Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation

July 24, 2024

Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit: Good evening, my name is Fred Kreizman, Commissioner of the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. It's wonderful to welcome everyone to the Mayor's Community Conversation here in the Bronx, in Morris Park. I just want to thank our school host, the Bronx High School of Visual Arts, the principal, Dr. Iris Witherspoon. I just want to also thank the great representation from CB11, the 49 Precinct Community Council, alongside our wonderful BIDs, Cure Violence members, and the great community associations. We were mindful to ensure that we respect everyone's time here, so at 6 o'clock we started this meeting with roundtable conversations with members of the Mayor's Office and Community Affairs at every table, where the members of the Mayor's Office took diligent notes to ensure that they bring back the issues that matter the most. 

Now from 7 o'clock until we finish, the dais will take questions from each table, and to ensure we're responsive, we have Q&A cards in front of you. If you don't have an opportunity to ask your question, please fill out those cards. Within two weeks, we'll ensure a response to your question directly from the agency. We're also proud of the accomplishments we've achieved for the City Hall, and we're eager to hear all of your concerns. At this time, I just want to go through the run of show. The wonderful borough president, Vanessa Gibson, is here, who will speak. 

The wonderful Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. We'll hold all the applause to the end, please. We have our City Council Member, Kristy Marmorato. Assemblyman John Zaccaro. We also have Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. I just want to go quickly through the dais, and we'll please hold your applause. We know how wonderful this administration is. We have, of course, the wonderful mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams. The deputy mayor, Anne Williams-Isom, from Health and Human Services. The deputy mayor, Maria Torres-Springer, for Housing and Economic Development. The deputy mayor for Strategic Initiatives, Ana Almanzar. The First Deputy Mayor's Office deputy chief of staff, Meagan Chen. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard, ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser. 

Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs commissioner, Manny Castro. We have Dan Garodnick, chair of the City Planning. We have Dr. Mitchell Katz, from Health and Hospital Corporation. We have deputy commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene, Maura Kennelly. We have Eva Wong, the director of the Mayor's Office of Mental Health. We have DOE Chief of School Support Elaine Lindsey. DFTA chief program officer, deputy commissioner, Ryan Murray. Department of Finance, we have Scott French. We have Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, Robert Fiato. EDC vice president for planning, Jennifer Sun. 

Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, deputy executive director, Paul Onyx. We also have the chief of staff for New York City Emergency Management, Yokarina Duarte. Fire Department, Deputy Chief William McCormick. Again, the elected officials I've mentioned, they'll be speaking right before the mayor. We have DEP Commissioner Rit Aggarwala. We have SBS Acting Commissioner Dynishal Gross. DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. Consumer Worker Protection Commissioner Vilda Vera-Mayuga. The chair and commissioner of Human Rights Commission, Annabel Palma. 

Gender-Based Violence Acting Commissioner Saloni Sethi. Jimmy Oddo, the Buildings commissioner. We also have NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble. We have [the] Rodent Mitigation Director Kathleen Corradi, because we know everyone hates rats. New York City Parks First Deputy Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa. HPD First Deputy Commissioner Ahmed Tigani. Department of Probation Deputy Commissioner Joan Gardner. Sanitation chief of cleaning, Jeff Pitts. We have also the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities Commissioner Christina Curry. We also have in our audience the chief, Ben Gurley, the Chief of Patrol Borough Bronx. We have his XO, Chief Kenya Ramsey. We have Chief Richie Taylor from Community Affairs. Captain Tawee Theanthong, CO of the 49 Precinct. Captain [Eric] Heeren, PSA 8 XO. At this time, we'll give over the mic to our borough president.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: All right. Thank you so much, commissioner. Good evening, Morris Park. Good evening, Bronx. To each and every one of you, welcome to this great community. Welcome to the Mayor's Community Conversation. 

Thank you to the Bronx High School for Visual Arts for hosting us right here in our beautiful East Bronx community. So proud to say that joining with our Councilmember, Kristy Marmorato, we were able to make a commitment of $300,000 to this high school for the visual arts for technology. Really important when you think about the investments that we must make in education because education is the gateway and the pathway to a better tomorrow for all of our young people. It is the greatest equalizer that we could ever invest in. 

So I'm so grateful that we are here in this beautiful space. To all of you, to my colleagues in government, to our mayor, Eric Adams, and to all of the leadership of our great city, thank you for being here in the Bronx once again. We are grateful that you are here and we are excited about tonight's conversation because all of you as stakeholders in this community and this borough care about our community. We care about our neighbors. We care about issues that matter around public safety, education, homeownership opportunities, dealing with climate change, and making sure that we are investing in our children, our families, our older adults, and our veterans. To all of you who are here tonight, thank you for your input. Thank you for sharing your ideas. And most importantly, what I want you to take away from tonight's conversation is a partnership. We are in partnership together because this is a collaboration. We are here to make a difference and to make the lives better for all of the residents and families that live here in Morris Park, whether you live on Pelham Parkway, you live in Allerton, you live in Pelham Gardens, you live in any other part of our beautiful community, Van Nest, and many others who are visiting. 

Tonight is an opportunity to hear from the administration, to answer your questions, and most importantly, to come up with creative and innovative ideas of how we move our borough forward. We have made incredible progress and I'm so proud of that. You all remember that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our unemployment rate was 26.6 percent. I am proud today to say that we are now at 6.6 percent. That is a testament to all of you and all of us. 

So to all of our civic organizations, to the Morris Park Community Association, Pelham Parkway Community Association, Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance, all of our merchants and Business Improvement Districts from White Plains, Pelham Parkway, Morris Park, to Allerton Merchants Association, to our Community Board, shout out to Community Board 11, to the NYPD. Thank you to our Assistant Chief Ben Gurley. Earlier today, the assemblymember, the councilmember, and I were at the annual Harmony Day picnic, Mr. Mayor, and we had hundreds of school children joining us in Bronx Park East for a beautiful day of activities, of recreation for our young people. And guess what? It was organized by Community Affairs at the NYPD. 

So I want to say thank you to Lieutenant Cruz, to Chief Gurley, to our commanding officer, Captain Theanthong, here at the 49 precinct. We are all united to do this work together because when we work together, in the words of Pastor Jay Gooding, we are truly better together. An official welcome. Thank you for being here. Now, it's always my honor, always my privilege. She does not like speaking after me, but she is just as incredible when it comes to public speaking. She is someone we love, we support, and we are so proud to call our very own district attorney, Darcel Clark. Thank you.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark: What else is there left to say? Okay, that's why I choose, why? Why? Look, Amazon has Alexa, we have Vanessa, Okay? She knows everybody and everything, okay? Yes, I am your DA. I had a chance to go around to each and every table. I saw you all hard at work, being ready to ask the questions of the mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for hosting this roundtable. I've been to every single one you've done in this borough. Thank you for not forgetting the Bronx. Because we are always fighting to make sure that we get the resources and our attention. 

Between Vanessa, myself, the councilmember, our assemblymember, our senator, we all make sure we have our voices heard loud and clear. And tonight is your chance to be heard. I'm not going to say anything more because I'm excited about hearing what concerns you. Because I know that I cannot serve you as your District Attorney unless I talk to you. I could sit on 161st Street all day figuring out what I think the Bronx needs. I won't know it until I speak to you, the members of the public and the community. You know what's best for you. It's up to us, every single one of us up here, to help deliver that for you. So I'm excited about hearing from all of you. The protocol having already been established by our borough president, so I don't have to do any more. Thank you. The Bronx DA's office is here for you. My staff is here as well. Excited to hear from you tonight. Thank you. 

Okay, so now I get to introduce my favorite Republican, as she says. Our newly minted councilmember, Kristy Marmorato. Thank you so much for your service and leadership and our partnership. We don't do all of that here in the Bronx. We work together. It doesn't matter blue, purple, red. We are about the Bronx. Kristy, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

City Councilmember Kristy Marmorato: I like to say that I'm everybody's favorite Republican in the Bronx because I'm the only Republican in the Bronx. District 13, this is an exciting night for us. We finally have the opportunity to come face to face with Mayor Adams and his team. We really do appreciate it. We thank you, your staff, for this time. Because I know you're very busy. Be vocal, be respectful. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to talk about, what you're looking to ask. I'm going to be listening and taking some notes, okay? Thank you. And I get to introduce my assemblymember, John Zaccaro.

State Assemblymember John Zaccaro: All right. I too often find myself left for words when we have to speak after the borough president. But I'll take the opportunity to welcome Mayor Adams to our community. Can we give him a strong round of applause? I'll tell you why. Since living in this community, Mr. Mayor, my oldest son will be nine years old next month. From the day he was born when we lived in this community, I can say that not once have I seen a mayor come to this community and bring his agency heads to address us. 

So we want to give you your flowers. Because it's one thing for us to be critical of the mayor and critical of the work that the agencies do. For all intents and purposes, we know that there are ways that we can always do better and be better. One of those ways is an example of what we're doing here tonight, the mayor coming to have a conversation with the folks in this community. We have come a long way. Mr. Mayor, when you talk about the mosaic of what New York City is, the mosaic is here in the 80th Assembly District. 

Because when you take a look around this room, the diversity that is this community. We may differ on issues, but the one thing we're never afraid of is to have a conversation, is to ensure that our voices are heard. I am proud to represent this strong community who has done that so much time and time again. An example of that is in what we were able to do working with city and state elected officials this past budget and the state budget. Where I was proud to be the author and I was proud to be the sponsor of a bill that went into the budget to tackle cannabis enforcement. Which is an issue between the city and the state that we worked so hard to ensure and to get that done. Where businesses in our community who are peddling illicit cannabis will now face the revocation of their state licenses because of the bill that we got through the budget. That's in part due to the work and the communication between our community and your office. And the sheriff's office who has worked with us over the last year and a half to ensure that we're closing down these businesses, and sending a message that we will not tolerate that type of activity in our community. 

We will continue to fight for the quality of life that we deserve. I just want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, because it is important that while we can be critical, it is important to remind folks of the work that we are doing when we work together in partnership as the borough president stated, to ensure that our community's voices are being heard and that government is responding to the needs of the people here in our community. So thank you so much. God bless you all and I look forward to tonight's discussion. 

And I have the pleasure of introducing a colleague of mine who I work hand in hand in the New York State Assembly. Many of you probably know this individual already because she is everywhere. And everywhere she is with her red dress. A colleague of mine who I've worked in tandem with and I'm sure she'll talk about this. Someone who worked very hard and aggressively to ensure that we're shutting down the illegal smoke shops in our community. It gives me great pleasure to introduce my colleague, Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar.

State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar: Good evening. I'm State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar. I'm so proud to return to the Bronx tonight where I was formerly a professor at CUNY's Lehman College. Sculpting the young minds of the Bronx. I can tell you I have never seen as much raw potential and talent as I saw with my students at Lehman. I can honestly say that my students at Lehman could debate the issues of the day better than the members of the United States Congress. So allow me to reintroduce myself. I'm State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar. We made history when I became the first Indian American woman ever elected to a New York State office. 

