Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Calls in Live to Caribbean Power Jam's "The Reset Show"

June 23, 2023

JR Giddings: Right now we have Mayor Adams on the Reset Talk show. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Eric Adams: Quite well. I'm quite well. Good to see you and speak with you and your amazing audience that just appears to be growing over and over and over again. Really exciting.

Giddings: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I know we have a few things to talk about, but there's this tragedy that we must talk about.

Another team fell off a subway and was killed subway surfing in Brooklyn, and this stunt is promoted by social media. How are you responding to this and what's your message?

Mayor Adams: It's a clear one, that is really unfortunate. We had two young people riding on the top of the train. For those who don't know, what subway surfing is when people ride outside the train on top of the train and you really should go online and look at this, watching them run and hop over the gap between the trains.

And in this incident, what appeared to have happened, it was an outdoor station that eventually went into the underground area. And it seems as though the investigation is preliminary right now, but it seems as though they really underestimated the width. And one young person was struck and killed, another one is in a serious and critical condition in the hospital now.

And when you look at the number of young people who are participating in this behavior, it is just alarming and it's troubling, but it's a bigger issue, JR, with what social media is doing. And I have been talking about this over and over again of these young people that are receiving millions of views on social media.

One of the accounts I looked at the other day, had over 30 million views and they're trying to be as risky as possible to attract the views. So I called yesterday for TikTok, YouTube, and everyone else to stop displaying this, take down these videos. Our children should not be watching this.

And it's really in line with others. You have the Kia Challenge, challenging young people to steal cars. You have drinking challenges. All of these challenges are promoting anti-social behavior. Being young, we do dumb things. I think on some of the dumb things that I did as a child, but you know what? From the block, three people knew about it, not 3 million people.

And so, we must look at what social media is doing to our young people. And yesterday was just an example. One of the young men just graduated from middle school. Instead of celebrating the graduation, we are looking at a life termination through an avoidable incident.

Giddings: Thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. Young people are paying with their lives. Now, let's talk about healthcare and this new bill, the office that you just opened up for healthcare accountability. Could you tell us about that initiative?

Mayor Adams: Well, it is so important as we look at the issues around healthcare and how it impacts our families, and we joined 32BJ and DC 37, our unions.

They've been stating over and over again, when you look at the different course of healthcare, if you go in for a surgery for an appendix removal, or for a hip replacement, the course of one hospital, Health and Hospital, in comparison to some of the private institutions, were just through the roof. And it drives up the healthcare course, which is already expensive.

And we're saying there should be a level of transparency on the course of these various hospital procedures. And I want to really take my hat off to Henry Garrido from DC 37 and the leadership over at 32BJ, they're calling on right transparency and really to get these procedures in alignment so that we are aware of what we're paying for the various procedures.

Giddings: Thank you for that.

Mayor Adams: One more part. One more part of that, JR, that I think was an alarming of stats that I found out, one of the leading causes of financial distress and bankruptcy and really putting people in financial distress is due to healthcare costs.

Some of the costs that's associated with learning that you need an operation or an ailment, it could disrupt your life, is it can disrupt your family. And we're not only looking at what we're doing with the cost of healthcare, but we're looking at some other ways we could help every day New Yorkers deal with the cost of healthcare and how it's impacting their families.

Giddings: Absolutely amazing, Mayor Adams. I think that office is very important. Accountability is very important.

This morning on the platform, we have have Kenrick Cort. He is the CEO of Tri-Borough Health and Home Care. He has been certified by the city and by the state, and he has been in business for 25 years providing home care for the most vulnerable population, which is the underserved neighborhoods that we have here while employing thousands of individuals in our community.

Welcome Mr. Cort. Good morning. How are you? 

Kenrick Cort, CEO, Tri-Borough Home Care: Good morning JR. Good morning, Mayor Adams. And good morning—

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Cort: I'm fine, thank you. And you?

Mayor Adams: Quite well.

Giddings: Well, Ken. We've been talking and I know you've been in our community for 25 years and you are certified by the city and the state. What would you like to tell Mayor Adams this morning?

Cort: First, let me begin with, I think it was one of the doctors that mentioned falls in the home for elders and she's absolutely correct.

Now, I'm not sure that the mayor is aware of this, but in 2012, the state had introduced a program called the Lombardi Program, Nursing Home Without Walls. And this program, of course, was able to monitor seniors in the home, not only with, I think, every 14 days a nursing visit, physical therapist to assess the home to avoid falls.

