Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

August 6, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-E5dr0aEpM

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: Good morning, everybody. My name is Fabien Levy and I serve as deputy mayor for Communications for the City of New York. Thank you all for joining us for our weekly in-person media availability. 

Over the past week, our administration announced that we are expanding summer programming to keep young people safe and giving New Yorkers new tools to build additional dwelling units on their property as well as help combat the housing crisis. We celebrated that our administration is ahead of schedule to connect 2,500 New Yorkers with disabilities to good-paying jobs over three years and strengthen our investment in New York City's Workforce1 Career Centers. But this wasn't the only exciting news from the past week. Many of you have gotten to know Deputy Press Secretary William Fowler over the last few months here at City Hall. And on Saturday morning, William and his wife welcomed their first child, Meredith Alice Fowler, into the world. Very cute. While we'll all miss William during his parental leave, we wish him and his wife and Meredith all the best. 

Now to tell you more about the work we are doing every day to build a safer, more affordable city, including how we are preparing for today and tomorrow's storm, the mayor has once again convened senior leadership here at City Hall for our weekly in-person media availability. So joining us today we have Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg, and New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol. So I'm pleased to now turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, DM Levy, and good morning to everyone. We are clear on our message: protecting public safety, rebuild our economy, and making our city more livable for all New Yorkers in general, but specifically working-class people. As you know, one week ago today, DM Meera Joshi talked about our new protocols around the safety plan to make beach lifeguards available to respond to emergencies during heatwaves, even if the beaches are closed to swimming. 

Now we want to be clear, people should not be swimming on beaches after they are closed, but people do so anyway. And on Thursday, during the first heat wave, where it was activated, our plan saved a New Yorker's life on Rockaway Beach. And this video is showing the actual execution. That's a drone that's up, that's being used as part of our plan, and we were able to save the life of a swimmer. So we want to really encourage people not to swim after the beaches are closed, but the FDNY drone was utilized to assist in this swim safety that took place. And hats off to the team that created the plan. Thank you, DM Meera Joshi, and I cannot say thank you enough to the lifeguards and all the first responders who responded. And just last night, at 7 p.m., after swimming was closed on the beach in Rockaway, Parks Enforcement Patrol staff duty pulled three more people out of a rip current. Rip currents are extremely dangerous. We cannot emphasize this enough. So, again, we want to reiterate, even when these new protocols are in place, we should still comply with the rules of not swimming when lifeguards are off duty. 

And just going back to protecting public safety, I'm very happy to announce a new significant milestone for Operation Padlock to Protect. Hats off, really, to the sheriff, the NYPD, the entire team. You know, when you get the legislation from Albany, you need to implement it, and that's what we've done. We have done over 840 illegal cannabis shops, and we seized more than $45 million in illegal products. Really impressive when you go out and look at some of the initiatives that his team is doing there, and it's really a great job. 

And finally, Women Forward, something Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom and the team rolled out together. It was important that we invest in the women of our city. Six months ago, we invested $43 million across 42 initiatives to make New York the most women-forward city in America by addressing gender disparities in economic mobility, health, public safety, and stable housing. And it's important to note that these efforts included transgender and gender-expansive New Yorkers. To date, nearly 70 percent of the initiatives have been launched or are already completed, which will directly serve over 97,000 New Yorkers. One example that I like a lot is the Project Home pilot, which provides housing to domestic violence survivors. It has already helped 120 families in the last four months. And so Women Forward NYC has built the framework for all our gender equity work, and there's still more to come. 

And we want to make sure that, in the whole area of livability, that our summer concerts are still in place and our Summer of Possibilities. We've invested $2 million in expanding youth programs. We hear this all the time. We need to give alternatives to our young people, and we're doing just that, not only through DYCD, but through other mechanisms. A few days ago, Sunday, we had a great concert in Harlem, where many young people came out and listened to music. So, we have an extra night of our Saturday Night Lights free sports program, Cornerstone programs at NYCHA community centers, and Beacon programs at school-based communities. And we opened a new library in Far Rockaway this week. Really, really impressive building, and it's going to be a cornerstone for that entire community. 18,000 square foot new library is double the size of the previous branch, and it brings free programming for the young people in that area. 

So we're going to open to questions, but before we do that, we've been talking about all morning, we're looking at some real weather emergencies. We're going to have some inclement weather here. Whenever Zach Iscol is at the press conference, you have to worry, or the off-topics have to worry, because things are about to happen. And so, over the next few days, we have a risk of extensive rainfall, possible flash flooding, and chances of damaging winds with thunderstorms. And so, NotifyNYC, we cannot say it enough, but we're using other mechanisms as well to notify New Yorkers, but we're really encouraging people to sign up for NotifyNYC. And so, I'm going to turn it over to you, DM Levy.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Sure. Thank you, mayor. And I just want to also give credit to DM Torres-Springer and her team on Women Forward NYC. I know that was a big initiative of theirs. 

Question: Hi, mayor. How are you?

Mayor Adams: I'm doing well. How are you doing?

Question: I'm doing well. Thank you so much. I'm sure you've heard about the comptroller's report on DocGo. It was a very hectic time. You were dealing with this huge emergency with the migrant crisis. The report talks about how the city paid for nearly 10,000 unused hotel rooms, and that's taxpayer money. Can you talk about, like, what was happening at the time where that was allowed to happen?

Mayor Adams: We don't have enough time to talk about what was happening at the time. Trust me. When we were getting these large number of people who were being sent from Texas and other parts of the country, at one point, we were receiving 4,000 — 4,000 people a week, 8,000 every two weeks, 16,000 a month. We have a total of over 210,000 people that have arrived at our city, you know, larger than the size of Albany, New York. We've all heard this over and over again. 

And you… When you get that call in the middle of the night, you need 200 rooms. You know, a bus pulled in, you need 150 rooms. You need 300 rooms. You don't have time to call Motel 6. You better be prepared. And that's what this team did. And it is very comfortable to sit in the bleachers and, you know, just be a detached spectator. But when you are running a city as complex as this, you have to be prepared. And that's what this team were able to do. Camille, you or one of the team, DM Williams-Isom, you want to touch on this?

