Transcript from Monday, November 20, 2023: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation

November 20, 2023

Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Community Affairs Unit: Good evening. My name is Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. The Adams Administration is excited to be here in Coney Island. This place brings joy to everyone.

To Talk with Eric, Community Conversations, a series that we've done through the all five boroughs. This is the third time this year. We've been in Brooklyn and we are proud for the accomplishments that the administration has achieved.

And just the three parts to this conversation. Six to seven o'clock, you've had roundtable conversations with members of the mayor's office taking diligent notes at every single table to ensure your important issues are being relayed to City Hall.

You have members of the Mayor's Office, NYPD, Community Affairs sitting at each table. Then we have also question cards at every single table.

In case your question is not asked to the dais we're asking you to ensure to fill it out. We put them all in an Excel spreadsheet. Everyone gets a return phone call within two weeks to ensure your question is addressed, in case your question is not asked.

We're going around to every single table to get a question to the dais we have the mayor, we have the agency heads as well as the elected officials. I'll just go through quickly, the dais, who's here today. Of course. We have the mayor of the City of New York.

We have Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, we have Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi, we have the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiative Ana Almanzar, we have the chief of staff to the First Deputy Mayor, Yume Kitasei, we have NYPD Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, we have DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol, NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue, DOB Commissioner Jimmy Oddo, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Director Deanna Logan, we have Department of City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick, Department of Probation Commissioner Juanita Holmes, NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt. Executive Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray, Sanitation Chief of Staff Ryan Merola, EDC Senior Vice President Sabrina Lippman. We have FDNY Chief Brian Gorman, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities Commissioner Christina Curry. We have Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny.

To my right, we have our borough president, Antonio Reynoso. Councilmember Ari Kagan, Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, Councilmember and newly representing in January of this area, Justin Brannan, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Education Executive Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and your former Councilman, Mark Treyger, MOIA Commissioner Manuel Castro, Human Rights Commissioner Annabel Palma, Deputy Commissioner for Small Business Services Calvin Brown, DSS Agency Administrator Joslyn Carter, Health and...we'll come back to him. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Deputy Commissioner Julie Friesen, ACS Council Joseph Cardieri, Mayor's Office of Climate Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson and DEP Deputy Chief Operations Cipriano, a Rodent Mitigation Director Kathleen Corradi and Gender-based Violence Deputy Commissioner Anne Patterson and Department of Finance Taxpayer Advocate Robin Lee.

Just for this evening, we're going to start off with the borough president, followed by the councilmember, the assemblymembers, and the newly elected councilmember. And then we'll give it over to the mayor.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso: All right, good evening, Coney Island. So, as Mayor Eric Adams knows, I am the president of the greatest borough in the City of New York, which is Brooklyn.

He's not allowed to say that anymore, but I do it for him. So, I want to make sure we're good there. Now, I'm just so happy to be here in Coney Island. Really want to give credit where credit is due for the mayor to bring out the entire team here and the city of New York to talk to you to answer your questions, really means a lot. This doesn't happen often and it definitely doesn't happen. It hasn't happened in a long time.

I do know that the things that I want to hope to get answers to is just a support for NYCHA, especially in areas where we have no gas and seeing if we could close the gap on that and get it done as soon as possible. We were able to support local hospitals with funding for maternal health and we think we're going to make a dent on that, but want to expand the work that we're doing with midwives, Mr. Mayor, to address those issues.

But I really want to leave the concerns, the questions to Coney Island. So, I'm going to take a step back and do the three Bs of public speaking, be brief, be intelligent and be gone. I'll be doing the third part. I'll be gone. Thank you so much.

Councilmember Ari Kagan: Good evening. I'm Councilmember Ari Kagan. Welcome to this great school. Thank you, Abraham Lincoln High School. I would like to thank mayor for bringing the entire City Hall right here to Coney Island. We have many community leaders here who are ready to ask a lot of questions.

We live in difficult times. We have so many issues and I hope many of them will be answered today. Thank you so much. And come again and again, please. Thank you.

Assemblymember Michael Novakhov: Good evening, Brooklyn Knights and Coney Islanders. My name is Michael Novakhov. I'm an assemblymember for the neighboring district, District 45, and I couldn't believe when I walked into this school because last time I was here 35 years ago playing basketball right here.

So, I would like to thank the mayor for bringing everyone here, and I think the most important issue today in my particular district, because it's a heavily Jewish-populated district, is hate crime. And this is the call I'm getting every single day to my local district office, and I hope we can discuss all of that today.

Again, thank you so much to the mayor and thank you so much to you for coming here today. Thank you.

Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny: Good evening, everyone. I'm going to be very concise because if we are all going to be speaking, people sitting at this table, I don't think the mayor will have any time to talk to the community.

So, I'm very happy to see the mayor here in 46th Assembly District. I don't know, Mr. Mayor, I think from now on I'm going to be late to every meeting. Thank you all very much.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Before I give it over to Councilman Brannan, I just want to really thank Ari Hoogenboom and Abraham Lincoln High School for opening the door for us today. This high school is very special. We have a judge draft out of the school, and this is a remarkable school, so thank you for opening the door for us now. Now, Councilman Brannan.

Councilmember Justin Brannan: Thank you. Good evening everyone. I'm Councilman Justin Brannan.

It's great to be here. It's important to remember that everyone on this day as we work for you, right? You are our boss, the people are our bosses, and tonight is very meaningful that we've got all of city government here coming right to you directly to the people to here because what matters to you has to matter to us, and that's what it's all about.

And I think in Coney Island, it's great that during the summer, the whole world comes to Coney Island, but it's important that we prioritize the people that are here the other 10 months a year, because that's what it's all about. Let's have a great meeting. Thank you.

Commissioner Kreizman: Okay, thank you.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much Coney Island for allowing me to come out. Just some quick history, and then we want to really just turn it over to you.

40 years ago, I was a rookie cop on District 34 out here in Coney Island, different Coney Island back then. I rode the trains at eight at night to four in the morning. I think we had to do two hours mandatory overtime.

Our trains were just filled with all sorts of criminality. No one thought we could turn around the city, but we did and we are going to continue to do so. And we just announced this team here, and you can just look at this team. You see this team is a reflection of this entire city, the level of diversity, commitment, dedication. It is what you expect.

I do not merely like my team, I love my team. They work their ribs off for this city and they're dedicated. And they take a lot of hits, but no matter the hits they take, they get up every morning and they give it their all.

When you look at the people who are sitting behind this table, what they do for this city is something that when history reflects on this administration, they're going to be proud of these New Yorkers.

When you look at what Zach Iscol, who's running our Office of Emergency Management all night, we have a major storm coming here on Tuesday night. When that storm comes, you know where Zach is going to be? He's not going to be home. He's going to be at the humanitarian relief center, spending the night there with the migrants who were there.

The coldest day of the year this year, we slept over in that migrant humanitarian relief center down at Marine Park. Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, 142,000 migrants asylum seekers have entered the city, not one child slept on the streets of the City of New York.

Go Google other cities and see what she and her team has done month after month, day after day, 2,500 to almost 4,000 that's coming in. When you look at Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, she handles all of these infrastructure tasks that needs to be done when you talk about them. This is what Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi is doing. Deputy Mayor Almanzar, first Dominican American ever to be a deputy mayor in the City of New York.

