Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

July 16, 2024

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

This past weekend in Pennsylvania, our nation witnessed a tragedy. The violence we saw at the former president's rally was vicious, it was appalling, and it was wrong. Our thoughts are with the victims of the attack, including the father who passed away, protecting his family, and those who are currently in recovery. In the days since the heart-wrenching incident, we have heard leaders from both parties, including the mayor, call for a cooling of our national temperature. We all have a role to play in meeting this moment. 

For politicians and public servants, that means using our platforms to condemn violence in no uncertain terms and call out hatred where we see it. For members of the press, that means being thoughtful about what you print and holding us accountable. For all of us citizens, it means reiterating that even as we disagree on the direction of our country, there can be no disagreement on our commitment to democracy, to peace, and to non-violence. 

To tell you a little bit more about the work we're doing for New Yorkers every day across our administration, the mayor has once again convened senior leadership for our in-person weekly media availability. Joining us today are Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tiffany Raspberry, and New York City Health and Hospital Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health Dr. Ted Long. Without further delay, I'll turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, DM Levy, and thanks to the entire team for being here. I want to join you in your comments that you made. I want to thank Councilman Borelli, who I never was able to put my finger on, what I was feeling and seeing in the city and the country. He just really summarized there's a difference between anger and hate. Anger motivates, anger motivated me to see how families have been betrayed throughout the years and how we can turn that around. Anger motivated me when I did not get the proper support being dyslexic. We do dyslexia screening in our schools. Anger motivated me living in a family where domestic violence exists and now doing work around domestic violence. Anger can motivate. Hate is different. 

Hate is calling for the destruction, the harm of people. When a 20-year-old can get access to an automatic weapon and have that much hate because he politically disagrees with someone and attempt to take the life of that individual and take the life of innocent people who were there, there's nothing wrong with healthy disagreement in politics. It's always going to exist. It's not going to go away. It is part of the business. The supporters of those who are in contrast to me, they have a right to believe that's what America is, the right to have the right. We're seeing a lot of hate. When you do some of the things that we're witnessing that's playing out on the stage of our existence, that hate is real. I just really—the Trump family, former president's family, and the former president there in my prayers is traumatizing. 

As Reverend Sharpton joined us the other day, being a victim of attempted assassination when someone shot out my car windows, I know how traumatized I was feeling. Jordan was just a baby at the time. I know what it did to my family, my mom and my sisters and brothers. It impacts you. It never goes away. When I looked at that video and saw that bullet strike his ear, I thought about, that gun pointed towards my car. 

Someone hated me to the extent that they wanted to take my life, as someone hated Reverend Sharpton to the extent that they would put a knife in his chest. We have to really get this hate under control. I've been saying this for some time, and I know many people have been ignoring me when I'm saying it, but our children are being radicalized. They're lonely. They're on social media. They are in the corners of their home, and they're being radicalized. I don't know why we're ignoring what is happening to these young people and the role that social media is playing and the impact of this. Our children are being radicalized. We need to have a real plan to stop it. I'm not going to pretend like it's not a problem, because I'm seeing it every day. This is a perfect example. Getting an automatic weapon, climbing on a rooftop, pointing at a gun at someone that you don't know, and you are attempting to assassinate them, if that's not radicalization, then I don't know what is. 

Just continuing on, we continue to drill down into public safety. Public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. We are going to continue to move in a direction and make the city as safe as a big city in America and continue to do that. Everybody is taking notice. New York City, I'm looking at some of the headlines that we're getting, that New York City is the city to live, work, and visit in the United States. 

That's what some of the top tourist periodicals are saying. We're a place where we're global tastemakers. This city is not coming back. The city is back. Travel and Leisure is continuing to make strong comments about what we are doing. You look at the headlines after headlines. American City for Food and Drinks. Headlines after headlines. Best Summer Vacation of 2024 and Best Beaches in the U.S. When you look at, I like to time out New York. Oxford Economics Global Cities Index, number one global city and number one economy. Number one city in the world. Time out magazine. I don't know how long it's going to take before you guys start saying it. If anybody else is saying it, I'm not just saying we're the greatest city on the globe. Everybody is saying it, We all need to say it. We need to fall in love with New York again. Lifeguards. We're at the highest number of lifeguards than we had last year. What is our number now, [Deputy] Mayor Joshi?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations We are close to 900 lifeguards.

Mayor Adams: 900 lifeguards.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Still doing recertification. That number is going to keep going up.

Mayor Adams: We made the alterations that needed. Smart thinking, our ability to pivot and shift to make the right alteration. Those rules were ridiculous before. You had to be an Olympic swimmer in a kiddie pool. We just had ridiculous rules. People just keep doing the same things over and over and over and over again. It doesn't make sense. It's not always about dollars and cents. It's about common sense. This is a common sense administration, and now we're superseding what we had last year. And we're using drones that's finding sharks. All those people were telling us don't use drones, don't use drones. It's saving lives. Finding sharks, allowing us to clear beaches is what we're supposed to be doing, and that is the approach that we're going to take. You never get government moving in the right direction if you listen to all the noise. So great job, DM Joshi. 

