Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

August 20, 2024

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. 

While we may have a slightly smaller crew joining us from the dais this morning, our mission remains the same. Protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make this city more affordable and livable for working class New Yorkers. To tell you more about these efforts, the mayor's once again convened senior leadership for our weekly in-person media availability. So joining us today we have Mayor Eric Adams, Chief Advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, and Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg. So I'm pleased to turn it over to Mayor Adams now.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you and thank all of you. I hope everybody's having a great summer. As you see some of our members are. So we're here with our skeleton crew. 

It's, you know, we try to make it clear and clear every day. Our goal is to protect public safety, rebuild our economy, make our city more affordable and livable. And I really want to thank the team for our commitment to do so. Just starting with public safety, we see over and over again Central Park is a real focus for us. It is anytime something happens in Central Park, it becomes an international story. And so we wanted to zero in on some of the reckless behavior that we have witnessed in the last few days. And the administration has been relentless in driving down crime in that area. 

We've been successful in driving it down for seven straight months throughout the city in a row, particularly on our subway system. And it's just impressive when you look at the fact that our ridership has gone up. So we've been able to do that. We've been able to that our robberies are the lowest in recorded history. And we've taken more than 17,000 illegal guns off our streets, 900 illegal smoke shops closed and invested in critical and crucial programming to keep our young people safe. We wanted to make sure that we enhanced patrol. Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey put a team into Central Park that includes more foot patrols, more bike patrols, which are very useful in the park, and more mounted units, officers on horseback. We have deployed a mobile command center near one of the park's main interests. And we will continue to make sure that the people both feel safe in their actual, they're safe in the process. 

And we're utilizing drones, as we were told. And as you saw, we have a video we want to show you. This is a video in Queens, a dangerous Queens home invasion. The drone is up. And if you look, you'll see the perpetrators fleeing from the house. After committing the robbery, the individual you see running from the house in the middle, the drones are able to identify that they're fleeing. If we didn't have those drones up, those police officers that you will see now starting to respond to the scene would not be able to know where the perpetrators were fleeing to. These drones using infrared and the heat mechanism were able to communicate with the officers on the ground and let them know the direction of flight, how many we're looking for, pennies on the dollars to use the drone. And not only does it save the lives of the officers who are responding, what could be extremely hectic and dangerous, but it gives you a view from the sky. Policing from the ground only is no longer acceptable. 

And this is why when you hear people mock drones and think they're toys and think that we should not be using them, this is why we use them. It saves lives. And so the next time we want to mock one, think about if you're the victim of a home invasion and you're able to catch the people who are responding. Good technology, using the right way, leaning to discomfort, try something new to solve complicated problems that we're facing in the city. Job well done. And Councilwoman Paladino asked the police officers to come out. She honored them for their response. And we believe that we're going to continue to hone our skills on using this type of technology. 

Economy, Brooklyn North, really pleased with the vote that came out of the City Council. I communicated with the speaker and shared with her, thanks for her support, 44 to 0, 10,000 permanent jobs, 7,000 homes, a real win. Next step, City of Yes, building more housing throughout the entire city, but we want to take this victory laps on the Metro-North, Bronx Metro-North station. This is a great initiative, smart way to build housing around transportation, and we're excited about the next steps in the City of Yes. 

And lastly, Tax Prep Center, we advocated to get the Earned Income Tax Credit increase. Over 20 years, people have tried with very little success, and we were able to accomplish that, and now we're seeing the benefit of it. Yesterday, we announced the expansion of tax credit of the Center in Queens, on Steinway. Currently, we have over $345 million back into the pockets of New York City residents, 746,000 New Yorkers have, they have benefited from the tax credit. This is a real boom to our economy, because those $345 million, they go back into the economy, go back into the local stores, the local shop. Low-income New Yorkers are able to get the increase in their tax returns, and we're really happy. 

And when you combine this with the free tax prep and financial empowerment services, Bishop Taylor and his team out in Queens, that they're helping everyday New Yorkers really benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit, and just financial support. You know, everyday New Yorkers don't have the financial consultants that could assist them, so we have to do it on the ground level, and that's what we're doing for working class people. 

And so, we just want to say also, congratulations to our Little League, Staten Island, South Shore Little League, on their run so far as the Little League World Series. We took a picture with them earlier, really. Diane, you helped bring that together, right? So, we're really excited about that, and you know, just want to wish them good luck. Okay, turn it back over to you, Fabien. 

Question: So, Mr. Mayor, first question. A month ago, I was at one of our meetings here, you said that you were going to give the gun detector in the subway a month, and then you're going to evaluate. So, it is a month, so I was wondering what was happening, if you have numbers on it, what was recovered, is it successful, is it the company that you want to use? 

Mayor Adams: Well, we want all companies to come out, and if they got a product, we want to continue to look at good products. And so, I will get a report from the police commissioner on where are we, how many tests have we conducted. We do them in collaboration with the bag checks, and so we'll get a readout on exactly how many, how good were the results. I don't have that in front of me. I'll speak with the commissioner to find out. 

Question: Second question: there are so many women that are victims of these random, unprovoked attacks. I don't know what you think can be done about that. Is there something proactive that can be done, whether it's, you know, PSAs, just letting women know what they can do to protect themselves, or give them advice on how to protect, like, what can be done about that?

Mayor Adams: Great question, and as you just stated, random acts of violence. You're walking down the block, you know, even if a police officer is standing there, if you're someone that's randomly going to assault someone, that is extremely challenging to police. 