In our state capitol I have been so proud to deliver wins for quality of life for you. On the first day of this legislative session, I authored and introduced the SMOKEOUT Act to close down all the illegal smoke shops that have been proliferating around our city and state. I said we're going to smoke them out and we're going to shut them down. 

These illegal smoke shops, as we all know, have been hotbeds of crime. Popping up near schools. Selling dangerous, unregulated cannabis. We got it done. SMOKEOUT Act passed in the state budget. Now Mayor Adams and his team have been busy day and night closing down illegal cannabis shops all around our city. Thank you, Mayor Adams. I think it's now over 600 have been closed. So many have been closed they don't even have room to store all of the illegal cannabis that they have gotten. And I'm not stopping there. 

My next focus is e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been, last year, a record number of e-bike collisions and lithium ion battery fires. It has to end. This industry has boomed, but government regulation has simply not kept up with the booming e-bike industry. We have to change that. That's why I introduced a package of bills that aims to regulate this industry by creating state license plates, registration, insurance, and inspection for all e-vehicles. This way, we can make our roads and sidewalks safer for all. My passion is government efficiency. It's making our government work better and faster. It's making sure your hard-earned taxpayer dollars are used on government programs that effectively serve you. There's no better partner in this endeavor than our great mayor, Eric Adams. His famous saying is, stay focused, no distractions, and grind. That is what he does day and night for the people of this city. I am so proud to work with him, and I am so looking forward to hearing from you tonight. Thank you so much.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank all of you for coming out. We are going to have a real healthy conversation. Just go back. January 1st, 2022. What did we inherit when I became the mayor of this city, a city that I love? I spent 22 years of my life wearing a bulletproof vest, standing on the street corners of this city, protecting children and families. This city, in many cases, has betrayed everyday New Yorkers. 

I inherited a city where there was a 40 percent increase in crime. COVID was everywhere. Our children were not being educated at the capacity that we knew they should have. We were not screening our babies for dyslexia. We were seeing 30 to 40 percent of them going to Rikers Island because of undiagnosed dyslexia. No business wanted to open in the city. We were hemorrhaging companies and businesses. Small businesses were hurting. They were being fined and harmed and treated in a disrespectful manner. Bond raiders, those who are independent financial experts, determined that this is not the place to invest in. No one wanted to be on our subway system. Tourism was decimated. You could walk up and down Times Square and no one was there. NYCHA residents did not have high speed broadband for their children to do tele-schooling and parents do telemedicine. We were not invested in foster care children like we should have. Rats were everywhere. Yes, they still are, but trust me, they hate Eric Adams, that's for sure. 

Two years later, two years later, two years, folks. We have more jobs in New York City in the history of the city. More small businesses have opened in the history of the city. Black unemployment and Hispanic unemployment took a 30 percent drop. It was four times the rates of whites when I took office is now less than 8 percent from the first time since 2019. Four point one people ride our subway system a day. We have an average of five felonies a day out of those four point one people. Robberies are the lowest it has been in the history on a subway system. This decrease in shootings, decrease in homicides, 17,000 illegal guns off our street. 40,000 mopeds taken off our streets and destroyed so they don't come back. Our children are outpacing the state and reading and math. Bond ratings raised our bond. Dyslexia screening for every child in the Department of Education. We are now paying for foster care children to get a college tuition, giving them a stipend and life coaches until they're 21 years old so they could get the support that they deserve. 

Tourism is back. 62 million tourists visited our city spending money in our city. High speed broadband for every NYCHA resident in the city so that they can have the same access to technology that we believe we all should have. Hundred thousand summer youth jobs. First time in the history. Summer Rising. One hundred and ten thousand. First time in the city history under this administration. When you start looking at where we were and where we are, cycle through COVID and then what happened? Two hundred and seven thousand migrants and asylum seekers dropped in our city. 

I can't stop the buses from coming in. It's against federal law. I'm required to give them three meals a day, educate up to 40,000 children. Make sure they have a place to sleep. Not allowed to give them a job. Pick up the tab. Cost us five billion dollars that we had to find in our budget. Five billion dollars that we had to find in our budget. When I met with a group of the migrants and asylum seekers and said, I need for you to be part of my clean team to remove graffiti and clean the streets and we'll give you a stipend. You know what happened? Federal government said that's against the law. You can't even do that. As I move through the streets and people say, mayor, what are you doing to us? People may not know their other electeds, but what? They know their mayor. They know their mayor. I was not elected to define the problem. I was elected to solve the problem. That's what Bill Clinton told me. 

Every day we're solving the problem, folks. New York City is not coming back. New York City is back. If we allow the worst things that can happen in a city of 8.3 million people to define us, we're going to believe that our city has not recovered. We should be proud of what we have done in this city with all that we've gone through. This city is thriving and other cities across the entire country are looking at us and saying this is the resiliency of New York City. You don't see the encampments on our streets like in other cities. Go Google other cities. You don't see people sleeping on a long highway, sleeping in our subway system. We are addressing this problem because of them. These folks who are sitting up here. We're containerizing our garbage in two and a half years. They told me it was going to take five years. I said no, we're not. We're giving results every day in this administration. And it's tough issues. Trust me. 

When I wake up in the morning and drop to my knees and pray and meditate and think about what I have to go through, it's tough issues. I tell the first deputy mayor all the time, this is going to be a retrospective appreciation of this administration and what we were able to accomplish. Because we're all going through it. All going through it. Every community in this city said, Eric, don't put a migrant center in my city. Then I ask the question, then where? We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. 1.4 percent vacancy rate. If we don't build more housing, then your children and grandparents that want to stay in this city won't be able to stay in this city. We have 59 community boards, folks. Out of the 59 community boards, 10 community boards build more affordable housing than the other 49 combined. That's not right. That's unfair. That is not what New York is. 

When someone attempted to take the life of former President Donald Trump, I stood next to a group of individuals, and one of them I remember clearly what he said that I believe was profound. That's the minority leader. Yes, he's a Republican, but he stood next to us. He said it's all right to be angry. It's not all right to hate. Anger motivates. Anger motivated me when I was undiagnosed dyslexia. Anger motivated me when my mother was given food that fed her health care crisis instead of benefit. Anger motivated me when my sister lost her childhood when she was raising the five of us because mommy was doing three jobs. Anger motivated me when I saw how many people were betrayed in this city, and I turned that anger into a purpose. But I'm not going to hate. 

Kristy, I think you were so right. We have to learn how to dialogue again. We don't wait until we finish the end of the sentence just to tell people they're wrong. We have to learn how to communicate again. Because I saw hate on Columbia campus with that anti-American feeling. I saw hate when I'm seeing that's played out across this globe. New York must be the place where we displace hate, allow anger to motivate us to be the city we want it to be. That is where I am, and that is what I want to do as the mayor. I want to open the floor, but I want to start with the number one issue that's impacting this community. Dr. Katz, can we go into this Jacobi Hospital? Let's define that, what it is, and then let's talk about it openly on exactly what it is and what's the purpose. Because I heard a lot of different definitions of it. I want to be clear on what it is.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals: Yes, sir, Mitch Katz, the President and CEO of Health and Hospitals. The mayor is referring to the Just Home Project. I think it's worth taking a little bit of history since it's such a complicated project. When I came six and a half years ago, one of the commitments that I and my board made is that we would use land of health and hospitals to build housing. 

Because the city was in a housing shortage, and I know that's something very important to you. One of the things that Health and Hospital had was land. We did a great project. You remember you were at Queens Hospital where we opened up in a nurse residency. You were at Communal Life when we opened up a supportive housing in Brooklyn at one of our other hospitals. We are attempting to use our land. City Council said a major priority was that they wanted a supportive housing facility for people who were leaving Rikers, especially people who are older and had medical problems. 

The need is most acute for people who cannot go to a shelter. What happens to most people when they leave Rikers, they have no home, they go into one of the city shelters. What if you also have cancer or congestive heart failure, diabetes, you need to be near a bathroom, you need refrigeration for your insulin, you have frequent medical appointments. Those people don't do well in the shelter, and in the shelter you have to be able to do all your activities of daily living. 

City Council gave us a million dollars to develop a project specifically at the Jacobi campus in order to be able to care for these people. The land that we have is the land we have. It's not as if I could look where else could this go. I looked here because it was already on Jacobi, and we felt that this was a great synergy because these people are going to need medical care. Here they are on a campus where we can deliver medical care. This is a project very similar to the project that is in Harlem. This is not the first time New York City has had a supportive housing project for people with justice involvement who have come out of Rikers. 

We certainly believe that this is the best way to keep people from recommitting crimes, give them a stable place to live, have them have a case manager, have them have something to lose if something bad happens, make sure that they're getting treatment. For both mental illness if they have it or physical illness if they have it or addiction if they have it, all of the people will be known to us. They'll all be people that we've taken care of at Rikers. We will only put people there that we know will succeed. I know I would get a call from you the next day if we put somebody, or maybe even during the night, if I put somebody there who doesn't belong there. I understand the fears. I understand the concerns. Again, this is not the first program. The first one was in Manhattan, not in the Bronx. I think that if this project goes forward, if the City Council supports it, people will find that it will be a good neighbor and that the people there are like all New Yorkers, which is that many of us have or know people who have justice-involved lives.

Mayor Adams: What's the total population? How many rooms, beds, houses?

Dr. Katz: I didn't bring the numbers.

Commissioner Kreizman: Do you have it? 58 supportive units, 25 affordable units. 58 supportive units, 25 affordable units to 60 percent AMI.

Dr. Katz: The 25 supportive units, the ones that are affordable, I think are a particularly nice model just to mention to people. We found that one way to make sure these programs are a success is to have eyes on it. Right. You put the idea of supportive housing is for people who need help with living. Right. They have issues. They need case managers. We found in these projects if we also have affordable for people who don't need help, you have a group of people who are watching and making sure that the housing is succeeding.

Mayor Adams: So it's not 100 percent of those who are reentering. 

Dr. Katz: That is correct. 

Mayor Adams: Part of it is for affordable housing. 

Dr. Katz: Correct. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. Think about this for a moment. The hardest placement we have in the city is for single adult males. No one raised their hands and say, hey, Eric, bring them here. No one. We're required to house them. What we have done traditionally in previous administrations, we've oversaturated communities. Oversaturated them. It's just unfair. When you have a program like this where 25 of the units is affordable, 50-some of them are returning medically with medical issues, that's a balance. Why don't we open that up on this topic. Let's talk about this topic. Then we'll go to the tables. I want to talk about this topic because I know it's dear to this community. Go ahead, man. Give her a microphone, please.

Question: Hi. Thank you for listening. I just want to point out, Mitchell, I believe? We had a meeting at HHC, and this was you the whole time we were speaking. You weren't paying attention to anything that we said. 

