Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

October 22, 2024

Mayor Eric Adams: I had all these cameras. I had everything going on. It's good to see you all. And I see that New York Yankees cap in the back. You know, Mets had a good run. 

So, as I indicated, the team, I wanted to really focus and have the team focus on their work that they do every day. And since many of the questions we were doing was really leaning into investigations, I want them focused on that. And once things normalize better, we'll have all my D.M.s back into action. But they need to be focused on running this city. And that's what we're going to continue to do. 

And speaking on focusing, really hats off to the Liberty winning the first WNBA title. It says a lot. We're looking forward to Thursday with having them have their ticker tape parade. And we are excited about the Mets run. They didn't reach the full potential, but they gave it the team spirit. And we are looking forward to having a ticker tape parade for the New York Yankees when they bring home the World Series. And it just really shows how New York, the resiliency, the drive, the commitment, the dedication. It says a lot. And we're looking forward to our heroes having a ticker tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes. 

And for those who want to join the ceremony at City Hall, in addition to the Liberty giving away tickets, we're giving away tickets to New Yorkers. We'll be focusing on the distribution of 125 lucky winners and their guests to join us for the City Hall ceremony. To enter, your chance to win, just text LIBERTYTIX, T-I-X, to 917-909-2288 by 5 p.m. today to enter and we'll contact the 125 winners and their guests immediately. And good luck. See you there. We're excited about the celebration. 

Now, back here, we're in the Blue Room because we wanted the City Council to be able to use the rotunda space for the Housing Opportunity Proposal today. A very important initiative. I think the public advocate had it right. This is going to impact generations to come, so we have to get it right. And we know that the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity Proposal hearing yesterday. We heard from Dan Garodnick and HPD commissioner, and today we're hearing from the public. 

This is an important initiative of how we got the city to support we're going to deal with housing. You can't have a 1.4 [percent] vacancy rate in the city and believe that it is going to bring opportunities for New Yorkers who are looking for housing. And speaking of housing, every day we have been successful in moving forward on affordable housing, and we're going to continue to move in that direction. 

Keeping New Yorkers safe. We know that New York is the safest big city in America. We announced last week, not only have we removed over 18,000, almost 19,000 illegal guns from our streets, but we also know it's about resiliency. And last week we announced the $1.5 billion project that is creating a flexible 2.4 mile long flood barrier on the Lower East Side. This is a major milestone. Earlier than expected and on time and on budget as well. It's going to protect 110,000 Lower East Side residents, including 28,000 New Yorkers living in public housing from future storms. 

And this is something that we believe is important. And we all believe that if we move together, we could ensure we have a safe shoreline in the city. Many people don't realize that realize that this is a city that we are surrounded by water and we have to do everything possible to ensure that we protect New Yorkers to live near that water. 

So as I indicated, City of Yes is in the homestretch. We're looking forward to hearing from the public and looking forward to getting this deal sealed. We are confident that we believe we can land this plane in the process. So why don't we open up to a few questions?

Question: Good morning, sir. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Well, thank you. As you know, former President Donald Trump is having a rally on Sunday at MSG. It's your city. What do you intend to do that night?

Mayor Adams: Meditate. Meditate. You know, there's so much energy going on now. We just got to get into that peaceful mode. And, you know, Madison Square Garden, the entire city, you know, I think is important that people exercise their right to vote. I was clear on who my candidate is. And I think that this is the last few days of campaign season and people are going to exercise their right to vote. 

Question: To follow up, sir, if I may, what do you make of his support and some of the things that he said at the dinner the other night? Some Democrats say you want to disavow his support. You haven't really disavowed his support.

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, this is the season where the silliness comes into politics. I remember when I was running for mayor the last two weeks or so, I made a comment of people of color and it became articles after articles after articles about, Eric, don't consider Chinese people as people of color. I mean, this is where we are right now. New Yorkers need to hear the issues. And I'm just not going to get back and forth on comments that are made on both sides. Let's hear the issues. Let's vote for the candidates and exercise the right to vote. 

Question: I want to ask about the migrant situation. If you can update us because, of course, the closure of Randall’s Island was announced. But how is the situation now? Is it really that bad? Because also I want to ask you about who would you credit with that? Is it the cities or the national? Is the combination of both? 

