Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Older Adult Town Hall

July 31, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams: Really good being up here. I'm sure that… We are going to come to your questions so you don't have to put up the sign. We're going to do something that human beings don't do anymore. We're going to communicate. We're not going to yell at each other. We're not going to argue with each other. We're not going to call each other names. We're not going to try to be hurtful and harmful to each other. We're just going to do something good old-fashioned prior to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We're just going to talk to each other. We don't have to agree on everything, but we don't have to be disagreeable because we're living in a society that I think that everyone just wants to be painful to each other. It's playing out across the globe. I'm just not going to do that. 

I'm committed to the city. I put on a bulletproof vest for 22 years, and I stood on these street corners and protected the children and families of this city. I'm not mayor because I don't have a good pension. I'm mayor because I've watched dysfunctional behavior of a city that abandoned people from all ends. And like it or not, I inherited a mess, a mess. Everything from the healthcare that many people are angry about to a city where we were dealing with COVID. 

When I became mayor January 1st, 2022, we had a 40 percent increase in crime. No one was coming to the city to open businesses. Foster care children were being denied the support that they deserve. Our young people who had learning disabilities were not able to get the services that they needed. NYCHA residents did not have high speed broadband. Small businesses were not opening. We had Black unemployment was four times the rates of whites. We witnessed mopeds everywhere, ghost cars everywhere. We saw a city that was just moving in the wrong direction. And my number one enemy was running around, rats. 

Look at where we are now. Look at where we're now. When we hit the two year mark, we have more jobs in the City of New York in the history of the city. 17,000 illegal guns off our street. More small businesses have operated and opened in the city, in the history of the city. In one year, we… In the second year in a row, we've built and financed, we financed more affordable housing in the history of the city. Moved more people out of homelessness into permanent housing in one year in the history of the city. More people got FHEPS vouchers and was able to get housing in the history of the city. 4.1 million people are back on our subway system. And you know what? We have five felonies a day on our subway system with 4.1 million. We have the lowest robbery number on the subway system in the history of recording robberies in our subway system. 

Crime has dropped. Police officers are working. We gave union contracts. How many of you are union, former union members? We settled 95 percent of our union contracts and stopped hemorrhaging our police officers because we finally gave them the salary that they deserve. Our DC 37, FDNY, you look at these unions, they get a 96, 97 percent ratification rate because I treated them the way I wanted to be treated when I needed my salary and I need to make sure my pension was sure. I'm you. I'm you. 61 million, 62 million tourists back in the city spending money, containerizing our garbage to get rid of these pesky rodents that are running around. You know what we did with our foster care children? 6 to 700 were aging out every year. We knew at the beginning of the year that there was less likely to be employed, more likely to be homeless, more likely to be victim of a crime, more likely to deal with mental health issues. What we did, we're paying their college tuition, giving them a stipend and giving them a life coach until they're 21 instead of having to leave at 18 and they're getting back in college, getting the support that they're doing. 

Dyslexia screening. I'm dyslexic. 30 to 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island are dyslexic. What we're doing, we are testing for dyslexia at the lower grades so our young people don't have to go on a pathway of crime. They can go on a pathway of one day also seeing because you're dyslexic does not mean you cannot become the mayor of the City of New York. We're investing in people, folks. Double digit decrease in shootings, decrease in homicides, five of the seven major crime categories are down. 40,000 illegal mopeds and dirt bikes removed off our streets and we destroyed them so they won't come back on our street. 

Then we zeroed in on cannabis. These illegal cannabis shops that have opened, millions of dollars. We closed 750 illegal cannabis shops in our city that became magnets of crime and despair in this city. Cycled out of COVID. Remember COVID? Cycle out of COVID. Then out of nowhere. We were on a trajectory that was unbelievable. This was one of the greatest recoveries in the history of this city. Out of nowhere we had 207,000 migrants and asylum seekers that entered our city. Now people stop me on the street all the time, Eric, what are you doing to us? I can't stop the buses from coming in. It's against federal law. I'm required by city law to give three meals a day and make sure they're housed and wash clothing, educate 40,000 children, and I have no authorization to allow them to work. I went to a group and said, listen, I need you to help me remove graffiti off the street, help clean the streets, help do the slow things and we'll give you a stipend. The federal government said you can't do that. That's against federal law. 

207,000 people into our city that I'm required to take care of cost me $5.6 billion out of our budget that I had to come up with and close the budget gap. Mayor Bloomberg left us billions of dollars in surplus. He said, this is enough money, nobody can spend this billions of dollars in a short period of time, yes? It was gone. We had a $7.1 billion budget gap and we had programs that were funded with temporary dollars that were sunsetting that we had to fill those gaps, pre-K, 3K. 

Some of those educational programs, our libraries, our cultural institution, and we were able to do it because I did what you do in your household. I went to every agency in the city and said, we have to manage the people's money like it's our money and not wasting the money of the people. We found efficiencies early in my administration and thank God we did because we were going to need that money with the migrants and asylum seekers that we're facing. 

Those of you who are really in pain about this healthcare crisis or in pain about your health plan, your plan is my plan. I'm a retired civil servant worker. There's no special healthcare system for former mayors. Your plan is my plan. As a retired cop, that is my plan. We looked at this mess that they destroyed this healthcare plan that I inherited when I first came in. I sat down with Renee Campion, who's in charge of Labor and said, how do we do this? Do you remember what that plan was? That plan was healthy. Money was in it. We were able to finance. They used the plan to close union contracts under the previous administration and said, let the next mayor worry about it. Guess who's the next mayor? 

Everybody's protesting me. Everyone is yelling at me. How did they make this happen? I'm as angry as you are about what they're doing with this plan. I'm as angry as you are. And our options are limited. Our options are challenging. I'm constantly meeting with the MLC, meeting with labor, say, how do we fix this to take away the stress that people are feeling? Because no one should worry about their healthcare after you retire and after you put in all your money to make sure. Now, remember, we were in a few, if only entities where we've never charged for a healthcare plan, never. I'm fighting that that never happens. This is a battle. It's a battle. 

We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to prop this up. The people who are responsible for creating this mess are all acting like, well, it's not my problem. No, it's all of our problem. It's all of our problem. I know folks don't know their assemblyman. They don't know their senators. They may not know their congressman. Everybody knows the mayor. If things go wrong, that darned mayor. The guy stopped me the other day. I'm getting divorced, man. It's your damn problem. Everybody knows the mayor. I want it because winners want the ball when the game is on the line. This is our city. 

And as I watch people march through the streets saying, destroy America and destroy people who have Jewish faith, I want to be the mayor at that time. As I watch people knock off the turbines of the Sikh community, I want to be the mayor right now. As I watch people attack people because they're part of the LGBTQ+ community, I want to be the mayor right now. I want to be in charge of our schools, our hospitals, our Police Department, our Fire Department. I want to be in charge right now while we deal with these difficult things. I'm going to navigate us out of this, folks. This is going to be a better city after my administration and after I finish being the mayor of this city. 

