Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Older Adult Town Hall

July 17, 2024

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

Executive Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray, Chief Program Officer, Department for the Aging: I don't believe he needs a real introduction, Mr. Mayor.  

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, and you do not stand for me, I stand for you. I am here to serve you and committed. Our family home is still down the block on 167th Street and 111th Avenue.  

I know this community so well, and we are doing these town halls, and I want to thank all of our partners that are here, and I want to thank our amazing assemblywoman who has been really moving throughout this city on those issues that are important to us. I see in the back a good friend and mentor, Malcolm Smith. Good to see you, brother. It's really good to see you.  

We want to open up to questions, but I want to really speak directly to you so that you can have a full understanding of what this administration has done. You've heard it before, well, he dresses too fancy, he's out late at night, he doesn't understand how to do the job. Not Eric Adams, David Dinkins. This is what they said about David Dinkins. Go look at the newspaper articles when we got the first Black mayor, and he went to Albany to get Safe Cities, Safe Streets, and started decreasing crime and turning around the economy. They inundated him, and their plan was, you know what, turn his base against him and make them just say we're not coming out to vote.  

Some of us bought into that narrative back then, and we're buying into it again. January 1st, 2022, I inherited a city that was in a mess. 40 percent increase in crime. NYCHA residents did not have high-speed broadband for their children to do remote learning. Foster care children were not getting the support that they deserve. Black unemployment was four times the rate as white unemployment. COVID was everywhere. No jobs were coming to this city. We saw overproliferation of guns, overproliferation of scooters.  

Remember back in 2021? You thought you were in Beirut with all those fireworks going off during the weekend. Did you hear them this year? Right. Two years later, two years later, folks, two years, we have more jobs in the city's history in New York, more small businesses open in the history of the city. We cut Black unemployment in half. We witnessed less than 8 percent unemployment in communities, in the Black community, since 2019. We have invested in our foster care children. We pay our foster care children… 6,700 age out every year. They're more likely to be incarcerated, they're more likely to be the victims of crime, more likely to be homeless, more likely to have mental health issues. We're paying their college tuition, giving them a stipend, and giving them a life coach until they're 21-years-old.  

Double-digit decrease in shooters, double-digit decrease in homicide, decrease in robberies. Crime overall, crime is down. Crime is down in the subway system, where you read every day, you tend to believe that the subway system is out of control. Our crime is the lowest in 14 years, if you take the two years out of COVID in the subway system. We have over 6.1 million people, daily riders on our subway system. We have eight felonies a day on our subway system. We want to get rid of all eight, but let's put this in perspective. Millions of people use that system every day, and we have brought it to the lowest level. Robberies on the subway system is the lowest in the history of the subway system, the history of the subway system.  

We financed more affordable housing in one year in the history of the city. We moved more people out of homelessness into permanent housing in one year in the history of the city. We moved more people into permanent housing using FHEPS vouchers in the history of the entire program, and we went after my number one enemy, rats. We're starting to containerize garbage. Every other civilized society has containers for their garbage. This is a relic from the 60s when the Sanitation strike took place, and we went to plastic bags. When I'm in Europe and other places, they say plastic bags? And so when you do an analysis, and so, well, Eric, that's what you're saying.  

No, let's look at what the independent financial experts are saying. They're saying, Eric, you have managed this city out of not one crisis, which normally mayors do. Bloomberg had, he managed us out of 9/11. DeBlasio had COVID. I had COVID, and I'm having 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers. Check this out. I can't stop the buses from coming in. It's against the law. I can't say I'm not giving you three meals a day and going to house you and educate 38,000 children and wash your clothing. It's against the law. I can't even say, when I got 1,000 together and said, listen, can you guys do graffiti removal, clean streets, and really show New Yorkers how much you enjoy being here and I'll give you a stipend? Federal government said, you can't even do that.  

Everyone is stepping to me, saying, Eric, what the heck are you doing to us when… No, it's not what am I doing to you. It's what the federal government is doing to us, and they're looking at the mayors of our city. Now, check this out. Where are the migrants and asylum seekers? Chicago, New York, Washington, Houston was another area. What do they all have in common? 

Audience Member: They have Black mayors. 

Mayor Adams: Let's get this one. Do we have thousands of Ukrainians who have come here fleeing the war, and they deserve to come here fleeing the war? Do you hear about them? You know why? They can work. If you can work from Ukraine, why can't you work from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, West Africa?  

And we need workers. We need lifeguards, food service workers. We need nurses. We need translators. We need all sorts of workers we need, yet I have thousands of people who are sitting on taxpayers' dime that are saying, we want to take the next step. When I go to visit these shelters, they say to me, we don't want your free food. We don't want your free housing. We don't want the outside bathrooms. We just want to work. That's all they want.  