And if I may, November 11 is Poland's Independence Day. November 12, there will be Polish Independence Night in the City Council. I heard from inside the City Council that the City Hall agreed to light the city hall white and red. So I just wanted to confirm that. And is that really going to be the case? 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Well, first of all, we would love to. And I'm pretty sure the team will find out exactly what day they're going to do it. Polish heritage, as in all of our heritage. As a matter of fact, today I am doing a flag raising from one of our immigrant communities. This is something we to the diversity of the city, probably more than any other administration. I've been extremely active in doing that, and we're going to continue to do so. 

Now, when you talk about the migrants and asylum seekers who take credit, we should. 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers. That one child, a family sleeping on the street, 70 percent of those who came into our care because of our 30 day and 60-day program, 70 percent have moved on to the next step in the emergence of the American Dream and journey. We've done it, of course, with a great deal of cost to the city. We should have. I said it over and over again. We should have received, this is a federal problem. The federal government should have handled this problem. It should not have been placed on the back of cities. And it's unfortunate that it was, but we stepped up. 

And because of that, we're seeing a decrease in numbers. Remember last year, we were talking about opening shelters and HERRCs. Now we're talking about closing HERRCs. Last year, we were talking about how much we had to spend. Now we're talking about how much we could save. And so, when you do a real analysis of it, hats off to this team, Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom, Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, and Molly and the whole team for just really responding with this crisis. 

And, you know, it's going to be a retrospective appreciation of what we were able to accomplish and how we brought together other cities to talk about this. We learned from each other. But where's credit due? It's credit to the amazing men and women who stepped up and made sure we showed a level of humanitarian response to a man-made humanitarian crisis. And I think history is going to be kind to us when we look at it.

Question: Yeah, you've said in the past that you plan on replacing Tim Pearson's role and the NYPD commissioner. Can you share any names you're considering? What the interest in these roles has been and what is your timeline for hiring for those roles?

Mayor Adams: Yes. As I stated, when it's, you said NYPD commissioner, you said someone else?

Question: Tim Pearson's senior advisor role.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. We're looking at if we need that role filled. And if we don't, we won't. And right now, we have an interim police commissioner. Until that changes, Tom Donlon is the interim police commissioner. And we're seeing. Again, nine straight months of decrease in crime, not only on the streets, in the subway. 

I'm just really pleased that August has been the lowest number of shootings [for an August month] in recorded history. That is extremely impressive when I know from my days of policing that August has always been a month when you have those problems. Robberies, the lowest number on our subway system in recorded history. Rolling out our SCOUT program, our PATH program to go after those with severe mental health. And so, as long as we continue to do the work that I am expecting the team to do, when it's time to make a change, we would do so. 

You know, I love this. Safest big city in America. Okay? You see that guy down there? I don't even know. I don't know who that is. Look at all these other guys. And look at that guy right there. New York, New York. Safest big city in America.

That's what I like. And as long as I keep seeing that, that tells me I have a deep bench. It doesn't matter who comes and goes. That team over there continues. They continue to produce. Nine straight months of decrease in crime. And that should be the focus. When you see that turns into “dangerous big city in America,” then we should be concerned. Isn't that just New York?

[Crosstalk] 

Is that only New York?

Question: I see Queens. I mean, Queens is great. It goes …

Mayor Adams: Yes, it broke down into… Yeah, because we're so big when you look at other cities. But even if you take out the Bronx, Queens and others. You take out those counties. We’re still Safest big city in America.

Question: Just following up on the police commissioner. So I know you have an interim Tom Donlon right now. But like, what is the, don't New Yorkers deserve some stability in the police commissioner's list? And so what is your timeline on that? 

And then in selecting, I remember when you selected Keechant Sewell. When you selected Eddie Caban. You had a contingent, which consisted of Phil Banks and Tim Pearson who were very involved in selecting the police commissioner at that time. So who are you leaning on now? Is it an internal committee? An external committee? Who are the voices in the room?

Mayor Adams: Okay. New Yorkers deserve to be the safest big city in America. That's their expectation. I know professional pollsters do their polling. My polling is when I'm out in the communities and I hear what people are asking. Is my community safe? 

Like I was out in East New York yesterday. People. I'm concerned about the prostitution on Pennsylvania Avenue and what we're doing on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, you know, so people are concerned. Am I safe? And we're the safest big city in America. As I just pointed out to you, that's what New Yorkers deserve. They deserve to be safe. 

And when it comes down to making an announcement, we're going to make an announcement. Until then I have to continue to make sure this is the safest big city in America. And there's a host of people I speak with on all of these positions. Not only on the Police Department, on chancellor, on Department of Health. Every position there are a host of New Yorkers that I sit down, and I get on the phone with, get their input, sit down and have a roundtable with. And we've been very fortunate with the contributions that people have given us.

