Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on 94.7 the Block's "Jonesy in the Morning"

August 7, 2024

Wayne Mayo: 94.7 The Block, hello?

Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, how's it going? I was caught up in this rain… 

Mayo: Oh, I understand. Is this Mayor Eric Leroy Adams, the esteemed mayor of New York City?

Mayor Adams: Yes.Yes, sir.

Mayo: Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry I have to inform you that Jonesy has a bone to pick with you. She has a beef with you, and she doesn't want to talk to you today. She's mad. Jonesy, will you talk to the mayor, please? Come on, now.

Tarsha Jones: No, let him talk to Keith Sweat, who he gave the key to New York to. You just keep breaking my heart.

Mayor Adams: Keith is an amazing, amazing brother, too.

Jones: I mean, he's great. He's no Jonesy in the morning, but he's okay.

Mayor Adams: You know, it's interesting, you know, the millions of records that he sold, you know, he was never given an award. When I sat down and spoke with him, he shared with me that, you know, Eric, all of these other performers, you know, in the years where he hit the number one record, they gave it to other folks. 

Even the Soul Train Music Awards, they gave it to George Michael over him when his records were even hotter. And all of us know how that brother has performed so well. He's done so many good things as he reinvented himself. It was really a pleasure giving him that key.

Jones: Well, I found someone in Chinatown that's going to duplicate it. And I just need you to stand up on stage this weekend and present it to me. No one will know it's not the real key to the city. Just play along.

Mayo: Shout out to Canal Street.

Mayor Adams: You know, that's that bootleg stuff. You get a lot of bootleg stuff, you know?

Jones: Look, the secret is ours. So, wait, you got caught up? You're caught in the rain, too?

Mayor Adams: No, we just were, you know, monitoring a lot of the flooding that we had going on. I was out there late last night, you know, so we're not out of the woods yet. So we have to be really careful on the roads as we move forward.

Jones: Is it really because the gutters are so filled with trash that we have that type of flooding in the city?

Mayor Adams: No, no. The volume, the rain, the volume of rain that we received is just unbelievable. And if you were out there, you saw how it just was continuous. And so, remember, our sewer systems could only handle a certain level, a certain amount of rain. 

But, you know, this global warming stuff is real. And it's coming as, you know, faster. And the volume and the amount is more than what the sewer systems can hold. And that is why you're seeing, you know, some of the flash flooding because of just the volume of the rain. And the ground is wet. So it can't do the natural absorbing of the water.

Jones: Are we prepared? Is the city prepared? And how do you prepare for that? Because it's only going to get worse, like you said.

Mayor Adams: Yes. And that's why we are finding different ways of using some of the natural things that we can do. So, you know, before we built houses and built buildings, the earth had a natural way to absorb the water and move water. Now you have a lot of concrete. So it's not using the natural way that the planet was really made to absorb the water. 

So we have to start using some of the earth or the city's natural ability to do it. And we're building out other mechanisms to absorb the water, you know, so it doesn't… you know, it doesn't just stay on the top of the surface and cause some of the flooding that we're seeing. So we have a great guy over at our Department of Environmental Protection. He, the commissioner there, Aggarwala, he's there and he's really showing us different ways that we can sort of combat climate change.

Jones: I hope it's going to be in enough time because like we got to be on it now.

Mayor Adams: Well said. Well said. And that's why we're on top of it right now. And so many different things we're doing to alter how do we, you know, just slow down the change of our environmental issues that we're facing.

Jones: I told your people today that I wasn't going to ask a bunch of you did this and what's going on with this and that I want to ask you a little more personal stuff. Are you okay with that?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Feel free. I'm an open book. I'm an open book, you know. 

Jones: All right, y'all. We're going to get all up in Eric Adams' business next. It's 94.7 The Block.

Mayo: For those of you out there just joining us, we're talking to Mayor Eric Adams, but this week I decided to get a little personal with him. Do you miss private life?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question. But think about it for a moment. I have been in the public arena for almost 40 years now. Back when I was with 100 Blacks in law enforcement, fighting against police and misconduct, I was always in public life. Then I became a state senator. And then I was the first person of color to be the borough president and now mayor. 

The difference between being in the public life back then and now is the level of intensity. I tell people how pro athletes don't want to play in New York often because this is the most scrutiny you can get as a professional player because of our media market. That's the difference now. It's extremely intense. 

Everything you do, someone is analyzing. I'm on the top of the hill. You know what happens when you're on the top of the hill? Everybody wants to take you off the hill. That's just the nature of the beast. This is the most important city on the globe. Not the most important city in the state or in the country. This is the most important city on the globe. So it's a natural desire that people want to find your imperfections. They want to come at you. 