When you add all of this together, we're at a David Dinkins moment. David Dinkins moment. I hear some folks, I hear, I'm Eric Adams from South Jamaica, Queens. I'm an urban mayor, bald-headed, earring-wearing, coming from 140, grew up in public schools, made some mistakes in my life, but God has been with me, and we're on a precipice of finally making this city a city that is representative of all of us: first Black first deputy mayor, first Filipino deputy mayor, first Dominican deputy mayor, first Trinidadian deputy mayor, second Caribbean American to be the chief of staff — the first was under David Dinkins — first Panamanian to be a chief advisor, first Spanish speaker to be a police commissioner, first woman to be a police commissioner, first woman to be a fire commissioner.  

You look at all these firsts. The reason people are angry, folks, is because of the Matthew 21:12 moment. Jesus went in his temple, and he saw them doing wrong in his temple. He didn't sit down at the table and participate. What did he do? I went to City Hall to turn the table over. When you turn the table over, people are going to hate on you. They're going to say, who do you think you are to all of a sudden spend billions of dollars at M/WBEs when we were denying other communities to do so? Who do you think you are to do dyslexia screening so we don't have 40 percent of all children at Rikers Island are dyslexic? Who do you think you are that you're going to go in the subway system and transition 7,000 people into housing when you look at who is homeless in those systems? Black and brown people.  

Who do you think you are, Eric? You're going to come in here and think you're going to all of a sudden do what you ran on? I lived up to my promise. I lived up to it. We all should be proud. We have a Black speaker and a Black mayor, never before in the history of this city. Never before in the history of this city. They want to act like, well, they're fighting each other. They can't… Listen, 100 things that Adrienne and I have to do, we are on page with 96 of them. If four of them, we disagree, so what? We disagree. I disagree with myself all the time. Many of you have been married. Don't tell me you don't disagree with your boo. Don't tell me you don't disagree with your children. So what?  

Don't let them exploit what Adrienne and I have accomplished. We navigated the most important city on the globe by what we've done. It says to every corporation. It says to every city. It says to everyone that Black folks and brown folks can run these complicated cities and turn them around. I turned around the city in two years. Two years. We got more to do. More to do. Listen. We spent $5 billion in migrants and asylum seekers. $5 billion. We had to find that money. We had a $7 billion budget deficit when we came into office. We had to find it. We had 200,000 people that if we didn't put in a plan and say, listen, you got 30 days, man. You got 30 days to get your act together and take your next step. We're going to give you all the support. If we didn't do these things, we'd have 200,000 people in our care.  

Then we have to have real partners. That's what Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar has been. From leading the charge and closing these darn smoke shops. Last night I was up in the Bronx at 12 a.m. in the morning. We found a bodega. Wasn't even a smoke shop sign. It was a bodega, a deli. They had over a million dollars of cannabis in the back. When I talk to my teachers, you know what they tell me? Our children are high all the time. All the time. Smoking, opioids, fentanyl. That's why this is a full-frontal assault. What the Police Department has done, 17,000 guns removed off our streets. Decreasing five of the seven major crime categories.  

I know this community. These are hard-working… Some of you are retired. Some of you have invested in your homes. This is a middle class, hard-working community where you still believe you spare the rod, you spare the child. You still got these old fashioned beliefs like I was raised on. That's why we're doing this. Because our message is not going to get out by others. I have to be on the ground. I have to communicate with you directly to show you my record. David Dinkins was my mentor. I watched what they did to him. I watched how they painted him. We lost him and who did we get? Giuliani. That's right. That's right. That's right. I rock with Joe. I call myself the Biden of Brooklyn. I'm with you.  

We want to open the floor. I want to give, where's DJ? This is something that I created when mom was with us. It's just a simple magnet. You can feel it out. Hang it on your refrigerator. Whenever, when I was a cop and we would respond to emergencies at the home, you have to find the basic information. Not to slow down your actual medical treatment. We want the EMS worker, the police officer, to come there. They look. They know where to find… Just basic information. Any prescription you're on. Who's your emergency contact. Your name. This way they can immediately give you the care and communicate who they have to communicate with at the same time.  

It's on the table. If you want it, grab it. You could fill it out for yourself, for a family member, a loved one, or whomever you want. We want to make sure that we can bring something to you every time we come. Why don't we open the floor up to questions. Why don't you say a few words, Assemblywoman? 

New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar: Good afternoon again, Southeast Queens. I'm State Assemblywoman Jenifer, it's Jenifer Rajkumar. I'm the first Indian woman ever elected to a New York State office. I just want to say I'm grateful to be here today. Because nobody thought I'd be here today. My mom was born in a mud hut in India. My parents came here with little. Now I get to be here as a state representative.  

I think of what Mayor Adams says all the time, which is focus, no distractions, and grind. That's how we do it. That's what I try to do every day for you. As I mentioned, I am on the Aging committee in the State Legislature because it matters so much to me that all of our seniors are well taken care of. One thing that has struck me was the prevalence of scam and fraud. With AI technology, people can call you imitating any voice. how do you even know what call is real and what call is not? I talk to my mom all the time and she's getting mixed signals about who she should answer, what emails are real, what emails are fake.  

