Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation

September 23, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbgsgCdNpI

Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Community Affairs Unit: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. It's a pleasure to be here today with the administration's excited to be here in Highbridge section of the Bronx. This is the Mayor's 31st Community Conversation. We are going to go through the run of show. We're going to have the borough president, then the district attorney when she gets here, and the assemblymember, Landon Dais, speak, then the mayor. We have a full dais here today.

I'm going to go briefly through the dais of people we have here today.

We have the deputy mayor of Health and Human Services, Anne Williams-Isom. We're going to hold all applause to the end. Deputy mayor of Strategic Initiatives, Ana Almanzar. The first deputy mayor's chief of staff, Reggie Thomas, deputy mayor's of operations senior advisor, James Archer. NYPD deputy commissioner, Kaz Daughtry, chief of Patrol, John Chell. Department of Education deputy chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos. DYCD commissioner, Keith Howard. NYCHA chief operating officer, Eva Trimble, Health and Hospital CEO, Dr. Mitchell Katz, Department of Health Executive deputy commissioner of mental hygiene, Dr. Jean Wright.

Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health deputy executive director, Laquisha Grant, Department of Social Services first deputy commissioner, Jill Berry, End Gender-Based Violence acting commissioner, Saloni Sethi, the CCHR deputy commissioner, Kajori Chaudhuri, NYC Public School superintendent, Harry Sherman, ACS deputy commissioner, Luisa Linares, Department of Finance director of outreach, Kieran Mahoney, EDC vice president, [Meredith Jones], Mayor's Office of Climate Environmental Justice deputy director, Jessica Cruz. Fire Department assistant commissioner, James Harding. We have the borough president, Vanessa Gibson.

We have Assemblymember Landon Dais, HPD commissioner, Adolfo Carrión, DOB commissioner, Jimmy Oddo. Ryan Murray, executive and deputy commissioner from Department of Aging. DOT commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez, DCWP commissioner, Vilda Vera Mayuga, Department of City Planning commissioner, Dan Garodnick, Department of Probation commissioner, Juanita Holmes, OASO chief of staff, Jenny Sobelman. SBS commissioner, Dynishal Gross, Office of Rodent Mitigation director, Kathleen Corradi. New York City Parks first deputy commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, Sanitation borough chief, Daton Lewis, New York City Emergency Management assistant commissioner for external affairs, Ira Tannenbaum.

DEP borough commissioner Eleftheria Ardizzone, MOCJ chief of staff, Nora Daniel, and Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities commissioner, Christina Curry. One thing is, we don't like to waste people's time, so this way we ensured from 6:00 to 7:00, your voices are heard with members of the Mayor's Office and NYPD Community Affairs listening to concerns that you brought forth. The mayor's office takes diligent notes to ensure the folks at city hall know those community conversations. We want to make sure we know questions are limited. We also have question cards in front of you.

If your question is not asked to the dais, please write down your question. This way, within a two-week period, we can make sure the appropriate city agency gets back to you, and it's monitored by the mayor's office to ensure there's follow-up. At this time I just want to hand it over to Vanessa Gibson, Assemblymember Dais, and then we'll give it over to the mayor.

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Thank you, commissioner. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Buenos noches, bienvenidos a todos. Welcome, everyone. We are so excited to have all of you here. Whether you represent Highbridge, Mount Eden, Claremont, Claremont Village, Concourse, Concourse Village, the West Bronx, we welcome you to the mayor's town hall here at P.S. 555, the Mount Eden Children's Academy, and M.S. 327.

So I am so grateful to serve as your Bronx Borough President for the last three years, and many of you know this is home. This is the district that I was proud to represent for eight years in the New York City Council and four years in the New York State Assembly. As a matter of fact, how many of you remember when we opened this school building? We were here with new settlement apartments and the new settlement housing fund and CEC District 9 and all of our parents and the Parent Action Committee, and we said we wanted to build a school for all of our scholars.

What you have here is a pre-K through 12 school and right next door. Have you all seen the beautiful community center with the indoor pool? Have you seen it? It's beautiful. I want to say thank you to our District 9 superintendent, Harry Sherman. To our principals here at 555 and 327, to all of our District 9 parents, CEC members, members of the community board, it's so grateful to have you here. Our local commanding officer at the 44 precinct, Inspector Anthony Mascia is here with us. Our assistant chief of Patrol Borough Bronx, Benjamin Gurley, is here. All of us are here.

We're here tonight because we want to hear from our mayor, Eric Adams, and the entire City Hall executive administration, all of our deputy mayors and commissioners who serve New Yorkers each and every day. Right here in the heart of our Mount Eden Highbridge community. We know that we've seen great progress in education, in jobs, in economic development, affordable housing, pathways to college and careers, and home ownership opportunities, but yet we know as a borough and as a community, we still face high rates of asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and this is the asthma alley of the world.

We know that we have to continue to do better when it comes to jobs and programs and new initiatives that uplift our families and allow us to live healthy. Health and wellness, right? We are no longer number 62 out of all 62 counties in the State of New York when it comes to positive healthy outcomes. I'm excited about tonight. I'm excited to hear all of your questions and concerns, but most importantly, family, I'm excited about what all of us have done together. We have come a mighty long way in this community, and we are not going to let others come into our community and tear up what we have worked so hard to build. All of our tenant leaders from NYCHA, I see Ms. Maria Forbes and all the other leaders that represent this community.

We work hard, and we know that we have much more work to do. We often say, Pastor Jay Gooding, we are better together. When we work together, when we align together, when we share the same priorities and the same values, guess what? We are unstoppable. I thank you all for coming out tonight. I look forward to tonight's conversation. Equally as important, I look forward to building and making sure that our borough, the Boogie Down Bronx, is the best borough to live, to work, to raise our families and do business. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, an official welcome. We look forward to tonight's conversation. Now, I'm so happy to turn this evening's conversation over to our own District 77 assemblymember, Landon Dais.

State Assemblymember Landon Dais: Thank you, borough president. My name's Landon Dais. I'm the new kid on the block. It's been a learning curve to say the least, but as a person who lives in the community, a father, a baseball coach in the community, just been doing things as a lawyer, been doing things in the community, it's really been the honor of my life to be here in front of you today. I want to thank the mayor's team, the deputy mayors, all the commissioners to have the full suite of the city right here in the community. This is what a difference makes. This is our ability to have conversations that can help change the trajectory of our neighborhoods.

What I do know and what I do understand that this is a complicated situation when we're trying to fix things, but there are people here who are dedicated to do it. First and foremost, I want to speak to the 44th and the 46th precincts who I've been working weekly, daily on. They are doing a herculean task and trying to help us get things back to where they were. Our summer was okay. Suddenly the last couple weeks, things have not been where they should, and I can tell you right now, the 44 and the 46 are working day in and day out to ensure our community is safer.

I also want to say thank you to Sanitation. We have been doing nothing but block cleanups in our community, especially in the Highbridge area, and definitely in the areas in the central part of the 77 District. Because I'll tell you right now, a cleaner community is a safer community. I also want to give a shout out to the DOT. Anthony will tell you, I'll text him at five o'clock in the morning to fill a pothole. That pothole has been getting filled. Every time you send that to my office, every time you send that to my chief of staff, Felix, I promise you things are getting done. I am working on the kitchen table issues.

I'm trying to make sure that your everyday daily quality of life is improving. I also want to say thank you to the Mayor's Office and Leonardo Coello for coordinating this event. He definitely reached out to our office. We're glad to see everyone in here from the community being a part of it. Lastly, I want to say thank you to Harry Sherman from District 9, we were able to give $2 million, 10, $200,000 STEM grants to the schools in our district for our kids to make a difference.

Those are the things that keeps them safe, keeps them educated, keeps them doing positive things. Lastly, to the parents in the building. As a father of a five-year-old and an eight-year-old, my number one goal is to keep your children safe, happy, and having fun. I want to make sure that our playgrounds are clean, our baseball fields are safe for them to play. Our basketball courts are well-paved so they can hit those jump shots. Most importantly, I just want them to be kids. That's my number one goal as a father in the community and for us. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to your hard questions.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. We want to really open the floor and hear from you, and we try to do our best. When you speak, I'm silent. When I answer your questions, I would like that reciprocal response so that we can really respect our neighbors and get the information out. I just want to take two minutes just to give you an overview. January 1st, 2022, what did we inherit? 40 percent increase in crime. We were not building housing at the levels that we deserved. Our children were not learning at capacities. NYCHA was not having high-speed broadband.

When I knocked on doors during COVID, I was speaking with family members, what children were doing and told to do remote learning, but they did not have the infrastructure to carry it out. Jobs were not in the city. Black unemployment and Brown unemployment was at a high level. Black unemployment was four times the rates as white unemployment. Businesses were not coming to the city. No one wanted to be on the subway system. COVID was everywhere. In the midst of our recovery, we got 217,000 migrants and asylum seekers that came to our city. We did not have the authority to stop the buses from coming in, it's against federal law.

We did not have the authority to allow people to work what they want to do. The federal law did not allow us to do that. We did not have the authority to turn over people who were repeatedly committing– violent offenders, a small number of them. We couldn't turn them over to ICE to deport after they served their time. That was against local law. In spite of that, we pushed through, and we're able to maintain this city unlike what you're seeing in other cities at the same time. Two years later, two years later, more jobs this city has ever seen. We build more affordable, financed more affordable housing in one year and two year in the history of a single-year period at both times.

Investing in our foster care children. We're now paying their college tuition, giving them a stipend, allowing them to go to college and receive a life coach until they're 21 years old. We put $30 billion back in the pockets of New Yorkers. Free high-speed broadband for every NYCHA resident. 4.1 million people are riding our subway systems a day. Robberies on the subway system is the lowest in recorded history. August was the lowest number of shootings in this city in recorded history. 19,000 illegal guns off our street. Over 22,000 illegal mopeds have been removed off our streets. 1,100 cannabis shops have been closed in this city with over $68 million in illegal cannabis that would have gone on our streets.

