Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on CBS 2's "CBS 2 News"

September 29, 2023

Maurice DuBois: Our first alert weather coverage continues now with a check on the response in the five boroughs.

Krisine Johnson: Joining us now live is New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor, good to see you. Thanks for taking the time with us on this busy day. A quick check of just where things stand right now.

Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, well, you know, this was this type of day, you know. I put on mine and head out there early this morning and we saw that in parts of the city we were dealing with flooding. But we have to take our hats off to New Yorkers who decided to take alternate transportation instead of being on the road.

Our first responders, NYCEM, the Police Department, our firefighters, 15 rescues with cars, three in basement apartments, zero serious injuries and zero deaths with our city. We've managed this crisis in a very real way, and I want to just thank New Yorkers and our civil servants who did the job.

DuBois: Where are the toughest spots right now, Mayor Adams?

Mayor Adams: As you saw with the earlier video, what we saw in the Prospect Park area and the large amount of water and some of our highways were able to close on the highways to prevent additional cars being stuck. There's some areas in the Bronx, we were seeing water problems. So, it's a combination.

But the water's started to recede and New Yorkers are heeding the warning. And the joy here is this city has an excellent transportation system. Even when our subways flood, we have a bus network. You saw the numbers, only 35 buses were really impacted at the magnitude of...and we're continue to move this city as dynamic as it is.

Johnson: You know, Mayor, this isn't the first time that we've seen storms like this; and unfortunately, it's becoming much more common these days. And many in your administration have cited climate change. Given that, the Brooklyn borough president today did issue a statement and he said that given those circumstances he believes that you and the Governor in need to revamp processes for notifying New Yorkers about storms and water emergencies before they happen ‑‑ in other words, faster notification, better warning systems. Your thoughts?

Mayor Adams: We are excited to hear any ideas coming from any elected officials. NotifyNYC put out a notification 2:45, around 2:45, 2:50 sometime yesterday afternoon. And our major media markets, I mean, I have to take my hats off to you. You were broadcasting this storm that was coming, one would have to be under a rock that didn't know that the storms were coming in the city. And we continue to use social media, all forms of notification.

But I want to call out all of my elected officials. This is not a time for tweets and news releases, it's time to be in the street. They should have been out there early this morning. The job of the elected official is to respond to your constituents during an emergency. And if they have times to talk about what we should be doing after the storm and we got rain getting ready to come, I think they need to rethink that. Let's get out here and help New Yorkers. I was out this morning, I was out about an hour ago, and I want to see them out there with me.

Johnson: Should you have been out yesterday, though?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I was. I was in the street yesterday dealing with several different issues. And remember, this administration is probably different than others. I built a team of professionals. Zach Iscol, ex military person, is in charge of NYCEM. This is not a one man or one woman show. I have professionals that understand this subject matter and area. The chancellor handled my schools, the police department handled the emergencies, NYCEM handled their aspect of it.

We are a team of professionals and we're doing the job. It's not about just the mayor, it's the team that I assembled together and we showed what good work they did. Zero deaths, zero serious injuries, three rescues from basements, 15 rescues from apartments. The water's receding. New York City has continued to operate the way we know how.

DuBois: Mayor, what about long term fixes?  We've talked about barriers in the past, we've talked about getting people out of the basement apartments or shoring them up. What does that look like going forward?

Mayor Adams: Well, there are many long term fixes that we're doing. In every storm, we are continuing to evaluate and look at best practices across the globe. My team at DEP and our environmental groups, they have traveled across the globe and seen what other people are doing.

Let's be honest with ourselves, you know, I like to say we have two mothers: one gave birth and one sustains us. We have been abusive to the one that sustains us, and we have to deal with that. You see the billions of dollars we're spending along our waterfront of how we going to retrofit and build out our sewers, but there's other things everyday New Yorkers can do.

Adopt a catch basin and clean it out, clean the leaves and the trash and be real proactive in how we conserve energy and really think about long term issues around improving our environment and not be abusive to the mother that sustains us.

Johnson: Mayor, as you are well aware and as we've been following here for the past year we're also dealing with an asylum seeker crisis and we know that some of them are actually staying in tents at the moment. Have you been getting into reports about conditions there?

Mayor Adams: No, not at all. We've received one or two leaks from some of the tents areas, but this is the new norm that we're dealing with. We know over 60,000 people in our care, getting close to 10,000 a month, the surge is here. This is a reality that New Yorkers are having to experience and we have to adjust accordingly.

But the tents area, they have held up during the storm of this magnitude. It shows how well they are built. We would rather not have to put people in this condition, but we are out of room and we made that clear over and over again and we are going to need help to ensure that we can get through this. 
This is not sustainable, and we have made that clear to the federal government and to the state.

DuBois: Okay. Mayor Adams, thank you so much. Before we let you go, what are you looking for tonight, what's your expectation tonight?  There's more rain coming.

Mayor Adams: Well, the rain is going to come. You know, one of the great singers that said this rainy night in Georgia is going to just sit down with his guitar. Listen, have a good meal at home. You know, you can rekindle your romance, listen to the rain fall and stay home with the family. Let's get off the streets and let the first responders do their job.

DuBois: All right, so we'll try to stay home tonight. Mayor Adams, thank you for the insight. We appreciate the update.

Johnson: Thanks, mayor.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

###