We can also use technology to help us, which is why I was proud to help fund half a million dollars in our state budget for AI technology that can help seniors, AI technology that will be in your home to help you and that can know when you're in trouble, when you don't respond. This has already saved lives. I want to say I've been happy to fight for quality of life. As the mayor mentioned, we're busy shutting down all the illegal smoke shops that have been plaguing our neighborhoods. I am proud to be the author and sponsor of the legendary SMOKEOUT Act, which passed in the state budget. The SMOKEOUT Act said we're going to smoke them all out and shut them all down. That's what we are doing.  

I'm not stopping there. I'm now taking on e-bikes. E-bikes. They're driving the wrong way on the sidewalks. People are getting hit by the e-bikes, including me. That's why we need a regulatory framework for e-bikes. My bills will require that e-bikes are licensed and registered and subject to inspection to keep all of us safe in this city. Thank you so much for having me today, and I can't wait to hear from all of you.  

Mayor Adams: Okay, why don't we open up to some questions? Yes. Mr. Mayor, with the rise in cost of everything, 

Question: Mr. Mayor, with the rise in cost in everything, is there any rental assistance for seniors? What is being done to make it more affordable, especially with market rate units?  

Mayor Adams: Yes, so important. I'm glad you said that, market rates. Because oftentimes when we think about housing, we think about low, low income. We forget about the teacher and the accountant, the firefighter, the retiree that's looking for moderate and fixed income units. I stated, we built more, finance more affordable units in the history of one year, in the history of the city. Who I have from HPD, and who can give me some benefits? 

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: You don't have HPD today, sir, but thanks for the question. The mayor said consistently we've really got to make sure that we are building more, right? That we have an affordability problem. We have a small vacancy.  

HPD spends a lot of time doing apartments for seniors. They call it, or we say older adults. They're still senior housing. That's one particular band. We just recently opened up the lottery for the first time. One of the things that we're going to continue to do with PEU and HPD is make sure that we're coming out and letting you know when there’s apartments available. It is really an issue of making sure we have more buildings, right? We have to build our way out of this issue. 

Mayor Adams: What we're really focusing on with PEU, our Public Engagement Unit, who's here from that? Just an amazing crew. We're leaving a lot of resources on the table. SCRIE, DRIE, those who are eligible for other benefits, no matter what they are. What we have done with the team is let's make sure we do a profile. Here's Ms. Jones. Here's the income she's living on. What are the resources she's available for?  

That is why we created what we call MyCity Card. We believe we should be automatically enrolling you for the benefits based on your profile and information. We already have your information as a city. Why aren't we automatically sending you, you are eligible for this? We're leaving too much. We send billions of dollars back to federal, the feds, billions of dollars back to the state because we're not taking advantage of them. We should connect and find out which specific HPD program we have around senior subsidies. Okay. 

Christopher Wagner, Rent Freeze Outreach, Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit: Just to echo what Mayor Adams said, we do have specialists here at this event right now. If you want to find out if you're eligible for SCRIE or DRIE, which are the rent freeze programs, what they do is they keep your rent frozen in. The longer you're in the program, the more you save. As long as you're in your unit. If you're interested in finding out if you're eligible or the steps to enroll, we do have PEU specialists wearing the NYC Mayor's Public Engagement Unit shirts. They can help you. 

Mayor Adams: All of you should see if you're eligible for SCRIE or DRIE, to be qualified because it's important. We also need to build more. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. 1.4 percent. Supply and demand always state if the supply is low, the cost goes up. We have to build more housing. There's no way of getting around it. If we don't build more… We were successful with Assemblywoman and her team helping us get some real building initiatives out of Albany, but we have a real deficit in housing. Our children are coming home from school. Our grandparents maybe want to, cycle into another place. There's just no housing. We have to build more housing.  

Question: Your Honor. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: Fine, thank you.  

Question: Good. What resources and programs does the city have, not only for the functioning elderly, but the elderly who have mental disabilities? Why is the budget being cut for them?  

Mayor Adams: Which one? I'm sorry, which program is that? 

Question: I'm not really sure, but there's a lot of budget cuts. 

Mayor Adams: I want you to go into some of the senior stuff, but here's what we were faced with. Who owns a home here? Owns a home. Okay, good. I'm a homeowner also. Every year we pay our homeowners insurance, right? We budget for the year. Light, gas, if you have children, all of that. Your roof caves in, you go into your insurance company and say, hey, I need you to fix this. If your insurance company, based on your fixed budget, said we're not paying for it, you have to go into what you mapped out for the year.  

We have a fixed budget in the city, fixed. When the federal government said to me, Eric, we're not giving you that $5 billion that you spent on migrants and asylum seekers, I had to sit down and figure out where is it going to come from? 'Cause in June, I got to balance the budget by law. What we did was we told all the agencies, you need to look and find efficiencies in agencies. Just as a homeowner, if you had to pay for that roof coming in, you would find where you're going to do it from. I told my agencies to do that. Good thing I did it in 2022, because little did I know we were going to have this $5 billion deficit. We had a $7 billion hole in our budget.  

