Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

June 4, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSLSPmZMZU

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Fabien Levy and I serve as deputy mayor for Communications for the City of New York. 

Before we begin today, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary bravery of our NYPD officers who work every day to keep our city safe. As many of two officers were shot yesterday morning while serving in the 115 Precinct. While so many of us were safely at home with our families and loved ones, these two officers were patrolling our streets and protecting their fellow New Yorkers. They were not afraid to risk their lives and run towards danger and so we are incredibly fortunate that both officers are expected to make a full recovery and I know our city stands with them. We owe our law enforcement officers a tremendous thank you for their work keeping us safe around the clock and today we owe them an extra thank you, to these two officers specifically, who put their lives on the line to protect the city that they love. 

Protecting public safety, rebuilding our economy and creating a more livable city are at the core of our work every day as an administration. To update New Yorkers on those efforts, the mayor's once again convened senior leadership here at City Hall to answer your questions. Joining us today, we have Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor to the Mayor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tiffany Raspberry. Without further delay I'll turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much Fabien and also thank you for highlighting the roles of the officers who responded to an individual who was riding an illegal moped and was carrying an automatic weapon. There's a segment of the city that just never have anything good to say about our law enforcement community. Thank God they are a few. They have nothing pleasant to say, they don't make any good comments, although those officers are patrolling their streets.

If you were to move through this city and ask everyone what numbers do about government to call? They can't tell you Department of Sanitation, they can't tell you Department of Correction, they can't tell you DOE, but they darn sure could tell you 911. Even the most ardent critics that never say anything polite about police officers. Let something happen, someone is in their backyard, they have 911 on speed dial. 

When I responded to the hospital and saw those parents standing over their sons that took the oath to become a member of the Police Department, when I saw that bullet imprint from the vest that officer took in his abdomen area, when I saw an officer sitting there with a bullet through his leg of a person who illegally came into our country, can't work, cannot receive any stipend from the Department of Education, we're paying his food, his housing, was caught up in a domestic incident, may be part of a pattern robbery, we're still trying to examine that, but maybe, here for less than a year. 

The Post was right. The Post was right. Now what happens once he gets out? Can't work, can't go to school. So what happens? We have to really think about what I've been saying of what's being created in this amazing city. Last night I was up in Harlem around about 1:30 in the morning walking down 116th Street, speaking with young people who can't work, can't go to school. What is going to happen? You just got to be honest about this. 

Everyone wants to romanticize this issue and just act like, oh, it's no big thing. No, this is a serious issue that this administration is attempting to resolve. We have to fix this issue: Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and all of these other cities that are being impacted. I thank those officers for responding in the manner in which they did. 

Before we go into answering any questions, we want to flag that right now the air quality health advisory has been issued for New York City. The advisory is for ozone, which is invisible and not like the wildfire smoke. We were able to see that, but this is a real issue. We want to tell people that are dealing with health issues to take necessary actions. If they need a face mask, you can stop at your local precinct to receive one. For more information, they can go to our necessary websites that are here to get more information on this issue. 

Like we say every week, our core mission, protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make the city more livable for hard-working New Yorkers. Public safety, Friday we celebrated the team of courageous and dedicated New Yorkers. Hats off to DM Banks. This was a vision he shared with me, the unification of our training at our new Public Safety Academy. I didn't even realize how much this meant so much to those men and women who serve. We often treat them as though they're a second class law enforcement agency. The event we had, and I want to thank the deputy mayors that attended, it sent the right message that we see one law enforcement community in the city, and we had a joint ceremony that promoted for the first time 70 heroes from over a dozen different agencies that all have a hand in our public safety apparatus. 

We also announced our plan to support those who work on our city's public safety efforts at 16 different agencies by building the city's first ever Public Safety Academy. That is going to encourage the cross collaboration that we're seeing over and over again. A perfect example of that was on Friday, we had Emergency Management, the Department of the Aging, and Department of Parks, the Department of Environment Protection, and Office of Animal Welfare, and all working together to deal with the extreme weather over the summer. Zach Iscol and the entire team is talking about how we're going to collaborate to address that. We know public safety is a team effort. We say it over and over again. 

With our economy, Small Business Expo, 10,000 people signed up for it. Commissioner Kevin Kim has just been a real hero over there. We have a record of 183,000 small businesses that employ nearly a million working-class people, the largest number of small businesses in our history. A third of them were opened during this administration. Last week, we wrapped up the Small Business Expo, small business month with the expo, 40 city and state and federal agencies providing services. We also pledged a $10 million fund to support early stage businesses with a focus on women and Black, Indigenous, and people of color entrepreneurs. 