We will open up to some questions from you. We love doing these town halls to give you an opportunity to hear directly from me and not what you read in the headlines. You can take the worst things that happened in a city of 8.3 million people and put it on Broadway every day and you begin to define yourself by that. In fact, no, this city is not moving in the wrong direction. When you leave here today, I want you to go Google those other cities. You don't see people in encampments on our streets. You don't see people sleeping on the side of highways, in our subway stations that we cleaned up. You don't see this total disorder in this city. 

This is the safest big city in America. Are we perfect? No. Do we have more to do? Yes, we do. It may be challenging to understand I've been mayor for two years and seven months. Two years and seven months. The problems that you're angry about were here long before Dorothy Mae Adams' son became the mayor. This place was a mess, no real order. You have a person that has brought order to this mess and you're going to start seeing the results of a person that brings order to chaos. Let's answer a few questions. I want to thank my team for being here. Do you have some of your swag for the Rat Pack? 

Kathleen Corradi, Citywide Director of Rodent Mitigation: Thank you, Mayor Adams. Just this week, we launched New York City Rat Pack. That is a call out to New Yorkers to get educated, get empowered, and take action against rats. When you complete those three items that require, you get a t-shirt or a hat. To get the swag to prove it. There's some stickers on the table outside to get your palates wet for joining New York City Rat Pack.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Where's the first table for questions? This is a beautiful building, by the way. 

Question: How are you going to ensure that all seniors know about the Department of Aging and all the services that's available to us? Because a lot of seniors do not know especially like a program like SCRIE.

Mayor Adams: That's a great question. That was the number one thing that we found on… And you're going to get some of that answer. That was the number one thing that I found when I was running for office, when mommy was still alive. I would ask her about basic services when I was a state senator. It's unbelievable how much we send back to Washington and how much we send back to Albany about services that you are entitled to. SCRIE, DRIE, the food stamps, so many things that you are eligible for. 

Here's what we're in the process of doing. I'm going to let the Department of Aging, my amazing commissioner’s not here right now, but here's where I am. Why do you have to figure out what you're eligible for if we have your information? If I have your income, I have your social security information, I know the programs that are available for you, why aren't we signing you up automatically? All you should be doing is sitting down getting that check brought to you. What my chief technology officer is in the process of doing is creating something called MyCity. When we get your information, you register one time under your agreement and you put in all your basic information, then we scour the entire resources of the city and connect you with them. 

There's no reason with all this technology available, you have to stumble on or somebody tells you, well, did you were supposed to get this? Then why the hell are you to tell me? Why am I sitting here trying to figure out what I'm supposed to get? We're a couple of… Probably by the end of this year, we're going to have that up and operating. We're doing it with parents who are signing up for childcare right now, which we cut from $55 a week to less than $5 a week, but we want to do it for every service. There's so many things that seniors are eligible for, but you're right. You have to find them. You have to be lucky to stumble on that. We want to change that. We want to sign you up automatically for those things that you are eligible for based on the information that we have. You want to add on that?

Executive Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray, Chief Program Officer, Department for the Aging: Absolutely. As the mayor said, we are actively working with the city's chief technology officer right now to ensure that we are incorporated in there so that when anyone's searching for any kinds of benefits or programs, we are also popping up, but we're not stopping there. We're in a community center, as the mayor said, that is amazing, right? 

There are about 300 citywide, and whenever I go out and we do this weekly to check out our senior centers, I hear a couple different narratives, one of which is a new member say, I did not know this existed or I wasn't aware that these programs were as fabulous as they are. I'm seeing some nodding here. Y'all have a good painting class here, right? A number of you go to it. I heard from you before that you… And I saw the art across the hall. There are so many good programs people can have access to. The mayor invested his time and we're investing ours in making sure that we're hitting the ground. Using technology is one piece, but not everybody's online, right? Not everybody's aware of that. We've got our Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, as you heard about in the video earlier. That was the mayor's commitment with our commissioner, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, and deputy mayor to making sure that all of government, the people here, and about 15 more agencies are on the ground thinking about those access points. Our Health + Hospitals system, if people are going in there for care, when they're being discharged or working with their social worker, that they're able to, when they leave, know about these kinds of programs. 

It has to be at every point of government that we are getting the word out. That is our commitment, and that's why we're moving all of our government colleagues to make sure you're aware of these programs. So technology and in-community is our commitment, and we're not leaving any of the dollars unspent. I see a lot of signs around that the point is that we are putting these dollars to work, making sure that the programs stay robust, and making sure that people are aware of them and using them. 

Mayor Adams: Your question is just, that's a big problem. Before we expand, we need to make sure we are using what we have, and we're not. There's so much we're sending back, not only for seniors, but also for just everyday New Yorkers who are in need. There's a lot of resources out there. We're not connecting the resources with the people. We must become more user-friendly, and then we have to stop believing you can stay in a sterilized environment of your office space. You got to get out in the streets. We need to, as was just mentioned, we need to come out and meet people where they are. That's how we cut unemployment in half by 30 percent, is that we start doing hiring halls right in local communities and telling people what they are. We got to meet people where they are, not where we are. We got to meet people where they are and take them where they ought to be, and that's the goal of this administration. 

Many people want to deify their position, they are this and that, and they don't want to get on the ground. You got to get on the ground, because people don't know about these services. And coming into a governmental building is intimidating. It's not easy. We may feel comfortable to do it if some of us are retired civil servants, but you go to the average person in the street, coming into a governmental building is that's bad news I'm going down to. No one goes down to the governmental building to say, happy birthday. They go there because something happened bad at a birthday party. I want to user-friendly administration. Thank you for that question. Yes, ma'am. 

Question: Good afternoon, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: You sort of touched base on what's going on in the city and what you acquired. Here's my question, and I think it lends to a lot of misunderstanding with the people. What are the services that the migrants are receiving from the city right now?

Mayor Adams: Love it. That's probably one of the top questions we receive at every town hall. I hear all the time, they are getting more than what long-term New Yorkers are getting. First of all, I wanted to lay out the foundation that I have no control on what they are getting and not. I have to follow the law. Second, people say, well, Okay, well, they're staying in five-star hotels. No, they're staying in tents. Thousands, restrooms are outdoors. Their showers are outdoors. We pay, on average, $11 a day for three meals for them, for three meals. They get the basic services. They're not eligible for what everyday New Yorkers are eligible for. They're not eligible for our WIC. They're not eligible for our vouchers program. They're not eligible for all those items. 

You saw the newspaper story that says, Okay, Eric is giving them credit cards to buy food. No, here's what we were doing. We found a company called MoCaFi. MoCaFi said to us, when I was on a campaign trail when I learned about them. MoCaFi said to us, people are not eating the food that they're wasting the food, that we're spending money on buying. They said, we can give people a food card only that they can go in, instead of you spending millions and billions of dollars from an out-of-town entity to bring food into your city, you could get this card, $11.50 per day, per person, and they can go into the local stores and restaurants and buy the food locally, so the money would stay in your community. This is going to save you $600,000 a month, over $7 million a year, and you're going to cut down on food waste so we're not wasting money. 