Question: Do you have an internal committee doing this or an external?

Mayor Adams: I have a combination, internal, external, a combination of a host of ways of coming to decisions of staffing, which has proven to be a great way of doing it. 

Because Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer was part of how we chose to bring in and look at what we're doing with housing. Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom was internal and external input. And look at what we're doing with migrants and asylum seekers in health care. Department of Sanitation. Look at what we're doing with this trash revolution. So, the processes that I use has proven to be successful because we keep hitting out the park on all of these issues.

Question: Mr. Mayor. There's been reporting that the speaker… Well, actually, she already came out with this, that they're going to do a charter revision commission. And now there's been reporting that you're considering, again, blocking this charter revision commission with your own. Can you confirm this? And, you know, is this just going to keep going on and on with these tit for tat commissions?

Mayor Adams: Okay, we didn't make that announcement. So, I'm not sure what you said has been reported because we didn't make that announcement. When there's an announcement to be made, we will make it. 

But let's understand, this is the beauty of our government. The government is clear. The Council has an opportunity to do a charter revision commission as well. And then we have an opportunity to do so. So, the processes of government, those are the checks and balances of government. You know, in those other places, in other countries, you don't have those checks and balances. So, if the speaker wants to do a commission, based on the law she could do that. If we want to do one, based on the law, we can do that. 

So, I don't I don't know why people get sort of disenchanted in the fact that we have checks and balances in our government. That is why we have been able to celebrate, next year, 400 years. Many countries can't celebrate because they are constantly, power is one sided. And so right now we have a commission, and that commission is where people have the right to vote on. And we'll deal with what's next when next comes.

Question: So, I just want to follow up on N.J.'s question, actually. He asked you point blank if you would disavow former President Donald Trump's support. To me, it didn't seem like you answered and you said there were problems on both sides. I just want to give you a chance to answer here. 

And I also just wanted to know, are you going out to campaign for Kamala Harris at all? Are you going to be doing anything? To get out the vote for November?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. N.J. asked me point blank, and I answered point blank. People need to vote on these issues that are important. I can't even get it clear that I was in [Chicago] for the DNC. And I said before, whatever the campaign needs me to do, I'm willing to do. But I'm not I'm not campaigning here right now. I'm dealing with running this amazing City of New York.

Question: Are you doing anything to get out the vote?

Mayor Adams: I would say it over and over again. It's imperative, particularly here in New York, Pennsylvania and other places that we get to vote out. I'm willing to do whatever the campaign needs me to do to get the vote out.

Question: Coming off that, we've heard you talk in the past about the dangers of Donald Trump. We've heard you say less about that recently. What do you think New Yorkers should know about, you know, this very real possibility of Trump winning in a couple of weeks? I have a thought on a separate issue.

I mean, I also heard you say that the processes of staffing have been successful in your view.

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry.

Question: The processes you've used for staffing have been successful. I mean, given just the sheer number of resignations we've seen in the last few weeks, are you saying that there's no lesson there about your earlier approach to staffing that you're now putting into practice?

Mayor Adams: Okay. First, the Donald Trump question I answered already. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to keep going over and over and over the same thing. And your staffing issue. Life is about learning. Whoever is the same person they were at 11, at 111. That's a problem. Life is about learning. 

You do an analysis. You ask yourself and you ask others around you that you trust. What can you do differently? What can you do better? But no one could argue the results. That we've shown in the city. We turned the city around. You know, we may not acknowledge it, but I know the city that we inherited 40 percent increase in crime, COVID, 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers, thousands of illegal guns on our streets, unable to build housing, you know, not invested in foster care children, not giving NYCHA residents free high-speed broadband so they can do telemedicine and remote learning. I can go on and on and on and on. So, yes, we're going to do an analysis of what do we do? But I do know the success of this administration and it's a very clear success. And the city is a better city than what I inherited. 

[Crosstalk.]

I answered the Trump question already. If any of you have another Trump question, you should save it because I'm not wasting my time on that anymore. I've responded already.

Question: DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber released a report about the $4 billion nonprofit homeless complex that's responsible for housing on average 86,000 people per night. One of the things he found was that widespread nepotism, CEOs getting sometimes $500,000, $700,000. And as you know, because your administration and the Council passed this COLA thing to uplift the people to do this work, the actual hands-on work with the homeless often rely on food stamps. 