Black and brown unemployment decreased by 30 percent. The city is moving in the right direction, and what we want to do is continue to do so. That's why we have Chief Gurley, who's here in the Bronx, dealing with some of the crime issues that we're dealing with in this borough, particularly around guns and focusing on our schools to ensure we can have a safe environment for our children. Do we have more to do? Yes, we do. 

This team of people, dedicated New Yorkers, that is one of the most diverse administrations in the history of this city, will continue to move us forward to accomplish the task that we all know that we could accomplish. Spent 22 years of my life as a member of the New York City Police Department, going on to become a state senator and the first person of color to be borough president. Now, I'm the mayor of the City of New York. We are not going to surrender our city.

Let me tell you, folks, when you fight on behalf of New York, things happen, but I'm going to fight for this city just as I fought for this city when I was a police officer and stood on these street corners protecting children and families. I will never surrender protecting the children and families of this city that made it possible for me to be the mayor of the City of New York. I want to open the floor and allow you to ask your questions. Feel comfortable that your questions will be answered to the best of our capacity. If we can't, we will get the answer for you. This is Town Hall Number 31. This is 19 senior town halls, a number of youth town halls.

I'm going to speak to you directly because we hear too often, this group here, too often people say, "We didn't know that. We didn't know that. We didn't know that." We moved throughout this city, when Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom did with the migrants and asylum seekers with my chief of staff, people thought that we had the obligations, or we had the ability to allow people to work like countless number of people wanted to do. No, we don't. This has been dropped in our lap with a $5.6 billion price tag and not the financial resources that we should have received.

This is a federal problem. This is not a city problem. That is who needs to address this issue. Let's open the floor and I look forward to a good conversation with all of you. Thank you for allowing me to be here in The BX to talk to you.

Question: Good evening, everybody. My name is [Juan Nunez.] I'm a community organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Coalition. I've been living in the Bronx most of my adult life. I'm here representing Table 1 and CB4, and their concern has to be with cleanliness. 

How can we get the agencies to address the issues, not just in CB4, but throughout the Bronx when it comes to cleanliness of our sidewalks, schoolyards, parks? Right now, parks receive less than 1 percent of the budget, and it shows. The Bronx has some of the most beautiful parks, but they're underkept, and they're dirty, along with our sidewalks, along with some of our neighborhoods.

We want to know how can the agencies work together to address that issue, what is being done, and also this group is going to work on a list of blocks and sidewalks that we can provide to y'all to start taking a look at now, but just wanted to ask that question on behalf of the this table. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: You're wearing a shirt. It's our armory. What armory are you talking about?

Question: Kingsbridge Armory. 

Mayor Adams: That's right. Now, this is the Kingsbridge Armory. For years, it was left vacant, not taken care of, been ignored. Do you know with the borough president, the city council, do you know that our office put $100 million into the Kingsbridge Armory, finally be turning the table so that armory is not going to sit there vacant anymore? Bronx has not been ignored in this administration. It's not a borough that has been ignored. Why don't we talk about some of those issues? Who's from the Department of Parks? Who are from Parks?

Commissioner Kreizman: First Deputy Commissioner.

Mayor Adams: Let's talk about the parks. What other areas you were saying? The streets? DOT?

Commissioner Kreizman: Sanitation.

First Deputy Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, Department of Parks and Recreation: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so very much for bringing up. We do have one of the most beautiful parks here in this borough of the Bronx. I agree with you. We always try to make sure that we do the best that we can in terms of the cleanliness and the maintenance of our parks in this district. I happen to love all these parks here. I used to be the former Bronx borough commissioner. This administration has also helped us in some key locations to be able to get a second shift to be able to try to do that to take care of our parks and playgrounds in the neighborhood. I was told to stand up.

We continue to try to educate on the community to be able to try to help us along with the maintenance to be able to maintain the parks to educate them. If you bring the trash in, they'll take the trash out. Also, we are very, very fortunate to be able to have a wonderful cleaning crew that we have here in this particular district. I will be more than happy to speak to you afterward and be able to cite exactly some of these locations that you have in mind.

Mayor Adams: Brother, we made some major changes in the park including extending clean hours. Crews include increase to the amount of hours during the cleaning, partner with the Department of Sanitation because many of our parks– over the weekend, you were witnessing overfilled trash bins. You were seeing that it was not receiving a level of attention. You made an important point. You said, "Hey, Eric, we're doing less than 1 percent to our parks." Think about this for a moment, folks. We have over roughly $111 billion budget each year in this city, $111 billion, but only $30 billion of that is actually we're able to use.

The other $70-something billion, $80-something billion, it goes to keeping the light on, paying for our teachers, our firefighters, cleaning our streets. It's fixed costs. There's nothing we can do about it. Out of that $30 billion that we're able to use, we had to take $5.6 billion to pay for a federal issue that we should not have to pay for. Not only did that, we had sunset in COVID dollars and pre-K and all of these other educational programs. It was sunsetted in 2024. The previous administration put in place permanent programs with temporary dollars. Then we had to settle all of our union contracts that were outstanding. We were not paying our civil servants a salary that they was able to be in the city.

We settled 94 percent of our union contracts, our teachers, our firefighters, our ACS employees. We gave them raises and salaries that can actually meet their standards. We were receiving a 94 percent, 95 percent ratification rate that people said, "Finally, this blue-collar mayor is giving what we need." We don't want to have less than 1 percent in our parks, but we got a fixed cost that we only have a certain amount of dollars coming in, a certain amount of dollars coming out. This has hurt our city when we had to spend a $5-point billion that should have gone into our parks, into our other areas but instead, we had to find that course from somewhere. It hurt us a lot. That's not the budget I wanted to pass.

We were able to keep our libraries open. We were able to keep pre-K. We were able to find summer youth employment, 100,000 summer youth. We were able to have Summer Rising to allow our students to get back into the school. We prioritized those things that were important. We would love to have more than 1 percent into our parks, but it was a fixed dollar amount. Let's talk about the streets. Ydanis.

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: Yes. Thank you for the question. First of all, more than happy to walk with you through the sidewalk together with NYPD and Sanitation. Sidewalk is sacred places as we call on intersection for pedestrian to walk. We are all on board to be sure that we address it together. Last year in 2023, we had the lowest number of pedestrian fatality of the last 113 years since the New York City started collecting data. That's a lot to do of the great investment than Mayor Adams. We have seen the city for agencies such as DOT to have all the resources that we need to be sure that our streets are safe, but sidewalk is one of those areas that still we have to take it as it is in places in the Bronx that there's a lot of car parked in the sidewalk.

I get it. I understand it. Let's work together with Sanitation. Sanitation being authorized under this measure to be sure that Sanitation were clean, but when it came to remove a vehicle, let's work together with you, NYPD, Sanitation, no one's more than happy to do the work with you.

Mayor Adams: Can you share, I don't know if it's Department of Aging or it's the DOT that's doing the walkthrough with our seniors to look at sidewalks. I think it's Department of Aging, who's doing that? You love talking about it, so you might as well talk about it.

Executive Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray, Chief Program Officer, Department for the Aging: Thank you, sir. Good evening, everybody. Ryan Murray of the Department for the Aging. In partnership with the commissioner and his team, the sidewalks, as you said, are sacred. One of the things that we've done in this administration is form a cabinet for older New Yorkers where we're leveraging the power of this entire table to look at various things that are important to older adults. 

One of those things is making sure that you can move around the city safely. Over the last few years, we've done a fair amount of walkability studies looking at the sidewalks, whether it's the crossings or it is how to slow down traffic to make sure it's safe for older adults to cross the street and move around the city.

Those walkability studies, thanks to the commissioner and his team, have changed some of the traffic patterns and also adjusted how people are using some of the sidewalks, increased enforcement in certain areas. That's just one example of what we're doing around walkability. There's so many other projects that we think about for this entire group that we're working on collaboratively, thanks to the cabinet, which is now reaching its second year of the administration and so many more projects that I can go on about. I think I'll leave that till when they come up.

Mayor Adams: It has to be clean, brother. Listen, we did something that no one thought we can do through the Department of Sanitation. The number one issue we saw in this city, particularly around roading problem was plastic bags all over the place. They told us it was going to take us five years to containerize our garbage. By November, we're going to be at the level of 70 percent of our garbage is going to be containerized. All other modern cities are containerizing their garbage because cleanliness is really the most important part. People want to feel safe, they want to live in a clean community.

You're going to see a city that's finally within three years is containerizing a substantial amount of their garbage to deal with that cleanliness that you're talking about. These are bread and butter issues, as the assemblyman stated, that we are really focused on a lot. Now, thank you for that question. I look forward to the armory being open and doing some great things there. $100 million, it took 110 mayors before we gave $110 million to the armory.

Commissioner Kreizman: Table Number 2.

Mayor Adams: Go ahead, ma'am, How are you? $100 million actually.

Question: Hi, my name is Terry Mitchell, I'm representing Table 2. Our concern is public safety, and it involves–

Mayor Adams: Hold the mic up to you because they can't hear you. Hold the mic up.

Question: Our concern concerns public safety. Under the heading of public safety, one of the biggest problems we see now in the Bronx is drug use. We're now seeing drug addicts all over the streets. [inaudible]. We haven't seen that since the '60s and the '70s. It's getting scary out there. We also have violence where we hear gunshots all the time. Seniors are afraid to come out, even in the daytime. My concern tonight is when I leave from here, I got to walk two or three blocks to get to my car. I hope I'm okay. It's on Jerome Avenue. The e-bikes are all over the sidewalks. We are now fighting to stay on the sidewalk to be able to walk on the sidewalks with the e-bikes.