And it worked very well for years and it was suddenly abandoned by the Department of Health in 2012 and moved to managed care. MLTC is their call. So now, our elderlies are falling more often because they're receiving only custodial care.

A home health aid cannot look at the home and see what are the problems that would cause a fall in the home or actually discuss any change in conditions with that elderly person.

And so, eventually this person goes to the emergency room and then they're discharged again, and within a couple of weeks, they're back in the emergency room. That is the problem with our elderlies in our communities.

And so, an annual visit with your doctor every year is not sufficient for elderlies who are living alone in the home. I understand that the state government to save money and save costs has moved away from this program, this intermediate program that helped our seniors in case of monitoring.

If they fall down, they have a monitor that they can press and alert the police, the Fire Department. In the case of a dietician or a nutritionist, to talk about their diet. Because more often diseases are linked to diet as the mayor is quite aware of this.

So this have all changed. And of course we paid for this in the pandemic where most of the people who died in the pandemic were Black and brown people. You see? Because—

Giddings: Kenrick, I know that you're laying out your case amazing, but the mayor has to jump off pretty soon. How is your business doing in our community and how could we know more or try to assist you with doing what you do well?

Cort: I think I would refer to my administrator, Dr. Wills on that. She's a nurse administrator. Dr. Wills, can you answer that question for me please?

Dr. Joycelyn Wills: Hi, good morning.

Giddings: Good morning. Welcome to the Reset Talk Show.

Dr. Wills: Hi. Hi, Hi. Can you just rephrase the question? I'm sorry because it was point—

Giddings: I said I know of your business that's been in the community for the last 25 years, but there are a few things lacking as far as getting major contracts or anything along those lines. How would you speak to that?

Dr. Wills: Well, I guess, [inaudible] Cort was actually speaking about it. Oh, it goes back to our team actually seeing in the healthcare, is also we are seeing in our line of data. Also, it depends on the hospitals.

We are having difficulty actually accessing the hospital where we actually can go in and actually have access to the patients to provide services. Only certain agencies are given those access.

We have applied for access and we were denied or we have not gotten back any answers. So that's basically our difficulty, because most of the patients that are referred to us are patients that are coming out of facilities that require our care and we aren't able to give to them.

Giddings: Oh, well, thank you for that Joyce. I know that you've been around for 25 years and Black and Brown people, we need your assistance. Mr. Mayor, could you respond?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. I would love to drill down and learn more about exactly what the problem is. And I don't think the overview that we just received is enough time to allow us to flush it out.

And when we deal with healthcare, much of what happens in our healthcare system in the state is coming from the state. And that's what was shared that the DOH, Department of Health is a state agency.

And so, that involves the governor, it involves state lawmakers both in the Senate and the Assembly. And we are the byproduct of the decisions that are made on the state level, which I tried to be extremely creative with Health + Hospital, Dr. Katz, and my deputy mayor of... Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom that deals with many of the social services, this falls under her portfolio.

So there's some agencies that you're not getting a response from on the city level, we would love to hear about it and even on the state level, we would like to be your conduit to make sure you get the response that you deserve on the state level.

But the doctors would tell you that New York City is really directed by the state on what we can do, what we can't do, and we need to make sure there's an alignment and we're looking forward to...I would love for them to have a contact and communication with my deputy mayor. Dr. Vasan is in charge of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is a city agency, and then there's the State Department of Health. So there's many layers to our healthcare system and we want to assist in navigating those layers.

Dr. Wills: Mayor, I think that what actually... In terms of what we [inaudible], we would like to have a seat at the table.

Actually, there are a lot of other agencies that have a seat at the table, the hospitals, and we do not have a seat at that table. So yes, I would like to have an opportunity to speak with people in your organization, how Family Care and Child Board can have a seat at that table along with the other agencies that provide the type of services that we provide.

Mayor Adams: Okay. There are many tables in the healthcare arena and when we say a seat at the table, we need to define what table we're talking about. There are many tables from senior care, to adult care, to FQHCs. So there are many tables.

So again, I don't think we could do this in a short excerpt here on Reset. The goal of Reset is so that we can reset relationships. And so, JR will give you my number and then we identify what table you're talking about and finding out what are the blockages that are in place that are not allowing you to be there.

Healthcare in this city and country, is so many layers. There's so many entryways. There's some historical relationships that have prevented access from the various groups across the city. There are many rules that were put in place that we think are unfair even in the reimbursement rates.