One thing that you can do, we're finding that these random acts of violence, one is too many, but we're finding that many of the people involved are dealing with severe mental health issues. This is why we have been fighting for involuntary removals. People who are unable to take care of themselves, harmful to others, and one proactive way is to get them inside care, as Dr. Vasan stated, of they need care, they need support, they need to be placed in facilities where they can get that care until they're able to be on their own. 

And when people push back on the desire to do involuntary removal, this is what we're talking about. This is why we, D.M. Williams-Isom, and others have been focusing on being proactive. Let's not wait until people commit crimes. When you have 50, over 50 percent of the people at Rikers Island who have mental health issues, that's a poor sign. That's a poor sign. And so that is one of the proactive ways that we can do it. Let's get those who need care into care.

Question: Is there any way women can learn some techniques or something to protect themselves? Do police give that kind of advice?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that's a very good suggestion, and I'm going to speak with our crime prevention officers because maybe we can do some PSAs and do some videos because any way we can prevent this from happening, we want to do so. A random act of violence is just that. It's a random act, unexpected. Someone comes out of nowhere and just carries out a vicious act against you. And it is challenging to police. We want to be proactive to address those who have a higher propensity to do so. But I'm going to speak with the commissioner about having our crime prevention officers to see if we find that PSAs can be helpful.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: And something else that women can do, you have to take your safety seriously. You can carry a whistle. You can blow a whistle. You can get pepper spray. I believe pepper spray is legal. You can use pepper spray to try to defend yourself. And mayor, remember in Borough Hall and in the senate also, we made handouts that we gave to women in different communities, telling them different safety tips. And we also had a team of martial artists that gave free courses. So maybe we can reinstitute that. But there are a lot of things that women can actively do. And there are places you can go online to look and see how can you protect yourself as a woman.

Question: Hi, mayor. What's happening? During your first campaign, you said you'd build 300 miles of protected bike lanes in your first four years. In the first two years, you built just 58. Are you still going to do that?

Mayor Adams: That's the desire to do so. The goal is, what's very important to me, and I said this over and over again, I'm a biker, and I enjoy riding. But there are those who are not bikers. And we get a lot of concerns that people have throughout the year on how do we go about building out the bike lanes? How are we communicating? How are we talking to people? How do we do it in the right way? And how do we make it safer? Because you go to some of the locations that I have, you know, watch some of our bike lanes that we have, you see people speeding at high speeds. And so we have to really adjust to make sure the streets are safe for everyone. But Meera, you want to go into the bike lanes count?

Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, Operations: Sure. You know, we have the largest bike lane network in the nation. Not surprising, we're a very large city. So it's about 1500 miles of bike lanes, 590 of them are protected. Last year, we hit a record for the year, one year of protected bike lane. And we're going to continue that work. Obviously, creating the network is key to creating safety. 

Along with that, DOT has done a really robust education campaign about e-bikes. Because a lot of people who are riding e-bikes don't realize how fast they move, how quickly they start, and the kinds of precautions you need to take. They're not a regular pedal bike. And so you have to be much more careful when you're on the road with them, as well as the outreach teams that give out helmets, talk about the importance of lights. So many factors go into bike safety, bike lanes and protected bike lanes is an important ingredient. And DOT continues to pave the way and lead the nation in that front.

Question: The goal last year on the streets plan, as you know, is 50 miles. And you're saying it's a record, but just 32 were built. Why is the city falling short of that streets plan goal?

Deputy Mayor Joshi: It is a goal. And we always strive to achieve our goals. Many factors come into play when you build out the bike lanes. The mayor accounted for some of them that are community, but others are physical, right? That painting can only be done in certain times of the year, it depends what our contractor bandwidth is for that year. And so we strive for that goal, and we're a city and a Department of Transportation that year after year has proven itself to be on the forefront of building out bike lanes. And we'll continue to do that work. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Joshi: We never know till the end of the year. So let's check back then.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you? 

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

Question: I'm doing just fine. This might be more for Deputy Mayor Anne. But so following up on the 11-year-old migrant who was connected to a mugging in Queens and possible to some of the Central Park incidents, you've said all along, putting so many people in a confined space, and obviously something might break out, boredom, what have you. Is there going to be planning or activities going on in the shelters for younger kids, for adolescents, during the summer when school is let out, when they have little to do? 

And then two other things if I follow up with the mayor. So you're heading to the DNC tomorrow. You don't have a prominent speaking spot. So what do you attribute that to? And do you feel slighted by the DNC? 

And just, sorry, one other thing I forgot to ask on Friday, but following up on the round of subpoenas that came through, you repeatedly said before this that no one in your administration has been indicating that your target investigation or anyone in your administration has that changed since this latest round of subpoenas came out. So would you or anybody else been issued a target letter?

Mayor Adams: First, the DNC, I have one mission, and that is to elect VP Harris to be the president of the United States, period. And I keep saying over and over again, I'm a soldier. And when you're a soldier, you take your assignment and you carry it out. It doesn't matter. I'm not on an ego trip that I have to have this role or that role. I'm the mayor of the City of New York. Think about that for a moment. This is the greatest city on the globe. That is the role. This is the greatest city on the globe. 

And so I'm going to DNC to get my assignment. We're huddling, and we're going to come out and go to the line of scrimmage and execute the play to get the ball down the field so we can get this championship ring called presidency, and that's my focus. And I've stated over and over again, when it comes down to the review that's taken place on many levels, let it take its course. And when that course is completed, then it will be reported on. It's going to take its course.

Lisa Zornberg, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: I'll just add, nothing's changed. We have not been told that the mayor is a target. We've always said we'll cooperate with any requests from law enforcement, and we are continuing to do that. 

