Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

December 31, 2024

Watch video here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97o1eFxJfRA

Mayor Eric Adams: Happy New Year's. Happy New Year's to you also, Eric. Another year and I know sometimes it seems like I give you guys a hard time, and ladies, but I look forward to Tuesdays. Gives me an opportunity to really share what we have done and to really get my spin on it. 

People stop me all the time as I move through the city. And those of you out there in your office spaces, in the restaurants, who are sitting down and watching, you get to see these questions that we answer. 

Do we pan? Where's Robby? Do they see the press, the attendees, do they see them? We should do some type of voting on who's their popular reporter, you know, because outside of this, they may not know who you are. 

I made your careers. You know that, right? You know, some of you are going to write books, you know, and just do your whole assessment. You have to be. Katie, you must be the happiest person going. Like who knew who you were before I became the mayor. 

[Crosstalk.] 

All of you are going to sit back– you didn't have this much fun with the former mayor. Did you? You know, yesterday I was in room nine, hanging out, looking at your posters and your walls, taking pictures. Did you post that? 

So, you know what I've always said, keeping New Yorkers safe, making New York City more affordable. And here on New Year's Eve, as we're going to celebrate the New York City ball drop, the NYPD, FDNY, Emergency Management, DOT, Sanitation and just so many other agencies are going to be out there with the Times Square Alliance. And they have been a real partner with the administration and these major events. I don't think anyone does it better.

In 2026 we're going to have the World Cup here. And that was one of the most important aspects of it. When they decided to come here it’s because they stated that we are the best at handling big events. And that's with all of our agencies coordinating. And we just want to remind New Yorkers and visitors that there will be street closures in place. So, you know, use mass transit is the best way to go. And crime is not surging in the subway system. You know, we have some high profile incidents and we're really disturbed about it. But overall, crime is lowest. 

And actually, if you take away the two years of Covid, I think 2021, the last time crime was this low in our subway system was in 2009. These officers are doing their job, but we know people not only have to be safe, they have to feel safe. And that is why we served 1,000 officers in January in our subway system for that omnipresence. 

And all New Yorkers should play a role. So if Curtis wants to be back down in the subway system, if he sees something, he should say something and he should do something. Don't overstep your boundaries like they did a few months ago when they arrested an innocent person. Let the police do their job, but do what other New Yorkers do. See something, say something, do something. And we know the feeling of safety is just as important as the acknowledgement of decreasing crime that we've done over the last few years. 

Those who are coming to the celebration follow the rules. We're not going to allow anything to disrupt the celebration. So we want you to follow the rules, even if you want to protest, protest within the rules. 

We are excited about, can you imagine 400 years? We're doing our announcement of Founding by NYC partnership with New York City Tourism and Convention Center to celebrate the 400th anniversary of New York City in 2025 and the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. We have that video. We will show you a quick 30 second video. We're going to play this tonight. Right, Robby? 

[Video Plays.]

Love it. How do we do, man? Hamilton would be proud of us. And, you know, the mayor must fit the characteristics of the city, you know, and I think that is so important as we look at this 400th year. 

We are encouraging everyone to visit FoundedbyNYC.com to learn all about what we're doing. Founded by NYC is bringing together groups across the city, including the Lenape center, the Broadway League, the Museum of City of New York, Times Square Alliance and numerous business improvement districts and all city agencies. And we want to look at those long running businesses in our city, like Pfizer and others. And just with their historical role that they played in shaping the city and [attracting] people here to spend. 

We had the second highest tourism in the history of the city. You know, Kayla, we need to just have this list of all these records that we have broken. The second highest in the history of the city, 65 million tourists visited our city. And every time I'm in Times Square, I'm blown away [by] the impact of that. 

Early this month, we celebrated a number of our accomplishments over the last year and the first three years of our administration. And how we are continuing to deliver a safer, more affordable city for working class people. Keeping New York City moving forward and reversing the economy that we inherited is what's important. And this is the safest big city in America. No one can argue, the safest big city in America. And so when you look at the scroll to our right, to my right stage left, you can see some of our overall accomplishments. 

