, parents with strollers, folks with disabilities – it’s not the way it's supposed to be. But the homeowners didn't cause the problem, the tree caused the problem. The tree was put there by the City. Now, the City put the tree there for good reason because we all appreciate what trees do to make our lives better, to give us cleaner air, to give us some more beautiful city. But homeowners will put in a really bad spot. And this was a kind of – an illogic and a contradiction that goes back years and years and was never addressed. When we looked at it, we said, well, wait a minute, this doesn't make any sense. For so many homeowners, the burden was being placed on them and they couldn't handle the burden to anyway. It would be one thing, if you pointed out the problem and every homeowner had the money and no problem and it was easy to do. George is right, even if you want to do it, it's hard to try and figure out a way to do it. If all these problems were getting fixed all the time, we wouldn't have the reason to be here today. But the truth is, we've got the worst of all worlds for years and years where the problems didn't get fixed, the sidewalks were a problem for everyone, the homeowners were put in a bad spot, and the City didn't make sense of the situation. 

So, as we tried to figure out a solution, one thing we did a couple of years ago – we tripled the amount of money to address sidewalk problems because we had severe sidewalk issues that were clearly the City's responsibility, where the City had to be jumped in and deal with it – that’s a good thing, but it didn't resolve the rest of the contradiction. And so we kept getting those phone calls from Speaker Heastie saying, what do you got? Do you have something new? Do you have a new way to do this? And finally we came to the realization after a lot of discussion of different options that we needed to do something truly radical and just changed the entire approach. And so that's what we are announcing today. Starting today, if a tree causes damage to the sidewalk, the City of New York will take responsibility.

[Applause]

So, homeowners, things that are caused by the trees that create real problems – that’s not your problem anymore, that’s the city's problem. You still have to take care of the rest of your sidewalks and you still have to take care of the problems that are your responsibility, but this one should not be yours. And so, what does it mean? To all the folks out there who have gotten those violations for a sidewalk problem caused by a tree, you will no longer be getting violations,
period.

[Applause]

For 50,000 people who already got violations, we’re going to go back and review all of them and if it's proven the problem was caused by a tree, that violation will be canceled.

[Applause]

And one other part, and this is what the Speaker really helped to illustrate to all of us – the liens that have been put on homeowners without them even realizing, meaning it became impossible in so many cases for a homeowner to refinance their home or sell their home. Any lien related to a problem created by a City tree, those liens will be canceled. The homeowners will be free to do what they want with their home.

[Applause]

So, this is a way to solve the problem and assign responsibility where it belongs and also to put money back in the pockets of homeowners, because those violations were causing the homeowners who didn't have a lot of money to shell out thousands of dollars. They'll now be able to keep that money and put it into all the other things they need to do in their life. This is putting money back in the pockets of homeowners and demanding that the City take responsibility for the things that the City does. 

So, I want to say a few words in Spanish, and then I'm going to turn to our elected officials, but with real gratitude that this persistent advocacy led us to something much, much better. 

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

So the City will take responsibility, not the homeowners. And as I turn to Speaker Heastie, I want to say this with real admiration – it’s not only that he cares about his district and focuses on his district, even with all his responsibilities in Albany, it's also that he makes it a point every year to go out during the summer and knock on doors all over his district and listen to people. And what he told me earlier is, even before he got to the door to knock on the door, he could see the sidewalk and he knew what he was about to hear from his constituents. So, it's because he stays so connected to his constituents that he saw this problem and he demanded action. And again, it is sometimes in life a joy. We, all of us in public life, like to get credit when we do something right, but it's a joy to give credit where credit is truly due when it actually happens that way. And the reason we have come to this big change is because of the strong voice of Speaker Carl Heastie. 

Thank you.

[Applause]

State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: As much as I like being with the Mayor, one of the challenges is always the distinct difference in the height that we have. 

[Laughter]

And he always has to pull this thing out for me because this is so tall. 