I do know that cars are double parked in the streets. The e-bikes sometimes can't stay out there, but we are afraid also of the competition we have with the e-bikes. A lot of robberies are still going on. It seemed like it was good at one time, but it seemed to be getting worse. It's almost like The Have and the Have Nots, and it's getting scary out there. Also, noise complaints. People, music is up so high that you can't even talk to the person next to you because of how loud the music is, and we just know that seniors right now, and with most of us at the tables are seniors, we do not feel safe out there at all. That's our concern.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. I wish I could take you with me as I'm moving throughout the city and when I talk about these issues. You're going to get to your car safely tonight because I'm going to walk you to your car, but when we talk about these quality of life issues, when we talk about repeated offenders that carry guns, use guns, and they're back out the next day, when we talk about going after those illegal scooters and mopeds, when we talk about these quality of life issues, they say, "There goes Mayor Popo again trying to make life miserable."

No. People deserve to live in a community where they're not hearing noise 4:00 AM in the morning, where you don't have illegal mopeds riding up and down the street. We have not had one town hall that someone didn't tell us about these illegal mopeds. What are our numbers, Kaz and Chief Chell, on illegal mopeds?

John Chell, Chief of Patrol, Police Department: Currently, year to date, and I'm glad to say under Chief Gurley's leadership, the Bronx leads the way. We've taken over 22,000 illegal mopeds and ATVs off the street. All right.

When you combine that with another favorite topic of ghost cars and paper plates, citywide, again, the Bronx is leading the way, the hardest working cops in the city right here in the BX. We're about 28,000. To really put it in perspective, and this is probably number one, Mayor, 101, a topic, quality of life we hear time and time again, since we started in 2022 under this team here, 71,000 taken off the streets of this city.

Mayor Adams: 71,000, but they're like the gremlins. We take them off, they keep coming back. 71,000.

Chief Chell: This is not easy work to do. Just imagine what we have to do, what the cops of the Bronx have to do to track down these cars, to track down these mopeds, the safety involved. It's a lot of hard work, but we are not going to stop.

Mayor Adams: How many of you know what a ghost plate is? You know what a ghost plate is? We normalize totally ignoring traffic laws. People stop registering their cars. They've been ordering these paper plates, placing it on their cars. They've been placing covers on their cars. They have been riding around with no plates at all. They've been doing everything from robberies to stick-ups. If you have a registered car and someone strikes your car, and their car is not registered, who has to pick up the bill, or if you're struck and hit by one of these unregistered mopeds and scooters or cars. We said no more ignoring them.

First, we started at the tow booth with the governor and an entire task force, but now we initiated another procedure at night, we're driving through the community, finding these ghost cars, and bringing in a partnership with the Department of Sanitation. We're taking the ghost cars right off the streets and bringing them to the storage. We're finding that the people who were using them to commit crimes, they're not coming even to pick them up because they realized what they were doing with them. We're zeroing in on these ghost cars and these illegal cars and these mopeds. Now, you were telling about drug uses. Who is the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene? Dr. Katz, talk about our overdose problem we are having.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals: Yes, sir. Thank you so much, and thank you for raising the issue of the drug use. New York City has had an epidemic of drug use with overdoses, which is fueled by economics. The cheap, cheap fentanyl. For those of us who are older in the room, the price of fentanyl compared to what heroin is so much cheaper, so much more potent, so much so that people are losing their lives, destroying their families, losing their employment. You and the deputy mayor have instituted multiple treatment programs because ultimately that's what matters. We don't want to lose lives. We want to engage people in treatment. We want to be out there.

We also have a great relationship with the police department because we do not support shooting up in public areas. That is not acceptable. That is not part of community standard. That is not tolerance. That is against the law. We understand that drug users should be treated humanely in the sense of led to treatment, but we do not support them shooting up in public. When we see this, we involve the police departments. We clean up parks. Sir, you've been involved with many parks that I've known that look completely different, starting with 125th Street. Very different than what it used to be. Good work.

Mayor Adams: When you think about fentanyl is at a crisis level. Borough President Gibson and I responded with a young child, ingested fentanyl and died. Thanks to Narcan, one of the children was actually saved, but it is an indictment on our entire society that parents have to carry Narcan for their children. It's a real indictment. You're right. There was an era when I grew up, we used to see junkies nodding on just about every other corner, and we can't go back to that. We have a national fentanyl crisis that the fentanyl is coming through the southern border, coming from overseas. Many people believe it's coming from China, making their way here, and it's extremely profitable.

You're finding that there's a real concentration in certain communities across our country. Bronx is a heavily hit area. That's why we have to stay on top of it and get fentanyl out of our community. It does not discriminate the age, race, gender of who it is killing. You have an overdose crisis that's taking place in the country. Kaz, you wanted to add something?

Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Operations, Police Department: Yes, sir. I'm sorry, ma'am, just to add on to Chief Chell's comment before, just because you see the open air drug use that you identified. We have identified several areas in the Bronx that we're working short-term cases on. Just because you don't see the police there, we are conducting observations. I can tell you that personally, because I read the reports as they come in the morning, and we're looking to close some of those short-term cases. We have identified a couple of dealers at these locations, and we're going to– basically, we have to make a case. I know it may not be moving as fast as you like, but there is work being done behind the scenes.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you for your question.

Commissioner Kreizman: Table Number 3.

Mayor Adams: Where am I?

Question: So you guys kind of answered the first question. We'll do the second one? All right. You guys addressed our first question. Can I piggyback?

My name is Kiana. I did have a piggyback off of what the other question was, and we decided to go with the second one. I did want to bring to your attention, Mr. Katz and Kaz, that my issue as a mother is that there's a lot of drug clinics in the Bronx around schools. I have a fifth grader. Even when he was in Harlem, we took the trains to 125th. Oh, I'm nervous about public speaking–

Mayor Adams: Take your time.

Question: I wanted to get this off. No, no, no, I'm going to get to y'all question. I just wanted to bring to your attention that it's a lot of drug usage around the schools, and that's a big problem, not only in the Bronx, 125th still. I'm going to throw that out there, and I could piggyback. So our question is we have concerns with illegal vendors selling foods and goods, vehicles triple parking without being ticketed or removed and blocking the traffic from moving freely. How are you guys going to resolve that?

Mayor Adams: Chief, you want to respond to that illegal vendors? Do you have a particular venue? Sister, do you have a particular place and location where you're seeing the illegal vendors? Is there a particular location you're talking about?

Question: It's everywhere. Even when you're walking down the street, there's… 170th and Jerome, around 161. That whole strip of 161, there's people trying to sell you little iPod stuff. There's people on 149th and 3rd Avenue, that whole area. It's all throughout.

Mayor Adams: Got it. Chief, I'm going to let you respond to that. We had a couple of locations in the city that we went in to deal with that. Brooklyn Bridge was a mess. We went into state that you couldn't have that illegal vending. We've been on 125th Street. We've done some things in Queens. If you have a particular location, I want the chief to respond to some of the locations that you pointed out, so we can go in do an analysis and make sure we address the illegal vendors. Because it's not fair if a person has a shop or store and right out front of their store someone is selling the same product at a lesser price without any of the overhead that comes with it. Chief, you want to talk about some of those areas that the young lady just shared with us?

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Hey, good evening, everybody. You're absolutely right. You can say 170, Grand Concourse, Third Avenue, you name it. It can be a side block. It has grown. We've seen this grow over the past couple of years. We do have a meeting. We're going to start on Fordham Road. We're going to start on Fordham Road with a task force because there's multi issues here. We're going to try to clear that up first. We've been doing some one-off things. We've seen vehicles selling products that the store that it's parked in front of are selling those same products.

We had the ticket, and we have to do and remove that vehicle. We are doing the enforcement there, but it has grown. Our plan has to grow, and we have to dedicate more resources to it, which we are going to do.

Mayor Adams: We want to do it in a humane way. Commissioner Mayuga from DCWP working with the street vendor's project. We want to make sure we don't want to criminalize the behavior of people out trying to get their street hustle on, but we want to do it in a way that is not disruptive to a community. It's important for you to raise your voice because when we go in and do these operations of dealing with illegal vending, people often look at the police department and say, "Why are you being so heavy-handed?" Communities are saying, "We don't want this on our streets."

When you raise your voice, it shows that this is not our activity. This is the city responding to what your concerns are and particularly around food. When you're selling food on the street, it's a real issue. It's not going through any healthcare requirements. It's not making sure that it passes all the recommendations. You don't know what you're consuming and what you're eating. We need to stay on top of that, but we are very focused on the illegal vending that has really oversaturated our streets. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Question: Hello, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm okay and you?

Mayor Adams: Good to see you.

Question: Good. I feel strange asking this question now because you gave really figures about the affordable housing being built in the city what more than has been in so many years. However, there are areas in the city where, and CB4, where I live, feel that the affordability is not truly affordable, particularly for the people who live really in specific areas. That's one part really of the question, the affordability to the people who live in an area. Also, CB4 along with a couple of other CBs feel that they have an overabundance of homeless shelters and supportive housing. We would like to know if this will end.

The concern is with the new migrant situation, are we going to have more, will we have less, and will other parts of the city have their fair share really of it, because we feel that we've had much more than we should have. I want to make clear that we don't have really a problem with homeless shelters or supportive housing because we have a lot, but the fact is that we have an overabundance. We would like to see the playing field really evened out.

The other problem that we have also is the fact that people are coming in and building and they're not letting community boards know if they do not have to have a letter of support or money from the city in their construction, not letting us know what's coming in. What we find out after that they may be building hotels which then become shelters after, or they have something else really going on which we are not aware of.

We feel that community boards should be given really the courtesy of knowing what's going on in their community because we are expected to give that information really to the people who live there. I'm wondering really if you have any plan to deal with this and if not, if you will do something since you've heard what I've had to say.

Mayor Adams: First of all, you're right and it angers me to no end. When we came into office in 2022 and we did an analysis of where the homeless shelters are located, there are certain parts of the city where they're oversaturated, oversaturated. It's just unfair. As you saw what played out in Sunset Park, we were building one homeless shelter there, one, and there was a total disruption. One. We have some in the city that have 16, 18, 30 where you have other parts of the city that don't believe the homeless problem is their problem.