Camille Joseph Varlack, Chief of Staff to the Mayor: Sure. Thank you, mayor, and thank you for the question. I mean, I think the mayor covered most of it right. So, certainly, we know the numbers. We know what was happening at that time. The audit covered a very specific period of time, May to June of 2023, which was over a year ago. Before the audit had even started, we had already implemented many of the changes that the comptroller was asking us to make. And we had also launched an open, competitive RFP process to replace that contract. 

But again, can't underscore enough the unpredictable nature of what was happening at that time. Over 4,000 people coming in. We needed to make sure that people had a safe place to stay. I think that we have demonstrated that we have been able to do that. We have kept families and children off the street, which was the mayor's north star. And we negotiated a flat rate of approximately $170 per room because there was price gouging that was happening at that time. We needed to make sure that we had hotel capacity to absorb the folks that were coming in. And we needed to make sure that we locked in a price for the city.

Mayor Adams: Remember what was happening back then? We were fighting in court because the demand of you had to be in a bed by a certain hour in the evening, do we didn't have the luxury to try to find spaces when it was coming at that rate. And I'm sure that, you know, if you never had to manage a crisis of that magnitude, then you're going to really just have some second guessing. We continue to move forward. And a crisis that's not going away. 

Question: This is about micromobility lanes, and this is my final question. Thank you. We have seen on Open Streets, I did a story about this last night, where mopeds are not supposed to be there, but they continue to zip by. It's happening in Jackson Heights. It's happening in Park Slope. Councilmember Shekar Krishnan says that the DOT just is not keeping up with the times. He's been working with them for several years, trying to get them to change the design of certain streets. Are you considering having a lane just for mopeds and scooters? Apparently it's happening in other cities. It's successful. He claims that New York is dropping the ball here.

Mayor Adams: Well, we have issues with illegal mopeds and three-wheeled motorcycles and dirt bikes, which are not supposed to be on our roads anyway, and unregistered. That's why we took over 40,000 off our streets and destroyed them, so they won't return. There's an education, there is enforcement, and there is legislation. We think we need to do more to ensure before these bikes get on our road. I think Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar is right. Before they get on our road, they should have insurance and registration, so we'll know what we're dealing with. We're looking forward to that legislation during this legislative cycle. Police is doing their enforcement as well. When we talk about building more lanes, DM Meera Joshi, you want to sort of talk about that?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Sure. I think when bike lanes really were rolled out under the Bloomberg administration, it was revolutionary for the city, and what we considered would be in those lanes was restricted to things that are just powered by humans. So much has changed since then, and these are now commercial corridors. These are people's office space. They are where hundreds of thousands of delivery workers, whether they're on cargo bikes or individual bikes, are working every day. And so we need to shift our thinking about how we regulate those areas because they're becoming a lot more like roadways. 

We've had some really productive conversations with the councilmember, and I personally went out and did a walkthrough of 34th Street to understand how do we redesignate where the bike lanes are because of the problems that they're having with so many mopeds, even though the signs are up coming there, and really understanding how do we accommodate on our roads where space is already a scarcity. We have so many things competing for New York City sidewalk space and road space, but really understanding how do we keep the commercial traffic limited when we're dealing with an open street. 

One example of a future perspective is if you look at 10th Avenue, where because of the volume of bikes, cargo bikes, e-bikes, mopeds, traveling down 10th Avenue in Manhattan, DOT doubled the lanes so that they could accommodate them. That is one approach to do. You can't do it everywhere. As I mentioned, we have limited street space. But it's certainly something that the DOT and the City Council and the mayor are very interested in trying to get a handle on how do we regulate this new commercial corridor, which is what we used to think of as a traditional bike lane.

Deputy Mayor Levy: DM Joshi, the Department of Sustainable Delivery that we announced in the State of the City would also have control over some of these things, and we're hopeful that the City Council is going to support that.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Yeah, we've been working very closely with the City Council on a regulatory framework that would help to license those entities that are dispatching a large number of the micromobility that you see on the streets, and in that framework would have safety requirements. And that would be an enforceable way to change the tone of what we're seeing in the bike lanes.

Question: Mr. Mayor, my colleague as well as I have well interviewed Dr. Mike Jones, Emergency Department, up at Jacobi, he's representing the Doctors Council SEIU. He reported that doctor retention is at an all-time low in H + H, which is, of course, a [inaudible] city because it provides healthcare to everyone irrespective of their immigration or insurance status. But furthermore, he said, despite the hospital being situated in a Black and Latino community, the rheumatologist specializing in lupus has been transferred to a private facility where no doubt they're making more money. This is particularly concerning as Black and Latino individuals have the highest incidence of lupus, and now they'd like a specialist to understand their specific needs. 

We've heard similar concerns about maternal fetal care specialists. We know about your administration's [inaudible] on that. According to the Doctors Council, there is a staffing crisis that's having a real impact on already stressed communities of color. So I know you defer a lot to your OLR and the rest, but in light of the crisis we saw with COVID, do you think that there needs to be an extra attention to supporting our health care professionals who are also at the table with EMS? And I just think that we're stuck a bit in terms of breaking through so these people can make a commitment that we want them to make to stay with the city for a professional lifetime.

Mayor Adams: And we need them, and I'm sure Renee would tell you and all the unions would tell you the issue of retention is universal and real and also employment. The mayors that were here, African American Mayors Association, they talked about this in our cities. We're hemorrhaging public service workers in every field. You heard me talk about it in law enforcement, Department of Correction, New York City Police Department, probation, school safety agents. We're hemorrhaging public service workers. 

So we said, what can we do about it? We can be fair in our contracts. We settled over, I think we're about at 96 percent. And when you look at when the members voted on the contracts, we're getting anywhere from 94, 95 percent ratification vote rates. That's from our teachers, our police, our DC 37 members. And we put other things inside there because we believe these members were being treated unfairly. And as a union member for much of my adult life, I understood that. 