Beat the heat. It's hot out. Baby, it's hot out. We're really… Ted is here. Ted is here to deal not only with the heat issue but the… What is it mumps, measles? Measles. Let me tell you something. When y'all read my book, of all the stuff that happens in one day, the measles outbreak, so if there's any question, ask the ever happy Ted. 

He boosted our spirits up during COVID, but, we want people to take precaution because it is very hot out. The rebuilding our economy, as I close out, what we're doing with our delivery workers and others, it just really impacted our economy previously with the delivery workers during COVID, but now we're seeing a real boom. Our team over at Department of Consumer and Workforce Protection, they released their first quarterly report that shows delivery workers earn an increase by 64 percent. 64 percent. Money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. A typical worker who does 20 hours a week, that's an increase of at least $12,000 more per year in the pockets of workers. Working for working class New Yorkers is amazing. 

Outdoor dining, we want to remind folks to sign up. I like those outdoor dinings, I don't like the unsightly sheds, that's why we're getting rid of them, but it's great to be outdoors and just do people watching in the city, so we want people to sign up online, nyc.gov/diningout. I'm going to turn it back over to you, Fabien.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Great, thank you, mayor. We'll take some questions.

Question: Good morning, good morning. How are you? I am well, good morning to the team. Good morning. Let's start with the heat. Yes. It's going to be another dangerously hot day today. I know there's this program for low-income New Yorkers to get air conditioners. Can you elaborate on that? Then you could talk about trial and debts, and I think there's a new initiative of swimming classes for New Yorkers. Could you speak to that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Do you want to talk about that?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Yes. The program that you referred to is the HEAP program. It grew out of a need to provide financial assistance for those who needed help during the winter to cover heating costs for keeping their house warm. With climate change, there is a huge demand for the summer months to keep your house cooler and your apartment cooler, and it's not just the equipment, the air conditioner. It's the monthly utility bill that often over the year can be more expensive than the actual equipment itself. 

There is still funding available for HEAP, so I encourage people to apply and apply quickly. But on a federal level, we are advocating for the entire allotment for HEAP to be enlarged, and I think Senator Schumer has been a real leader on this because we have to acknowledge that extreme heat is just as dangerous to low-income New Yorkers as extreme cold. 

On the drownings, I think I said this last week. As a parent, it is gut-wrenching to listen to the pleas of parents during the horrible time when they don't know what the fate of their children is and then even more devastating when the tragic truth comes out. We have been vigilant throughout all of our public safety agencies, not just the Parks Department, to ensure that there is more of a presence in the after hours, especially between 6 and 9 on our beaches. 

Our PEP officers are out on the beaches patrolling to ensure that people know they can't be in the water. Our maintenance and operation park staff is also out. In fact, on Coney Island, they're out 24-7. We're a one-city approach, so FDNY and PD have both extended their presence, especially at the Rockaways. They're out on the beaches and on call. All three agencies, Parks, FDNY, and the NYPD, have the ability to use drones and are using drones. It's not just the use of drones, but it's a connection with on-call emergency response. FDNY has gators at the ready, and NYPD has people at the ready. NYCEM, our emergency service organization, is also out there with emergency services ready in case somebody is found in the water.

Mayor Adams: The drones have been game-changers. I really want to take my hat off to Deputy Commissioner Daughtry. Other cities and municipalities are reaching out to us and want to know about it. We're going to really coordinate the programs. They have been a game-changer.

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I spent last night looking through your financial filings. First question is Brianna Suggs still working on your campaign? There were no payments for her for May and June. Then, the legal defense filings show that you spent a lot less on lawyers on WilmerHale in the last three months compared to the previous ones. I think a lot of people would have expected some sort of response or an indictment or something from SDNY by now. We haven't seen anything. So I'm wondering, has there been any update in that federal investigation? Why is the spending down because there's less work for them to do?

Mayor Adams: First of all, your question was a stupid one. Okay? A lot of people were not expecting that. You were expecting it. Don't try to do what New Yorkers need and want and make it appear as though your opinions and your hopes and aspirations are what New Yorkers want. My job is to run this city and stay focused on running this city. That's what I'm doing. Part of that job is to raise the money, which I hate, by the way, raise the money to have a campaign, and New Yorkers responded. Raising the necessary money is part of the business. I've called for years, let's take money out of politics. No one should be calling New Yorkers asking for money. Let's give people the amount that you can spend. We're already giving money through the campaign's finance. I don't want to raise money. I don't want to spend hours raising money. 

But, those are the rules of the game, and I have to follow the rules of the game. You all talk about it, but you also all look at the filings to determine a person's political strength. So there's a level of hypocrisy in your reporting. Either money doesn't matter or it does matter. That is a question that's in. When it comes down to Brianna, the amount of paperwork that the CFB requires for a campaign to do is unbelievable. The amount of skill that you need, the amount of training, the amount of documentation. I must have a team that can do that. She's knowledgeable on it, and I'm happy that she's able to do that administrative part of the campaign for the administration. 

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to ask about Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh stepping down. This obviously comes about a year after Commissioner Sewell left the NYPD, who was also the first woman to hold that job. Do you have any concerns that the women you've appointed to lead these historically male-dominated departments, if they're not getting the support they need to continue in these roles for more than a couple of years? Then similarly, do you have any message for maybe female rank-and-file members of those departments who are disappointed to see these pretty groundbreaking leaders leaving after not a very long time?