Overall crime fell citywide this past year, including the drops in homicides and shootings. We accomplish that through good police work. Almost 20,000 illegal guns will be moved off the streets of the city of New York, including 6,000 this year alone. We cracked down on car– we had 80,000 ghost vehicles, from cars to scooters, all of these items that were being used for hit and runs, committing crimes and all sorts of things. 80,000 we removed off our streets. 

Also, when you look at 1300 illegal smoke shops, we asked for the bill in Albany, we got it with $87 million in illegal products. We made our streets even safer as we move forward. And these numbers are just impressive and I just want to thank all of those working as blue collar city employees for what they have done and what they're going to continue to do in the years to come. Safer and affordable city was my North Star. And we're moving closer and closer to that.

Putting people back to work. 4.7 million jobs in this city. More small businesses are operating in the city's history. You look at all of these indicators, you'll see the success. And even when we talk about putting money back in the pockets of working class New Yorkers, $30 billion back in the pockets of New York is everything from free high speed broadband and NYCHA residents to reduced-fair Metro card to looking to retire medical debt, all of those items. 

And then we look at housing, as I conclude and open up to you, housing has been clear. We shattered affordable housing records for the second straight year financing 29,000 affordable homes and building 14,000, close to 15,000, new homes. We broke records for permanent housing for formerly homeless New Yorkers moving 18,500 households from shelters to stable homes. As we landed the plane for City of Yes, hats off to the entire team for doing so. And we are really excited to 2025 as we move forward. But right now, the greatest level of excitement I have right now, New Yorkers is hearing from the New York City Press Corps. What's going on, Andrew? 

Question: Happy New Year, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Same to you.

Question: I want to ask you a question. You're known for being able to visualize things in advance. You were able to picture becoming mayor before you were mayor. Looking at 2025 and this is asked with respect. One of the things on the calendar is your trial in April. I'm wondering if you picture it, if you can envision yourself walking into that trial, testifying in your own defense and whether you picture how that trial ends up.

Mayor Adams: Well, you're right. I am a visualizer. I have a vision board. Everything I do, I look and I see towards that. And one of the biggest visions I had today is a vision of you asking me that question and me giving you the answer. Talk to my attorney. 

Question: Happy holiday and happy new year. I just want to ask about, building on the subway safety, what do you see going forward of changing this perception? We're touting the crime statistics that they've been down and it’s been safer. But obviously, these random acts of violence are happening and they're horrific. What are you doing to, I guess, change that public perception and address that? 

And one other thing about Chief Jeffrey Maddrey. So this is another top official that's been forced to resign or retired abruptly of serious misconduct allegations. So this is also a person, though, that you brought into the administration, elevated him, [inaudible] as you were Brooklyn Borough president. At this point, what have you learned going forward? What are you going to take into next year of appointing people around you or friends or close personal friends or acquaintances of yours? And how do you plan to make the pitch to voters that this isn't a judgment lapse, that this is you can make a case to voters that they shouldn't hold that over their head?

Mayor Adams: Well, first, I'm so glad you used a lot of the terminologies that I've been using for years. And really, people have sort of demonized me from using that. Perception. Random acts of violence. Those are terms that I have used and they have basically overshadowed the success of our city. Because if someone is burned on the subway system and you tell them that crime is down, the lowest since 2009, if you take away the COVID years when no one was on the system, people don't want to hear that. They said someone just got burned. 

If you know someone is shoved to the subway system, on the tracks, people are seeing and feeling what they're reading. So our success is overshadowed. And we got that. And that was why we surged 1,000 cops into the system, because we knew, as when I was in the system the other day, talking to passengers and asking them, what are you feeling? How do we adjust your perception of crime? And I told them that the crime was at the level that it was when I told them, listen, we got over 4 million riders, about six daily crimes a day. They were like, wait a minute, we didn't know that, you know, because of these high profile cases. 

So we need to do a combination of things. And that's what the commissioner and I have been talking about and Chief [inaudible]. It's about– we want to shift our officers in several different ways, have them on the platform, be more on the trains, be more engaging. When I was a rookie cop in 1984, we had what was called TPF. We rode to subways, went up and down through the cars and engage with people. And so we have to look at some of the methodologies that we must employ to deal with the feeling. 