We have to make sure we negotiate and settle these contracts. We need our doctors. We need our hospital personnel. And that's what we're going to continue to do. And I have a lot of faith in Renee 'Champion,' I like to call her, on her ability to settle these contracts. Anne, you want to add anything to that?

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: No, just that Dr. Katz is always monitoring capacity to make sure that we are giving New Yorkers what you need. But you bring up a lot of good points. And so we're paying close attention to it.

First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright: And the only thing I'll add is that I think today, former Mayor Bloomberg's foundation announced a $600 million commitment to Historically Black Colleges medical schools. And part of the reason, you know, the loans for medical schools are very expensive. So to create more doctors who are culturally competent is also an important partnership. And Mayor Bloomberg has been a huge partner with Mayor Adams and this administration.

Question: Hi, everyone. So I reported recently that the city doesn't have new classes ready for preschool age students with disabilities ahead of the new school year. Advocates have expressed concerns about that. 

Some of your opponents like Brad Lander and Zellnor Myrie have also blasted the administration. Mr. Mayor, can you speak to why you haven't fulfilled your commitment to ensure that every one of these students has a seat by spring of 2023?

Mayor Adams: Well, this was a huge issue for us. And Camille can go into it even more. We saw that this was not being handled previously. And we committed 800 seats. We reached 900 seats. And many of the advocates applauded us for, you know, the stance we took on this because we knew it was a problem. And we wanted to make sure that we addressed it head on. Camille, do you want to go into it? 

Joseph Varlack: Sure, absolutely, sir. So I would push back and say that the administration is absolutely prioritizing equity of access for our students with disabilities as evidenced by our announcement of the first ever preschool contract enhancement in 2022 where we committed to delivering 800 seats and we delivered more than 900. In addition to that, we've also created a new division at New York City Public Schools which is very focused on expanding and enhancing opportunities and programs for students with disabilities. And we've invested $55 million to open additional preschool and special education classes.

Mayor Adams: And so advocates should continue to, you know, raise their concerns because they're advocating for a very important population that have been ignored for a long time. And we sat down with the head of My Time Inc., Lucina Clarke, and others to see how do we move forward. But when you do an analysis, you know, not only did we go after our target of 800 seats, but as the chief of staff stated, we superseded because that's our goal. We know this is a population that we need to give the support that it deserves. 

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm good, how are you? 

Mayor Adams: Good. 

Question: New York City released a climate budgeting report earlier this year that forecasted a 74 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And part of what went into that forecast was the planned implementation of congestion pricing. I'm curious, has the city done an updated analysis of how its own emission reduction targets will be impacted if congestion pricing isn't implemented? And how do you make up for that if there is no congestion pricing?

Mayor Adams: Meera, do you want to respond to that?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Yeah, I'm happy to answer that. And, you know, the governor has stated that congestion pricing is on pause. So there are a number of ongoing projects that congestion pricing was integrated within. And so most of those projects have to sort of pause for a minute as well or recalibrate. But until the final decisions on congestion pricing are made, nobody is going to do a full final analysis. So we'll wait till that happens. 

But I do want to take a moment to highlight the work that the city is doing beyond congestion pricing to lower emissions. Implementation of Local Law 97, which is a huge, huge undertaking and not necessarily easy, but absolutely essential for clean air. Buildings are the number one emitter of pollutants in our city and nationwide. And also Local Law 97 is opportunity. It is a jobs creation initiative. And we imagine tens of thousands of green jobs will come about through the retrofits that buildings will make in order to lower their emissions. 

We're also pushing on the transportation side. We've won lots of federal dollars to turn our school bus fleet EV. We have a zero emission mandate out for our for hire vehicle fleet, which is by no means small. It's close to 100,000 vehicles. And we have EV infrastructure that is popping up throughout the city that will allow New Yorkers to invest. We have the benefits of the IRA federal tax rebate that incentivizes the purchase of EV vehicles. And we're leading by example. We have a very electric forward municipal fleet equipped with a charging infrastructure for our municipal fleet throughout the city. And we'll continue to push because the hardest challenges are electrifying our heavy duty equipment. But we are not going to shy away from that challenge either. 

So congestion pricing is one factor. It's on pause as we sort out what the future looks like. It's going to be integrated into all analysis that's dependent on traffic and emissions. But we are certainly not waiting on congestion pricing. We have several initiatives moving forward that are aggressively lowering emissions in New York City.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good, thanks. So I just want to ask, what's the city doing about what's been described as a humanitarian crisis around Midtown West? And in light of Councilmember Bottcher's call for social services and the subway shoving, what are the city's mental health teams really doing?

Mayor Adams: The humanitarian crisis is not around Midtown West, the West Side. The humanitarian crisis is that we have to deal with the influx that this city has been dealing with.

Question: [Inaudible.] We've had recent reports. I can give you a list of things that were happening in that area.

Mayor Adams: Such as sleeping on the street?

Question: Well, no. People are openly using drugs. Another example is having sex on benches. A Holiday Inn that was taken over. Needles and cracked pipes littered on the ground. Is that not an issue for the city?

Mayor Adams: Remember there was a City Council law that was passed that says people have the right to sleep on the street. Okay, so my agencies cannot break the law to enforce the law. And we must be clear on some of the laws that are put in place, we have to run the city around those laws. And this is what we advocate for. The police commissioner and his team, we're going to have a combination like we did in the subway system under Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom. We're going to go out and deal with some of those quality of life issues. That's our focus. But there are many, many laws, more than people realize, that prevent us from, as one would say, moving people along. You just can't do that in the city. 

Question: So there's red tape for the city to actually move people?

Mayor Adams: No, it's not red tape. You have to follow the law. If someone is standing on a street corner, clearly under the influence, but they're just standing there, it's not desirable to see it. But we don't have the authority to say we're going to just lock that person up because of that. And so it's about giving a cross-section of services, of going out with teams, interacting. We've done it at Washington Square Park. 

We've done it in the subway system. It's about building trust. We partnered with Norman Siegel, who has done an amazing job. He's getting ready to do an anniversary of what he has kicked off. So it's a combination of engaging people, building trust, giving them the services that they need. And we can't be heavy-handed in doing it.