Handling all of these interaction relationships from childcare, et cetera. And nothing is more important. The uniqueness of Coney Island, you're probably the only district that I go to where people talk about sand. We have Commissioner Sue Donoghue, who used to be in charge of Prospect Park Alliance in Prospect Park, now in charge of our entire park system. And her dedication, commitment to park is just authentic and real.

Deputy mayor… I mean, Commissioner Rodriguez, DOT, lives and eats it. First time we ever had a Dominican that was the head of DOT, first time we ever had a Spanish speaker to be the head of the New York City Police Department. First time we had women to be five deputy mayors in the city of New York.

But we're not only having people in this prestigious positions that we're doing something, we're doing the right things. And when you look at the record, we have so many firsts, and when you start questioning them, you are going to realize how many first times ever we've had in this city of accomplishing good tasks.

Now where are we right now? And we have to be very candid and honest. Never in the history of my public service have I gone through such an emotional moment and what we had to go through in what's called the November plan.

By law, we have to pass our budget every two years. By law. We only have two ways that we could pay for the city services in this city. One is to raise taxes on property owners, and the second is to cut the spending that we're doing. That's it. That's what the Lord tell me. Eric, this is the only way as a mayor that you can pay for services.

Who's here is a homeowner? You are a homeowner, sir. You budget yourself for the year on what you're going to pay on gas, electric for your children, for your food. You know what your budget is.

All of a sudden, your roof caves in. What do you do? You go to your insurance company. You say, hey, insurance company, my roof caved in. I've been paying insurance every year...every month, my roof caved in. Can you come and give me what my insurance payments paid for?

Your insurance company say to you, no, I'm not helping you. You on your own. You have to take that money from one of the things that you do in your household. Our roof caved in when we had 140,000 people that wanted to participate in the American dream. You know who was our insurance company? The federal government.

We went to the federal government and said, we send you more money than you give us back. And this is your opportunity to give us what a national problem is. And they said, you're on your own, Eric. You're on your own, and all these taxpayers in this city on your own.

This is unfair what we're doing to migrants, asylum seekers and it's unfair what we're doing to everyday taxpayers. And the only thing that migrants and asylum seekers are asking for? They're only asking for one thing. They said, let us work. We don't want anything free from you. We didn't come thousands of miles to sit around all day, let us work. And you know the irony of this? We have thousands of jobs.

We couldn't hire the 600 lifeguards because we didn't have enough people applying for the lifeguards. So, if we allowed the asylum seekers to work, we would've filled all those lifeguards jobs. We need food service workers, we need medical workers, we have a shortage of nurses.

And it breaks our heart that all of the things that this team has been trying to do, afterschool programs, senior care, building, public safety, it is unbelievable to me that I have to hold up a police class. Never thought that was going to happen, but this is what we are faced with. I want to pass a budget that adds cops. I want to pass a budget that allows us to have more school-after programs, senior care infrastructure building. That's the budget I want.

And so when people look at what's happening in this city, we all are angry. And I tell people all the time when they stop me on the subway system, don't yell at me, yell at D.C. Yell at D.C. We deserve better as a city. And that's why we're out here on the ground speaking one-on-one with you.

40 years ago, I put on that bulletproof vest and I took that oath, I'm going to serve and protect the people of this city. And there has not been one week in that 40 years that I have not given you everything I got. Not one week. You can track my record for 40 years and you will not find one week that I didn't give you my all, my all.

I'm the first working class blue collar mayor in the history of this city. And I'm going to give you my all. The way we want to do this. When you speak, I'm going to be silent and I'm going to hear you. And then I will respond to you and I ask for you to do the same for me.

We don't have to agree, but we can't be disagreeable. And we must respect the presence of each other and respect this team that they have committed their lives to serving you. So, we will open the floor to questions.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. And also, we're asking the questions to be brief. We want to be respected in both our neighbors. We want to make sure everyone asks the questions. So, table number one.

Question: So, my name is [Miley Batista], and whenever I'm walking to school, I always see trash and overgrown weeds on the side of the street. And I was wondering if there was a way to fix that because it just looks really… It's throughout the whole Coney Island. It just looks really messy and untidy.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you for that. Sanitation.

Commissioner Kreizman: Ryan Merola, chief of staff.

Ryan Merola, Chief of Staff, Department of Sanitation: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, we hear you. One of the things that this mayor has done is invested more in sanitation workers to increase the workforce to handle those issues that you're seeing than any mayor has before.

We've got a higher uniform population and sanitation right now to do that, to find trash in your neighborhoods, to find weeds, to clean those areas and to bring it to a place where you want to walk down the street.

Now, he has spent two years building this up and we are putting it to work for you. So, I'll also say, I'd love to know what street you walked down. I want to take a look at it myself and I want to see if we could take a look at your neighborhood together.

Mayor Adams: So, why don't we do it? I'm saying what's your name? What's your name again?

Question: Batista.

Mayor Adams: So, why don't we do this? Jessica Tisch, who's the commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, is a real fanatic about cleanliness. She started cleaning highways and other things. So, we're going to coordinate with Commissioner Tisch and we're going to meet up with you and we're going to walk and see those areas that you're talking about.

And then I also need for you to get some of the students and we need to coordinate to do block cleanups, street cleanup because we have a hiring freeze. And so there's going to be some real services that's going to be impacted. But I think if we all come together and coordinate, this may be an opportunity.

So, we're going to set up, the team's going to get your contact and I'm going to get Commissioner Tisch and I want you to take us through some of those areas where you see the weeds and other problem. Okay? Thank you for your question.

Commissioner Kreizman: [Alex], your table, we'll get your information. Table two.

Question: Good evening, everyone.

Mayor Adams: Good evening.

Question: Hi, my name is [Sheila Smalls] and we discussed… Our major issue was around public safety. 
And we agreed that the following issues are contributing to the challenges that are affecting us. Smoke shops are almost on every block in Coney Island that allows our youth to purchase drugs and hang out.

Weapons are easy access and they get no consequences when they get caught with these weapons. We also have no safe places for our youth. We used to have a lot of places for the kids to go to after school places, centers and a lot of other places to go.

So, we need a productive environment for them to hang out because school closes at a certain time and a lot of the other places that are called centers closed at certain times. However, the kids still need places that are productive for them to be.

And my question is, how are we going to get these spaces open back up with the rent being so high in the area that we can't even rent places to open up for our youth and to help us with these things that we need to do in order to help our teams out?

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. We have to be safe. So, there's a couple of things that you mentioned that I think is crucial.

Illegal cannabis shops are not only dangerous to our children, which is a real issue, which is another conversation, but they have become magnets for robberies, shootings. I don't know how many we have, Assistant Kaz Daughtry, but we have a number of shootings that are taking place inside these illegal cannabis shops.

They are unsightly, they become hangout places. They're popping up all over the city now. And Sheriff Miranda has done an amazing job. Millions of pounds he's gotten off the streets, a lot of problems he has gone in, he has done his job. If I am given the enforcement power from Albany, I will close down all of these illegal shops in three months. In three months.

That would be my promise to you. So, what is happening now, we've passed a cannabis law that was supposed to allow legal shops to open, but they gave the enforcement to a small group that on the state level that can't get it done and they don't have the manpower to get it done.

We will have the manpower with the sheriffs, with DCWP and the New York City Police Department. You will not see an illegal cannabis shop in this city if I'm given the power when my lawmakers go back to Albany, I will close them all down.