Lastly, livability. Ur In Luck. We were hanging out with DM Meera Joshi and Commissioner Sue Donoghue as we really leaned into something that we heard a lot about and it's not on everyone's radar until they have to go. Then it's on everyone's radar. There's 46 new public restrooms, renovating 36 existing restrooms across the five boroughs to add to our supply of nearly 1,000 restrooms. We have more restrooms per capita than any other municipality, but we are increasing on that. Like I said, at the presser, one of the worst kept secrets is how long it takes to get a bathroom open and activated in the parks and in, believe it or not, on the street levels. We're using innovations, new ways of doing it, prefabs, self-cleaning restrooms. We're really looking throughout the entire globe to find how other municipalities are doing it. It's long overdue upgrades and innovative ways of how to get our restrooms up and operating. It's a cleanliness issue, it's a sanitary issue, and it's just really, it's a real inconvenience when you have to stop your day because you have to use the restroom. 

With that restroom, I will rest and turn it over to DM Levy.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Thank you, mayor. All right, we'll take some off-topic questions.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. I wanted to ask you today, the president is expected to announce an executive order around asylum seekers, limiting how many can come in once a certain number of them have crossed over. I wanted to get your thoughts on that in light of the comments you made about the officers shot in Queens. I also wanted to know, did you get an invitation to the event? The governor is expected to attend that event, and I wanted to know if you got an invitation. 

Then one final question for both you and Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom. How many asylum seekers have applied for work authorization? Of those that have applied, how many have actually gotten the authorization? 

Mayor Adams: 200,000 people entered our city, 200,000 people. Larger than other cities, 200,000. Whatever could be done to slow the flow, give us the resources, allow people to work, I'm all for.

To the invite to the event, people should be asking, did Eric invite you to his events? I have too much to do to worry about what guest list I'm not on. My day is non-stop. I enjoy going to the events in New York, and I do not have to raise my hand and say, please invite me somewhere. Trust me, I got too much to do on my calendar. They should be asking why can't I come to Eric's events?

Tiffany Raspberry, Director, Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs: Mayor, I just want to add, the IGA team, myself personally, remains in constant contact with the White House at a minimum on a weekly basis, sometimes daily. We were notified well in advance of this announcement and knew that it was coming.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Kelly, I'm sorry, I just, you asked me this last week, so my bad I didn't get it to you. Just wanted to also let we got 1,200 new asylum seekers this week, because I know we keep on thinking that we want to limit 30 days, we want to limit 60 days, but that's one of the tools that we have so that we can make sure that we're making room for the new asylum seekers that are coming. I'm really hoping that this executive order will give us some relief in that area. 

We don't actually get that information from the federal government, so it's self-reported. We know that if somebody did their application maybe six months ago, people would have their, may have gotten some of their information, maybe work authorization. I'll get you those numbers about what we have that has been self-reported when people call us back or when we call them.

First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright: I just want to clarify, when we talk about these numbers, 200,000, 1,200, those are the people that have come into our care. There are many more people beyond that are coming into the City of New York every single day that are not necessarily seeking care. The number is huge, and just continuing to put that in perspective.

Deputy Mayor Levy: DM Anne, while we don't have the number from the federal government, we do have the number that applied through our services. It's over 53,000?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Over 53,000, and we just actually had our year anniversary of our Asylum Seeker Clinic, I believe. Again, it's something that everybody in the nation is really looking to us. I think we have five different sites where we're able to continue to do TPS, work authorization, and asylum applications. It takes about four hours to do an asylum application, so it takes a lot of woman time and man time in order to get that done. 

We've been, from the feedback that we've gotten, our applications have been very good. We've been pleased that was one of the things that, and resettlement, we think are one of the things that are most important as we try to attack this humanitarian crisis.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: What's happening?

Question: Just building on the executive order. The administration has been in contact with the Biden administration about this. What communications has your administration had about that, input you've given, and what effect do you believe this executive order will have on the flow of migrants? It seems like we've been hovering around 1,200 to 1,400 for the last three or four months now, maybe a little bit longer. What impact will that have locally? 

Then on your opening statements about the Queens police shooting, is there any talks now of any changes to the sanctuary city laws in the wake of this shooting?

Mayor Adams: Is it 1,200 to 1,300 monthly? 

Question: Weekly. Over the last three or four months. 

Mayor Adams: No, we've been about 4,000 or 4,000 to 5,000 a month. Again, whatever, as I stated, whatever we can do to slow the flow and finance and allow people to work I'm all for. The sanctuary cities, people should have a right to be here without being fearful of being turned over to immigration. I've been very clear on that. I thought Koch had it right many years ago. I thought the other mayors had it right. I think the big mistake is that those who commit serious crimes should not be allowed to stay in our city after they served their time and they went through the judicial process. 

A person like this that shoots at two police officers at point-blank range, that is probably part of a robbery pattern. And when the robbery pattern, that means that there are several incidents that's attached to it. A person that has potentially dragged an innocent woman down the street, a person that is potentially part of a domestic incident, they should not remain in our city. Far too many people come here to pursue the American dream. We should be here to give access to that dream. They are a deterrent to the dream.

Raspberry: I just want to add that Mayor Adams has led the charge nationally to ask the Biden administration to deliver more resources and help to New York City and other cities struggling with this crisis and we believe that today's announcement is a direct result of his efforts.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: We knew that the White House could do executive action and we see that Republicans don't want to do anything in Congress and we, the cities, need relief. I'm hopeful that what this will look like will, we'll go back to the good old days when we just had a couple of people who were coming into the DHS system. 