Question: Do you think that the mental health teams that are going out and doing that are doing enough, then?

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Do you think that the mental health teams that are going out and doing that are doing enough, even…

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: I'm happy to jump in because I'm glad that we're all talking about this because I think for many, many years, people haven't been focused and people have just walked by and said, I'm not going to go to that part of the city. And from day one, the mayor has been, we have to make sure that quality of life is really important. So I actually am proud of the teams that are doing this mental health work. I like the way that they're approaching people. The mayor said you can't be heavy-handed. That's why outreach, consistency is really important to connect people to harm reduction programs, to treatment, to make sure that people who want to come in are getting connected to support. 

It's not a New York City problem. It's a national problem. And I actually think that when you look at other cities around the country, not to throw shade on my other sister cities, we have a lot of resources, we have a lot of innovative approaches, and we just have to keep at it. A lot of people are in a lot of pain. And when people are in pain, they do a lot of things. It also means, though, that New Yorkers shouldn't have to… We should feel safe. I should be able to have my adult young daughters walk in places and feel safe. So I think we can do both of those things at the same time.

Deputy Mayor Levy: And actually, the team specifically in the last six months, I know it's been dozens of people that they've helped move into transitional housing…

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: So there's multiple teams. That's why we can do a little side thing, because there's teams in the subway. There's teams that do street outreach. There's teams that do homelessness. There's teams that work with the Department of Mental Illness. And so this administration, our policy is to put resources, people, qualified people to help New Yorkers and to make sure that everybody is getting what they need. Happy to do a little briefing later for you to talk about that.

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams. 

Mayor Adams: What's going on? How are you?

Question: I'm excellent. After a press conference at Bellevue Hospital last week for two police officers who were shot, Chief Kaz Daughtry got into the face of the Daily News Police Bureau chief yelling about a separate story and had to be physically restrained twice. This was witnessed by multiple reporters and other police officers. You've called for more civil behavior and dialogue. Do you believe that Chief Daughtry's behavior was appropriate, and have you spoken to him about this?

Mayor Adams: This is the first time I'm hearing about it from this morning, and we all have to respond appropriately. And if he responded inappropriately, he will be communicated with about that. I expect the highest standard from all of us. It's a stressful job. I'm sure he was in a lot of stress having two cops being shot. Sometimes we forget the human part of responding to these scenes over and over again. 

Kaz Daughtry is up late at night. He's responding to children being shot. He's responding to some of the most horrific conditions that you can imagine a person to experience. And he has to have the level of professionalism that comes with that. And I tell the team all the time, we're all under a lot of stress, but we have to maintain a steady hand because people are watching us, and they want to know that we can manage the stress that we experience. If he did something inappropriate, he has to be communicated with. But there's a process of reporting if someone does something inappropriate.

Question: So will you investigate it? And I mean, given the context, what he asked about was another story about him or his driver running red lights. That's what he allegedly told the police bureau chief. I mean, given the context, you're at a briefing for two police officers who were shot. They're about to be released. Do you think, given that larger context, it's appropriate? And will you investigate?

Mayor Adams: The police commissioner… And there's a process to someone, I don't know if you're reporting on behalf of someone or did someone report it to the Police Department. There's a process on reporting, and they would take that next step. What I'm clear on is that there's a level of professionalism that we all have to show.

Question: I believe due to budget cuts, CCRB no longer investigates…

Mayor Adams: Hold on, let her finish. Let her finish. I'm sorry, what did you say?

Question: I know the CCRB has said, due to budget cuts, they no longer investigate cases of discourteous words or whatever like that. So, I don't know. I mean, given that this involves a member of the media and someone who has a high-ranking position and it was witnessed by the people, I don't know if you're going to inquire further.

Mayor Adams: There is no budget cut in the history of the city that would stop people from determining if a police officers operate inappropriately. So, don't anyone tell you that. There are always avenues, and I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale. There's a process, and we will follow that process.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I would like to ask you, last week there was an attack, robbery with a gun involved and a mail carrier, a USPS mail carrier in Maspeth. This was a Polish-American mail carrier, and this is a heavily Polish population. So, I'm writing about it, but I would like to ask, because that person has not been caught yet, and from what I understand, it's a bigger pattern. There's a ring of mail theft that's happening. Can you comment on that? I know it's federal. I'm in touch with USPS, but what is the city doing to prevent the mail theft and to also protect the workers?

Mayor Adams: Well, we're clear, 17,000 guns, illegal guns off our streets. Cannot say it any better. We created an anti-gun unit. They are out there going after those who carry illegal guns, not only against mail carriers, but against everyday citizens. The are bad people who are doing bad things to good people. And the Police Department has been extremely on their front foot to fight against that, and we're going to do that. 

And we will catch the person responsible for it, as we did and as we are doing so many times. My heart goes out to the trauma of delivering mail and then having someone approach you with a gun. No one wants to go through that experience. It's extremely traumatic to have a gun pointed at you. And when you rob a mail carrier, it carries additional penalties as well. And so, we will conduct an investigation. The chief of the Detective Bureau is going to allocate the necessary manpower, and we'll find the person responsible.

Question: Do you know if this is like a broader pattern that… Is New York City working with other cities? Because I know it's happening in other cities, too.

Mayor Adams: I have not heard that, but I will look into it to find out. Normally, if there's a pattern in my meetings with the NYPD and the leadership,t hey bring them up. I have not heard that there's a pattern, and maybe a national pattern. I don't know. I will look into it.

Question: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's happening?

Question: I'm good, how are you? 

Mayor Adams: Good. 

Question: Your corporation counsel pick, Randy Mastro, has spoken about wanting to push back on a potential second Trump administration. But while his nomination is being considered, I'm wondering if your administration is thinking about another Trump presidency and how that will affect the city in terms of federal dollars and approvals. 

And then separately, last week at an NABJ event, President Trump, former President Trump, suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris only identified as Black a few years ago, which is false. I was just wondering for your reaction to that as well.