I'm saying the homeless problem is all of our problem and I'm not going to succumb to communities that don't believe they have to take their share of the homeless problem we're facing in this city. Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom, when we started, we had, what, 64,000?

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: 45,000.

Mayor Adams: We had 45,000 people in our homeless shelters when we came into office. Now, at the 45,000, add 217,000 that came in also. The job that Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom had to do every night, we were getting buses in a night. We were getting 4,000 people a week, 8,000 people every two weeks. 16,000 people a month that were coming into the city that we were required by law to give them housing by a certain number of hours that they came into the city.

You cannot imagine what this team went through when we were getting busloads of people coming in all times of the night. All times of the night. We would get the call in, we got another 400, another 500, we have another thousand that come in. We were left with the awesome responsibility based on the law of housing the people when they came in. Based on the law, we had to house the people when they came in. We had to also balance the cost of it because certain places if you opened an emergency shelter, it was going to cost you an awesome amount of money to do so, so we had to find the balance.

Now, Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom and her team, DSS, and everyone is looking at other areas that we can open the homeless shelters. What I believe my City Council members should be doing, they should be going to their colleagues and say, "Why aren't you getting shelters in your community also? Why aren't you helping this crisis that we are facing instead of overburdening certain communities, which we have been doing for years?"

When I did an analysis when I first came in office, I took all of the Council matter districts, brought in all the council people, and I said, "Look at where all the shelters are right now." Everyone should have this responsibility of dealing with the shelters, as you stated. It's not a figment of your imagination, you are right. There's an oversaturation in too many communities. For the most part, those communities are black and brown communities. We need to spread out the shelter crisis throughout the entire city. Not only should we spread out the shelter crisis, we need to spread out the housing crisis.

We have 59 community boards folks, 59 community boards. Out of those 59 community boards, 10 of them have built more affordable housing than the other 49 combined. Every time we try to build affordable housing in a district where they don't have affordable housing, they all get up in arms. Everybody say, "Housing is a right." Everybody's marching saying, "Housing is a right." Then when you say, "We want to build on your block." "Wait a minute, it's a right but not on my block." This housing crisis, senior housing, returning citizen housing, supportive housing, everyone should have the right to have housing.

Our seniors are petrified that they're not going to be able to afford to live in this city. When we talk about affordability, it has to be across the board. It has to be lower income, it has to be middle income, because I need my accountant and my secretary to be able to afford to live in the city as well, so you have to do several layers in several income bands. I have DM Maria Torres-Springer, you want to talk about it for a moment? Adolfo Carrión, former Bronx borough president now over at HPD.

Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Housing, Preservation and Development: Yes, sir.

Mayor Adams: Y'all do remember him. Right? 

Commissioner Carrión: Come on, show me some love, Bronx people.

Yes. This is my home. We are home. A reporter asked me, "How long have you lived in The Bronx?" I said, "Well, since 1969 and never left and never will." I did go to Washington for a little bit, yes. I just want to say thank you for bringing this issue up.

The mayor talked earlier tonight, in his opening remarks, about the record-breaking production of affordable housing that we've been able to do two years in a row. We broke every record in the past in terms of financing new construction and preserving the existing housing stock where most New York renters live. We're talking in excess of 25,000 units each year and then we housed people, more people, connected them to new apartments. Guess what? It's just not enough. We don't have all the resources, so we needed our state partners. We needed new laws and authorities to ensure that we continue to incentivize the development of new housing.

What we have is a supply problem in this town. Everybody wants to come to New York. It's a place of opportunity. For us, we are a city of immigrants, the more people come here, the more people stay here, the more competitive we are, and the better prospects for a brighter future exist for our children and our families. If we stop doing that, then we become less competitive globally. We are the global city.

You're going to hear, and I suspect the mayor is going to call on him, the commissioner of the Department of City Planning, who is going around town talking about creating the City of Yes. This mayor with his vision said, "We need to be a City of Yes for economic opportunity and business. We need to be a City of Yes for climate responsibility and dealing with those issues. We need to be a City of Yes for Housing Opportunity."

Now what we have done is continue to finance 90 percent of the housing we produce is for extremely low-income, and very low-income families, and still we can't keep up with the problem. Then the mayor said, "Fix the housing authority. All of the problems that we inherited." Still, we need more help from the federal government and the state. We're doing our part, we're facing a 1.4 percent vacancy rate, the lowest vacancy rate and availability of apartments for working people since 1968 when the mayor and I were seven years old, the lowest vacancy.

We need supply, and we need the supportive communities, and we have to build housing everywhere. It can't just be that the South Bronx gets the brunt of all the new and supportive affordable housing. It's got to be spread around the city.

Under the mayor's leadership, he has directed us and challenged us to figure out strategies, Dan Garodnick for building more housing all over the city. When you hear this question about the City of Yes, please insist that your elected official supports this rezoning, this upgrading of our zoning to allow for more housing everywhere. The Assembly and the Senate at the state level helped us passing the affordable housing tools that we needed, so we want to say thank you, sir.

Mayor Adams: Amazing housing tools. They allowed us because of what you guys did in Albany, we went up with a real plan, they allowed us to convert office space into new housing units. They allowed us to increase our FAR, they did the work they did in Albany as real partners. We cannot thank them enough. Now we have to duplicate that in the city. Dan, this is your moment to talk about what we need around the City of Yes.

Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: Thank you very much, mayor. Let me just first start by expressing my appreciation to Bronx Community Board 4, which was a thoughtful partner in this initiative for housing as well as for economic opportunity, as well as for carbon neutrality. We really appreciate the way that you have engaged with the administration on these very complicated issues.

I just want to start by saying thank you, and of course, to the amazing borough president, Vanessa Gibson, who understands the need for us to create more housing in all corners of the city. All corners of The Bronx, yes, and all corners of the city, because without proper supply, we see the continued human consequences of housing scarcity. That means the price of rent, the affordability of the city, the pressures of displacement and gentrification and homelessness, the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants in New York City. If you're trying to negotiate the price of your rent and you have no options, you don't have a lot of luck with your landlord. If you want to try to get a repair and you don't have other options, you're not going to have a lot of luck.

The points about leverage and the points about needing supply that Commissioner Carrión is talking about, and that the mayor has charged us to address directly. We have a proposal, the City of Yes proposal, it is live now. We're voting on it at the City Planning Commission on Wednesday of this week. This is a live issue. We are going to pose the question to New Yorkers as to whether we are able to do something ambitious and to do something that is hard, and to do something that actually takes a bite out of this crisis. It is a crisis. You heard the vacancy rate, 1.41 percent. This is not something that crept up on us over the last two and a half years or five years or 10 years, this has been decades in the making.

Over the last 40 years, we created housing at half the rate that we did in the prior 40 years, in a time when we actually lost population in contrast to the most recent 40 years. In the last 10 years, we created 800,000 jobs and 200,000 homes. It's no wonder New Yorkers are feeling the crunch. It affects every person, every person in this room, and every room in the city. We have to do something about this, and the mayor has charged us to create a little more housing in every neighborhood. It has a principle of fairness. It's designed to create a lot of housing in the aggregate but not have the significant sorts of impacts that neighborhoods frequently fear.

Thank you to Bronx Community Board 4. Thank you to all of you for engaging on this. This is going to the City Council within a matter of weeks, and we'll look forward to continuing that conversation there. Thank you, mayor.

Mayor Adams: We need it done. Ma'am, your question was dead on. It was a valid one. Everything around affordability, we need different income bands. We need to look at where we place in our shelters to make sure that it's spread throughout the entire city. This City of Yes is so important for the future of the city. Some of you have sent your children away to college. They're coming back home, they don't have any place to stay. Some of our families are growing, having children, they want to expand, they don't have a place to stay. You lose your leverage when you have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate.

This is a frightening moment for people who are attempting to have housing in this city, and we are fighting hard to do so. We've transitioned more people out of shelters in one year, in two years into permanent housing in the history of this city. More people have been able to utilize housing, the FHEPS vouchers in the history of the voucher program. You don't hear about this, but the numbers don't lie. This housing administration on the Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer, we've been zero focused on housing and this is the next step, what Dan Garodnick is doing to make sure that we can finally improve building housing in this city.

We have a problem with inventory and that lack of inventory is driving up prices, it's displacing communities. It's creating an environment, we're not going to be sustainable, and our shelter numbers will increase if we don't get this right. I have never in my life heard one person in a shelter say they don't want more housing. When you have a house, it's a luxury to talk about not building more housing. We need to build more housing for New Yorkers. Where am I?

Commissioner Kreizman: The next table. We have two tables of kids that have to go home and do their homework, so we'll go to table number 11 and 12.

Mayor Adams: We should have done them first. Thanks for coming out.

Question: Good evening, Mayor Adams. My name is Harriet Burnett, and I am a program director for the Southeast Bronx Neighborhood Center. I operate out of I.S. 229 Roland Patterson School. I'm representing Table 12.

Our question to you is, for table 12, how can we incorporate a beacon program to service the youth of the River Park Towers community? We believe that the youth program implementation in the community will help end and reduce the violence in the community. How can you help us?

Mayor Adams: I agree with you 100 percent. Who [inaudible].

[Crosstalk.]

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: I got it. You said River Park Towers. Correct?

Question: Yes.

Commissioner Howard: River Park Towers and Roberto Clemente is a state-run facility. We just recently had a conversation with them. What happened is during COVID they lost all of their community-based organizations, and they never came back. We've been working with River Park, Roberto Clemente to start programming there. It's just a matter of us bringing in our providers and offering robust programs.

One of the things that we are talking about is bringing about the basketball program that was there before. I'm talking with Chair Stevens about a Double Dutch tournament to run out of there, in addition to a couple of other programs, gymnastics as well. We're having those conversations. We haven't landed yet, but I used to live on 1849 Sedgwick, went to Roberto Clemente State Park, so very familiar with what is needed over there. We're trying to bring back those programs.