People yelled in the beginning, but now the editorial board of the Daily News is saying right on to what y'all doing. We're saving money. We are putting that money, instead of our money going to someplace out of our state and city and communities, people are now walking into the local bodegas, the local restaurants, and they're buying right there on the ground, where you could hire locally, and that is how we have to deal with this crisis, we have to find smart ways. 

Then we said to the migrants and asylum seekers, you got 30 days. You come in, you're a single adult, you got to find your way, like every other person that came to this country. In 30 days, we're going to give you intense care, we're going to give you information, we're going to be like the settlement houses of yesteryears, and we're going to show you how to move through the system, but you can't stay here forever. We got a lot of pushback, people took us to court, people called me names, they said I'm inhumane, 30 days, 30 days. When we did that, 65 percent of the people were able to go find their own way, and you saw a decrease in that 207,000 that came here, we're now down to 65,000 that are here. And we're still getting folks, we were getting 4,000 people a week, 8,000 every two weeks, 16,000 a month, we're still getting 1,000 a week that are coming here, but we're able to navigate and tell them when they come here, you can only stay in our system for 30 days, after that, you have to find your way. 

All of this changes if we let them work. I need lifeguards, food service workers, nurses, I need bilingual educators, I need translators. If we allow people to work, we would not be dealing with this problem we're facing right now. That is the key, employment, that's the dignity that people deserve. All of you, we're all Americans now, but go back into your lineage. Imagine if your family members that came to this country was told you cannot work, you cannot provide for your family. There's nothing more undignified than someone telling you can't provide for your family. When I go to those camps, those encampments, they all say the same thing when I walk in. We don't want your free food. We don't want you taking care of our children. We don't want you washing our clothing. We just want to work. That's all we want. That's what we need to do. They're getting nothing over what everyday New Yorkers are getting. We're going to treat them with dignity and respect. I'm not going to be undignified in how I treat them. That's what we have been doing, bringing down that cost, navigating this very challenging problem that we're facing.

Question: She said that you already brought the rat situation up, that was the question.

Mayor Adams: You like me. I hate Mickey.

Question: Yes. We have a lot of problems with the rats and the [inaudible]. I know you have put down birth control for them. It was much safer than the poison, that the birds would eat the poison. There was a lot of birds around, especially our lovely owl that died from there, the Central Park owl. If something, this is a good thing to do, to put the birth control down for them, I think.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I like that. Where did you get that Brooklyn accent from? We are using… And I want to turn it over to our rat czar, who I just adore. Tell us, let's answer that question.

Corradi: Thank you, Mayor Adams. Thank you for the question. We employ a number of different techniques, all part of integrated pest management to tackle our rat issue in New York City. The mayor mentioned some going after their food source. Every time we are taking a black bag off the street, and in this November, Department of Sanitation rules are going to have 70 percent of our waste now in containers curbside. We're taking a meal away from a rat and decreasing their ability to breed in our city. 

We also do a range of extermination techniques. Some use rodenticide, as you mentioned. Some are non-rodenticide treatments. Actually, our parks department, you mentioned our birds of prey. Our Parks Department is spearheading and a leader, really, in this field of using non-rodenticide treatment in parks anytime there is a nesting bird. If there is a nesting bird in a park, our parks department tracks that. If they need to do any extermination, they're using non-poison methods to make sure we're tackling rats, but keeping our other wildlife safe.

Mayor Adams: The most surprising thing I learned about this, that someone could be so smart on rats. You have a PhD on rats or something? She can tell you everything about a rat. Yes, ma'am.

Question: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: Good afternoon. How are you? 

Question: Pleasure having you here. The question that I have is, how do we get, as well as keep, the funding that we get in order to provide for the senior members? As background, we pretty much, with the funding, we provide trips to the museums, maybe have an outing here and there. We haven't had as many of those as I recall in the past. I know that for some of the older people, it's a way for them to get out, see the countryside, see something totally different. It's beneficial for them. I think beneficial for all the other people as well. How can you, what words can you share on that?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. I want you to get it, but you're onto something more than you probably even realize. I lost mommy in April when I was running in 2021. I started to really look into the whole concept of loneliness. Loneliness is one of the leading causes of the social determinants of health. In fact, in some European countries, they have loneliness czars. Because what loneliness does, if you are not doing those things, going out, being among your friends and loved ones, it actually aggravates some of the major health issues that you have. 

One study showed loneliness is the equivalent of smoking five packs of cigarettes a day. We have to, we have to do those things that you're saying. Because your mind is still sharp, you still want to enjoy. I was trying to get my mother to, when mommy was in her 80s, I was trying to get her to come move in and stay with me. She said, I don't want you to see my boyfriend, I'm not moving in with you. That continuing interaction. Coming here, interacting with people who care for you, who want to still appreciate what you bring is crucial. It is part of our health. We've ignored it and never looked at it. Loneliness is a major issue. We have to find creative ways. Now I know we spared some of the cuts. Why don't you go into that?

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Again, Sharon, your program director over there knows full well that what we invest in is quality enriched programs. We want to make sure that it isn't just one type of activity, but a diverse set of activities that keep you interested. Thank you for earlier sharing your story with me. I really appreciated that. 

We know a couple other things are happening. The mayor said we've got to use the dollars that we have. We want to make sure that the programs, when we invest in them, you've got a kitchen here where you've got good food, right? It's about the food. It's delicious. You want activities that are enriching, whether it's the painting classes you have here or it's trips. We also know that it's a bit more expensive, all of those things. What the commissioner and we are all doing with the dollars we have right now is looking at what your participation looks like on any given day, right? How many folks are showing up and making sure that the centers who are using those dollars continue to have access to those monies and where we need to take the resources that we have within the network and enrich programs. We're also going to be taking those steps, right? 

The third thing that is important to know is the mayor last year came and danced with us at an event. How many of you were part of Talent is Timeless last year? Not a lot. All right. Guess what? We're doing it again this year. We have a competition citywide that over 1,000 older adults participated in, whether it was dancing or it was singing or other kinds of activities. We want to make sure that everybody knows how vibrant and excited and continue to contribute to community. You do this work in community every day. We're going to make sure that those kinds of activities that we fundraise for to amplify the work you're doing, that's part of how we're going to get additional dollars to enrich what you do. 

Using the dollars fully, our program officers are here. They work closely with Sharon to make sure that we know how monies are being spent and if there are other things we could be doing. We're also investing additional dollars in citywide things that are exciting and keep the activity levels high.

Mayor Adams: We spared our programs from cuts. We spared them from cuts. To find more money, we need to. We want to make sure that these are vibrant, lively places. We're with you, 100 percent. 

Question: [Inaudible] have the opportunity. They either don't have the funds themselves, family's not around for them. The Y is the resource that provides both the friendship, the camaraderie, the food, and hopefully in many cases, the opportunity to go visit the places community and that gives them, the art back to them. That's why I raised the question.

Mayor Adams: I think it's a great question. It's an important question. We're going to continue to find and hear from you. What are some of the programming that we can do? That's what we need to get feedback. What is some of the programming that we can do to make sure it's more thorough? That may be a question that we should put out on what type of program.