All our elected officials have came out against this project, Kristy, John, and Vanessa Gibson. My house is on Seminole Avenue. My backyard is Jacobi. I have elderly parents and a 23-year-old daughter. They're going to be in my backyard. People not in my backyard, they will be in my backyard. I have little notes here. We were told that they were going to be pretrial detainees. It's not just people coming out of Rikers. It's pretrial detainees. HHC used to be very good neighbors. They had a pool in their facility. I lived in this community all my life. They had a universal pre-K. They had tennis courts. They used to have fairs for the neighborhood kids and families to come to. 

They don't have any of that anymore. Now we have to like, I get in touch a lot with John Doyle. John, this noise, I can't sleep at night. John, it's 6 o'clock in the morning. Why are they leaf blowing? This is really personal to me. I'm not going to feel safe. It was a switch and bait. This was leaked to us online. No one came to the community. Someone posted it on the community board page that this was going to happen. No one from HHC notified the community. 

Then we had our first meeting, and we were called these horrible names because we were very angry because it was all hidden from us. We have calmed down, and we've been speaking. I think a senior citizen housing, I'm not saying it can't be housing. It's veterans housing. We have no senior citizen housing in Morris Park. I just, if this happens, I'm going to have to say me and my family will have to move out of the Bronx.

Mayor Adams: You don't have to move them out. We'll get you also, sir. Okay, so think about, I'm going to do, because there's other topics that people want to cover, so I'm going to get five of you to speak on this topic that want to speak on this topic. 

But think about this for a moment. This is what we hear everywhere. When we try to place a single adult males, everyone says bring us children, bring us women, bring us veterans. We're going to need that and more. We've got a real veteran homeless crisis. We have a real senior homeless crisis. We have a real children and family, I'm going to come to you man, real children and family homeless crisis. We have to be honest about this. 

Trust me, these men would be in a house someplace, or they'd be sleeping on your corner someplace. We have a choice on what we're going to do here, folks. They're not going to disappear. Hold on, ma'am, I heard you. They're not going to disappear, folks. They're not going to disappear. That large Rockefeller drug law policy that we incarcerated a large number of people, they're starting to come home now. Either they're going to be sleeping on your trains, sleeping in your backyards, sleeping on your street corners. They're not going anywhere. 

So either you put them in a setting where they can get the wraparound services they need so they don't become reoffenders. Everyone tells us we will take anything but single adult males. There's a big protest taking place right now in Sunset Park. Over the sense of the law. 

Question: You stood up a couple of months ago and said crimes committed by the same people over and over again. Yes. Yes. I work for the city, you work for the city. Yes. You saw what was going on. You're putting right-side inmates that haven't been prosecuted yet, haven't been tried yet. Recidivism is 62 percent. 

You put 100 inmates there, 62 percent are going to commit the crimes again. I'm 50 feet away from that building. My mother's 100 yards away. My son bought a house 25 yards away. We don't want criminals walking around in our neighborhood.

Mayor Adams: None of us do.

Question: We will take single male. We will take single male. We don't want Rikers Island inmates. The reason they're in Rikers Island is because, if you remember, it's an island. That's where they belong. We're Christians here, Mr. Mayor. We're all Christians. We like to help people. The reason they need an island is to keep them in an area where they can be confined. They're also getting medical care in Rikers Island.They're getting all this care. [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams:  Brother, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. First of all, if you're saying that you're Christian, if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John was around right now, they'd be with those inmates. Let's not. 

Listen to what he just said. Listen to what he just said. Because we've got to really break this down. He just stated, keep them on Rikers Island, right? By law, I have to close Rikers Island. By law. By law. Not the law I passed, because I think the way we should be doing it, 54 percent of them have mental health illness. 

We should be building a state-of-the-art mental health facility. By law, the previous administration said, Eric, the next mayor that comes in, you, by law, must close Rikers Island. I think there are other things that we can do. I think there's other ways we can handle it. As the mayor of the City of New York, I am told, by law, you will close Rikers and you will never use it for a jail again. By law. I think it's a bad decision. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: That's a great question. That's a great question. Let me get over here. Sir. Are we clear on that? By law, I got to close Rikers? 

Question: Your city council members can. Right. City Council members can. Not the mayor. When things go right, everybody runs for me. When things go wrong, go get that damn mayor. Let's understand what laws handcuff me. Because you're right, sir. You're right. I don't want people that's going to be reoffenders in our community. That's why I take the positions that I do on public safety. That's why. Understand what restricts me. I'm not going to break the law to enforce the law. Go ahead, ma'am.

Question: The only thing I have to ask for is why is this not be considering at Bronx State?

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Why is this project not be considering at Bronx State? Bronx State already has wraparound services and are already serving the community for people who are reoffenders, as well as methadone and everything else. There is no reason why it cannot go to Bronx State. 

Second off is that HHC has not answered any FOIL requests. I could give you a list of five outstanding FOIL requests that we have asked from them. They have done nothing but stop us from answering their questions. What is behind that door and why won't they answer it? Why not Bronx State? 

Mayor Adams: Okay, two things. Number one, we're going to answer every one of your questions. Everyone. You're going to give them to me, and I'm going to make sure you get an answer to every one of your questions. Because I know I'm doing what's right, so I don't hide behind not answering questions. 

We're going to answer your question. You give me your questions, and I'm going to make sure you get the answer. Second, why not Bronx State? We're going to have to use that also. Am I getting clear to y'all? 1.4 percent vacancy rate. We're going to have to use every available piece of land we have. 

Now, other folks will come here in this room and they'll lie to you and BS you and hope they can just get past the next election. I'm not going to do that. We're going to have to use Bronx State. We're going to have to use South State, Jersey State. We're going to have to use whatever we can have, folks. We've got a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. We're going to use Bronx State also. Now, I'm going to get to the next gentleman. Go ahead, sir, and then I'm going to get over here to this table.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. How are you, sir? Thank you for being here. The man soldier says hello. The Just Homes Project. Yes. You were told, or I'm sure you were told, it was going to be for critically ill patients. Then we find out pedophiles were included. We found out that there were people that were on bail, and the only people on bail right now, I believe, are felons. Everyone else is released. 

So if you're putting felons in our community with a recidivism rate of 62 percent, they're giving them one-year leases to an apartment, so they're not terminally ill. They might have some kind of an illness or something like that has to be taken care of. They're being put in our community where the recidivism rate is that high. It just doesn't make sense. They asked the community for input. The community came out 99 percent against this project. 

Every one of our elected officials, from the borough president to our council people, Marjorie Velázquez, Natalia, every one of them came out against it. We have almost 5,000 petitions from the people. You sold a bill of goods. They didn't tell you the entire truth. I think before a decision is made, you want to get down to the bottom of it. They sold you a bill of goods, and that's not the right thing to do. I'm sure you'll do the right thing and find out.

Mayor Adams: Let's be clear on this, and I can't emphasize this more. All the elected officials are against this project. There is no housing single adult males that elected officials are going to support. No matter where we go and we say we have to house single adult males, everybody navigate with the council and do something with that bill that requires me to close it. Every community, when it comes down to single adult males, they say not here. 

If the position is going to be that single adult males can't go anywhere in the city, then the next person that raised their hand, I want them to tell me where they need to go. Where they need to go. Let's go to this. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let this gentleman in the back with the beard. Is your wife or the person sitting next to you? Somebody raised their hand. Okay. I want to go to that table. I'm sorry. Go ahead, ma'am.

Question: Thank you for being here. The Rikers Island closing is very sad that it's a money deal because it's going to go to green. There's no enforcement of the people that are going to be living there. There's no enforcement of services, so they can just do whatever they want. If they don't want to go to the doctor, they don't have to. I have one question. If I'm selling my house and this is on this property, is anybody that's voting for this project willing to buy my house?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I would if I could afford it. On this mayor's salary, I don't give him so much. Listen, folks. I'm feeling you. I'm feeling you. On the corner of my house on Lafayette Avenue, I have a ready, willing, and able. Everybody was saying they didn't want them there. They got there. They started cleaning up. They started doing their job. They started getting their pathway. Now people feel differently about it. 

Listen, I know the fear that you're thinking about. We got to move on because we got other topics. Once we finish, if some of you want to speak with me about this, we can take a table and have a conversation. I gave more than I've ever given to a topic because I know how important this is to you. I cannot get clearer. I'll be the bad guy to get us through what we got to get through. I'll be the bad guy. Throw the darts at me. Call me names. I'll be the bad guy. In South Beach, in Sunset Park, they got pictures of me that they all stepping on and beating and kicking up. 

I'll be the bad guy. I got to get us through this, folks. I got to get us through 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers here. Some of them are gang members. I got to get us through housing people. For the love of this city, I'm going to be the bad guy. Others will take credit for it, but I'm willing to be the bad guy to do what's right for the city of New York. We got to house people. If you don't house them, they're going to live in your streets and they're going to commit more crimes because they are not housed. If you are hungry, homeless, and lonely, you are not going to sit somewhere and act like you aren't. You're going to do nasty, mean, bad things. I will be the bad guy to do what's right for this city. That's what I'm going to do. Let's go to the first table.

Question: Good evening. Good evening, Mr. McMahon.

Mayor Adams: How are you, ma'am?

Question: I'm okay. Good. I want to apologize for my energy because I love my neighborhood. I love my city and I always thought that I would be a lifelong New Yorker. Unfortunately, that's not going to be the case for me and many people who are here because I'm here to point out the quality of life issues in my neighborhood. That's Pelham Parkway. I don't know what happened after COVID, but there has been an injection of people. Along our commercial area, Lydig Avenue specifically, and I'm calling that out on purpose, there is an open-air drug market. I walk my dog. I leave my apartment two times a day to walk my dog. I walk my dog to the park and back and the things I see, I'm not a cop, I see drugs being sold. 

I see people laying out on the street taking drugs. It's not right. There are schools within our vicinity. When I tell you I love my neighborhood, I'm very active in my neighborhood. Not only that, along the commercial strip, there are no enforcements for the motor vehicles on the sidewalk. I know that you say that pedestrians cross the street wrong. I saw that in a video, but I'm here to tell you I walk on the sidewalk and what I see whizzing by me and almost hitting me and my 10-pound shih tzu is egregious. They're motorized vehicles. They're scooters. They're motorcycles on the sidewalk. 