Mayor Adams: I started out with five deputy mayors and a woman chief advisor and a woman chief of staff. They're still here. I gave a diploma today to Cindy Adams, who could not graduate from high school because she did not know how to sew. She did not know how to sew a dress. 

Men need to stop with this sexist belief. If a woman wants to leave this administration and continue her work, a man leaves. We don't say that. Are you going to get men to support? If a man wants to go on and do something with his life, that he frankly — no one asked me, oh, you didn't give Frank the support he needed? You didn't give him the nurturing that he needed? A woman needs that? No, she does not. If a woman employee makes a determination, I broke boundaries, I did the change that I wanted, I increased the number of women in the department, I was the leading voice around the battery problems we have in this city, and I'm going to go do something else with my life, either in your administration or out of your administration. They have the right to do that. 

I want to get to a day in this city and country where if a woman decides to do something else with her life, she's not all of a sudden saying, oh, you couldn't cut it? It was too much for you? It was too hard for you? No, she wants to do something else with her life, like the men that left wanted to do something else with their life. 

Right now, Commissioner Sewell is over at the New York Mets, and she's making a heck of a lot more money, and she's not waking up in the morning worrying about did we have a robbery on the subway system, and is the press going to say I'm not doing my job? Thank God for them. They leave here, they go on, and they live great lives after. They're dedicated public servants, and I'm really proud of both of them that we broke boundaries. It took 110 mayors before we had a woman police commissioner. It took 110 mayors before we had a woman fire commissioner. It took 110 mayors before we had a commissioner of intelligence with Deputy Commissioner Weiner. It took 110 mayors before we had a first deputy mayor that was of African-American ancestry, before we had a chief advisor of African ancestry, before we had a Trinidadian deputy mayor, a Filipino deputy mayor, a Dominican deputy mayor. 

It took all these years, and many of them didn't do it because they were afraid, those mayors, because once the person leaves, you're going to ask questions like that. Why are they leaving? Because you didn't give them the support they deserved? No, I was willing to do what others were not willing to do because I'm the second Black mayor in the City of New York, and I'm willing to take those changes. Good luck to the commissioner, and if she wants to hang around, I told her you could be commissioner as long as you want in FDNY, and if you want to still hang around, there's other roles I need done, I welcome that, and I thank her. 

How are you, Monica? Don’t ask me about Kavanagh. 

Question: No, thank you for something, and I want to ask you that we've known you for many years, even before you were mayor, and you always seem to be able to contain your emotions when speaking about your political opponents, but in the light of what happened over the weekend, I'm wondering if there was any policies or rules that you spread within your administration to hold on political emotions. 

Because we've seen reports about the New York City budget worker who posted, you know which tweet, and that person was suspended. I'm wondering if that's enough for you, a suspension, or a speech like this should not be tolerated, and looking at your record, when you're always, they ask you about Donald Trump all the time, and you've always been able to hold off any emotion, so I'm just wondering how you approach that.

Mayor Adams: Because we're human beings, there are things we like and dislike. There are days that I come back and say, damn, I wish I didn't say that. I didn't do that. We're human beings. This is very, this is, being the mayor and being the staffers who are up here, this is, it's unimaginable the level of responsibility and stress. There's no joy that Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom has when she has to deal with thousands of people coming into the city. There's no joy that, all of us, DM Mayor Joshi when someone drowns. This impacts us. You don't become part of this and all of a sudden you lose who you are as a human being. 

I said last week, it probably went over many of your heads last week, when the question was asked about the right to consent bill, I think it is, the terminology. Advice and consent. You were asking me, I'm just not going to get involved in those fights anymore. I'm fighting for New Yorkers. I allowed myself, when I looked back over and looked at some of my entries in my notes, and I said, Eric, you were, why were you involved in some of these disputes? I'm just not doing that anymore. It's just ironic that you have something like that. This has just happened. I think all of us need to reflect on how we're communicating and the level of civility that's needed. 

We could do a better job in being more civil to each other. We've become a very mean city and country. That tweet that went out, that said, something about I hope he missed, that is not who we are. There's no joy in watching, millions of people watching the almost assassination of a person who's running for office. Donald Trump supporters are — they have an opinion. They don't have to agree with me, but I should not pick up a gun and want to hurt them.

Question: Was the suspension of that employee enough for you?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I think it was. I think — and it was a dual approach. Number one, he was suspended for two weeks, but he also — without pay. But he also wrote a communication to the head, Jacques Jiha, saying it was the wrong decision. 

Twitter is the enemy. When you are hiding behind Twitter, it's unbelievable the things that you would do. Some of the things — I should say, let me take that back — social media. Social media makes people do things that they would not normally do. That old research that I remember when somebody was placed in a room far away from someone and you had to give them an electric shock. People were easy to do it when it was not face-to-face. Social media has made people mean and nasty, and they do harmful things from the corner of their living rooms in their homes. We need to really look at what we're doing. The meanness of what we've become through these gadgets. They have hijacked our lives.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: I read somewhere that you're going to Politico. Was that a rumor?

