Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability

September 23, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. Queens Week continues, and today we're going to focus on public safety. We're going to focus on the crucial role that public safety brings to the entire recovery effort. A Recovery for All of Us, Queens, and all five boroughs requires a focus on public safety for the people of the city, families all over the five boroughs, small businesses, you name it. This is what helps us come back. We're seeing a lot of progress in the fight against COVID and we're seeing more and more progress on the public safety front. We got a lot to do on both fronts, but we're going to bring them together. That's how our recovery happens. Now, this summer, beginning of the summer there was a lot of concern. We had a lot of challenges. We launched Safe Summer NYC. We said we were going to do fundamental things – get more cops out in the streets, strengthen local efforts to stop violence, Cure Violence, Crisis Management System, the things to stop violence before it happens, investing in kids and communities. Safe Summer NYC really helped us to start to turn the tide. And usually, the summer is a time when we see a huge uptick in violence. We had some tough, tough moments this summer, for sure, but when we compare this summer to last summer we saw some real progress. 28 percent fewer murders, 19 percent fewer shootings, real progress because of the men and women of the NYPD, outstanding work particularly on gun arrest, and tremendous cooperation and connection to the community. Re-bonding with the community, making an impact. Gun arrests, year-to-date – this is such a powerful figure – 23 percent up year-to-date, one of the highest, best years for gun arrests in the history of New York City. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it's important to recognize the ways the NYPD continues to improve its approach, continues to make an impact.  

The gun arrests are one part of the equation, closing those gun cases are crucial. That number is stunning – 100 percent increase in the closure of gun cases compared to last year. And even compared to 2019, which was the pre-pandemic year when we were doing very well in the fight against crime, closed gun cases are up 27 percent compared to 2019. This is one of the themes we want to talk about today, that we started the summer having to do better than 2020, obviously, but now we're seeing in many parts of the city, the movement, that progress because of the work of the NYPD, is comparable not to 2020 levels, it's comparable to 2019 levels. That shows the tide is turning. It is not everywhere. We've got to do a lot more work, but the fact that there are major parts of New York City, where we're now seeing the crime reality closer to 2019 than 2020 is a very powerful act of progress or example of progress. We want to explain it today. You're going to hear from Chief Harrison in a moment but let me go over just the basics. I want everyone to understand our goal is to get better than 2020, move as much of the city back to the 2019 level, the pre-pandemic level, by the end of this year, build that platform for safety and recovery.  

So, using the measure of shootings, crucial, the thing we're looking at so much to address – there are eight NYPD patrol boroughs, which ones are near 2019 levels or moving towards 2019 levels? Five of them. We're going to go over that. Five out of eight are moving to 2019 levels or are at them already. Three patrol boroughs, still, we have major problems in, and that's going to be the focus going forward. But let's talk about where the progress is. Brooklyn South. Brooklyn South has now returned to 2019 levels. Manhattan South, close to 2019 levels. Since we’re in Queens, let's talk about Queens North. Queens North has now returned to 2019 levels. Staten Island, under 2019 levels last month. I want to emphasize that. Staten Island, better than what we saw in 2019, as of last month. And the one that has been a really powerful pleasant surprise because of extraordinary hard work, Brooklyn North – and Brooklyn North historically has been one of the places with the biggest challenges, the biggest problems for decades. Brooklyn North now has done a much, much better job over recent months. A lot of innovation, important gang takedowns – lower than 2020 levels, pushing them downward, looking to get Brooklyn North closer to 2019. This is a big deal. This is a place historically would have been considered one of the toughest parts of New York City. It's one of the places where we've seen the greatest progress.  

Now, where are we not at all satisfied? We've got a lot more work to do. First and foremost, the Bronx and Chief Harrison will outline, after he talks about how we got this progress done, the forceful efforts that are being made to address the challenges in the Bronx. Manhattan North, still an area of great concern. And here in Queens, Queens South. So, we're seeing a really powerful juxtaposition. Five patrol boroughs where there's been tremendous progress, some even to the point of meeting the levels pre-pandemic. Three where we have to put more and more resources and focus, but we believe we have the tools. Manhattan North and the Bronx, I mentioned, these are both places we’re particularly focused on the anti-violence jobs program. We talked about that a week or so ago, that over 1,000 people, primarily young people in that anti-violence jobs program – I want you to hear this – zero have been rearrested. For a lot of people out there, when you hear this, it's going to make a lot of sense to you. Give, particularly a young person, a job, give them a future, help them turn away from crime and violence, it works. In Manhattan North, major expansion in terms of Crisis Management System, Cure Violence, new site in the 3-4 Precinct. All the borough commands, every place where we need personnel, we're keeping Summer All Out going into the fall. So, there'll be additional officers that are going to be deployed.  

A couple other key points, something Chief Harrison is doing that is outstanding, a focus on the nexus between 3-1-1 calls and shootings later in that same neighborhood. This is precision policing and COMPStat at its finest, seeing a new correlation and adjusting for it and moving resources accordingly. Focus on drug-related shootings, expanded use of undercovers, focus, of course, on what we talked about a lot lately, dirt bikes, illegal off-road vehicles. All of these pieces are part of an aggressive strategy by the NYPD to keep driving crime down, to keep working to get us to pre-pandemic levels, to expand upon the success in the five patrol boroughs that have seen real progress, and, of course, focus on the three that need a lot more work. A lot is happening to deepen public safety in New York City and speed our recovery. And one of the great architects of this effort, I really want to thank him, he is tireless, and he always finds a new solution. I want to brag on Rodney Harrison. Whenever confronted with a problem, he finds a new solution. And look no farther than those record levels of gun arrests. That was so much of his strategic work to find new approaches. It's making a big, big impact to keep Queens residents and New Yorkers safe. Proud son of Southeast Queens, Chief of Department, Rodney Harrison. 

Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, NYPD: Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for those kind words. Before I get started, if you don't mind, I want to share my condolences for the loss of Leonardo Chavez. Leonardo was a police officer for the Transit Bureau. He leaves a family behind and he lost the fight to COVID. So, I just ask for everybody to continue their support and thoughts as well as their prayers for his loved ones.  