We're doing a job on bringing down the numbers. But as I say over and over again, and I said it in 2022, New Yorkers must feel safe. That is where we must focus our attention on making New Yorkers feel safe. And that is what the commissioner is clear on. And one of the biggest inhibitors for people feeling safe, you go down in the system. I heard it over and over again. Too many people are sleeping on our subway system that should not be using our subway system as a place of housing. And we're struggling with getting other arms of government to understand that we're caught right now. Believe it or not, we've been sued because people don't want us removing campers off our streets. 

And so there's a desire that New Yorkers want. And then there's a desire that advocates want. People should not be sleeping on subways and on streets of the City of New York. And we should not wait until they commit a crime like burning an innocent person or shoving someone on the subway before we say we have a problem. I knew we had a problem in 2022 and we attacked that problem. And we went to Albany to see how do we codify in law, the ability to do involuntary removal. You see it, all of you. Those who are on the subway, I think the New York Post did an expose when they were on the subway system. 

You see someone that’s spoiled, that has human waste on their clothing, yelling at themselves, doesn't have shoes on in nine degree weather. And we're saying that they should have a right to be there. I just disagree with that. There's a disagreement with that. 

Going to the Maddrey issue, someone asked me that the other day. You said I brought him into the administration. He was in the administration. He was a police officer. He was a supervisor in the Police Department before I became mayor. Just be clear, clear with that. And when his policing practices and what he has done as a police officer, the knowns, I have been extremely, extremely proud of those knowns. Those are the things that people knew him for and what he has done. 

You can't predict unknowns. And, you know, these are troubling. allegations. They're going to go through their review as they're supposed to do. And Commissioner Tisch is doing her review there. And I'm proud of what she's doing. And so, you know, switch it from his name, per se. And people said this over and over again. No, you hire your friends. You hire your friends. You hire your friends. I want you to do the analysis of previous administrations and look at who people brought in. They brought in their college buddies. They brought in their law firm buddy. They brought in the people who went to play golf with. You look for experts within your span and you look for experts who you don't know. It's a combination. I looked at, when I reviewed my, you know, I did a lot of studying and reviewing of previous mayors. Go do an analysis of who joined their team.

Question: It's more about these people leaving, the investigations, being raided by the feds. 

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry. Say it again. 

Question: The reason that these administration officials have left the administration have been they were, you know, under indictment with Ingrid Lewis-Martin. They've been raided by the SDNY or the EDNY at this point with Tim Pearson, accused of sexual assault allegations. You know, just in which I know he was in the administration before, but he already had similar allegations I guess nine years ago. And he was somebody that you have advocated for.

Mayor Adams: Right. And people did not leave. Everybody that left was not under some type of cloud. Dr. Vasan left because he wanted to do something else. You know, he was under the cloud. So this broad brush that we're painting is just not true. Look how many commissioners I have in this city. Those commissioners are still in place. They're still doing their job every day. DEP, HPD. You go through the list. We're still doing the job. 

And let me tell you what I feel about life. Listen, man, life is hard. Now, do you sit and wallow in despair and whine about  the cards that were dealt with me? Or do you play the hand that you have? Look at the numbers. I've moved the city forward from the day that we learned of this investigation. We have not stopped. And those commissioners have not stopped. Sue Donoghue is still in Parks doing what she does. I know Jimmy Oddo is still doing what he what he's supposed to do. So we're going to keep moving forward. That's the resiliency and spirit of New Yorkers. 

[Crosstalk.]

Question: You were on [inaudible] and you explained there why you felt you needed to insert yourself in that tableau of the police shifting Luigi Mangione to court. And you said, “I wanted to send a strong signal with the police commissioner that we are leading from the front. I'm not going to just allow him to come into the city, our city. I wanted to look him in the eye” and state that, “You carried out this terrorist act in my city. The city the people of New York love. And I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that.” 

Is there any thought in your mind that that might have somehow aggregated due process, that you as the chief executive of the City of New York may have made it harder later on for him to get due process to the process of jury selection? Maybe the application for moving jurisdiction because you're not a police officer, although you're close to that. And you insert yourself in that critical phase.