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: Yes. Mr. Mayor, we have a live survey right now that I hope you should have had access to. If not, we're going to make sure that we send it around yet again. Our team has heard this over and over again, especially from older adults who are not currently coming to centers. As I said earlier, I often get from new members, right, folks who show up for the first time and I meet you and you say, this is my first week or my first month or I just started coming here and I didn't know how exciting it could be. I don't need this program. I want this other thing. 

We have a live survey right now. It's open. We're going to run it through September. There are over 6,000 individuals citywide that have responded, but that's not enough. We want to make sure that it's a diverse response, that folks in communities we usually don't hear from are reaching out and getting back to us. We're going to send this around to you and maybe in the live version of this also drop it in the YouTube so that everybody who's watching today is able to take that survey. Takes about 10 minutes. We will also work with your program team for paper versions so that you give us feedback. That's happening right now. 

Mayor Adams: Very important. That's good stuff. We also have, who's my, from the Police Department, who's my senior person that's here? Yes, no, that's a CO. Every precinct has a… Yes, who's my senior liaison? Are you? Come on up. Come on so they can know who you are. What Commissioner Stewart did, he put in place a… How are you doing? Good. He put in place a senior representative in every precinct so that you can go there for whatever reason to get information to help you navigate the system. You should know who the person is. This is Officer Perez. You're the senior person. Why don't you introduce yourself?

Police Officer Nelida Perez, Police Department: Hi, good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Officer Perez. I am Crime Prevention Officer from the 50 Precinct. I've been with the 50 Precinct for about eight and a half years. I just took over the position about two months ago. I used to be a NCO. I'm new now, and I have business cards if you would like some, okay?

Mayor Adams: You can tell Officer Perez don't like talking on the mic. Thank you. Get a card. I thought it was a brilliant idea by Commissioner Stewart. We all, no matter, if you don't remember any number in the city, we all know 911. Many of us know where our precinct is located. Now you have the comfort of walking in the precinct, asking for Officer Perez. If she can't get the answer for you, she'll assist you on what agency can get that answer for you. That is very important. Okay. Next table. How are you, ma'am?

Question: Hi. Good afternoon. Good. Thank you so much for coming up to Riverdale. Really appreciate this meeting. I had a personal question, and it was about coyotes. We have a serious problem up in Riverdale. I walk my dog on Palisades Avenue every night, and you can hear them, and it's a herd of coyotes. I would like to know if your department protects us. Should I reach out to you? Is there something that could be done? That's my personal question.

Mayor Adams: Yes. I was worried about rats. Do we have pest control?

Question: It's so serious that I just, if I may continue. It's so serious that one day, I take the same route every day, and I mentioned it to our group. I was passing, and I noticed feces that looked very strange, and it could have not come from a dog. I took a picture of it. I talked about it in our groups, wondering what animal is this, so I can share this with you later.

Corradi: Great. Thank you. Coyotes are not my area of expertise, but we can get connected with the Parks Department and the Department of Health and see where we can liaise there. We also have Alex Silver here, who is the Director of Animal Welfare and has worked a lot with groups around other wildlife in New York City, so we'll make sure we get all contact information exchanged, come up with what's in the city's rights and regulations when it comes to coyotes and making sure they stay safe and our humans stay safe as well.

Mayor Adams: What do we do normally? I know dogs and cats and other stuff. What do we do? This is the first time I heard about coyotes. New York City has a lot of animals, a lot of them. One, two.

Alexandra Silver, Director, Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare: Hi. Thank you. Yes, I'm Director Alex Silver, director of the Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare. I've heard about coyotes. New York City has a lot of wildlife that we don't always think about as being part of New York. Here in the Bronx, of course, you certainly do. Coyotes generally, we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone. The Parks Department has a wonderful initiative called WildlifeNYC. There's a very detailed website anyone can go to. If you Google WildlifeNYC, there's a whole page on coyotes with a lot of information. We can, as Kathy said, connect with the Parks Department. I know they've done workshops all about coyotes. They'll do webinars. I think we did some with community boards. Generally speaking, we leave them alone, they leave us alone. That works with a lot of animals. We don't want to, obviously, feed them. That ties in with a lot of the work that we're doing around containerization, so if you don't leave food out, that would attract them to their areas. I think, did you say you have a dog? 

Question: I do. Yes. 

Silver: Very important that you keep your dog on your leash and make sure that you keep your dog safe because coyotes could go after a dog. Probably if you're there, they're not going to, but again, very important to keep your dogs leashed because you don't want them to actually scurry away and then become prey.

Mayor Adams: Why don't we do… I heard you said you have a group. You have a group? Okay, so why don't we do this? Why don't we coordinate a sort of everything you need to know about coyotes sort of thing and do a Zoom where you can invite everyone on in an area. You can invite folks from your block and we'll do a presentation, some information, and just have you more informed about it, okay? Let's coordinate, get the contact information, and we'll set that up. 

Question: Thank you. Thank you so much. My question, I realized in the video that each precinct has that older adult service unit. My concern, and I think a lot of seniors' concern is when we're ill and we can't reach out to our provider, our healthcare provider, do somewhere within your budget that we could have a community health program or health urgent care just for seniors?

Mayor Adams: Tell me more, explain more for me. 

Speaker 12: I'm ill. I want to go see my doctor. My doctor's on vacation. I don't want to go to the emergency room, but I'm able to go just like a CityMD, but it's for elder care. Here at elder care, they have our information. They're able to pull up our prescriptions from any pharmacy. They're able to take their time, listen to us, because it could be heat, it could be just loneliness, it could be a number of things, but I think bringing seniors into an emergency care setting where they're going to be overwhelmed, one, by the traffic of people that are there for many things, and they would usually say, no, I don't want to go. They can go to this senior center for healthcare and be able to be serviced, be able to get a meal, they may have not eaten, and be able to get the follow-up needed throughout the senior centers throughout the city.

Mayor Adams: Great question. Before you respond, that's a great question. My mind is rolling because there's a lot into what you just said, and one of them is this right here. This is our emergency contact card. It's magnetic. It fits on your refrigerator or anywhere in the house. What often happens when an emergency responder comes to your house, if you're going through a medical crisis, that basic information you can't remember, or you're just dealing with the crisis. This card we created that you put right on your refrigerator, where if an emergency person comes, it's your name, your emergency contact number, your primary care doctor, your chronic condition, if you have one, any allergies, if you're allergic to medication or any medication you're taking. This is just basic information. We're giving these out. Feel free to use them. 

The second thing that came to my mind is that we have something now called Teenspace. We were seeing a great deal of… It's being used for depression with young people. They're using telemedicine right now. All these young people, they have the contact number, 24 hours, they get in contact with a healthcare professional, a psychiatrist or counselor, and they're able to talk to them using their phones. We have been blown away at how much these young people have been using it, number one, and number two, giving it two thumbs up. I think there's a way we can find what you're talking about and what you would like to do. What's your thought?