Mayor, you spoke about some of the numbers, and I want to humbly share some of the numbers with you as well. Since June 13th, shooting incidents were up 634 compared to 386. That's a number of 248 shootings. That's an astonishing number for shooting incidents within New York City. But the great work by the men and women of the NYPD – and I am proud to report, the last 14 weeks we have cut that increase down to 30. We are currently at 1,160 shooting incidents year-to-date compared to 1,130. That's a phenomenal, phenomenal job by the men and women of the NYPD. You know, Commissioner O'Neill uses the phrase all the time, he goes, this does not happen by accident. And he's absolutely right. There was a lot of great work done by Jimmy [inaudible] the Detective Bureau, great work by a lot of the men and women from our public safety officers that are getting guns off the street. And if you just take a look at the Bronx – and I know we're struggling with some of the shooting incidents there, but they were able to get 882 gun arrests year-to-date. That's a spike – or excuse me, not spike but increase of 204, for a 30 percent increase. Unbelievable work being done in Brooklyn. We [inaudible] take a look at Brooklyn as a whole – shooting incidents, we are down 389 versus 491. That is a decrease of 20 percent. Compliments of Judy Harrison, compliments of Mike Kemper. And as much as we see some struggles in Queens South, I look at the borough of Queens as a whole – right now we're even, 173 versus 173. And those numbers are still trending down as well. And we're going to continue to do our strategies in the Bronx, which is to make sure we put enough resources out there to make sure we interdict some of the gang violence that we've seen plague the borough of the Bronx. And that with a combination of our precision policing, strategically going after our most problematic [inaudible] crews, I am very optimistic that we're going to turn the Bronx around.  

You know, one of the things that we're looking at, Mr. Mayor, is how we deal with the youth and how do we get them out of these gangs and how do we get them to not be part of some of the violence. And with the leadership of Kevin O'Connor and the YCOs and engaging youth that happened to be part of some of these [inaudible] crews we're engaging the family and making sure we get them the appropriate resources to help them and help these youth to get out of some of these problematic gangs. I’ve shared this before regarding our Options Program and how we’ve had 10,000 youth throughout the city be part of this emotional intelligence virtual reality program that’s been put together by youth in New York City. We also have been able, through the Options Program, giving hundreds of youth summer jobs. That's the strategy that's going to work, working with the youth, and making sure that they don't have to partake in some of the gang violence. You take a look at some of the great work we're doing in the Rockaways, Lieutenant Lenora Moody, the Rockaway Colts. It's a football program. It's a mentoring program. It's paying off so many great dividends, working with the Department of Education as well as making sure we mentor as well as also deal with the academics to change some of the youth around in the Rockaways. We are now looking to take that program out to Manhattan. Winston Faison, Inspector Winston Faison from Community Affairs, he has an aviation program at the NYPD community center, teaching youth aeronautics. We're looking to expand another NYPD community center out in the Bronx.  

And last but not least, now that schools are open, and we had major success of this back in 2019, getting the NCOs, the neighborhood coordination officers, to go back into the schools, to talk to youth, talk to them about the importance of how to stay out of trouble and making sure they sustain those relationships, I think is going to be a positive way of getting these young men and women out of these situations where they, unfortunately, sometimes too often we're seeing, be resulting in some type of violence. So, the strategy, Mr. Mayor, is dealing with the youth. I like our partnership with our District Attorney's Office. I like our partnership with a lot of the agencies throughout the city, and we'll definitely getting this right throughout the rest of the year, sir. Thank you very much. 

Mayor: Thank you so much, Chief. Chief, I really appreciate how hard you're working, how hard the men and women of the NYPD are working. And, again, we're seeing results, more to do, but clear results, proving that we can turn the situation around and turn it around quickly. And it's going to really help our recovery and our recovery is going to help improve public safety. There's still a missing link though. We've talked about this a lot. It is our court system. There has been progress on gun cases. I want to thank everyone in the court system for that, the DAs, the judges, everyone at the Office of Court Administration. That helps. That helps a lot. That shows that more can be done, but what we're not seeing yet is enough progress overall. We still don't see a fully functioning court system and it's hurting us. So, here's what we need the courts to do. Treat all felony cases the way you're treating gun cases right now. Expedite, get the whole process moving. Same for misdemeanors. We cannot have a partial court system. We can't have partial justice. It doesn't work. It gums up everything else. It's affecting public safety, it is affecting the situation on Rikers. We need a fully functioning court system. I want to hear from someone who represents a district in the Bronx that is feeling the effects of not having a fully functioning criminal justice system and understands why we need the courts fully open and what it means for his neighborhood. My pleasure to introduce Council Member Oswald Feliz.  

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Mayor: Council Member, that is a lot of common sense right there. I want to thank you. You just laid it out beautifully, clearly. If we don't have our courts fully open, the whole rest of the system doesn't work enough for everybody's safety and for justice. Thank you for putting it so clearly and thank you for being a strong advocate for your community. 
  
Now, speaking of communities, a lot of the best solutions to violence and to crime are at the community level. This is something I give Chief Harrison a lot of credit, for recognizing the powerful impact that community-based solutions to violence can have. And we have been investing more and more each year. In a few minutes, you’re going to also hear from Borough President Donovan Richards, who's been a big champion of this, investing in community-based solutions to violence – Cure Violence movement, Crisis Management System. I’ve got to tell you, we've invested more every year and we've seen more results every year. This has been a New York thing. This has been something New York doubled-down on, the community-based solutions to violence, and we proved a model that works that's now the national model that President Biden is turning to of how we can combine community-based solutions to violence with the great work of our police officers and get to a whole better place. 
  
Tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to joining a wonderful organization, 100 Suits for 100 Men. They’ll be opening their new Cure Violence, Crisis Management System headquarters in Laurelton, Queens. And this is about reaching more neighborhoods more deeply, stopping violence before it happens. We know that community-based efforts often are the best way to help young people get on a better track, to stop a conflict that's spinning out of control, to resolve it, to mediate it, to stop the violence. Tonight, I'm going to one of the places that prove that best, in Queensbridge. The Cure Violence, Crisis Management efforts in Queensbridge, and some of the best and strongest in all New York City, in all the country, and they’ve proven the impact of this movement. Tonight, there's something really special happening. The community’s being gathered for a vote on where to put resources that we're helping to provide and the community’s going to decide which efforts they want to see more of, which types of youth programs or sports programs, community gardens, whatever they believe is going to help most to bind the community together. This is exactly what we want to see – grassroots involvement, grassroots commitment to changing the trajectory that we've seen before, and it works. And I want you to hear from someone who's been leading the way, really believes in what the community can do to find solutions. She's Executive Director of the City's Office of Neighborhood Safety. My pleasure to introduce Renita Francois. 
  
Executive Director Renita Francois, Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety: Hello. Good morning. Thank you, Mayor de Blasio. So, since 2014, the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety has worked to increase safety in communities disproportionately impacted by violence and the many inequities that affect the quality of life and wellbeing of residents. As part of the office of neighborhood safety, the Crisis Management system works with those who are at risk of doing harm or being harmed by gun violence, while the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood safety works to change the environment around them, investing in effective the coordination of City services, addressing challenges with the physical infrastructure, and building community power to transform their own neighborhoods. Through NeighborhoodStat, we’re [inaudible] the voices of those closest to the experience, bringing residents together with City agencies and community-based organizations and building their capacity to make decisions about the resources that come into their communities. Part of that process is giving every-day New Yorkers the power to decide how to spend money that has been invested in their community for public safety. 
  