Question: Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Now, tell me about the three of you.

Question: Good evening, Mayor Adams, and ladies and gentlemen. My name is Vanelli Castillo. I'm in the 8th grade. I attend I.S. 229 Roland Patterson Middle School. My principal is Principal A. I'm here to discuss our social campaign, food injustice. Food injustice is a major issue in our community that I live in. We currently have one supermarket. The food in the supermarket is not up to standards. My friends and family are suffering due to poor resources.

Now, coming into the River Park Towers supermarket, when you walk in, you grab a shopping cart. The shopping cart is dirty. When you go down to the first aisle, you see the vegetables and you see the vegetables have mold, and just flies. Before you even go down the meat aisle, you smell it around. The meat could either be green or blue, which is not good to consume. You go down to the can aisle, you see things like expired cans and dust. You go down to the frozen aisle, you see things like chicken nuggets and fries, which is not good to consume. You go down to the checkout, look at your shopping cart, there's nothing in it because I'm not taking this garbage home.

Now who's with me to change the River Park Towers supermarket? Raise your hand. Thank you. Some ways that we could change this issue is by coming out to our local farmers' markets to make sure our community gets fresh produce weekly. Another way that we could change this is by setting up a session to make sure our voices be heard. Another way that we could change this issue is by doing food giveaways weekly to make sure our community gets fresh produce. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Question: I am [Kyler Ortega,] and I attend I.S. 229. We would like for a supermarket to contain foods that reflect the cultural diversity in our neighborhood. Our family members have health issues that they cannot control because of the severe lack of sugar and sodium-free produce. When we walk into the supermarket, the presentation doesn't reflect other food chain supermarkets located in Riverdale or Manhattan.

We are tired of being overlooked and underserved. We are aware that food insecurity is an issue for our other Bronx communities. We are the future leaders of our community, and we want better for our family members and community stakeholders. Our teachers and administrators come from as far as Pennsylvania to educate our classmates. Our teachers are dedicated to us learning, they should be able to purchase a fresh salad or sandwich for lunch if necessary. Thank you.

Question: Good evening, Mayor Adams. I'm Sienna Johnson. Mayor Adams, we would like to thank you for taking the time to meet with us. We will continue to fight until we see progress in our community. We deserve better. 

Our relatives need proper food to sustain their health conditions. We need proper nutrition to learn and sustain as students on a daily basis. Now is the time for us to make an impact and assist those that are unable to do it for themselves. We want you to help us achieve a healthy lifestyle for our community. It takes all of us to make a difference. Teamwork makes the dream work. Again, I'm Sienna Johnson, we are the subject stars. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. People ask why do we do this work. They ask why do we do this work and there's some days, I'm not going to lie to you, I wake up and I sit on the edge of my bed, and I say, "Why do we do this?" You just turned that question mark into an exclamation point. We do it for you. We do it for you. I bring my full self to this. When I hear these babies talk about healthy food, there has never been a mayor in the history of this city that has impacted the health of people.

People think I'm going to be known because of my law enforcement background. No, I'm going to be known because how I'm going to change the health of people. Because my personal journey become my commitment. Mommy told me, "Baby, when you find yourself in a dark place, it's not a burial, it's a planter." Many people don't know my story. Woke up in the middle of the morning unable to see the alarm clock because the doctor told me I was going to be blind in a year. I had permanent nerve damage in my hands and feet. It tingled all the time. He said, "You're going to lose some fingers and toes, Eric."

I had ulcer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I had the American package. Falling apart, looked fine, but I needed to take an internal selfie because my body was breaking down. Only because I stumbled onto googling reversing diabetes. I didn't know I was diabetic. Late stage of diabetic. Didn't even realize it. When I didn't google "living with diabetes," what everyone told me, I googled "reversing diabetes" and I learned the power of food. I went to a healthy diet and changed my diet, and within three weeks, my vision came back. Within three months, my nerve damage left my hands and feet, my ulcer went away, my high cholesterol dissipated, my high blood pressure dissipated.

Little did I know, people told me I was diabetic because my mother was diabetic, and it was in our DNA. It wasn't in my DNA, it was in my damn dinner. That's why everybody on the block have the same disease. They don't all share the same DNA, but they share the same Chinese restaurant with shrimp fried rice and chicken wings. They share the same fast food, they share the same sugary drinks. They go to the same supermarkets with that green colored meat. You walk inside the store, they fill their produce aisle with that wilted lettuce and that banana that's brown.

We had to change the game and show that if we change the food we eat, we won't have childhood diabetes at the level that we're seeing, childhood obesity. Food messes with your cognitive ability at the same time. Food is what you put in your body, nourishes your body. It's amazing that we are still alive with the stuff we're eating. To have these three angels come here and talk about, we want better food, you have to feel good. Dr. Katz, tell them what we're doing in health and hospitals.

Dr. Katz: Thank you, sir. Your inspiring story has made such a huge difference. When you go to health and hospitals, if you're at one of our facilities, you'll find that the default meal is plant-based. We've gotten phenomenal reviews on it, and you know people never say nice things about hospital meals, but people like these choices that we have that are plant focused and it is the default. You have to ask for meat. It's the opposite of the way it is. I know the school system as well has a day when people are getting a plant forward meal.

To us, the idea is we don't want to be a health system where we're making people sick. We want to be a health system where we're teaching people, "Here's a great diet, and doesn't it taste good?" I think that, sir, one of your contributions has been that it's got to taste good because food is part of our life. Food is how we celebrate with our families. The happiest evenings for me are when I'm eating with my kids, it's got to be tasty, and you've shown that you can have both.

Mayor Adams: We changed food in our hospitals, we changed food in our schools, we changed food in our correctional facilities. We're changing food. We should not feed the healthcare crisis. Give it up to these young people again. Let me get in the picture.

Assemblymember Dais: Mr. Mayor, real quick. I'm sorry.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Assemblymember Dais:  To the young kids of 229 first off, thank you and amazing. I do want to answer some very specific points to your question. One, in reference to programming, we're working with Fidel-- I think Fidel's here from the governor's office. He's not? Oh, I thought I saw him. We're working with the state to have programs with Roberto Clemente Park. There's a young gentleman by the name of Bobby off of Sedgwick who does soccer programming with young kids out of 229. Second, with District 9, 229 received a $200,000 STEM grant, so those kids at 229 can have STEM training as the first of its kind ever at 229.

Lastly, the grocery store that she mentioned, we have gone there with video and what she's telling is the truth. We have put up 311. We have talked to the owner of River Park Towers in trying to replace them. Unfortunately, they have a long-term lease. We are trying to do something to get them out so we can get another provider in. We also have been working on trying to get a farmers' market into River Park Towers with a partnership with FreshDirect, so we are working on that.

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that. Let's see what we can do. Do we have anyone from DOHMH that's here, D.M.?

Let's see. Don't be shy. Stand up. Let's see what we can do that would help with the farmers' market, because that's one of the asks from these young people. Let's see what we can do. I know we have some stuff where we have Healthy Bucks …

Borough President Gibson: Health Bucks. I have $10,000 worth of Health Bucks at my office. Anyone can come by. We have Health Bucks for farmers' markets, farm stands, fruit stands. Please make sure you take advantage. Mr. Mayor, the Health Bucks program is so successful. When you talk about food equity and justice, this is a justice issue. No child, no family should ever go to bed hungry in this borough and in this city. We will do more.

Mayor Adams: Yes. You want to add something to that? You got to turn on your mic.

Executive Deputy Commissioner Jean Wright, Mental Hygiene, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: I'm sorry. We will definitely work all through the Health and Hospitals and everyone here to make sure we have healthy food. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: You got a voice like a radio show, man.

Executive Deputy Commissioner Wright: I know, mayor. I'm often been told, mayor. I have a face for radio.

Mayor Adams: Vanessa, borough president, talk about Not62.

Borough President Gibson: Not62 is a campaign that we started several years ago led by the Institute for Family Health and Bronx Health Reach. What we're focusing on is health and wellness, healthy lifestyles. We're looking at farmers' markets, farm stands, fruit stands, Health Bucks. We're also working with hospital providers, health, and hospitals. We're working with all of our private hospitals and our FQHCs, like Morris Heights Health Center, Urban Health, and many others. We're working with school communities so that we can offer better programs. The answer to this, ladies and gentlemen, is better choices.

We should not, Mr. Mayor, as many say, be surrounded by processed poison. That's what we are surrounded by in this borough. Why we have the highest asthma rates and heart disease. Let me also say when it comes to transportation equity, Commissioner Rodriguez, why we're working to cap the cross-Bronx, because we are divided. Neighborhoods are divided in our borough by highways and these diesel trucks that breathe fumes in our communities. That is another reason why our kids live with asthma every day.

We're looking at this from multiple levels, deputy mayor, because we believe in food equity, food justice, healthcare, wraparound services. Mayor, you know we can't talk about all this work around food equity and food justice and have families go home to substandard housing. That has to change. Elevators need to work. We don't need families that live with asbestos and mold and vermin, that has to change. That's why we're working with HPD and all the other organizations because we have to look at this in multiple layers.

Mayor Adams: Well said. D.M.?

Deputy mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: Real quick, just wanted to let them know that we have the summer youth employment program in. This summer we work with 200 students across the city in many different schools with our mayor's office of food policy and we brought food education through all the programs. We're looking forward to doing that this year. I'm offering my colleague Kate MacKenzie  to come and meet with this group of young people so they can talk about the food environment across the entire borough.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff. You want to go. Come on, add in. I feel like I'm in church right now.

Commissioner Dynishal Gross, Department of Small Business Services: Great. I'm Dynishal Gross. I'm the newly appointed Commissioner of the City's Department of Small Business Services. The young people have described a grocery store in their neighborhood, that's a small business. That small business wants to be a resource, I'm sure, to the neighborhood and somehow, they're missing the mark. There's regulation that should control food quality, but what we do at SBS is we focus on business education. If they're not clear about what those standards are, we can go in with our compliance advisors and advise them on what their standards are.