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: I think you're in the right direction. We learned so much during COVID about telehealth and wellness that we need to continue investing in that. Each of the… You also mentioned in the senior centers, making sure there's a partnership there. We currently… There's case assistance, and for those of you who might avail yourselves of that already, in every older adult center that we fund, there's a component where the older adult center has a case manager who is there for a number of different needs that you have to connect you to other healthcare providers. That's already embedded. 

Many of the programs also have what we call still mental health programs. It's still called geriatric mental health. What we did under this mayor's leadership and our commissioner was we expanded from about 20-something programs to 88 citywide. One of the things is making sure that you have mental health support, a clinician who is visiting this center. 

Then the final thing is, if you're not necessarily saying you're homebound, you can't leave home ever, but you may be temporarily homebound, we also have case management programs available citywide in each borough and district. There you have folks where they can connect with mental health or medical practitioners, or it might be, you said one other thing, which is it might just be heat, you're not feeling well, you need a wellness check, people to call you and check up on you. Some of those services already exist, but I absolutely think that you're getting on something where we got to go back to some of the basics where people show up. I don't know if our Health Department wants to share a little bit more about the community programs that they have.

Dr. Bindu Babu, Senior Clinical Programming and Policy Advisor, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: I definitely want to point out about these cards and the importance of these cards, because as a clinician, when I'm in the hospital and someone rolls up to me and says whatever the situation, and they're not conscious, I won't know what medications they are to help them immediately. What happens is a lot of seniors rely on either their caregiver or their family, and a lot of times they won't know these medications either. By the time I go to a computer, pull up your medications to see what your contraindications are, that's minutes. If you have this card, you have no idea how important that is. When I look at it, I have a sense of relief to administer what I need to do to save your life. Please, this is a really important card.

Question: Just to follow up, so are you saying that if there's an emergency, EMS shows up, they're aware to see if we have these cards on our fridge? is that going to be part of their process?

Mayor Adams: Yes. We're feeding that into the protocol. We're feeding that into the protocol. We are of the mindset that every agency should be working in collaboration with each other. If the Police Department is putting something in place such as these card notification, EMS need to know, okay, let me take that quick look at the refrigerator to do just that. 

I just really think you're onto something, and I just need to process it more. We can circle back. I'm looking at a combination of the Teenspace app. Telemedicine is unbelievable right now. They're able to diagnose different things, they're able to check different quick checks. You shouldn't have to go to the doctor anymore for basic routine check-ins. We're finding people are more likely to do this by using telemedicine. We're getting so many more use of it. We need to look at it in this space also. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Question: Before, this is our advisory board president, and she's just celebrating her 80th birthday over there, Ms. Camacho.

Mayor Adams: Oh, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Love it. Two more seconds. Love it. Happy birthday. Good to see you. Happy birthday. Good afternoon, Mayor Adams.

Question: Yes, ma'am. It's so wonderful meeting you in person. I always see you on television. Okay. There seems to be an increase in hate crimes. I think you alluded to it with the different groups that you mentioned before at the beginning of this discussion. However, there's a lack of consequences for a lot of these people's actions. For example, most recently, the burning of the flags on the college campuses. Hate is not acceptable. What can be done? What in the city is being done about this? 

Mayor Adams: Great question. It's not your imagination. We have an 84 percent increase in antisemitism. We have doubled the number of Islamophobia that's seen in the city. We're seeing just about every group, Asian community, just about every group, we're seeing some level of increase in hate. I think we have to go back to the basics on what we need to do. 

We do something in our administration called Breaking Bread, Building Bonds. We did it last year, and we want to continue to push on it this year. 1,000 dinners across the city, each person at a dinner table, 10 people, all of them coming from a different ethnic, cultural background, and they're doing something revolutionary. They're talking to each other. They're learning from each other. Why are you wearing a yarmulke, a hijab? What is Kwanzaa? What is Diwali? We are fostering communication, because hate has no place in our city, in our country, and we've normalized hate, and people are comfortable in being hateful. 

Councilmember Borelli said something that really resonated with me. He said, it's alright to be angry, but it's not all right to hate. Anger motivates us for change. Hate wants us to destroy each other. I think that we want to do this cross-collaboration. We should bring a senior center from Sunset Park up here and sit down and engage in those conversations. We should bring a center from South Jamaica, Queens to Bensonhurst to communicate. It's unbelievable how diverse we are as a city, but we still do not cross-collaborate as much as we need to. 

Then we have to get into our schools. I was very alarmed and concerned with some of the things I saw on our college campuses, that anti-Americanism that we saw calling out for the destructions of groups. It's just not who we are. You see this erosion of just loving our country. There's a poll out, only 18 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds really love America. That's frightening. We have to fall in love with our country again. This is the greatest country on the globe. No one is lining borders leaving America. They're lining borders to come into America. 

We no longer love this product that we have. I just think it's important that we go down to the basics. I look at the diversity I see in this room. It says a lot. It says a lot. We need to continue to expound and expand on that. Because what you are feeling, the numbers are right. Then, finally, we should have a no-plea bargaining rule for anyone that carries out a hate crime. You should not be able to go in, get arrested, and all of a sudden you're out the next day laughing about it. No. I think our DAs should say there's a no-plea bargaining rule. You commit a hate crime, you're going to be held accountable for it. We have an amazing initiative from Human Rights. That's that woman in that button that… Oh, I see our councilman joined us also. Good to see you, councilman.

Deputy Commissioner Kajori Chaudhuri, Community Relations Bureau, City Commission on Human Rights: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. As Mr. Mayor said, hate has no place in New York City. Sometimes acts of hate are not taking place externally. They are taking place in areas of housing, in employment, in public accommodations, where it starts as a bias incident, where it starts as a discrimination incident. We all need to know that discrimination is prohibited in New York City. If any of you feel you've been discriminated because of your race, religion, national origin, or any of the 27-plus protected identities, you have a recourse to the City Commission on Human Rights. You can call us. I have my business cards. I'm going to send it out after. Please reach out to us, because hate has no place in New York City. We currently have a campaign, and I'm wearing a button. I have some additional buttons. Please take them as well. Where we are focused is to ensure that New York City is a place where everyone can live, work, and thrive free of bias, hate, and discrimination.

Mayor Adams: Well said. The loudest, they are not the majority. There's more of us than there are those, than them, than those who are trying to divide us. We just have to now add our voices and be really creative on bringing people together. I think we're at a critical stage. Hate has been normalized at a pace I never thought I would see again in our country. Thank you for that question. Yes, ma'am. 

Question: I'm going to contextualize the question that I wanted to ask. You've pointed several times to the importance of combating loneliness. I want to talk about what measures are in place to protect, preserve existing housing for seniors, and create new independent living facilities for older adults. Who can I contact about that?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Who do I have from HPD? HPD? Okay. I want you to respond to the question. What we, the number one thing we must do, ma'am, is have to build more housing. We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate in this city. All those, with the number of people that are looking for housing, we don't have enough units. That's one of the most important things we need to do. Yes.

Question: More specifically, the situation that prompted the question involved existing housing that is being sold off from the not-for-profit sector to the profit sector.

Mayor Adams: Tell me more about that.