So, today, during Queens Week – during Queens Week, out at local neighborhood [inaudible] Queensbridge Houses, the resident stakeholder team supported by Jacob Riis Settlement, and the neighborhood safety initiatives team at Center for Court Innovation, along with our office will be leading their neighbors through this process of voting on solutions that range from community-led strategies to reduce gun violence, to enhancing the physical conditions of their development. NeighborhoodStat is a critical step towards the power sharing with community that has to happen in order for us to sustain the safety outcomes that we want to see for our city. And evidence bears that violence can be mitigated by investing in opportunity and building a strong cohesive network of residents who set the tone for their own community norms. 
  
So, by the numbers, and because there's still more work to be done, we know this, but in the map developments – the 15 developments part of this initiative year-to-date, murders are down 15 percent, index crimes are down nine percent, and shootings are down 21 percent. And in Queensbridge, where we will be today – Queensbridge is down to 20 percent in index crimes. There have been no murders this year. And we're down 75 percent in shootings, eight versus two from less – last year to this year at this point. And for context, at this point in 2019, there were five shootings in Queensbridge. So, we are doing better. We are working with residents to build the strength with their communities and we look forward to doing more. So, thank you, Mayor de Blasio for the opportunity. 
  
Mayor: Renita, thank you. I want to ask you something, because I think you hit on something really powerful and I feel there's still so much that the public, the whole public of New York City need to understand about the power of these approaches. You made a point about the community determining what would uplift the community and how that creates a different reality, a different set of expectations – that community empowerment and the direct connection that it makes to safety. Could you just expand on that, that, for example, if people want to do community garden, how that actually has an impact on safety? 
  
Executive Director Francois: Yeah. So, the physical environment especially, residents talk to us a lot about the conditions that they see around their neighborhood. They know if a light is out, if a door is open, if there are activities happening in their communities that they think decreases the wellbeing and the quality of life, they know that better than anyone, they're there 24/7. And so, what we see is that residents tell us, you know, we want to not just create a community garden, but we want to make opportunities for residents that come together, to get to know each other, to weave that social fabric that makes people comfortable enough to say, hey, you know, we observe this, let's get together and try to do something about it. Queensbridge is a very diverse community. One of the focuses of that community is bringing people together that speak different languages, that come from different cultures, so that they can get together to build that sense of community in their neighborhood. And all of these really hands-on things are just ways for them to strengthen their connections to one another. And that connection is the thing that promotes and keeps safety together, that’s what's building trust between them and the people who work in the community like the police force, like the community-based organizations, like the other agency partners that serve their community. It's all about the social fabric. 
  
Mayor: That's really beautifully, beautifully explained. And thank you, Renita. I think this point is the wave of the future. And what Renita laid out in terms of the progress made in Queensbridge is striking. I know that it brings a smile to Rodney Harrison's face when we see the community-based solutions making such an impact. But it is about building community. And maybe if I could even say further, what modern society has done to undermine community, rebuilding some of what we used to have in the way of community as the underpinning of safety. This is extraordinarily powerful. Thank you, Renita, to you and all your colleagues and everyone in the Cure Violence movement, the Crisis Management System. It’s having a huge impact. 
  
And, as promised, I want to now turn to someone who's been one of the biggest boosters of this effort. He was the Chair of the Public Safety Committee in the City Council and led the way on a host of reforms. And all throughout this week in Queens, we've been focused on how to improve the life of communities and that makes such a connection to how we improve public safety overall. So, here to talk about public safety and the things we've been doing throughout Queens Weeks – Queens Week. Every week is Queens Week to you. 
  
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards: Every day – 
  
Mayor: Every day, there you go. The Borough President of Queens, Donovan Richards, 
  
Borough President Richards: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And let me start off by saying, it's been a joy to have you in Queens all week. But, more importantly, a joy in you delivering for Queens. A lot of money came home. And before I start, of course, I have to wish my mother, Carole Richards, a happy birthday this morning – love you, mom – have to do that. Love you, thank you for all your support and sacrifice. And this morning, I was out in Southeast Queens, and I was so encouraged, dropping my son off to school today. Today was CEC 29’s Take Your Child to School Day for fathers across Community Education Council 29. We had over 100 fathers at my son's school this morning, dropping their kids off. And so, I want to commend them and thank them for their commitment to making our communities better. 
  
And, of course, this has been a real historic week for Queens. And as we talk about safety, and I guess we'll go into that, because we made a historic announcement this week and this is something the community has been calling for, for 40 years – the need for service and opportunity from the Police Department in Southeast Queens. And, of course, we want to thank you for your allocation of millions to create the 116 Precinct, which is one part of the solution. Of course, it's going to have a community center space and some street plaza space, but we know that police are only one part of the solution. The Crisis Management system has been a proven program that has enabled us to ensure that there are community-based led solutions when it comes to producing public safety. And, of course, I want to shout out 100 Suits for 100 Men, Kevin Livingston, who's done some phenomenal work on the ground. But even the work you've done to expand Crisis Management into Woodside, into Astoria, and we heard of the great work – who could have imagined in Queensbridge Houses, we would have zero murders. That is something that – as I go to a Nas concert tonight – in Queens, that is something we can all celebrate here in Queens. We also know that the precinct is not the total solution and we want to thank you for keeping your commitment of building out a brand new state of the art community center as well, a $92 million commitment from the Mayor to ensure that we're doing preventative work, to keep our young people out of the streets. You can't incarcerate your way out of crime. totally. We have to make sure that there are preventative measures being put in place in that there's opportunity and access just like in every ZIP code. Your socio-economic, or your race, or your geography should not be the sole determinant when – if you have a community center in your community. So, I want to commend you for that, Mr. Mayor. 
  
And fast forward into a lot of the historic investments you've made this week. And I just want to check off the list – Queens Museum, we're going to build out the first children's museum in Queens, $26 million; the Queens farm, nearly, I believe, $20 million as well. We're going to build out an education center for our children in Queens as well. The completion of – now, the last phase of Queens Boulevard redesign. I want to thank you for that, because we need this to ensure that safe streets are for everyone. You know, our streets are not just for cars, they are for pedestrians – for people who want, who need to walk – pedestrians. They’re for people who want to cycle and we need to make sure that our streets are safe for everyone. And then, yesterday, we had an exciting announcement about a $13 million allocation from you, Mr. Mayor. And, of course, I have to shout out my brother, Costa Constantinidis, who's now with the Variety Boys and Girls Club, a $13 million investment in the completion of the Charybdis Playground. 
  
And then, today, I'm excited about what we're going to do in a little while – a $21 million allocation going into the Gwen Ifill playground and Southeast Queens. And I want to also speak about another center that's going to be built, and I'm working with the Mayor on this – the reconstruction of the Variety Boys and Girls Club out in Astoria, a community center that serves Western Queens. And that's going to be an exciting announcement that we will make sooner than later. I put about $5 million in, Mr. Mayor, there. So, I want to thank you for your commitment. And then, yesterday, we also announced close to a little bit north of $20 million with some more money from the Mayor to now reconstruct the Woodhaven Library in Queens as well. 
  