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: Yeah, I don't know that much about that particular 11-year-old, but as you know, there's over 40,000 young people who are migrants who are in school, so they would have access to whether it's a summer school program or a camp or anything that other children would have that are available to New York City children. What we did find was that there were sometimes parents weren't clear about what was available to them. So when it came to child care, we had people going around to different shelters, the families with children shelters, to make sure that parents got the flyers and information about what was available to them. 

We saw that sometimes when there was the panhandling that we saw, and we wanted to make sure that people knew that their kids should be in school and should be in programs. So I'm not sure about this particular 11-year-old, but most of those young people have access to any of the other activities that New York City children would have access to.

Question: I just have three DNC questions for you. Did you tune in last night and what were your impressions? Two, did you ask to have a speaking slot or were you asked to have one? And lastly, if you were to speak, what would you say? 

Mayor Adams: One, I caught some last night, not all. I was moving around the city. Two, no, I did not. When I communicated with the campaign, I told them, give me the assignment you want me to do. Tell me I can help you. And trust me, there's some sharp elbows. A lot of people would like to be on that stage. And, you know, I don't want to add to that complications. You know, how do we, you know, look after what the mayor wanted, the City of New York. It's not my role. My role is to say, tell us what you need from us as a city. And that's, I'm clear on that. We did the rally last week. I will continue to, you know, use the city to be not only what we do here, but in some of those swing states. You know, when you do these events, I think about when Ingrid was planning my inauguration and others, God only knows how many people are calling. You know, I want to speak. I want to speak. I want to speak. I want to speak. Sometimes it's best just to, you know, just be quiet. 

Lewis-Martin: And I'm going to add this, you know, when it comes down to the actual vote, there's 28 votes for the electoral college. And that's really prominent and key. The mayor is one of the 28. So there's no snubbing of the mayor. It's just a matter of spacing. He's well regarded by the party.

Mayor Adams: And so we, listen, I think I've been very consistent on my message. Affordability, public safety, big cities that's dealing with the issues around migrants, but public safety and affordability is at the top of our list. And, you know, that's often missed when I talk about that. I don't know if it's one to show conflict with me and the party, but, you know, public safety, affordability. If you had to define me, all of you have to say that public safety has been my number one thing. It's a prerequisite to our prosperity. And that is what I'm going to push. 

What's happening in New York, when I talk to my big city mayors, particularly the African-American mayors, they're saying they're dealing with the same issue, public safety and affordability. 

Question: People around the country, what advice would you give to them other cities dealing with the same issues 

Mayor Adams: Which issues? Public safety?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: I think there needs to be a national reinforcement of recruitment and retention of our criminal justice apparatus. I talked about this because we are seeing the erosion of the criminal justice apparatus, and we can't wait and all of a sudden realize that we don't have police officers, correction officers, probation officers, district attorneys, but there's a real hemorrhaging. And I'm concerned about that. 

I'm concerned that our, you know, our young people are not growing up to say, I want to be a member of this profession. You need correction officers. We need police officers. We need district attorneys. We need prosecutors. We need parole officers. And I don't know if people are paying attention that there's a real erosion. And I think the national government must step in. It's not only New York City. I speak to my colleagues and they're saying the same things. We need to step in and make sure that we, you know, that we reinforce that. And so, you know, we have some victories under the Biden administration. Our murders are down nationwide. 

But in order to continue that success, we have to make sure that we get the support of our criminal justice apparatus. And I tell the party all the time, we had a good plan. I don't know why we don't want to be more vociferous about how well we do with public safety. We support police. We support the banning of assault rifles. We support proactive programs to prevent crime, not only respond to crime. We need to be front and center and show that we are a party of public safety. And for some reason, we have not been doing that. And I'm hoping with a former prosecutor, now running for president, that she would show that being pro-public safety does not mean you have to be anti-police reform.

Question: Mayor and everyone, good morning. Two questions, sir, about the DNC. As much as you're going as a foot soldier, you're also going representing our city. You said you wanted to have conversations about migrant issues. So the first question is, everyone will be there that you need to have there that you haven't already talked to. Can you just tell us about the conversations you anticipate going forward? And then two conversations about immigration. What do you think needs to be done as it impacts your city?

Mayor Adams: It's very… it's always insightful how you could take a sentence and then we pick the word out that we want. I'm clearly saying over and over again that there's a range of issues that are affecting this city. And when I speak with my mayors across the country, we're saying the same thing. And not all of them dealing with the migrant crisis. Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Little Denver, those are our issues. But there are other issues that all of us are facing. Housing, affordability, public safety, all of us. And so I'm meeting with national leaders on immigration in D.C. You know, some of them have come here. They've traveled here. And they've been extremely pleased on how we've managed this with Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom has done and Chief of Staff Camille has done and an entire team. And they want to learn from us. They wanted to send people here to see what we're doing. And so my goal is to use this moment. 

We have a series of meetings. It's going to be a full day for me. Fabien was just sharing with me that this is going to be a packed calendar. And I'm going to use every moment to sit down with the various leaders from across the country as we hammer out how we can have a real good platform for the future. There won't be any shortage of meetings for me. Trust me. When we go to these events, you know, there is a real desire to hear what New York is doing. The tone of New York sets the tone for the entire country. And it's going to be a full day like it always is when I go to these events. But affordability, public safety, how do we deal in those cities that need to deal with the migrant issue? 

Question: Do you feel overwhelmed? 

Mayor Adams: No, no, no, no. You know what overwhelmed is? Overwhelmed is raising six children by yourself, working three jobs, dealing with a son that has dyslexia and motivating him to learn, not knowing if you're going to have a home over your head because you're not making enough money and figuring out how you're going to feed your family on some of this bad food that they were giving my mother to feed us. 