Question: I don't know about that. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, it could have been a rumor since it was on Twitter. Could have been a rumor.

Question: I wanted to—there was a letter in the letters section of the Daily News today. I want to just—there are a couple of pieces I want to go through with you. On Trump, in this atmosphere, like everybody's talking about now and having to take the temperature down, this guy who wrote into the news today, he's basically laying some of this at Trump's feet. Urging people at rallies to beat up critics, boasting about being able to shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose votes, making fun of the attack on Pelosi's husband. 

Of course it's horrible that he was shot and that somebody died and we had this whole thing happen over the weekend. Do you think it's worthwhile to talk about, how we got here? Do you feel that Trump himself contributed to this atmosphere we're living in now based on, some of the things this reader cited in his letter?

Mayor Adams: I think everyone has a role in the climate that we are living in right now. Everyone, and that includes me. I think everyone has a role. We all need to check ourselves. Everyone. To point to, the former president, to point to the current president, there's some who are saying, Okay, the Democrats did this. There's some who say the Republicans did this. There's some who are saying the media did it. Some are saying schools did it. 

Let's stop saying what others have done and let's start asking ourselves, as, one of my musical geniuses said, let's look at the man and the woman in the mirror. What have we done? I don't want to go into, did he create the atmosphere? I want to know, what did I do? What am I doing? I talked about Breaking Bread, Building Bonds. I talked about going out and meeting different groups. I need to do more. I need to do more. That is where I am. What could I do and contribute to toning down the rhetoric in the city and country?

Question: Is there anything you have in store, planned to that end?

Mayor Adams: Yes. We're going to create a letter, a sign-on letter with, and we're going to ask everyone to sign on. Because, I've said this over and over as the mayor of the most important city on the globe, that it's substantive, it's symbolic. 

Those flag raisers that many people, laughed at or think they're not important, they are. My Breaking Bread, Building Bonds, having those thousand dinners last year of people from different ethnicities coming together are important. Going to visit these mosques, these synagogues, these churches, that's the symbolism that's important. It's not only the policies that matter, it's, what are the symbolic gestures that I'm making to say we could all come together and sit down together. I think that's what I want to do, and the letter is going to be one of them. We want to get as many elected and public people as possible to sign on and say we're going to all contribute to toning down what we are seeing. 

You guys cover it, so how bad it is. you want to deny it, but you all know if it bleeds, it leads. that. We're not going to cover, Eric, what you've done, bringing more jobs in the history of the city. That's all great, but no, we want to cover this. Because we have all been sensationalized by, how many clicks can I get? We know it, so stop acting like we don't know it. How do I make this story as horrific as possible so that we now have been desensitized and to get as many clicks as possible? We've all contributed to this atmosphere. 

Yes, how are you? 

Question: Jennifer Rajkumar has announced an exploratory committee for NYC comptroller. I know that the primary is a little less than a year away. Does she have your support? I wanted to go back to Biden. You mentioned last week or maybe past a week ago that you'd be a soldier for his campaign, and you held that unity rally on Sunday with the Reverend Sharpton. I'm wondering, have you reached out to him about what more you can do now with this atmosphere that's going on? You mentioned that letter, but have you spoken to the White House about what you can do? Did they tell you anything? Did they direct you to do anything in particular?

Mayor Adams: I've been very clear. I coined myself the Biden of Brooklyn and didn't change that no matter what disagreements were. I think he's a blue-collar president. I think he focuses on blue-collar people. I think some of the personal tragedies he has experienced in his life really has made him the compassionate person that he is. 

I've been extremely clear to the campaign. I was on a town hall call with a bunch of mayors last week. I've been clear. Whatever marching orders you have for me, I'm willing to do. They must determine. When you run a campaign, the worst thing that can happen is for someone to come in and try to interfere and dictate on what you want to do, on what they want to do, instead of what the team wants to do. I must do my role here in the city, get out the vote, and make sure that people are engaged. That's what I'm going to continue to do. When they call on me, they call and say, we want Eric to be on this call. I was there on the call. I am taking my marching orders from the quarterback who's running his campaign, and I look forward to doing that. 

In the area of Assemblywoman Rajkumar, I think I keep saying, I think she's one of the hardest-working lawmakers. She covers ground. She led that charge about SMOKEOUT, it was amazing. This was something that was impacting New Yorkers, and it was DOA. She picked up the mantle and ran towards it, what she did around Diwali, including people in the holidays, and just her work ethic. I just think that's important. I think that we should not be politicizing overseeing our tax dollars. We should be collaborating. 

Some of the reports that I read that criticized her for being able to build bridges with City Hall, I don't understand that. Shouldn't we be building bridges? Hooray for her. Before the session started, sit down with us and say, how do I help the City of New York in Albany? That is what has always been her mantle. You've got to put the campaign together. She did an exploratory committee. Running citywide is hard. I think she has the energy to do so. I look forward to seeing how she makes that final determination.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. I want to return to the topic of Laura Kavanagh.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: As you remember, she tried to have some shakeups in the department, and she got backlash for it. There was a lawsuit. I remember you defending her at the time in making those decisions. Now, one of the arguments that was made against her by members of the Fire Department was that she herself had never been a firefighter. I'm wondering, how much credence do you give to that argument? Is that a legitimate argument to make against her? How much do you think the underlying reason was also the fact that she was a woman?