I’ll end in just saying, we have a tropical storm coming and there may be questions on that. Doesn't seem – they reported it's not going to be as bad, but we're working with the Department of Environmental Protection now to make sure catch basins are cleaned up. But I also want to thank you – your office for their continued commitment in helping residents rebuild in post the last storm we had. And sending plumbers in this week has really been great, because a lot of people did not have gas on, because they could not afford a plumber. And the City has really made some concerted efforts to really make sure that we're reaching those local residents. And I just want to plug today also, at Borough Hall, if you are someone still suffering the effects of Ida, or if you're, in general, in need of any resources, we're having a resource for being hosted by the Mayor. and co-sponsored by my office from 1 to 5:00 PM at 120-55 Queens Boulevard. Every agency it looks like in the City of New York will be here and commissioner. So, please come on down. 
  
And just the end, Mr. Mayor, I know I won't be with you tomorrow, you'll probably be on the Brian Lehrer show around this time. We had a great time at The Door restaurant this week in Southeast Queens. And today, because of all the bacon you brought home for Queens, we are going to give you some ribs from Queens Bully. And I'm going to thank Rohan. And, of course, we support our small businesses across Queens County, but they are a new hip restaurant right here in Queens with some of the best barbecue in the world. And I'm going to present you with some ribs, because you did ask for a good ribs place and we didn't make it down to the Rib Shack, but I wanted to make sure that Queens Bully was plugged. 
  
So, thank you so much. It's been an honor. We still have a lot of work to do as we – as you alluded to, to ensure that Queens continues to become what the safest borough. Of course, that's my obligation. We want to save city, but my job is to make sure that Queens is. And these investments are really going to go a long way in ensuring that we're not just going back to normal, coming out of this pandemic, because normal was never good enough for the residents of Queens. That’s why we were the epicenter of the epicenter of this crisis. It's really about making sure that we're investing in the places we need to and building back better so that we're never back here again. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's been a joy to host you, once again, at Borough Hall, and you're always welcome to come back and bring your checkbook as well. 
  
Mayor: Amen. Okay. Bring the bacon and you get ribs, that's the message I just heard there. And, thank you, Borough President. And yes, we had an amazing time at The Door restaurant, strongly recommend it. Excellent jerk chicken, among many other wonderful things. So, thank you for spending the time together this week and the good work we've been able to do together. 
  
Now, Queens Week, all week, amazing things, but it's also Climate Week. And, obviously, the eyes of the world are on New York City’s U.N. General Assembly, and so much of the conversation is about climate. We, all week, have been talking about doing things differently. We started the week talking about a groundbreaking and massive plan, which we are fully funding [inaudible] for hydro power, solar power, wind power to come to New York City. We talked yesterday about making electric vehicles ubiquitous in our City fleet and making electric vehicle charging stations, something you'll see all over New York City, something the City of New York will focus on. 
  
Now, we want to talk about doubling down on wind power. And not just using wind power, but making New York City one of the global capitals of wind power, because where we are is perfectly situated near some of the most promising areas off shore in the entire nation for wind power. And we want New York City to be the center of this new industry. This is a – not just a today plan. This is a long-term plan to build up our capacity. We're putting almost $200 million into this plan. It will take between 10 to 15 years to fully achieve, but it is worth it. We should be the hub for the wind industry in this nation. We're going to develop world-class infrastructure. We're going to develop the training programs, especially working with CUNY to get New York City residents ready for these jobs of the future, apprenticeships, you name it. The impact on our economy is going to be huge. We predict 13,000 good-paying green jobs just initially. I think is going to grow from there. We're going to focus on getting jobs to some of the communities that have been hardest hit by COVID, by the climate crisis, turning crisis into change and getting those jobs for folks who have been afflicted by the crisis. But here's the underlying power of this initiative, we must change the trajectory on climate. By turning in power for this intensive new initiative, we can reduce 32 million tons of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere – the equivalent of taking a half-million cars off the road. These are big, big things we're talking about all week that changed the reality fundamentally. And we are ready to do bold things in New York City. So, I'm putting in place a plan that will go on for years and years to make us the renewable energy capital, the wind capital of America. And you might ask yourself, well, how is that plan going to be continued once you leave office? Are you certain there will be the focus and the commitment to turn New York City into a great renewable energy capital? I want to tell you, yes, I am. I am, because I believe in New Yorkers, but I also believe in one New Yorker in particular. And the election’s a few weeks away, but I will give you a prediction that the person you're about to hear from will be the next Mayor of New York City. He has been adamant change-agent, someone who sees possibilities that often conventional wisdom doesn't recognize. And he understands the climate crisis is something we have to address head on here in New York City, and I have full confidence he will lead the way. My pleasure to introduce the Borough President of Brooklyn, Eric Adams. 

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Thank you so much, Borough President. I know – over the many years we've known each other, what I love is you always see the future and possibilities and the ability of New York to reach these really, really new, powerful places. So, I am happy to hand off this ball to you and I look forward to watching New York City blossom as a renewable energy capital of America. Thank you for your leadership.  

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams: Thank you. 

Mayor: Now, I want you to hear, everyone, from someone who has really been passionate working for this day and has put a lot of work, with her team, into building up the infrastructure that Borough President Adams just talked about so that we can be positioned to play this crucial role in the world. She does a great job leading our city's Economic Development Corporation, but she's also understood that economic development must be synonymous with addressing the climate crisis. President and CEO of EDC, New York City EDC, pleasure to introduce Rachel Loeb. 

President Rachel Loeb, Economic Development Corporation: Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Good morning. And thank you, Borough President Adams, for joining us as well. I am so delighted to be here to join in this really important announcement. When we talk about a green economy, what we're really talking about is renewable energy and the jobs of the future coming together. And we know that there is no economic health without climate health. So, our vision lays the groundwork, as the Mayor said, to make New York City a hub for the offshore wind development, an industry that is going to bring all levels of jobs for New Yorkers and offer our neighborhoods clean, alternative energy. Currently EDC oversees the development of offshore wind at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. With this vision plan, we are positioned to expand our efforts. Combined with a federal and state focus and New York City's unique ingredients – our location and our talent – we are poised to lead this industry like no other. We also have the opportunity to build an industry from the ground up with that special New York City secret sauce.  

So, what's our plan? As the Mayor mentioned, we're going to invest $191 million and create 13,000 jobs in an offshore wind ecosystem. Our core strategies are threefold. We're going to develop best-in-class sites and infrastructure. We're going to prepare local businesses and New Yorkers to enter this workforce. And we're going to promote innovation in the offshore wind industry. Supporting MWBEs and other local industries today so that they have the right training and tools to compete in this new industry is important so that they can access the $70 billion supply chain opportunity. Supporting innovation today so that new technologies and approaches are created here in New York City that we can export to the rest of the world. And we're going to do all this while directing at least 40 percent of the jobs and investments towards women, minorities, and environmental justice communities. And as the Mayor said, this is going to have a real impact for New Yorkers. We're going to also remove 34 million tons of CO2 from the environment. 