We now have more asylum seekers, over 65,000, than we do traditional New Yorkers in our DHS system. That's bananas. We've been saying it for so long that we are used to it now, but there's no getting over that we're caring for 120,000 people in a system that was already overburdened. I'm hopeful in this moment that we will see some real relief in terms of the amount of people that we are getting in through the front door and that we're going to be continuing to work with the state to do resettlement of people. 

Again, we could be doing a national resettlement strategy. There's no magic about what we're doing, but that would be really great. And if we are able to give TPS to other populations besides Venezuelans, that would really help a lot too. 

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: In addition, it would be great if he would give us some financial resources. We still need the money. We still have to appeal to the federal government to give us the money because this is still on our dime and we cannot sustain. So we still need the money from the federal government. 

Deputy Mayor Levy: I would just add, DM Anne, you just said something, now we have. That now has been a long time. We've had more asylum seekers in our care for well over a year at this point than long-time unhoused New Yorkers.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: …2,400 months that we've been going through this. It's just, I know it feels like it's just normal, but it's not. We're really looking forward to getting back to resettling people and having people come and get what they want, which was the American dream. We think the federal government is the people who can help the most in that.

Question: Can you clarify what role the administration has played in getting this executive order?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: I think Tiffany said the role is that we've been calling for it from day one.

Raspberry: We've been leading the conversation in the country with Mayor Adams has been doing that with his other colleagues in other cities and with legislative leaders nationally. That's the role that we played.

Deputy Mayor Levy: I would also point out, Craig, just look at the transcripts from these off topics or from any of the press conferences we had before. We've been calling for executive action for well over a year now because we knew that Congress, they have not been doing so, taking any action in over 40 plus years, especially since Donald Trump told Republicans in Congress not to do anything in an election year.

First Deputy Mayor Wright: I think just one final thing, I just want to underscore what DM Williams-Isom said. When we came into this administration, there were 45,000 people in shelter. There are now 120,000 people in shelter. That is tripling our homeless shelter system in two years. That is remarkable. 

When people talk about what's a big thing, that's a pretty big thing. It's a pretty significant, real accomplishment to have been able to do that work. All of the tools that have been used, one of the things that the mayor was also remarking, the 30-60 day, that is a tool that's really important to help manage this crisis as well.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What’s happening? Looking all summery. Why don’t you pan the camera over to JR? Got the hat going on, the jacket. Stand up. Look at that. I’m gonna rock that beige too.

Question: Mr. Mayor, good morning to the team. Good to see you as well. NYCHA has reopened Section 8 housing for 200,000 families in need of rental assistance. What are the parameters around that as far as being a U.S. citizen, being a resident, how much you could get for each voucher? What's the maximum or the minimum? 

Last but not least, as we talk about the outfit, what are the potentials for the cricket matches so we could cover those events? I think it's very important.

Mayor Adams: DM Maria Torres-Springer, you want to talk about that? Not the tickets to the matches.

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: No, I will. No comment on that, although I do like your hat, JR. I agree with that. 

Yes, the Section 8 wait list for NYCHA has reopened for the first time in 15 years. That portal is live, and in fact, in the first 40 hours that it's been open, there have been close to 316,000 applications. That's a staggering number, and I think is also a real testament to the need in the city to build more housing. I will start there. This is truly an opportunity for the 200,000 households that will be on a wait list, and NYCHA over the course of several years will be able to open up these Section 8 vouchers for apartments in the private market to those families. 

In terms of eligibility, there are income bands that are on the website, but just to give folks a sense of what they look like, for a one-person household, it's $54,000. For a three-person household, it's about $70,000. For a five-person household, it's about $83,000. There is no residency requirement. The form doesn't take too long. It'll only take 10 to 15 minutes in order to complete. We encourage New Yorkers to go to the website, on the NYCHA website, to apply so that they can take advantage of this particular subsidy. It's important because what it means is that you pay 30 percent of your income towards rent, and the rest is covered by this federal subsidy. NYCHA, of course, is the largest administrator of this subsidy. 

The last thing that I'll say is we know that this is a lifeline. I grew up on a Section 8 voucher. I know firsthand what it means to rely on that type of voucher for your family to survive. We want to make sure that New Yorkers understand this opportunity. It can't stop there. Our work at NYCHA has been really soup to nuts, a full transformation of all the tools, let alone all of the different ways. We need to make sure that we're building housing and building affordable housing because we're going to help 200,000 households through this wait list. There's so much more work to be done so that families can stay in New York and thrive here.

Mayor Adams: What DM Maria Torres-[Springer] has done from the beginning is to really formalize our NYCHA plan, free high-speed broadband for NYCHA, the land trust for NYCHA, what we're doing, and some of the projects that we are putting in place. What I've found in this city, JR, that there are people who only complain about an issue. No matter what solution you bring, they complain about it. 