Mayor Adams: First of all, we had others of fire commissioners that were never firefighters and I never heard that… [Crosstalk.] No, no, no. You could write the story the way you want. I'm only answering the question. Whenever you stand up and point out the obvious and push back on institutional stuff, you're going to get a backlash. I'm still paying for the fact that I told you guys you don't have enough diversity in the media. I'm still paying for that. Don't think I don't know that. 

When you're taking leadership positions like she did, these institutions are tough. She went into an institution that historically didn't even have women in there, didn't even have diversity in there. She went in. I remember sitting down with her when she made the decision. I said, this is going to be tough. It's going to be very tough. And she said Eric, I'm up for it. 

She showed that. The numbers of women have increased. The things that she has done, really, now we don't have to worry about if a woman wants to become a commissioner. I don't believe that it should be that, hey, you've never been a firefighter before. People get many positions that they've never been in. I've never been a mayor before but we're running the heck out of the city, aren't we?

Question: …sexist to say…

Mayor Adams: …Anne? 

Question: But the Sanitation commissioner has never been a Sanitation worker. 

Mayor Adams: Right. She's doing a good job.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: I don't know what's in the mind of people. I don't know what's in the mind of people. I think it's… We are breaking barriers. We're breaking barriers. When you break barriers, there's a lot of discomfort. There's a lot of discomfort. I don't fit the mold of what a mayor should be and there's discomfort. 

We have to be honest about the discomfort people feel when you move, you step outside of the tradition. We knew that. This team knew that when we came on board. We knew, listen, people are not going to be comfortable with what we're going to do. Discomfort is growth and they're going to grow. This is going to be a better city after this administration.

Question: Mayor, I want to ask about a follow-up on Commissioner Kavanagh. Do you have a process in place or a timeline?

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Do you have a process in place, a timeline for replacing the commissioner? Can you talk a little bit about what you think you're looking for in the next commissioner? It wasn't clear if you think the next commissioner should have fire experience or not. 

Another question I have, too, is regarding the family shelters. A lot of them, unless they're in hotels, they do not have air conditioning in their rooms given the current heat wave. They need a doctor's note, apparently, to get air conditioners in their room. Some of them have AC in the common areas, but they can't sleep in the common areas. I'm wondering, has there been any move to address this, the fact that we have this extended heat wave, and you have people living in already cramped, uncomfortable conditions, and that they cannot have air conditioning?

Mayor Adams: I want to be clear on this because I said it, and I don't know if you skipped over it. Laura can be the commissioner as long as she wants. When she's ready to transition to her next role, she'll come in and say, Eric, I'm ready to transition into my next role. If that's outside the administration or inside the administration, it's fine with me. She did exactly what I needed for her to do, and I think that she's a great leader, and so it's up to her. She's making that determination. When it's ready to make the appointment for whomever's going to be next, as she stated she wants to be here to assist in the transition, then I thank her for that. We'll make that appointment. 

No, I don't believe that one has to be previously in a role before they can do a role. I need compassionate, caring, good, strong leadership. I remember when I appointed Sheena to be first deputy mayor, they said, oh, well, she was never in government before, never in government before, and now look at the good job you're doing. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you have to go outside the body to come in with good, fresh ideas. That is what you must do. From the day that Ingrid ran my first campaign, you were never even a campaign manager and you got me here to City Hall. You've got to be willing to go outside, folks. If you stay with inside, you're going to keep moving the chairs around the room. Sometimes you have to bring new chairs inside the room.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Air conditioning?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Anne, do you want to do that?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yes, I want to get you the correct answer for that. I know that at DSS, we're focusing on Code Blue when it gets a certain degree, Code Gray now when it's about air quality, Code Red when it's this hot, and making adjustments where we need to. I do understand if there's a reasonable accommodation where someone needs an air conditioner, we're able to accommodate that. Let me find out exactly what's the accommodations and how do we deal with people. I think that you're right. There are some hotel rooms and some places that don't have air conditioners.

Question: Have you had any issues related to the heat in the shelters?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Not that I am aware of, but I will get back to you. I know, Meera, people can always go to cooling centers and all of the things that they need, so that applies to them also. I will double check all of that for you, Jeff, and get you an answer.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I think it's important, as a city, we try to provide as many cooling opportunities as possible. There's hundreds of cooling centers that are available to the public. There are also, if you go on the Parks website, a map of all the playgrounds that have cooling amenities like sprinklers, water fountains. The DOT has a project called Cool Corridors where we try to add more shade to every street and make our street infrastructure as amenable to hot weather as possible. We obviously have our beaches and our pools that are open to the public. You can even go to a firehouse and get a spray cap to put on a fire hydrant as another way to cool down, because we'd prefer you do that than just open up the fire hydrant.

Question: Can I just say that the issue that you raised has been at night, when obviously they can't go to a cooling center and no one's going to be out at a fire hydrant. It's just hot at night, and they don’t have an air conditioner.

