Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation

December 11, 2024

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E4HagM2USU

Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Community Affairs Unit: Good evening. Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit. It's great to be here in Parkchester, in community board number 9, 43rd Precinct area. Parkchester is a wonderful, diverse community and that we are proud to be in MS 127.  

We thank Principal Bryant Jackson for hosting us this evening. Also the Annabel Palma Library is located in this school when Councilmember Palma made sure the funds were here. We want to thank our current commissioner of Human Rights who was here for making that happen. 

This meeting started an hour ago. There are three parts to this community conversation. The first hour we had members of the Mayor's Office and NYPD Community Affairs listening diligently to all the concerns you had, making notes to make sure the policy makers, the City Hall, know what the concerns are. The second portion we asked everyone at each table to prepare a question to the dais, to the mayor, and for him and his commissioners to help answer those questions. We also have no cards in front of you. In case your question is not asked, we'll make sure to get back to you in a timely fashion with those proper responses. The Mayor's Office monitors and ensures you get a return phone call. 

The run of show this evening is basically the mayor will address your questions but first we're going to kick it off to the elected officials to speak first and give it over to the mayor. We just want to go through who's here on our desk. Of course, we're asking everyone to hold your applause while we go through the dais. We have the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams. We have the deputy mayor of Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. We have Mir Bashar, the chief administrative officer of the Mayor's Office. Also a member of this community, Bengali. 

We have NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Community Affairs, Mark Stewart. We have the Human Rights Commissioner Annabel Palma. DSS, first deputy commissioner, Jill Berry. Health and Hospital Corporation we'll have Dr. Mitchell Katz joining us shortly. Department of Health assistant commissioner, Julian Watkins. Office of Community Mental Health deputy executive director, Laquisha Grant. New York City Public Schools executive director, Cristina Melendez. DFTA, Department of Aging, director of Government Affairs, Charlie Anderson. 

NYCHA executive vice president, Daniel Greene. New York City Emergency Management assistant commissioner, Ira Tannenbaum. We'll be joined by ACS Deputy Commissioner Ina Mendez, Department of Finance director of outreach, Kiernan Mahoney. Department of Consumer Worker Protection first deputy commissioner, Kenny Minaya. EDC senior vice president, Adam Grossman-Meagher. Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities Commissioner Christina Curry. 

To my right, currently we have the majority leader of the City Council, Amanda Farías, councilmember. We have Department of City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick, SBS Commissioner Dynishal Gross, HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo, Department of the Youth and Community Development Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Probation Commissioner Juanita Holmes, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice First Deputy Commissioner Jill Starishevsky, Office of Rodent Mitigation Director Kathleen Corradi. 

Mayor's Office of Climate Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson, Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs Assistant Commissioner Erick Salgado. DOT Bronx Borough Commissioner Anthony Perez, Parks Borough Commissioner Jessenia Aponte, DEP Borough Commissioner Effie Ardizzone, Sanitation Superintendent Steve Caruso, Fire Chief Michael Woods. As well as we have the Borough Commander Benjamin Gurley from Patrol Borough Bronx. 

We have the 43 CO Inspector Moya, NYPD Community Affairs Assistant Commissioner Alden Foster. We have NYCHA PSA8 XO Captain Heeren, Transit District 12 Captain Shapiro, and Community Affairs Chief Richie Taylor. Thank you. We're going to hand it over to the majority leader. 

City Councilmember Amanda Farías: Good evening, everyone. Oh, so serious. Hi, everyone. I will be brief because I think it's the right time to optimize every single moment that we have all these folks here in our district. Do want to say thank you to the mayor and to all the commissioners that are here that are joining us to make sure that our voices are being heard, our questions are being answered. It's really a great opportunity to have all of these folks within the district. 

As many of you know, we've had several of these commissioners already do walkthroughs with us, see the community, answer concerns, help us solve some of the larger problems, but that shouldn't ever stop on the one-off moment that we get to answer for something in the community, that has to happen consistently. We've worked with a lot of great partners. I want to shout out our BID executive director, Sasha, here with us also. Thank you. Sasha. 

Thank you to our 43rd Inspector Moya for being here too with his entire team. Tonight is an opportunity to bring forth all of the issues that are not only coming to my desk and I'm advocating for on my side of City Hall, but to make sure that it also gets to the other side and it can be raised and hopefully, in the next budget cycle, we can get some of those things answered too. It's just a great opportunity tonight, so I want to say thank you all for showing up for yourselves and for District 18. I'll now pass it over to our Borough President, Vanessa Gibson. Right on time. 

Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Good evening, everyone. Hello, Parkchester. So excited to see all of you. You look great. I am so thankful to be here for yet another mayoral Town Hall hosted in our great borough. I want to acknowledge our mayor, Eric Adams, and all of our deputy mayors and commissioners, and the entire leadership team at City Hall. To all of our community residents, our leaders, our advocates, champions, it is exactly because of the work that you do that we are here tonight at MS127. I first thank our host, all of my elected colleagues, our New York City Council Majority Leader, Amanda Farías, and all of the elected officials. We are so grateful to represent you here in the Bronx. 

We recognize the incredible progress that we've made. A lot of achievements, a lot of accomplishments. We know, even with all of the progress, we have many challenges. Tonight is an opportunity for all of you to ask the important questions. Know that this is an engagement, this is a process, it's a partnership. As closely as we work with our bids, our school leaders, our educators, our inspector at the 43 Patrol Borough Bronx, we need all of you. 

It is because of your insight, your perspectives, your experience, that we are able to have these conversations. I'm so grateful to be here. Once again, Mr. Mayor, thank you for always recognizing the Bronx, the boogie down, as a critical part of our city's economy because so goes the Bronx, so goes the rest of the city. We are excited in the Bronx to lead like never before. Thank you so much. Bienvenidos a todos. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. Thank all of you for coming out. As Commissioner Kreizman stated, this is important for us to do this dialogue, because this allows us to go on the ground, hear directly from you, and you can hear directly from us. First, happy holidays to you all. Although this is a season of celebration, I learned from my days in the Police Department, this is a time when many people deal with severe depression. This is a very painful moment for a great deal of people. If you see someone going through a form of depression or help, be there for them. I say, over and over again, it's Thanksgiving and not thanks-receiving. Let's give to those who are in need. 