And so, this conversation around healthcare is a real conversation and it's part of what we announced today from our unions of the healthcare cost is really taking money out of the pockets of everyday New Yorkers and we have to move from a sick care system to a real wellness system. And that is what we want to do here.

So I need to learn more exactly what are the barriers that you're facing and then we can see what's in our control and what's in the control of the state. So we can identify those who are the chairs of those state committees in Albany, in the Senate, in Assembly.

You have an amazing former nurse that's in charge of... and the City Council that you should reach out to as well, bring them into the conversation. And so, we're excited about that.

If you could pinpoint what we need to do on our end, we're more than willing to do so. But there's layers. There's federal, there's state, there's city layers and we could only control what happens on the city. But we could advocate for you and be your conduit on the federal and state.

Dr. Wills: Thank you. Thank you mayor, and I really do look forward to having that dialogue.

Mayor Adams: Okay.

Giddings: Mr. Mayor, as always, you handled that well. Very well. I told—

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, JR. And please share my information and in anticipation of the dialogue so we could be prepared.

If you could just send me over one pager of what the issue is, so this way when my folks in the room, we won't have to adjourn again, and say, "Well, let's get back to you."

I would rather respect your time. Send me a one or two pager, "Here's the problem that we're having," so when we get in the room, we'll be prepared to answer your questions and come up with a plan.

Dr. Wills: Okay.

Cort: May I? We did send one page to... already, I believe last week or two weeks ago. I don't know if you—

Mayor Adams: To who?

Cort: To Jeff.

Giddings: Yeah, yeah. I think Famod will probably get it in front of you. He has it.

Mayor Adams: Who? Who has it?

Giddings: Famod. Famod Konneh...

Mayor Adams: Oh, okay. They need to get it over to us so we can look at it. And I have a clear directive in my office. Everyone must be communicated to within the two weeks period.

We get a couple of hundred inquiries a week, but we have a real system that within two weeks... We don't like keeping people on hold. Within two weeks, someone is getting back to you. That is important to me.

And so, I would love to see the documentation. And you also don't have to go around about. You did not elect anyone, you elected me. And so, the communication goes to me and if there's a report that was put in, 
I'm not aware of it, whomever you sent it to, please sort of zero in, send that to me so I can find out where it is and make sure you get the response you deserve.

Giddings: Will do Mr. Mayor. Before you leave, I had another question, but Pastor Straker is here and we are just coming from his banquet last night for gun violence. So I'm sure he would like to say something to you this morning.

Pastor Louis Straker: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. It's so good to have you with us once again.

Mayor Adams: Thank you brother. 

Pastor Straker: We started... Thank you. We started our program talking about National Safety Month and we started talking about fires and fires in the home.

And we've noticed lately there are numerous fires with lithium batteries, ion batteries that are just wreaking havoc in our city. Can you talk about that? What is missing from the messaging to the public?

Because we're seeing this happening over and over again. What do we need to know as homeowners? What do we need to know about these batteries? Is it just regulated to ones with the bicycles or all lithium ion batteries? Can you talk about what your administration is doing on that front?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. And it is, that's a great question. I'm so glad you raised it. These lithium batteries, as we used to say in the hood, they're bootleg, some of them. They're made without going through what's called UL certification.

Anytime you'll see on the side of these electric packaging, you'll see that UL symbol. These batteries, some of them have been refurbished, some of them are taking shortcuts. We're learning that people are going inside trying to modify the batteries.

And if I encourage everyone to go online and look at when these batteries explode, it's a very different type of fire. First, it is an explosion. Second, the water does not automatically put out the flame.

And so, what we found is that many people that are using the e-bikes and other items that utilize these batteries, they park their bikes or the other items by their door. So it blocks their exit way. The fire spreads so rapidly that is difficult to get out.

And then there's something else that's attached to it that we witnessed. And the fire that happened downtown where we lost several New Yorkers, the toxic smoke, the flames never got up to the apartments. 
It was a toxic black, thick smoke that really took the lives of people.

And so, we are approaching this on several levels. Number one, an educational campaign. We want people to know how to safely utilize these batteries, how to charge them, don't charge them overnight. Don't leave the items by your exit way or your doors. So we're giving a whole list of items.

Second, we're using Small Business Services to go into these businesses and do inspections to make sure they're done correctly, because some people live above these stores where these batteries are located. But believe it or not, pastor, many of the fires that we're witnessing are inside the homes of individuals because they bring those devices inside their homes.

And then we want to have a real turn in program where an individual who has a battery that's not a legal battery, we would like to say they can turn it in. That's some of the things we're doing.