It's also a unique opportunity for us to increase diversity in the waterfront construction field. So, we're partnering with CUNY Now to begin training New Yorkers today so they can participate as the industry develops. And we're also partnering with capacity building partners, so that minority and women-owned firms are ready to compete on a more level playing field. But we can't do it alone. And so, we have to have industry leaders at the table with us. So, we're going to deepen our strategy and our success [inaudible] advisory council composed of community, business, and nonprofit leaders. So, today I'm also pleased to introduce our co-chairs of this Industry Advisory Council – KC Sahl of VHB Consultants who leads the Northeast Energy Market and is a leading voice in the growth of the offshore wind industry in the United States, and Elizabeth Yeampierre. She's the Executive Director of UPROSE and the national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance. And I can personally attest that she has been an incredible partner and champion as we build this vision today. So, I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your support, for this investment, and we are so ready to get to work. Thank you very much.  

Mayor: I know you are, Rachel. I appreciate that winning spirit, go out there and change the world. And you just mentioned Elizabeth Yeampierre, who is such an amazing advocate for environmental justice, and someone who has an impact, not just here in New York City, but nationally through her leadership. So, let's hear her talk about how important this development is. Elizabeth, welcome.  

[...] 

Mayor: De nada. Elizabeth, thank you for your leadership. I also – you've given me a new quote I'm going to use, pipelines are bad, vines are good. I like that. 

[Laughter] 

I learned something new today. Thank you, Elizabeth, for your passionate leadership. And we're very, very glad you're going to be helped leading to – leading the way on this initiative. All right, everyone, we, as New Yorkers, we understand the climate crisis. We felt the climate crisis. We felt that way back with Sandy, the worst natural disaster in our history. And we felt it with two hurricanes in two weeks and unprecedented weather we saw with Hurricane Ida. I said that we are going to do things differently from now on, because we're dealing with a climate crisis. So, we're talking about the storm that's coming later on today. And what we're going to do is over communicate and let people know, even though officially this looks like a limited storm we have learned over and over again that our projections are not always right, and it's better to be safe than sorry. So, the National Weather Service, their forecast is a total of one to one-and-a-half inches of rain for the whole storm event. That, per se, would not be too troubling, except there's a 50 percent potential of one inch of rain in an hour. Now, remember in the case of Hurricane Ida, we had over three inches of rain in an hour, a whole different reality, but even an inch of rain an hour can cause real problems. The National Weather Service does have a Flash Flood Watch in effect.  

We have City agencies out – Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation out right now doing preparation work focusing, of course, on areas that are prone to flooding, focusing on certain roads, catch basins. We have a Notify NYC message out, and I want to emphasize that message to all New Yorkers. Please, later on today in the afternoon, the evening, exercise caution when traveling. The real concern here is the roads that are prone to flooding. Again, not a huge rain event based on what we're hearing now, but enough that in certain places you're going to see flooding in roads. We know how dangerous that can be. Listen for the updates, adjust your plans, exercise caution. If you see what looks to be a big concentration of water, don't drive into it. It can be dangerous. We've learned that over and over again. And with basement apartments, again, this is much, much less than we saw with Ida, but we want to be very, very careful after everything that people have been through. If you live in a basement apartment, please keep constantly aware of these updates, please be ready to get to higher ground if this storm is worse than is what is being projected now. So, we're telling people early in the day, and we'll be sending out alerts, get ready to move if this storm picks up and if we see high levels of rain. We want people ready. We're going to constantly communicate based on what we're seeing today.  

Okay. Before we go to our indicators, quick update on something we've been talking about all week, the intensive efforts that are being undertaken right now to turn around the situation Rikers Island. I've been having regular conversations with First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Commissioner Vinny Schiraldi, and a host of other members of administration. We’ve been working very closely with the State, numerous conversations with the Governor and her team. We see a real impact already in the time for new people coming into Rikers, the intake time has been greatly reduced. That helps encourage a healthier, safer environment. People are not together as long, that time is going down greatly. The shifts that workers are working are being adjusted. Fewer and fewer workers working those long shifts, thank God. A lot of resources being brought in, a lot of relief being brought in, but yesterday another major development – I said very bluntly that the union, COBA, that represents the Correction officers, had been working, unfortunately, against the interest of officers by discouraging people from showing up to work. We went to court and immediately the union has changed their tune and now has issued a statement formally encouraging officers to show up at work, support their fellow officers, keep the environment safe for everyone. We are seeing a great reduction in absenteeism already. We've been very tough on those who are letting down their fellow officers by not showing up. They are being suspended, but the vast, vast majority are showing up and actually showing up in greater numbers now. So, all of these pieces are moving. We see real improvement, there's major challenges, but on the things that we can have an impact on, we're seeing major improvements. We expect to get a great deal – a large number of inmates out of Rikers in the coming weeks, working with the State. But again, going back to the court system, we are asking the court system to please immediately schedule cases for 500, at least 500 of the inmates who have been in Rikers long-term awaiting trial. We need the court system to schedule those cases so we can keep everything moving forward. 

Okay, we're going to do indicators now. And, again, the first one is always about the vaccination doses, real progress. We're seeing very healthy numbers day by day. And some of the most powerful mandates are only going to start taking effect next week. So, you're going to see those numbers keep going up. Doses administered to date, 11,314,675. And right now, we are now well over 81 percent of adults having received at least one dose. I really want people to dwell on that number. Over 81 percent of adults in the city have received at least one dose. We're almost to the point now, 70 percent of the total population having received at least one dose. So, really, really important. Number two, daily number people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19, today's report, 132 patients. Confirmed positivity, only 9.29 percent. That's good. And here's the one that's most important in this category. Hospitalization rate per 100,000, 1.03. Very important, very much in the right direction. Finally, number three, new reported cases on a seven-day average, today's report, 1,434 cases. Finally, a few words in Spanish and the focus is where we began on public safety and the way public safety is the foundation of a strong recovery of this city. 

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish] 

With that, let's turn to our colleagues in the media, and please let me know the name and outlet of each journalist. 

Moderator: Good morning. We will now begin our Q-and-A. As a reminder, we are joined by Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Dr. Jay Varma, Dr. Mitch Katz, Director of MOCJ Marcos Soler, Department of Corrections, Commissioner Vinnie Schiraldi, and Emergency Management Commissioner John Scrivani. Our first question today goes to Andrea from CBS.

Question: Hi, good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask about the DOE vaccine mandate and the decision from last night. Councilman Treyger tweeted today that DOE central staffing, he's hearing, is going to be redeployed to schools next week to deal with a staffing shortage, but it's unclear if there'll be required to teach. Can you just – is that true? And what is the plan for next week in terms of potential staffing shortages?