Is it time, you know, Wall Street, if you're a CEO of a publicly traded company. Every year you have to disclose what you're paid and the average pay of your employee. And that way, if you're looking to invest in a company, you have a sense. Is it time for New York State to require nonprofits to do the same thing? And that includes Presbyterian, the not, I call them fugazi hospital nonprofits, where this disclosure about the average employee working, because we care about, and the CEO, so we can see that.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I don't think that's a bad idea. And I think that's something the state need to look at and talk about. And I think that report that you're talking about with the homeless shelters you're talking about, that has been a report that was in the making for many years, even prior to this administration. And some of the things they call for, we don't have power and authority in doing. We don't determine the salaries of those individuals. 

Question: One of the things that was real, you mentioned a deep bench, we had Gale Brewer on, head of Investigations for the Council. There's a problem with, and you've mentioned the civil service took a hit during COVID, 600 civil servants died. In the back of its operations, I'm not talking commissioner level, we fixate on, but that next level of career civil service to oversee these nonprofits, there's a problem and we need people in there to do that. Is that something you're concerned about?

Mayor Adams: I’m sorry, I don't understand. 

Question: There's no management within the civil service. So, it would keep an eye on the nonprofit homeless contracts. I'm hearing that there's a problem that there's not enough people, not the big jobs, but the middle level management that checks these forms.

Mayor Adams: To check …

Question: To check the nonprofit filings, to keep them on the straight and narrow, to make sure they don't violate nepotism rule, to make sure the CEOs don't make …

Mayor Adams: You're saying who?

Question: Civil servants in the agencies that would watch over this. And there's holes in that that we're missing. 

Mayor Adams: Okay, I'm not, maybe I'm just not comprehending. Whomever is in place to oversee these issues, they must do their job. And so I don't know if you're saying … 

Question: They retired, people have retired. 

Mayor Adams: We always, we have thousands of vacancies and that's why we do our hiring halls. We go out because we want to fill these vacancies as much as possible. And we encourage people, historically, we waited for people to come to apply. That's not what we're doing now. We're going out and seeking people in DCAS. And so we want to fill as many of these vacancies as possible. I think our number now is probably in the area of 10,000 vacancies, and these are good jobs, union paid jobs with pension that we want to encourage people to be employed in.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. Thanks. Two questions on City of Yes. I know a lot of people have observed the fact that sort of politically with this proposal, some of the neighborhoods that had previously given you a lot of support, you know, these outer borough sort of lower rise neighborhoods that it's those places where this. Plan is the most controversial. And so therefore the council members there are wary of it. 

Have you personally, I know your team has, but have you personally met recently with any members from those kinds of neighborhoods to try to pitch them on this, on the housing plan?

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. I spoke with several matter of fact, even yesterday I spoke with, um, when we did the,  acknowledgement of how well we're doing with the Shirley Chisholm,  youth center in Brooklyn. I had a brief conversation with Councilwoman Louis, who, you know, she has a lot, many people don't realize she has a lot of Victorian homes in her council district. That's one of the concerns she raised some of the concerns that they have.  we know people are fearful,  particularly in low rise areas of seeing a complete transformation of their communities. We got that. 

And that's why these discussions are important. It's important to hear from the Council. People engage in a conversation. No one would argue, we have a housing crisis. No one, you know, we have been talking about this 1.4 percent vacancy rate. We've been, we've been talking about this. This is real. 

And so when you talk to all those council people, even the ones who are saying, we don't know if City of Yes, is the exact thing for us, they will acknowledge we have a housing crisis. So we need a solution. And this is a great solution that Dan Garodnick and his team, put in place. And I have been speaking with council person to find out, okay, what are some of the concerns you have, can we find a place that we can land this plane? And I'm, I'm excited that many of them, so many issues that are troubling some of the council people, I think they're fixable. And I think that we could come and land the plane.

Question: Sorry. I have a second question. Um, Jesse Hamilton, could you just explain a little sort of what his, what kinds of projects he's done at DCAS? He has, you know, a pretty big job supervising the city's real estate. I know the two of you go way back. Can you just explain anything about kind of what are a couple of initiatives he's worked on in his job?

Mayor Adams: I think what was important to me as in all the agencies, we have to save money for our city and the commissioner over there, Commissioner Molina, and DCAS. I think that that question that you just answered, you should speak with DCAS. I do know, he saved taxpayers dollars on some of the things that we were doing previously. It's important to me. We were doing too many things the same way that was costing taxpayers dollars. Far too much in my opinion, but I'll reach out to Commissioner Molina and he could answer that question directly.