And we want the Federal Government to take some real action to ban these batteries. They are really causing a real crisis throughout the city and the country. And we want to get on top of it.

Now, you see the increase of use of e-mobile devices and that's why you're seeing the increase in some of these fires.

Dr. Monique Abner: The other thing I wanted to bring to the form here is the proper disposal of lithium batteries. I think that's another issue as well.

These batteries are not like your typical AAA, and they have to be disposed of in a particular receptacle. So if people aren't aware of the toxicity of these batteries and just randomly throw them in waste paper baskets or what have you, this is also going to lead to a big problem.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Well said. Thank you for that. That's part of the handouts that we are handing out.

Giddings: Dr. Abner as always. Nicole Jordan Martin, before the mayor leaves, you could jump in for a minute.

Nicole Jordan Martin, CEO, Community Care, Health + Hospitals: Good morning, Mayor Adams. Great to see you again.

Mayor Adams: As you.

Martin: Thank you for your updates to us. And I've read... I follow the news very closely around the housing issue in particular just because it's such a crisis, but it's really hard to decipher what's truly happening in terms of our strategies and how much progress that we're making.

And so, I wanted to know if you had any updates for us around what's happening with housing across our city.

Mayor Adams: I'm so glad you asked that. And I don't think a day goes by that someone does not stop me and talk about the housing.

And that's why we are in a “Sims” moment. An educated consumer is our best customer. People see the fact that they can't get a lease to move in, but they don't know why.

And if we don't educate people why, they'll have displaced anger. Our housing policies... Number one, the real crisis we're faced with is a shortage of housing. We have to build more housing because we've had a massive increase in people coming to the city, but we have not kept up with the amount of housing that we are building. Right now, we had a plan in Albany. Albany has a major impact on our ability to build. We needed what was called a tax incentive, was called 421-a, which will incentivize housing. 

They refused to pass the 421-a bill, and it was not taking up this legislative session, there was a lot of squabbling, and it was done. We want to build higher in areas of the city that can take more, and allow people to come into these areas where historically they were not building more, and that [inaudible] was called FAR.

They did not take that bill up. There were housing projects that were in the pipeline that we allowed. We said during Covid, they could not put a shovel in the ground.

Can we extend to allow them to have in the incentive that they were allowed to have, but they weren't able to have? Because of Covid, they did not take that build up. So what's holding our moonshot desire of building 500,000 units of housing is laying on the desk of many lawmakers in Albany.

We've been up to Albany several times. People are talking about, "We need more affordable housing," but the actions it takes to build more affordable housing, we're not getting. And lastly, we have far too many people who are rallying on Monday saying, "We need more affordable housing."

But on Tuesday when we said we're going to build the project in your community, they come back and say, "Wait a minute. We don't want it here." You can't have it both ways.

We cannot be talking about more affordable housing, but then when it's time to put a project on somebody's block, they're saying, "We don't want more people visiting in our parks. We don't want more people walking our plazas."

That is where the problem is. We want to put a shovel in the ground. We have allocated $23 billion to an overall project that includes [inaudible] development. That includes building more affordable housing.

So we're putting our monies where our mouths are. We need help from Albany to move this agenda forward. But rarely does a New Yorker who needs housing ever talk about what's the role of the state in helping us build that housing.

They only look locally, but we need help from Albany to get this done. They did not take up the housing package, which I think is extremely unfortunate.

Giddings: Thank you. Thank you. We have some of the best minds in the country on this platform. Every perspective, every angle. I see we're being joined by the regional executive medical director at New York Presbyterian Group in Brooklyn, Dr. Silber. Good morning, Dr. Silber. How are you?

Dr. Silber, Regional Executive Medical Director, New York Presbyterian Group: Good morning, JR. It's nice to be here. And good morning, mayor. I remember you at the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Barclays Center for the New York Presbyterian Medical Group opening. It's nice to see you again, and it's nice to see—

Mayor Adams: As well.

Giddings: Well, Mayor Adams, we are going to talk about health disparities in the Black and brown community. And Dr. Silber here, he is front-and-center willing to speak to it.

It's a situation that's been going on. But the pandemic, of course, illuminated this. Before the mayor leaves, we just celebrated Juneteenth on Monday, and it's only been recognized since 2021. What's your reaction?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, we need to really understand the significance of Juneteenth. And I want us always to be careful not to celebrate without educate. We need to really sit down with our young people.