What are we supposed to do with that? We cannot walk. I can't leave my house without looking both ways on the sidewalk. It's egregious. I'm born and raised here in New York. The last point I'm going to make is enforcement for cleanup. The side-to-side parking. Cars don't move anymore. They just stay parked. Where's the enforcement for that? We are on a dirty strip. All of the avenues are filthy because nobody cares to move their car. What's happening? That's all behavioral, and I'm going to stop here, but I would love to invite you and your heads of many different departments, that would be Sanitation, NYPD, DOT, to take a walk around my neighborhood because I live here. 30 years, and I've never seen my neighborhood in such poor condition.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Okay, first let's go back to the comment that you made about my statements about people crossing the street in the middle. Traffic safety is the participation of motorists and pedestrians. Motorists and pedestrians, even the sidewalks. We have a significant number of people who cross in the middle of the street and are struck. If we ignore that aspect of it, we're ticketing folks that are driving fast. We are confiscating vehicles. We're doing all of that. If we ignore the educational process of people using crosswalks, they're there for a reason, reeducating our children on how to walk with the light. We have to get back to educating the basic rules of the road. Now, you can disagree. That's okay. Sister, I don't want to go back and forth. I heard you, and now I need for you to hear me. You don't have to agree with me, but I know the numbers. When the DOT tells me how many people are struck from walking in between the cars, that contributes to some of our problems. 

So, dealing with scooter enforcement, which is crucial. That's one of the top things we hear in all of our meetings. We took 40,000 illegal scooters off our streets. You just heard the assemblywoman talk about the progressive rules that we're going to do to start making sure they're registered, properly identified. We are moving towards real scooter enforcement. Because what happened was, post 9-11, people started getting deliveries. People started using scooters more. You saw overproliferation of the use of our streets. All sorts of things. We know that, and the police department and DOT, we're cracking down on that. 

Now, I want to take you up on your offer this week to go walk Pelham Bay Parkway. I'm sorry? 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: That's why we're doing enforcement. That's why we're doing enforcement on that area. Again, let's walk together. Let's see the problem that you're talking about. DJ will connect you. Me and your dog, we'll walk the streets together, because I love dogs. Trust me. Check this out, folks. Check this out, folks. I'm hearing people from time to time tell me they're going to leave New York. New York is the number one destination for young people to come here to the city. This is the greatest city on the globe. This is the greatest city on the globe. I said it in the beginning. There's only two types of Americans, those who live in New York and those who wish they could. 

This is the greatest city on the globe, period. If you leave, you are coming back, because you're going to get bored when you're in some weed-growing farm in the valley somewhere. This is the greatest city on the globe. We may have some minor problems. We got 8.3 million people. Some people are pigs. They drop stuff on the floor. Some people are lazy. They don't move their cars like they're supposed to be. Some people are disrespectful. Yes, that is what it's like being in a city of 8.3 million people. When I speak to my colleagues across the globe, they all say, I wish I could live in New York City. This is the best city. I'm not going nowhere. No garbage. No dog poop. No scooters. Nobody's running me out of New York, because New York is my home. I love New York.

Question: Good evening, everyone. On behalf of a staff member from the Bronx High School of Visual Arts, this means a lot. Thank you for being here. The question I'm going to ask has pretty much been asked already, so not to belabor it too much. 

As quality of life is a big concern in this community, city parks are being overrun with e-bikes and scooters and contributing to crimes and thefts. We know NYPD is active in enforcement. What is being done in terms of regulation at the point of sales of e-bikes and scooters?

Mayor Adams: Great question. Who wants to add? That's one of our problems, you're dead on. You should not be able to drive a bike out of the place of sale if you don't have insurance and registration. That's some of the stuff that Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar is working on. We think the point of origin, by the time they get off the lot and they're driving around like a bunch of nuts and they become one of the primary sources of the robberies that we're seeing because of the problems that we're witnessing. 

We want to go after the point of sale. You're dead on. If we do that, you're going to see a large number of people that are not on the road committing this havoc. We hear this at every town hall. People are dealing with these scooters and these illegal three wheelers. I said, we took 40,000 off the road and we crushed them, 40,000. We went after the ghost vehicles and we destroyed them as well because we know it's a problem. The Police Department is really being proactive as going at them. Thank you for your question. Mr. Mayor. Yes, go ahead.

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: As everyone knows, New York City has changed on how people move around. Last year we had 200 million bike trips in New York City compared to 90 million that we have in 2009. We know that 80 percent of New Yorkers, they place an order once a week through Amazon, UPS, FedEx. 24 percent of the people, they're ordering four times a week. 

The mayor said very clearly in the state of the city that everyone has to play by the rules. We recognize that e-bikes, scooters are part of our New York City today. He also announced in the State of the City that New York City will have an Office of Sustainability. Right now City Hall, City Council agreed that division will be on DOT. As we are speaking today right now, the mayor has given the direction that we're working with the City Council to pass legislation in the next couple of months that will regulate those companies, the Uber, and those three orders that we use, those e-bikes that we see in the street, they're responding when we place the order to get the food to our apartments. 

What we are doing to be sure that the office that will be in our agency, it will regulate those corporations to be sure that they also make those workers accountable. So we want to support the 60,000 Deliveritas that we have in our city. But we want to be sure that when people, the campaign is not anymore drivers look for pedestrians and cyclists. The campaign is also cyclists look for pedestrians, especially senior citizens. We're working to regulate the industry too.

Mayor Adams: This is a new change and we got to regulate. We have to adopt this post 9/11 situation. You're supposed to get a number, not Mac. Come back to you, man. I want to get everybody else.

Assemblymember Zaccaro: If I could, on this very issue, because this is an issue, as you can see, Mr. Mayor, that many folks are passionate about. I want folks to take down some information. Feel free to go to the New York State Assembly website and type in bill number 88079, which is a bill that I've sponsored in the New York State Assembly that will require a safety manual, an education course and licensing requirements for the operation of an electric scooter. This bill will also require liability insurance to operate electric scooters in cities with a population of one million or greater. 

This is a bill, Mr. Mayor, that we discussed as a community. You have organizations represented in every single part of this community. This is an issue that we face. I just wanted to let you know while letting this community and my constituents know that this is an issue that we're working on the state level so that we can provide the relief that's so desperately needed right here in our city.

Mayor Adams: That's good. That's why the partnership with the state and the city is so important. When we approached Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar about the smoke shops, they immediately kicked into gear. We closed 700 smoke shops throughout this city, just closed two distribution sites, $10 million in a social club and another $5 million plus that was in a local bodega because the community worked with us. 

It was the state that gave us the authorization to go in and use the Police Department to close down these shops. That's the partnership that we need. We heard you. We went after those smoke shops and we hear you on the scooters and we're going after the scooters.

Councilmember Marmorato: Mr. Mayor, can I add something really quickly? I didn't know that I would have an opportunity to speak, but if I didn't open my mouth, I would not be doing my job. You talk about shelters, single-man shelters. In a mile and a half, Just Homes is going to be the fifth single-man shelter that we're going to get within one year. You talk about doing our fair share. This is a little bit more than our fair share. We're not pushing back on the other housing projects. This is the only one. I have over 3,000 signatures from my constituents that we went out and got signatures because they are absolutely against this project. As far as housing, put them in the Bronx State. We are building 7,500 apartments for you with this Metro North rezoning. We are doing more than our fair share of building. 

All I'm asking to you, reconsider the project because unfortunately, when it was first introduced, it was critically ill patients who are on life support and need more hospice care. As a medical professional, you were in a hospice care situation. You were in a Calvary hospital. The individuals that are coming to this housing development will be pretrial detainees, who are ill. They are going to be free to roam with no additional security. The community does have concerns. We were never a part of the equation. We were never a part of this project. We were never asked about it until after it was leaked to us. This is a big problem. You have to understand, we have five shelters coming within a mile and a half. This shelter alone is going to be right smack in the middle of the Metro North rezoning where we're building you those apartments.

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that. Hold on. Who do I have for me? Hold on, ma'am. Somebody tell me about the shelters that are coming. Describe them. Are they single adults? What are they? 

Scott French, Administrator, Human Resources Administration: Hi, Mr. Mayor. Scott French. 

Mayor Adams: Introduce yourself so they can know who to dislike.

French: Hi, everybody. I'm Scott French. I'm the administrator for the Human Resources Administration. I'm here speaking on behalf of HRA and my colleagues at DHS. For DHS, what I know is there are two shelters that are coming to the community. They are both single adult male shelters that will have about 200... space for 200 individuals. Those are the two that I know of. I'm not sure the five.

Councilmember Marmorato: We have two more state run facilities that will be transitional, but they will be drug transitional, dormitory style properties. There's one on Jarrett Place and we have another one on Stillwell Avenue, which is also right in the middle of where you want to rezone and build all these apartments.

Mayor Adams: See, when you say. You said five more. You gave the impression they were city. State. You need to go beat up on state.

Councilmember Marmorato: Stillwell is the city. Stillwell is the city.

Mayor Adams: Let's look at it. Let's do an analysis of those five. Let's do analysis. I'm going to reach out to you, do analysis of those five. When you look at a place like Salamanca's district, what does Salamanca have up there? I think he's 13, 14. Right. We got Long Island City. Long Island City is pushing like how many? Long Island City has 23. The beauty is the way we could have done this. If we put them in sort of the IBZ zones and not in..

Councilmember Marmorato: It's going to be rezoned to residential. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. See, here's the problem that I just learned today. Not even know this. The requirement that you have to put them in residential areas. We need to look at that because there may be a better way not to have to put them in residential areas. I would love to. We got the Susan, the councilwoman in Queens. 

She says, here's five other areas you could put your shelter in. When we try to put it there, they said, you can't, Eric. It's not zoned to do that. We're operating with antiquated laws that is hurting us from carrying out what it is. We need to partnership to make sure that we can place them in other areas. 

Councilmember Marmorato: We have the locations. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, so we should we should sit down and talk. Go ahead, ma'am. Yes. Yes. Hi. Thank you. You got a tattoo and everything.

Question: Quite a few. We have a rat situation here with Miss Sharon. How can we hold landlords? I hate rats. How can we hold landlords accountable for keeping rats out of properties?

Mayor Adams: Tell me about that. What are they doing? Climbing…?

Question: All over. Good Lord. Huh. 

Mayor Adams: Where is it located? 

Question: Allerton Avenue. 

Mayor Adams: Where's my rat czar? Come on. Come on. I have a rat czar. That's how much I hate rats.

Kathleen Corradi, Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation: Good evening, everyone. My name's Kathy Corradi. I'm the citywide director of rodent mitigation, also known as the rats are. For property owners, the Department of health code states its property owner responsibility to keep properties clean and pest free. If you are a renter, that means it is the responsibility of your management and ownership company. 

We work very closely. Interagency, Department of Health will get your address. We'll come out. We'll inspect. We'll see what's going on. What are the underlying conditions? We'll work with Department of Health to issue a commissioner's order to bait to your property owner. We also work with other agencies, HPD, DOB. We make sure if there's ills going on in a building that we're addressing it from all facets to make sure renters in our city have the best conditions they can, including a rat free home.

Mayor Adams: She's going to get your number. We're going to go over and take a look at your look at your location. Okay, and then we're going to get in contact with that long landlord and the owner of the building. No one should have to live with rodents inside the house. The rat czar is going to come see you when we finish. Okay?