Mayor: Thank you for the question, Andrea. First of all, let's focus on what the judge decided. The judge said that the city's vaccine mandate for educators and staff in our schools is absolutely appropriate. It is legal, it is fair, and we're moving forward with it on Monday. Second, we've had relatively few requests for medical or religious exemption. Again, each of those gets reviewed individually. Some of those will be approved some won't by definition. So, we do not see a noncompliance. In fact, we see very high levels of compliance growing every day, but to the point about being ready to re deploy resources, as we've said, we have thousands and thousands of vaccinated experienced substitute teachers ready to go. That's the obvious first go-to, but it's also true that central staff has thousands of educators, certified educators, who could step into different roles if needed. So, they’ll be ready, but the reality we're seeing right now is we think the overwhelming majority of our educators and staff are going to be there on Monday having gotten that first dose and moving forward, go ahead, Andrea.

Question: So, what does that mean for those who don't? Because it's still – from what we're hearing – it's still, even though there is overwhelming compliance, there's still thousands of staffers who right now haven't gotten the vaccine. So, what does that mean for them? Are they going to get a letter Monday morning? What’s the message for parents?

Mayor: Well, the message for parents is that you're going to have buildings that only have vaccinated adults in them, period. The process is still continuing, and I understand the sense of urgency in your voice, I respect it, but I want to tell you from the position of the work we're doing, we got all the Thursday, all of Friday, all of Saturday, all of Sunday, and people are out there getting vaccinated. I have no question we're going to close the gap intensely and look someone who decides between now and Monday that they don't want to come to work with that to get vaccinated. Well, the consequences are made really clear by the arbitration. In short order, they're not going to be getting a paycheck. I think the vast majority of educators and staff want to serve kids, want to keep getting paid, and the trend lines very, very good. We'll put out –you know, a lot of people follow up and go over to exact protocols with you, but any situation where additional staffing is needed, we have staff that can be deployed very quickly to wherever they're needed in the city.

Moderator: Our next question goes to Dana from the New York Times.

Question: Hey, Mr. Mayor, I – you know, Eric Adams has committed to moving forward with your wind power initiative, but he's pretty pointedly not committed to moving forward with your Rikers plan to close Rikers and replace it with four borough-based jails. Are you at all concerned about that future, the future of that plan under the Adams administration?

Mayor: I have talked to Borough President Adams about this and, Dana, I know you a long time, I'm sure you're basing what you said on the information you have. The information I have is straight from the horse's mouth and he's told me he is moving forward. So, I think he has concerns about some of the specifics of the community-based jails and that's understandable, and that's still being worked on, the specific work continues there, but I've never heard him disagree with the notion of closing Rikers and moving to alternative sites, and I believe these sites are the ones that are ultimately going to move forward, and there's a lot of support for getting out of Rikers. Go ahead, Dana.

Question: Thank you. On another note, can you speak a bit about this food delivery protection legislation that you have promised to sign? You know, why it's important? And do you yourself use food delivery apps?

Mayor: I do not use food delivery apps. I like to deal with the restaurants, well, I mean, nowadays I don't do a lot of food delivery, but when I'm going back home in a few months, I have real relationship with restaurants in my community when I order out, I just deal with them directly. Which is, I like it better, cut out the intermediary and just support the local restaurant directly. This legislation is important. Delivery workers have gone through so much in this crisis. All working people have and anything we can do to lighten the burden to make their lives a little easier to help them recover, we want to do, I know the City Council feels that strongly. We've been working together on this legislation, and I look forward to supporting it.

Moderator: Our next question goes to Chris from the Daily News.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for taking my question.

Mayor: How are you doing, Chris?

Question: Good. How are you doing? I wanted to ask on a Borough President Adams, you said you're excited to hand over the reins to him and have confidence in him as the likely next mayor. The Borough President has not been quite as polite whilst speaking of the state of the cit currently. He has called it a dysfunctional city that's been dysfunctional for so many years, it's a city in disorder and the out of control while speaking about crime and relations with the business community. I guess I'm wondering, you agree with that characterization from the Borough President, or do you take issue with that?

Mayor: The Borough President and I, again, we have a relationship that goes back decades, and we see eye to eye on a wide range of issues, and I really think he is the right person for this moment in history to take us to the next level. I haven't seen every quote, but I can tell you, we've talked plenty of times about the fact there's a lot of things we want to see government do better. He and I share that view. We definitely want to see us get back to the kind of public safety we had pre-pandemic. And he was often someone I worked with closely on those neighborhood policing efforts. We share values on that. He was one of the people actually led the way on things like having the community involved in choosing precinct commanders, which is a plan I announced with him, in fact. So, I think there's a lot of common ground. There's problems and like any candidate he's talking about problems that have to be addressed, but I have a lot of confidence in his vision and a lot of confidence that we'll work well together to get things done. Go ahead, Chris.

Question: Thank you. On a different note, on Rikers, I know you found time today tour the One World Observatory with the royals, why can't you find time to tour Riker's Island?

Mayor: It's not about time, Chris. I've been very clear about that. I am focused on making the changes we need to make it Rikers. I described earlier, this is many times a day. The work is being done in different ways, working with members of my team, working with the State, we're getting a lot of results done. That's where my focus is now. I'll be touring it, but I want to get more of these places – these pieces in place first before I go out there.

Moderator: Our next question goes to Elizabeth Kim from Gothamist.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for taking my question –

Mayor: How are you, Elizabeth? 

Questions: I'm good. Earlier this week, there was a group of Queens homeowners who were staging a protest in front of Queens Borough Hall. They say that flooding has just been a reoccurring issue for them for not just years but decades, and they want the city to do something more in terms of getting a more expert assessment of what can be done to correct the issue and possibly even consider buying them out. What do you think of that? I mean, the state did that in Staten Island after Sandy because those homes were considered just too vulnerable to flooding. What do you think about something like that?

Mayor: I don't know the specifics, but it's a worthy conversation. So, Elizabeth, we, as part of the task force that we put together, which will be announced in results of on Monday, we're certainly looking at the different parts of the city and what we need to do going forward. I would be careful with any comparison to Sandy, because in Sandy we saw situations where houses were just destroyed outright, literally uninhabitable, and that's a situation where I think it's always legitimate to say, is this an area that still makes sense going forward and work with the community on that? I think we saw something very different with this kind of flooding, but it's still very, very serious. We're going to talk about the different things we can do for different neighborhoods. If homeowners have ideas of how we can help, we want to hear it. But I have not heard before you asked this question any proposal to think about having areas that we think, you know, aren't viable. I haven't heard that before and I wouldn't imagine that to be the case, but we'll certainly assess. Yeah, go ahead, Donovan.