Question: The New Jewish Home owns a property right across from the VA hospital on Kingsbridge and Webb and wasn't interested any longer in managing it. It has moved its focus to Manhattan and more into healthcare. Could not find another buyer, supposedly, within the not-for-profit sector. Has already sold several of its properties to Citadel and is now in the process of selling its independent living facility to Citadel with horrible consequences.

Mayor Adams: First and most importantly, we can't control privately-owned property. We can't go to them and say, no, you cannot sell it to someone. We can't control that. What we can control is using governmental subsidies to build senior housing, affordable housing, supportive housing. As I said in the beginning, we've built more of that in one year and two years, actually, back to back in the history of the city. We've built more of that. 

What we need is more land and more ways to build. We have zoning laws that have not been changed since the 60s. They have prevented housing. What we're doing with the City of Yes is we're saying, let's build a little bit more housing in every community. Instead of… There's 59 community boards in the city, 10 community boards have built more affordable housing than the other 49 combined. That's just unfair. Access to good schools. Access to good medical facilities. Access to good transportation. Access to good housing. It should be shared throughout the entire city. Not only for our seniors, our vets, those types of supportive housing, we need to build more housing. We've got a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. That is the lowest it has been in decades. We have to build more housing. You want to talk about it?

Ted Weinstein, Director, Bronx Planning, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Sure. I'm Ted Weinstein. I'm director of Bronx Planning for HPD, Department of Housing Preservation and Development. We do a variety of things. You touched upon several different things. In terms of just new construction, very quickly, we have various programs that provide financing to build. In a perfect world, we would just leave it to the industry to build whatever's needed. That's not going to happen. We're not going to get affordable housing that way. What we do is we provide financing to developers to build affordable housing. Some is for very low income people, for low income, for moderate income, and for seniors. In this administration, I know we've produced over 2,200 units of new senior housing. We're constantly getting, we have a long waiting list for developers who want to do that. 

One of the issues is land. There was a time, and I know many of you are familiar with the fact that there was things that were done back in the 1980s, 1990s, that the city became an owner of property. Most of that property is already taken care of. It's already developed. Most of our financing goes to privately owned land, privately owned developers. We will provide financing. We're constantly looking. There's been a lot of development on, for example, in NYCHA. where there's land available, we're constantly looking for that. NYCHA sometimes has complexes with unused parking lots. That becomes a good candidate to build new housing, specifically for seniors. 

In terms of preservation, we have preservation programs that provide financing for the owners of those properties. One of the things specifically is we have an aging in place program. That when someone comes and takes an apartment, signs a lease, gets some financing from us to do rehab work, we want to make sure that apartment is also going to be available to somebody who might need accessible features, things like that so that they can then stay there and they don't have to move out when they become a little older. There's a great variety of programs. I encourage everybody to take a look at our website, nyc.gov/hpd. You'll see all of our different programs, including even just basic tips on how do you find, if you're looking for an apartment, how do you find it. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Housing, we need housing, We're right with you. You need a bed. I want to just pause for one moment. I just saw that we have the councilman that has joined us. Why don't you say hello to your constituents? I know you hold it down. We were hanging out this morning around the illegal weed.

City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz : That was a good press conference. They closed, the mayor working with the state closed over 750 of the illegal smoke shops that I know many of you call my office about. It's so good to see so many familiar faces, so many friends here. I don't know if they introduced the Y to the mayor, though. Did you all talk about how special this place is? It doesn't sound like 

I'm going to tell you how special this place is to me. I think starting in fourth grade, so six years ago, I started going. The youngest councilmember, you can tell. I started going to summer camp here. Then when I was a teenager, I did the musicals here. I did the shows a little bit into college. I wasn't that good. Man, I had a great time. Then when I had kids of my own, and I know a lot of this because you would hear them screaming, they were in the early childhood center here. My dad comes here every morning to work out. He was here earlier. He says hello. I know they’re having a budget forum. They're a community partner. They're hosting the budget forum that I'm having in two weeks on August 14th. Speaking of, you're Breaking Bread and Building Bonds. They had the first inaugural class of the We Are the Bronx Fellowship Against Hate, bringing together people from all over the Bronx, from different backgrounds, to do a fellowship, to talk to one another, to learn about one another, to hear each other's experiences. 

My story is not unique. That's the story of so many people here in the Bronx who have grown up here, who are sending their kids here, who go to the older adult center here, who have made, as their slogan goes, made their lives here. This building, the people here are very special. I want to thank you for coming to Riverdale. I want to thank the Riverdale Y for doing what you do best and bringing community together. It's really fun being your councilor and hearing some of the questions. I want to talk very briefly. This ain't my show. I do want to talk briefly about a few things. 

First, Mr. Murray, you've got to thank Alex. Because I don't know if she remembers, but November 17th, 2022, she hosted a Zoom about coyotes. You're all laughing as if we didn't get tons of calls in my office about coyotes, which is not an effective rat mitigation technique, let me tell you. No, we don't want them. That's on YouTube. I appreciate the offer to do another one. I do want to publicly thank you, Alex, for coming out when our community needed it and for your office helping to set that up. 

Yes, hate crimes, the rise in hate. One of the things I always say about the mayor is I feel really fortunate to be in a city where someone has spoken so clearly out against hate. Every single time, no matter the community, no matter where it is, states very clearly that it's not tolerated. I think we all, there are a few things I want to address with this. One is so many of us know so much of the hate isn't the burning of the flag. It's not necessarily the swastika on the door. It's the everyday interactions we have with people, the feeling of not feeling welcomed. I especially felt this myself as a teacher and saw it in the schools. Any efforts to help mitigate that. The burning of the flag, the swastikas, the N-word, those are the end points or towards the end points of hate. They start building much earlier than that. When the mayor talks about education, I'm in full support of that. We've actually done a number of initiatives, investments to make sure our students are educated. 

I do want to say one other thing about hate. I'm lobbying right now. He doesn't know it, I'm lobbying the mayor right now because I have a bill. One of the reasons so many of us feel hate and we feel unsafe is because when there is an act of bias, act of hate, someone's arrested, that information is public. Then we don't know what happens to that person. Are they, is there bail? Are they tried? Are they convicted? Is there some sort of program for them? We don't know. I have a bill I would love to partner with you on that says on the NYPD's hate crimes dashboard, they will publish what happened to that person so we know in our communities, what happened… In Riverdale a couple years ago, we had the person who was vandalizing the shuls, throwing the bricks at the shuls night after night. Except for calling the DA's office myself, we weren't able to get any information. Informing the community would be something that I think would make people feel a lot safer, knowing whether or not the person's on the street, whether, any of that information. I would look forward to that. 

I again want to thank the mayor for being here. Any of the issues that are brought up today, I look forward to working with you on to making sure that we solve them for all of you, because that's what we are here to do. We are here to respond to you, to be responsive to you, to ensure that you're safe, but also to improve, maintain and improve your quality of life. I look forward to being able to continue to do that in partnership with the mayor and his team.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Great bill. Great bill also. He said what happened? They got you.

Question: You know I was going to talk. I get a little nervous. Forgive me. I can't stand.