Question: I wanted to ask you about, the four-year-old we lost in Harlem, prosecutors say his parents starved him to death and also may have abused his siblings. ACS has been less than transparent with us. Have you had a conversation with your commissioner and are you concerned? And, um, I guess I gotta bottom-line it here. Did ACS in the city fail this boy? And are you worried? Are you worried about the caseload management at ACS?

Mayor Adams: You've heard me say this over and over again, not only as a, the mayor, but even as a borough president and a state senator, the balance of doing that job over at ACS, the challenge of doing that job. And many of you covered these stories, you know, in one end, you have a large number of New Yorkers that state ACS go, they go in and they remove children too quickly. We've heard it over and over. There have been rallies, lawsuits in so much around this. 

Then another end, you state that when you have a tragedy like this, did a ACS drop the ball? I know we have a group of hard working professionals that don't want to disrupt families, but would like to go in and take necessary steps to protect children. This is a horrific issue for a child to have been starved. This is a horrific issue of that. All of us feel the pain with something like this happened. And it's not that they're not trying to be transparent. 

There are laws that they have to abide by on how much information that they can release and they can talk about it. And we're not going to violate of those rules. I know they're committed, dedicated men and women that work over at ACS. And every day they're making these tough decisions on making sure these calls are right.

Question: In reviewing ACS's budget documents, they have about 10 percent vacancy right now. So is the case management too much? Do they have a budget problem?

Mayor Adams: I think they manage their case loads. Like many of us have managed our case loads and many of our agencies are managing the case loads. And it's a combination of, you know, the case load management is better per the MMR. If you look at the MMR, you see the case load management is, is far better. And that, that means less cases per case workers. But listen, let's not kid ourselves. As I say over and over again, that is a challenging job. 

It's a challenging job. And it, for many years it has been, and you really have to take your hat off to the men and women who do that job. And, you know, as, as I indicated, our goal is to make sure they have the proper, case load so they can manage the challenges of doing the job. But we, we're looking at this case as in any cases. Well, you have a young, a young person, that is lost, in the city. We're going to review it and see what we can do better. Should it… are there things we could have done better? Our goal is not to have any young person lose his or her life.

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: Hey, what's up, Katie?

Question: Two questions. First, have you been invited to go to game three of the World Series at Yankee Stadium? And the second question, um, you promised during your campaign to publish a list of police officers under watch for misbehavior, but why hasn't that happened yet? In three years in, um, I know you promised to improve the disciplinary process for police officer, most notably speeding it up, but I don't… it doesn't seem to have been sped up.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, I think, I think to the contrary, we're seeing a faster response, I'm going to direct you over to, Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon, to give you an analysis of the timeframe and, in this movement of cases. I said, we've had in the past, many cases and police officers stayed, in the trial room proceed procedure for too long. It was unfair to them. And it was unfair to those who they were brought charges, who brought charges against those officers. Our goal was to shorten that period of time.  Interim Commissioner Tom Donlon can give you an analysis of that. 

Question: A published list of officers under watch for misbehavior? 

Mayor Adams: Under watch for misbehavior? It depends on what you talk about… under watch for misbehavior. There's… if the mere fact, if they're on a special list, I don't know exactly what list they use now that if someone is, have a severe record of misbehavior, but if someone has what's called a low level command discipline, there's no reason to post their name. If someone has a severe issue, that is something we could talk with the interim commissioner, Tom Donlon about. 

Question: And the Yankees?

Mayor Adams: What about the Yankees? 

Question: [Inaudible] invited to the Yankee Stadium [inaudible]?

Mayor Adams: Well, COIB [doesn’t] allow you to do that. You know, hey, listen, you'll be surprised how stringent they are right now on being able last year, the year before when we wanted to go to the Yankee games. Um, you know, if you want it to sit in the box, we, they got the rules. They stated how it was done. If I attend, I'm going to buy a ticket and root the Yankees. But listen, I enjoy rooting at home also, at the same time, Jordan and I would grab some, some popcorn, put on our Yankee caps and, you know, call it a day. He's a Yankee fan. I'm the Mets fan, you know, can't get it 100 percent right.

Question: I know you said to hold the Trump questions. I have a slightly different question. Mr. Mayor, you and President Trump have both said that the criminal case against you is politically motivated. Would it be appropriate if whoever is our next president, either Trump or Kamala Harris or whoever heads their justice system, were to take another look at the fairness of your case? Is that something you think should happen?

Mayor Adams: That's a question for Alex, my attorney, that’s not a question for me. He has been very clear, of questions as dealing with your case, refer them over to me, Eric.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you, Dana? 