What we did, sat down with the speaker, and we said, everyone found savings. We were going to tell them to do it again in April. We said, no, we found enough savings, so you don't have to do it in April. Then we sat down and said, what should we put back? We put back 3-K. We put back cultural institutions, $53 million. We put back libraries — $58 million for cultures — Libraries, $53 million. $640 million of that $7 billion in savings we put back. We were able to balance the budget, pay the cost of the migrants and asylum seekers, and save those very important programs.  

There was so much waste in government. We were saying, listen, if homeowners are balancing their budgets, doing what's right, we got to do the same thing in our agencies. It's a good thing we did that, because if we didn't do that in 2022 when I came into office, we would be having a different narrative right now, where we would have to cut $7 billion in services. That is why the financial experts said we got to raise his bond rating because of the way he managed the system. Was that Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers that came in? Tell her to come in and say hello to her constituents. Isn't this her district? She want to get reelected. She better…. 

Oh, I didn't even see her. I didn't even see you. Come on up here and say hello to your constituents. Y'all are wearing the same colors, Come on, give it up. Oh, this you? Okay, okay. Good. I didn't see you. Good to see you. She's fighting, She was part of Malcolm's team. Good seeing you. Thanks for popping in, Councilwoman.  

Okay. Okay. Next question. Hold on, sister. you can't cut the line. I'm going to come back to you once we finish. Mr. Mayor. Let this Bajan brother speak. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, I'm from St. Albans. We have a problem with a lot of our street signs. They're all rusted. You drive up to a sign and you can't even see what street you're going to. If you don't know where you're going, then you're going to be wondering where. We want to know who do we contact to get them fixed. 

Mayor Adams: Right here, right here. 

Queens Borough Commissioner Nicole Garcia, Department of Transportation: Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. The DOT is responsible for the street name signs. We actually do surveys in various neighborhoods and we look for issues just like that. We know that some need to be repaired, they're rusted, or they get bleached out. Then we have them manufactured and installed. If there's a particular area, I can come to you after this meeting or have my staff come over. We're happy to work with you to get those replaced. 

Mayor Adams: We're going to make sure, get your information. We're going to fast-track because, these Bajan guys, man, they stay on you. Let's get information. Let's do a drive-through and analyze, and let's get that sign done, okay? Who's on this table? I think you're going to ask a question? See, we came right to you. Thank you. 

Question: How are you? Oh, God, I'm blessed. The question I would like to ask, mayor, what about the senior that cannot pay their rent anymore and looking for them to get eviction? 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, explain that to me more. 

Question: What about the senior that cannot pay their rent anymore and just waiting to get evicted from their apartment? 

Mayor Adams: Got it. No one wants that, and HPD has, they have everything from one shot, HRA has everything from One Shots to rental assistance. There's a combination of things that could be done to assist a tenant so they don't get evicted. No one wants someone evicted. Do we have anyone from HPD that's here? 

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: Yes, HPD is not here, sir, but you covered it, which is obviously there are one-shot deals, often there's more going on than just saying pay the rent that's due right now. We also have a tenant eviction program that we run, and we collaborate a lot with HRA. They have legal counsel. There's a universal counsel that is guaranteed by the city that can cover individuals who are at that point with court cases. Then if there is thinking about budgeting, if there's financial support, if there's cash assistance, any of those kinds of things, we can work very closely with HRA, and we have a direct program. All right? If there's a particular senior or set of seniors you're thinking about, feel free to see me after this. 

Mayor Adams: What was mentioned is very important. You find that a person who's behind in their rent is also dealing with some other issues. It may be food issues. It may be just budgeting issues. We like to say we don't want to just put a Band-Aid and give you what you need for your rent. Let's find out what those other issues are so we can support you and make sure you get to the place that you want. Okay?  

Audience Member: May I add something? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, you can, ma'am. 

Audience Member: In addition to going to HRA for assistance, most senior centers have program people in the center that can help you and refer you to HRA or whatever agency that you need. Thank you.  

Mayor Adams: Point well taken. How are you, ma'am? 

Question: Mr. Mayor, staff, welcome to Robert Couche. Welcome today. The question is it possible to have a sign, a camera, or speed bump here on Farmers Boulevard so the seniors can access the stores across the street? The cars are going quickly by. It's a hindrance as far as trying to cross the street. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Who was? 

Queens Borough Commissioner Garcia: We hear you, and we actually worked with the councilmember because she did request a traffic signal right outside to address that issue. We recently studied it, like during the cold, like winter. It didn't meet the criteria, but that's not to say that we can do another study and have that expedited. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. Both the councilwoman and I will walk through, and criterias are different. Admit my criteria. You asked me about it. I follow law, but I set policy. We're going to go over there. We're going to take a look at it. If there's a need, the councilwoman, they told me you raised it also. Sometimes these criterias are just all over the place.  

Perception and reality is important to me. You perceive you're unsafe. What is it going to take us to put up something over there? I need to make you feel unsafe at the same time. Councilwoman, let's go over. Let's take a look at this location. Let me bring the DOT commissioner, and let me take an examination of that. Unless some unforeseen law that says I can't do it, you're going to get that item fixed over there. Okay?  