Our young people need to be connected to the history and what the moment means. What does Juneteenth mean? It's not a day-off for barbecues, not a day-off for all these other things. We need to connect the dots. JR, on Juneteenth, we had 10 people shot. Six people murdered. On the day we're supposed to be celebrating our liberation, we're seeing one of the most violent days of the year. Go look at what happened in Chicago on Juneteenth. Go look at what happened in Los Angeles. Look at what happened to Atlanta.

Look at what's happening across our country. We're not running against the Klan in white hoods. We're running against those who are over-proliferating our communities with guns that our young people are picking up, and using those guns on other young people.

And so we have to be honest about where we are as we do the celebration of our liberation. Violence is violence, and there's no condolence. And there's no consolation, I should say. If the Klan didn't kill a young person, and someone who's inflicting violence in our community. We lost a 16-year-old child. Someone walked up to him, shot him three times, once in the head and took his life, a young man. So while we do this celebration of our liberation, we have to look at today's time and say, "What must we be doing to put our young people in the right pathway, to rid ourselves of some of the issues that are destroying our communities?" To me, it's a period of reflection. I went to the African Burial Ground. I went to other sites in our city to reconnect ourselves with our ancestors. They fought too hard for us to get to where we are in this position of power and authority, but us not to use it to build the future for our family.

So Juneteenth for me is just not another day that has gone by. It's a reconnection. It's the same reconnection I had when I went to Ghana and when I went to a synagogue and stood at the Door of No Return and went to the forts where our ancestors were enslaved. This is a very significant moment, but we should spend time with our family to sit down, explain the moment, and ask ourselves, what are we doing this year to say we recommitted ourselves to upliftment of what our ancestors fought and died for? That is where my heart is and that's going to have to come at a level of honesty in our reflection of I was able, as the mayor, to make Juneteenth a city holiday. It took 110 mayors to get it done, but we got it done. I'm proud to have signed that into law as a city holiday.

Giddings: Thank you for that, Mayor Adams, I know that you're jumping out, but Dr. Giddings didn't get a chance to tell you good morning today. So Dr. Giddings, you could say hello to our mayor. We are an intimate panel and it's so gratifying when we have the mayor here.

Dr. Shellyanne Giddings: Yes. Good morning, Mayor Adams. It's good to see you and have you, and of course, I really appreciate all your initiatives, especially the Promise NYC Initiative where you provide childcare and just different benefits for children, to undocumented and immigrants. I think that's wonderful. 

But one of my questions is, and I know you partner with Health and Hospitals, and I'm sure they do the screenings when these immigrants come in, undocumented, et cetera. But I was wondering if there's maintenance with the pediatrician for different nutritional deficiencies, toxicities like lead, those type of things, growth and development.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and explain that more to me, Doctor. I'm not quite understanding the question.

Dr. Giddings: Their medical evaluation before they're going to schools or pre-Ks, et cetera, are they involved with pediatricians to get checked for nutritional deficiencies, any kind of toxicities, any kind of infectious diseases that they may have, coming into the city?

Mayor Adams: That is our goal. And I know Dr. Vasan is making sure that we have every child that comes in to receive the necessary care. I know there's conversations to make sure that there are certain tests and examinations beforehand. But I cannot overemphasize to you that this city has been inundated with over 70,000 migrant asylum seekers with little or no help from the federal government. The burden of accomplishing 70,000 people showing up in your city, not allowed to work. We must give them housing, healthcare, clean their clothing, mental health support, transportation. We are in a triage system, like in an emergency room. You have to first stop the bleeding and those red tags, that's our first line of work. We need help. Every one of us should be reaching out to the Federal Government and saying, "This should not be happening to New York City. New York City should not be carrying the burden of a national problem."

So we got to first deal with food, shelter, clothing that we're mandated by law. Once we deal with food, shelter, clothing, we can start looking at some of the other things that we believe needs to be done. But this is an economic burden on this city beyond anyone's imagination. We spent over a billion dollars already. It's going to cost us anywhere from $4.3 to even higher in money. So all those things that we would normally do for children and families, we first have to deal with the real crisis of food, shelter, clothing, and then we can add on to those other things that we would like to do.

Dr. Giddings: Absolutely, 100 percent. Thanks for your time.

Mayor Adams: Okay, thank you. All right, Brother JR and the entire Reset crew, thank you so much. I can't wait until you are a national program because you have some real stars on this show that talks about different topics. Continue to grow and prosper. God has blessed you. No matter what people say, it's time to pray.

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