More importantly, when there's conflict between New Yorkers and the small businesses that are serving their neighborhoods, we help to mediate those conflicts. We have a great program called MEND with OATH, Office of Administrative Tribunals and Hearings. Those young women were so articulate and so clear, it would be wonderful to sit down with a mediator in that business so they can hear from the community members what they're missing. I'd love to get the name of the small business to allow us to follow up.

Mayor Adams: Assembly will make sure-- you know which one it is, Borough President, the name of that supermarket? Okay. We'll find out.

Borough President Gibson: No, the supermarket, commissioner, is in River Park Towers, they have a lease with the management company and the landlord, and really, it's available for the residents of River Park because it's on the Esplanade. Besides the supermarket, there's a grocery store, too, commissioner, we should look at.

Mayor Adams: Good stuff. These are the historical inequities that many people just ignored, and they basically stated, "We're going to get in office, we're going to do some small things." I'm just not going to do that. Our communities have been betrayed. They betrayed my mother when she needed food to eat, they gave her food that fed her diabetes, her high blood pressure, her heart disease. They betrayed my sister, who, because mommy did three jobs, Sandra lost her whole childhood by raising the five of us. They betrayed me, not diagnosing my dyslexia, and that's why we're doing dyslexia screening for our children.

We've been betrayed over and over and over and over again, and we have the audacity to say, "The betrayal stops with us." That's what this is about, folks. This is a Matthew 21 and 12 moment. Jesus walked in the temple and saw them doing wrong in His temple. He didn't sit at the table and participate, he turned the table over. I went to City Hall to turn the table over. You deserve better in the city, and every day of our lives, we are going to give you better.

We're not going to solve every problem, folks. I'm going to let you know right now, but I'll be damned if we don't try. Damned if we don't try. You deserve more, and we're giving you more every day. Don't listen to all that noise, look at the numbers. This administration has delivered for the people of this city, and we're going to continue to do that as long as I'm the mayor of the City of New York. That's what I'm going to do.

Question: Hello. Good evening.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm fine, Mr. Mayor. My name is Ibrahim Ahmed. I'm presenting [inaudible] Association. My question is about youth crime. I don't know, maybe as a result of COVID aftermath effect, there are some major concern of increasing crime, of shooting within the youth. I'm wondering, even though with a lot of effort that this administration is putting on, which have never been undermined, what is your administration doing on youth disengagement with no constructive program?

When I say not constructive program, like a sport, because in the past before COVID, during the summertime, you will see in the heart of the summertime, youth are engaged with sports, in the basketball court and some other places. Nowadays, you will see kids hanging out on the streets, staying late, playing music, and doing unusual things that seems to be abandoned, direct or indirect. What is your administration willing to do in terms of bringing programs that will revive even better than what was done before to overcome the issue of the challenge of the crime that youth are facing? Especially with the shooting and stuff like that. Thank you very much.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. First, like I always say, don't listen to the noise, listen to the numbers. Before I pass it over to Commissioner Howard, who was dying to get up and talk about all the great stuff that he's doing. I'm sorry we don't have Commissioner Stewart that's here from community affairs. When you look at what we have done, I want to do some top-line issues and I'm going to hand it over to Commissioner Howard. I'm going to hand it over to Commissioner Daughtry. Look at what we've done.

For years advocates were calling for Summer Youth Employment to go to 100,000 summer youth. No one wanted to do it. We came in office year one, we moved from 75,000 to 100,000 summer youth employments. I'm a big believer in full-time school. I don't believe in having two months off during summer for education. To decrease the learning loss and have them in safe spaces with good meals and good development of their full personhood, I think children should be in school all year round.

The closest thing to it is that we have Summer Rising. I think the number was 110,000 that we had. 110,000 children had programs throughout the bulk of the summer. We had 600 to 700 foster care children age out every year. We knew at the beginning of the year that those babies were going to age out. They were more likely to be homeless, more likely to be victims of a crime, more likely not to graduate from high school, more likely to deal with mental health issues. We said no to that. We're giving them life coaches until they're 21. We're paying that college tuition. We're giving them a stipend. We're giving them the support that they deserve. What is our numbers now, Anne? How many foster care in college?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: Who are in college? 430 this semester.

Mayor Adams: What was it the last time?

Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom: 200 when we started.

Mayor Adams: We doubled the number of our babies that are now in foster care that are now going to college because of what we've done. We have pipeline to internship. Google and other major corporations are now giving our young people the training that they deserve. What Chancellor Banks has done in the Department of Education, of exposing our young people to the opportunities, it's just unbelievable, unprecedented on what we've been able to accomplish. We are with you on this.

Commissioner Stewart is in the Police Department. He's teaching our children golf. He's teaching our children to get their pilot license. He's teaching our children technology. He's teaching our children to get their real estate license. We are now using every agency in the city to have some point of intervening in our young people and moving them forward. Let me turn it over to you, Commissioner Howard, on what you have done in DYCD, those four letters, Department of Youth and Community Development.

Commissioner Howard: If we just go local and just talk about this district alone, so summer youth employment, 2,400 kids in summer youth, and not just summer youth, but targeting to the mayor's point, young people who are at the highest level of recruitment in gangs, and also living in our NYCHA development that's targeting those specific young people and giving them job and job opportunities. Summer Rising, 2,700 young kids in our Summer Rising summer camp program this year. We had the best summer this year. I felt it. Can we agree? Did we not have a good summer? Oh, come on.

All right, there you go. I know the kids had a good summer because I was there, and I watched them, and I saw the activities that they went through our Saturday Night Lights program. In order to keep the kids safe this summer, we opened up our beacon programs, our cornerstone programs, our school praise programs. We opened them up from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and have one of the highest levels of participation across the city, especially in the 44, so the investment is there. In this very school alone, we have an after-school program of 185 kids in this school going into after-school program.

If you look at the numbers citywide, 213,000 young people and adults in our after-school program, so we have the summer months covered. We have the fall and winter covered. It's just a matter of tapping into those resources. In terms of youth violence, we work with NYPD with our Cure Violence group. The mayor invested $84 million in our Cure Violence group, those credible messengers out there trying to prevent gun violence and retaliation. We have Release The Grip who worked very close with Chief Gurley and his team to make sure that they're out there trying to prevent gun violence, so the investment is there.

Can we do more? Of course, we can always do more. Those young people that you're talking about, please identify them for us. I can talk to you afterwards so that we can start to do some engagement with them, okay?

Mayor Adams: We're real about this because I was a certified Bebe Kid, always in some mischief, and this program is to identify them. We're lucky to have, which I think is one of the most proactive district attorneys in preventing crime, D.A. Darcel Clark. D.A., if you want to talk about some of the stuff that your office is doing. I know you're doing a lot of preventive stuff.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark: Good evening, everyone. Forgive me for being late. I had another event I had to go to that was previously scheduled, but there was no way I was not going to be able to be here for a town hall that the mayor was hosting in our community. 

Mayor, thank you for coming, and thank you for bringing your A team here that are helping us get the resources that we need here in the Bronx. Yes, I'm the Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark and everybody thinks that the prosecutors all I want to do is lock people up and throw away the key. There's some people that's going to happen to, but for the most part, my job is about preventing crime and working with so many of you, NYPD in particular.

Our borough president today made a major announcement about giving almost $400,000 to public safety, more cameras, and mobile units in the neighborhoods, that's going to be helpful to us, one, to keep people safe, two, to prevent crimes, and three, for accountability. That means that I'll get to get some evidence in those cases where people are afraid to come forward. Those cameras are the ones that assist us and speak for those victims who are afraid to come forward. I'm doing all that I can to engage our youth. Some of you may have seen me on Street Soldiers. Recently, they talk about the rise in young women now being part of these gangs and crews, I don't want to see that.

I grew up in NYCHA in this county. I went to New York City Public Schools and I made my way out, and I want those young women to know that they can too, and all of our young people to know that there are options for them. They want me to deal with alternatives to incarceration, that's too late. We have to have alternatives to violence, and I'm glad Commissioner Howard is here. We have done tremendous work with his office, and housing is so important. You know that, commissioner, my friend. We need people with stable housing that causes people — We got to get to the root causes of the crime, and I recognize that.

When I went before the City Council this March, I didn't ask for any money for my office, which was very unusual because I still need money, but I asked to put that money into the Bronx, the resources that we need for our schools and our programs and for mental health, especially substance use disorder. That's what we need and that's what these kind of meetings are for. Know that you have a D.A. that cares, that I'm here for prevention, intervention, prosecution, of course, because I'm not apologizing for being the Bronx D.A.. I'm going to hold people accountable that bring that violence to our community, but also re-entry.

We're working for those who are returning back to our communities as well, so that's what it's all about. I'm here, Mayor. Thank you for bringing your resources to us.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Mayor, just one last thing.

Mayor Adams: Commissioner Daughtry.

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: You mentioned something about the gun violence, what is the police department doing to try to prevent that? 1,006 gun arrests from January 1st in the Bronx to right now. 851 guns recovered out of the Bronx alone, so the NYPD and the officers here in the Bronx are working really hard to try to quell some of this gun violence.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. I don't see her here. Anyone here from Probation? Talk about the stuff you're doing, Probation and what Commissioner Holmes is doing with her girl talk and some of the other initiatives in Probation.

First Deputy Commissioner Sekou Ma'at, Department of Probations: Good afternoon everyone, or good evening. Excuse me, I'm Sekou Ma'at, first deputy commissioner on behalf of Commissioner Holmes. Unfortunately, she's under the weather, so that's the only reason why she's not here tonight. 

Again, we mentioned, or we talked a little bit about the gun violence, but let me give you a snapshot of what's going on in the Bronx as it relates to the juveniles or the young adults. I know the statistics seem alarming, but on the scale of things, it's pretty low per se. 55, which is 21 percent out of the 260 active clients in the Bronx are on probation for firearms-related offenses.