Borough President Richards: And let me just go, because I represented the Rockaways coming out of Sandy and during Sandy, worked for my predecessor in the City Council. And when we did the buyouts out in the Rockaways, one thing that was unique because I did hear the proposal was that we had a lot of public land to move people further inland. This specific neighborhood does not have public land that the city can go on and necessarily build new homes on. The second thing I would say is that DEP, and we did a call with DEP to get updates on all of the infrastructure projects, which actually was pre-planned prior to Ida, we had got about $2 billion from the Mayor, 55 projects, and the residents of certainly correct that 40 years of disinvestment in neighborhoods like southeast Queens led to a lot of flooding, and Ida was just one part of it, I mean, even on a day like this, where we may not see as much rain, people's basements are underwater. So, there's a large issue around groundwater that has to be dealt with and that's something we're speaking to DEP about as well. But there are 55 projects happening in south Queens as we speak based on the Mayor's commitment of $2 billion. We just signed off on a $62 million project in Rosedale for instance, that's going to proceed later this year. These were the neighborhoods that historically flooded. What we saw during Ida was something much different because the neighborhoods further south or the neighborhoods that always are inundated with water, the Rockaways is all always inundated with water, but what we saw was where we saw a direct correlation of where there was investment at and where we finished up storm sewer projects, and we saw no rainwater – we saw no water in those basements that normally get hit hard whether it's a tropical storm or not. So, the big question here is, you know, and they actually on one 83rd Street have an infrastructure project that's just not complete, but there is actually infrastructure going on, a project going on there as we speak. That project will finish up in a few months, but I also would say that where these neighbors live, it's like a valley. They live at the bottom of a hill and DEP is investigating at this moment what are some other things we can do to try to protect these residents? But I don't know if it's possible to raise the road there, but even raising a road, you're never going to have an even road on a hill, at the bottom of a hill. So, we have to look at some unique solutions there, but I will say that the areas where we saw the investment that normally flood, we had no water. So, just wanted to add that in. 

Mayor: Amen. Is it, I can't remember, was that Elizabeth's first or second? First? Okay, go ahead, Elizabeth. My apologies. It was a lot, a lot of material got covered there. Good. Go ahead.

Question: My second question is I'd be interested in knowing what you think about Eric Adams, his proposal to convert unused hotels, particularly those in the outer boroughs, into supportive housing. I know the city has its own plan underway already to build more supportive housing and safe havens for the homeless. What do you think about using unused hotels?

Mayor: I think it's a great idea if you can make a deal to get the hotel. I mean, we have, for years and years tried to get our hands on as many buildings as we can for affordable housing, for supportive housing, and some building owners work with us and some don't, but I think as a direction, it's a great idea. And this is, you know, another one of the handoffs. We have a very aggressive supportive housing plan, 15,000 apartments. If we can get that done, it changes the entire reality on the ground. So, I like that he's looking under every stone for where he can find the next opportunity.

Moderator: The next question goes to Giovanni from the Staten Island Advance.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for taking my question. How are you today?

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

Question: Pretty good. So, my first question actually addressed when you were talking about deploying, you know, moving substitute teachers if you need to for potential shortages on Monday. But in terms of the religious and medical exemptions, do you have an exact number? The percentage of teachers who have asked for the exemptions?

Mayor: I don't have it in front of me, but I'll make sure the DOE gets you that update. What we saw was the rules were, you know, through the arbitration process, very, very clear about what constituted the types of criteria for those exemptions. And what the consequences are if someone doesn't have an exemption and chooses not to work. So, I think what's different in these last few days compared to weeks ago is the ground rules were 100 percent set through an arbitration process that involved the city and the union. I have been struck at how few people have applied for those exemptions. We'll get you the final numbers. And the process of determining who gets them and who doesn't is playing out over these next few days. But again, we saw, you know, even yesterday, I think as we were talking through the vaccination numbers. You see they're jumping up intensely among educators and staff. I think the truth is a hell of a lot of people are getting ready for Monday. They hadn't gotten vaccinated yet. They're planning to do it the next few days. Go ahead.

Question: Could you maybe go into some of that criteria so I know like with religious exemptions, for example, there have been leaders such as the Pope that have said it's okay you know, to get – for Catholics to get the vaccine. So, are there any religious exemptions that you know of?

Mayor: Yeah, it's a great question. Thank you. Yes. And very powerfully Pope Francis has been abundantly clear that there's nothing in scripture that suggests people shouldn't get vaccinated. Obviously, so many people of all faiths have been getting vaccinated for years and decades. There are, I believe it's two well-established religions, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses that have a history on this, of a religious opposition. But overwhelmingly the faiths all around the world have been supportive of vaccination. So, we are saying very clearly, it's not something someone can make up individually. It has to be, you're a standing member of a faith that has a very, very specific long-standing objection. Go ahead.

Moderator: The next question goes to Katie Honan from The City.

Question: Hey, good morning, Mayor de Blasio. How are you?

Mayor: Good, Katie. How you been?

Question: I'm good. I wanted to ask, you know, you mentioned the storm today and the particular vulnerabilities for people in basement apartments. And I know you noted that perhaps they should, if there's flooding, they should leave. Is there a mechanism for people to go somewhere? Like, is there a place for them to go? And then additionally, I know you had planned to do door-to-door outreach of people and based on apartments. What's the latest on that? And what's the update?

Mayor: So, great question. Thank you. Because we have right now a very limited projection, it's not to the point yet of opening up shelters or doing an evacuation effort. We are now working out of a sort of super abundance of caution. What we're seeing now, the exact numbers I went over normally would not have caused particular alarm. It is the fact that storms are moving quickly. That's allowing me now to say to people and putting everyone on alert, if you live in a basement apartment, be ready to move to higher ground. That might be for a very limited period of time. And hopefully it never turns into anything bad enough for that to actually be necessary. But we want to start by telling people that if we see the situation worsen we'll put out more and more urgent alerts. We'll potentially put out a cell phone alert to all cell phones. If we ever got in this or any other storm, a situation where we believed evacuation was necessary, that would be a whole higher level of activity. And then of course we'd be opening up shelters as well. But this one is mainly to get people to be careful when you're driving. Don't drive into large quantities of water, try and avoid the places you know that traditionally flood. And if you live in a basement apartment.

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor: And if you live in a basement apartment be mindful, if you start to see water accumulate, get out, out of abundance of caution. And we'll keep people updated. Go ahead, Katie.

Question: Thanks. So, what is that? I know you had mentioned earlier this month, you were planning to do door-to-door outreach. Has that begun? What does that look like? And yeah, walk us through that because I know there could be some hesitancy from people living in basement apartments, even if they are technically legal, because they don't have anywhere else to go.

Mayor: The effort, which will be outlined, at least the initial effort will be outlined Monday when we go over the task force report. We want to use community-based organizations, go door-to-door to educate people. We are going to use first responders, obviously in a situation for evacuation. We're laying out that plan. We can do some of that immediately if we ever have to, other pieces will get – have to be developed over the next few months to really be as good as they need to be. But this is not that situation yet. This is simply alerting people on an individual level to be aware, to be ready to change if they have to change something they're doing today. We are not yet in the point of going door-to-door or sending out first responders. And this does not appear to be a storm where that will be necessary. If anything changes in the coming hours, then we would activate that plan and alert people. The other thing to say is we are expecting really high winds. So, for anyone, homeowners or renters, if you have stuff outside that might blow away or create a hazard, please secure it or bring it inside. This is a good time to do that because we're going to see the storm later on in the afternoon.