Mayor Adams: No, and that's almost comical to even raise. It's the guy [that] assassinated, according to all evidence that we have. The guy– this case has been highly focused on and is going to go to a court of law. Eric Adams being at the heliport watching this individual come into the city and countless number of New Yorkers said thank you. So this is what I learned in the city. 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. No matter what you do, someone's going to have an opinion. So go with your heart and go with your gut. And that's how I lead. 

Question: Did he respond to you?

Mayor Adams: I never know. I was very clear not to talk to him. I was very clear not to say anything. I wanted to look into his eye. 

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: No, the papers don't mischaracterize things.

Question: The second question is, would you be surprised to learn that there are folks doing work at CUNY moving around, folks who are disabled, through students who are represented by Union Local 2054 led by Dishunta Meredith. They're getting below the New York State minimum wage. We talked to Tom DiNapoli. He said, actually, that the state and city public employers are exempt from minimum wage. Is that something worth exploring? And should we make sure that anyone doing public work is getting at least a New York State minimum wage?

Mayor Adams: So I want to go back to your question. You were asking about the person who we believe committed a crime. And I say assassin, allegedly assassin, because he has to be proven to have done the crime.

When it comes down to minimum wage. Yes, of course. People should not be making below minimum wage. And I think we should, like we did in the city, was was settled in 97 percent. I think we’re up to 97 percent of our contracts. We gave fair contracts to city workers and we're proud of that, on doing that. And I think people should be able to provide for their families.

Question: I wanted to follow up on Craig's question about the knowns and the unknowns. The knowns about Maddrey included a number of cases against him before this came up. He was accused of sexual harassment. There is an incident with a retired colleague who chased three boys with a gun. Those were the knowns you were working with. I wanted to give you a chance to address that in light of your answer.

Mayor Adams: To address what? What is that you want me to address?

Question: Well, there’s reporting that you protected Maddrey despite these many incidents. I'm wondering if you have any regrets about that. 

Mayor Adams: No one was protected. There were lies that were said that I told the former commissioner, Commissioner Sewell, not to take action. That just did not happen. And again, I responded to the Maddrey [question]. Let the investigation take its course.

Question: My second question is that, in light of the charges against your former supervisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, are you conducting any review into the Department of Buildings and has Kazimir Vilenchik, who is in the indictment, has he had his job duties modified in any way?

Mayor Adams: Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, they’re doing a 30 day review of that entire process.

Question: Mr. Mayor, looking at this year, I wanted to ask you, what would you consider your proudest moment? And do you have any regrets looking at this 2024? 

And I have one more question before the 400th anniversary of New York City. Can you tell, I don't know, one event or one thing that we should look forward to next year with regards to that?

Mayor Adams: You know, life is about reflection, not regretting. Who we are, I believe, is part of our successes and our mistakes. That is who makes us who we are. And every year I do the same ritual. I look back over my journal and reflect on what could I have done better, of what I should build upon. And I just continue to do that, to try to become a better person. 

Again, one of my regrets, if I were to look at it on reflection, I would say one of the things I would like to do better. You know, Jordan and I, we spent a lot of time together this year. We did some real exciting things together. And I just want to continue to do that. He sacrificed a lot throughout the years, me being in public life. And, you know, watching him now as a young man, I'm just really proud of him. He's in school teaching right now. And he's doing so many things that I'm excited, when I look at some of the things that a young person has to navigate and watching him navigate them. He has become the man that I've always wanted him to be. And I want to spend some more time with him. So I've learned a lot this year and I'm going to continue to do some great things. 

When it comes down to celebrating Times Square, the website they should go to, the website to visit FoundedbyNYC.com. And we lay out all these plans that we are doing. Oh, you put it up right there. They go right there and the same thing we did with Hip Hop is 50. We're using that same type of breakdown to show people all the things. And we're encouraging people to do other things to really celebrate our 400 year birthday.

Question: The new police commissioner, Tisch, great lady, very nice. What do you think of how she's been handling her duties so far? There's been reports that she's been removing a slew of police officials already. How do you think she's handling this looking into the new year? 

The second question, too, is up in the Bronx, terrible shooting. A mother was used as a shield from, according to witnesses at the scene. What are your thoughts about that as well?