Mayor Adams: That's Okay. I stand for you.

Question: It's about the New York City retirees health fund. Let's see if I can remember all my notes without looking at them. We've had already about seven court cases. I lost count. The courts ruled in our favor. The teachers union reversed their backing. They're backing the retirees’ current health plan. The Municipal Council wrote you a couple of weeks ago asking to get together to try to resolve the health question. I got more. You get the picture. You read my sign, you know the story. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Yes. I don't know if you… Who here knows the history of how we got here. Does anyone know how? 

Audience Member: [Inaudible] promising to keep our healthcare [inaudible] bait and switch and you would never do that to us. And I know many stories about Medicare Advantage where people are denied services. My husband had a liver transplant last summer, and if he had been under Medicare Advantage, how do I know if they would have covered it? And you’re trying to move us into managed care to lose our good benefits. We worked for the city at lower wages instead of working in business, and we did it because when we retired, we were told we would be taken care of.

Mayor Adams: Agree, agree. Your shirt is the word I think about. Nope. Who knows the history of how we got here? That was my question. Does anyone know the history of how we got here? Yes, go ahead. Do you know? 

Audience Member: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: There you go, there you go. Please give her the microphone, because people need to know the history of how we got here. 

Audience Member: Yes, but that doesn't mean that we need to suffer because they borrowed money. 

Mayor Adams: Right, but you didn't tell them why they borrowed money. They didn't hear that part.

Audience Member: It was for the teacher's salary. They took money from a support health trust fund that the city puts money into every year. It's there to support the health program.

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Audience Member: So if it's more expensive than a certain top price, that program would put money into it.

Mayor Adams: And it was healthy, folks. There was enough money. It was running well. It was healthy. We had a good insurance process. I don't know if you heard what the gentleman stated. The gentleman stated that the UFT now backs you. You created the problem, and now you are running from the problem and say I back you. The money was used, as you just stated. 

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Right. They took… 

[Crosstalk.]

Hold on, hold on. Now I heard you, so you got to give me a chance to respond.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: No. I didn't change my mind. I didn't change my mind. I took all that information I needed to understand what was going on. They wouldn't give me access to that information. Once I got in office, I brought everyone into the room, and I said, what is going on? I brought my labor. I brought in OMB. I brought in a whole team, and I met with the MLC. I went to the MLC. We sat around the table and said, how do we fix this problem? 

This is costing us $50 million a month. This is what's costing us by this temporary status that we're in. These are taxpayers’ dollars. These are taxpayers dollars, that this temporary status. You've been back and forth to court, and you should continue to fight. You should continue to fight. You should continue. You should continue to push. You should continue to fight, because we have to find a resolution to it that's not going to bankrupt your plan, and that's not going to bankrupt the city. 

That's what I inherited. I inherited a plan that everyone is running away from that created.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: That's my goal.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: It's called, it's called, it's called a corporation counsel. They're responsible, the corporation counsel, the lawyers for the city, are responsible for protecting the city interest. While they're going to court, I'm in the room with the MLC. I'm in the room with the unions. I'm in the room and say, listen, what are the ways we can do this and try to figure this out? That's how this process goes. Last week I sat down, and many of you may know him, I sat down with former [Sergeant Gantley.] He's part of the coalition that's putting this together. He came in and flew in from Florida. We sat down and talked. He gave me some ideas, and I'm sitting down with labor. I want to fix this. I want to fix this, but don't let, don't let anyone… Yes, but remember what I said at the beginning.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Your health plan is my health plan. Your health plan is my health plan. We're in this together, and the best shot to fix this is somebody that needs the health plan that they're going to live off of. You go look at these all mayors that came before me, none of them were union members. None of them had to worry about their pensions. None of them had to worry about, can I afford my health plan. I'm in this with you. We're in the same boat. I'm the best person to be at the helm right now as we come to a resolution with this. Yes, sir.

Question: I just want to ask you, if you can give us a heads up, what was accomplished at the meeting with the Municipal Council?

Mayor Adams: The worst thing you could do is while you're in negotiation, leak what the negotiation is. We're in the negotiation, but listen, I hear, I cannot say enough. I hear you loud and clear. This is a problem we must fix, and I'm not going to kick the can down the road. The next mayor, whenever he comes in or she comes in, is not going to be dealing with this issue. You're quite welcome.

Question: Yes, ma'am. More union questions. All good. I am a retired teacher, and I'm not yet eligible for Social Security. I live in Amalgamated Housing, which is financially in bad shape. They're about to raise the price that we pay for it, like $100 a room, but I'm not getting another COLA. I'm not getting Social Security. How am I supposed to pay for it? I'm not sure if I can meet those expenses along with how much groceries cost. Is there provision for it in a new contract or receiving COLAs more often than we have been?

Mayor Adams: I'm not quite understanding the question.

Question: I'm retired, so I get my retirement payment, but I don't get Social Security yet.

Mayor Adams: Right.

Question: How can people in that position keep up with the rises in expenses for where they live, for the food that they eat? We don't get COLAs all that often.

Mayor Adams: I think this falls into one of those categories where everybody knows the mayor. I do not negotiate the Social Security. I do not negotiate those things after, once you're in retirement, outside of some of the health care benefits, et cetera. That's a combination of entities that have to do those cost-of-living adjustments. That does not fall in my purview of control. 

Question: Whose control is it? 

Mayor Adams: It's a combination. Social Security, it's a federal, it's a federal issue. When you're saying your adjustments in the amount of subsidies that are being paid, it depends on what subsidies there are. That is what we need to look into. As a retired teacher, were you getting COLAs for cost of living? I get variable supplements as a retired police officer.

Question: I've gotten one. I've been retired for six years now. I put in 31 years into teaching.

Mayor Adams: It's a good run. Yes. In my retirement plan, I get what's called variable supplement. I get an additional amount each year as a former police officer. My pension is not COLA. I don't get a cost-of-living adjustment on my pension. It doesn't add on as cost of living. 

Now, should we? That's something that state lawmakers will have to look at to make the determination, should we give cost-of-living adjustment on pension payments? That will come out of our pension funds. That may not be a bad idea. You could… I think you got to talk to your state lawmakers to make that happen. Okay? Thank you. Yes, you can, only if you want to.

Question: This is a little different question. I like to know that everybody's aware of that. Everybody takes buses one way or the other. I lost my husband, so we used to have a car. We could drive everywhere. I have a license, but nobody let me drive. They didn't want to get killed. I'm now an avid rider with buses. What I'm seeing is that there is no common sense anymore. I see on 234th Street and Broadway, 40 people going in the back door. I want to know, and we are all squeezed like sardines, talking about COVID. That's the best way to get it. 

The point is, what's going on? And the MTA is crying for money. I'm saying to myself, are they out of their minds? You're going on a bus, you want to relax, you want to enjoy the day. Actually, this is my enjoyment. They change another thing, they have those signs, the signs, it says senior citizen. They are thinking that senior citizens are so silly and blind and deaf and dumb. They put the signs way on the bottom. The senior citizens sitting by the window can't even look it out and enjoy the ride for half an hour, whatever. Okay. My question is, why…

Mayor Adams: I thought that was your question.