[Laughter]

But I truly want to thank the Mayor. If anybody looked on my Facebook page – and I posted and I said that a big part of being an elected official is that your constituents expect you to problem solve for them. And this is – in my discussions with the Mayor and his staff and, and Emma Wolfe – is Emma still here? I would send her countless pictures as I would walk around the district. And so, I know Emma was getting tired of me sending the pictures, but I was just trying to give a firsthand view of the challenge that my constituents were facing in that not only did we want to solve the problem here, of courses – as I’ve always said, I love being the Speaker of the Assembly, but my most important job is being the Assembly Member of the 83rd Assembly District. And it was almost as if the homeowners were in a catch 22, because if you got the violation and you wanted to refinance to get some funds to fix the property, the title company would come back and say you have a lien on the property, so you're stuck. So now, you couldn't refinance to get the money to fix the problem. And so, you were just stuck with the violation. And so, just many, many conversations – and I do want to applaud the Mayor of first funding this program years ago, but now seeing the capacity of now having 50,000 of these situations, and the trees are going to grow every day, so even the priority ones that we have here – you know, as the trees continue to grow – there’ll be on this. So, I thought it was not only great that the Mayor and the City said that they'll deal with the problems now, but that this is something that should be done in an ongoing fashion.

You know, one of the most recent people who actually isn't even on the list yet – I was walking my dog and he was out there and I saw the damage to his property. And I had said to him – I said, you know, have you heard from the City? And he said, no, I just had a contractor to come out. I just bought this house six years ago. And he said, the contractor told me, because the tree roots are growing now towards his house, that it was going to cost them almost $12,000. And I just think that kind of burden to a homeowner – again, we all love trees, we all love what they do, they help with fresh air, but for, you know, the poor homeowner who is dealing with trying to make sure that they getting paid a mortgage, pay all of their bills, and to now have this liability put on them. So, I think this is an absolutely a big day in a big win for not only my constituents who are homeowners, but people across the City. I've been looking on Twitter and on Facebook, people all around the City. 

So, I want to say to you, Mr. Mayor, you have made people around the City who own homes, who have these trees, in front of their houses. You've made them very, very happy today. So, I'm very grateful. And I do want to also acknowledge – excuse my voice – my staff that's here that's worked along with me. My chief of staff [inaudible] and of course, we have Arielle and Joe [inaudible] was here somewhere. But, Kevin Riley, who is my Community Relations Director who has probably –

[Applause]

– Visited more houses with this situation and went and spoke to people. And you know, when you're faced with want to giving them the sympathetic ear, but the most difficult problem for an elected official is not being able to provide your constituent with a solution. And that was the most frustrating thing when I would knock on someone's door, and I would say I’m in communication with the City, we’re trying to work something out. So, to all of those constituents whose doors I knocked on, who have called the office, we finally worked something out. 

So, Mr. Mayor, and to all of your staff, I thank you so much.

[…]

Mayor: Alright, let’s take questions from the media on this announcement, and then we’ll go to other topics as well. Andrew –

Question: Mayor, you talked about reviewing 50,000 past [inaudible] –

Mayor: Yes.

Question: How worried are you that [inaudible] unintended [inaudible] if people say, no, that was a City tree and wanting to be reimbursed for everything out there, every broken sidewalk?

Mayor: No, we’re talking about active violations right now. We’re not going to go far into the distance past. We’re going to talk about the ones that are active at this moment. I think that’s the fair field of vision for us to look at. So, it’s not just the ones that people might potentially have incurred going forward. It’s saying, if you’ve got an active violation, it hasn’t been solved yet, it’s still sitting there, we’re going to go and take another look. And if our folks from the Parks Department and DOT say, yeah, that’s caused by a City tree then we’ll erase that violation. If it’s not, then that violation still has to be dealt with. It’s as simple as that. Dave –

Question: Related to that – out of the 50,000 do you have kind of, sort of ballpark of how many of those 50,000 are indeed caused by City trees and how many are [inaudible] could be something else?

Mayor: I want to commend you for asking me for a kind of, sort of ballpark.

[Laughter]

I do this – Dave, I want to say this sympathetically because I’m in meetings where I demand a number from people and especially – no offense, Jamaal – but if there are lawyers present, you know, they really try not to give a number. So, sometimes I’ll say give me a ballpark, give me a kind of, sort of ballpark. So, no, I don’t have that but we’ll get that to you today. Look, I would be surprised if it’s not thousands and thousands, obviously. I think it’s a big chunk of that. But I don’t have a number. We’ll get it to you. But the bottom line is once we looked at all the pieces and we said this is just – doesn’t make sense. You know, it was this way for a long time and when you try and change something that’s been there for a long time a lot of times people say, wait we can’t do that or there’s going to be all sorts of problems if we do that.