Commissioner Kreizman: And Leo, at your table, get your contact information to ensure we do the follow up.

Mayor Adams: I hate rats, man. Table... Where am I? 

Commissioner Kreizman: Right there. 

Question: I wanted to say that many of the things that we're going to be addressing with you tonight, the changes in our area, the changes in the quality of life, the increased crime. 

Our question to you is what can be done to increase the manpower and the resources for the police precincts here in the Bronx? Because that would have a direct and positive impact on many of the issues that we are dealing with.

Mayor Adams: Great question. I hear some elected yell, we don't want cops disband police departments. I love him. If you love cops, you should love me because I'm an ex-cop. Okay, so here's our problem. We are having a law enforcement crisis. We are hemorrhaging our law enforcement foundation. We're losing probation officers. We're losing correctional correction officers at code red. The numbers are so low. We're losing our police officers. We're losing a parks employee officers. If we don't stop the trend, not only locally, nationally, those foundational law enforcement entities and even the D.A. would tell you the challenge of getting district attorneys of because of the what do you call that? 

The discovery they've been inundated with all of this paper. These far left people that don't believe we should have public safety entities in our city. We have put things in place that has eroded law enforcement beyond imagination. I speak to the Deputy Mayor Banks of public safety and he tells me, Eric, we are code red with correction officers and our police officers are leaving. Our numbers are down. Many of them are retiring. We need to really get this real boom of encouraging people to go into the profession again because the numbers are so low. You get up here, chief, up in the Bronx at the last academy class. We need far much more. What is your numbers? How are your numbers? Are you at your numbers? Three hundred and seventy cops. We got an academy class that just went in. We had I think we had 600 that just graduated. We don't have the bodies. Then to add to that, we did three thousand protests. These officers, these officers are worn down. They're doing overtime beyond belief. Many of them back when I was a cop, I love overtime. These young officers, they want to go home. They're not trying to stay and do 12, 13 hour tours. 

Right. Right. Right. Exactly. We need more officers. These numbers are at a very dangerous, critical level. I speak to my DA's and they tell me how difficult it is to get district attorneys, how they’re inundated with paper because of discovery. If we don't stop this hemorrhaging of law enforcement, we're going to have an issue in our city and in our country.

Question: Hi. Today I'm also here to talk about the Metro North that's coming to our area. This area was built between 1940 all the way to 1960. Most of the infrastructure and the buildings are still in that era. A lot of our senior buildings and as well as our housing buildings have no renovation. Nothing has ever been invested in this community. Our parks last time they were renovated was sometime in 1985. With the Metro North coming, there has been no talk about investing into our community, investing into our buildings, into our senior buildings, into NYCHA buildings as well. There is no pathway to home ownership around here. 

Most of us are homeowners and we are homeowners and that creates what you call generational wealth. There is no path to that with the new buildings. These people that are coming in here do not have any chance because there is no way for them to make some form of home ownership. Can you tell us how the Metro North and the building of these people will benefit our community? Would our parks be renovated? Will we be getting new police stations? Will there be an infrastructure such as our sewer systems? 

This area floods. Most of us around here, when it rains, we're in our basements with the pump, pumping out tons of water. If we don't pump it out fast enough, we will get mold in our buildings. Most of our infrastructure has not been updated. Nobody has invested in this community. Will there be a commitment to invest into this community, into the residents that live here already, before you're building another 75,000 people?

Mayor Adams: You gave a whole list of stuff. I know it's challenging for a lot of people to actualize. I've been mayor for two years and seven months. That stuff you just mentioned, it's been here for a long time. The reason you haven't had an opportunity to tell anybody about it? Because they wouldn't come up here. They wouldn't come up here. What often happens, the person that comes to you, you had 50 years of anger, and you say, you know what, we're going to let it all out tonight. Tell me about the Metro North. Who's going to talk to me about that?

Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: Thank you very much, mayor. I'm Dan Garodnick, the director of the Department of City Planning. We are incredibly excited about the Bronx Metro North station area plan. For reference, for those who are less familiar, we have four new Metro North stations that are coming to the East Bronx. We have the one that is coming here to Morris Park, also Parkchester, Van Nest, Hunts Point, and Co-op City. 

In connection with two of the station areas, and that includes Morris Park, we have proposed to make some land use changes to allow for economic development, housing, and yes, also city investment into this neighborhood to be able to accommodate growth and to allow to correct some historic problems that have existed. When you do a neighborhood plan, it is a great time for us to be looking at the issues that you are describing. It allows for us to focus directly with the councilmember, with the borough president, with the community to think about what the actual needs are. 

We are doing that right now. As this proposal has been discussed for the better part of a couple years and beyond. We did our very best to advance something that we thought was thoughtful, respectful of the community, that allowed for new housing. The mayor very clearly described the crisis that we are in. In connection with new train stations, great place to add new housing, but certainly with commensurate infrastructure investment, that is something that we are talking about right now and thinking about what that looks like, working with the operational agencies of the city, and we look forward to having more to say about that very soon.

Mayor Adams: That's where the partnerships are important, ma'am. We are going to need the partnerships with our local here. You have a good team of electors. We have to build that infrastructure. We have to look to sewer systems. We have to look at the police accountability. We have to build the infrastructure with that new housing so that it can grow with the area as well. That's why we have to have, if you don't remember any other number tonight, remember what I said. 

We had a 1.4 percent vacancy rate, folks. 1.4 percent. Your children that you send away to college and they're coming back home, they don't have a place to stay. 1.4 percent. Right. I'm trying to get Jordan out of mine. 1.4 percent vacancy rate and even lower for affordable housing. We have to build more housing. For those who want to come back, I want to first go through the tables, and then I'll come back to you, ma'am.

Commissioner Kreizman: Commissioner of DEP, we'd just like to add one thing. I'm sorry?

Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Department of Environmental Protection: Can I address the person who mentioned the flooding issues? First of all, I'm Rit Aggarwala. I'm the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Thank you for the question. In fact, Councilmember Marmorato and I were just here last week walking around the district. She's a member of the Environment Committee at the City Council and has made a point to talk about some of the flooding issues, which is why I was up here and we're keenly aware of them. 

There has been some investment in infrastructure to manage stormwater in this neighborhood. Across your district, CD13, there are 260 green infrastructure installations that range from rain gardens and other things that have been put in over the last decade. I appreciate that this neighborhood, like many around the city, suffers from decisions that were made, as the mayor said, 40, 50, 60 years ago that, frankly, underinvested in things like catch basins. 

A lot of your streets in this neighborhood don't have as many catch basins as they might. That is something we will be able to do over time. We are in the design stage. We presented to both community boards already designs for a broad cloudburst project that will be constructed over the next several years that uses this surface approach to manage stormwater and retains flooding. One thing that we are actually very excited about with the rezoning is that two years ago, we put in place a new rule that requires large developments to design themselves to retain stormwater on site. One of the things that will happen as the rezoning yields new buildings around these Metro North stations is those developers are going to have to manage almost all of the stormwater that falls on those locations on site, which means as a result of that development, there will be less stormwater going into the drains because of those developments, which we think will make a significant contribution to reducing the flooding challenges that parts of this neighborhood see.

Mayor Adams: Rit has done an amazing job around this environmental stuff and the creativity. We hear you, ma'am. We got to invest in the infrastructure, and we're going to need the whole team to do so. I'm going to come back to you. I got to follow the flow or my team will get on me.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, commissioners, elected officials. My name is Christopher Espinoza. I'm here in my capacity with the League of Latin American Citizens, which is an advocacy organization. 

Firstly, we thank you for the additional officers assigned to precincts in the East Bronx. However, despite this increase in manpower, our community continues to experience a troubling rash of vandalism. This includes vehicle vandalism, such as the theft of mirrors, rims, tires and other parts. 

Here tonight at our table, we have Alex, whose mirror was stolen just a few days ago. We have Ignacio Collado, whose community fridge called the Allerton Allies Community Fridge was completely vandalized and destroyed by youth. Our question is, what is this administration, what is your administration doing to work with youth as it relates to public safety? Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. Keith can talk about some of the stuff that we're doing. Advocates have asked for years for summer youth employment to move to 100,000 young people. Couldn't get it done. We got it done. The Summer Rising program that allows young people to be in school all year round. The former administration funded it and it was going to sunset. 

We found the dollars. We put it in place permanently and nothing I enjoy more than hearing what Commissioner Stewart is doing around young people. When you talk about his, he is the commissioner of Community Affairs in the Police Department. What he's doing from teaching our young people aviation to get their pilot license, golf, teaching them bilingual studies. Why don't you go into some of the stuff you're doing, commissioner? From the Police Department to bridge that gap with our young people, our explorers program, our auxiliary program, all that we're doing. Why don't you touch on some of the things you're doing with young people?

Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, Community Affairs, Police Department: Good evening, Commissioner Stewart, the Community Affairs Bureau. When I first came here to Community Affairs, I was trying to find what can we do with our kids? We can't play basketball all day. We can't dribble our way out of problems. I decided we have to have sports and education. Our kids deserve more and they need more. Just to start off, we do baby showers. I'm sure you're probably aware of it because it started in the Bronx and we have a starter from Detective Washington. 

I went to his baby shower and I couldn't believe the turnout. Had to be at least a thousand or more people. These are young mothers who had nothing. I called him the next week and said, come to my office, have a conversation. I said, brother, you need a bigger platform than this. We have to go to every borough. In the last two years, we probably service new mothers, probably over 40,000. That's baby strollers, bassinets, prenatal care. It's amazing the work that Detective Washington started, but he was the founder of it. 

We also have, we're just starting this now for our kids in high school, get their real estate license. We have an officer on the Police Department. It's going to be an 11 week course. He's certified to certify them to take the real estate license for the state. We just had an aviation course that we teach in the Police Department. Know what the funny thing about this? We have the resources, but nobody reached out for them. We have aviation. Our officers teach our kids about aviation. 

Yesterday, I went to our fourth class. We had 25 kids with their parents, Black, white, Asian, Hispanic. It's a six week course. It's two days a week. We have to get our kids interested in more than just sports. We also used our harbor unit. Why can't we teach our kids about water safety? Teach them about boating. I like sports. Don't get me wrong. We have sports. We have a Blue Chips unit in every precinct. We do basketball. We do football. We just started a track unit and we just started a golf unit. 

Golf, we have over 80 kids already. Commissioner Howard and I feel like I'm his date. I'm always asking him for money. He helped us with the aviation program that now just now we're doing in Brooklyn. Him and I are going to bring it to Harlem and soon to be probably the Bronx. We have the money to get these programs started. We have to educate our kids. We also have a college tour that we started. 15 schools all over the city. What was missing? Transportation and opportunity. 

We take our kids on the bus and when they get off the bus and they go into these universities, they go to these campuses, you should see their eyes open up because there's no way they were going to get there. We have an administration unit that meet us there, take our kids on a tour. It's amazing results that we're getting. 