[Laughter.]

Question: That's part of it. I want to know just… MTA is crying for money. They say they have no money. In the meantime, what they're showing where you put your money in? Three people came in, that's how it shows. It's, oh, he closes up. I says, why are you closing this up? No, we don't need it today. Another driver says, don't go through the front, go through the back. You must be kidding. The city is falling and everybody see it. Nobody talks about it.

Mayor Adams: Let me answer that. Because there's a level of clarity and a level of honesty what you're saying. When we came into office, no one was, people were not paying their fare. Everyday taxpayers was picking up the cost of that. Although we did reduced fare MetroCards for extremely low income New Yorkers, people just became comfortable because many of the district attorneys back then were saying we're not going to prosecute in any way those who are not paying their fares. Then people who were eligible to pay their fare was just walking through the gate. 

One night I went to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue and I stood there and it was unbelievable how… I don't even know why we had gates there because nobody was paying their fare. We went and started cracking down on it and setting the right tone and the right message that if you don't have the money to pay your fare, there are methods to get a free ride. If you do, you have to pay your fare. We stopped doing that. We stopped prosecuting those cases. Now we're back in the business of making sure that people are paying their fare because you're right. We're hemorrhaging money. We lose millions of dollars because people are not paying their fare and many are able to pay it, just refuse to do it. We're the same way with you. Everyone should pay their fare that's suitable for paying their fare. Now you're not going to get your microphone again because we're going to switch over to the next table. We heard you.

Question: Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor. Good to see you. I must say that you're a handsome man and I love your biceps also.

Mayor Adams: Yes, but nobody wants to marry me.

Question: Listen, I have four eligible daughters.

Mayor Adams: Mothers tell you bring home a doctor or lawyer. No one says bring home a mayor.

Question: I'm going to say bring home a mayor and you'll be the perfect son-in-law for me. Now, I had something else to ask you. The gentleman said he would refer it to somebody else. Okay. It seems as if the threat of loneliness has captured this room, and I think it's going to be the new disease. Not only for young, not only for old, but also young. I don't know. Is it because of lack of friends or family? I don't think so. 

I don't know what it is, but it just permeates each and every one of us. I'm an empty nester, and I'm accustomed to cooking and raising my children. The laughter, the merriment, and it's a void. I think one thing that can resolve it, and maybe you could do something about it, it's the adoption system with the pets. Because I know that a lot of us love pets, but the red tape that one has to go through, the application forms, the fees, et cetera. If something could be done to eradicate that, it would be wonderful. I have a lovely home waiting for a little furry pet when my son-in-law, the mayor, comes.

Mayor Adams: Let's talk about that, the challenges of adoption. Yes, I didn't know there was a lot of…

Silver: I love all the animal questions today. This is a good crowd. I love that you brought up pet adoption, and I would love to chat to you after about your experiences, if there's anything specific that you've come across. The city has, unfortunately, hundreds of homeless animals in animal shelters that are looking for homes. Cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs. I'm sure we can find you a furry friend to take home, and you would be doing an amazing thing, because the shelters are really struggling right now. 

Yes, I'd love to hear about your experiences. Animal Care Centers of New York City is contracted by the city to serve all five boroughs as the animal shelter. They just opened a new shelter in Queens. One is coming to the Bronx, we're building it. It should be very easy at ACC to adopt, they'll have a conversation. They try to lower barriers, because nationwide, we're recognizing that people want to offer good homes to animals, and that it does have so many benefits, like you said, for humans, for companionship, for loneliness. It shouldn't be that hard. I'd love to hear your experiences and talk further. 

Mayor Adams: Great. Because we want to make it easier, so let's look at that. Maybe we want to even do a campaign of how to adopt, just the ABCs of adoption.

Silver: I love it, I love it. Also fostering. If anyone isn't ready to commit to adopting a pet, maybe you can do it for two weeks. You can foster an animal, and you will be doing an amazing thing, and have a very rewarding experience.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I want to get a dog so bad for Gracie Mansion. It's just that, just, taking care of them, being out on the run. I think you're right. Having a pet is unbelievable on how much it could just really be a good, friendly atmosphere to have. I love dogs. Yes, sir. 

Question: Yes, well, I want to tell you, it's been a pleasure listening to you, seeing you for the first time in person, a whole lot better than the emails that you flood me with. Yes, okay. I wanted to tell you how grateful I am for the funding that was provided for all our city students, that they can have computers for free in their home. It's a tremendous difference in our education. I was just wondering, could the city provide funding to buy computers for seniors who may live on limited budgets? 

Mayor Adams: I like that a lot. We did, we did, what year was that? We did the…

Executive Deputy Commissioner Murray: I think it was two years ago, you did a number of iPads, especially as we were getting back from the… We did giveaways of these devices and they were wired so that folks can keep up with, whether it's the grandkids or family members, because as everyone's talked about, social isolation, I know everyone says, look up from your phone and let's look at each other and talk. That is true, but we also need to stay connected. Happy to talk to you a little bit more about what other ideas, but we keep hearing this as one of the things that we should be looking at. We're going to take that back, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: What we're going to do also, because that's a great idea. We're going to… The Partnership for New York City, that's our business entity. Kathy Wylde is in charge of that. A lot of people don't realize that each year, corporations get rid of a large amount of computers that are just a few years old, still workable. I think we could create a real partnership, Computers for Older Adults, COD, Computer for Older Adults, COD. I like that. 

Let's talk about that. Let's get these corporations in the room. Google's here. We have some of the largest tech companies that are here and I think it's a win for them. I think that's a brilliant idea. Next week, I'm going to ask Kathy to hop on a Zoom with a lot of our tech and see what is their lifespan, when do they get rid of their computers, and let's partner folks with them. I think that's a great idea. 

Zoom has been introduced into our lives after COVID. That's a great way to communicate. It's not the ideal way, but being able to hop on and communicate is crucial. Telemedicine is unbelievable how it can really have you connect with many people for different reasons. Let's look at that. I think you're on to something. Okay, thank you. Yes, ma'am. 

Audience Member: I just wanted to say that having the computers is one thing, but places like the Riverdale Y has classes that teach the older adults how to use the computer and different computer skills. I think the two go hand in hand because technology doesn't come easy to some people. I'm thankful to the Riverdale Y for all their programs and one of which is computer skills and technology.

Mayor Adams: Great institution. What I've found is that what motivates, when mommy was alive, I showed her how to email. A big mistake because she emailed me all the time to do everything. Doing things that motivate you, not just taking a computer course, learning ins and outs, but doing something. We all have a passion. If it's looking up your favorite author, if it's learning your recipes, that is a good training method to do. 

I want to thank the Y for what they do and really want to thank all of you for coming today, hearing from you, and just knowing that this is a city that we love. All of us love this city. I'm hearing about a teacher for over 30 something years in our school system, educating the minors of our children. We are committed and dedicated. I want to thank all my team members who are here for coming out. If you don't know your captain, he's here. Again, thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day.

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