But when we looked at this, we were like – and it really began with the Speaker’s point about the catch-22 the homeowners were put in. Just removing the liens immediately opens up a lot of possibilities for the homeowners. So, we had to do that. But we’re going to go back and we’ll just – wherever the facts take us, that’s what we’re going to do.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Look, right now, as of two years ago, we started putting in very substantial money for this and we will continue to do that. And I think this is going to give us a chance to see what we think we need going forward. It will not happen overnight. I mean as much as I appreciate the gratitude, I also know my colleagues and I are all realistic. This is going to take time to catch up with this backlog. But immediately we stop the pain for the homeowners meaning people who are going through the stress and the anxiety of having a violation that could cost thousands of dollars, that they didn’t know what to do with, they didn’t know how to pay it. That gets erased. We take the liens out of the equation. Those are things that happen right away. Fixing those sidewalks – it’s going to take time for sure. But we’ve put in a lot of resources and we’re going to go as far as we can.

Question: So, an estimate for how much this will cost – do you guys have a breakdown of how much this would cost [inaudible] potential future violations that would result in some sort of monetary penalty and how much would it cost to actually be responsible for fixing all the sidewalks?

Mayor: So, the amount we’re putting in now – let’s begin with that – it’s $14 million a year through 2022.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: No, I’m saying that’s what we already have programmed. And that is going to cover a decent amount of ground right there. You’re absolutely right – when you stop giving violations, some revenue doesn’t come in. We can, again, get you the exact estimate. But this one, bluntly, was not about revenue consideration. Honestly, I think part of why this never got re-assessed in the past was the City government – certainly when you think back 10, 20 years, the city was in the tougher fiscal situation – the City was very hesitant to give up that revenue and to also incur the expense on its own.

We still have challenges in this city. We would never take any of these costs lightly. But it just was not fair. So, if we lose some revenue, it’s fair in my view because the homeowner should not be responsible for something that’s not there. So, we’ll start with the $14 million a year we have, we’ll see how efficiently we can use that, we’ll see if we need to put in more and if we have more available, and we will get you a figure on lost violation revenue. But, again, that was not even a part of our discussion.

Mayor: Yes –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’ll come back to you. Yes?

Question: The City Comptroller put out a report [inaudible] saying that between inspection and repair, it takes the Parks Department at least a year to fix most sidewalks. How long do you think it will take to re-inspect 50,000 open violations? And secondly, if homeowners are still waiting a year for sidewalks to get fixed, how is this [inaudible] –

Mayor: Well, okay – I’ll start and then if Mitch wants to join in, feel free – or Margaret obviously as well. Look, it is important to be honest that this is a big endeavor, right. You saw out there in front of the home we were at early – there is going to be a lot of work to do. It will take time. As with everything we do in government, we try and make it go faster and better. And there’s a lot of good examples of that. So, you can take a certain amount of money and spend it better and get more impact, and that’s what we’re always striving to do.

I think we’re going to have this problem on an ongoing basis. There is end here. I want to be honest about that because every single year you have trees pushing sidewalks up. So, you figure you finish a number of them and new ones have emerged and my arborist expert here was pointing out that earlier from his own personal experience, going around in his neighborhood. We’ll be doing this continually.

But again, what I want to emphasize is we’ve solved an immediate problem. The negative for homeowners now gets taken away and it was a needless negative because in so many cases it wasn’t even leading to any outcome. That was the massive illogic here. It wasn’t solving any problems. It was just creating problems and stresses for homeowners. So, that’s now finished. We’re going to have to figure out how quickly, how efficiently we can keep solving the problems street by street, but we’ll be at it continually. Do you want to add anything?

Commissioner Mitchell Silver, Parks Department: In terms of inspections, if Parks receives a phone call we will get out there and inspect the property within 30 days. And that is our track record and we’ve been – and we’ll continue to hold onto that track record. Secondly, in terms of the time frame, we now have, thanks to the Mayor’s funding – we now have seven contractors with 11 contracts that will begin the work. We’re committed to doing 1,800 this year and then 2,500 each year. And so, I can’t determine for each homeowner, but we expect those numbers to come down now that we have the contracts in place and work has already started. We have one contractor in place now. Five more will start this fall, another five contracts in spring.

Question: What’s your goal for the time between inspection and repair?

Commissioner Silver: We want it to be done as soon as possible. There are many –

Mayor: You’re [inaudible] at a specific instance? Right?

Question: [Inaudible] Comptroller said in Fiscal Year 2017, it took a [inaudible] –

Mayor: For a specific site?