We also have an ESL program. In every borough, our Latino communities who can't speak English, we have officers who are teaching them. This goes year by year. It's something almost 80 people in a class. We're talking from ages 13 to 80. It's a good benefit for us. Our SYEP, our Student Youth Employment, again, I went to Commissioner Howard. We started out with 800 kids and now we're over 1,000 kids who are working with the Police Department. And it's not just working and getting a paycheck. We get a chance to mentor them. We get a chance to educate them and see them grow. 

We have our YPA program where we take kids for the summer, six weeks. They get a chance to work with our officers, training. We take them on trips. Again, it's about us getting an opportunity to know our kids, to understand our kids. To know what they're doing, what's happening in their communities. We get a chance to understand them and what's going on. It's a great program. I say at the end, we have a lot. I know it's about the man's time. We have a lot going on with our kids. These kids are our future. I take it very seriously. 

The mayor and I just had 40 years in law enforcement and we're still here. One thing about the mayor, when he calls you at 2 in the morning, you better pick the phone up. Because he's calling us for a reason. And he does call at 2 in the morning. The vision and the mission never changes. We're still protecting New York City. That's our goal and our kids are our future. We take it very seriously.

Mayor Adams: Now, hold on. Don't sit down yet. 40 years. Don't we still look good? Brother, hold on. Step up. Stand up for a moment, brother. What grade are you? What grade are you? Second grade? Think about this for a moment. Think about this for a moment. This is the hidden gem of the men and women who are on the front line. They see what's needed. He didn't have to do that baby shower with these thousand children. 

Commissioner Stewart did not have to do all of these programs because a lot of this stuff is about exposure. A lot of these children wouldn't even know what a college tour is. A lot of these children wouldn't know what it is to learn how to play golf, what it is to go into aviation. Here's a man who saw the need, and went beyond the call of duty. I'm going to speak to the police commissioner tomorrow. You're second grade. You need to be a first grader. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Some good stuff, man. This is our finest. This is New York City Finest. It's New York City Finest. New York City Finest, man. That is amazing.

District Attorney Clark: I just wanted to… I know Commissioner Howard is going to get up as well. I want to echo everything that was said by the commissioner there. Both of them, Stuart, because as the DA, I am the default when these things don't work. 

Okay, everybody complains about things happening. It's like if we have failed systems, the fault is NYPD and the DA. I'm happy that NYPD and the city is picking up the torch and doing their part to make sure that our kids have something substantial to do because I'm tired of prosecuting them. I shouldn't have to prosecute them. I love them and I want to see them thrive and succeed. I'm going to do everything I can to keep my partnerships with both of them because we all work together to do this. 

I have the Summer Youth Employment Program in my office, too. I have also a youth advisory council. I want to hear directly from the kids. What is it that you need so I can keep you from picking up that gun, pick up a book or whatever else you need? Stop making me be the bad guy or the one that has to answer it at NYPD. Let's do the investment in our kids. If we get to the underlying causes of the crime, then I don't have to do as much as I could do because I can deal with those who are causing the most harm. We can save our kids. Thank you for being able to be a partner with me so we can do that. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Commissioner Howard from DYCD.

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: How can you go behind that, right? Mr. Mayor, you spoke about Summer Youth Employment. We had in this district alone about 1,200 young people do summer youth. They're still going on. Summer Rising, our summer camp, 2,300 K-8 young kids in Summer Rising. As you recall, because the mayor has said this often, that program was at jeopardy because of the funding. This mayor found the money to keep that program going. Okay? 

In this very high school, we have a college readiness program. In this very high school that's operating with one of our providers. The commissioner had mentioned about literacy, 207 residents that we've had in our literacy programs, in our immigrant services. I also want to mention some of the special initiatives that we're running in partnership with the Yankees. Our [Saturday] Night Lights, where we have softball at the old Yankee Stadium, where we have teams from all over the city playing at the Yankee Stadium with the NYPD Blue Chip, SCAN, and the Yankees. Now, this is an exciting summer. Our young people are fully engaged in the activities for the summer. If you count on those as success, let's just highlight the fact that the investments are there. 

Now, mind you, we do have those young kids who we need to continue to reach out to make sure that they're not doing, the things that they should not be doing. This is so important, the reason why we have a relationship with the district attorney's office and also with NYPD. 

The mayor made sure it was clear that none of our city agencies are working in silo, that we're working collaboratively together. I'm going to leave on this note, because Commissioner Stewart and I, we're constantly talking, thinking about new, innovative ways. The mayor has tapped both of us to come up with a program where we're sending young people internationally as a student exchange program. He's charged us to make sure that young people are getting their passports. He said, I do not want my young people just to be MetroCard holders, but I want them to be global citizens. Look out for that that's happening as well. 

Mayor Adams: Well said, well said. Every child, my goal is every child that graduates from high school graduate with their passport. They'll know that if they can be a doctor in Manhattan, they can do it in Manchester. They could be an accountant in Brooklyn, they can do it in Belgium. We don't want to raise MetroCard leaders. We want to raise passport leaders. This is an international city. We want to inspire these young people to be exposed. These babies are not exposed. We want to inspire them to be exposed. 

Why? Why? Because I was the baby kid. Yes, I'm a man now, but that's not who I was. Go to the 103rd Precinct and let them tell you when I was arrested and what I went through, how angry I was as a child, seeing what we couldn't get. If I can go from where I was to become the mayor of the most important city on the globe, then as the DA stated, all of these children can do that. We just got to give them an opportunity to do so.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Table number seven.

Question: Thank you for coming to the Bronx. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you, ma'am. 

Question: I'm sorry. My phone has decided to take this moment to start ringing. My comment is on the back of this lady at the other tables. I'm in her neighborhood. When you go out with her to walk her dog, I'd love to join you, but I'm unfortunately allergic to dogs. I work from home, too. Whenever you guys want to schedule this. 

The commercial strip on White Plains Road, and I also should say that I'm a proud graduate of 1969 of PS 105 up the street. Like a New Yorker, I tend to ignore most of the stuff I see when I'm walking up and down the street. I do my best. I don't bother you. You won't bother me. We'll all get through this alive. 

Currently, like up and down White Plains Road, there's a ton of vendors. I don't know what these people are selling. I don't know what they're doing. It's a fairly wide street, and it's getting narrower and narrower and narrower. I have to assume that this is because of the migrants that are here. Yes, they're here. I want them to have money to live. I want them to eat. I want them to have a place. I want them to live a reasonable life. 

I don't know if that and like the other stuff that goes on with all the people that like you go to the Popeye's or if somebody opens the door for you hoping you give them a dollar tip. There's more and more homeless on the street. I don't know if there's anything that can be done about any of that or if that's all just stuff we have to accept as New Yorkers. At this point, I've come to feel like that's just the way it is, and I need to deal with it.

Mayor Adams: No. We don't believe that. We don't believe in disorder, and we don't believe you happen to live with a subpar quality of life. Tell me about that, chief or captain. Tell me about that strip of real estate. What's happening over there? We need a game plan because I'm hearing two people do it, and I'm glad you're going to join us. We'll do it one day probably over the weekend. Is it the weekend is better or the weekday? Weekday? Okay, so we'll do it one day this week or early next week. Tell me about that strip of real estate. 

Captain Tawee Theanthong, Commanding Officer, 49 Precinct, Police Department: Yes, Mr. Mayor. I'm Captain Theanthong, 49, commanding officer. Thank you for that question, and we actually just spoke about that recently. I had [Tyrone Medeiros.] I'm sure you're all familiar with him. He's our crime prevention officer, and that's one of the things that he recently brought up to us. As you know, we recently picked up a few more officers, but they're working the later tours. We also had some issues that this gentleman had brought up earlier that we were worried about our property crime with the tires and rims and all that. 

We shifted a lot of our resources to those hours because of the tires and rims and the GLA issues and all that. We have them working those hours so that they can address those problems. They've been doing a fantastic job. Just to put that into context, the 49 has 41 gun arrests for the year. Seven of those were in this 28-day period. They're out there. They're working hard. They're getting those bad guys off the street. 

We had to shift our NCOs to those hours also so they're not around during the day as much. We were aware of that problem because of your outreach to [Officer Medeiros.] He reached out to us, and we're using some of the YCOs because some of that's a school corridor over by White Plains Road, specifically Pelham Parkway to Lydig that connects to some of the issues that you had mentioned before. A lot of that we want to do with starting off with the simple things like the double parkers. A lot of times we know if we move the double parkers, that affects the flow of traffic that moves out open and also stops people from parking over there and utilizing those vendors. The other thing that I spoke to Chief Gurley about was trying to get traffic and transportation over there to help us and start doing that with the double parkers and moving the cars. In terms of the vendors, we've been talking to our partners in the vendors as well.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Captain Theanthong: In regards to the smoke shop, we did a padlock operation. We did make the arrest over there. We did know that there was another participant who was not part of the store itself, but they had set up a table out front, and we're addressing that as well. We actually spoke to legal so we can see if we can address that as well.

Question: Are you talking about Cloudy Cloud or are you talking about Mystery?

Captain Theanthong: I think both of those came up on our radar, yes.

Mayor Adams: Is that a smoke shop? 

Question: Yes.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Why don't we… Is anyone here from the Sheriff Department? Okay. Why don't we find out and let's go. It appears as though they're selling illegal cannabis there. Yes? Okay. Why don't we – where did DJ go?

All right. All right, DJ. We'll get the sheriff. Let us take a look at those operations, okay, because that relationship with the community, giving us tips is how we're getting a lot of these places that don't have the signs.

Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, Patrol Borough Bronx, Police Department: What I was going to say is we could take that information as well, because with the smoke shop operations, we're working with the sheriff, and we have a coordinator at the Chief of Patrol's office. We could take it, put it on the sheriff's list. There is a long list because we're going citywide, and we have our own borough team that also addresses it. We could probably push it up, but we'll definitely take that information personally ourselves. 

Lastly, just to talk about what's going on that corridor or commercial, what we'll do from the borough level is we've got to do a coordinated effort, right? With DCWP, obviously, with Sanitation, right, to address our vendors. With our Department of Transportation, our traffic agents, we just talked about that. We'll get together, all together, as a multi-agency, and we'll see what the problems are, and not just the police department because there's other agencies that do great work with us that can probably do some things that we can't do out there. We've been successful in doing this stuff in other corridors of the Bronx, and we'll bring it over to the 49 and address that side, okay? Thank you.

Commissioner Kreizman: We do that coordination with Community Link.

Mayor Adams: I see you, ma'am. Let's just finish with these tables, and then, folks who want to hang around can hang around because I don't have anywhere to go. I don't have a life. Go ahead. Where am I? How are you?

Question: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for joining us in the Bronx this evening with your team. My name is [Winston Nisbet], and I'm from the Eastchester community of the Bronx. Now, my question is on a subject that has been beaten and battered all evening. It's regarding housing, and I mean affordable housing. 