We have to move from that. The bugles you hear is not the cavalry coming for NYCHA. It's taps. NYCHA is dying. We knew we had to come in and not listen to all that noise of every plan you put in place. There were folks who didn't live in NYCHA that were complaining about it. We just were steadfast and DM Torres-Springer was very clear. We're going to put NYCHA at the top of our list, and we're going to do everything possible to finally turn the corner. 

What is it, $80 billion in capital? 

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: That's right. 

Mayor Adams: $80 billion in capital problems. Are we kidding ourselves? We are just, this administration is that we don't try to make believe that everything is fine. We got to reach these things head on. It's easy to be outside and just talk about this idealism. No, government, governing is realism. Realism. We're a realistic administration that has a history of our life experiences that are solving these tough problems that we are facing. 

Look, when it comes down to cricket, we know you want to go and cover. You got your whole little cricket outfit going on right now. We could have had it in New York. They wanted to be here. A few folks who said, no, we don't want the excitement of cricket here. The population has grown. It's unfortunate that we don't have it here like we did with the World Cup Finals coming to this region. There's not much we can do to get you tickets.

Question: Good afternoon, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. Migrants are being caught with guns multiple times in New York City. Where do you think these guns are coming from?

Mayor Adams: Great question.

Question: Do you think these gangs are well organized?

Mayor Adams: An illegal gun dealer does not say let me see your immigration status. They want to peddle their hate. When you look at them, do we have that picture of the gun? Look at this. This is the same gun that you see here is the same gun that you see in other places being used. I cannot overemphasize that arrow is pointed to where the bullet hit the officer. The hole that hit the vest. 

A few inches lower, we have the same incident we have with Jonathan. A few inches lower and this officer was struck. The officer then went, continued to fight and told his partners, don't worry about me. He put the tourniquet on the officer who was shot in the leg. These are the men and women who are patrolling our streets. And when you see that video of the person who shot them, a total disregard. He didn't care where those bullets were going. These are the guns. 

We've removed over 15,000 of them off our streets. These are the guns that we are going after. These are the guns. Yesterday, we had a shooting in Brooklyn where two young children were shot. The day we buried Jonathan Diller I had to go up to the Bronx where a two-year-old was shot. These are the guns we're talking about. This is what all of us should be rallying around because public safety is the pathway to prosperity and far too many people are not saying… I don't see, how many tweets did you see on social media saying thanks to these officers. How many tweets? That's the irony of it.

Question: …These gangs are organized.

Mayor Adams: Our intelligence is looking into it to see the small number of those who are committing these crimes. The overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers are just trying to take their next step on the American journey but there's a small number that are violent and we are really leaning into them. 

Do we have those robbery pattern stats? Look at this for a moment. Pattern street robberies and grand larceny, moped crime. Okay? It's not, we're not saying it's all migrants so don’t write this story that all they're saying is the migrants, the migrants. No. What we want to show you, 2022, now a pattern crime is not one crime. It's a bunch of crimes that are looped together that creates a pattern. 

In 2022, we had 44 total complaints. We had 10 patterns with 44 incidents. In 2023, we had 22 patterns with 104 complaints. Now look at 2024. 79 patterns, 416 actual complaints. This is what we're up against.

Question: Mayor Adams, a question for you.

Mayor Adams: Yes, Katie.

Question: The first is, sorry. So we published a video of a cannabis raid on Staten Island. Police escalated and arrested the shop owner and ultimately found less than a pound of weed. They arrested him before they found anything. Are the NYPD and the Sheriff's Offices directed to arrest people immediately during these raids under obstruction of government administration during cannabis raids? What is the strategy? 

My second question is, we wrote about a hotel owned by Weihong Hu [inaudible] before. She was ordered during the de Blasio administration to preserve up to 24 affordable apartments on a space in Midtown. Six months into your administration, she was allowed to build a fully commercial hotel without any affordable units. What do you know about what happened? Why would your administration forgo much into affordable units? I'm sure the deputy mayor would want to talk about that. Then are you looking into what happened there and why that happened? 

Mayor Adams: I'm not familiar with the incident on the building of the hotel. I'm not familiar with this. I don't know if there was any

Question: …She was a big donor to your campaign. I don’t know if there was any conversation. Why would your administration allow 24 units of affordable housing not get…

Mayor Adams: Let's be clear. Thousands of people donate to my campaign. Did you donate to me? I thought you were one of my big donors also. 

Question: I’m not allowed.

Mayor Adams: Okay. It's okay. Right. We've never mixed politics in with how we govern. That has always been my rule. I'm very clear on that. Maria, if Maria, if about it, if not, you can get back to Katie on it. 

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: There's been a long history with these properties as you know, Katie, and both DOB and HPD have been involved over the course of the last several years and followed all of the appropriate measures. We are going to take another look at this property to the extent that there was any miscommunication, then that will be fixed. We take the work of preserving any building seriously and want to honor any commitments that are required to the extent that any building owner made such a commitment either to the Council or to the administration

Mayor Adams: Then with the cannabis, I have to look at that. Obstruction of governmental administration does not stop. The goal is not go in to arrest people. The goal is to close down cannabis shops. You cannot get you cannot get in the way of the action. That is obstruction of governmental administration. We will look at exactly what happened out there. 