Question: Okay. Today in the times, Dan Doctoroff, who helps lead your New New York panel wrote the following about your mayoralty, “The stench of corruption that surrounds him is not only a distraction; it is intolerable.” How would you respond to that?

Mayor Adams: Listen, Dan was very helpful on many levels, and I have a great deal of respect for him on some of the things he did when he was in this administration. And he was very helpful in the beginning on some of the things we did. And I think some of our W's came from some of his suggestions. As you see, we have some great W's from the Brooklyn Marine Terminal to what we're doing on Governor's Island. A whole list of infrastructure changes, you know, but I've said this a million times, 8.3 million New Yorkers, 35 million opinions. And out in East New York yesterday, the number of those New Yorkers in areas that are dealing with some real infrastructure issues that they know we're correcting, they said, Eric, stay the course, finish the job. 

And so as I move throughout the city, you're going to have different opinions. That's New York. New Yorkers have opinions. Not all of them get an opportunity to do an op-ed. But New York, listen, New Yorkers are very opinionated. If you don't realize it, try walking down the block wearing a Yankee cap in Mets land or wearing a Mets cap in Yankees land or wearing Converse sneakers when someone wants you to wear Nike. New Yorkers are going to let you know how they feel. So Dan just shared his thoughts on how he feels, and that's fine with me. I do not personalize any of this stuff. We're going to continue to move the city forward.

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

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. I wanted to follow up on a question about the Speaker's Charter Revision Commission. She said in her announcement that the reason she'd call it is to renew confidence in government. She said that your commission included lobbyists and that it had rushed its work. I want to get your thoughts on that. 

And then also, the Campaign Finance Board proposed new rules this week. Some of them could affect your campaign and getting matching funds. I wanted to know, if you didn't get matching funds, would you still stay in the race? You've raised a significant amount. And do you feel like these new rules are targeting your campaign specifically?

Mayor Adams: No, they have a job to do. They're going to do their job. I have a job to do as the mayor. And with or without, we're straight ahead. The speaker's, she, again, balance of power. She presented her charter revision, and what was her reasoning for it? It's fine with me. Balance of power. She has her balance. I have my balance. And that's why the scales of justice are aligned and equal. And I enjoy being in this city, in this country, where the balance of power is crucial. She should not have all the power. I should not have all the power. That is the beauty of our system of governance in the city. And so she has the right to put out her charter revision and explain why. That doesn't bother me at all.

Question: She said confidence in government. Do you feel like New Yorkers have lost confidence in government, in contrast to what she's saying?

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, you cannot have gone through what we have gone through that people won't say, okay, what's going on here? But at the same time, people are saying, okay, this guy is moving the city forward. He is handling the issues that impact my community and my concern. People on the subway system are really pleased that we've had nine straight months of decrease in subways. 

People who are seeing the issues of ghost cars are pleased that we've removed thousands of ghost cars off our streets. If you have a child and forced if you have a if you're a young person and forced to care, they're pleased what we're doing. So, you know, did people feel the impact of this? Yes. Yes. You know, are there many questions they want answered? Yes. So we got it. We got it. But at the same time, my job is to keep moving the city forward. And anyone who states we are not continuing to do do that, they're not looking at the numbers. How are you?

Question: Good. I have another question about City of Yes. You said in your opening remarks that the public advocate got it right. But he also said yesterday that he did not support the full scope of the plan specifically to remove parking mandates citywide. I'm curious what you think about him not supporting this part of the plan. And if that part of the plan is up for negotiation, in your view?

Mayor Adams: The team that's negotiating these issues, because I heard the parking part often, the team that's negotiating these issues need to look at that and hear what his concerns are. But one thing is clear. He knows that if we don't get this right, it's going to impact generations, generations. So he doesn't… he to say, I don't think this is needed. He didn't say that, I don't like any part of part of this plan. He did not say that, you know. So there are aspects of a plan that someone dislikes, that’s what negotiations is about. 

Question: It's about the proposal to remove parking mandates, you know, Dan Garodnick really stressed that it's very critical to making other pillars of the plan, like transit oriented development, town center zoning and accessory dwelling units function at all. So is that isn't that part very important? Or what do you say—

Mayor Adams: All parts are important. Every part of it. That's why he put in place a whole plan. But those of us who have been in government know it's all about creativity. It's about negotiating. It's about finding a way to land the plane, which we want to do. And right now there's a [mandate] being created. 