Now, what my observation is that the asylum seekers that arrive here are first dealt with more than the people who are here, lived here all their life, work here. Now, why are they behind those people? They should be taken care of first, in my opinion, that is. I'm not saying you should not take care of the asylum seekers, but my thing is take care of your own first.

Mayor Adams: I just love, love, love, love, love that question. Because the biggest misnomer, it started as a whisper, and he's giving them more than us. Then it became a loud, he's giving us more, he's giving them more. 

Let me tell you something. Asylum seekers are sleeping on tents, outside restrooms, outside showers. They are not allowed to get the affordable housing. We're not putting them in front of anyone because they're not allowed. They don't qualify for it. They don't qualify for it. They don't qualify for SNAP. They don't qualify for all of these things. They can't get FHEPS vouchers. Let's stop the rumor that asylum seekers are getting what everyday New Yorkers are getting. That is just not true. 

I remember when we first opened up Randall's Island, and brothers were on Randall's Island saying that, look, you gave them Game Boys. I went over to Randall's Island and visited them at the shelter on Randall's Island, and I said, you know what? You don't have to stay here in this room where these beds are. You can come sleep in that tent with them. They said, well, we don't want that. 

The reason we don't have enough housing in this city is because on Monday, everyone is saying housing is a right, housing is a right. On Tuesday, when we say we want to build it in their community, they said, no, it's not a right on my block. Anyone who's saying that, hey, Eric, you are giving more to migrants and asylum seekers than everyday New Yorkers, point to what we're doing that we're not doing more for everyday New Yorkers. Tell them, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, tell them what we have done housing in this city.

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: Our administration, led by the mayor, has been really focused on changing that number that the mayor mentioned earlier, the 1.4 percent vacancy rate. That's the lowest that it has been in really modern history. We need to change that. 

We need to change that both by building more housing across the city, and many here may have heard about the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity that we're working with every community on to build a little bit more housing in every neighborhood. The councilmember mentioned the Bronx Metro North neighborhood plan, which is another critical way to add more housing. As the gentleman mentioned, we also have to be really serious about financing and building and preserving as much affordable housing in this city. In the last two years, through the work of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and that Housing Development Corporation, we've broken records in terms of new units, new homes that are affordable, supportive homes, homes for the formerly homeless, and we've connected more New Yorkers in our shelter systems to permanent housing. 

We know that the work doesn't stop there. It includes making sure that we're protecting our neighbors who are in NYCHA developments. In this administration, we've made a huge commitment to NYCHA, not just the high-speed broadband that the mayor mentioned, but really ensuring that we are putting our money where our mouth is and transforming NYCHA developments to places where the people who live in NYCHA, one in 14 New Yorkers, are prouder to call it home. The mayor added just recently, together with the City Council, $2 billion into the capital budget to ensure that we can build more affordable housing, we can preserve more of NYCHA. 

The list is long, but I want to assure everyone here that under the mayor's leadership, we are working on all cylinders to protect New Yorkers, to create more affordable housing, and to finally, after decades and decades, make a dent on that vacancy rate that is just so heartbreakingly low. We need your help. It's been, I know, a really important and meaningful process to engage with all of you on the Bronx Metro North Neighborhood Plan. We encourage you to keep working with us on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. 

Every time there is a project that has to go through the land use process, I understand the concerns, the questions, and the fears, but really think about your neighbors, your children, the elders in your family, because the plans that we're talking about, it's not for nameless, faceless other people. It's for those that we all care about, and we want to make sure that there is space for them in the city that we love.

Mayor Adams: Well said. Migrants and asylum seekers are not eligible for the FHEPS vouchers. They're not jumping over everyday New Yorkers. Migrants and asylum seekers are not eligible for all of these hosts of other things everyday New Yorkers. Travel with me to Randall's Island. What we have, what we got, 3,000? 3,000 people are sleeping on cots. Restroom facilities, not in their rooms, no. They're in a large dormitory setting. 

Go down to Ebbets Field. What is our numbers there? About the same number, 3,000. Then you heard that rumor, well, you're giving them all American Express cards. No. We gave them food cards, where instead of wasting food, you can go to the local bodega, put the money back in the community. We were saving $600,000 a month, over $7 million a year, by having people spend money back in the local community where you can hire, instead of giving it to some large conglomerate outside our city. We had to feed them. We said, instead of letting that money go out of our city, let's keep it right inside our community. It was a brilliant decision that we did on our part. 

We need to stop this talk, this chatter, that we're giving everything away to the migrants. You know what we should be giving them? The right to work. The right to work. Dignity is employment. They tell me every time I go to these shelters where they are, they say, we don't want your food, we don't want your housing, we don't want you to do anything for us. We traveled through the jungle to come to New York so we can work. We can work. That's what the federal government needs to be doing. Give them the decency to work. They would be able to do the jobs that many of us don't want to do. They should have the right to work.

Commissioner Kreizman: Table number nine.

Question: Hi, Mayor. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: I'm good. 

Question: Good. Thank you for coming. Bringing back to the topic of affordable housing, I was wondering, given that hypothetically there's going to be more development, and a lot of developers are incentivized to build affordable housing given that there's some additional incentives, a lot of them are going to base those rental prices off of AMI, area median income. While that's representative of the New York City income rate, that's not necessarily representative of the Bronx itself. I wanted to ask you, what are you and your administration doing to ensure that those affordable housing are able to be affordable for the lowest income New Yorkers?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question, and Maria. Here's what we have to be very careful about. Everyone talks about affordable housing for the extreme low income New Yorkers. My teachers and accountants are hurting. My food service workers do you know because we were successful in increasing the minimum wage, some of my, if you work full time in McDonald's, you and your spouse, you don't qualify for a lot of the affordable housing. I need my income band of low and middle income because I need my working class folks from DC 37, 1199, 32BJ. I want them in the city also. They are hurting. 

It is difficult making ends meet in this city and in this country right now. We have done a lot around low income and we will continue to do that. I must make a place for working class people who feel this city is no longer affordable. We've lost hundreds of thousands of working class people who are moving to Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, because this city is no longer affordable for them. We can't lose our middle class, folks. You lose your middle class, you're going to have a real problem in the city. We can't lose them. We need them. I'm not only speaking to the choir. Many of you wrote the song because you're middle class. Talk about what we're doing around. This whole AMI stuff.

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: That's right. AMI is area median income. When we finance affordable housing, there are different tiers depending on the area median income. As the mayor mentioned, it's absolutely right. Housing insecurity is felt by everyone in this city, including working class people. Earlier this evening when the mayor mentioned that there are workforce issues with law enforcement coming into the field or staying, a big thing that we're hearing is that it's also the cost of housing. 

We need to build across the income spectrum. I want to be clear that we are so committed to making sure that extremely low income individuals and families are getting the attention they deserve. That is why if you look at the records of the production numbers from our housing agencies, as I mentioned earlier, we have built more housing for extremely low income New Yorkers, for the formerly homeless, for supportive than the city ever has. It is also why NYCHA reopened for the first time, the Section 8 wait list, for the first time in 15 years, which allows us to provide more opportunity and support for renters in this city. 

I also want to be clear. You know that 1.4 percent overall vacancy rate, rental vacancy rate in this city? That's pretty low, right? For the most low income individuals in this city, what they can afford, what that vacancy rate is? It's basically zero. We're not going to solve that problem if we don't increase the supply of housing. It's basic math. I say that because every little bit helps. The City of Yes, the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, it's designed to do just that. A little bit more housing in every neighborhood to get at the root of our problem, which is supply, so that we can, for all New Yorkers, including extremely low income New Yorkers, really provide the assistance that they need. 

Commissioner Kreizman: Table number 10.

Question: Good evening. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: I'm doing great. Thank you very much. My name is [Toba.] By way of disclosure, I'm from CB12, also 47 Precinct Council. However, I happen to be on this table by the virtue of the problem that we're talking about here. Most of the issues that were mentioned, we actually went through them on this table as well. The people on the table talk about illegal cannabis stores, e-bike, traffic enforcement not being the way it's supposed to be, sidewalk issue, but motorized bikes, yes. 

The one key thing that I really want to bring up on the community education council for CB11, and I'm the liaison for PS 105, the school construction, they're building a property near 105. 105 has been conversing that that building be made middle school, because they squeeze elementary school one to five, to fifth grade. We figure out that the whole community itself, they don't have a middle school. 

We've written petitions, almost 40,000, but it seems like the more we campaign for it falls into deaf ear. I want to find out here, why is it that if the whole community have as many schools, but they have to go out of the district for their middle school, why can't we turn the building that they're existing on that 105 to grade six to eight? That is our question.

Mayor Adams: Who do we have for DOE? Anybody here from the DOE? Grab that mic. Are you familiar with this situation?

Elaine Lindsey, Chief of School Support, High Schools, New York City Public Schools: Good evening. I'm Elaine Lindsey, chief of school support high schools for New York City Public Schools. I'm not familiar with this one in particular, but definitely familiar with situations similar to that. That can be a conversation that can be had with the superintendent and also can be brought to the attention of SCA so that we can see if that building and if that's viable for the school to actually expand into that building, because there's a process for that. We would have that conversation with that particular superintendent and review that situation with that particular school.

Mayor Adams: Is the superintendent here? All right. All right. Let's make sure we have sups. All right. Yes. Brother, I want to understand again. You're saying, right now by me, you're saying that the middle school…

Question: There is no middle school. There is a construction by the school. The school is conversing that whatever building they are building now should be turned to middle school so that the students in this community, they at least have that one school for their six to eight. 

I don't know. I call the school construction. They told me all that they know to do is to construct what they are doing now. What do you want to use it for? They said they don't know. I spoke to the super as well. She's not giving me the right answer. I've met with the parents. We have signatures upon signatures. We are not also being sure that it will be a middle school. There is no middle school in the whole community. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. Let me…

Assemblymember Zaccaro: If I could just interject. What he's talking about is right up the block, PS 105. There's currently an annex that's being built as an extension to the school. Our understanding is that there's a [D 75] program that is going to be infused into that school, but they're just going to take a certain portion of it. What this community has been asking for as long as I've been elected, which has only been two years, but a longtime member of this community has always asked for a junior high school. 

We don't have a feeder middle school in this community where kids from our elementary school can feed into a middle school and then go to the local high schools that we have around. What the community has been asking for is that we have a discussion about being able to occupy the remainder of that building and use that as a feeder opportunity for our local public school elementary schools to feed into that annex. We have… That request has fallen on deaf ears.

Councilmember Marmorato: Just to add to that, the closest junior high school is across Pelham Parkway. These kids are not crossing Pelham Parkway where they're supposed to. They're just going across as the cars are coming. It is a public safety issue.

Mayor Adams: Listen, let's set up, one day this week or early next week. Let's get the chancellor on the phone and find out exactly what's happening. I don't know what's happening, what's happening here. A superintendent should be here to answer that question. Let's find out. Let's get the chancellor on the phone and let's find out what's going on.