That's what being overwhelmed. And when you saw a mother accomplish everything with nothing, do you realize how blessed you are? And so I'm not overwhelmed. I have a good team. Each one of them know their assignment and they executed very well. And, you know, people don't want to really acknowledge it. But we did a damn good job with this city. We turned it around and we should be proud as New Yorkers. And I'm proud as a mayor that all that has been on my shoulders did not buckle. And there's a there's a lesson here for those who believe that life is overwhelming. No, it's not. It's not overwhelming. We can do this and we're going to do this and we're handling it. And retrospectively, people don't look back on this administration. They don't see one one heck of administration that we are. 

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: And mayor can I just add that what you always talking about people having the ability to work when you talk about who's overwhelmed. I think a lot of the migrants that are here that really would like to work and would really don't want to be in a shelter. They want to be reconnected to a place where they can come and have access to the American Dream. So I do think that this would be an opportunity for many cities to get together where we know that there are jobs available and people need pop, populations are decreased. And so an opportunity to get together and say, is there something nationally we can coordinate together so that we can have migrants resettling and not really living on, you know, Randall's Island or on Hall Street or in temporary facilities? And that's something that the mayor has really talked about from the very beginning of this. Thank you.

Question: On one on the probe and then one on the Harris affordability platform, which she rolled out last week. 

On the probe, you always tell your team, you've repeated it numerous times in front of us for many months now, you tell them, follow the rules. Ahead of this primary campaign, we're now 10 months away from next year's primary, in light of the probe, have you had to refresh any team members on the rules? Has it raised any concerns? You said hmm, we got to course correct on that. 

Mayor Adams: The chief counsel is in a constant state of probe and nonprobe. She's in a constant state of reminders and also former counsel Brendan McGuire. Also, it's a constant reinforcement, you know, so, you know, that's that's that's part of the nature of the beast. When you're in government, you want to constantly doing reinforcement and they're proactively into doing that.

Question: On affordability, kind of two big pegs of her affordability plan are unlocking federal land and regulation for building housing and then also price controls based on what your consumer affairs department sees. Do you see price controls as necessary in grocery stores in the city? And I know City of Yes is very important to you right now. Do you see a federal component unlocking that or is that sort of a separate issue? 

Mayor Adams: What I got from that is what we've said over and over again. And, you know, oftentimes I tease the team when I hear these commentaries from across the country. I thought I heard V.P. Harris saying we need to become a country of yes. I heard City of Yes somewhere. So I think people are buying into what I've been stating for a long time. Government has to stop saying no. 

You know, why do we have available land that's sitting there vacant when we have an affordability and housing crisis? We have to start learning how to say yes. Yes to housing. Yes to technology. Yes to do things differently. We're so afraid to fail. You cannot show me a successful person that has not failed. I've failed a lot in my life. But I know that if you just keep pushing through and that's what she's saying. We need to deliver for New Yorkers and you can't do it by just sitting back in a safe place. So she's saying let's become a country of yes.

Question: On groceries, I don't know if there's a deputy mayor, someone who could speak to maybe what consumer affairs is seeing as far as price gouging in the city?

Mayor Adams: When we were in Borough Hall during COVID, we identified some price gouging. We went out to a few shops and we asked the city to look into it because we identified that people were doing price gouging. And we're going to have DCWP, you know, just let folks know where to call in if they identify it because, you know, these are hard times for New Yorkers and people should not be exploiting the circumstances and doing so in many different levels. And so we have not received directly, but we will find out from DCWP, are they receiving calls on it? 

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams. 

Mayor Adams: What's up, Katie? How are you?

Question: I'm good. The first set of questions, maybe it's for Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom and then the second is for you. The first is, when did OTDA give you permission to begin giving out 60-day notices in DHS sanctuary facilities? When will those eviction letters begin? And do you have any estimates on how many families will be subject to the new rules? 

The second question is for you, Mayor Adams. I don't know if you can answer, but, you know, when you received these subpoenas in July, how did they get, I'm just kind of, how did you receive them? Where were you? I don't know how these are usually delivered. So I don't know if you can answer where you were or if it was a surprise to you or at least, I don't know, did they email them to you? Does it have to be like hand-served to you? I don't know. I didn't go to law school, but I don't know if you have any info on that.

Mayor Adams: You were extremely accurate in the first part of your question. I don't know if you're going to answer it. No, I'm not. We've answered all that we're going to do with this. The chief counsel has shared with it. We're going to let this run its course. It's all about a process, and we're not going to interfere with the process. We're going to cooperate with the process.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Okay. So we have been talking to OTDA for a while about when we were going to start doing the notices on the DHS side of the system, because as you know, we're already doing it on the HERRC side of the system. There's about 30,000 families, I think, that are on the DHS system. 

I don't call them eviction notices. I call them time limits. And so that we're telling people that they have 60 days and that they can see if there's other places, other family members that they need to go to. As you'll see, that's what happened on the HERRC side, that there were people who were like, oh, I was thinking about moving, and now I can see that I have this other opportunity. If there, for some reason, they are not able to, they reapply, and then we'll go over and make sure that they get the case management that they have and need.

Question: You don't call them eviction. What do you call them?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Time limits. 

[Crosstalk.]

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Well, no. Wait, but can I just also say this? One of the things I'm really proud of is that New York City, as far as I know, is the only city that is really helping migrants, the single migrants, for 30 days and families for 60 days and above. There's no other city that's doing that. And so while we know that we have to balance, as we said, 200 and something [thousand] people that have come here, 140,000 have already made their way here. Last week, we had 700 people coming through the front door, which is really great. We also had 1,200 people who are leaving. 