Question: Good afternoon, everybody.  

Mayor Adams: How are you?  

Question: Doing good. How are you? The question that my table have is how can we implement more programs within the senior centers? 

Mayor Adams: How do we get more services in the senior centers? More?  

Question: Programs.  

Mayor Adams: Programs. Programs. 

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: Good afternoon, everybody. How many of you love this center? How many of you love the activities in the center? I heard that chicken and lamb was served today and that you enjoyed it. We also have plant-based day, by the way, Mr. Mayor. That's another day.  

I appreciate the question. There are well-run centers throughout the city. As some of you know, we have over 300 older adult centers across the city. I heard your question about cuts. The mayor did all the work with the council. We were spared. Right? There were no cuts to the centers. I just want to make sure you have that fact in your head. Right? There weren't cuts to the centers.  

One of the things that the commissioner and I have been talking to everybody about, just as the mayor was saying just now, however, it is about being well-run. It is about making sure you're spending all the dollars. You're not leaving dollars on the table. We look at budgets. We look at rates of participation and how it's showing up. I don't have a question in this room today about who's showing up at this center. But that's not always the case. We want to make sure that if we have leaders fighting for us to keep dollars in these programs, that they're being fully utilized, that the programs are high quality, right, that it isn't just you're going to come in and watch TV. We pay for, you heard it, case assistance and case management in other programs. We want to make sure you have robust programs that you deserve.  

There weren't cuts, and we're always looking at ways to enhance the program. Under this commissioner's leadership, she invested heavily in kitchens. Why? That food you had earlier today, right? We want to make sure that we're self-sustaining. There's ways in which we want to enhance the programs that we have, but we're always looking at whether or not all the dollars are utilized. We will be committing to if they're not utilized, we're going to keep it within the network. It may not just be with that program. We have not cut programs, and we want the best programs for you. That is our commitment. 

Mayor Adams: If you have some ideas of the types of programs you want, share them. You know exactly what you're doing. I know the commissioner, she did an amazing citywide talent event. I didn't realize how much talent is up in these various centers. If you have an idea of the program, share them, and we would like to see about implementing them. 

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: Mr. Mayor, one last thing. We actually have a team of people here. We have a citywide survey that is live right now specifically for older adults. We have our team here with physical copies and citywide, we have it online as well. We're going to make sure that all older adults in the city, not just the ones in this room, right? There are 1.8 older New Yorkers. We want to hear from you. Because, and the commissioner says this. I don't necessarily get to say it this way. This is not the same center from 40 years ago, right? The programs have to continue evolving. We want to hear from you.  

If you haven't talked to our team that has the surveys available, fill them out. We want to hear your feedback. Tell your neighbors who said, I'm not going there. I'm not going to the older adult center. That's not for me. There's things that we can make for them. Please do get your friends, your neighbors, the people in the pharmacy, the grocery store, to let us know, as the mayor said, what else we could be doing.  

Mayor Adams: Thanks for that. Who's on this side? 

Question: Okay. Hello, everybody.  

Mayor Adams: How are you?  

Question: Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Robert Couche. I'm a proud member of Robert Couche. The group wanted to ask this question. Will there be a homeless shelter built in this neighborhood? There was a rumor started that it would be at the Rite Aid on Merrick Boulevard, if not there someplace else. The concern was for seniors, school students, et cetera. We'd like to know if they decide that. Do the residents have any say whatsoever? 

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. There was a proposed site on Linden Boulevard at the Rite Aid over there. I got a call from your amazing congressman. As a matter of fact, we had dinner last night. He called me a couple of months ago. He says, Eric, can we sit down and talk about this location? Will you want to do it? He laid out his case. The speaker shared hers, the City Council. That area would not be open as a shelter. 

Question: There was a confusion with the question. Okay, here you go. 

Mayor Adams: It's all good. It's all part of the process. You look just like my Aunt Irene. Where are your family from? 

Question: Savannah, Georgia. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. I’m from Alabama. We may have some kinfolks, huh? 

Question: Never know. Good afternoon, Mayor.. This is going a little further than was said about the safety over here. We were also saying for the safety reasons, a light is needed at the corner. Because not only is Robert Couche here, you have a pre-K. Every once in a while, those who have grandchildren or they remember their children, a three-year-old could start walking any time they want to.  

Mayor Adams: That's right. That's why we want to look at it. I found that, some of these rules on why we don't put up a stop sign, why we don't put up a light, why we don't put up this and that, I just think they're not practical and they're not on the ground. DOT is operating on an algorithm that has been in place. It's not that they want to be mean about it. They've been operating over that algorithm on you have to have a certain number of cars, a certain number of this, a certain number of that. I just don't believe in that. I believe in what is the community asking for. If you feel unsafe, that's the algorithm I'm concerned about. 