Two, which is 4 percent out of the 55 youth are on probation for firearms-related offenses for re-offending, so only two. Then lastly, 55, which is 21 percent out of the 249 active clients residing in the selected precincts of probation for firearms-related offenses, it's only 21 percent. As the mayor indicated, Commissioner Holmes has a very strong, unique vision. One of the things that she's doing is Girl Talk, which is giving individual females an opportunity to express themselves, to talk to different individuals as they talked about in terms of credible messages.

In addition, we also have the Youth Justice Network. We also have Justice Innovations in addition to Community Connections for Youth, which is located here in the Bronx, which consists of 416 families. Lastly, we also provide a program called Mentoring Plus. It provides credible messengers for mentoring of young people on probation through the ages of 13 to 18. We also have a program called Drill Boys, and that's also a program that's very interactive with young adults engaging them into the various programs in the community.

I come from a unique perspective. I did 13 months with the City of New York for the Department of Corrections, and now I'm here with the Department of Probation. We are engaged, and we know what young people need when they get back into the community, and most of all, the Department of Probation's about relationships. We also are trying to engage not only our probationers in the community but also our staff, having them at the table with other stakeholders and resources so that they could also provide better and more adequate services.

Commissioner Holmes' philosophy is drill down, and as Ms. Darcel said, making sure that we figure out the root causes of why these individuals are committing crimes, and doing everything that we can in order to prevent that. We're not a check-the-box agency, and we're making sure that we follow up on the resources in our communities.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. We're not a check-the-box administration, we believe in this investment. This group of people you see sitting in front of you, you haven't noticed, they look like the community that they are serving. Their diversity is evident, and they go beyond the call of duty. 

Commissioner Holmes does not have to do this. They go beyond the call of duty. Commissioner Stewart doesn't have to do what he's doing. Beyond the call of duty, that's what it's going to take. If people are going to just check the box, we're never going to move the envelope, never. They're not checking the box, they are present every day in their fields and trying to get it right. Go ahead, ma'am.

Question: Hi. Good evening, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: Good evening.

Question: My name is Prettystar Lopez, a lifelong Bronx resident. I'm representing Table 6. Thank you for answering our questions about our quality of life issues, affordable housing, et cetera, in the Bronx and in New York City. Given the current housing crisis, is there any way we can finance more homeownership opportunities through HPD for folks within lower income ranges?

One example I'm thinking about is just Grand Concourse Library and having the homeownership opportunities within the higher ranges. What is your office doing with HPD to help and support our New Yorkers, our Bronx natives/Bronxites in transitioning from rentals to more homeownership opportunities? Because I'm tired of seeing all of my neighbors move out, growing up, all of my childhood friends.

Mayor Adams: Great question. When you come into office, not only you must keep the lights on and the trains running, and all that good stuff, but you need to have a vision for the future. When you look at our 100-point plan that we have, we probably hit many of our marks. One of the areas that I think is important and Commissioner Carrión should touch on, Ruben Diaz Jr. did something like this with Carl Heastie, the speaker, to look at apartments. Instead of just affordable housing, affordable ownership. They had a project that I would like to see us duplicate in some way as we just mentioned.

My first ownership was a little small co-op. It was the first that I had. It gave way to me eventually buying my home that eventually I was able to use to pay Jordan's college tuition. Homeownership is really the bedrock, that's where our wealth is in general, but specifically for the Black and Brown community. People don't want to be paying rent forever. They would like to own something. Finding creative ways of allowing people to own, I think is important. I think you're dead on, that is one of the items on our list. We didn't get to it as I want to see it yet, but where are we on that?

I know we're doing some creative things, but you are dead on. People got to own. If you own, you don't have to worry about being displaced and thrown out of your community. Homeownership is crucial. Give me your thoughts, Commissioner.

Commissioner Carrión: Thank you, mayor. Well, you charged us to make homeownership a priority to create intergenerational wealth and the transfer of that wealth and allow people to then play in the market, if you will, and move up the ladder. You made a very large investment in that through the budget. We have coming up here, and it's a preservation of existing housing that's going to turn into homeownership, and it's 65 new units of homeownership that are coming to this area. We also support homeowners because we want to preserve homeownership.

Many people grow older, their kids move, and they get to the point where they can't afford to sustain the ownership to stay in their home. We have a program called HomeFix where we assist existing homeowners to ensure that they can stay in their homes and keep their homes safe, and invest in the buildings. One of the most important tools, and one of the biggest tools is HomeFirst. HomeFirst is our down payment assistance program. It's the most effective program because we used to only be able to give people, mayor, $40,000 as first-time homebuyer down payment assistance.

We now are able to give a family $100,000 because of the work we did with you and the legislature, we now have that authority to do that. Now a family can go out there in the market and look for a home with $100,000 in their hands, and guess what? We call it a loan? It's a forgivable loan. It's in effect a grant to that family to enter into homeownership. All the tools that we can use including turning those old TIL buildings into co-ops, we still have 78 projects out there. Some of them are right here in the Bronx. Many of them are in Harlem and Central Brooklyn, but it gives people an opportunity to own that co-op that will ultimately be able to be handed over to the next generation.

We agree with you, and if you want to talk a little bit more about the homeownership opportunities, I'm happy to take a few minutes right after the meeting, but I believe that HomeFirst down payment assistance is the best tool we have right now.

Mayor Adams: You're dead on. Part of that is what they're doing in the DOE. Part of that by the time many of us graduate from college, we're so deep in debt. Our credit scores are so low. When we try to get interest rate, it's extremely high. We're doing a lot around financial literacy, and really, we should be starting with our children in the public school system, what is the pathway to own a home one day? You shouldn't wait until you're ready to buy a home and realize that you have all this credit card debt that you're wearing all of your values.

We want our young people to become smarter and put them on a pathway to how to own a home, how to own that co-op, that condominium, and how to use your dollars better because we have really failed our children on financial literacy. The most important thing you can have in your life is to be able to manage your money, and no one has really institutionalized how do you teach people to manage their money. Other communities, they learn it at home. They don't live from paycheck to paycheck. They don't live with high-interest-rate credit cards.

We need to be doing that, so our children could go home and educate their families on it, but I'm with you, homeownership is the key. Thank you for your question.

Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, Department of Worker and Consumer Protection: Mr. Mayor, right here.

Mayor Adams: Yes. I should have known that voice.

Commissioner Mayuga: Good evening, everybody. Vilda Mayuga, commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. I just wanted to take the opportunity to also point people directly to nyc.gov/talkmoney because it's precisely what you're talking about, Mr. Mayor. I know you are focusing on the youth, which is a passion of mine, and we're working on some things that we really hope we can get out there.

Right now, for those who are 18 and up, there are financial empowerment centers throughout the city, and it's precisely so that you can sit down one-on-one in a confidential way and talk about your finances. I think a lot of us grew up with a lot of shame about money, and debt, and all of that, and this is the opportunity to sit down with a professional that is going to, it's just you and that person, and talk about first, do a financial health assessment. How much money are you bringing in? How much money do you have, and where it is going?

Then we can work with you to develop a plan to reach your goals. Is it to reduce debt? Is it to save money for something, for homeownership because you want to go on a nice vacation? Whatever it is, you need to really go nyc.gov/talkmoney. We have a map, you can search by zip code, and make that appointment. It is critical I am telling you, an amazing service. 

Under Mayor Adams, this administration has already helped individuals save millions of dollars and also reduce their debt by over $100 million. It is critical that we all take advantage of it so that we can learn ourselves, and then pass it on as we build programming that's specific to our youth. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I'm glad you put that…

Commissioner Howard: Excuse me, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Commissioner Howard: I just want to make sure that everyone understands that you did institutionalize it in Summer Youth Employment. 100,000 young people throughout the summer, each and every one of them taking financial literacy class. Highest level of savings accounts and checking accounts, direct deposits, and we were at one of the banks in which we did a workshop that also took part in teaching financial literacy, so it is a part of our programs

Mayor Adams: It's an upstream approach to solve downstream problems. You could have access to as many homes as possible in the city, but if you can't get that mortgage, if you can't get that loan, if you don't know how to pay that mortgage and manage your money, you're really setting yourself up for failure. We have to start investing in financial literacy. Where are we?

Question: Good evening.

Mayor Adams: How are you?  Good to see you. What's up, brother?

Question: I do want to start by just, I know they left, but really thank our young people. When they show up to advocate for themselves, we have an obligation as an administration and as a community to not just hear what they say, but be responsive to it in a way that actually makes their lives better, so I just wanted to really start by thanking them.

At our table, we were really talking about our concern around how we choose to invest our money, our city tax dollars. What showed up for us was, for example, why are we choosing to invest billions of dollars? In the Bronx, it's almost $3 billion into building a new jail in the Bronx, but not anything, $0 in dedicated new school construction in the borough. I'm just saying that because all of the issues we're talking about tonight are all connected and related to each other, and the outcomes that we want really depend on what we invest in.

I am concerned. I know that we spoke about it in the context of that, but for me, I would really like to see more of an investment into our communities like the services our seniors need, more enhanced cafeteria experiences in our schools. What? 1,600 public schools, but only about one in four of them actually have the types of cafeterias that serve the appealing, nutritious foods that they need. My question again is, what can this administration do to really take a look at where we're investing our money and make the types of investments in our communities instead of prisons?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. First of all, I love that question. Melissa, how many new cafeterias have we done in the schools? Do you know the number on that?

Deputy Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Family & Community Engagement and External Affairs, Department of Education: Mr. Shepherd, I can get you the exact number, but I will say is that this year alone, we've opened nine new schools. Many of those schools are connected to our pathways, which we know is also part of Future Ready, and making sure that our students see a pathway to financial independence and to a career upon exiting school. That goes back to everything that we were talking about, young people need to see themselves in their future selves. When we welcome them into our buildings, it's not just about that school year, it's about where do you see yourself when you are graduating from high school.