Question: Well, no, that was the average [inaudible] –

Mayor: In the interest of interpretation, I’m saying you’re literally saying when you think about a site from beginning to end –

Question: Right, on average should it be three months, should it be six months – how long should someone expect to wait?

Commissioner Silver: I don’t have an average number because it depends on the number of contracts that you have, so we can get the contracts out there quickly. We’ll come back to you with an estimate after I talk to staff about – now that we have this sufficient number of contractors in place, what is that expectation from the time a call comes in until it is completed.

Mayor: [Inaudible] Marcia –

Question: Mr. Mayor, you yourself own two properties [inaudible] in Park Slope. I wonder, as a homeowner, if you’ve ever experienced the pain and the aggravation of having a City tree break your sidewalk and what your experience was [inaudible].

Mayor: Yeah, the City tree – to the best of my memory, we haven’t had that problem but folks all over my block have had that problem. And people really get troubled by it because it’s another hassle – on top of everything else in life, it’s another hassle. It’s a real expense. There’s not a lot of people who can shell out a couple thousand dollars. It’s just – it really changes your life when you suddenly get hit by that. So, no, I know from personal experience on my own block that this is a big problem all over the city. But what’s great here is the idea that we can at least take that stress out of people’s lives.

Question: [Inaudible] in your neighborhood when you were a Councilman, Public Advocate, school district [inaudible]. I mean, did you have people [inaudible] –

Mayor: Sure.

Question: [Inaudible] sidewalk?

Mayor: Yeah, and the problem always was that only the most severe really got attention from the City. When we added the additional funding two years ago, the goal was to reach more and more of the cases. But you know it became clearer and clearer in all these discussions that this was just a broken system that the underlying idea was wrong, that it never should have been put on the homeowners. And so when I was coming up as a Council member it was something whenever we went to the agencies we were told well this is just the way it is, you got to deal with it. Thanks to the Speaker we all said wait, let’s step back and rethink the entire equation, and it was time to do something entirely different. Yes?

Question: Is this just limited to root damage or is it like say there’s a big tree and huge branches are falling off this tree and damaging residents’ property? Is that –

Mayor: Well, this is about sidewalks. So, Mitch, if you have an answer –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: No, I’m saying, I don’t know the rest of the equation that if one our trees damages someone’s property, how that’s handled. Mitch can follow up with you on that. But on the specific announcement today – it’s about sidewalks. Yes?

Question: I’m wondering [inaudible] some of these photos and it looks like a tree just [inaudible]. That’s the solution. Do you know how many trees are going to be just taken down? Is that the most common way of solving [inaudible]?

Mayor: No, I don’t think that is the most common way [inaudible] –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: [Inaudible] the question is how often does the tree need to be removed? I assume that’s [inaudible]

Commissioner Silver: Correct. Our program is for tree preservation. So, it is very rare that a tree is removed. Most are healthy. We try to minimize removal or shaving. But the goal is to make sure we preserve that tree and in many cases we’ll increase the tree well, we’ll curve the sidewalk to make sure that there’s adequate place for the tree to grow.

Question: [Inaudible] what will the process be for a homeowner to report a problem to the City? I’ve heard you on the 30 days but is – how do homeowners go through that now?

Mayor: Okay, well let me separate and the Mitch, Margaret, both, whoever wants to come up and speak to how the mechanics will work going forward – but again from this point on they won’t get a violation. If it’s identifiable from the beginning it’s caused by the tree roots, there won’t be a violation to talk about. So, if we’re talking about the 50,000 pre-existent, the homeowner doesn’t have to anything in the first instance because we have to go and re-inspect all of them. If they have a lien situation and they ask to be moved up in the line for the re-inspection, we’re going to try and honor that as much as possible. Anything you want to add?

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Silver: Typically if there is an uplifted sidewalk, the majority of the requests come in through 3-1-1 and also the website.

Unknown: And your friends –

Commissioner Silver: And elected officials

Mayor: And elected – and community boards, and community boards.

Chief Operations Officer Margaret Forgione, Department of Transportation: Just to add to that – so, for the 50,000 that the Mayor mentioned, DOT will be re-evaluating those violations. What we’re going to be doing is pulling our records and the ones that are only noted for tree damage – and our records are very precise, naturally – those we will send a letter to the county clerk requesting that the county clerk drop the lien. And then, as the Mayor said, going forward, we will no longer be issuing any new violations of that type.

Mayor: In the back – way back.