When I grew up, it was the Salvation Army. They were there for us all the time, wrapped gifts during Christmas, Thanksgiving. They would give us, and the folks on the block would give us turkeys and canned goods. They were always there. The Salvation Army energy of today, let's all play our role because people are hurting, and hurt people hurt people, and they hurt themselves. It's imperative that those of us who are blessed pass that blessing. This has been an amazing 2 years and twelve months. When you think about it, it's hard for people to believe what we inherited as a city, January 1st, 2022, when I became the mayor of this amazing city, and many of the people behind me were part of the team in this ride. 

We had a 40 percent increase in crime. We were not investing in foster care children. NYCHA residents didn't have access to high-speed broadband. Childcare was $55 a week, which was extremely challenging. Our economy was going in the wrong direction. Our subway system, no one wanted to be on the subway system. We had encampments just about everywhere. We were dealing with a severe roading problem because plastic bags were all over our street. Bond raters who determine how successful you're doing as a city did not give us the bond rating that we needed and deserved. 

You could go list after list after list. Where are we now, 2 years and ten months later? We have more jobs in this city than the city's history. We financed and renovated more housing records in year one and year two in the history of this city in individual years. We transitioned more people out of shelters into permanent housing in those years in the history of the city. More people participated in the voucher program during those years in the history of the city. 20,000 illegal guns removed off our streets.70,000 illegal ghost cars, dirt bikes, three-wheel scooters removed off our street. 

We are now paying the college tuition for foster care children and giving them a stipend, and giving them a life coach until they're 21 years old so they can stabilize their lives. We're doing dyslexia screening in all of our schools because we learned that 30 to 40 percent of the inmates on Rikers Island are dyslexic. Everyone is talking about only closing Rikers Island, but we're closing the pipeline that feeds Rikers Island so our children can have an opportunity to succeed in a real way. 

More small businesses are operating in this city in the city's history. Free high-speed broadband for NYCHA residents. They did not have access to telemedicine, remote learning for their children because they didn't have it, but we're doing it for free. We dropped the cost of childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week so mothers can go back to work and have quality child care in the process. We're getting ready to spend billions of dollars to excuse medical debt. Number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt. We are going to excuse it and pay off the medical debts of individuals. 

We just announced last week extra tax for the working class. If you are making 150 percent of federal poverty, we are dropping and telling you no longer have to pay city income tax. Going to get that bill passed through Albany. Extremely significant. We just passed City of Yes, Dan Garodnick, the job that he did. The most comprehensive housing plan in the history of the city. Because we have to build more housing. The philosopher was right. The rent is too damn high. We're building more housing. We had an inventory problem in this city. 1.4 percent vacancy rate. Senior housing was hemorrhaging. We were losing. If we don't build more, we're not going to be housing more. That's what's keeping the price up on housing. 

Announcement after announcement after announcement. If you were to pick up the papers and read the papers, you would think that the city is falling apart. There's nothing that's happening successful in the city. That's the game that's being played. This is one of the greatest recovery of a city in the history of the city of New York. We've done it right. M/WBEs, billions of dollars into M/WBEs. We cut Black and brown unemployment by 30 percent. When I became mayor, it was four times the rates of white unemployment. We cut it by 30 percent by doing hiring halls. 

We didn't ask you to come down to city hall or to downtown Manhattan to find jobs. We went into the communities, set up shop, brought the agencies there, and started hiring individuals to put them back to work and ensure that they were being employed in the process. We settled all of 97 percent of our union contracts, gave them the proper wages that they deserve. In the process, they had almost a 98 percent ratification rate voting on the contracts that we settled. 

We have so much more to do, but we're doing it. Regardless of 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers coming to the city, we had to spend $6.5 billion. Federal government only gave us 200 million out of $6.5 billion. We got it done. 170,000 of those 220,000 are taking the next step on their journey. Not one child or family slept on the streets of the City of New York. Go look at the other cities what's taking place there and what we did here in the city. We did it this way. 

One of the most diverse administration in the city's history, first Trinidadian deputy mayor, first Filipino deputy mayor, first East Indian deputy mayor, first Korean to have small business services, first woman to be a police commissioner twice with Keechant Sewell and now currently with with Commissioner Tisch. Second African American to be the chief of staff. First one was Senator David Dinkins. Billions of dollars into M/WBE. We are doing the job. 30 what town hall? [Crosstalk.] 34th town hall with my team to speak directly to you. 

Folks, I love this city, love it. 22 years I wore bulletproof vests. I stood on these street corners, protected the children and the families of the city. I watched the city betray my mother, betrayed my oldest sister. My older sister, she lost her whole childhood raising the six of us while mommy did three jobs. I saw the city betray me when I was dyslexic thinking I was a dumb student. Instead, I was undiagnosed dyslexic and started a pathway of not being educated. We can do better. If that's what this administration has done, we've done better. 

All of my team, they have their own story of what they went through and how the city did not respond accordingly. That's what they bring to this. You don't come out 7:00 pm at night after doing probably 12 hours during the day working to come out to answer your question if you don't love what you do. That's the prerequisite to be employed in my administration. You must love the city and you must love the people that are in this city. That's what you bring and that's what we bring and that's why we're here. Chief Gurley and the men and women of the New York City Police Department, the greatest police department on the globe. 

I'm up in the Bronx sometimes 1:00, 2:00 am in the morning, go into a shooting, responding to an incident, watching these cops give their all to make sure you can get home safe and raise healthy children and families. That's what it means to us. We're looking forward to continue to serve you. I would love to have this dialogue with you tonight as we've had with others so we can learn what else we can do. We're not perfect. Matter of fact, I'm perfectly imperfect, but I'm dedicated and I'm committed to make sure this city can produce for the children and families of the city. Why don't we open it up to a few questions? 

Question: Good evening to the city and state representatives. I'm talking on behalf of the people at my table who are all Parkchester residents. Everyone, of course, has concerns about safety and security but also about quality of life issues. The issue we have mainly is that our management, Parkchester management as well as condo board management, has not been responsive to our needs, our concerns, issues regarding maintenance, even issues in regards to just simple repairs, elevator issues, walk paths that people who are elderly or have mobility issues cannot walk through. 

Because they have not been responsive, well, what I'm asking is this, what can the city do to get Parkchester management to be responsive and responsible towards the people in Parkchester because they have been neglectful, to speak plainly? What can the city do to help us get them to help us? 