Mayor Adams: Everyday New Yorkers don't have air conditioners. we make do. Fans, paper fans. When I grew up as a kid, air conditioning, I didn't even know what that was. Mommy used to say, boy, you better put your head in that fridge. 

Listen, we make do. We make do. We're not going to be able to give an air conditioner to every New Yorker, so we open up cooling centers. We do some of the other alternative things. These heat waves are going to become normal. No one wants anyone to be in a difficult situation, but we make do, and that's what we're doing. We would be dishonest if we were to say that everybody that is a migrant or asylum seeker in a shelter, that we're going to be able to give them an air conditioner. We can't. We can't give it to everyday New Yorkers. We made it for low-income New Yorkers, but we make do. 

This is a challenging time, but we go back to the foundation of this that D.M. Williams-Isom has been saying. Let's give them the right to work. If we give them the right to work, they will be willing to work and fill some of these vacancies, and people want to be self-sustaining. That's what they want more than anything. They don't want us giving them anything. I speak to these migrants. They want to be self-sustaining. Let's give them the right to work. Jeff, I would just

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I want to just mention it is also related to the larger crisis we're facing, the hot temperatures, and that's around lowering emissions and the bold steps that this city has taken in both transportation and buildings to mandate lower emissions: supporting our EV infrastructure, mandating that our TLC vehicles turn to zero emission by 2030, our Local Law 97, which applies to all buildings. It's the boldest plan in the nation, and we're in the midst of two large transmission lines. They'll be the largest transmission lines in the nation of renewable energy that will actually terminate in Queens. 

It's this larger work that we have to constantly do. It's behind the scenes, and people don't always see it around lowering emissions, that is a huge part of the puzzle. The air conditioner is the immediate thing, but if we don't have the long-term work in place, we're going to be dealing with a crisis that's much larger than individual air conditioners.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Jeff, I would just point out, obviously, during the day it's a lot hotter than in the evening. Emergency Management is telling us specifically it's the day that's the real concern for them. I would also just point out what Deputy Mayor Joshi just said about the caps. If you want a cap, you have to go to the firehouse and ask them to put it on. You can't put it on yourself, so I just want to point that out.

Question: Hi, Mayor. How are you doing?

Mayor Adams: Good. How are you?

Question: Good. Two questions for you. The theme of the RNC tonight is Make America Safe Again that focuses on border security. Just wondering, if Mr. Trump is elected, what effect do you think his policies would have on New York City? Do you think we will actually see him mass deport migrants living in the city? 

My second question for you is tomorrow is ten years since the death of Eric Garner. What's changed since then, and if something like that were to happen today, given the current policies of the department, how do you think that would unfold in terms of penalties, punishment for that officer? Do you think it even could happen today, given the policies of the department?

Mayor Adams: First, I'm not going to speculate on the policy shift or changes. I made it clear I'm rolling with Biden. I cannot be any clearer in that and I think there's a path forward to deal with the migrant and asylum seeker issue. 

With Eric Garner, I remember like yesterday when the call came in, I remember going to the wake and seeing and speaking with the family members. Those of you who have followed my life, they know this is my life story, how Reverend Daughtry got me involved in law enforcement in the first place. I try to bring that every day when I speak with the commissioner — the current one and the former commissioner — that we have so many interactions in the Police Department, millions of interactions. 

One of the most important things you can do is control your adrenaline and being able to respond accordingly. I looked at some of the videos of some of the recent interactions that I felt was inappropriate, and we're going to investigate those. I pray to God we don't have an Eric Garner situation under this administration and administrations in the past. You could only properly train, properly instruct and properly give the support to those men and women who are doing the right thing out there. An overwhelming number of them are. Katie, how are you?

Question: I know you've spoken about the drones and their usefulness at the beach. I'm curious, I know when the NYPD first got involved this year in the drones along the beach, they talked about the deploying of a life raft if needed. I'm curious, has that been deployed at all this summer? If not, why? 

It seems that a lot of the video coming from the FDNY, OEM and the NYPD that have drones operating, they seem to be searching for sharks, which is useful, that's been done in previous years. It seems that it's been moved away from the life-saving or assisting operations. I don't know if they've deployed the life raft, if they haven't, why not? Can you just confirm, what is Brianna Suggs' title in the campaign?

Mayor Adams: What is what?

Question: Brianna Suggs, in the campaign. What is her title? I know you said paperwork, but what is her title?

Mayor Adams: She's handling the administrative aspect of the campaign. There's a ton of… One day you guys should follow the clerical aspects and the reporting requirements. It is mind-boggling the depth of what needs to be reported under CFP. She's managing that. She's the chief administrator on doing that. It's so important that someone that has knowledge on that is doing that. 

With the drones, it is life-saving. Sharks kill. It was in Rockaway where a shark…

Question: She got injured.

Mayor Adams: I know, I got you. Thank God there were people there, that took a huge chunk out of her thigh. That is life-saving. Life-saving is not always reactive, it's proactive. Thank God we have not been able to, did not have to deploy them. The goal is to have them there if you need to. If we can get through the summer without having to deploy those rafts, I'm very pleased. If we have to deploy them, we have the tools to use them. 