Question: So, for homeowners that did pay to have the sidewalk fixed, are they going to get reimbursed or is this –

Mayor: No, this is about only going forward and active cases.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Again, I understand as a homeowner myself that that was a real challenge for them but the bottom line is like a lot of things that we figure out – when we figure out a solution, we can go forward and make a change for people’s lives. We can really help thousands and thousands of people. It’s going to cost us a lot of money. We don’t have the ability to go back in time. We couldn’t possibly afford that.

Question: So, Mr. Mayor, are there particular types of trees that have more troublesome roots –

Mayor: Well, I’m on expert on that, Rich –

[Laughter]

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I really appreciate you asking me and having that faith that I had that [inaudible] knowledge. Mitch?

[Laughter]

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Mitch or [inaudible] whoever’s got it. If you want to bring in [inaudible]

Commissioner Silver: Large maples – and we don’t plant them anymore.

Mayor: Rich, that would be large maples.

[Laughter]

Yes?

Question: Is there a limit to how many homes a person can own or say is this –

Mayor: No, it’s America. There is no limit to how many homes you can own.

[Laughter]

What’s that?

Question: [Inaudible] buildings also [inaudible]?

Mayor: Come on over – or Margaret. Again, any technical questions, you guys can [inaudible].

Commissioner Silver: It’s for one-, two-, and three-family only. That’s it.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Silver: I’ll have to refer to staff but typically there’s a classification and we go by the classification of the records and it’s one-, two-, and three-family.

Mayor: [Inaudible] classification. Anna?

Question: So, just a follow up – you guys aren’t adding any new funding as of now for this?

Mayor: No, we are going to try and – now that we have this plan – take this substantial amount of money that is already committed, use it effectively because it, in a sense this clarifies the whole strategy. It’s not now case by case in the same way as it was. Now, the City is just plain responsible. Let’s work out our priorities, let’s use our money, let’s do it as efficiently as possible. And as we do that, it’s going to tell us if we need to do more and when and how.

Question: Do you guys know if this is going to change any civil liability like, whose fault is it – let’s say I trip on a busted sidewalk with a bunch of roots coming up. Is it the City that I sue or is it –

Mayor: I don’t think it changes liability dynamics?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: No, it would not change liability. The City was always responsible for the tree and if the City either Parks of DOT did the sidewalk repair we would never actually charge the homeowner for the portion of the work that was related to a tree. So currently, right – currently the property owner is responsible for the none tree related parts of the sidewalk.

Question: So if I trip on a sidewalk that has a big bump in it because of the root, am I suing the homeowner or the City?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: You would probably sue the City.

Mayor: That’s news you can use.

[Laughter]

Marcia.

Question: Mr. Mayor, this morning I spoke to a homeowner [inaudible] on Barnes Avenue, 127th Street in [inaudible] who has been calling the City for three years trying to get the sidewalk in front of his home fixed. And I can tell you it’s a huge [inaudible] people walk by and trip on it. What would you like to say him and how much time it will take it for him to get relief?

Mayor: Yeah we want to fix his problem, that’s what I want to say. We want to make sure that his block is on the list to be fixed. And I will tell people it will take time. We have a whole city to cover but we are committed to getting it done and let’s make sure that we get that information from you so that it is on the list where it belongs. And I can also say that the more severe the problem, the faster the solution. And I wish we didn’t have severe problems but there are some you know, there are some blocks where there’s a house where there is a little bit of elevation on the sidewalk. That’s not where we are going to go first. We are going to go to the most severe problems first. Okay anything else on this announcement, media questions on this announcement, going once – please.

Question: [Inaudible] tree then before you are giving forgiveness before, what was the fine?

Mayor: Before today if you got a violation, as a homeowner?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: Right, so it’s actually very confusing to people. So, when we see it – up until now, when we see a sidewalk problem, whether a tree or none tree, the homeowner gets a notice of violation. The interesting thing is that there is no monetary penalty with that notice of violation, there’s only the lien on the property. So there has been a lot of confusion around this but there actually is not a monetary violation.

Question: Before today, how would they get the lien [inaudible] themselves to get the sidewalk fixed?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: Either they would wait for Parks or DOT to fix it. Or they would fix it themselves, usually in the case of selling the home, at their own cost. So there were several ways.

Question: [Inaudible] out of pocket expenses, where there out of pocket expenses to fix the sidewalks?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: If the homeowner fixed it themselves, yes. Other homeowners who aren’t selling, often don’t fix the tree related problem and at some point DOT will have a contract that comes through or Parks will come through.