Mayor Adams: Is that a Mitchell-Lama, by the way? What is it? Is it rent-straight rental? I'm sorry. 

Question: Private condominium. 

Mayor Adams: Private, okay. I'm sorry. Adolfo, you want to help me with this? Adolfo Carrion, the commissioner of HPD. 

Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Housing, Preservation and Development: Thank you, mayor. The mayor talked about love of the city. I think you all know I love the Bronx, especially. I often say that in other boroughs and I get in trouble, but this is my favorite borough. I am a son of the Bronx and I still live in the Bronx. I'm delighted to be here. Your councilmember and the majority leader of the City Council, Amanda Farías, reached out to me as commissioner and to our team, came in to speak to us about the situation in Parkchester. Parkchester is 12,000 units. It's a mix of condominium ownership and rentals. 

It's split into two organizations and each of the entire development has a registered ownership that is the condominium entities. If it complicates the process for individual tenants and owners when we come in and we issue a violation. We issue the violation to the ownership entity. The ownership entity has the responsibility of addressing that violation, curing and correcting it. That's where there's been some problems. The council member brought the condo organizations in. We're in the process of figuring out how to get them to do the work that needs to be done that you're talking about. 

There are real quality-of-life issues here. I will say, we think from our perspective in terms of housing quality and communities that are in a state of not being too healthy, that because of the number of violations that we see in Parkchester, and this is a good neighborhood. This is one of the better neighborhoods in New York City. 

It's time to take a hard look at a refinancing to address a lot of the issues, the quality of life issues that impact everybody. We're inviting the ownership entities to come and talk to us, Mayor, to see how we can help. We do big refinancings all over the city. We're closing tomorrow on Linden Plaza in Brooklyn, 1,500 units of housing that's going to be fully renovated. Let's talk about that. We look forward to engaging with the leadership and under the leadership of the councilmember but engaging with the leadership. Look, you're not only a condo associations. 

I know that there is a strong tenant leadership there that we want to talk to and engage with you. The other thing that we did, mayor, was, again, on the insistence of the council member, we did HPD in your district twice this season and then another fair where we participated and we did tabling, sharing information with tenants and owners about their rights and responsibilities and the rights and responsibilities of owners. We look forward to continued engagement and improving the quality of life there. 

Mayor Adams: Hold on, hold on, hold on. We're not going to do it like that, folks. We're going to do it like, sir. Sir, I'm going to be quiet when the person who's speaking at the table and we're going to ask the same. That's how we get through this. We're over here at this end. Let's do this because it's a combination of rentals and condominium. That's a very complicated structure. We need to sit down, identify all of those quality of life issues that you're talking about, and come up with a real action plan to correct them. 

I'm going to come over, we are going to do a meeting over there with the leadership specifically on Parkchester. The whole area of Parkchester now, we're going to specifically deal with that issue, and I'm going to play a role in coming in and sitting down and find out, sit down with my team and find out what power do we have on both ends of those entities. I need to really sit down and understand the structure and who we need to hold accountable and we get in there and hold them accountable for it. Okay. All right. 

Bronx Borough President Gibson: Mr. Mayor, if I can just add, I will connect with you after the meeting and we can talk about connecting the agency that I represent with the tenants who are having issues in terms of ramps or grab bars or trying to get around. The Commission on Human Services has the law enforcement bureau that will come out and assess apartments or areas that may need ramps and help make it accessible for the tenants. 

Mayor Adams: That's it. That's what we need to do. We're going to put together a department of sanitation, for cleanliness. You give us what those quality of life issues are and we'll get the agencies to come in and let's sit down and have a game plan to correct those issues. We don't want to do it just ad hoc and all over the place. We want to be very specific what the quality of issues are, get the agencies that are responsible and go in and let's correct these issues. Okay. Thank you for raising the question. 

Question: Hello, Mayor Adams. Thank you so much for coming out. 

Mayor Adams: How are you. 

Question: I've also been a member of the Parkchester community, and one of the main concerns that we have, which coincides with what they also talked about, as far as safety and security in the community, what's being done to improve the communication and collaboration between NYPD and Parkchester security. Oftentimes, whenever there's something happening within the building, a resident or an owner can contact Parkchester security and depending on when they come, they're told this is an NYPD issue. 

We are aware that MTA is going to be creating Metro North. It just seems as though there does not seem to be a communicational collaboration between NYPD and Parkchester security. We just want to be safe. We want to be able to come home. We have elderly. We have our children. There was a time in which-- I've been living in Parkchester for 20 years, and there were police officers that would be canvassing the buildings from top to bottom. There were also times that I would go and you would see 12 midnight, one o'clock in the morning, NYPD patrolling. I don't see that anymore. 

I'm concerned for my safety. I'm also concerned for the safety of my fellow community members. What's being done to improve the communication and collaboration between NYPD, Parkchester community, and what will soon be MTA police, since there seems to be three different jurisdictions because it's all about security and safety for us? 

Mayor Adams: Great question. When we came into office, collaboration was a word that was not used often. Everyone was these walls and barriers. When I came in office and spoke with Chancellor Banks at the time, he was a chancellor. I learned that my school principals did not know the commanding offices of the precincts. We instituted that they will communicate once a month, the borough commanders, because we all need to be on the same team of ensuring safety of our children and our residents. 

When I hear you state that the security at Parkchester is not collaborating with the NYPD, that's a problem because all of our law enforcement agencies are now part of this community of public safety. Our parks police, our NYPD, our probation officers, we're all part of one team. I'm going to let the inspector. Inspector, give me your observations of it as well. 

Deputy Inspector Yerlin Moya, Commanding Officer, 43 Precinct, Police Department: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hello, ma'am. I am Deputy Inspector Yerlin Moya, commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct. We'll speak later about this, but I am happy to inform you guys that we actually work very closely with Parkchester Public Safety. It's one of the first things we do as a commanding officer here at the 43rd Precinct. Looking at specifically the Parkchester area, crime is down actually this year, 5 percent.  

[Crosstalk.] 

Deputy Inspector Moya: We have to look at the numbers, right? When you look at the index crimes– 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry. Listen, don't disrespect my people and they're not going to disrespect you. When shots are fired, this man is not running away from those shots. He's running towards them. He's going to answer the question. We may not like the answer, but he's answering the question. 