Mayor Adams: Well, I know that I've always identified with being Black. [Laughter.] You know, I think that during the campaign season, there's many things that are hurled back and forth, back and forth. This is only the beginning of it. I made it clear. I am rocking with the VP and Tim, the announcement that she made today. I'm excited about that ticket. We're going to be focused on that. 

And we made it clear that Randy is a great corporation counsel pick. I mean, when you look at what he has done and actually really personifies what a corp counsel is, represent your client. And the vastness of the clients that he has represented and what he has fought for, I think we should all be proud of having someone with that level of skill. And so he's going to go through the process. And I'm hoping the City Council folks will give him a fair opportunity to be heard and to, you know, to move forward in the right direction. And Randy's committed to fighting inequities no matter who's in office. And I'm sure he's going to do it if there's a Trump presidency, but I feel strong about moving forward with the VP and the ticket that she's put together.

Question: To quickly follow up on Governor Walz, and then I do have a flooding question, I'm sure the emergency manager will want to get in on. I'm just curious if you've ever met Governor Walz?

Mayor Adams: I could have. I don't recall, you know, I've met so many folks. I don't recall. But I looked at… I love one video I saw with him with his daughter where he was on the slingshot ride. And they were at… I thought it was a very creative way. You know, he does something old. She does something new. If that was me, we would have to have asterisks on the new stuff because I'm not getting on that ride. 

But I think that people are looking for authentic leadership. And I just believe he brings this very authentic leadership that his daughter. I think his daughter says she's a vegetarian, you know. So I'm excited about what's going to happen on the campaign trail. But I don't recall our paths ever crossing.

Question: And then on flooding, this is arguably the most serious overnight rain we've seen since two, excuse me, three years ago. We had that horrible night in Queens where we lost so many in basements. And a large part of that was heavy rain overnight. This may be the most serious instance of that since three years ago. 

I'm wondering how well you have the basements at risk identified at this point, and at what point you push an alert that says get out?

Mayor Adams: Zach, do you want to?

Commissioner Zach Iscol, New York City Emergency Management: Yeah, absolutely. So I appreciate your question. On the first question, I actually have met Governor Tim Walz. I want to reflect that for the record. A couple years ago, he reached out to me to talk about veterans' mental health when he was the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. As a private citizen, I'll just tell you, he's a wonderful guy. He was interested in bipartisan solutions. He's kind. His staff was aces. He's a great guy. It's a great choice. 

In terms of the weather tonight, you know, thank you for bringing this up. New Yorkers need to be taking this seriously. First off, we have a mayor who one of the first conversations I had with him was how we could replicate some of the multichannel techniques he used on the campaign trail to make sure that we're reaching all New Yorkers. And so, you know, we talk a lot about NotifyNYC, but because of the mayor's leadership and his emphasis and his knowledge of how to reach people, we have a pretty expansive portfolio of ways that we reach people. 

We work with community-based organizations. We have an AWS system that reaches out to over 2,000 community-based partners that serve people with disabilities, functional needs, dialysis centers, older adult centers. We're doing a lot. We have drones out today that are going to be messaging in certain neighborhoods as well in multiple languages. Letting people know that this is something that people need to take very seriously and notifying the public that there is significant weather coming into New York City. 

You know, one of the problems we have with rain as opposed to coastal flooding is it is very hard to know where the rain is going to fall. So we know that there are areas that are more high risk for flooding. You don't know if those areas are going to get rain, unlike coastal flooding where you know and can model when that water comes into Jamaica Bay, New York Harbor, where that water is going to go, what areas you need to focus on. We can't really do that with rainfall. 

Right now, we know the target is the tri-state area, and we are expecting very significant rainfall here in New York City. I will tell you that we've got life safety folks all over the city, FDNY with high axle vehicles. We've got NYPD out. We've deployed the tow truck task force around the city to remove vehicles. 

We've done all of the messaging that I've talked about. DEP has been out there with our other infrastructure partners like sanitation, clearing catch basins, working closely with the MTA. A lot of work has been going into preparing the city over the last 24 hours for this event. We're taking it very, very seriously, but so should New Yorkers.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Commissioner, just to be clear, so we did press releases, text messaging, the drones are out there, social media across all city agencies.

Commissioner Iscol: We've messaged all electeds to share with their constituents, with community-based organizations, all of the above.

Question: On the basements in particular, because I think that's the very serious life and death concern. Do you have teams prepared, you know, staged to go, be they FDNY or police or whoever, to go door to door if you're seeing something really bad, let's say in Corona, Queens, like we saw a couple years ago?

Commissioner Iscol: So the problem with these weather events is you have very little notice when the rain starts to falling. We know that the city is in the target right now, the tri-state area. We're looking at, you have about maybe an hour's notice of what areas are going to get hit very hard. 

One of the first things that will happen, and we were talking to the National Weather Service just an hour [ago] about this, is they would likely issue a wireless emergency alert. That's when your phone buzzes. So they will do that in the areas that a cell stalls over, that is going to experience high amounts of rain. And then if necessary, yes, we would deploy folks there. But people need to have a plan for today about where they're going to go, higher ground, and then as the weather changes, as they're listening to the forecast, then executing that plan if needed.

Mayor Adams: And the big thing is, you know, what happened, I remember several years ago with the former mayor as we went out to those locations where the flooding took place. You know, we live in a bubble, and we have to meet people where they are in notifications so they can be prepared. And that is what we've done under the commissioner. 

He has used alternate methods of notifying people. And on a phone call this morning, the potentiality of using drones with loudspeakers going in those areas of where we know historically we've had flooding problems. So it's about notifying. Yes, we're going to have a large number of New Yorkers that's going to sign up for NotifyNYC, but there's a large number that won't. And not everyone gets their information from social media. Some people don't speak English. So we must meet New Yorkers where they are. And that's what Zach has been able to do, come up with this real portfolio of how do we reach as many New Yorkers as possible, and particularly in those areas where we have a problem.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Yeah, mayor, you know, I thought it was really creative. I started getting, for approval, messages not only in English but in multiple languages for the drones in those historically flooded neighborhoods to broadcast over. So that includes, like, the ones with the basement apartments and stuff like that.