Question: So just to clear something up, so if you have a sidewalk that has a crack that’s not caused by a tree, you are responsible for having that crack fixed if it’s some kind of a –

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: Yes.

Mayor: If it constituents a violation. Not every crack –

Question: What would constitute a violation? Like if I own a home that has a cracked sidewalk what –

Mayor: You’re supposed to say I have this friend.

[Laughter]

Question: When is it just a crack and when does the crack have to be fixed?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: Okay, so if you have a none tree related problem, we come through, we do an inspection, we will send you a notice of violation informing you of the problems on your sidewalk and your responsibility to repair them. Okay. If we haven’t come through you won’t have that violation.

Question: Does that mean if you have a cracked sidewalk and not have to fix it?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: Well, if it’s a trip hazard, yes you are going to need to fix it. But not every single –

Question: So it has to be a trip hazard?

Chief Operating Officer Forgione: We would have to see the location. This is just theoretical but –

Mayor: It has to be something that comes to the attention of DOT and they assess it as a violation. That’s the bottom line. Okay last call on this? Okay let us go to other topics. Yes.

Question: I am curious why you are sticking with Jeff Roth for the proposed TLC Commissioner when the Council has made clear that they are not going to support him and you need the Council?

Mayor: Well again we had an initial hearing, the Council raised concerns and you know, he had spoken to Council members in advance and from everything we could see there was a good reception. Obviously some issues came up in the hearing. We are still in dialogue with the Council on that. You know this something that’s not necessarily a onetime thing. We want to continue that dialogue with them. Yes.

Question: Elmo in Times Square –

Mayor: Elmo.

Question: -- was busted for groping a 14-year-old girl. I know that you have already had to deal with mascot characters, you created some sort of like –

Mayor: Zones.

Question: Zone system. That’s very strange to look at. What can you do know about these –

Mayor: Well that’s from what I understand, a criminal act and so anything that’s a violation of the law, we have a lot of NYPD presence in Times Square, we are going to make sure that NYPD has everything they need there to very aggressively enforce the law. I don’t accept that kind of reality. And we have issued enough warnings to the folks who do that work, those characters. That we are going to be all over the situation. We created those zones for a reason. And there are a whole lot of officers who do enforcement. So anyone who does something like that, if it breaks the law, we will be all over them.

Question: Mr. Mayor, the Department of Health today said that they found that 13,000 [inaudible] –

Mayor: Louder please, I’m sorry?

Question: 13,000 New York City middle school students have used a vape or a Juul instrument in the last 30 days. I wonder how you feel about that and if you feel that we have reached a health crisis [inaudible] with young people or even regular, older people in New York City with people turning to vape and other smoking –

Mayor: So, first as a parent, it worries me a lot. I really think that this is something that people are coming to understand, could be a very serious health hazard. And originally it was projected as this innocent thing or this alternative to smoking. I think the more we are learning, the more reason there is to be really worried. As Mayor, I would say I’ve asked the Health Commissioner to come back quickly with a vision of what we can do to address this issue and we will have more to say on that very soon. Yes.

Question: Tracey Towers in Jerome Park has two confirmed cases of Legionnaires Disease. What has the Department of Health told you about its investigation and have they given you a sense of whether the Legionnaires bacteria have been contained?

Mayor: So we will have the Department of Health get you the latest. They have updated me. Now it is a reality in this city that every year, just in the normal course of things we have 100, 200 Legionaries cases. What we typically see is they are identified, they are addressed, people get the health care they need and the situation is resolved. That’s what I hope and believe is going to happen at Tracey Towers. But it also is a day to day, hour to hour thing as they investigate. As we learned from the past, they literally have quote on quote disease detectives who go in to try and identify the specific source and make sure it is addressed and resolved. So we will get you today’s update but so far it sounds like a situation that’s under control. Dave?

Question: Mayor, can I ask the Speaker a question?

Mayor: You can ask whatever you want.

Question: Your office last week and [inaudible] talk about a February primary is a non-starter, it’s not going to happen. But what is going to happen with the combining – are we going to see both the presidential and the state elections combine into one primary in April or both happen?

Speaker Heastie: Well I would say at this point and I spoke to Senator Stewart-Cousins this morning. I have no indication from her or from my own conference that they want to make any changes in the election calendar so I would say at this point if the Governor signs the present bill that establishes the April 28th presidential primary, then you will have the Legislative and Congressional primary in the end of June.

Mayor: Yes?