So I like to say, listen, I'm perfectly imperfect. I'm not trying to be perfect for anybody because no one is perfect. You know what the songs say, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. 

Jones: Do you feel like some of your friendship or relationship with the bishop, we all know how that story has ended for now. Do you feel like that's caused you to have a challenged perception by the people because of the dirt that he did and his continuous tying you in to his shenanigans? 

Mayor Adams: No, I don't believe so. And remember, I was arrested as a child and people like Reverend Herbert Daughtry and [inaudible] and others, they embraced me. And so people will tell you that Eric is always there for people who have fallen on hard times. I went up to Rikers Island to get baptized with inmates and I sat next to them and I spoke with them. If we don't be who we say we are when it comes down to either our Christian faith or our belief in people, then we're hypocrites in the process.

Jones: I agree with that. I just know sometimes you got to separate yourself from your peoples in order for your reputation to appear a certain way. Sometimes your peoples may not understand that you have to code switch or play the game. Do you know what I mean? 

It seems like he's trying to drag you down with him. You seem real that you're not trying to necessarily cut him off, cut him off, but I just thought that might be challenging for you in your personal time. I just always wanted to know how you felt about that, how you manage those types of relationships.

Mayor Adams: You know the most important—it's such a good conversation you have, Sister, because the most important thing we can do and be is authentic. We must be authentic, and either we believe in God or we don't. It's not one or another. There's nothing that's meant for me, man can take away. Nothing that God means for me man can take away. Nothing that God does not mean for me man can give me. 

All I got to do is be true in my belief in God and my faith, and I put on GPS—God positioned the satellite. He's guiding my pathway, and he got me here. He's a young man who's dyslexic. As I said, I was arrested. 

People rejected me, and now he made me the mayor of the most important city on the globe. So does he take us this far and leave us? That just doesn't even make sense, you know. And you know what's interesting? 

What's interesting is every dark moment I had in my life, every troubled moment I had in my life, it was a learning moment. I was supposed to learn something, and if you sit still, if you go and reflect on those dark moments you had, when you came out of those dark moments, you were different. You were better. 

And so we need to stop waiting for troubled times to pass us by and just pause and say, when am I supposed to learn during this troubled time right now? 

Jones: That's a word. That's a word. It's hard though when you're going through it. You want to fight. You want to blame people. You want to ignore and say, oh it's okay. It's okay. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be on top tomorrow. It's hard to be quiet and still.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes. Yes. And that's the most important gift that I've learned throughout life. You know, as you know, I lost mom when I was running for office. But she used to sit there and she would just say, you know, baby, be still. Be still. 

And absorb with the universe and with the ancestors and God is attempting to teach you at this moment, you know, because, you know, sometimes you may deal with a serious medical illness and, you know, you probably will blame, but the question may be, well, is it time for you to pause? Is it time for you to sit back, absorb these moments? 

That's been, that has been my saving grace. You know, God and the ancestors are saying, Eric, we need to transform you. You're going from being a caterpillar that crawls on the ground. You need to go into a cocoon state so you can become the butterfly that you want to be so you can fly higher.

Jones: Oh, and then I can snatch you out of the sky and get that key to the damn city that I don't want. No, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I appreciate talking to you. We should do a podcast, either call it me and miss Jones or the king and I, you can decide the title. 

Mayor Adams: I look forward to that. And I appreciate you. I appreciate your conversation this morning because, you know, people sometimes don't humanize of, you know, what it is for, like, you know, even you being a, you know, a notable radio personality, you know, you still dealing with the human aspects of, you know, who you are, you know, and sometimes people don't see that. And I appreciate you taking a moment just to ask just some very basic questions because no matter what, I'm only E.

That's all I am.

Jones: No I appreciate you for, you know, being an open book, letting people get to really hear you, the real you, not just shooting questions at you every time you call in. You know what I mean?

Mayor Adams: I love that. 

Mayo: We hope to see you this Saturday, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: What am I doing? I just wake up in the morning, look at my schedule.

Jones: Right. It's the rise up. It's the big rise up event. We're honoring DJ Mr. C. And we got to get that street. We got to get that street named. 

Mayor Adams: We're going to do it. We're going to do it. What block did he live on? Because the City Council person has to do that. What block does he live on? 

Jones: I know it was Lafayette Gardens. I'll find out. I'll connect with your person that I connect with for you. 

Mayor Adams: OK, yeah. And let's push to get it done. Yeah, let's do that. 

Jones: Yeah. We will see you at the Rise of New York concert this weekend. People come out, come out, come out. Music, DJs, fellowship, good food, all of that. Mayor Eric Adams, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, sir.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.

Jones: You too. Be safe out there in the floody streets.

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