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I do want to mention DEP is doing a series of flood package giveaways. So that'll include a sump pump, flood barriers, flood sensors. It's about $300 worth of flood protection equipment. The borough presidents have all been given packages, so they can also give them out to constituents. And those are ongoing right now.

Question: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, a couple of questions on the CFP draft audit and then on something separate. I know you said at the press conference yesterday that you're going to respond to all this. 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, the what? 

Question: That you're going to respond to all the findings in the draft audit. But the findings themselves are portraying something that when I speak to campaign finance experts, when a lot of my colleagues have spoken to campaign finance experts, they're saying that this illustrates that there was something sloppy going on on the bookkeeping end of things. 

I'm just wondering, do you have plans to change anything on your, you know, campaign compliance team in order to prevent more of this, these bookkeeping errors from happening, especially with the reelection race coming up? On a specific expense, there was this $10,000 that was spent on a car repair. Can you clarify who got in a car accident and why were campaign funds used? 

And then on a separate issue, last week I tried asking you about Tim Pearson. And when you first learned that there were sexual misconduct accusations against him, you didn't want to answer that question. I'm just wondering, why is that such a hard question to answer? It's a pretty straightforward one. When did you learn about the accusations?

Mayor Adams: First of all, with CFB, you always have to improve your product. And we're going to continue to do that. And we will respond to it. CFB has a very important job of protecting taxpayers' dollars. They give us a draft report. We go through it. I have a compliance team. And whatever we can learn from it, not only do you address the problem, whatever you can learn from it, you learn from it. And that's how I've always been in life. I learn from whatever observation people have or whatever reviews are in place. 

And when it comes down to the question you asked me about Tim Pearson, that's under review. And I don't want to do anything to interfere with the review. And let that review take its course. And I respect the process.

Question: And the car repair thing?

Mayor Adams: Each item on the CFB's report, we have to respond to. And that becomes public. So I don't know the specific car issue that you're talking about. But that's going to be part of our public response. And then you can take a review of it. You can look at it and see it.

Question: It was a crash. It was described as a car crash.

Mayor Adams: Each item on the CFB review, we have to respond to it. And it becomes public. And at that time, you'll be able to read it to find out what it was. I don't recall exactly what that was. Okay.

Question: With the compliance team, I'm just wondering, when you're saying improvements… 

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Hold on, hold on. Let him finish.

Question: With improvements, are you talking about changing out staff? What are we talking about in terms of improvements?

Mayor Adams: There are a number of items that were listed. We're going to look at them and see if there are ways we could do it better. And that would be our response.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's going on, Kelly?

Question: I'm good. I'm going to go back to something you mentioned at the beginning of the press conference, the Operation Padlock to Protect. The comptroller is investigating that operation now. I wanted to get your reaction to that. Being that it's been so successful, so many people have said it's been a successful operation. 

Are you surprised, like the sheriff was, that the comptroller is investigating? And do you believe that he may be using his office, now that he is running for mayor, to go after you politically versus actually following the mandate of his office?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, just none of that really matters to me. I have a job to fight on behalf of New Yorkers. And that's what I'm going to do. So I'm not going to speculate why people do what they do. 

This is, you know, you have a minimum amount of time in a day and energy. And I'm going to use every ounce of that fighting on behalf of New Yorkers, and continue to put a nice little placard behind me of showing how we're winning a victory for New Yorkers. So all those out there who are attempting to do other things, I'm not even going to try to speculate. I have to be extremely focused, no distractions, and I have to grind. Remember I used to say that on the campaign trail, Chris? You covered me, right? Remember I used to say that all the time? That's how I got here.

Question: And I have another question. On the DOT and bus lanes, the legal mandate for bus lanes should be at 30 miles. It's only at 7. I wanted to know, does the administration plan to identify more miles to meet that legal mandate to get to 30 miles? 

And why aren't more bus lanes being built? If low-income New Yorkers use buses, people of color, they've been very successful when they are created. What's the plan there?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: Thank you. The streets plan has a number of benchmarks, including bus lanes. For example, bike lanes as well. And we've made historic mileage numbers for protected bike lanes. And that's an important means of transportation for many, as we were just discussing earlier. But we have, since this administration took office, done improvements to bus lanes that have helped about 700,000 New Yorkers. 

And we have more bus lane projects on tap, including Hillside, Queens, Pike Street in Manhattan, 96th Street, 2nd Avenue, Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. And there's more. But what we can't do now, in the middle of a construction period, is give absolute quantities on the number of miles complete. 

We do that at the end of the year. This is work that's very weather-dependent. So the ability for us to stripe and do the milling and paving that needs to be done is dependent on when we have the opportunity to get the crews out there. Which is why we do the final counts at the end of the year.

Question: Oh, hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's going on, Liz?

Question: I'm doing well, thank you. So this morning, Gothamist and WNYC, we published a story about 24 women who were at Rikers. And they filed sexual assault lawsuits. And they're identifying the same officer in those lawsuits. 

Now, prior to this, the same reporters did a story on 700 women who filed lawsuits under the Adult Survivors Act against corrections officers. And at that time, you said that there would be a very thorough investigation. 

Our reporter made the call to the Law Department. And we're yet to hear of any kind of investigation going on. And I wanted to get you to comment on some of the very, very horrifying and troubling allegations that were made in this story. And also if you will commit to doing a thorough investigation, as you said.

Mayor Adams: Well, you indicated that there's, first of all, let's put these, if anything horrific like that happened, people need to be held accountable. And you stated that this was a lawsuit that is pending. And so how does one say there's no type of investigation that's taking place? 

If there's a lawsuit that's taking place, you've got to investigate exactly what happened. And, you know, this happened decades ago. You know, so I want to be clear that the public is not under the impression that this is something that happened under this administration. And when the lawsuit is under play, there's an investigation that is taking place to respond to it.