Deputy Inspector Yerlin Moya: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. As I was saying, crime is actually down. Violence is way down here at the 43rd Precinct. When it comes to Parkchester, we work hand in hand. Today, overnight, last night, we actually had a very unfortunate incident, a violent incident of a rape, of a stranger rape. We actually worked hand in hand with Parkchester. They helped us identify the individual with their surveillance and their knowing of the community. We actually were able to apprehend that individual. He is right now being interviewed by our detectives. Parkchester, like I said, is one of our better neighborhoods, and we'll continue to work closely with Parkchester. 

Mayor Adams: I think that the question that was raised was the Parkchester security personnel and the Police Department. We need to do something because perception is reality for folks. No matter how good our numbers are, people got to feel safe, and they got to be safe, and that's the balance. You should organize, chief, organize a meeting with the Parkchester security personnel and the community and talk about what do they need to see to feel as though that collaboration is there and how it could be done better. You wanted to add something? 

Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, Patrol Borough Bronx, Police Department:Yes. I don't want to prolong the question too much, but I was the commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct many years back. When I say many years, I left in 2020. We did have that great relationship with Parkchester.  

We do have NCOs that cover Parkchester specifically that work every day in that sector, which I'm sitting here with some Parkchester community residents. We have that. Charlie Ortiz, former NYPD inspector who runs Parkchester security. Awesome partner. There's a lot of stuff we got to do better, and we get it. This is one of those things we got to do better, and we will. Just remember that, okay? I'm not going to say anything else. 

Mayor Adams: I think that what you– I'm sorry, what's your name? Crystal? What Crystal raised, because nothing is more powerful than verticals. Although folks have their own security, it does not take away our responsibility to make sure that they're safe, so let's incorporate it. If they're asking to have those verticals, to have those walkroughs, to see that visible uniformed presence, we need to do that. Let's come up with a creative way to make sure that we do that omnipresence because nothing is better than seeing our uniformed personnel that's there that is interacting. 

I want to deal with– First of all, your numbers are great. We're doing a good job in bringing down the numbers of crime. Now let's have a real operation of bringing down the feeling of crime. I want people to be safe, and I want them to feel safe at the same time. Let's look at talking about some type of vertical operation. 

Question: Thank you, mayor. I just have a 10-second question. I'm the chairman of the Community Board 9 in the district. My community asked me to ask you one question only. Not the question, really, suggestion. PS 106, 127, 107 according to them, they have only one school safety guard. They're saying it's not enough. They feel unsafe. They told me to tell you this so that city can do some more security guard for the school crossing school guard. That's all. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. We have DOE that's here? Yes. Oh, how are you doing, doctor? Good. Talk about school safety agent. One of the problems we're having with school safety agent, folks, people are not signing up for the job. We have a real shortage of school safety agents. We want to hire more. It's a good job. We really want to encourage you to have folks who are in your orbit, particularly young people who are looking for employment of school safety agents, and our school safety agents are amazing. They're more than just security. They interact with the children. They become almost surrogate family members. They're so dedicated to what they're doing. Deputy chancellor? 

Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux, Department of Education: Good evening, everyone. I would just love to take that information back. Jut like the mayor said, we're working really hard to recruit those safety agents because there's still a process in training them and supporting them so that they can be ready to do the job. We're more than happy to continue that recruitment process and to have you all join us in on that and to definitely take back to the team if there are any other resources that we can push in this direction for these three schools so that we can address that. 

Mayor Adams: You say the three schools, there's only one school safety agent for all three of those schools or one per school? One per school. What is it? Those are what? Middle schools? 

[Crosstalk.] 

Mayor Adams: Okay, elementary. What type of incidents? Let me get you to you, Councilwoman. I know you wanted to ask something about. What are the incidents in those schools? Are we having incidents in those schools? 

Assistant Chief Gurley: That's not really the incidents, it's the perception that there's no safety there. There's extra doors, only one agent covering, so they got to move around a lot of each school. I don't want to speak for Commissioner Stewart because I know you have school safety, but what I did when I do have my DOE meetings and things, I try to understand why we don't have more coverage of school safety agents in certain schools. We have problematic schools. What we've done in the department and what school safety has done is they had to move some of their agents because of the attrition to some of our problematic schools. 

We have some high schools that have issues. They need more agents. They need agents at the door. There are some weapon screening, what you saw today, that has to go on in certain schools where there's violence. In these particular schools, that's not happening right now, but you brought up a very good point. We'll take a look at it, and we'll see if we can put more agents over here so everybody can feel safe. Okay? 

Mayor Adams: Our children are lovable, adorable, but some of them are [inaudible] kids folks. We got to put that manpower where it's needed. That's why I asked the chief what kind of incidents? Are we having incidents that's theirs. Some of these children are well-mannered, their parents give them right instructions, they're going to school, they're doing the right thing.  

We also don't want an over police presence look in our schools. We don't want our children to feel as though– they're going to school to be educated, we don't want them to feel that they're going there to be incarcerated. There's a sweet spot and there's a balance that we have to do, but we'll definitely look at those three schools, sir. Okay?  

City Councilmember Farías: Sorry. Just really quickly wanted to add, just on the note of working with the 43rd Precinct. The commanding officer and I meet regularly, any updates or any concerns or challenges that we get into the district office, we aggregate them in my staff, and I sit with him both in the 43 and the 45. For the folks that I represented in Westchester Square, we go through every complaint that comes in, any 311-service request that maybe might have been missed or they haven't looked at, which even all of those data points go to our precincts when it involves them. We work very regularly with them and none of district 18 kids are [inaudible] kids. 

Bronx Borough President Gibson: Mr. Mayor, really quickly. Public safety is something that I truly know that everyone should be afforded. Everyone deserves to be safe in their neighborhood no matter what, no matter where you live. That is something that we take as a major priority. When they adopted FY '25 budget, Mr. Mayor, you should know that our office designated $400,000 to the NYPD to purchase security cameras all across the borough, but we are paying particular attention to the 43. We're adding a new mobile command unit. I would love to work with you on the recruitment of school safety agents because here's the challenge, when we recruit them, we don't retain them. 