Question: The biggest problem at this corner is we have the Q85 that turns from Bedell onto Farmers. You have the Q3 that comes straight down Farmers. You have that gas station. I said, on this side of the street you have a pre-K on one side and you have us. 

Mayor Adams: I know that area so well. I had a shorty that lived over there as a kid. 

Question: Excuse me! 

Mayor Adams: I know her well. You know what I'm saying? I know her well. She broke my heart. How are you, sir? 

Question: How are you doing? Jamaica, Queens is now polluted with these GVL scooters that are everywhere. They're on our lawns. They're at bus stops. They're at churches. How do we prevent them from polluting our neighborhoods because aesthetically they do not look good? 

Mayor Adams: It's so funny. Three days ago, DM Banks, who's from Queens, Mark is also from Queens. We've got this whole Queens crew up here. DM Banks raised that and I came out and I drove around. The scooters are everywhere.  

We need to figure out. I'm going to sit down with Commissioner Rodriguez over at DOT and find out what can we do to manage this. I'm not sure exactly what we can do. Give me a week to sit down with the commissioner, sit down with his team and find out because they're all over the place. It is just not… I don't even understand the science of just leave it whatever you want and all over the place. Let me look at it and let me circle back to find out what can we do because it just it creates a disorder environment in this community. 

Question: Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: All right. Thank you. Commissioner. That's the commissioner on this. How are you, ma'am? I think they need to give you the mic for the question. 

Question: Hello. He asked the question that I was going to ask, but I just want to reiterate that since they brought those bikes and scooters into the community, that has become such a nuisance because they are stepping off of these things in front of people's driveways, houses, in the street, in front of the schools. Then other children come along and want to try to get it going and jumping around with it and stuff. It's a nuisance. Something really needs to be done about that. 

Mayor Adams: I agree. I don't understand that model of just, park and drop and leave. When I was in China, those bikes were everywhere. We need to get a hold of this. This is a new ride-sharing concept, and we need to dig into it.  

DM Banks brought it to my attention. When I came out and I drove around here the other day, I saw them everywhere. I'm going to sit down with the commissioner, and we're going to figure this out and how we can regulate. We have the city councilwoman that's here, Councilwoman Brooks-Powers, that may need some form of legislation we're going to have to do with these companies. We're on it. It was brought to our attention, and we're on it. Thank you. 

How are you, ma'am? 

Question: Yes, good afternoon. I would like to know what you guys can do about the rats on 116 on Merrick. There's a lot of rats on 116 on Merrick. There's a school over there.  

Mayor Adams: 116 and Merrick. 

Question: Yes. I think it's 44, PC 44. Yes. My daughter cannot sleep at night. 

Mayor Adams: There's a school on 116 on Merrick? 

Question: Yes. Yes, a school over there off Merrick, I think.  

Mayor Adams: No, the ISA is the other way. I don't know what school is on 116 on Merrick.  

Question: Yes. Okay. We cannot open our doors. We cannot open the windows. Because it's very terrible over there. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. I am with you. I hate Mickey and his whole crew. Nothing, let me tell you something. Nothing could disrupt your day more than a rat. You go in the restroom in the morning, you open that seat and a rat pop out. You'll never again go to that toilet. I have been on a mission. Here's my rat czar right here. 

Kathleen Corradi, Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation: Thank you, Mayor Adams. I would say to everyone in the room, if you are seeing rats or conditions that support them, we want you to report that to 311 so we can send out the proper teams to inspect those properties. If it's the city properties, we work very closely with Schools, NYCHA, Parks, Department of Health, to make sure we're being good neighbors and then working with communities to address those issues on private property. We'll sync up. We'll check out what's going on Merrick and 116th. For everyone, if you're seeing issues, share them. Our work is to be in partnership to make this city rat free. 

Mayor Adams: Let us look at that area. This is our rat czar. She brought down rat complaints citywide, brought down complaints in rat mitigation areas. She is committed to fighting rats. One of the biggest things we can do, we have to stop feeding them. Containerization of garbage is going to be a real win for this city. It's going to be one of… Not only the unsightliness of plastic bags, but also the problem with rodents. I hate rats.  

City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers: I want to publicly acknowledge the rat czar. She has been in the [inaudible] position in the place that she [inaudible]. They have seen a decline. I do want to publicly acknowledge her. 

Mayor Adams: She's the Pied Piper of the administration. 

Question: Mr. Mayor. I know that the city provides us with services. On behalf of homeowners, what can be done not to have our taxes raised? 

Mayor Adams: I am a homeowner. They… Listen, they sat down with me when this crisis hit us. They said, Eric, you're going to have to raise taxes. You're going to have to do layoffs. There's no way you can get through it. We looked at other cities. Not only were we dealing with the migrant issue, but we were also dealing with something a lot of people didn't realize. The former mayor had a lot of programs like Pre-K, 3K, Summer Rising, and others. He was paying for it with temporary dollars. Those dollars sunsetted. They were sunsesetting on my time that I had to find out how to pay for it. And we were dealing with union contracts that were not settled. We had to settle all of our union contracts.  