Question: But the Law Department defends the city in these types of civil lawsuits. Who is the investigator that's going in and investigating the claims that are made by these women? It seems like there are a lot of them. 700 is a lot, you know. It's about… is there a culture at Rikers that is allowing this to happen? That's the investigation here.

Mayor Adams: And I can't answer that. If there's a culture at Rikers Island that's allowing this to happen, that's what the review, even with the Law Department. That's a review that would have to be put in place. But I don't know. This is a current. Is this current litigation? I don't want to tread on the litigation review that's taking place. And it has to take its course. Thank you. How are you?

Question: I'm okay. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: Two questions on two totally unrelated things. First, do you or Zach have an estimate of how many New Yorkers, and I know it's hard to estimate, but how many New Yorkers live in basements? And how many of those New Yorkers you've made contact with to, you know, alert them to the dangers of basement flooding? 

And then my second question has to do with migrants. There have been noticeable clusters of migrants sleeping outside of the Randalls Island and Hall Street shelters in parks and in tents. What is sort of your understanding of why some migrants are sleeping on the streets? And is it a concern for the administration?

Mayor Adams: When you say notification, define that for me. When you talk about notifications to the basements, you're talking about mailings…

Question: I'm just wondering if there's some way to estimate what percentage of people residing in basement apartments have been made contact with regarding the sort of dangerous inherent flash flooding.

Commissioner Iscol: I can speak to that a little bit. So on the basement apartments, we've done a lot of work over the last year. We've done meetings. Last August, we did a big event in Diversity Plaza in Queens with a bunch of different organizations and groups. 

We recently sent out a mailer to every address in the city encouraging people to sign up for Notify NYC with emergency information. We've done canvassing operations where we've been knocking on doors. So there's no shortage of the amount of work that we've done. 

In terms of quantifying that number, I'm happy to go back to my team and see if there's some way that we could try and quantify that for you. It might be hard to do just because the nature of so much of the outreach is not related to a specific door so much. But happy to see what we can try and do.

Mayor Adams: And do we have that Meera? I know we did something about ADUs. Do we have Meera, Maria, on the number of basement apartments?

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer, Housing, Workforce and Economic Development: What's hard about basement apartments, mayor, and I think everyone here will understand this, is that there are those who live in basements legally and those who are illegally inhabiting basements. And so I don't have the number off the top of my head, but I think what is important to add to the conversation, in addition to all of the incredible work that emergency management does to ensure that those who do live in basements have information about extreme weather events, and obviously to the extent that there needs to be a response and the full weight of government is there, are all of the ways that we have been trying, either at the state level or at the city level, to legalize basements and to ensure that they are habitable and that they are safe. We made some progress in the last Albany session with one of the bills that was part of the budget, a modest geography but a real start to legalizing basements. 

And of course, through our City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the ability through the accessory dwelling unit proposal, one of which is the basement, providing more pathways to not just add more housing through basements, but to really clear some of the zoning barriers that exist. And that will allow us between the zoning, clearing the zoning barriers, and also working with partners at FDNY and DOB, fix the regulatory issues to ensure that basements are habitable and safe. But we can follow up in terms of the latest information that we have about New Yorkers living in basements.

Commissioner Iscol: Can I add one thing to that on the basement? So, you know, I really appreciate Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer bringing that up. We've done a lot of work advocating for the legalization of accessory dwelling units in basements. I went back and read a lot of the postmortems after Ida and the 13 folks that lost their lives tragically in basements. There are some very modest fixes that could have been done in terms of, you know, doorways swinging inside instead of outside, bars on windows, making sure that you can open them from the inside so that people can escape, having flood alarms. I mean, there's some very, like, minor things that can be done to make these places a lot safer. And that's part of the advocacy that we've been doing in these legalization efforts.

First Deputy Mayor Wright: And one last thing. I just want to underscore something that Zach said at the beginning, which I think might have been lost. He said at the direction of the mayor, NYCEM has been engaging with 2,000 nonprofits. So these are people on the front lines. They know their neighborhoods. They know who's living in the basement. And they are in direct engagement with this administration to get the word out, to disseminate the messages, to make people safe. So that's been a really important partnership. And that's one of the things that he said at the very top of his comments.

Mayor Adams: I believe that was your question. Was it engagement? Yeah. And the other question was about migrants. Yeah. Anne is going to do that. But I want to be clear. The engagement is there. We understood. We saw. We learned. Lessons learned. I was at that building where it was almost a partial collapse because the basement apartment, we lost several New Yorkers. Lesson learned. We implemented a process. And that is what Zach has executed. So there is engagement in those areas that we know this problem exists to communicate with people using preexisting organizations and entities and groups and using our resources. Anne, you want to talk about that?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Yeah, I'll start. But I want Camille to hop, jump in. It's an interesting question, Dana, because I have been hearing some reports of encampments of people who probably are leaving Randalls but decide that they want to stay and will pitch tents. That's not okay. And, again, we're not trying to be heavy handed. But if you've had your time, you've had your case management, and you have to leave, you have to really move on. I think that, and my sister chief of staff has been known to show up at spots at 3 o'clock in the morning, and I know that she's gone to Randalls and seen some people hanging out. I think there's probably a bunch of different reasons for that. 

You know, we're always going back to people working, people being able to come here to work, be able to get their time, us connect them to legal services and have them move on. But I think if there are some idle minds that people may just be hanging out, and I think we are concerned about that and want to make sure we get people connected to their next steps. Camille, anything you want to add?

Joseph Varlack: I think the only thing to add, and thank you, DM Anne, is that, you know, certainly we have teams that go out, we check on Randall's, and we also check on Hall Street. I drive by Hall Street almost every single day, you know, going to and from work. We have NYPD that's out at that location. 

Sometimes they're just hot, right? It's been hot. There's been a series of heat waves, and sometimes they just want to be outside. They want to get some fresh air, and they're certainly entitled to do that. But it's our responsibility, and we work very hard at this to make sure that it is not disorderly, that, you know, that they're not littering. 