Question: To what extent is your office going to be considering the recommendations by the Dutch experts hired by some of the Manhattan elected officials to review the East Side Coastal Resiliency plan?

Mayor: I’m not familiar with what those elected officials have commissioned? We will certainly be happy to look at it. But again I think that plan, we desperately need that plan to move forward because we understand the challenges we face because of global warming and the threats to the East Side of Manhattan. I think it’s a very effective plan that does take into account a lot of the community concerns, for example making sure there is always some park space available in different places. So I am confident it’s a good plan. But if there are other perspectives we will be happy to look at it. Back there?

Question: So yesterday there was a video posted on Twitter of a gay Jewish man who was being harassed and [inaudible] you tweeted about it and then the gentleman who responded saying that he would like you to be with the family of Leyleen Polanco and with him. Could you touch on the video and also on his most recent response?

Mayor: Yeah, look, it’s a free country and anyone can say back what they want. What I care about is that we always take hate crimes seriously. That we show there’s a consequence, there’s a vigorous response. NYPD has always done that. Obviously our new office is here to proactively address and try and come up with strategies to stop hate crimes to begin with and, you know, also when it comes to the case of Layleen Polanco, I’ve said clearly she should have never been in jail to begin with. And we want to learn from that case, but I’m not sure how the two things fit together so I’ll just leave it at that. Yes, Andrew?

Question: Mayor, tomorrow is 9/11, I wonder how often you think about where you were that day and where do you think the city is 18 years later?

Mayor: Yeah, Andrew I think about it for sure and I think for so many of us it’s just deep, deep in us and something that you know, moments will trigger. Sometimes I see a plane fly overhead and just takes me back there immediately or sometimes I think of the people we lost in our lives because, you know, in our community we lost a firefighter from Squad 1 in Park Slope and we lost the daughter of my children’s pre-K teacher. You know, it was very personal for us and yeah, things will trigger those memories and bring you right back. So I don’t think it’s something that will ever leave us.

Where are we today? We’re in a very, very different place, thank God. We’re much better protected because of our own efforts as city. I want to believe, you know, that the federal government has changed too. I think in some ways it has, I think the different agencies work better together than they used to. I think there’s much more focus on taking threats seriously than  there used to be, but what I can speak to with assurance is what the City of New York does, and we’ve seen it even in recent months, the extraordinary intelligence gathering capacity of the NYPD to identify a problem and address it. So I think we’re in a better place but I don’t think we’ll ever forget. Yes?

Question: The City has filed a lawsuit against Chipotle today –

Mayor: Against what?

Question: Chipotle.

Mayor: Oh, yes.

Question: Violations of the City Fair [inaudible] –

Mayor: The Workweek law, the Fair Work Schedule Law –

Question: Can you explain exactly what the –

Mayor: No, I cannot. I can tell you that this is consistent with the notion of the law that we were going to be serious about enforcement and that our agency takes it very seriously and acts on it, so they can give you the specifics. But the point is the idea of the law is real straightforward. You have to give your workers dignified opportunity to have a schedule they can depend and if you change the schedule, you have to handle it a certain way and the allegation is that Chipotle didn’t do that.

Question: [Inaudible] anywhere else?

Mayor: You’ll have to ask the department, I’m not familiar with that.

Question: The price tag for the ferry system is up to $637 million, why is the City spending half a billion dollars on a ferry system that at max capacity will still carry fewer people than the Bx12-SBS [inaudible] –

Mayor: So I’ve answered this probably a 100 times, so I’ll answer it 101st time, because we’re investing in today and in tomorrow. Talk to people from the neighborhoods that are benefitting from the ferry, there is tremendous enthusiasm, ridership has continued to grow for some places, most notably Soundview in the Bronx, the Rockaways, Astoria, you’re talking about places where it fundamentally changes people’s lives to have much quicker way to get around. When we connect the ferry fare to the MetroCard fare - or whatever the word is now going to be in the future, post-MetroCard – when there is a single fare that allows you to go subway, bus, ferry, or any combination, I think you’re going to see a great expansion of ridership. But the bottom line is this is a city that has been growing and growing in so many ways where the streets, the highways are clogged, the subways in so many cases have vast ridership. We need alternatives. We’re not using our waterways enough. That’s what the ferry system provides and I think it’s only going to grow with time.