Now, what I do know, we inspected over 500 shops and sealed 300. I've said this before, I think there's a professional operation behind this that is supplying the same products, the same gummy bears, the same packaging of where we… The Brooklyn Navy Yard showed us how there's a supplier. We're going to try to get the source of this problem. If we can get to the source of this problem, I think that we can really expedite the closing. No one thought we were going to have this level of attention, but I believe there's a professional operation behind this.

Lisa Zornberg, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: If I may, if I could just jump in. I just want to be clear as well that the Sheriff's Office is carrying out regulatory inspections with authority that the law gives specifically to the Sheriff's Office. No judicial warrant is required for that, right? These are civil inspections with the goal of doing exactly what the mayor said, which is closing down illegal smoke shops, many of which are marketing and selling product unauthorized to young people and to kids and near schools and near churches and synagogues and mosques. 

The law is very clear that the sheriff has the ability to do those administrative inspections lawfully and without a warrant. Now, if someone is trying to obstruct lawful activity, that may lead to criminal consequences. There have also been cases where criminal arrests result because things are discovered that go beyond the civil regulatory system. That's permissible, too, on a case by case basis. We'll look at any particular case. The main point I want to argue, well not argue, but just make clear is that the Sheriff's Office is doing exactly what the law permits the Sheriff's Office to do and that is really something that broadly everybody wants, and that is shut down the illegal smoke

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: I'm good. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: Good. 

Question: Just on the president's announcement later today, some of the specifics, I know we don't know, but some of them have leaked out like the New York Times and CNN. They're saying the president plans to close the border after 2,500 migrants have crossed. Just getting your just impression on is this the right amount? Should there be less? Should there be more? Then also, do you know if there's any resources, additional resources? I know that's something you guys have been pleading for getting allocated to New York City.

Mayor Adams: The proper balance is, I think, what DM Williams-Isom, who has been on the front line of this, the proper balance determined on the proper decompression strategy and plan. We should not bring in more than we can make sure that they’re scattered throughout the entire country. If they have stated that this is the right number, then we're all for it. We just, we can't continue to manage 5,000 a month.

Question: Hey, mayor. 

Mayor Adams: Hey, what's going on, Michael? 

Question: All good. A couple of things. The first is on this statement you guys put out about the Trump verdict last week. A lot of people I talked to felt like it was muted relative to what some other Democrats put out. It was a pretty straightforward statement. I'm wondering if, did that have anything to do with the fact that, you're regarded as more of a moderate Democrat and some of your voters might overlap with some people that would support Trump. 

By extension on that thing, as far as Biden's announcement today is concerned, I know, the migrant thing you guys have had, it's been a mixed bag in terms of what Biden's done. Do you have plans like what are the concrete plans in terms of supporting him? On one hand, it's a mixed bag in terms of the migrant situation in the city. On the other hand, you've got Trump. How do you balance that in terms of like what you want to do and campaigning and helping the campaign? That was one. The second one…. 

[Crosstalk.]

Question: You guys call on me because of my long questions. But that was the first one. 

Deputy Mayor Levy: Are you nervous in front of us, Michael?

Question: The second one was… 

Mayor Adams: Kayla would like to have a baby.

[Laughter.]

Question: The second one was on Brianna Suggs. She got a new lawyer. I guess this is for Lisa to some degree, too. Is she, to your knowledge, is she cooperating with the federal authorities? Do you guys have like, what is it? What's the term? A joint defense agreement with like the legal teams have a joint defense agreement?

Mayor Adams: You should speak to the attorneys on both and they will give you the answer to those questions. I've made it clear, we're going to cooperate with the process on the review. We're going to continue to do that. I could not have been clearer. I always find it amazing that with my level of clarity, I support the president. I nicknamed myself the Biden of Brooklyn. I'm not a one issue person. I disagree with you on something, I disagree and I move on. He has been very helpful around public safety. He came to the city and talked about the whole initiatives around guns. We needed an ATF head. He was there to push that through. 

As I stated, he revitalized our economy. Everybody thought our economy was going to be in a tank. What he did was amazing. There are many aspects of being the president of the United States and that is what I believe is important. I made it clear. 

Lewis-Martin: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Right. Right. Thank you for reminding me. Am I a superdelegate? I'm like Superman, I'm a superdelegate. I'm sorry?

Question: You're going to the DNC like you're officially the… 

Mayor Adams: I'm deciding, because I would love to go to Chicago DNC, but whenever I leave Katie writes stories about me. I can't. I can't.