The mayor has been known himself to go out and have conversations with asylum seekers who may be sitting outside of these locations and talking to them about the collective importance of making sure we're keeping the space clear and clean, et cetera. So, again, whole-of-city approach to it, and it's something we're very focused on.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. So, I have three questions. Question number one, what are the updated numbers with regards to the Summer Youth Employment Program now that it's coming to an end? 

We're working on a story of District 75 students who are part of the Summer Youth Employment Program. So, if it's possible to get more information on some of the District 75 schools whose students are part of the program. So, that's one question. 

Second question is, with regards to the assistant school safety agent's position, what is the status of that? I've tried to get answers from DCAS. They're just messing about. I'm not getting a straight answer. No one can tell me anything. 

And also, with regards to school safety, how many more schools have been equipped with the door alarm and the security? And then, last but not least, Mr. Mayor, and I may have missed it, but what is your position on the proposed bill to eliminate the gangs database? Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Eliminate?

Question: The gangs database, the NYPD so-called gang database. 

Mayor Adams: Oh, I got it. Thank you. And, Camille, are you going to go into it, or Ana can go into it?

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: Hi, Mona. Good to see you. We're still serving the record number of 100,000 participants for the Summer Youth Employment Program. District 75 will get you those numbers specifically. We have been recognized internationally by the work that Commissioner Howard and the entire team at the DYCD, along with our partners throughout the entire administration for the work that has been done, including a visit that we got last week from Brazil, a group of developers who had established a conglomerate of different organizations in one part of southern Brazil came to visit last year. 

They learned about the program and now are investing in creating a similar program down south and emulating everything that we have done, including promoting the program with the logo of New York City, giving credit to the city for all that we have done, and thanks to the mayor for the investment in that particular program. But yes, we continue to serve the 100,000, and we'll get you the number for District 75 and the school and those students who are from those particular districts. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: The gang database. You know, advocates play an important role in cities. They should negotiate, not legislate. And far too often you're seeing that advocates are writing bills, and those who are in offices are taking word for word the bills that advocates write, and they're putting them out as potential laws. And that's just not how you're supposed to do it. 

You take the concept and ideas from advocates, and then you sit in a room and you look at the practicalities of running these complex issues that we are facing, because idealism collides with realism. The gang database has an important role. Should it be abused? No. Tools should be used and not abused. Should you put in a gang database everyone you come in contact with that may be hanging out with two of their friends on the block, and now you want to classify them as a gang member? No, you shouldn't. But should you know the names of this dangerous gang that came from Venezuela, and with their connectivity to the robberies and the crime patterns we're seeing? Yes, you should. 

Should you know the names of organized street gangs that are doing these drive-bys and carrying out some of these shootings with innocent bystanders are being harmed? Yes, you should. So we can't go from, you know, we live in these extremisms in government. Because you have an example of someone that abused it, you want to get rid of the entire two. We should not do that. 

We should make sure the gang database is used appropriately because it's an important investigatory tool that can go after some of the most dangerous people in our city, which is a small number of people, but they're well-organized either around prostitutions, drugs, selling guns, doing violence. And that's what you're seeing. You're seeing a lot of crew violence, crew-related violence in the Bronx and the other parts of the city. 

Darcel Clark just took down a major gang in our city. And when you see those gang take downs, you start to see a decrease in shootings, homicides, robberies, and other issues in the area. So let's use it correctly, but let's not walk in and say let's get rid of every gang database that we have. That is just not the smart, practical way to keep the city safe.

Joseph Varlack: With respect to the door locking, I know that that work is ongoing. I'll have the number for you shortly.

Question: And what about the position, the status of the assistant school safety agents? DCAS is just not giving me a straight answer on the status, and I've been asking now for almost two months.

Mayor Adams: Well, let's get the answer for you. Yeah, let's get the answer for you. If you were asking them that for two months, all you need is one Tuesday. It's in the room. You know, that's why we do these gatherings, and it's just warms my heart when I can hang out with Chris on these Tuesdays. 

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: What's happening?

Question: Not much, not much. On City of Yes and the ADUs, yesterday it sounded like your administration said as many as 46,000 of the 100,000 would be made up by ADUs in the City of Yes housing plan. Why is so much of this plan riding on a controversial portion of it, one of the most controversial portions of it, and what becomes of City of Yes if that doesn't pass the Council?

Mayor Adams: Maria Torres-Springer, the housing czar.

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Happy to. So the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the full estimate is about 110,000 across the city, right? And that is made up of a lot of different tools and strategies that affect both high density districts and low density districts. Because we want to make sure, as we've been saying, that every neighborhood can participate. And so the potential for creating more housing through ADUs, yes, it's big, it's important. And that's why we didn't just have the announcement yesterday about additional tools, including a one-stop shop, including additional grant funding. But we have been really pounding the pavement across the city, working with different and engaging with different community boards, with borough presidents, with local elected officials, with civic associations. 

And so we're proud that we have a set of tools that will finally allow us to make a dent. And we're hoping that as we get to the stage of this process, because four of the five borough presidents, as we are right now, have publicly been very supportive of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. Now we're going to get to the City Council, that we keep that, we keep the City of Yes as whole as possible. Because here's what's at stake, and we mentioned the statistic yesterday. We did it the week before, but I think it's important to remind everyone here and New Yorkers the opportunity that we have to finally make a dent in our housing crisis. 

So the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, 100,000 new units over the course of 15 years. Plus the five neighborhood plans, and I have to say while we've been sitting here, mayor, the Zoning and Franchise and Land Use Committees voted unanimously for the first neighborhood plan that our administration is working on at Bronx Metro North. 

Between the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity and the five neighborhood plans that will get approved hopefully by the City Council before the end of the first term. That has capacity to add 150,000 new homes in this city. You know what that is equal to? And that's in the first term. That is more than double what was generated, what was projected in the entire 12 year term of the Bloomberg administration. And more than four times what was projected in the entire eight year term of the de Blasio administration. 

And so this is not just to compare those numbers, but to say that we have an opportunity with ADUs, with everything else that I just mentioned, to turn, to move the needle on a housing crisis that has plagued New Yorkers for far too long. And so we're going to keep at it, including fighting for ADUs across the city because we believe it's an important tool.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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