This proposal makes options. And that is what's important. And so now, we got the public speaking. We had Dan yesterday. The goal is to get the the plane [to] land. We need to build more housing. He's clear on that. Not only do we need to build more housing now, but we're going to need it for the future. 

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I remember you saying that New Yorkers have to not just be safe, they need to feel safe. And one of the points that Dan Doctoroff made in his opinion piece was that crime must come down. He said from 2019 to 2023, there was a jump of nearly 33 percent in the seven major felonies, murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft. The Police Department has failed to bring down crime. I know many there are ways to play around with the numbers, and I'd like you to comment on that. But why is there this gap between the numbers that you're presenting and the way that some experts like him and everyday New Yorkers feel about crime?

Mayor Adams: Well, I'm not quite sure why he's a public safety expert, you know, but the numbers don't don't lie. I inherited a city, January 1st, 2022, where we had a 40 percent increase in crime, 40 percent. And so when you do an analysis,  I didn't make up that the shootings in August, they were the lowest numbers in recorded history. 

I didn't make up that robberies on our subway system is at the lowest number in recorded history. And so when you do an analysis of not only are we the safest big city in America, but when you look at the work we have done, it shows that we're moving in the right direction. I remember in 2022 when I was saying that people need to feel safe and be safe, everyone attacked me for that. Because I believe you got to feel safe and be safe. 

And what is overshadowing our success? Random acts of violence, severe mental health issues on the street with people who are carrying out some of those random acts of violence and repeated offenders. Those are the three areas that we want to zero in and focus on. But the numbers are clear. Murders are down 10 percent year over year after double digit decreases last year and a year before. 

Shootings are down 8.2 percent over last year. And overall index crime is down by 2.1 percent. So no matter how low numbers are, if these random acts that are put in your face all the time or you see disruptive behavior in your subway system, that's why we put in place PATH and SCOUT. We know there are things we can do to make New York feel safer because quality of life means everything. And that's why we went after the encampments. 

That's why we're going after these actions that we're seeing taking place on the street. So the goal is to do exactly what the Police Department is doing. Continue to bring down crimes close to close to 19,000 illegal guns removed off our streets. Our ghost cars initiatives, the scooters that you that you see were running rampant on our streets. And so it's a combination of all of those things. Closing twelve hundred cannabis shops. These are all the things we're doing to make people feel safe in their communities. 

Question: Hi Mayor, how's it going?

Mayor Adams: Pretty good. 

Question: I wanted to ask you about a migrant shelter that opened in Riverdale last month on West 238th Street. There are elected officials in that district who say the city didn't communicate to them when it was going to open or who is going to live there in terms of single individuals or families. I wonder if you might have any explanation for why that wouldn't have been communicated to them and also if you might have some of those details now and who's living there, single individuals or families?

Mayor Adams: Well, they should have and we'd like to, Tiffany Raspberry, the director of Intergovernmental Affairs, she does an amazing job of communicating with our electeds. And I would be surprised if there were no calls made. And if there weren't, there should have been. But listen, let's be honest. Not one elected official I know would raise their hand and say, hey, bring the shelter here. You know, so, you know, we've been having these discussions. And I think it's unfair when you look at someone like Councilmember Salamanca and others, even Speaker Adrienne Adams and others who have these large number of shelters. 

And you have some when they get one or two, they're saying, no, you can't have it anywhere here. That's just not acceptable. And it's not right. And it's wrong. And from the first my first few months as mayor, we showed councilmembers here, your colleagues and the number of shelters they have in their districts. And here's the number you have in your district. And those numbers are dismal. And I think other council persons should be talking to their colleagues and say, listen, we all have to share the homeless crisis that we're facing. 

Now, we move thousands of people, the largest number in year one, year two, moved out of shelters into permanent housing. We're doing our part. But we still have the shelter system with sixty four thousand when we started twenty thousand people came into the city. Those numbers are just astronomical. 

And that's why we knew that we had to do those 30 day and 60 day programs to cycle people out of our shelter system. And that's why we have 17 percent of the people that are out of our shelter systems that came through the migrant and asylum seeker crisis. And some who say they don't want shelters are telling us we should not have the 30 and 60 day program. Can't have it both ways. 