Commissioner Daughtry, really hats off to him for finding this and being able to get to a person who potentially is drowning in enough time that can communicate with that person and drop that raft. That's a real win. We have not had to deploy them. I spoke with him yesterday about it, and he said as of now we have not had to deploy them. We did participate in two shark sightings. They were able to partially close the beach and clear the beach. That's a real win. No telling what could have happened if people had been injured by those sharks.

Question: So they're used in the evening, especially after lifeguards are off duty. I don't know if you or the deputy mayor want to talk about how will the drones be utilized? Still just doing shark watch? Will they look for people who are out in the water? Because that, unfortunately, is when the first drownings were on federally-run beaches, but that's where a lot of the drownings occur when there's no lifeguards. I know there's also been near misses because it's 6:30, but lifeguards happen to still be there. What is their usefulness in the evening? Is it just more surveillance?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: It's for both sharks, but primarily for people because sharks in the water after people aren't supposed to be in the water is less of a risk. The after hours focus is really on people and making sure that people on the beach know that they shouldn't go in the water because there's no lifeguard on duty, and spotting if people are in the water, one, to tell them they need to get out, and in the worst case, because they're in trouble. I outlined earlier that FDNY, Parks and NYPD, especially in the Rockaways, are adding on-call personnel for those after hours because it's not just the drone seeing something, it's the response that actually makes a difference. You have to have the combination.

Question: Two questions. Measles, then a follow-up on the fire commissioner. For the measles, there were two cases of measles at the Clinton Hill Migrant Shelter on Friday. Have there been any more cases? How many people are quarantining at the shelter? What's the city doing? 

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Dr. Ted? 

Dr. Ted Long, Senior Vice President, Ambulatory Care and Population Health, NYC Health + Hospitals: Yes. Thanks for asking. I want to start by saying public health in New York City, we've always known is at the center of this crisis. I'll walk you through our response so far. I want to make the point that measles is extremely contagious and is extremely serious. You'll get that from my tone here. 

The response that we've had for measles really starts at the Arrival Center. I think that's a really important point to emphasize. At the Arrival Center in New York City, which is something unique to New York City, we've screened more than 150,000 people for communicable diseases like measles and COVID. We've then gone on, as part of your Arrival Center experience, to vaccinate between our Arrival Center and our humanitarian centers, we've administered more than 75,000 vaccines to date. For this particular response, that plays into it. Let me tell you what's happened. 

On Friday, we were made aware of the cases. We immediately went into quarantine for people that had been exposed at the shelter that you mentioned. The way that we did that is we talked to everybody in their preferred language. We did this into the evening. We had clinicians talk to everybody to see how they were doing, see if they had symptoms that could be consistent with measles, which would then have us immediately isolate them, and check in with everybody to really just see what they needed. Then we immediately did titers on everybody. What titers are, they're serologies or blood tests to see if you've received the vaccine in the past or if you're immune to measles now. The next thing we did is offered vaccines to anybody, especially those that had recently arrived at the shelter, or we could still give them vaccines as post-exposure prophylaxis, medical terminology for if you just arrived and you're within a certain window and you've been exposed to somebody with measles, if I give you the vaccine now, it'll protect you so that you don't need to quarantine. 

Then beyond doing the titers, doing the vaccines, it is important to say, and this is what we spent the whole weekend doing, that we really wanted to make sure that we were attending to people because this is a very scary thing. I'm terrified of measles, and we wanted to make sure that people in that room had what they needed from us. We did things like, I know it sounds a little bit silly, but we brought in TVs, we had interpreters around the clock to be able to answer everybody's questions, and we even brought in halal chicken from Popeyes just to make sure people had the comforts that they needed so they would stay in that room. 

When you take all of that in totality, and here's the statistic I have for you today, more than 80 percent of those exposed to the measles cases at Hall Street right now do not need to quarantine any longer because we identified that they were immune through the serologies that we immediately did, or they received vaccines from us here in New York City, including at the Arrival Center, or they were one of those smaller number of people where we were able to give them the post-exposure prophylaxis vaccine, which protected them from contracting measles themselves and enabled them to exit quarantine. Right now, more than 80 percent, again, of the people that initially were exposed have already left quarantine.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: The only thing I want to add really quickly is it's pretty amazing that we're two and a half years into this migrant crisis, and this is the first time that we're having cases of measles. The team has been amazing because they were preparing for this. The idea of having an Arrival Center, I think, gets proven over and over again to be a great idea so that we could give people the care that they need up front. The other reminder is that the majority of New Yorkers are vaccinated for measles, but this is a reminder that if you are, you're safe, and if you're not, this is the time to make sure that you're getting vaccinated for measles.

Question: …two cases, you didn’t discover any more cases?

Dr. Long: Correct.

Question: And you said how many people are still quarantined?

Dr. Long: The investigation is ongoing, so we'll share more in terms of the overall number of people exposed that are close contacts as the investigation gets closer to concluding. I think it also makes the important point, though, that this is an ongoing situation. We leapt into action, immediately did the titers so that we could determine who was immune, immediately offered vaccine to protect people if they were in that window, and as we complete the investigation, we're going to know exactly the number of contacts that were exposed.