Right now they're laughing at us because they know that when we go in, we can only do so much. We can't go in for the cannabis, we could go in for illegal cigarette sales. They are really abusing the laws. So, I need for Albany to say, Eric, you have the enforcement power, and if I get the enforcement power, you will not see any illegal cannabis shops in this city. Period.

Commissioner Kreizman: Paula, number three.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: I'm doing fine, mayor. How are you doing?

Mayor Adams: Good to see you.

Question: Okay. My name is [Joseph Packer.] I'm over 60 year old resident of Coney Island and I want to thank the mayor and thank the commissioners for being here tonight.

My question concerns the traffic that we have here in Coney Island, especially in the summer months, and unfortunately, within the last three to five years, there's been an increase in housing that we have encountered in the Coney Island community.
So, our question is, do the administration or DOT have any plans to either mitigate or reduce the gridlock to make it more easier for local traffic in Coney Island, especially during the hot season, hot summer season?

Mayor Adams: Ydanis.

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: So, we do recognize that traffic is a real issue in this area, and during the summer especially, we work with NYPD and the traffic to be sure that we address the level of congestion.

Here I have my Brooklyn commissioner, Keith, but what I can promise you is that I'm more than happy to continue sitting in the NYPD in the Traffic Division because we do realize that especially during the summer, the level of congestion is a lot. We were redesigning as much as we can and also working with the signal system that we have. And most important is the work that we do. The traffic department, the NYPD, is something that we look that we can make some improvements.

Mayor Adams: And what I think that we should do also, because the traffic has been the problem back in '84 when I was a cop here. Commissioner, we should get together because transportation has changed, and there may be a way that we can get together with residents, especially folks like you who have been here for 60 years, and come up with some real ways. You had all these transportation here, all of these trains are coming here.

Listen, get on the train. So, we should figure out… Let's sit down with a focus group with local residents, look at where the traffic spots are, and maybe even think about closing some of these streets in the summertime and really demanding people. You want to come to Coney Island? You got to get on the train.

So, let's come up with some creative ways to finally solve the traffic problem. Connect with the commissioner. We're going to try. We're going to try. It has been a problem for a long time. We don't want to penalize residents who live out here and drive, but I think that maybe this is an opportunity to come up with a creative way during those summer months because the traffic is horrendous and it's actually a public safety problem. So, let's try to figure… Go ahead. You wanted to ask something, sir? Yes. Good.

Question: I work in… 

Mayor Adams: Grab that mic.

Question: Hi, my name is [Angel Alvarado]. I live in Seagate, Abraham 1. Remember that building?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, very well.

Question: My concern is that you made a good point about saying that if you want to come to Coney Island, because I've been coming here since 1957. Seriously. '57. I came here and I was seven years old. I'm 71 going on 72.

So, come by train. I've traveled everywhere by train. My sister's house in Camden, New Jersey. I go there, I take the train. Like you said, it keeps traffic down. If you take the train, it doesn't cost much to take the train, come with your whole family, come to the beach and enjoy the day.

Mayor Adams: Right, right, right. We like that. So, let's think bold. This will be a major legacy for us. Let's really think bold, how we can utilize and really get a little focus group because, number one, we got to deal with those residents who are here, but at the same time, just about every train comes here, the B, D, F, N. So, let's utilize it. So, let's think bold, right?

Commissioner Rodriguez: So next, what we can do, we will follow with you. Keith is there. Next week I will sit down with you and anybody else in a small group and then we follow with…

Commissioner Kreizman: [Ed Jackson] your table, get your contact information. So, perfect.

Mayor Adams: How are you sir?

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for having this town hall. I really appreciate it. My name is [inaudible]. I'm a seven year resident of Coney Island, not 70, but I love this neighborhood and thank you for your leadership.

Mr. Mayor, will you pick someone from the community who has the best interests at heart for the casino advisory board?

Mayor Adams: How many picks? Who could I ask about that? How many picks do we… I think we have one local. How many you got? I think the local gets a few. Who has this for me?

Borough President Reynoso: It's six, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Six.

Borough President Reynoso: It's six appointments. You have one, the assemblymember has one, the councilmember has one, the senator has one, I have one and the governor has one.

Mayor Adams: Right. On that final board?

Borough President Reynoso: On that final board, yeah.

Mayor Adams: Okay. And so if we get a local resident, but it's not necessarily Coney Island. Three are coming… I think it's three coming downstate. So, it's not necessarily Coney Island. They're looking at Manhattan, they're looking at the Bronx, they're looking at Queens.

So, if we have someone that's just Coney Island, then Coney Island is going to be the weighted vote one way or another. So, we have to find someone with a real citywide approach to look at all of the different casinos that's being offered. So, what's being offered is not just Coney Island.

Question: It's [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: See, I haven't looked into that. Is it for each?

Borough President Reynoso: Yeah, for each proposal? There is a board for each proposal.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Yeah, I definitely pick someone from Coney Island. I'm not going to pick anybody outside of Coney Island. No, no. Done. Done. No. I said I'm picking somebody from Coney Island. I said, I'm going to pick you.

Yeah, no, no. Definitely, definitely, huh? Yeah, no definitely. Done. Done. We're going to pick someone. We're going to pick someone from Coney Island locally. I just didn't put my head around this whole casino stuff, but yes, your answer is yes.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Next table. Paul.

Question: Hi, my name is [Amonni Taylor Chavis,] and I had run a program through JCC and UNS, the DOP Works Readiness Program. So, we basically need more funding for the youth.

We do have programs that are running. However, I'm only allowed to take 17 participants, and Coney Island, I can have up to 35 youth sitting upstairs and we can't service all the youth.

So, we really… This program works. We have youth that have been graduating, they've been going to college. We have youth that have been getting jobs. So, we really need some more funding for the youth. We need some help out here.

Mayor Adams: So, I have two responses today. Response number one, and I say this often, I have yet to find one youth organization that walked into the office and say, I have a program that doesn't work.
Everyone believes their program works and they may all are good. The problem is we have too many. You can't have three youth organizations on the same block because the funding is not endless.

So, what I need, which Commissioner Howard has been doing, is time to consolidate, folks. It's time to consolidate. The funding is limited. It's not an endless flow of money. And so if every block has seven youth programs, then why are we having all these problems with youth?

Something is not working. And so what did we do? First time in the history, we had 100,000 summer youth jobs. Never been done before. People were fighting for this. We did it. First time in history we had Summer Rising Program, 110,000 young people that we put into full school year round so they weren't now on the streets. And because of that, we saw a decrease in youth violence.

First time in history, we put money into foster care children because they aged out and no one was keeping track on them or helping them. We allowed them to go to college. We paid their college tuition and gave them a stipend and we did fair futures that allowed them to stay in the program, foster care with life coaches even longer. So, when you talk about youth, no one has been doing more upstream looking at our youth more than this administration and what we have been doing.

Commissioner, just talk about some of the things that you're doing around our young people and the funding that's available, how do people can go about and get access to that.

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: Absolutely, Mr. Mayor, and as the mayor indicated, even in our Summer Rising for this district, we had over 3,600 young people in Summer Rising in this district alone.

For Summer Youth Employment, we had over 1,100 young people in summer jobs for the six weeks. But even in the afterschool network, we got 53 programs in our afterschool programs that are ran by JCC and some of our really great partners.

In fact, in this very building, and I say this all the time, in this very building, we have a very, very robust learn and earn program by our rabbi over here, JCC Rabbi here. When we talk about the afterschool network and the afterschool funding, we haven't done the RFP, which is the request for proposal for 10 years. It's always been passed along.