Question: …The best way for his campaign to deploy you in terms of to them… 

Mayor Adams: It’s up to them. Campaigns, people who are good supporters don't try to dictate what they're going to do with your campaign. It's up to them to say, Eric, here's what we believe we can use you, this is the largest city in the country. Whenever Tiffany is in constant contact with the White House, she does the communications around what the president needs. Ingrid is on the ground with what they need of me. So whatever they need, put it this way. They reached out to us. We have not told them no. 

What's happening? I haven't seen you in a while, man. Good to see you, you an OG. 

Question: Anyways. Yes. State legislature is considering a bill that would compel the NYPD to open up encrypted radio to accredited members of the media.

Mayor Adams: Mm-hmm. 

Question: What is your position? 

Mayor Adams: Right. I always find it interesting when people say accredited members of the media, that is to me that's coded language because far too long to small minority ethnic medias have not really been allowed in. Even when I read their stories often, their stories are really different from some of the mainstream media. They seem to stick to the topics. I want to make sure that everybody could have access to speak to their constituency. 

My biggest concern, I've said this over and over again, bad guys get access to this information. You know, bad guys that commit crimes. This technology, if not used properly, it could be harmful. If you know [that] a police officer is responding, how they responded, how they communicated, we need to get it right. I think we can find the right balance. The New York City Police Department is going to do that. How are you? 

Question: I want to ask you about the violence among youth. Is there any plan for city to do any campaign targeted towards youth about consequences? If there really are any, I covered stories personally, and I know that it's very difficult to have any real consequences for young people who are committing, like, harassment or, beating someone on the street. We had a story in our community about that. I know that the person who did it was never really, nothing really happened to that person, and not big enough for him to consider not doing it again. So I'm wondering if there's anything that you're thinking about doing? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, we, I don't know. One of the team members texted me this morning, because we're all concerned about, who was it? It was you? Yes. Fabien… Who… It's time for you to get married, and have a baby also. [Laughter.] But he loves children. 

Seriously, we are concerned about some of these recent violence. As I said, two young people were shot yesterday. It just really tore me up when I spoke to the dad who lost his son to the shotgun shooting. Young people are mischievous in nature. 

We didn't have all these guns when I was growing up. As a young person, you do, you do dumb things. That's what being young means, as you experiment. We have been very clear on our investment in foster care, our summer youth jobs, 110,000, our Summer Rising program we announced today with the speaker. 

These were all programs that the money was not there. Between Jacques and the advocacy of our team here, DM Almanzar, we all knew that we have to, if we could bring back some of this stuff, we're going to do so. But we're really concerned about the, as someone asked earlier, the over-proliferation of guns. These children are just able to get these guns so easily. 

As we continue to push back on it… And you have to find the right balance. We don't want to be overly punitive, but we have to give these young people the care. We have been investing in those young people who have interaction with law enforcement. We need to, we want to continue to do that. We want partnership. That's what some of the stuff Sheena and her team and Almanzar is doing around internship. The more alternatives we do, we believe that we can sort of, get these young people out of harm's way. But it's, trust me, it's concerning us as well. 

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: One of the things that we're doing, mayor, is actually focusing on those residents who live in the six precincts with the highest incidences of ongoing violence for the Summer Youth Employment Program. Actually, 18,000 of them have been recruited to participate in those programs. Besides Summer Youth Employment Program, we have Saturday Night Lights, the out-of-work, out-of-school opportunities for our youth, as well as what the Mayor just mentioned regarding the announcement that was made earlier, restoring some of the investment for our Summer Rising in our effort to keep our young people busy and occupied. As the mayor mentioned, a cross-agency collaboration, New York City Public Schools, DYCD, our Workforce and Talent team, in making sure that we access all the resources the city has to offer to our youth.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? Good, how are you? 

Question: Good. Tensions with the City Council appeared to boil over into public view last week when Ms. Raspberry left during the hearing about the Advice and Consent Bill, and the speaker, I believe at the moment, said that it was showing contempt for the Council. Has this reached a certain tipping point? You continue to insist that things are still okay between you guys, but it seemed like tension had spilled into public view in a way that it hadn't in the past.

Mayor Adams: Tiffany can speak on her own, who, I listen, Tiffany's a professional. She's been able to navigate all of these personalities, and I'm amazed at the W's that she has brought home from Albany, from Washington. A lot of people don't realize she manages our Albany office, our Washington office, and she manages the City Council, and her relationships go so deep, from the days of being with Congressman Crowley, we could not have had a better fit. 

I stood next to Adrienne today as we made some very significant announcements. Justin was there, Rita Joseph was there, and we had other Council people that are there. Listen, I have six brothers and sisters, and you don't think we argue? Having a brother like me? I love them. We still come together as a family. 

When we buried my brother last month, all of us came together. When we had to deal with the passing of my mom and how we were going to deal with the housing issues, we all came together. Those of you who have spouses, you don't debate with your spouses from time to time, and don't you still love them? I'll leave that question. 

You debate what you disagree on, but the same way you pointed out our disagreements back in 22, we landed the budget. You pointed them out in 23, we landed a budget. You pointed out them again, we're still able to resolve this. We're not insecure in our relationships that we can't disagree when we disagree. I disagree on things, she disagrees on my things, but we know we have to still resolve this city. 