Mayor Adams: First, the commissioner of, you know, I speak with the commissioner just about every day, not every other day as she goes through her ideas, her movement and coordination. She was given a clear assignment to go in, build a team. We were doing a good job in crime. We continue to bring down crime. But I wanted to take the department into the next level of what policing should be about. But I also wanted her to go in and do an analysis to see what we were doing wrong. What could we do better? And she did a great job in DSNY in doing that. And I'm looking forward to her doing that again. And I'm very proud of what she's doing. 

The shooting in the Bronx is just a horrific case of abusing a mother as a shield of, you know, we don't see that often here. I can remember several times it has been done before. But it is clear we're going to find everyone that's responsible and bring them to justice. I think it was six people when I was briefed last night that were shot. We continue to drop down shooters and homicides. But again, those numbers mean nothing when you see a horrific incident like that. We're going to continue to do the job we do. And that's why we want all of these guns off our streets. And when you hear me talk about CRT and the units that go after these guns, these are real stories. That baby's traumatized seeing her mother shot. And we want to prevent these actions from happening.

Question: Given your recent comments about how all administrations have scandals and all mayors bring on friends or law school classmates or whatever, do you take any responsibility for the conduct of the people you have appointed and supported in spite of prior questionable behavior?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I'm the commanding chief of the troops. And so, you know, if my troops do something wrong, I have to reflect on what I need to do and do better. And so I don't take away. I appoint those who I directly appoint. Many people have been in government for a long time and moved up through government and stayed here. We didn't have a high level of turnovers, believe it or not, when I came in. And so it's my responsibility to make sure that the people who are employed in the city deliver for the people of New York. And I take that responsibility highly. And I'm going to continue to do the best I can to deliver for the people of New York. And we have delivered for the people of New York. And we're going to continue to do that. 

Question: In the spirit of reflection and happy New Year, you obviously campaigned as a former cop bringing down crime. Now, since you've taken over, the NYPD is under federal investigation, potentially for bribery. In addition, you've obviously had your chief of department resign in scandal. 

Just when you think about next year, you're heading into reelection. What does that say about that campaign promise given the state of the NYPD? In addition, when was the last time you spoke to Jeffrey Maddrey? Did you ask for his resignation? And when did you find out about the allegations against him? 

Mayor Adams: I'll go back. Which campaign promise are you talking about? 

Question: Running for mayor.

Mayor Adams: No, but which one? I made several promises that [inaudible].

Question: About the NYPD bringing down crime, you know, trying to, I don't want to say revolutionize the NYPD, but you campaigned as a former NYPD officer, a former NYPD captain. So the fact that much of the scandal going on in your administration right now is centered on One PP might say something about the campaign that you led several years ago and the campaign that you're expected to lead for reelection.

Mayor Adams: Right. The campaign I talked about was bringing down crime, making our city safer. We did that. That was check boxes, check. So I'm not you know, you said that I went against my campaign promise. I didn't. We brought down crime. Subway crime is the lowest since 2009. I take away the two COVID years. You know, the overall crime in the city has decreased. Homicides have decreased. Shootings have decreased. Even grand larceny, which was a pesky little problem we had. We have a decrease in that. So I did. I lived up to that campaign promise. And I'm going to continue to make the city even safer, with the safest big city in America. So I lived up to that promise with the safest big city in America. I lived up to that promise and I'm going to continue to make us even safer.

Question: When was the last time you spoke with him when you found out about the allegation and did you ask him to leave?

Mayor Adams: I mean, everybody in here would tell you they could answer that question for me. I don't go into private conversations with people. And that's why people like talking to me because they know they never hear it again. 

Question: What message do you have for the immigrant community? The immigrant community, coming up to 2025. Because, you know, there's a lot of anxiety out there. Second question is, I don't know if you're aware of it, there's a long list waiting for the vendor license. People are complaining in a way. Is there anything that the administration can do to expedite that?

Mayor Adams: I don't remember an administration in modern time that people weren't complaining about these vendor license issues. And we need to find a way to make sure the system moves faster. And at the same time, we have to be very clear on what we could vend. You just can't vend outside a phone store selling the items 50 percent the cost of the phone store who are paying for the brick and mortar, who's paying taxes, who are paying for employees. That's just not fair. 