Let's be very honest, school safety agents need to make more money. The challenge is attracting them and keeping them all across the borough. We are adamantly focused on public safety. You should know every academy class I am probably the loudest voice asking for more officers in the graduating class so that the 43 can be sufficiently staffed. Definitely more to come. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. If you [have] not notice[d], we have not had one shooting in our schools, not one. What we found was the problem that oftentimes you had people coming to our schools, walking through the school doors, school safety agents, dealing with the challenges.  

We have installed cameras and you have to press a bell where they can see your face before they open the door to allow an individual in the school. All these doors are locked, but that front door would allow the school safety agent to give individuals access. Keeping our schools safe is paramount to us and that's what we're going to do. 

Question: Lighting that is in the street. We're having problems with it's too dark for you to be out sometimes. I'm a 70-year-old woman and sometimes I like going out at night. I would like to know what are the plans in fixing that. 

Mayor Adams: See when I go out at night– 

Question: Castle Hill and [inaudible].  

Mayor Adams: See when I go out at night, they talk about me. 

Question: [It’s] the same thing. 

Mayor Adams: That's right. You're going to show me your spots and I'm going to show you my spots. 

Question: Okay. 

Mayor Adams: DOT?  

Bronx Borough Commissioner Anthony Perez, Department of Transportation: Hi, I'm Anthony Perez. I'm the Bronx Borough Commissioner for DOT. We manage the street lights on the public right of way. Across New York City, there are 315,000 lights that we manage and maintain. We repair them through contractors. If there are any light outages, you call to 311. That way if there's an emergency, if the pole is leaning or there are exposed wires, the contractor has four hours to fix them. For any other street lighting outage, the contractor has 10 days to respond to either fix it or let us know what's going on with it. 

Sometimes the issues are deep-receded like a foundation needs to be replaced. That could take a little longer. If you check that 311 work order number, it'll tell you the status of that particular light, what's wrong with it. If you have any request, you can reach out to our office to get more information. Now, if you're looking at new street lighting, that's when you can reach out to us as well, and we could do a lighting study. If it's warranted, we can add it to our list where new lights would be added. 

In Parkchester specifically, it's worth noting that some of the lights here are historic and distinctive lighting. They're actually TBTA poles. They're not the standard poles. They use specific light fixtures, a teardrop, and sometimes aren't in stock because it's a very rare, unique type of lighting. Sometimes it's for different reasons, but whatever it is, you can always reach out to us. I'll come and get your information so we can look at the particular streets you were talking about so we can either fix the light or look at adding lights. 

Question: Okay. Thank you so very much. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. What I want you to do, I want you to make sure you get his information and let them do an analysis of the corridors that you're talking about so we can define what's the problem. Is it because of, is it teardrop lighted, is it because the contractor's not doing his job? Let us analyze and make sure that we can find out exactly what the problem is. 

Question: This would include underneath the train stain station on Castle Hill? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. Are the lights on the train station– is that something that the MTA– 

Question: The Castle Hill area. 

Mayor Adams: Castle Hill, is that the MTA or do we handle those? 

Bronx Borough Commissioner Perez: It depends on the particular light. The standard toll gray poles are through us. The MTA has some poles that are on their property, but we can always work together to figure out the jurisdiction and we'll figure out the answer to make it as simple as possible for you. 

Question: There was another question. 

Mayor Adams: Go ahead. 

Question: I'm sorry. Thank you. The other question was about– 

Mayor Adams: You're going to connect with him, right? 

Question: Excuse me. Yes. 

Mayor Adams: Okay. 

Question: The other question is pertaining to the summons that are given out to the people who are putting their vehicles on the sidewalk. How do they address that, because people are still doing that? 

Mayor Adams: That's DOT as well, right? People are parking on the sidewalk. It's always good to identify the exact corridors where the problem is happening, so we go over there– Alright, chief? We get a team. Which precinct? Do you know what precinct? 

Question: 43rd. 

Mayor Adams: 43rd. Alright. Identify exact where the problem is and let's go and take a look at it. Now, are these repair shops or just people just deciding– 

Question: People deciding to park on the sidewalk. 

Mayor Adams: All right. Let the chief– 

Question: That include vehicle theft. I know he was complaining about a lot of theft in certain areas. 

Mayor Adams: Let the inspector– Alright, inspector? 

Commissioner Kreizman: The police at your table will get your information and will make sure to connect you. 

Question: Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: We'll look at that corridor, okay? 

Commissioner Kreizman: Table 4. 

Mayor Adams: We were up here in the Bronx, I think it was Monday, doing Every Block Counts, a new initiative. Where we go in ten square blocks, and we look at those problems specifically that people are having. Again, it is one thing for us to talk about how well the city's doing overall, but we've noticed that there are few precincts that they have historical shootings, crime problem, lack of quality-of-life issues. We're going after those areas and bringing the whole full arm of government to spend time there. Then we are inspecting, did we do the corrections that we're looking for? You know what precinct that was? What was that? 

[Crosstalk.] 

Mayor Adams: 46 Precinct was one of the problems that we were having. We want block CEOs to help us make sure that they stay in contact with these agencies to correct and rectify the problems that we're facing. How are you? 

Question: Good. How are you, mayor? 

Mayor Adams: Quite well. 

Question: Wonderful. Our table is concerned with the overall congestion and traffic on East Tremont Avenue. Now, this is before the Metro North is even open and its very congested. Then there's overall a concern that there's plans for bike lanes. With the bike lanes coming, it's also going to unfortunately strip the habitants of Parkchester and surrounding vicinities of affordable parking, meaning street parking. Currently, they're going to have congestion. If they put in the bike lanes, it's going to increase the congestion and they will lose their parking on the street. 

It's also planned for on Westchester Avenue, which is the southern part of Parkchester, East Tremont, and it looks like on a couple of the side streets. The question is, what can be done about the congestion currently? Then what can they do about the possible loss of street parking because the community is family dense, as you heard. There's concerns about the schools and the children, what can be done to help them? Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: It's DOT night. 

Question: I know. Señor Perez! 

Bronx Borough Commissioner Perez: Fun times. First thing to note is that we currently do not have any plans proposed to put bike lanes in Parkchester. I'm not sure where exactly that came from, but we'd happy to talk more about that. Two things that are important to note as well, because of this mayor and this administration, as part of the rezoning that came for the Parkchester stations we, DOT, will be doing an analysis of the parking regulations. There are some areas that could have been unloading zone for business that may have left. There are some areas that could be no parking at any time, that could be changed to make it to additional spots. 