Commissioner Kreizman: Okay. Table number 11. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you for volunteering. You volunteer a lot of stuff. I like that. 

Question: Hello. 

Mayor Adams: How are you doing? 

Question: I'm fine. How are you? Thank you for coming. This is our table. Table 11. My name is Irene Estrada. I am the president of Mothers Against 1900. I'm also part of the clergy at the 49th Precinct. I'm a mother of two daughters who are blue. One is a sergeant, Erica Bukowiecki, then Daisy Gonzalez, a detective from ECT. I have two grandchildren in the academy right now. Love it. Love it. Brandon and then Amber. Now, Amber and Brandon came out from the Explore Program from the 49th Precinct years ago. These programs that Mark has been speaking about are very impressive and it works. 

I ran the 49th Precinct Explore Program for eight years with [Officer McDonald] way back in the day. We went camping at Monticello, water rafting, canoeing, rappelling. I've done all of that. It's up to the community to do something with your kids. At this particular table, our discussion is that City Council wants to remove the gang database that protects criminals and not New Yorkers. What can we do to keep the gang database that will help police? 

This will affect the condition of sanctuary status as well. Because arresting migrant criminals will be an issue with federal and NYPD. Without this database, more criminals will have New York City to roll more activity dangerously to all New Yorkers, including the bail reform and other issues. City Council needs to stop working for the criminals and start working for New Yorkers, our residents. 

What can we do to keep the gang database to help NYPD? Public safety must come first. Without this, New York City will not be safe. This district supports the blue, and we are proud to protect the blue. This discourages people from serving and protecting because it's a revolving door of crime. We need to keep our gang database to protect New Yorkers. What can we do to help you to keep the gang database to protect us?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. I like that. I like that a lot. that was almost a PSA in a commercial. You're right. You need to communicate. The Public Safety chair is Yusef Salaam. You need to communicate, just as you would talk about some of the petitions that you did around other issues that are important. You should get together in the community, do a petition, and send it to the Public Safety chair and everyone that sits on a public safety committee and share your concerns on that about the gang database. It provides a very important purpose, and I don't think it's abused. I think it's used correctly. By you sharing your voice, it allows people to know how important it is. Thank you for having a law enforcement family, your children and loved ones that's in it. Okay. Yes. Let's get the mic. Grab the mic so everybody can hear you.

Question: You tell us to write petitions. As Mother of 1900s, we wrote petitions. We collected thousands of signatures. You told us to take it to the committees. I will still continue to reach out to Salamanca and to the committee against 1900 and other issues. The thing is that it doesn't fall onto deaf ears. Our City Council does not listen to our constituents or our residents. Then we are stuck between a rock and a hard place when we don't have someone not only to hear our cry about how to change it, what do we do next? If the committees are more liberal and more on the left that they refuse to hear New Yorkers, residents, and not about even generational wealth, just us people who love New York, we want to take our city back. What do we do then?

Mayor Adams: Think about it for a moment. Some of our districts, all of them, not only when I ran for mayor, City Council, Assembly, Senate, Congress, when you have a low voter turnout, some of these City Councils represent 170,000 people, yet you only have 13,000, 14,000 who are making a determination who is elected. Part of it is really a civic engagement. I look at the low voter turnout when I ran for mayor. 

We need to get civically engaged and connect the dots on why this law was passed and who is behind passing the law. If we sit back and allow it to happen, then we're losing our city, and you're right. We need to take back the narrative of our city. We have a lot of working class people who support all of these agencies, but many of them are not coming out to vote. We got to start back voting and getting engaged. 

Commissioner Kreizman: Two more questions. Table 12. 

Mayor Adams: Hi. How are you, ma'am?

Question: I'm well. Good. Thank you for coming to the Bronx. I would like to take you up to meet afterwards because I do have questions about Just Home. I would also like to invite Dr. Katz to maybe stay and listen to some of our concerns and answer our questions. Now for the regular question. With the incoming Metro North and the extensive housing that is being proposed, how will the City of Yes affect parking in our community?

Mayor Adams: Got it. Who wants to get that? Dan. Dan loved talking about the City of Yes.

Garodnick: I can do it. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, we have anticipated the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity as part of the Bronx Metro North plan as it relates to parking, which means that the proposal in City of Yes is to eliminate what has become a costly mandate for parking in housing citywide, recognizing that in many areas of the city, people will want to continue to provide parking, including lots of parking in many cases where it is absolutely necessary. 

What we have seen over time is that our parking mandate, which was developed in the 1950s and 1960s, is coming in direct conflict with our ability to create housing around the city, places where it's right on top of a subway, where, when you want to build 11 units of housing, you waive out of parking for the first 10, but when you hit unit number 11, you have to provide six parking spaces. That's the end of the conversation. Nobody will go to that 11th unit because they're not going to provide six parking spaces, so we end up leaving lots of housing on the table. 

In the context of the Bronx Metro North plan, we understand that there is an issue from this community. We've heard from the councilmember. We know that there's an interest in including more parking in the developments that come. There's nothing about City of Yes for Housing Opportunity that would preclude that from happening. What we have eliminated or what we're proposing to eliminate is the minimum mandate. We see at the City Planning Commission all the time where people have gone above the minimum mandate that's required. 

We are not putting a cap. We're not proposing to put a cap on the amount of parking, but what we are proposing is to say, what? If you do not see the appropriateness of parking in your development for whatever reason, the city is beyond requiring that of you. We know and expect to see parking in the developments in the Bronx Metro North station area plan because that is something that has been expressed as a community need.

Councilmember Marmorato: Can I just touch on that? We are not currently there as a community yet to get rid of the parking mandates, so we are still very heavily reliant on automobiles because the Metro North hasn't come. We only have buses through Morris Park. I would hope that until we get there, the stations are up and running, and then maybe we do some stuff because these buildings aren't going to be built right away. Maybe once we start building and developing them, then we can reconsider the parking issues.

Mayor Adams: Those are all part of the conversations taking place right now. All part of the conversation taking place right now.

Commissioner Kreizman: Before we go to the last question, I just want to say thank you to Alina Dowe, our Bronx Borough Director, for helping us put this together.

Question: Hello. My name is [Simon Rosario.] I'm the chairman, Youth Work Member at [Easy Living Shelter], and today we have some problems we need to address. This right here is my executive team, and I'll hand it to my CEO.

Question: Hello. My name is [Samuel Abdul.] I'm the CEO of [Easy Living Shelter,] and I'm here to talk about youth homelessness. In New York City, there's roughly 120,000 youth homeless people out there, and one of the main things that they're missing is opportunity. My question for you today is, how can small programs such as us help get support to solve these problems?

Mayor Adams: Tell me more. You're a little stressed. You're a little stressed. Just get a nice breathing, because it's very impressive. All of you that are here, it's very impressive. Tell me more about when you say that.

Question: All right. What I say that is, especially in the Bronx, a lot of these programs aren't really shown. You can see flowers in Manhattan or Queens, and all these children, they get to see it on the walls or on, just the streets in general. In the Bronx, especially, there's no flyers anywhere for the children to reach out or to see what programs are available to them, because there is many programs for children to access, but there is many programs for students to access, but the problem is they can't reach out because they don't know that they exist.

Mayor Adams: What are some of the, how would you suggest, what are some of the things that we can do better in getting that information to them?

Question: I'd say there should be more, for example, for us, we host events to share these awareness of these programs, and… 

Okay, I'm sorry. I'm a little nervous. 

Mayor Adans: It's all good. It's all good.

Question: I'd say, even funding to have little events to, just spread awareness in different communities in the Bronx or Manhattan even, or around the cities in general, just to show them that these programs exist.

Mayor Adams: We should figure, okay, this is Commissioner Howard from DYCD. Commissioner, so tell us.

Commissioner Howard: We have a runaway homeless youth program, 813 beds serving young people from 16 to 24. We have a drop-in center where young people could come, take a… Get clothes, get resources, get wraparound services, get counseling as well, and then they get referred to a residential shelter. We have that in all of our boroughs, and we run a very good program in concert with our partners at the Department of Homeless Services. We have a system in place that addresses everything that you had just mentioned and the concerns that you had mentioned. 

Now, in terms of access to these services, we advertise and we promote on social media. We go through community events. We are putting it out there to young people. Utilize those services, but you also have to understand that those services are in high demand. Because of the migrants and asylum seekers, those services have been overrun with the new New Yorkers that are coming in waves. It doesn't preclude you, and your executive group to get the information, work with us to spread resources so that you can spread it on social media as well. My team over here is right here at DYCD, and they will take your information. 

Let's work together in building a partnership so that we can spread the information so that we can continue to reach young people. We also do a survey every year in January, what we call a youth count, and we go out there using our nonprofit partners, our young people, and we actually survey throughout the city in January, coldest month of the year, just talking to young people, providing resources, and making sure that they get connected to our Runaway Homeless Youth Program.

Eva Wong, Executive Director, Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health: I wanted to add something to what Commissioner Howard said about resources and getting access. Before I say that, I saw you all walking in. I was like, who's that smart-looking group of young people coming? Thank you for being here. We know that getting information sometimes is hard, even when in the digital age, right? We are looking at a subway. Adding to what Commissioner Howard has said, there is, I don't know if you're familiar with the work, Opportunity Starts with a Home initiative. There's a collaboration between my office, Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health, DYCD, and also Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where we had created and launched a campaign targeting homeless young people and those who are at risk of homelessness, to let them know more about exactly what you're saying.

I would love to connect with you, if it's not tonight, afterwards, so we can exchange contact info. We can find out how come we're not reaching you yet, right? We need to know how to get to and where people, young people are. I want to quote something, I think Commissioner Curry is still here, taking a line that she usually uses, nothing about us without us. For us, I think we share the philosophy and really the value that we don't want to do anything for young people without you being at the table. I want to invite you to have those conversations and let us know how come you're not hearing about these things, right?

Mayor Adams: We need to figure out how some good ideas on doing that communication. How do we communicate? How do we get it out? You said you want to host an event to do that. What we'll do, we'll open Gracie Mansion. We have a big tent in the back. You can bring down a lot of young people and host something there to talk about what you would like to accomplish. Commissioner, can you coordinate that between you and DOHMH? 

Commissioner Howard: Consider it done.

Mayor Adams: Okay. We can do that. Let's do it.ay. All right. All right. Good stuff, man. Thank you. Take a picture. Ladies, how you doing? Real pleasure. You got a nose ring. I'm going to get my nose pierced.

Commissioner Kreizman: Each representative who's sitting at the table for the Mayor's Office will be collecting the cards to ensure we do proper follow-up for the people who don't have an opportunity to ask the questions. Just please make sure to collect all the cards for people in the Mayor's Office. We want to thank all the Community Affairs officers sitting at every single table for participating. A round of applause for the members of the NYPD sitting at each table.