This is the first time that we're going to have an opportunity to look at the afterschool network, put some of the visions that the mayor has and what's in there like mental health services and trauma and employment opportunities for young people. It's going to give us an opportunity to rightsize this program. 10 years, no investment.

But this year, we are having our concept paper. We're going to send it out so that we can get feedback from our stakeholders. Outside of the mayor's vision, we also want to hear from you. What do you want to see in the afterschool program? So, expect that concept paper to go out in the next couple of weeks so that we can hear your stake, your feedback, and then we're going to issue a RFP and then we're going to see exactly where the level of investments are.

But I also want to caution you, and the mayor has been cautioning you about the fact that the city's going through a fiscal challenge. So, we need to also understand that as well. But look out for the RFP.

Mayor Adams: So, sister, what you should do is connect with Commissioner Howard because what the commissioner stated, that's so important. For 10 years, all we have been doing is passing on the same dollars to the same organizations and entities. And some of you may have some new ideas, some good ideas and connect with the youth.

And so we want to make sure you can go after this money, because listen, I believe children break down into three levels. Number one, those children who you don't even have to worry about, they're going to do the right thing, they're going to excel.

Number two are those who are wavering and they just need help, they get on the right track. And then number three, baby kids, they're just problems. They're dealing with some crises and so you're not going to have a problem getting to number one and number two is inside programs.

But who's getting baby kids? That's the type of program we need. People who are not afraid to approach young people who are on the corner on the pathway of doing something that's dangerous to themselves and others. That's the type of program you may have and you need to have access to this funding so that we don't continue to go to traditional folks who are finding the low hanging fruits.

We need people who are willing to do the complex work that needs to be done. That's why we put millions of dollars into the crisis management team, millions of dollars in the crisis management team because we know someone has to get on the corner in front of that smoke shop and interact with that young man or young woman.

And that is who we need right now. We need people who are unafraid to talk to our difficult children, and that's what we want and the programs we want to scale them up.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you, Kevin. Get information so we can connect to DYCD at that last table.

Question: Okay. Before I ask my just please, include the express bus in that transportation plan that you have. Please include it, all the way to Seagate and not just at the edge of Coney Island.

Anyway, for the past years, Coney Island has seen an increase of transient homelessness, especially young men. We see them all the time. Some of them actually live on the creek, some of them live on the streets and in our Kaiser Park.

And many of them are in need of mental health services, especially during the summer months. How can your administration support those individuals, and in turn, our community, to get them the help they need?

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that question. And we also, for those of you who live in NYCHA, we were at a town hall in Harlem and a resident stood up and she stated that people are living in our NYCHA development, in the halls and on the rooftops. And I told her, I said, sister, I'm going to meet you and I want to walk through the building with you.

Sure enough, we met her at her NYCHA development and just as she stated, people were sleeping in the hallway. We approached one gentleman, he was sleeping, sitting on a knife, doors from her house.
And we did a whole initiative of going through NYCHA and making sure that people were not sleeping in the stairways or hallways on the rooftops because they were using them as a resident.

January and February of 2022, I went out without my detail and started visiting people who lived on the streets in encampments. You know what I found? I found people living in their own ways, drug paraphernalia, schizophrenic, bipolar, and I started speaking with them inside their tents, inside their cardboard boxes and realized that how do you tell people to seek care when they don't even realize they need care?

And there's nothing dignified about people sleeping in subway stations, in parks, in tents. There's nothing dignified about that. So, we put our entire team together with Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom and the whole team, and we came up with a real aggressive plan with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Vasan and his entire team.

And we said we need to go after and help people who are dealing with severe mental health illnesses and can't take care of themselves or a danger to themselves. And we were successful in some of the work that we're doing, but we need help from Albany.

We need teeth in Kendra's law that we can utilize involuntary removal to have people go to the hospital. This is what the system mostly looks like. You meet someone that's dealing with severe mental health illness, you grab them from one day, put them in the hospital, give them medication, they stabilize for that day, we put them back in the street, and we keep doing that until the person do something that is dangerous or harmful, and then we want to lock them up and put them on Rikers Island.

50 percent of the inmates on Rikers Island have mental health illness. 18 percent have severe mental health illness. That's a sick policy. We need to be giving people the care, the community, the nurturing that they deserve so they don't live in a park, they don't push a Michelle Go on the subway station. That is what we've been focusing on, and we're going to need help to give us in codifying law what we need to do.

And the goal is to give people housing. And that's what our administration is pushing to do, to make sure that they're not living in those conditions that you're talking about, particularly those who are dealing with severe mental health illnesses. We want to give them the wraparound services that they deserve and the support that they deserve.

We are eye and eye dead on with you, and that's what this deputy mayor has been doing and the team over at Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. But our partners in Albany, we really need them to help us give Kendra's law the teeth that it needs so that we can use involuntary removals in the right way and keep people in to stabilize them and give them the care that we just deserve.

So, we've been on the subway system with outreach workers, mental health professionals, engaging people, building up trust because it takes a while. When you spend 20 years living on the streets, it takes a lot to get people back in. But we've had some success stories. Do anyone knows our numbers?

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, Health and Human Services: You got the whole answer. Through the subway work that we've been doing, over 5,400 people have been connected to housing that we've taken off of the subway.

Mayor Adams: Those are real numbers. We have a whole plan. I drive around at night 1:00 a.m. in the morning looking for encampments, people sleeping on the street, and I send the pictures to the deputy mayor [of the] Department of Sanitation.

In January of 2022, February, March, April, it was easy for me to find the encampments. Now, I have to search for them. No more living on highways. No one more living under the subway system. They built out an entire system to identify an encampments, a homeless person, sending an outreach worker, Department of Sanitation and other resources and give that person the resources.

You don't see the encampments like you saw when we took office before because we're not accepting it. And I'm… Listen, my mother told me as a child, you got to inspect what you expect or is all suspect. So, I expect my stuff. I'm on the streets every night looking at this stuff. So, we're with you, sister.

Question: Good evening, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you doing?

Question: Thank you so much for hosting this event this evening and thank you panel for your dedication. Before I ask the table's question, I just wanted to add, someone asked that when you're addressing the illegal cannabis, if you could also address all the illegal vendors that we have on the boardwalk is beginning to be so many that it's more vendors than tourists, so we really need some help there.

The question for the table is, how do we ensure that Coney Island is not left behind in all the plans that are being made to address climate change? And when I say Coney Island, it has to be all inclusive of Seagate, Brooklyn, as well as the Luna Park Houses. We all are one big vessel and what happens to one happens to all. So, we want to make sure that we are included, engaged and no one forgets about us.

Mayor Adams: Do you live in Seagate?

Question: Yes. I've been living in Seagate for about 25 years.

Mayor Adams: You got a lot of money. Let's talk about climate. Who's on big vendors? I need DEP.

Commissioner Kreizman: We have parks for vendors on the boardwalk.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Department of Parks and Recreation: Thank you, Mayor Adams, and thank you for the question. We are very much aware of the illegal vendor situation, especially on the boardwalk. We have a very, very strong partnership with NYPD and our parks enforcement patrol officers, also with the Department of Sanitation.

We do special details to address those illegal vendors. We know what a challenge it is. We know it's a challenge not only for pedestrians and people using the boardwalk, but we're also focused on the businesses and the impact that it has on the business. You've heard this mayor talk about public safety is such an important issue, and we are on it and we're very much focused on it and we'll continue to be.