In addition to that, the mayor also committed funding to reconstruct East Tremont Avenue as well, and what that will do is that allow us to redesign the road from curb to curb. That could mean new planters. That could mean angled parking. Those designs have not been set in stone yet, but that's something that we're looking at in conjunction with the coming of the new stations to figure out how can we alleviate some of the parking concerns from this community. 

Mayor Adams: First bike lane, your concern. When you go back into the neighborhood, let them know that was just a rumor. 

Question: I have something that was distributed through The Lutheran Church where they were showing the bike lanes on Hugh Grant Circle and right next to the Parkchester train station. I'll show it to you afterwards because people were very concerned, because as it is, it's like a story or we're driving around for hours to try parking. 

Bronx Borough Commissioner Perez: I'm happy to take a look at that. What that may be in reference to is a visioning plan that we've been working on for reimagining Cross Bronx. The idea is that there are some places that could be capped, that could create new opportunities for new parks or new roads or new busways. There's a conceptual idea to think about capping Hugh Grant Circle and extending Virginia Park. That could mean a bike lane or a bus lane, or other amenities, but we're not there yet. Right now we're just thinking about what's possible and what can be done. 

Question: So it was a possible schematic, okay. They're concerned. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: We allocated a significant amount of money for the study of reimagining Cross Bronx and the potential of capping Cross Bronx. The Cross Bronx… Robert Moses just ripped apart the Bronx by putting Cross Bronx there. I don't even know why they even call it a highway because it's just almost a parking lot all the time. We want to reexamine that because of the high asthma rates. We want to reimagine Cross Bronx and see about capping that. That's going to be part of that overall vision. 

Question: Wonderful. Thank you. 

Mayor Adams: All right. Thank you. 

City Councilmember Farías: Mr. Mayor, am I able to respond shortly? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, you can. 

City Councilmember Farías: I'll be as brief as possible. Hi, Sharon. I just want to remind folks with the Metro North Redevelopment Plan. I was able to secure, in conjunction and commitment from the administration, a total of $194.5 million for the district in that Parkchester and Castle Hill surrounding area with the DOT.  

I just want to piggyback off of what our Bronx Commissioner stated. It's $42 million dedicated to street improvements along East Tremont Avenue. Which includes improving crosswalks, planted medians, multimodal access, considerations for angled parking to help us look at adding more additional spots. 

$7.5 million on specific intersection improvements on White Plains Road and Union Port. That should be beginning in FY 2029. Then we have $1 million commitment to address future parking demand. That's including modifying curbside configuration and metering, the exploration of park and ride opportunities, and the assessment that's slated for FY27. We're cohesively working on that area. We understand the demands that are of families and residents. 

We also understand the needs that are upcoming with the additional housing that's coming in. I just wanted to do a friendly reminder of the commitments that we have from the administration and the hard-fought negotiation that I did to get this amount and investments back into our residents in our community. 

Mayor Adams: I'm glad you raised that councilwoman because that was part of the City of Yes, and what we did. We built out infrastructure. We did not say, let's just change the zoning and once people move in, we're going to walk away. No. The City Council members sat down and stated, if we are going to build more housing, here's some of the infrastructure needs that we must put in place. We spent $5 billion on the infrastructure of building it out because we wanted to make sure that when we build this new housing that we can deal with the infrastructure needs that the communities are calling for. Now, the councilwoman knew you by name. Who are you? 

Question: Hello, it's a very long last name. My name is Sharon Pandolfo Pérez. I do the Parkchester Project. I was the one who got the historic district council to recognize Parkchester as one of the most historic districts in the Bronx. Parkchester is known as the city within the city for its architectural value and for the statues. I hope to establish the current Parkchester area as the largest terracotta sculpture garden and a celebration to WPA artists because we have the top nine here. That artwork that everyone walks through indoors, it's all major artists of the era. I'm working on that. 

Mayor Adams: What's your first name again? 

Question: Sharon. 

 

Mayor Adams: That's okay. Hold the mic. Okay. 

 

Question: I know that scaffolding is a big issue with you, and so I have one for you. The scaffolding at P.S. 106 at Purdy Street has been up for about 10 years. It is a hangout for the teenagers in this neighborhood, and it is a place where they're smoking and drinking and hanging out, especially during the warm weather. It's a problem. The company is Keltech Construction. If you can find a way to get it removed, we would appreciate it. 

 

Mayor Adams: Love it. Love it. 

 

Question: On Purdy Street. P.S. 106. 

 

Commissioner James Oddo, Department of Buildings: Mr. Mayor? You have DOB. I think that falls into my lap. 

 

Mayor Adams: I was looking for you, Jimmy. 

 

Question: Get rid of it. 

 

Commissioner James Oddo: You know– 

 

Mayor Adams: This is the commissioner of Department of Buildings. 

 

Question: Whatever. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: I really love it when the mayor sits me at these town halls next to Commissioner Carrión because when there are really tough questions, I pretend I'm him, and I say that he's [inaudible]. I got to remember to shave next time. We certainly will look into this. I will come by. I'll get your information. 

 

Question: Get rid of it. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: That's great. 

 

Question: I'm ready for you. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: Alright. 

 

Question: Right here. Take care of it. Sick of looking at it. 

 

Mayor Adams: We got it. 

 

Question: Thank you. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: Anything that is up over five years is called, in our parlance, a longstanding shed. 

 

Question: 10 years. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: Yes. It's scary that 10 years isn't the longest shed up. In July of 2023, the mayor announced a Get Sheds Down initiative. The longstanding sheds, the sheds that have been up the longest, we have taken down 310 of those. That is a great start but there are lots of others out there. The kicker is, most of them are private sector, but there are a lot of them that are on city-owned buildings. The mayor has made it clear to all the agencies, "I am talking the talk about getting sheds down and we have to walk the walk." 

 

Deputy Mayor Joshi, the deputy mayor for Operations who I report to, and her team have been pushing the agencies, DDC, school construction authority, H&H, and some others that we have to show the private sector, we are, and I won't bore you with this, but the Get Sheds Down initiative led by the mayor is about addressing sheds that are up where there's no underlying work. 