Question: What I will say is when he said 80 percent have already, we've seen, have immunity, that means that it's probably less than 20 percent that have to be isolated. We just want to make sure that we are paying attention to people's, their, what's the word I'm looking for? Not giving everybody's, telling people's business. Confidentiality. Confidentiality. Once we're finished with that… Thank you, like what's the hood, I have my hood version here and my deputy mayor hat. I just wanted you to think of it, but it's less than that. That's why we're saying that we're in the middle of this right now, so we'll give you more information. Correct.

Mayor Adams: Harlem came out.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Okay, sorry, you answered this, but just want to, do you think the culture within the FDNY is what drove her out, and what are you going to do about it if there are concerns? You did say when you were talking earlier that the culture within these storied institutions can be tough.

Mayor Adams: I think that you folks should sit down with Laura as she does an exit interview, and you could ask all these questions. I don't know… This culture, isms exist. Isms exist in all of our industries, and I know it's extremely challenging for people to really wrap their heads around the fact I'm the mayor and I've only been here for two years and seven months. Those isms that existed for thousands of years won't dissipate under my administration. I'm setting the right tone that we don't accept those isms to exist, and we use our internal mechanisms to correct them. It didn't start, isms didn't start January 1st, 2022. They did not start. I know you may not think it's hard to believe, but they exist in your industry as well.

Question: Thank you so much. How are you, mayor?

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good, thank you so much. The question, as you emphasized about the social media and the involvement of the young people, as there is almost 100 percent of the family, they have the device in their home, especially the low-income people. They keep the device and keep their kids busy as an alternate because they are working and then they keep the kids busy with the device or social media. What is the alternate? You can criticize, but you have to come up with a solution. What is the solution, number one? 

Number two, since he's here, yesterday there is a big report came, which is hundreds of people are falling dangerously ill two years after getting COVID, and scientists are worried. Since New York City was the epicenter of the COVID, how is the situation in New York, the people who were dangerously ill, now, any statistics or any experience?

Mayor Adams: Listen, we've done a combination of things. Ever since Dr. Vasan brought this to our attention, the impact, particularly around suicidal ideations, depression, violence, children at the age of 12 and 13, how it impacts on their brain development, desensitizing young people and even adults to violence, and the appearance of violence. 

We know we need a full-frontal assault. One of them is that we're suing social media companies to go after them, to make them more responsible with these algorithms. Number two, then it's going to have to come down to everyday human engagement. That's why we're exploring everything from should we ban cell phones in schools to how do we regulate FaceTime. Young people are now getting engaged with this as well. Many of them are saying, we want to wean ourselves off of social media. It has an impact on our lives. It's a combination of things that we must do and self-monitoring as well as governmental regulations and legislation, as well as social media companies becoming more responsible. Dr?

Dr. Long: My pleasure. Thank you for asking. For COVID, I think the most important thing you did is ask the question. The most important takeaway is that COVID is still here and it's not gone. I want to tell you a little bit about what we're doing for current COVID, both surveillance and current guidance, and then also long COVID, which I think you were alluding to there, what we uniquely have in New York City. 

In terms of our overall guidance now, as I tell my patients, when I see them in the Bronx every Friday, COVID is still here. The vaccine is still effective. Get the vaccine today. That's number one. Number two, if you believe you have COVID or if you're sick, stay home, don't be a hero and try to come to work when you could infect others. If you're at home and you have risk factors, take a test. The reason to take a test in my mind is then you'll know if you have COVID and you'll know if you can have Paxlovid, which can save your life. You can go on our Virtual Express Care platform, talk to a doctor in a matter of minutes through calling (212) COVID-19 and you'll get prescribed Paxlovid immediately. 

The thing, long COVID is the next thing. I talk to my patients about long COVID a lot. The number one thing I tell them is this, what you're experiencing is long COVID and it's real. It's terrible. I wish I could make it go away now, but what you're experiencing is not in your mind. It's in your physical reality. I'm going to help you get through it. What we can do to help New Yorkers is number one, we still have (212) COVID-19. Call (212) COVID-19 on your phone right now. You can get connected to our aftercare program, which has resources for long COVID. It can also connect you to, and this is very important. 

We have three Centers of Excellence in New York City for COVID. We set these up knowing ahead of time that in New York city, we were hit the hardest. We pushed the hardest back and we planned ahead to have the centers that we knew we would need. These centers, you can make an appointment at today. They have doctors like me. Actually they have doctors that specialize in long COVID. I try. You can call and make an appointment now. That's where you can explore what's going on with you, what your long COVID symptoms are. We have specialists onsite like cardiologists and pulmonologists that deal with the predominant symptoms that we're seeing, those lingering symptoms that constitute long COVID.

Mayor Adams: Your question. You had your final question before we go.

Question: Yes, going back to fundraising, your opponents, potential opponents, Scott Stringer and Zellnor Myrie, they both reported six figure hauls yesterday. Just wondering your reaction to that.

Mayor Adams: I don't have one. I'm just happy New Yorkers were able to contribute to my campaign more than both theirs combined. I'm just going to continue to work hard. That's all I do. I just, I stay focused. No distractions. I just grind, man. I'm just a hard working. I'm the hardest working man in show business like James Brown.