Question: Hi, Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. Thanks. I have a question about the Evolv gun scanners. In August, you were asked about whether the then police commissioner would release data on how the pilot program in the subway system went over the summer. You said he would. It's been a couple of months. We haven't seen that data or gotten a response from DCPI about when they would release it. Do you and your administration still plan to release that data, regardless of whether you enter a contract with Evolv or not? If so, when? You also mentioned wanting to work with other companies with similar technology and opening it up to other companies. Is are any other companies anywhere in the pipeline of having a contract or a pilot with the city right now?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, we definitely want to release the results of Evolv. We have Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry. You should reach out to DCPI and have Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry give you the numbers on what we have. We're going to release it if we if we continue the program or not. And they want to get it right. This is a major shift in our subway system. We want to make sure that it's right. But Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry can give you those exact numbers.

Question: You haven't given us those numbers.

Mayor Adams: Okay, Fabien, can you make sure to give them the information? Fabien will make sure you get it.

Question: So, you've mentioned subway safety numerous times today and in previous conferences. One of the more egregious incidents on the subway occurred last month and was an officer involved shooting with three injured. One on, I forget if it's life support or if their brain dead, but someone's very seriously injured and there's an $80 million lawsuit against the city now. Has that brought about any changes in policy and how heavily do you think that should, or how heavily does it weigh on your overall picture that you're giving to us of success?

Mayor Adams: Listen, you know, anytime an innocent person is the victim of any form of shooting, it doesn't matter if it's from a police officer or if it's from a bad person carrying an illegal gun, it impacts us all. 

After every shooting involving a police officer, there's a shooting response team. They do an analysis. They make a determination. Were there… parts of that shooting that police officers could have done better? What type of retraining we can do? So, there's a whole analysis after every shooting. And you want to do everything that's possible to alleviate, if not eradicate, innocent people being shot. 

My heart goes out to the family. I visited the young lady and her parent, her mom, in the hospital when I stopped to speak with the police officers. It's traumatizing. But that shooting happened because we had a person who was dangerous to the system and refused to drop his knife. 

I saw that video and I saw how many times police officers went beyond the call using the escalation of force from verbal commands to using their tasers to having to use a firearm. The goal is to try to really alleviate those issues as much as possible.

Question: Yeah, any reaction to the Save Our City Committee that Betsy McCaughey and [former] Police Commissioner Ray Kelly formed? They said they want to stop the exodus of business, tenants, and taxpayers, deterring crime, restoring civil order, protecting civil services without raising taxes. I think they also want to increase voter turnout. Any reaction to the claims that say the city is in trouble? You know, you've touched on a lot of the general topics that they're complaining about.

Mayor Adams: Well, listen, I don't think they realize that we have more small businesses open in the city, in the city's history, what we're doing with jobs that are started under this administration. So some of this stuff they may not be aware of. 

They should go online and look at our wins list, everything from housing, to bringing down crime, to so many other things that we've done. And look, how can I say this enough? 8.3 million New Yorkers. 35 million opinions. Everyone is going to have an opinion in this city. The goal is the city has to move forward. The city has to… it must go after those communities and people that have been betrayed for so long. That's why we're doing dyslexia screening.

Question: The other question is on the proposal to put in a cell phone ban. Is your current education commissioner—

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Cell phone ban? Where does that—

Mayor Adams: You see, just as I predicted, as soon as it was announced that we were even looking at it, you started to hear a host of people who were saying, you know, we don't want it done. We don't want it done. That's New York. 

That is New York. Just as I stated, you know, yes, people say, oh, this is a great idea. But as soon as you say it's about to be done, you're going to hear everyone come out that… Don't want it to be done and become as loud as those who are saying it should be done. 

We're going to get it right. We're going to have stakeholders. We're going to have children, educators, parents come up with the right way to do it. Phones are disruptive to the education practice. Not only does it encourage bullying, but it also distracts the children. 

But if you don't get it right, you're going to have to do like other administrations. You're going to have to remove it and then you're going to have to implement it again. I want to get it right. And that was my conversation with the chancellor.

Question: Is there a time frame on when—

Mayor Adams: No, [there’s] not. No, [there’s] not. It's the right time to do it and the right time to make sure that we can do it and leave it in place. That is my goal. Leave it in place when we do it.

Question: Security at the Liberty Game—

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Question: Security at the Liberty Game. Is there going to be extra security? Excuse me. Parade.

Mayor Adams: Security?

Question: Yeah, is there going to be extra security at the Liberty Parade? 

Mayor Adams: We're going to make sure that New Yorkers are safe. People didn't want us to do the Israeli Day Parade and we said no. We're going to be safe. People didn't want us to do the celebration of [inaudible]. And what happened on the commemoration of October 7th, we said no. We're going to be safe. So we're going to continue to make sure that people celebrate and be safe.