 

All sheds are not the same. A shed that's up is up because it's there to protect people. If it's up because there's work going on, there's new economic activity, that's a good shed. If a shed is up and nothing is happening, those are the sheds that the mayor wants us to focus on. I'm going to come there now. I'll take that information. I'll get your contact and I'll let you know where we are. The hope is to get a lot of the remaining longstanding sheds down as soon as possible. 

 

Mayor Adams: You know what? Hearing you say that, would it be a good idea on your website, if you don't already have a shed location where the resident can go and see, is it ongoing work? How long? With the whole history of those sheds. 

 

Commissioner Oddo: We do have maps, but I'll get you that information, but I'll get the information from you first. 

 

Mayor Adams: Because it is a problem. Not only is it an eyesore, you're right, it is used as a hangout, and going back to the young lady that was speaking earlier, is afraid to walk down the block or under the shed. Let us look at that school. I'm big on– I hate those sheds. Okay. Thank you. 

 

Commissioner Kreizman: Before we go to the last table, I just want to highlight, every table has this NYC mental health and substance use services. As a result of the last town hall meeting, the mayor, we just want to make sure everyone knows the numbers to call in case there is a mental health need. Just please take a look and then take one home with you. Also just want to thank Alina Dowe, the Bronx Borough director before we go to last table for helping organize this event. 

 

Mayor Adams: Hold on. Before you ask that question, see that guy that just walked across the stage, Sherman, I love Sherman. Sherman, I was borough president at the time and I was sitting down reading my morning paper, and I read the story of Sherman. Sherman was one of the most outstanding journalists in the city, and he was known by all the mayors for the most part. Sherman had a medical issue and fell on hard times and was living in a homeless shelter. 

 

I told the team, "We got to find him." We were able to find Sherman and he was hired by me in our office. Has been just an asset and just a good human being. After leaving borough president, he came with me over to City Hall and he went from living in a homeless shelter to having his own apartment and doing well. It's good seeing you, Sherman. I don't see you enough. He's a good man. How are you, ma'am? 

 

Question: Hi. Whoo. I'm a little nervous, but it's okay. I guess we're the last table and there was just some great questions and some of the issues that were raised were some of the issues that I may have had but you answered them. I live in Parkchester. Everything they talked about; the safety, the lack of getting repairs, the lack of seeing the officers are all very valid and very, very important for us living here. I've lived here like 24 years. 

 

My question is about housing and affordable housing, and what is affordable housing. Is it defined by neighborhood, by the income of neighborhood? Recently I saw a story where a builder had built a house, affordable housing, and then he was able to even go– he got a tax abatement for about five years. He was able to use part of the apartments as shelters, and he did it because he was going to be guaranteed the rent. 

 

I'm just wondering what affordable housing really is, because I noticed when we knock down things, we build them up higher, which puts more people in a neighborhood. I'm a senior citizen and I live in Parkchester, but I've been trying to get into senior housing, the lotteries, like your woman here, Charmaine, she's really great. She's been a great motivator at the table. If you can give me some answers on that, I'd appreciate it. 

 

Mayor Adams: No, thank you. Thank you so much for your question. A couple things, as I stated earlier, with the housing, what Dan did, a lot of people– we're not going to look back over with Dan Garodnick, what he was able to accomplish in our City of Yes initiative. We have 59 community boards in the city. Out of the 59 community boards, 10 was carrying affordable housing crisis. We had a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. Functionally zero for affordable housing. The 49 other community boards were not doing their share. It's unbelievable to me when I hear people advocate that housing is a right, but then when you say, well, we're going to build it on your block. No, it's not a right here. 

 

Housing is a right and every part of the city must play a role in building housing. That's what Dan was able to accomplish. Every neighborhood in the city would build a small amount of housing so that we could adjust and deal with our senior housing, our returning citizen housing, our young people coming home from school and they want to stay here has become unaffordable. When we use the definition of affordable, we can't just do low-income because my teacher and accountant is hurting. It's hard for them to live here. Many of them are moving to Pennsylvania, to New Jersey, to other areas outside of New York. 

 

We want to have middle and moderate-income housing. By doing that, we were having an inventory problem. There was not enough housing. Sometimes HPD, they would do a lottery, as you were talking about. Sometimes we would put in a lottery for 500 units of housing, 1,000 units of housing, a new development. You would get a hundred thousand people putting in for it. That's how desperate we were about the inventory. That's why we had to get this bill passed. Thank God Speaker Adams and the rest of the City Council saw the need for this being done. Housing Connect is important. We got to keep trying because of the scarcity that we were dealing with. 

 

As I stated, year one and year two, what Commissioner Carrión did in year one and year two, we broke records in housing. We broke records on the amount of affordable housing that we put out there in the process. Yes, it's a real challenge. It's going to take a while before the success of this bill starts to materialize, but we have a housing shortage. Instead of kicking the can down the road, we did the difficult thing. Dan, you probably want to just do some highlights of what you accomplished for City of Yes with your team? 

 

Dan Garodnick, Director, Department of City Planning: Sure. Thank you very much, mayor. The point about the inventory problem and the housing scarcity issue, it's a really important one because I think that people are starting to connect and it's important that they connect the fact that we don't have enough housing with the price of rent and the affordability of this city. 
We've had a housing crisis for so long that people have taken it for granted as just a fact of life, but we don't need to live this way. The City of Yes for housing opportunity is the way that Mayor Adams charged us to go big on housing. A 1.4 percent vacancy rate. That is the lowest vacancy rate that we've had in New York City since 1968. This is a problem that hasn't just crept up on us in the last 2 or 5 or 10 years. This has been many decades in the making. 

 

By opening the door to allow a little more housing in every neighborhood of New York City, we believe that people will look at 2024 as the year that we finally turned the tide on housing in New York City and took the city in a different direction. I also would be remiss if I did not also recognize, mayor, you mentioned the speaker. I also want to recognize the two great champions that are sitting next to me, Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who is an absolutely amazing leader on this, and our majority leader, Amanda Farías. Thank you to both of you. Also to Bronx Community Board 9, which has been steadfast in your advocacy to see more housing in this city. We very much appreciate you. These are hard, but they are really, really important. 

 

The big picture here is that we hope and expect through this process to generate another 80,000 units of housing in New York City over the next 15 years. That, in the aggregate, in that single zoning action approved by the council last week, it's more units than were created through all of the neighborhood rezonings under 12 years of Mayor Bloomberg. 