Question: But at max capacity it would only carry 30,000 people, is a system that can only carry at its max, by own administration’s own projections, 30,000 people worth more than –

Mayor: Again, we have a system that’s working, that can continue to grow right now, and can continue grow thereafter because if we get more and more ridership we can add additional runs and additional routes –

Question: So just –

Mayor: Last one.

Question: Lastly talk about linking ferry fare to the MetroCard. Who would pick up the lost revenue from the MetroCard [inaudible] –

Mayor: I think it would be shared between the MTA and the City because it depends on, you know, if someone went to ferry to subway, subway to ferry, so I think that would be the logical way to do it.

Question: [Inaudible] for the Speaker – Albany has passed a bill today that would treat [inaudible] contractors like Lyft and Ubers [inaudible] employees in health insurance and all that stuff. The Governor expressed support for it on the radio yesterday, I’m curious is this something that you support [inaudible] anything that can come up in session –

Speaker Heastie: I’m sure it would come up, it’s come up previously, there’s long been a debate on people who are even independent truckers, this has been an issue before. I’m always going to be in favor of people being able to be listed as employees because when you’re an employee there is more protections that can be afforded to you as an employee versus an independent contractor.

Mayor: Yeah, and I just want to say amen. I think this is legislation we need. I commend California. What we found here is not a pretty picture. What Uber and Lyft did was they created a race to the bottom where the wages of drivers were just pushed down, not only for Uber and Lyft drivers, but for all other drivers. And their rights were not recognized, it’s been a horrible situation, an exploitative situation, and I think giving them the same rights that workers enjoy elsewhere makes a lot of sense. Gloria?

Question: Mr. Mayor, two questions. The scanners that can detect whether an inmate has contraband –

Mayor: Or anyone, anyone going in.

Question: Are finally up and running at Rikers, but there are some inmates who they don’t want to go through the scanner, they’re being put into solitary – the advocates are saying it’s just another form of solitary. Can you first respond to that?

Mayor: I have not heard that, Gloria. The scanners – look we have long had for decades, tragically, a contraband problem, particularly at Rikers, but remember we have other jails as well. Sometimes weapons coming in, sometimes drugs coming, it’s not acceptable. The scanners are a big part of the solution. I want to thank the Speaker, and the Assembly, and the Senate because they gave us the ability to move forward on that and to protect our corrections officers and protect inmates alike. So this is a real important thing. I have not heard about that allegation, so I’d have to get back to you on that.

Question: It’s just that inmates are being separated from general population [inaudible] –

Mayor: Not heard that before.

Question: The other thing [inaudible] there’s a report that some of the other inmates are being made to go through other inmates’ feces to look for contraband –

Mayor: Again I have not heard that either. Will get back to you on– I mean that sounds very troubling. But I don’t want to just take an allegation until I get more information, so let’s come back to you on that today. Okay, see if there’s anything else before we wrap up, yes?

Question: Yeah, subject of your calendars, we did a tally that showed that May of 2018 you had roughly 200 events and May of 2019 roughly 150 meetings, calls, other events, that took place [inaudible] tally the calendar. We all work in the newsrooms that have been hit by cutbacks, we all know news rooms can’t do with 150 people what they used to do 200, why should New Yorkers –

Mayor: It’s a very interesting construct you’re offering.

Question: Why should people, why should New Yorkers believe that you can do in 150 meetings and calls and other events what you used to do in 200?

Mayor: Look, we’re here today as an example. I love when this kind of question gets asked when we’re solving a problem that was not solved by previous administrations and showing every single day we’re making changes in the city. What I said to you guys before and I’ll say it again, that does not account for endless calls, emails, all sorts of things that happen all day long that are about governing this city. So the bottom line is, I am incessantly demanding of all the people who work for me that they address a whole host of issues, things that come up that you guys raise every single day, that elected officials raise, that I raise, and it happens non-stop every day, that’s just the reality. Last call? Yes, Rich?

Question: Mr. Mayor, how is your progress – or lack of it – going through your hopes for getting into the October debate?

Mayor: The fact is that it all correlates to attention, you know, that the more opportunity you get to get your ideas out, the more chance that you would get both as a polling support and the donations support. I feel good about in the last few days putting out ideas that have gotten some real attention. Obviously the plan on automation, which goes farther than any other candidate, what I was talking about in terms of plan for revitalizing Puerto Rico yesterday that goes farther than other candidate. I’m getting very good feedback on those, we’re definitely seeing some movement on that. It’s a race against the clock. We’ve got until October 1st, so progress, but we got more to do.

Thank you, everyone.