And so we have to continue to look at that and make sure that people have what they want, because no one came here to live temporarily in a shelter. And so making sure that people have what they need so that they can get resettled. So yeah, I call them time limits because that's what they are.

Mayor Adams: And other cities are using time limits. And I think what's unique about our time limits is the intensive care we're doing beforehand. And that we are clear, a child that's raised in a shelter is more unlikely to graduate from high school. And if you don't educate, you will incarcerate. 

And there's preventive steps we're taking. If we build a system, if we've had 212,000 people still in our care, it's not financially sustainable. And it's just not the right things to do to human beings. People should not be in shelters their entire lives, particularly in a HERRC-type setting. This is traumatizing. And I don't know if many of you have seen what it is, but it is traumatizing to live in these conditions and need to allow people to work. 

And we are doing it in a very humane way. I know what's happening in other cities. And the mayors are telling me, Eric, it's unbelievable what you guys are doing with 212,000 migrants and asylum seekers. It's not financially sustainable to keep this. And it's commendable to what Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom has been able to do with the team.

Question: Thank you. Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. Two questions. First, we reported this week that two of your friends from the Transit Police, Charles Henry and Cliff Hollingsworth, remember working with Lorna Beach at the Coney Island Precinct in the 80s, and Charles believes you were there at the same time as Lorna. Do you recall working with her there? 

Mayor Adams: No.

Question: Sorry? 

Mayor Adams: No.

Question: No, okay. And then secondly, given how few dedicated bus lanes your administration has built, do you still consider yourself a bus mayor, a pro-bus mayor?

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Question: How come? 

Mayor Adams: Because I do. I mean, that's… You know, I use public transportation. I move forward with our buses, and we're going to continue to do so. I do consider myself a bus mayor. 

Question: Thank you. Hi, Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. And yourself?

Mayor Adams: Good. Thanks.

Question: Another DNC question. You said you're a soldier. Going to the DNC is not about an ego trip, but I'm curious, do you feel that not having a more prominent speaking spot, or even the city not winning the bid to host the DNC, is a sign that the city's own needs are being overlooked by the national party? And second question…

Mayor Adams: Told again. I'm sorry, told again.

Question: Overlooked by the, by the party. And the second question, you've called yourself the Biden of Brooklyn, and a few years ago declared yourself the new face of the Democratic Party. A lot has happened in that time. You've consistently criticized the administration on immigration. Also, Biden is no longer the top of the ticket. How would you describe your current role and influence in the national Democratic Party? And do you think that that's changed over the last three years?

Mayor Adams: A couple of things. Some of the recent congressional elections are very telling of where New Yorkers want from their congressional leaders. You're seeing the… VP Harris is talking about, we need to be building more on governmental land. So, you know, the whole concept of City of Yes. 

I think that it's not about dollars and cents, it's about common sense. And I'm a common sense executive. And New Yorkers don't want the extremes in their policymakers anymore. And they want a common sense approach to dealing with bread and butter issues. And you saw that when it was polled around the first two primaries, what was the number one issue? Migrants and asylum seekers. That was the number one issue. When we were talking about, when I first got elected, I was talking about public safety. What was the number one issue? Public safety. 

And so there's a clarity, there's some clarity that I have my fingers on the pulse of what everyday people need because I'm a working class person. And so moderate leaders is what our country desires. They're tired of this far left, far right, throwing negative things at each other when they are hurting in the bread and butter issues. And so I think what I've started, it has continued to resonate throughout the entire country. 

And I hear it all the time from my mayors all across the country. And so sometimes you plant the seeds and others will nurture and allow it to grow. I'm not looking for credit. I'm looking to help working class people in this city and country. I don't need to stand up and say, look at what I did. You know, I'm like Josh Shapiro, how he's getting stuff done, you know? 

And so I think that is what's the most challenging thing for many of you. I'm not looking for credit. I already had a career. I had several careers. I'm looking to produce for New Yorkers. And when you do that, you know, you're going to be in face of criticism, but New Yorkers are better and will become better more and more under this administration. And when you do that free from credit, free from worrying about criticism, you just, there's a freedom to do what's best for the city that I'm enjoying a lot.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: You know, New York has always been a place that has been a democratic stronghold and folks tend to believe that this is a solid place for Democrats. I don't think it's being overlooked. Not at all. You have New Yorkers that are going to have a prominent spot, you know, the former senator and secretary, she communicated, she's a New Yorker. So, you know, I don't think so. 

I think the party leaders are putting together the combination of what they need to win. And if people who are part of the party, if they believe in how do we win, then we're going to leave our egos in our home jurisdiction and just go there with the mission of winning. That's all I know. What's the mission of winning? And the party leaders that are doing it, they're doing the play calling, the coaches that are doing the play calling, they're executing, they're giving us the play to call, let's execute the play. 

And one of the worst things you can do is have a bunch of people in a room with all of their opinions. And, you know, when you put a group of high profile electeds, if you come with all of those egos, then it's going to get in the way of the mission. We're going to major in a minor instead of not majoring in the mission. And I'm majoring in the mission and that is to win. That is my focus. And whatever we have to do to carry out that, I'm going to be a part of that.

Question: Thank you. Two questions. One for you, mayor and one for you, Lisa. Just to follow up on Craig's question, you said you have gotten no indication that the mayor is a target. I'm wondering, does the same apply for anyone connected to the campaign or the City Hall office? Or is there someone there that has been informed of them being a target? 