 

It is double the number of units that were created over eight years under Mayor de Blasio and doesn't even take into consideration the neighborhood rezonings that of course you all are well aware of that we undertook here in Parkchester and also Morris Park and also the other neighborhood plans that are all live. Mayor, big thank you for your trust and also for your charge to go big on housing. We're incredibly proud of the results. 

 

Mayor Adams: Commissioner Carrión, can you just talk about the numbers that you and your team did, amazing numbers year 2022/2023? 

 

Commissioner Carrión: Yes. Mayor, when we started the administration, the mayor said, "We've got to address the affordability crisis and we've got to address the availability of affordable housing out there." In the first year of our administration, we produced more new construction of affordable housing than any time in New York City history in a one-year period. We financed about 27,500 units, just about. Half of them were new construction. 

 

In a typical year, the balance between preservation and new construction is about a 65-35 balance with the 65 being preservation. We went from 65 preservation to 50 percent preservation and 50 percent new construction. Then we raised the bar and did it again the second year of the administration. Mayor, I'm happy to report that we are on track this year. I'm afraid my staff is going to be nervous about this but I think we can do it again. I think we can have another banner year of affordable housing. In Community District 9, since 2014 we've financed close to 7,000 units of housing and almost a third or more new construction, a lot of preservation has happened here. 

 

Ma'am, you spoke about older adult housing. We don't call it seniors anymore. We call it older adults because I'm now in the category and I don't want to be called a senior. That's what I heard. That's what I heard. You should know this, mayor. I was just looking at my list of older adult housing in this district. New construction in the pipeline on Turnbull Avenue, 154 units. At 1850 Lafayette Avenue, 117 units. At Purdy Street, 221 units of older adult housing. On Watson Avenue, 1810 Watson Avenue, 205 units of older adult housing. The community has expressed the need, the elected officials have gotten our attention, and we're responding to that need. 

 

Mayor Adams: Here, use the mic. 

 

Question: Oh, thank you. I guess the part that I'm really a little concerned about is the part where the developers or the builders are building the housing, getting an abatement, and then because of some glitch, they're able to not necessarily give it all to people, but they're able to make it– I don't have anything against shelters. I just would like more transparency if that's what's going to happen. 

 

Mayor Adams: Tell me about that. Are you familiar with what she's talking about? 

 

Commissioner Carrión: Yes, yes. Around the city, some developers have come to the city and said, "I have available housing that can be used for formerly homeless," or people that are currently homeless that will be formerly homeless when they come into their building. In that case, it's a lease that is done with the Department of Social Services and these are basically taking families out of shelter. 

 

One of the aims that we have is to ensure that we continue to get people out of shelter. They stay in shelter for too long, we bring them into these buildings. They get a host of social services applied to their lives, whether it's the adults, the children, the teens, with the idea of ultimately giving them permanent housing and stability in their lives and breaking that cycle. These are rare cases, there's a handful around the city, but it is something that happens. 

 

Mayor Adams: Hold on, ma'am. I just wanted some clarity. Does it turn into a congregate shelter or does it turn into what? What does it turn to? 

 

Commissioner Carrión: It becomes permanent housing for formerly homeless. 

 

Mayor Adams: So it's housing? 

 

Commissioner Carrión: Yes. 

 

Mayor Adams: Okay. That was important. It is not turned into congregate shelters inside these. 

 

Commissioner Carrión: No, sir. 

 

Question: I understood that, that it was housing and it makes a lot of sense. However, I don't know what is the percentage. Is it, if you say you're building affordable housing and then because the owner or the builder can get this guaranteed money from the Department of Social Services, that's the way they're going to go?  

 

In the meantime, they're getting a tax break. Is there a percentage that they're allowed to do? It seems like the way the article was written, it was a couple of days ago, is that they found this loophole that it's better for them to do this than to worry about getting rent from a renter. That's my concern. 

 

Mayor Adams: Some of these stories, they want to be sexy to get you to read and click on them. What the reality is, and I like this concept that is being done, if a child grows up in a homeless shelter, they're less likely to graduate from high school. If you don't educate, you will incarcerate. The only underlying common denominator you have in our prison industry is education. The failure of education. 

 

If we could take a portion of units and move someone out of the shelter into a permanent housing, that's a win. It shouldn't be all of them because there are other residents in the area who are trying to find housing, but that's not a loophole. They may want to use the term loophole, but that is in alignment what I believe we need to do. I got to get these children out of shelters. 

 

I don't know what happened during COVID, but after COVID, we have a large number of children who are habitually absent from school and a disproportionate number of that are young people living in shelters. We can't continue to allow these children to grow up in shelters. It's not a place where children should grow up. If we could allocate a small portion to peel that number back, that's a huge win. These babies need a home. 

 

Commissioner Kreizman: Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to emphasize, that was the last question but besides the 34 town hall meetings we have had, the mayor has hosted 17 older adult town halls, 6 youth town halls, and dozens of roundtable conversations inside City Hall with all the various ethnic communities in New York City. When the mayor comes out here, I just want you to understand the depth. He wants to hear from all communities across the city. 

 

When he talks about the administration, the folks sitting up here on the dais, the first thing he was looking for is not only empathy and responsiveness and accountability but there's never such a thing where any commissioner doesn't identify a problem, call another commissioner under his leadership. It was taking down the barriers of bureaucracy, saying, "I'm only accountable for sanitation because I oversee sanitation." We're basically on the phone with each other across the board and work with each other, even though one commissioner doesn't have jurisdiction over the issue because end of the day, it's because of their empathy. 

 

They work to cooperate and hold each other accountable. When we see a problem, we call each other up constantly, and we work together. Even though Jimmy Oddo oversees DOB, he'll see a problem and call over another agency commissioner to address it. It's because it comes directly from the mayor. 

 

Mayor Adams: Look at this table. This table looks like our city. It looks like our city. The term that Fred used is, "What is the cornerstone of this administration? Empathy." We all have a Sherman story, all of us. All of these commissioners, outside of their credentials, their degrees, their expertise, when you sit down and you speak with each one of them individually, they tell you their Sherman story. 

 

All of us was helped by someone to get us where we are now. That's the type of mayor you have. Thank you for coming out tonight. Have a safe holiday season. 

 

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