I told the team, unlike other cities that did layoffs, increased taxes, I said we cannot do that to these communities, particularly homeowners. We did not raise any taxes. We did not do any layoffs. We still manage our way and managing our way out of this crisis because I know what it is to get that surprise tax each year as a homeowner. we have to hold on to it.  

Let's be honest, our wealth as Black and brown people is in our homes. We can't lose our homes. That is our wealth. By having my home, I was able to refinance and pay Jordan's college tuition so he graduated without any student loan. Everything is in our home, and we need to protect it as much as possible. We have an unfair tax system where communities like these are paying a disproportionate number in comparison to others, and that's why we have to fix that. That's what we're working with the City Council about fixing. Yes, ma'am. Hold on, hold on. I'll come to you in a minute. Yes, ma'am. 

Question: I have a tree in front of my house, and it's really old, breaking away the sidewalk. It's really bad. It's grown up, and people can't walk the sidewalk. It's 224-10 141st Avenue. If you come around here, I'll appreciate you looking. I have pictures I can show you. I have some pictures. 

Queens Borough Commissioner Garcia: It’s Parks, but I can [inaudible] Parks commissioner, and we can come and visit your home. 

Question: I can show you some pictures right now I have on my phone. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: We're going to get over there and take a look at it. Parks handles that, okay? We're going to come over and take a look at it, okay? Okay, but make sure we get it.  

Question: I'll give them my card.  

Mayor Adams: Okay? All right? All right, let's see. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, I'm right here. This is the last. She just wanted to make a statement. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, ma'am. 

Question: Hello.  

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: I'm fine, thank you. There's so many things that I want to say, but I just want to talk about these here. White bike, green bikes, that's dropped all over the neighborhood. All over the neighborhood, and I think it's a disgrace.  

Mayor Adams: …It's good…. 

Question: Excuse me. I think it's a disgrace that they come, who come, and drop these bikes without notification. Furthermore, I noticed this morning, a few bikes as I was coming here, they're starting to be stripped. People are taking wheels off of it, and they're leaving it… Do these here things got trackers on them so they can come and get this crap out of our neighborhood? 

Mayor Adams: Again, DM Banks brought this to my attention a few days ago. We're on it. We're on it. We're going to look at what we need to do, because it doesn't fit to have these scattered throughout a community. Let us look into it, and there's going to be a response. I need to figure out, is there a law that allows them to do this, and then I have to partner with the City Council, or is it a policy?  

You know my rule. I follow the law, but I make the policy. We're going to get it corrected, okay? They tell me, Councilwoman Brooks-Powers always tells me, Queens gets the money.  

Yes, I just want, listen, when I brought him on board as the commissioner of Community Affairs, he had a real vision for the city. Commissioner Stewart has been doing just amazing, every day he's rolling out teaching children how to fly planes, teaching golf lessons, teaching bilingual studies. Leaning into the seniors, he has really transformed the Community Affairs and utilizing the power. I'm blown away every time he's doing something. He does this baby shower for young girls who can't afford some of their basic needs. He has thousands of young families showing up. He has just really moved and used his experience as a former detective, former district attorney, investigator. Now as the commissioner of Community Affairs, I want him to talk about some of the senior stuff, introduce him to the people that's here as well. Then we'll wrap up.  

Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, Community Affairs, Police Department: Good afternoon. I'll be quick. First of all, happy anniversary to Mayor Adams. Him and I came out the academy together. We were 22 with a vision. Now 40 years later, we still have the same vision. That vision is you. We never came on the Police Department to get rich. We came on to be public servants. We've been doing this for 40 years, as of yesterday.  

Talking about some of the programs that we have, it was dumbfounded to me that the Police Department never had a liaison person in the precinct to handle older adult situations. I'm not even going to say crimes. Situations or conflicts. That's her, Officer Mitchell. Yes. Now, you know what? In our Black and brown communities, we have this a dislike for the Police Department from things that happened back in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s. This is a new Police Department. Your Police Department looks like you now. When I came on in ‘84, I didn't see anybody that looked like me in these positions. Now I'm here. A kid from Laurelton, Queens.  

I noticed that we have to get more involved in our Police Department. We have Inspector Jenkins here, one of the top inspectors, COs in Queens. With that being said, when you have a problem in your neighborhood, we don't have to wait for a town hall to express what the problem is. We have Officer Mitchell, who you can go to now with any problem that you might have. Do not be afraid to walk into the precinct. That's your precinct. We work for you. 113, we're there.  

What we started, that was one of the programs that we started. We also have, we do a self-defense course with our older adults. We do initiatives. We have 13. We sit down. We talk about our scam alerts and what's going on with the roofing, the ATM scams. We did approximately 13 in this precinct. For Queens South, we did over 155. I don't know if anybody attended it, but my crime prevention captain is right there. He's going to get out his card too to make sure. 