Moderator: We have time for two more questions today. The next question goes to Ari Feldman from The Forward.

Question: Hey, good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you doing?

Mayor: I'm doing good, Ari. How are you?

Question: Doing well. And just for the record, NY1. But I did use to be with The Forward.

Mayor: We're getting your whole biography here Ari.

Question: Exactly. I'll tell you where I went to college next. I had a question about Rikers Island and the 6A powers. My understanding is that under your 6A powers, you're able to immediately release 180 people. I think it's become very clear, in recent days and certainly over many years, that being in Rikers presents a clear risk to life. And Isaabdul Karim was on this 6A list, could have been released under the 6A rules. And since we brought up The Forward, I'll mention that there's a Jewish proverb that says, you know, if a person saves one life, it's as if they've saved the entire world. So, I'm curious why not just release the 180 people who you're able to release? You said it's a small amount of people, but wouldn't you agree that any number of people who you can reduce the threat of their death to them, would be a significant thing to them?

Mayor: There's no question, Ari. I was – I've always been very moved by that idea that comes out of Jewish thought. And that animated a lot of what we did last year, where we did a large number of releases for humanitarian reasons. The difference here is we have, first of all, many bigger things that we're trying to do that are a result in a lot more people coming out of Rikers. And second, that 6A list, that's not the number I'm hearing it all, honestly. I'm hearing a much smaller number when you bring it down to the folks that we would feel comfortable releasing on a public safety level. So, there is more than one consideration here that we have to balance. I'm certainly going to look at anyone who we feel we can release. And I'm going to work with the State, the NYPD, DAs, our own Office of Criminal Justice. Anyone we think we can release who does not pose a safety threat, we're always going to look at that. But that's not the number I'm hearing at all. I'm hearing a much smaller number. Go ahead, Ari.

Question: Thank you. And turning to the storm. You know, your discernment into climate, your announcements this week around climate week have really been focused on energy. The new transmission lines, the $75 million for supporting electric vehicle infrastructure. And then the $200 million to I guess jump start the wind energy in New York City, which of course are all great long-term projects for sustainability in the city. But there is flash flood risk tonight in Queens and across the city. And federal funding and the infrastructure bill and budget reconciliation really seems kind of up in the air at this point? Does not seem like a guarantee. Why put $200 million towards a 10 to 15-year wind program? Why not put $200 million towards immediately constructing green infrastructure, expanding gray infrastructure like sewers to immediately decrease flood risks in the most flood prone places, especially in a borough like Queens?

Mayor: Well, I want to give you a little level set. And I appreciate the question. It's a very fair question. But as the Borough President just said, we put $2 billion into Southeast Queens alone to rework the entire sewer system. The scale of the problem with potential flooding is many tens of billions, which is not to say don't do it. It means to say, we can do some things with our own resources, but to really get to a systemic solution we need the federal resources. The difference though, is we have an opportunity right now to secure our position as a renewable energy capital, which both will help speed the development of renewable energy and get at the root cause of all of this, whether to begin with, with climate change. And obviously that has huge ramifications for creating green jobs. So, I think it's exactly the right investment to make. We will continue to make the investments in infrastructure. But the scale is far beyond what the City could do on its own. I think that's the reality and we – I'm hoping and praying that something comes out of Washington that really changes the reality for us.

Moderator: Our last question for today goes to Henry from Bloomberg.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor. How are you doing today?

Mayor: Good, Henry. How you doing?

Question: I'm good. You can actually hear me.

Mayor: Yes. You sound loud and clear.

Question: Technological marvel.

Mayor: It's working brother. It's working.

Question: Great. Let me ask you, you know, you say that the City is going to be doing everything differently with regards to rain. But with this storm, it doesn't sound like you're doing anything differently? Am I correct about that?

Mayor: No. Respectfully. When, if you said to me historically, we're going to get an inch of rain. I'll give you again the exact numbers, so that you're hearing exactly what I went over. We're all starting from the same point. Here is what the Weather Service is telling us. One to one and a quarter inches of rain total for the entire event, with a 50 percent potential for one inch of rain in an hour. Historically, we would have said, that's something that, you know, our sewer system could handle. It's built for that kind of capacity. Flash forward, excuse me, flash flood watch is a lower status. It would not have caused a lot of immediate changes or actions. Now, what we're saying is in addition to sending out the teams and crews to do all they can to prepare, the public communication is entirely different. We're telling people to expect the very worst now. There is no such thing as business as usual anymore. We're telling people in basements to get ready to get out of your basement on short notice. That's something that would not have been an issue in the past before Ida. We are telling people to get ready to avoid the places where there might be flooding, which again, on one inch of rain or inch and a quarter rain, I would not have imagined it would be a big issue. The difference now, Henry is we have to assume much worse and much quicker. So, we're putting people on alert to be vigilant all day. And if things change, we're going to put out a whole different level of alert and activate a lot more personnel. It's getting people into the mindset that even what appears to be a smaller event could turn into a bigger event quickly. Go ahead, Henry.

Question: Okay. Thank you for that. Is the Borough President still there?

Mayor: Yes he is.

Question: I just wanted to – Okay. Very good. Hello there, Borough President Richards, let me ask you this. What is your position on the BQX? Is that an idea that you would like to see in the future of Queens?

Borough President Richards: I would say I'm more interested in this federal bill passing. And you know, if there's a lot of money left in the city, it's something we definitely can explore. But I would say, you know, my immediate priority is investments in the rapid bus service, SBS. I would say we need to see the Atlantic Ticket, Freedom Ticket go into a place that the MTA has, which is a discounted ticket. I would love to see perhaps a compromise on the Rockaway Beach line. Those are the immediate things that I would like to see happen.

Mayor: You're well prepared. I'm impressed.

Borough President Richards: Thank you.

Mayor: I want to give you a shout out here as we get ready to end Queens Week tomorrow. Everybody want to bring it all together here in saying, you know, we've covered a lot of ground today, but it is all about our recovery. It's all about bringing New York City back. What's been really impressive in Queens Week is the spirit, the energy of Queens. I'm going to say goodbye to Mr. Met here. And remind everyone that the single largest vaccination site the City sponsored anywhere in New York City, Citi Field, thank you to the Mets. But look, Queens has been really leading the way in our recovery, highest level of vaccination in any part of the city. That's a challenge to the other four boroughs, get with it. Come on, try and keep up with Queens.

Borough President Richards: Let’s go.

Mayor: And this is how we move forward. So, we've got a lot more we're going to be doing today and tomorrow. It's been a great week, Mr. Borough President. I thank you.

Borough President Richards: Thank you.

Mayor: And everybody, let's keep moving forward. Thanks a lot.

Borough President Richards: Thank you.

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