I also want to address the resiliency issue because that's something that we're very much thinking about at the parks department and we have heard a lot. We know about the challenges with the boardwalk and we are in the process of completing a study to look at how we elevate that boardwalk so that it provides more protection for the community and for the people using the boardwalk.

It's not only we recognize that we need to improve that and improve the safety and people's pedestrian experience of the boardwalk, but also elevate it so that a hundred-year-old historic structure is there for the next hundred years.

So, we're going to be bringing that to the community and talking about the steps that we need to take together with the community to figure out what's the best elevation, how we can move forward on a plan to make the boardwalk more sustainable and really the whole community.

Mayor Adams: So, break down for me. I heard that before from someone. What is happening? It's just people setting up shops...

Commissioner Donoghue: They can't hear you.

Mayor Adams: No. I was asking the commissioner to break down the vending problem. Is it that people are just setting up shop? What's this whole problem?

Commissioner Donoghue: Absolutely, mayor. So, Coney Island boardwalk is a busy place and lots of activity, lots of pedestrians, lots of opportunity for people to sell things. And so people will come and just set up shop and setting up, whether it be cold drinks, whether it be things for enjoying the beach. A lot of illegal vending. Yes.

Mayor Adams: So, Kaz, Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, I call him the GSD assistant commissioner. Why don't we do this like we did in Queens, Flushing, Queens? Flushing, Queens was a mess. It was unbelievable how many vendors they had out there. But you go there now, Sandra Ung, the councilperson, made it happen.

We need to create a system. We don't want to be heavy handed, but we need to create a system. Remember you went in, you did flyers, you let people know, it has to be cost effective. And like with Coney Island, I mean, with Canal Street, let's look at this vending problem. Is this year round or over the summer?

Commissioner Donoghue: In the summer.

Mayor Adams: In the summer? And we give you a warning. Next time we're taking your stuff. We got to send a serious message like we did with Brooklyn Bridge and other places. So, let's create a way with Parks, DCWP and others.

Get out there, let people know. Give you a warning. We got your ID, we gave you a warning. Next time we come in and we're taking your stuff up. If this is a real problem out here, we got to resolve the problem.

I don't want to subscribe to the theory. Every problem has a solution. And if people know that you're real about it, it's going to get fixed. I don't want my legacy to say that this is a problem that's been on Coney Island, that we are ignoring it. No, we are going to fix the problem. We're going to fix the problem.

So Kaz, let's figure this out. I want those who are supposed to vend, let them vend. Those who are not allowed to vend, they got to follow the rules. You can't have it and everything in [inaudible] city.

Borough President Reynoso: Mr. Mayor, behind you, behind you, the borough president. Just I appreciate that. It's been an issue and we had made a suggestion that we think might also work where we're able to hold people accountable but also give them an option. Because the last thing we want to do is for the NYPD to take a little old lady's stuff and then it’s in the Fox 5 News or New York 1 News.

So, I suggested that we find one of the streets to get into the boardwalk. There's a bunch of streets to get into the boardwalk, take one and make it like a vendor location. All the vendors could be there. So, we're going to give you a space. We can clean it up. I'm willing to invest my funding to make it a nice area. And this is the vendor section. We'll pick a street.

Now if you're on the boardwalk, we're going to confiscate your stuff. We're going to take your stuff because we gave you an option. We're giving you an...you have an opportunity here and you're not taking it. So, we're able to do the enforcement. And so if we can work together, I would love to have a conversation on how we could be helpful because this does need to be solved for, and I appreciate that.

Mayor Adams: Have you...I would love that. I love that idea.

Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Chief of Department, Police Department: Mr. Borough President, mayor, we just don't go up there to the vendors and take their stuff. We literally sit there. If they speak a different language, we bring an officer that speaks that language, tells them, you can't do this. And we even give them literature how to do it correctly.

And we do this two, three weeks and then we'd tell them, listen, we're going to come take your stuff this week. And that's when we do it.

Borough President Reynoso: Well, I wasn't claiming you guys are doing anything wrong. I'm just trying to give a suggestion so that you never have to worry about the confrontation. I want to limit confrontation and say we're going to give you an option and say we can do that. 

Mayor Adams: No, I love that idea. So, let the borough person be part of Commissioner Mayuga is not going to let us just take it, anyway. Okay. So, I love the idea. All right. Kaz?

Commissioner Kreizman: And on the climate, we have Mayor's Office of Climate Environmental Justice and DEP. Elijah?

Elijah Hutchinson, Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Climate Environmental Justice: Yes. Hi, my name's Elijah Hutchinson from Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. And I'm really excited about the question for Coney Island.

This community has taught me more about resilience and climate change than any other community in New York City. And I was here during Sandy years ago and recognize a lot of familiar faces.

We have some of the most ambitious targets in the United States on climate. No one is doing more in terms of setting policy, in terms of spending the most money, in terms of being the most ambitious on this agenda than this administration. And Coney Island won't be one of the places left behind because we can't afford to leave anyone behind.

Our office is the first office to combine environmental justice with climate together and with our goals being as absolute as they are, we're going to be working with community stakeholders here to set up an agenda.

I know that there's a city planning analysis that's coming up that's looking at resilience and investing infrastructure dollars in this community. We also have the Coney Island beautification process and other partnerships that are working with community stakeholders to come up with a resilience plan.

We also have the Coney Island Creek resilience study that dates back 10 years ago, identifying infrastructure investments. And then there's also the citywide look with New York and New Jersey combined together looking at the entire harbor and the Hudson River for billions of dollars of infrastructure money to reshape the entire coastline of New York City.

And that's exactly the kind of work we have to do to be prepared for our changing climate. So, if anybody has questions, I'm happy to work with you and follow up if you want more information about those projects and initiatives.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, because we’re in this together. This climate stuff is real. Anytime you can see smoke from a fire from Canada that's come down here.

Look at these storms. Matter of fact, we had a storm coming up in the next few days. So, we're in this together and this environmental stuff is something that we're taking extremely seriously. Thank you for your question. As-Salaam-Alaikum.

Question: Wa-Alaikum-Salaam. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. My name is [inaudible]. My question...

Yeah, thank you. What private and federal investments are we proposing to acquire for nonprofits, businesses, enrichment programs for schools, also businesses from Stillwell to West 36 are suffering. They only make revenue two months out of the year.

Right now we have, I don't know, how many of you know Coney Island Brewery? They just closed. And that's a big business right under Maimonides Park. So, what are we doing?

Mayor Adams: I didn't understand the first part. I got the business part. What was the first part?

Question: So, I wanted to know what private investments, what federal investments are we putting back? What I see in this community from Stillwell to West 36 is a dead zone. The people that are suffering in Coney Island are really from Stillwell to West 36.

Past and Seagate, they're okay, they're the haves. What about the have nots? What are we doing for them? Because it seems like the haves are talking for the have nots and the have nots need a chance to speak.

So, from Stillwell to West 36, businesses are suffering. I know we talk about traffic, yes, traffic is bad, but guess what? As a business owner, when I see traffic during the summer, I'm happy because I need them.

And they need to move their car too close to West 36 and walk back to the boardwalk like Stillwell. And they shop, they buy water, they buy beer, they buy whatever they need to buy, and the businesses are all happy for two months. What are we doing to maintain them the other 10 months?