The edifice in which you sit and the community in which you are welcomed makes a difference in motivating our students. We have prioritized what our schools look like and renovating our cafeterias and renovating our spaces and designing new schools that are looking towards the future. 11,000 of our students are enrolled in Future Ready programs, and over $8 million were earned by those students, and they haven't even graduated from high school. I know that your question is directly related to how are we designing new schools, but the shell is only part of it, and we're working on it, and we hear you loudly and clearly, but what goes into that home?

There's a difference between a house and a home. Thank you for your question, but this is a holistic package, so we're building those schools, and we're building those communities inside of the schools.

Mayor Adams: Nine new schools, career-ready schools. With our internship program, the dollar amount these children made during the school years, some of them are getting credits towards college, saving money, this is how we've been focusing on that issue in a real way. One school that I'm really excited about is the movie and television industry, which has always locked us out for years, no diversity there. We're teaching these children how to learn the skills so they can not only be on the stage, but they can have those permanent jobs that go with making sure that stage is built out, et cetera.

You touched on something that's important that I think is important. I inherited a law that says Rikers Island must close by, was it 2027 it must close by? By 2027, four jails must be built throughout the city. The dollar amount that it costs because of COVID slowed down that building, the dollar amount basically has doubled. Billions of dollars are going to build four new jails that does not currently house the jail population that we have right now. Then to make it so bad, 51 percent of the people that are on Rikers Island, 51 percent of them have mental health issues, so we have treated our jails as a mental health facility.

Instead of building a state-of-the-art mental health facility, give people what they need, and let them go on with their lives, we've criminalized a mental health crisis in this city. I think we could do a better job, but that's outside my authority. The City Council passed the law under the previous administration, if we don't get action from this administration, that is where those billions of dollars are going to go. I think we could do a better job in those billions of dollars, but we have to comply with the law.

Question: Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: Hola mi gente.

Question: My name is Michael Torres. I have over 20 years living in the Bronx, living in Highbridge representing Table 8. I work for the BID in Yankee Stadium, I worked for an elected official, so I'm very happy to be able to speak with you here. As I pull up my notes, my table has voiced the same concerns as everyone regarding sanitation issues and general quality of life concerns. Just for the public, could you explain what is your general strategy for quality-of-life issues specifically, so when they see it or when they don't see it, they know what to look for? Then specifically, what are the ways that the administration is helping bids be supporters of containerization policy?

The bids desire to be partners with the administration, yet they will be fined for completing their sanitation services throughout the city. I think it's a lack of communication and coordination, so what do you do for that? Then second, regarding street vending in the city, currently in the city charter, there are prohibited street vendor zones currently. Some examples of these zones are 149th Street in Third Avenue, 170th Street right down the block, Fordham, Yankee Stadium. Can this be enforcing those specific zones, be a way for you to be begin to, I don't want to say crackdown, but enforce what is currently on the law and help sanitation in the Bronx and throughout the city?

Mayor Adams: Thank you for the question. First off, let's do the quality of life piece that you stated. Quality of life is a huge banner, loud music, abandoned vehicles, mopeds, criminal behavior, dirty streets, my number one enemy, rats. When you talk about quality of life, it is created in an environment where people deserve the quality of living in a safe, clean place. Commissioner Tisch has been a Department of Sanitation Commissioner on steroids. She's dealing with everything from containerization and the partnership we're doing with the BIDs.

I'm sorry she's not here. I don't have Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer here that can go into how we're working with the BIDs because the goal is the BIDs have been the cornerstone of many of these communities, so we don't want to overburden the BIDs. We want to work with them as we transition into the containerization situation. Quality of life is just that. We want to improve the overall quality of life, people. You can live in a clean community, but if you're not getting home safely, then what does that mean?

At the foundation of all that we do, public safety, as I say, is the prerequisite to our prosperity, and we build on that quality of life initiative. In every aspect of what we do, we go after the quality of life and making sure our communities are clean, make sure they're safe, and make sure that we create an environment for our young people to be productive. Your concern about the bids, that is on our radar and that is something that Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, and Commissioner Tisch are looking at, how do we not overburden our BIDs based on the role that they've done for us? You had two more items that you asked.

Question: Street vending.

Mayor Adams: Street vending. You want to talk about that? If there's some particular zones, we can start with a foundation to have a zero tolerance on those zones. We're going to look at that charter and see which zones they are. I heard you mention Yankee Stadium. I think you said 149th Street.

Question: Fordham Road.

Mayor Adams: Fordham Road? We should revisit that.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Yes, love it, love it. There was a third thing you had? Okay, so that mean I could bounce?

Commissioner Kreizman: Before we go to last table, I just want to thank our Bronx Borough Director Leo Coello. Before we go to last table, our Bronx borough director and especially want to thank all the commanding officers we have here from School Safety, the 44, the 42, the 46, and the 40, and of course, Assistant Commissioner Foster for Community Affairs Borough, and Chief Taylor from Community Affairs Bureau, and of course, Chief Gurley here from the Bronx. One more question. The last question.

Assistant Commissioner James Harding, External Partnerships, Fire Department: Mr. Mayor, if I can just add something before we go?

Mayor Adams: Yes, but we're not going. We got one more person, but you can go ahead and add. You could add, though. Yes, go ahead.

Assistant Commissioner Harding: I just want to let everybody know the New York City Fire Department is recruiting, and the last day for recruitment is September 30th. You have to be 17 and a half years old, and you can't be above 29. If you know somebody, family members, if you know friends, if you know neighbors, get to them, tell them to go to the website joinfdny.com. Take the test to become the bravest, one of the best that New York City has to offer, a member of the New York City Fire Department. Let's make the Fire Department reflective of what this group is here today, and this is the way to do it.

Mayor Adams: Love that. I'm so glad you raised that, commissioner, great job, great career. Please, let's take this exam. We have thousands of open city jobs. Let's fill these jobs and bring the type of delivery of services that we expect because it's city residents delivering them. Yes, ma'am.

Question: I take a bow to my mayor, I take a bow to the people on the dais because they have done wonderful jobs for the City of New York in spite of all the publicity. I thank y'all for y'all service. Several suggestions and recommendations is what we're concerned with at the table the gentleman pointed a question out in regarding to housing for minimum wage earners. I've been asking that question for some time, so I'm sure that people would like to have a seat at the table to discuss. I understand the problem of mixed incomes is that we have to mix the incomes. Also, public housing, I'm a leader of public housing.

My name is Maria Forbes. I started from the bottom now I'm here, that's Eva Trimble. I'm a sister to another mother of hers that I sit as the only public housing authority tenant association president at the United Nations. I'm telling you that I'm involved in this and that we don't do it, we love it, and that's how I feel about what I'm getting ready to get up here and ask you. His question was, why wasn't housing affordable, or why weren't you creating housing? I understand the budget because I read the budget and I watch everything every day to know that we are only operating at 17 percent.

From the state, there's been a disinvestment from the federal government to New York City Housing Authority, and it has been a disinvestment to our city. Until we understand that, Cuomo been saying it for a long time, we send more money to the federal government than any city, and we don't get half of that back. Understand that when you say, "Where's? Where's? Where's?" Find out where it's at if you do your real homework. Until we begin to make that equal in every borough of minimum wage housing for those minimum wage people who've been here, who's built the brick in the mortar of the city, it's going to be disproportionate, that was one of our concerns at the table.

My other concern is that the same building that fell down, and it goes to the Department of Buildings, the same building that fell down here in the Bronx is going to happen not only to the remaining public housing authority buildings but to the remaining of these buildings that we allow these bad landlords to get away with not operating them. HPD has put in as much as they can put in for what they built, but there's still a disadvantage here with private landlords not upkeeping their property. They're pocketing the profit, that's what they're doing to us in our homes. 

Vote, vote, vote in November, that's just going to be so important for all of us to do, but to DYCD, I've talked to a parent in Manhattan whose son wasn't happy, and I wasn't happy. I'm sure a lot of us wasn't happy enough be an answer to this gentleman's question. We didn't come up doing summer youth employment on a computer at home. We lost so much social connection with the children in the house to leave them in the house. Doing that on the computer was wasteful.

People do not have courtesy, professionalism, respect, they don't have time, attendance, punctuality, or a whole lot of things until y'all put them back to work and introduce them to the employers and how to keeping the time. I think that that's where we'll raise our youth a little bit better, so next year, reconsider, do not keep those kids in the house. NYPD, they just know, they know, they know, they know how I love the job and the services that they do, so please don't ever look to defund them because I always ask for police. I wish Maddrey was here.

I was in Washington at a conference. They put me on CompStat. Last year all the way from Washington, I got on CompStat and I asked to please put more officers in our communities, but we know that there's not enough. For what I can say about the 44 precincts, what I could say about Alden and community affairs, what I could say about Daughtry, nothing other than I could call them at any time, and they will answer the community's calls.

It don't be Maria Forbes with Maria Forbes with Maria Forbes, Vanessa Gibson, Darcel Clark. Landon just got here, and he's put his money where his mouth is to do what he can for the community at the state, and I look forward to working with all of y'all. Sir, do you feel I answered your question or asked your question in regards to where the rest of the housing is at? Because it ain't no money here.

Only thing I want to say is that if all of the people — I'm getting ready to be on it. The tickets is $175, so people say, "Why so much?" I said, "Imagine going to a $10,000 per person event," and people do that. They raise money for other causes. Let's start trying to raise money such as that for programs, or for servicing, or for housing that we do need. I think Carrión is going to let somebody speak to me about placing a person who had a fire, who's burnt, who's in the hospital, and who will be needing housing when she gets out the hospital. That's all I had to say, thank you.

Mayor Adams: That's a lot.

Question: I think that this was the best meeting that I saw in all of your town halls, that people wasn't jumping up, hollering, screaming, cursing, and all of that stuff because I'll tell you, we could do it at the Bronx. We got some courtesy, professionalism, and respect.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Hey, listen, thanks all of you for coming out, for staying, and thank the team for coming out.