Listen, the Police Department is not what the Police Department was years ago. We need the community. The responsibility has to be shared between both of us. Now, we're going to have disagreements at times. We're going to agree to disagree. That's what a relationship is. I've been married to my wife for 35 years. We agree a lot. No, don't clap. No. It's been up and downs. It's been up and downs. See, that's what the relationship is. We have to get that bond back in our relationship between the Police Department and us.  

I always say, we don't just arrest. We invest in our communities. Like the mayor said, we do baby showers all over the city. Over 6,000 people registered. Now, these are new mothers who probably don't have the money. We give them prenatal care, strollers, diapers. we have for our kids, we have an aviation program. Let me start this off. When I first came here, we just did basketball. I got rid of basketball. We're not going to teach our kids just how to play basketball. Some kids don't play basketball. We started a program, we teach them golf. We have a college tour that we do with our kids with SUNY and CUNY and DOE, we take them to college campuses. I found out what was missing. Opportunity and transportation. When these kids go to these colleges, these universities, they get a firsthand knowledge. I could go here. Their eyes open wide. They tour the whole college. That's what we need. We have an option program. We teach our kids about STEM. We teach our kids about financial problems.  

There's so much we could do with our kids. The resources that we're now using on the Police Department. We have our Aviation Unit. Our own resources. We just graduated approximately 40 kids to get into aviation. It's six weeks. It's two hours a day. We have to just give our kids the opportunities that they could do more than just play basketball. We have our Harbor Unit we have our kids involved in, too. Our Harbor Unit is a four-week course. I didn't even know we had a harbor high school. We do. We have kids from harbor high school and other kids in different parts of the city. We bring them together. They'll be working on our second course. They just finished up the course. It's so much we could do with our kids.  

You know what? Don't get down on our kids, either. I know the perception is when you turn on the TV, you see five minutes of shooting and kids running. We have kids with 4.0 GPAs. We have kids who go into college. You'll never see that. I see it. I get the opportunity to be blessed to see our kids doing great things. When somebody says the city is not striving, the city is striving. Just that 2 percent of knuckleheads who want to because chaos in our cities is making us look bad.  

I say this again. Thanks to Mayor Adams for bringing me back on board. I don't know if my wife is happy with him bringing me back because I'm never home. This man had the vision 40 years ago, 35 years ago. He told me he wanted to be mayor of New York City. We looked at him like he was smoking. Now you take us back 22 years ago. He's talking about shorties. Yes, they were shorties. The vision never stopped. The vision is everyone in this room to protect you, to take care of you, and to have your point be crossed. Okay? Thank you, and God bless. 

Mayor Adams:  Thank you. Thank you. We have from the District Attorney's Office, just raise your hand. DA's Office, the fraud unit. Really take up their offer to give you the information. There is so much fraud going on, and we all believe that, hey, I won't be fooled. Trust me. They are sophisticated, and you could lose a substantial amount of money. Again, thank you so much.  

Question: Yes. One issue was spoke of. My name is Sergeant [Major Wilson], a retired veteran. When I drive around the community, I see homeless veterans. Right. The thought came to my mind, what is being done completely, not just half done completely? 

Mayor Adams: Homelessness on the whole is an issue, particularly those who experience some form of mental health issue. We have a vet who runs our Department of Veteran Services. He has really been on this, getting in the street in combination with our street outreach team. Sometimes it's challenging getting folks to come off the street. It's a continuance, building trust, making sure that we can get them in. I have close relationship with the Black Vets Association. Matter of fact, they're getting ready to celebrate, I think, 40-something years in the next day or so, being part of that liaison.  

We need former vets to come and communicate with those vets that don't want to come inside and get the help that they need. It's a real challenge. Some of them are very proud, don't want to access the services. They'd rather stay out on the street. Some are dealing with mental health issues that we need to be there to take them over that hump. We're all in. We have a great brother that's doing it. I'm going to do one last question, then I've got to bounce. What's up, brother? 

Question: My name is [Carl Bartlett]. [Charles Bartlett] over there.  

Mayor Adams: I know who you are, brother. The singing Barclays.  

Question: All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. On behalf of all the New Yorkers in New York City who would love to ride the subways but are physically unable and they use Access-A-Ride. Now, recognize I was told this is a state situation. I know that many people live within New York City and they use Access-A-Ride. The service seems to be going down with the broken service. If there's anyone that knows anyone that uses Access-A-Ride and they're not pleased, make some noise, please. All right. Mayor, what can we do? What can be done?  

Mayor Adams: It's a combination. I think we need to move away from the current model of Access-A-Ride. We need to move to a model of for hail vehicles. I've been communicating with a group of people who have a service that is cheaper, more reliable. It's unbelievable that this model of Access-A-Ride is still in place. You have to sit around. You have to wait. It's unpredictable. There's no reason those blue and white vans that are running around, there's no reason you can't have an app to tell you when that vehicle pulled up to your house. It's the same way everyone else is doing.  

We're looking at that model. We think there's a cheaper way. I want to sit down with the state and make it happen. You should not have to go through several stops just to get to your destination. That's a broken model. We can do it cheaper, faster, more reliable, and with a greater level of dignity in the process. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Good to see you all.