Mayor Adams: Two things. Do we have anyone from EDC, SBS? EDC? Okay. I'm going to come to you a moment, but I want to answer some of that so you can get your thoughts together. All right.

You know it's very interesting that retail is hurting. Retail and traffic is good, that's foot traffic. But what is hurting in the city is retail.

You know why retail is hurting? After the pandemic, everyone decided they wanted to go online instead of going to your neighborhood shops where your son and daughter's being employed and where your neighborhood people are reinvesting the money.

And so what we must do, we must get people back in the real way to go back to retail. We're seeing...all over this city, we're seeing storefronts boarded up, gated up because the retail is receiving a slow comeback because people are no longer doing those same shopping habits, and we want to really energize that. And that's what Commissioner Kim has been doing.

So, let me let SBS, I know you wanted to add something to it. So, let's talk about what we're doing about small businesses, okay? Some of the good stuff we're doing?

Commissioner Kreizman: We have Deputy Commissioner Calvin Brown from SBS.

Mayor Adams: Oh, hold on. Look what I got. I got two. Okay. You SBS too?

Sabrina Lippman, Senior Vice President, New York City Economic Development Corporation: EDC.

Mayor Adams: EDC. Okay. Go ahead, brother.

Deputy Commissioner Calvin Brown, Small Business Services: Good afternoon. Yes. So, SBS, we've been supporting the alliance for Coney Island for a number of years doing commercial revitalization work, but they're also in the process of forming a bid. And it takes a lot of work, coalescing all the stakeholders, making sure that they have a budget that can support the needs of the business owners in the geography that they're looking at.

So, we're continuing to support them. There's three phases of a bid formation. They're currently in the first phase, and SBS is at all those steering committee meetings. We're supporting them financially so that they can get the consultant work to kind of help them with bringing a budget, identifying what the needs are.

So, we are continuously helping with them. We also have other services at SBS that can come out to the businesses if they're having any challenges, access and capital. We just launched a website that has fund finders that can connect you to CDFIs. We can have compliance officers that can come out to help any of the businesses that are having any challenges so they can avoid fines.

So, I'm happy to give my information and connect you to the other divisions within SBS regarding those services.

Mayor Adams: Are you a business owner? Are you what kind of… No, you don't have to be sorry. Yeah. What kind of business?

Question: I have…

Mayor Adams: Okay.

Question: I have my nonprofit next to the convenience store. I've worked with Commissioner Kim, he came out, excellent. Haris Khan came out, excellent. However, on the other side of the tracks to the haves their businesses, even though you're right, a hundred percent right, business went down throughout the whole city.

But on the other side of the tracks to the haves, they're at least making it. The have nots don't get the licenses, they don't know the logistics. And I have been working with Haris Khan to make sure the business owners know about licenses and things, but they still need that support and they need this community to support them.

Mayor Adams: No, without a doubt, and so what we would need is because as a business owner, you know some of the things that I needed to fill in the gap. So, I need for you to partner with us and say, Eric, here's some of the things that we need to fill in the gap. Can we have the...what is the van that you guys come out, the… Right.

Deputy Commissioner Brown: And it can come out, we can direct services right there. We have our best team, which is Business Express Services. So, if there's, regarding licenses, any sort of permits that these business need to get, we'll have compliance officers right there that can walk them through the process.

Mayor Adams: And the goal is, Maria, I didn't see Maria. Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, when we came into office, I said, listen, we are overtaxing our small businesses. We went and looked at all the fines that were put in place and we put in place a rule for cure periods instead of fining you right away, give you an opportunity to fix the problem, which some, we even took off the books altogether. We said, there's no reason we should still have this.

So, if you have ideas, what we can do, I need you to let Commissioner Kim, he has a real overzealous team about keeping businesses up and operating. But also, I remember during Covid, I met a brother who was a tailor. He was a tailor for many years. And during Covid, nobody was buying suits. He retrofitted his business to make hospital gowns and face masks and did very well.

This is an opportunity. You may want to put your...those of you who are business owners, you may want to put your existing business on hold and say, what's the demand? We have to clean sheets for all of our asylum seekers and HERRCs.

These are multi-million dollar contracts. We have to feed people, multi-million dollar contracts. We have to clean places, multi-million dollar contracts. So, there's a need in this crisis that is opportunity. And so as business people, we should be reexamining on, okay, maybe my business is this, but here's what the needs are.

Let's fulfill, we want to localize restaurants providing the meals that we're doing. We want to see how do we put this money back into the communities. Okay.

Coney Island could become the entire strip for the cleaning supplies, the laundry mats, the making the sandwiches in the food. So, there's a real opportunity here that we need to capitalize on as business people.

Commissioner Kreizman: [Luna] on your table. I can't get your contact information. We'll make sure to follow up with SBS. Next.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. My name is Larissa Boas and I represent the Shorefront Jewish Community Council here in Coney Island. My question today is about the high needs that have existed in Coney Island before the pandemic, during the pandemic and now with this immigrant crisis that we're seeing.

You've proposed some budget cuts. How are we as CBOs and a community able to support our friends and neighbors that live in this region that are looking to settle in this region if our resources are so limited and the needs far exceed what we're able to do on a day-to-day basis?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I feel you. And that's the question that I have to come up with every day. How do I continue to maintain operating the city as complex as this with my nonprofits?

When we came into office, we had a backlog of billions of dollars that our nonprofits were being...we were playing games with nonprofits in previous administrations. We tell you to provide a service and then we want to pay you 60 cents on a dollar for the service. And then it was taking so long to get it through.

Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and her team cleared up that backlog, billions of dollars to make sure you got money in your pocket because you bridge the gap with the service providers.

But the reality is, is that we are strapped for cash. And that's a real challenge. Real challenge. And I think personally, growing up poor has prepared me for this moment.

Mom used to sit us down at the beginning of the week and say, listen children, this is how much money's coming in the house. These are all the bills. So, when you start thinking about buying those Converse sneakers, you tell me what to take off this list.

People used to say, listen man, you all, you guys are the most happy people on the block because you all get to barbecue every day. No we didn't. The gas was turned off.

We used to pray for snow so we could melt it so we have enough water because the water was turned off. This was during the time when they would turn off your water. Folks, I got to get clear with you.

We don't enjoy doing this. My budget will give you those resources. My budget will make sure we have afterschool program. My budget will make sure we invest in seniors.

The problem is D.C. has abandoned us and they need to be paying their course to this national problem. So, I'm with you. We need to mobilize together to tell our national government, New York City is the financial capital of this country and state. Everyone should be surrounding New York City to say New York City should not be going through this.

So, I join you and I want you to join us in telling our national government this should not be happening to New York.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next table.

Question: Right here, sir. Good evening. My name is Lakeisha Bowers and I am the parent advocate for District 21. So, we discussed at the table about your budgets to education and we also heard you mention about the parents being volunteers for school safety and crossing guards.

Unfortunately, I think that would bring more harm than good to the schools. One, if you pull the data, we can't even get parents to come out for PTA meetings or open school.

So, to get them to come out and volunteer would be definitely more dangerous than anything. So, we're just asking if you can please, please revisit the data, revisit the budget and bring our agents back. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Okay. So, thank you for that question and don't allow the press to sensationalize. I sell papers for people. Whatever reason, people get...they get clicks. All you got to do is mention Eric Adams and you're going to get a million clicks.