Zornberg: I don't know of any individual. I have not been informed of any individual being a target. You could speak to others outside the city. I'm speaking for the Mayor's Office. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Zornberg: Correct.

Question: Mr. Mayor, on the Financial Control Board meeting last week, you mentioned you've got to continue to be fiscally smart because of, you know, fiscal headwinds on the horizon. Both comptrollers said there's a lot of unbudgeted spending. I'm wondering, given that, should New Yorkers expect more PEGs? Or how are you going to handle being fiscally smart with that being the case?

Mayor Adams: In this business, Chris, what I've learned is that you cannot be stagnant. You better be ready to pivot and shift. Little did we know as we started the pegs in the beginning of my administration that we were going to have [212,000] migrants and asylum seekers. But because we were ready to pivot and shift as a need, we were successful. And that remains true today. 

I'm going to look at where we are, what are the financial challenges we have, and I'm going to pivot and shift and make those difficult calls. You know, leadership is about difficult calls. And we will cross our fingers and toes that we don't have to do any PEGs, that we don't have to do any of those other things. But what is going to be needed to move the city forward, I'm going to do. 

And unlike other cities that had the fiscal cliffs that we experienced and that had unfunded programs waiting, and other challenges, we have not laid off one teacher. We have not increased taxes. We have not laid off city employees. We have made smart decisions so we can sustain the financial stability of the city. And I think that is part of the story that has yet to be actually told. I thought Reverend Sharpton did a great op-ed when he was saying, what if I told you a mayor did this, this, this, and this, and had all of these obstacles. He laid it out better than I have seen anyone lay out, you know. 

So I don't want to do PEGs. I don't want to do budget cuts. That is not my desire. I must move the city forward. And I must be able to protect the city, educate our children, and make sure that we can continue to have the fiscal stability that we have. And I think as long as, you know, Kate, I talk about all the time, I think it's just lost on people that the independent financial experts said Eric did a good job. They raised our bond rating. The independent, not my opinion, the independent experts said all that this guy has gone through, he's navigated us through it. And so I don't know why do we have independent experts if we're not going to listen to what they say. 

So my goal is not to do PEGs, not to do any of those things. I have to manage the finance of the city. And Jacques Jiha has done a great job in doing that.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: No, no. If you're looking for the sentence to put in your article, I gave you that sentence. The independent experts have stated I'm doing a good job, and I'm a pivot and shift as needed. What’s happening?

Question: Not much. On City of Yes and its elimination of all street parking requirements, what benefit do you see from that change in policy to the construction of new housing? And more importantly, large swaths of the city, people rely on cars to get around. What do you say to those New Yorkers who might be concerned about the elimination of parking requirements?

Mayor Adams: You know, like I always say, 8.3 million New Yorkers, 35, 38 million opinions. We just had a question earlier, you know the bike lanes would take away parking spaces. Like we're doing one down here that I think is going to take away seven parking spaces. So, you know, those who cheer a bike lane, there are those who jeer a bike lane. Those who say we take away parking spaces to do housing, there's those who applaud that we take away parking spaces to do housing. 

You have to find a sweet spot. And no matter what sweet spot you find, there are going to be folks who are going to say, no, we don't like it. That's the beauty of New York. It's about making the right decision. The number one concern for me, I got to build housing. And whatever I have to do to build housing, we're going to do. We have to build housing. 1.4 percent vacancy rate is real. And some of the loudest people who are against the building of housing, you know what they have? They have a home. They have a home. 

I have not heard one person in a shelter that I visited say don't build more housing. We got to build more housing so people with vouchers can find a place to live and people in homeless shelters can go back. And so, what Dan Garodnick has done is found a way to build a little bit more housing throughout our entire city. That is what he's saying. You can't have 49 community boards building less housing than 10 community boards combined. It's just wrong. And so, you know, we got to find a balance. And that's what Dan has done.

Deputy Mayor Levy: You know, one of the things that's key to the City of Yes is flexibility. You can still build parking if you want to have parking. It's just that it's not required anymore. So, instead of taking away that requirement, you give the option to build more housing, which will bring housing costs down, bring rents down across the city.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Adams: Good. How are you doing?

Question: Good. So, just another one on the DNC. Could you just give us some insight into why you chose to go later on in the convention with several other New York Democrats…

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, why I chose?

Question: Why you chose to go later on in the convention? Several other New York Democrats are already there. 

And then my second question is about a story that my colleague Arya is working on. You attended a dinner with Clinton Hill residents last week. Attendees told Arya, my colleague, that you said you plan to downsize two migrant shelters at Hall Street and Randall's Island. Your press office disputes the characterization. So, I mean, since we have this opportunity to ask you in person, could you tell us, would you like to tell residents, rather, whether you do indeed have plans to downsize these two shelters?

Mayor Adams: The first, the DNC travel, you know, very interesting. When I leave the city, you all say, where is he? Why is he going away? Why is he out of here for two days? If I don't leave right away, you ask the question, why didn't you leave right away? You got to love New York. 

I have a lot of stuff to do in the city. And I had a lot of great announcements. I was really pleased with the tax announcement that we did. Tonight, we're doing, giving the Key to the City to Fat Joe, who's a real icon in the city…

Deputy Mayor Levy: Entertainer’s key. The Key to the City was this morning with Al Roker.

Mayor Adams: I'm really excited about that. But there were a lot of meetings, a lot of things I had to do here. And, you know, New York is different than other cities. This is a city where there's a lot going on. And, you know, I want to get there. I'm really looking forward to hearing V.P. Harris’ speech. The way the team has maximized my day on the ground, there's going to be a full day. So [inaudible] to accomplish without the dead space. Some people go for five, six days. And, you know, there's a lot of dead space in between. I just don't like dead space. 