If you like it or not, what we have been able to accomplish, navigating us out of COVID, navigating us out of 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers, navigating the 40 percent increase in crime, navigating to get us more jobs in the city's history, navigating all of these things. If you want to focus on the five things we disagree on, more power to you. I want to focus on how these two kids from Bayside High School, parents reared them in a middle-class environment, and we are running the most complicated city on the globe. If you have a city this complex, and you don't think there's going to be times when there's a disagreement, then you're being idealistic and not realistic. Tiffany? 

Raspberry: Yes, thank you, mayor. I just want to add that just as the mayor started out, I, like my colleagues here on this dais, are focused on public safety, rebuilding our economy, and making the city more livable. 

We really can't waste time talking about one event that occurred several days ago at the City Council. I think it's really important to note that the mayor and the Speaker stood together just an hour or two ago, celebrating a win for the city and for both the City Council and for this administration. That's what we're focused on. I was very clear when I started my testimony that I would not be taking questions, and I would say I did not leave abruptly. I left as I said I would after I read the statement from the mayor. 

I think it's also important to just remember there's a lot of dysfunction in government throughout this country. We see it every day on TV in D.C., and we're trying to make our city function and our government function in a way that works for New Yorkers. We lead, I think the mayor says all the time, the way goes New York is the way goes the country. We're trying to set an example of how government should function. That's what we're primarily focused on.

Zornberg:  I'd like to, I'd like to jump in here and just also ask you to focus on the substance of the bill that the City Council proposed, which is highly problematic and runs against the grain of what has been systematic in New York City for 140 years. 

The City Council has proposed a bill to take away power from every future mayor of New York City to appoint, to have sole discretion to appoint the men and women who are going to lead mayoral agencies. 

They instead, the bill proposes that the City Council should have the final word, that they should have the power to confirm candidates for the executive administration. The legislature is trying to take power from the executive. That was tried in New York City in the 1800s. You know who loved it? Tammany Hall. [Tammany Hall] loved it. That's reality. In 1884, since 1884, the law was changed to give the mayor of New York City sole discretion to appoint and to be held responsible for the performance, good or bad, of the heads of agencies. 

There are incredibly, the same issues that motivated that change in 1884 are ever present now. Then Governor Grover Cleveland said, never should it be heard in New York City that a bad nomination was made to lead a city agency because it was the only one that could secure confirmation. 

Since then, since this is like, this history is rich and important in New York City and the City Council should study it. Because since that change was made in 1884, multiple city charter revision commissions have examined this same issue and how power is accorded to a mayor to appoint the people who will be in charge of his or her agencies. Every single one of those charter revision commissions, starting in the 1800s, in the 1930s, in the 1960s, in the 1970s, have continually repeated this power of the mayor is necessary for the proper governance of New York City. It is essential. 

1975, the Charter Revision Commission said the mayor, as the city's chief executive officer, should have sole discretion in selecting top officials in the executive branch. They should serve at his or her pleasure. That includes the heads of all agencies because it's the mayor that's broadly elected by the people of New York City. And with that responsibility must come accountability for who is appointed and what their performance is. 

So, I'm just speaking to New Yorkers now. What is happening in the City Council in this proposed bill is deeply misguided. It will… it would upend 140 years of New York City fundamental principles of governance. It will lead to gaps in service. It will discourage good people from serving if they have to go through the political charades of hearings. The last point I'll make is that the City Council has many priorities. We work with them collaboratively. It has not been a priority for them to promptly confirm individuals, even for the few numbers of commissions and boards where they do have advice and consent already. 

It has been very difficult. Why? Because they have a different schedule. They don't want to hold hearings in May or June when they're focusing on the budget. They've communicated they don't want to hold any hearings in July or August because they're in a summer recess. They don't want to hold hearings on Fridays. They don't want to hold hearings in December because of the Christmas holiday. They don't want to hold hearings in September because that's when they're all coming back from summer recess. To say that it has been difficult, even for those special commissions and boards, is an understatement. The City Council itself has at least 15 pending vacancies of their own that they haven't filled, let alone the process of us trying to get mayoral nominations confirmed. I think history matters here and I think New Yorkers care about accountability.

Mayor Adams: Well said. What was so profound about what Lisa laid out is that… That's the level of conversation we should be having on the substance of something, not this how many clicks could I get by saying Eric and Adrienne don't like each other. This city, we have too many issues we are facing right now that this administration, as Tiffany has stated, we are not going to engage in this. 

Because hidden in this also is that there's a whole lot of folks that want to hijack the narrative that the first Black speaker, second Black mayor, navigated the city during the most difficult times. We've been trying to play this song for a long time. Look, they hate each other, they hate each other, they hate each other. No, we disagree on issues. I have a great relationship with Adrienne, my former classmate, grew up in the same community. Ruth and Dorothy are proud of their two children. That is what I know. Maria, you wanted to add something?