Here's what I'm saying. When I was in Brooklyn, Annette Robinson, the assemblywoman that represented Boys and Girls High School, parents came out for dismissal and they created a safe space for their children.
She organized the parents in the community. She says, listen, when our babies get out of school, we should be out there and create a safe space for these children as they're going home. No one is telling parents to be the school crossing guards, the school safety agents. No, we are saying that because of this financial crisis, we have a hiring freeze. We could not put police in the police academy. We have 200 and I think 50 school safety agents that we had to freeze. It's a deficit.

If we say to ourselves that, hey, let's find some time to go out there when these babies get dismissed from school, let's go. And it's an all-hands-on-deck moment. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. And is it going to be forever? No, it's not. But right now there's an all-hands-on-deck moment.

The presence of fathers participating in these schools through an afterschool programs, being out there when the children are dismissed, the present of parents be out there.

Let me tell you something, what I know that a mom, a dad that's respected in community is better than any school safety agent you can ever see. Their presence is a powerful presence. They know who the children are, they know… Listen who your parents are. That is what I said to the people of this city. We're at a place where everyone is going to have to give a little so we can get through this period that we're in.

It doesn't mean we're taking school safety agents out of schools. It doesn't mean we're taking school crosses, guards out of school, off the corner. That is not what we're saying.

We're saying we need help. I'm being honest with New Yorkers. We need help to get us through this period that we are in because the money is not there to do what we would like to do. And that's to make sure that we have as many school crossing guards as possible, many Department of Correction officers, many police officers, many Department of Sanitation officers, that's the mission that we want and that's the city that we were able to turn around.

But we're at a point now where we need help and we need everyone to say, this is our city. We could come from different faith, but we have the same fate. We're in this together, folks. We're in this together.
And if we don't rally together around this, this is going to impact our children and families. We can get through this together, but we need all of us to be together on this.

So, I feel you. I'm not going to put in your parents in harm's way, but having what Annette Robinson did at Boys and Girls High, it works, and other schools do it around this city. It works. A parent present is a significant present, and it works.

Question: Hi, good evening. I'm Stacey Rose McFarland. I'm a education director at a local Head Start program. You were very there for us during the pandemic for Early Childhood Education and came to plenty of our parent meetings. I'd like to thank you again.

Our Head Start programs are now contracted under the Department of Education and are suffering less than 50 percent of the expected enrollment. Considering there are so many migrant children coming into the community, we are now being threatened of losing our unused slots. Instead of assuring these children places at our program, where are these children going to be sent?

Mayor Adams: I didn't understand.

Question: So, right now we are not making our enrollment.

Mayor Adams: Got it, got it.

Question: So, if we're not making our enrollment, we're going to lose 50 percent of our budget and we have tons of migrant children in this community in shelters and we have places for them. And how can we make also this connection with the shelters for them to come to our Head Start programs?

Mayor Adams: Got it. Got it, got it. Good question. So, here's what happened. When this administration came in office, we had something called Pre-K and 3-K, right? Instead of paying for children, we were paying for seats.

And so when we started peeling back the data data, we said, wait a minute, we're paying for 50 seats and there's only five children in the center. What's going on here? And we learned that we were paying almost double the amount in some places than what we were paid here in Coney Island. The whole system was a mess. Whole system was a mess.

What we should have been paying for, we should have been saying, in this district you need 20 seats for three year olds, or you need 40 seats for this age group and make sure we match it. So, we had to do an analysis and then we discovered after doing an analysis that they don't even even need these number of seats.

And then in the places where you needed the seat, parents were not even participating in the program. So, we should have been knocking on doors telling people, listen, your baby needs to be in 3-K, Pre-K early. They need to be here getting that early childhood education because all the science show, the earlier you get a child in an organized setting, the better it is.

So, we are not going to take seats away from where's needed, but we need to retrofit to make sure that if we're giving you 50 seats, we're going to give you the support to make sure that you can fill those 50 seats and give you the system where you can actually invoice correctly.

Because this is what people were doing. We were giving… Ms. Jones had a daycare center, right? We were saying, Ms. Jones, you said you have 50 seats. Ms. Jones said, well, you know what? I could only fill 10, but you already gave me money, 75 percent. So, if you already gave me money, if I tell you exactly I only have 10, then why am I even invoicing it?

People weren't even invoicing because they said, you already gave us money, so why am I even invoicing? This system was so screwed up. It boggles your mind how I had to come in and fix that mess that we said we had in the area of real system of looking after these children.

We got to fix it. We got to fix the invoicing. So, it's easy for you to do it and you don't have to be filling out all this paperwork, uploading this paperwork, trying to take pictures of the invoice.

We should be able to create a system with one standard, one course and pay for the children that are in so we can give the quality. And then partner with our city councilmembers and say, city councilperson, you have 20 empty seats in your district, we need to go out and find those children and allow those children to be sitting inside.

Because if you don't educate, you're going to incarcerate and we're not educating children earlier enough. So, I'm with you, but it has to be done right. I'm not turning over a dysfunctional system. We have to fix the system. I would like you to sit down on a group that we put together with providers, with educators to come up with how do we fix this system better? And you need to be part of that conversation. But I'm with you 100 percent.

Commissioner Kreizman: And [Ray Carrero] at your table will take your information. We'll connect you with the Department of Education. Assemblymember Krasny just has a follow-up question.

Assemblymember Brook-Krasny: Mr. Mayor, I'm a resident of Coney Island and for more than 30 years, and I have a question as a resident. When we talk about safety, first that's coming to our mind is policing. And we have a great police force here, 60 PSA 1, great people, community affairs officers, they're very close with the community.

But what we really have to think about is the opportunities for Coney Island kids and the future of Coney Island kids. Then Coney Island will be not only safe, but prosperous in the future.

We have an opportunity. We need to build vocational training school here on Coney Island for Coney Island kids.

And we have a space for it. I have a principal, April Leon, one of the best principals in the city sitting here.

We have a space at Liberation High School. We do. I'm just begging you as a resident of Coney Island, as an assemblyman too, help us to overcome the bureaucratic hurdles. We have a space. We have how many? Seven or eight classrooms already. We'll find the private investment.

We'll put HVAC there, and we have a floor where we're going to have vocational training school for Coney Island kids. So, they will know that they will have an opportunity to become an electrician, plumber, carpenter and making six figures and more. That's what we need. We really need it. Thank you very much.

Mayor Adams: No, whatever… Listen, listen. I'm with you and I thank you for that, Assemblyman. I started the Brooklyn STEAM Center in the Brooklyn Navy Yard where children are leaving their high school with certifications. It's a real win.

People thought it was not possible. We did the Brooklyn STEAM Center. Those children are leaving with certification, going to good paying jobs. We are partnering with all of these tech industry. I think the model of P-TECH is a real model that we need to look at.

So, we need to bring in the Googles, the Microsofts and all of these other tech industry and have a real technical training so that people could be employed. Everybody's not going to go to college, but everyone should be employable. And I knew I was in the wrong profession whenmy plumber drove off in a Porsche. So, let's be clear. I'm with you. Let's figure out how to do it. The BP?

Borough President Reynoso: I've never seen a poor plumber in my life.

Mayor Adams: Right. So, it's something I'm sure the BP will partner on and the other local electeds. If you have a location of space, let's get to chancellor. Let's get the chancellor on board. I love the idea.

Assemblymember Brook-Krasny: Thank you sir. Perfect.

Commissioner Kreizman: Next table [inaudible].

Question: Right here, sir. Good evening.

Mayor Adams: How are you, ma'am?