I want to be, you know, let me get there, do what I have to do, even when I go to normal conferences. And that's what I wanted to do. But there was a lot of stuff I had to do here in the city. A lot of meetings I did not want to cancel and push back. If I could have gone for five days and communicated, the mayor of Chicago invited me to several different things that he's doing. But I just didn't have the time to do it. There was a lot going on, going on.

Deputy Mayor Levy: I think you forgot we also have off-topics. Imagine.

Mayor Adams: Matter of fact, remember I said that. You said, you know, do you want to go on Tuesday? I said, no, we got off-topics. God forbid, if I would have missed off-topics, you know.

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Was there another part of the question?

Mayor Adams: It was a great meeting. Residents of Clinton Hill asked me to come in. That was my former precinct, 88th Precinct. And we had a good conversation. And the chief of staff was there with me as well as Molly was there as well. And we engaged in it, it was just a good conversation. And, you know, what was interesting is that, as I keep saying, the number one thing I hear when I'm able to have these good conversations is that people say, I did not know that. I hear that so often. People say, I did not know that. 

They didn't know that we couldn't stop the buses from coming in. They didn't know that we don't have authorizations to have them work. They didn't know that if we allow them to volunteer and give them a stipend, that would be against federal law. They didn't know we didn't have the authorization that if someone commits a serious, violent felony after they served their time, we can't turn them over to ICE. They walked out of the meeting. When I left, we left saying that they had a whole new respect for what this administration is doing, because everyday New Yorkers don't know what limitations we have. And so part of what the chief of staff stated is that we want to downsize the large locations, because they have a large location. I think, how many do you have over there, 3,000?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: A little under 3,000.

Mayor Adams: A little under 3,000 over there. And so our goal is to find out how we can downsize to smaller locations. We didn't make any solid commitments or promises, but this is what we're looking for. 

But you find that in the downsizing, you have to move it to other communities. And just some communities just feel they should not have any shelters at all. That's just not fair to everyday New Yorkers that do. I looked at what's going or with Councilman Salamanca, the councilwoman out in Queens, that they have large numbers of shelters. It's just not fair. And so that's what our conversation was. First, we wanted to educate them, encourage them to volunteer to do more, because they're doing some good things in our community. 

They're helping in many ways. They have a cleanup campaign. And we also wanted to make sure that around these shelters that we keep it as clean as possible as well. And we think DSNY should provide special cleaning in those areas, because you don't want it to be a place that is not clean. And so our goal is to find out how we could downsize from these large shelters.

Question: What would a downsizing look like? Would it be moving a certain number of migrants from those two shelters to other shelters in the city? Or would it be giving them tickets to prepare, help them get out of the city? What are you guys looking at?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Can I chime in? You know, this is why it's so important that we help people to move on, right? So that as the census decreases, we can consolidate to other spots and move people from the largest sites to smaller sites. So that's the way that I would think about it is when that opportunity presents itself. Like I said, this week, you have 700 people coming, but you have 1,200 people who are leaving, then we can backfill in other smaller places. So we're looking closely at that.

Question: Hi. How are you guys? I wanted to follow up on the migrant crisis. There was a sweep at Randall's Island on the encampments. And some of the migrants you spoke to there said that their time limit had been reached at 30-60 day, that they didn't feel comfortable staying in the emergency shelters that have been provided to them. Is there more that can be done when it comes to the casework? Because it feels like sweeping the homeless encampments is not actually the issue, but something else. And then I… 

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Can I start? I've jumped in. The poor mayor. Sorry, mayor. So I don't use the word sweeps, because I don't think they're sweeps. We're going in and we're doing, we did outreach and cleanups, because we know what works and it doesn't work for people to be staying and living in a tent in an encampment. 

You're right, Kelly, what we found, and it was about a little over 100 people. So let's just keep that in perspective when we think about the thousands of people who have gotten case management and who've moved on. There have been some people who didn't like where they were given. So they were out in JFK and they'd rather be in Manhattan. There were some people who actually lost their paperwork. So when they went to the asylum seeker help center, they weren't able to apply for asylum. 

So we're coming together and we're figuring out what are the right things for those people. So all of those people have said they've gotten case management, but that they didn't like some of their accommodations, they are choices that people are making. And so we're going to work closely with them, but you can't live in a tent and you can't be in an encampment. And we're going to re-ticket people, about 50 people went and were re-ticketed. And then there were another group of gentlemen out there who are in other shelters, but like to hang out at Randall's Island. 

So that, we have to really weigh all of that because it's not good for long-term New Yorkers to have people just hanging out there. And it's also not really good for the migrants to go there. Safety issues. The mayor has been really clear about safety issues. That's why we wanted to do the administrative inspections that we do there. That's why we have metal detectors. That's why we have police officers there. We want everybody to be safe. And that's one of the reasons why he also wants to decompress that site because there are a little over, there were 3,000 people there and making sure that we have the right amount of people there.

Mayor Adams: So we're talking about over 100,000 that have transitioned out. 100 out of over 100,000 that have just transitioned out. There's always outliers. That is what life is about. But we've been very clear. We don't tolerate encampments. If we see them, we're going to take corrective action. And that's what we have done. 

And for someone to say, those hundreds, for them to say that I don't like the conditions that I'm in, that's the humane conditions. For them to say that, when everyday New Yorkers have opened their hearts to say we want to assist you, that's just wrong. We have opened our hearts and the people who are in these encampments, when I walk in there, they applaud and they say, thank you. And so those who don't appreciate what everyday New Yorkers are doing is wrong.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Just before you go on, Kelly, just one thing to point out. I just did some math, mayor. So we've had over 212,800 asylum seekers who have come through our system in the last two and a half years or so. We currently have 63,300 in our care, which means that 149,500 have left, almost 150,000, not 100,000. So about 70 percent of the people that were in our care have now moved on, thanks in large part to the good work that D.M. Williams-Isom’s team has been doing for the last two years.