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Sure, mayor. I think it's really important to understand the history and it is on this issue. It's also really important to truly internalize the practical implications on the effective delivery of services for New Yorkers. I feel strongly about this issue. As many know, I've had the great honor of serving the last three mayors and running three different agencies. 

If there's one thing that I learned and saw firsthand, it's the importance of having the mayor appoint his or her team and having control over that process. Because there is a reason, right, why in 1884, the mayor got sole authority to do this. Why in subsequent Charter Revision Commissions, including in 1989, there is a careful balance constructed between the powers of the legislative and executive branch. The reason is that we need to ensure in the delivery of services for New Yorkers, that there is clarity, that there is accountability, and that there's the smooth functioning of government. 

Because fundamentally, that is what this debate is about. It's about good government. In my opinion, those goals are undermined by Intro. 908 in a way that does a disservice to New Yorkers. Why? Because it introduces this red tape into a process that has to run with speed and with efficiency. At the beginning of an administration, you're making dozens of dozens of appointments to key cabinet positions. You are trying to fill more than a thousand boards and commissions. What you need in that process, in the beginning, is speed. 

What you need if you're there's a transition in agency during a time of crisis, and we saw that right, during COVID, with our health commissioner, you also need speed and efficiency. If you don't get that, you have gaps and delays, not just in decision making, but in the delivery of service. 

These are the people who provide your drinking water, who maintain your parks, who make sure that your streets are clean, who protect public health. The second thing that it does is it introduces confusion into the process and confusion for whom? Confusion for the members of agencies. When there is a transition, it's a time of precarity for them. If it's unclear, if someone is going to make it through the process, it further destabilizes an agency when it needs to be more stable. It also introduces confusion and uncertainty for the actual candidate. There are many people who can grow up in government. They get appointed to run agencies. Some come into government anew. If there is not that certainty or the potential for a political spectacle through a communications process, you hinder our ability to attract and retain really good people. 

It's a process that cannot be subject to people's vacation schedules, which essentially it is at this point. The last thing that I'll say is, and we've said this before, and a number of people have commented publicly. We don't have to imagine what this process is going to look like, right? It exists in Washington, D.C. And who in this room would say that the process for advice and consent in D.C. is a smooth one that is faithful to the goals of our democracy? 

I don't see any hands. The seemingly innocuous system of advice and consent turns into a system of gridlock and stalemate and delay. We can both believe, and I'll end here, that the oversight responsibilities of the City Council are real. They're crucial. I have respected that. We all have valued that during our entire time in public service. You can believe that while at the same time believing that the fundamental duty of both the executive and the legislative branch is to ensure that we have a system of appointing leaders who do all the things I mentioned, protect your water, protect your streets, a system of appointing them that leads to the efficient and effective delivery of services. That is our duty. Unfortunately, Intro. 908, in our opinion, is a complete and utter dereliction of that duty.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. Go ahead, let me get that last question yes, because you were waiting patiently… 

Question: The city has tried to reform the permitting process. The Comptroller's Office tells me for street vendors, since 2022, 14 new food cart permits have been issued. Thousands of people are on the waitlist. I wanted to ask you, why has the rollout been so slow? Is there anything more that the city can be doing here?

Mayor Adams: Meera, you want to talk about that? The street vendor issue, first of all, I personally don't believe no matter how many permits we put out, there's still going to be some illegal activity and we have to make sure we address that illegal activity. Meera, you want to talk about those?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Sure. I want to talk about, so there are two agencies that oversee the street vendor process in terms of the licenses. It's DOH because we want to make sure that they're hygienic and DCWP. But there is something that has happened under this administration, which is really important, which addresses some of the problems that you've identified in terms of there being a waitlist and not enough individual permits. 

We've stood up a regulated vendor market in Corona Plaza and that has been in pilot existence now for a few months and it's working well. It's what I call sort of “vending lite” and it allows people to enter into the marketplace of vending without going through what can be an arduous process in getting a specific individual vendor license. 

With this model, we can go to other plazas in the city and set up like similar markets and really provide opportunities for people to get into vending, allow the public space to be used in a way that's compliant with allowing people to still have advantage to use the public space, and part of it is a market, and really to provide an opportunity for a larger group of people to get into the vending market. I think it's something we're working well with Corona Plaza and we look to expand it throughout the city in other areas. 

Question: This number, only 14 since July of 22. 

Deputy Mayor Joshi: That is a DCWP we can check back with you on that number.

Mayor Adams: Okay. We have to find the right balance because it's not fair to a brick and mortar that sell apples to have someone outside selling apples. It's not fair to a person who's selling foam devices have someone outside selling foam devices and it's not healthy for someone who's selling food that they made in their kitchen that's not at the right temperature, but they're selling it in the subway station or on the street corners. 

We have to find the right balance and creating these models that the deputy mayor is talking about is what we're trying to find the right balance. It has not been fair in the past, but this is a complicated city and if you just open the city up to people selling whatever they want, whenever they want, we are creating a level of disorder that we can't accept. Thank you.