Question: I'm fine, thank you.

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: And I want to preface this with...I've heard what you said about the federal government and about why we have to have the cuts, but I also feel that I have to say what I have to say.

Mayor Adams: Yes. No, feel free with me.

Question: Okay, thank you. Okay. We at the JCC, greater Coney Island service seniors, nobody has mentioned them. We are quite concerned about impending budget cuts and how they will affect the older adults.

We provide meals, educational, recreational programs, health management programs, transportation, as well as home-delivered meals to the most vulnerable. In so many ways, we are their families. Many of these families, they move away and we are the family.

And the seniors depend on us for the nourishment and also, we save their independence. They're allowed to stay home because they have someplace to go every day, a safe place to go every day. And all we're asking is nobody should break up our family.

Mayor Adams: No, well said. And listen, many people don't realize the point that you raised. The loneliness impacts the social determinants of health. And England has a loneliness [czar] because they realize how loneliness impacts on your health. And not having that socialization and communication with others is a real impact. Who's from the Department of Aging?

Commissioner Kreizman: We have the Executive Deputy Commissioner, Ryan Murray.

Mayor Adams: Now, of my knowledge, the food service we did not impact. We did not...heard. So, help answer that question for me.

Deputy Commissioner Ryan Murray, Department for the Aging: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everybody. Good evening, Coney Island, and thank you JCC for all the work that you do in the community, JASA and many of the other providers.

Under this current budget, Mr. Mayor, what you've done is help protect the services currently for the providers. So, JCC can actually attest to the fact that there aren't currently budget cuts for providers.
There are five older adult centers in this community, there are naturally occurring retirement community centers that are here, those have not currently been affected. As you've shared, we've got more work to do on budgets across the board, but currently, the programs are not affected, and we're happy to say that they all will continue currently with the programs at the levels.

We've also seen that folks have come back out, social isolation as you said, and how many older adults are currently out and about tonight in this room?

Mayor Adams: All these folks feel they're young.

Deputy Commissioner Murray: All right. Nobody self-identified. But what we continue to see, Mr. Mayor, and you have invested your time with us in the Department for the Aging with Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez, is getting out to older adult centers and we've had our own town halls just like we've had with youth.

The community building is critical and important. We're going to continue doing that work. There aren't currently budget cuts to the programs. They remain intact. We were really creative in making our contribution to the PEG program, but we'll continue to work really closely with JCC and all the other programs. There are 300 older adult center programs across this city, and we are going to work to keep them as strong as we possibly can.

Mayor Adams: And Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom was very clear. We did not do this with just a hatchet. We used a scaffold to make sure that those services that were needed for real everyday struggling New York kids, like cash assistant programs, other, the food delivery programs, we looked at those and we weighed them into our decision because we didn't want to aggravate pre existing conditions.

So, we still have to do another PEG for January, but at this time we did everything possible to leave it whole because we do understand the long-term impact of that. Thank you. Thank you.

Question: Hi, Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Yes, ma'am, how are you?

Question: My name is Erica. I don't understand…

Mayor Adams: Erica?

Question: Yes. Okay. So, with ghost crimes, human trafficking operating in plain sight, besides jobs, how would a casino benefit Coney Island with so many residents against it?

Mayor Adams: It's not coming here yet. I'm saying, you're going to have a local, that's why you want to be the local there.

Question: Well, there's a lot of people that's invested in this casino and they're all around Coney Island. So, it seems like it's coming faster than… We don't know what's going on.

Mayor Adams: So, that's why it's important for you to add your voices to the conversation. There's going to be a lot of hearing, a lot of conversations. So, add your voice to the conversation.

Because we should not shove down the throat of the community, something that a community doesn't want. So, add your voice to the conversation. Be part of the whole conversation. All of these hearings are going to be public.

People are going to know. So, you need to...the community needs to add their voices. Now, you may have some folks here who may want it. You know what? I just love New York. 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. I just love this city. No matter what you say you want, there's a New Yorker that say they don't want it. That's why you got to have hearings. And I'm glad I'm not the borough president.

No, but the hearings would take place. Both sides would come in and they would weigh in. And that's why I have to be careful who is our appointment. But there would be hearings and you'll be able to add your voice.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. And this will be the last table. And just before the last table, I wanted to say Anastasia Yaskova, who is the Brooklyn South Director, has been advocating for this community and for the Mayor's Office Community Affairs.

And I want to thank her for putting this together, working with all the groups here. We did outreach to 45 groups to do the invites tonight, so make sure we get the right people here together. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Nice, nice. And she's just amazing. Give it up for her. Just got married recently. [Inaudible] are still happy. So great.

Question: Yes, Mr. Mayor, how are you?

Mayor Adams: Quite well. How are you doing?

Question: Awesome. Glad to see you here. Welcome to Coney Island.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Question: So, we met a while back. You were my senator in 2006. We got to work together for many, many years. And as you know, I represented the communities in Brownstone, Brooklyn for decades.
And having done that, it became all too apparent, now that I'm a proud Southern Brooklyn resident, to see how the communities of Southern Brooklyn do not get anywhere near the level of government services, projects and programs that it deserves.

In every measurable way, Coney Island comes up short. We don't have Vision Zero treatments like neckdowns that are ubiquitous throughout brownstone Brooklyn. We don't have NYC kiosks to communicate multilingually about local emergencies despite being in a floodplain zone.

We don't have basic green infrastructure in our streets to manage storm water and address our heat island effect. We don't have enough social programs to deal with addiction, mental health, homeless services, economic mobility issues and basic life skills so that we can invest in our human capital and help ourselves.

I can go on and on and on, as you know. The basic question is, how can we get more equity for Coney Island from our city government?

Mayor Adams: I like that question. I love that question. One of the most challenging things for people to realize in this city is because of my long career in government, I've been mayor for 22 months, folks, 22 months.

In 22 months, we recovered more jobs in this city's history. In 22 months, we finally see a decrease in rat complaints in the city. In 22 months, we brought down homicides, we brought down shootings, we brought down five of the seven most crimes.

In 22 months, we have more people in our theft voucher program than the history. In 22 months, what we have done, we got to get our W list to share with people.

So, prior to me being mayor, that list of things you just mentioned were in place. Now we need to make sure it doesn't stay in place, that I'm the mayor, that's what we need to do.

And how do we do that? Like folks like you. You are extremely knowledgeable. You at Community Board 6, the beauty of that, you saw how community that can put together great proposal, great advocates, you probably have, in your community board, more DMs, more commissioners, more directors, and Community Board 6, they were used to getting everything because the people in government were living there.

And so now that I got folks like you in Southern Brooklyn, we need for you to use your expertise in government to identify those programs for us, to communicate with our agencies and make sure we get the equity that we're looking for. I'm committed to doing that. That's what I want to do.

But I had to stabilize this ship. We were trending in the wrong direction. I had to stabilize this ship. I had to build this important machine and team here so that we can execute a plan.

Two years in, two years in, we are looking forward for the next two years to look at exactly what you just pointed out, and we can do this, Coney Island.

The beauty of it is I started here as a cop, and now I'm here as your mayor, I know how good the people are in here. Not because of your beaches, not because of your housing, not because of your views. This community is good because of the people, some of the best people I've ever seen.

Thank you so much for allowing me to come out and look forward to being here even more.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. I just want to give a shout out to the chief of the borough, Chief McAvoy and the Commanding Officer Smirnov from the community, CO of the 60.