[Crosstalk.]

Deputy Mayor Levy: So you're talking about 100 out of 149,500, got it.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: So separately, not about the DNC, but about the Harris campaign in general. It's a historic campaign. You champion women of color in leadership roles. Do you feel disappointed or surprised that you're not taking a more prominent role in the campaign overall? I'm not speaking about the DNC, but overall, especially you come from a working class background, Harris has been struggling with Black male voters a little bit. Do you feel like maybe that made you, that can make you a perfect fit for campaigning for her?

Mayor Adams: You said I'm not taking a more prominent role. I am. I am. I'm taking an extremely prominent role. We're getting ready to do a series of events in the city. As you just indicated, we're going to be zero focus on Black men and really encourage them. We're going to do everything from barbershop talks. I'm doing one today. 

So I am. And I'm not quite really picking up why there needs to be a desire to define what they need of me. The big mistakes people make, and Ingrid who did all of my campaigns for the most part would tell you, is when people want to come in and they want to define your campaign. Everybody want to come in and tell you what to do. No, she has a team. Her team are the play callers. I'm going to execute the play calls. And so you may say, well, don't you want to take a more prominent role? No, I want her to win. That's what I want her to do. 

Whatever it takes for her to win, and their team reached out and said, give us some of your thoughts. And we really appreciate the coordination. And we're going to do our thing here in New York, and it's going to spill out into some of the swing states. I can't be any more clearer than that. There's no ego. She's running for president. She's running for president. And it is not my job to try to supersede her run for president like it's about Eric. This is not the Eric show. This is her show. And that's what I'm going to support.

Question: You are famously known as the rat fighting mayor with all these programs in the East Village and Harlem and all these other neighborhoods. I saw recent report that said rat complaints are actually up 7 percent to 311 calls this year. Is the city losing the war against rats? What's going on?

Mayor Adams: Mickey and Ben are extremely, extremely skillful. These guys have been around for... I don't even... I got to read up on how long they've been around. I'm going to ask Alexa how long. Rats have been around a long time, and I'm pretty sure they're in their little hole somewhere laughing Eric thinks he's going to get rid of us? We've been around for thousands of years, but they met their match. And you're going to see in November, Meera, when we do our containerization, you know, because the cavemen didn't have containers for their garbage. 

So listen, it's a fight, fighting rats. They're smart. I never forget the rat that was in my backyard that used to drop food on the trap or drop a stone on the trap so it could pop. And then he takes the food off. These guys are smart, but we're committed. We know the pathway to bringing down our rat population is taking plastic bags off our street. And the rat czar made it clear based on her analysis that we are focusing on doing that. 

When you look at the Department of Sanitation, everybody said it was going to take us five years. We're doing it in far less than that, less than three years of containerizing our garbage. It's going to be a huge win for all of us. And those who are making those rat complaints, I bet you a large number of them are stating that rats are coming from garbage bags. They're scurrying away from those bags. So we have to get those bags off the streets. And New Yorkers can contribute by cleaning up to do so. You want to say something? 

Deputy Mayor Joshi: I will say, you know, some of these things are seasonable. We see more rats, obviously, in the warmer months. We will, by November 12th, have 70 percent of our trash in the city containerized. And that's going to make, as the mayor has said, a huge difference. And we're also, in October, rolling out the rest of the city with curbside organics, which means one-third of our food waste, what the rats are focused on, will be in containers, curbside, picked up, and separated from the rest of the trash. So these are two huge revolutions in New York City that have come about rather quickly. It'll take the rats a little bit of time to catch up, but I'm sure they'll dissipate pretty quickly.

Zornberg: Mayor? Not on this subject of rats, but you did say that I am constantly giving reminders all the time. I'd like to give one now to the press corps, just a respectful reminder. There was a question put to the mayor asking about what his specific role will be on a campaign. That's not a proper question to ask during a city event, where there's obviously a lot of leeway that we're trying to give to ask questions, because even if a question seems political, the answer often is about the city and the City of New York and there’s city purpose. 

But I would request, please refrain from asking specific questions solely campaign-related about the presidential campaign or other campaigns, about the role in the presidential campaign. That should not be done during a city press conference. Again, this is a difficult line, and we're all trying to accommodate the off-topic requests, but in my role, I feel like I have to provide that advice. 

[Crosstalk.]

Zornberg: It's not that it's an inappropriate question. It's that it's an inappropriate question for this forum, and what I'm saying is based on advice that we have been given and guidance from the Conflicts of Interest Board, it's about anything that's purely about someone else's campaign, what role are you playing in that campaign, something like that. There has to be a parameter. I'm trying very hard to navigate that with respect to the press corps and in consultation with the COIB. But that is just, look… 

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: What the counsel is stating during this political season, being proactive, she has been communicating with COIB, and we don't agree with all their rules. Let's be clear on that. We don't make these rules. We don't agree with all of them. But if the COIB gives us something, we have to adhere to what they give us. That's what the counsel is going into.

Zornberg: I can circulate and I can try to be clear, but the only point I'm making today, every question we allowed, but a pure question of what do you anticipate your role is going to be in the presidential campaign? It is my view advised by the COIB that that should not be the type of question that's asked in the Blue Room, at City Hall, at a press conference to talk about city issues.