And so we have to manage and control vendors and we have to look at the public safety. We saw what the Brooklyn Bridge looked like when we decided that you can't be clogging the bridge where people can't get on and off, selling stuff, locking stuff overnight off on the bridge. It just gives the appearance that people feel things are out of control. So we have to find that sweet spot and balance of having the right number of vendor licenses given out. And at the same time, do it in a manner that we're not stopping our city from looking as though it's out of control by too many vendors. 

Like [inaudible] called us on Main Street. Just too many vendors. I'm getting called, which is very interesting. I get calls from a lot of the elected officials who say that we should not be clamping down vendors until it's in their districts. And we get all these calls saying, listen, these vendors are out of control in our district. And so we got to find a sweet spot. We have to make sure that we give the right number of vendor licenses out, that is not going to interfere with the normal cleanliness and quality of life of our city. 

And now the immigrant, this has always been a city in a country of immigrants. I'm very clear on that. Again, I’ve said it enough. We want them to continue to educate their children in our schools, continue to use medical services when you need to continue to call law enforcement. If you're a victim of a crime of a person that is an immigrant in the city, they don't get a discount on paying for taxes when they purchase something they pay the same rate that everyone else. And those tax dollars pay for the goods and services that we're delivering to them. And I'm telling them, don't live in a feeling of anxiety. Continue to do the job that you're doing. This is a place for those who want to pursue the American dream. But it would never be a place for those who want to harm innocent people in this city. Like we saw with the person who burned to death, you know, a woman, who was merely on our subway system.

Question: About that woman burned on the subway system. She's recently been identified. Yes. Do you know any more about her?

Mayor Adams: No more than the name and that she resided in New Jersey. She had a brief stint in our homeless and a shelter system, our shelter system. And our hearts go out to the family. Horrific incident to have to live through. And, you know, just watching that tape just really I couldn't even watch it all the way through. It was just a bad incident and it impacts on how New Yorkers feel. 

But it really reinforced what I've been saying. People should not be living on our subway system. They should be in a place of care. And no matter where she lived, that should not have happened. But we have far too many people that believe they should be on our subway system and living on our streets. And we can't throw our hands up and allow that to happen.

Question: Did they find any next of kin for her?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes. They communicated to her next of kin. 

Question: From Jersey?

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Question: I know you kind of mentioned this the other day, but just a little bit more on congestion pricing. Are you frustrated at all that this is going into effect without some of the… what's it called? Exemptions that you were wishing for. And are you frustrated that, you know, there's also going to be a subway fare increase? And then a second question for you. What's your kind of wish list from Albany this year or this coming year? I know you have Axe the Tax. What are you looking for?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I'm not frustrated with it. This is the process. We have a huge hole in our MTA capital plan and must be filled. And I think the governor, she really heard New York is when it was fifteen dollars a toll. I even hear from restaurants and others who don't have to pay the toll. 

But I think they believe that it would deter people from coming in using their services. And this has gone back and forth. It's going to settle somewhere. You know, this in court. Jersey is suing. You know, New York is responding. It's going to settle and we're going to have some form of congestion pricing. There was a list of things we wanted. 

We were able to get the hundred million dollars for those areas with environmental issues. We were able to get some waivers where we want to make sure that people who are eligible, that they go and get those waivers. And it's going to be a continued conversation. I think this is a feeling out period. Let's see how it runs. People may come back to the table and, you know, reexamine. How can we do things differently? How is it impacting tourism, our economy? And so I think that this is the beginning of this whole conversation. This is new. This is brand new. So there's going to be a response. So January 5th, it starts. And, you know, New Yorkers need to be prepared for that. 

When it comes to Albany, we've got a couple of things. The Supportive Interventions Act is crucial. And the commission is going to be rolling out some things we're going to do around in addition to SCOUT and what we're doing now and PATH, SCOUT and PATH. But we need help from Albany in the Supportive Interventions Act. That is one of our asks from Albany and our Axe the Tax. 

Sixty three million dollars will go back in the pockets of five hundred eighty two thousand New Yorkers. I mean, when you think about a mother who's making thirty one thousand dollars a year, she has a child. She would not have to pay any income tax. That means a lot. And so we're hoping… I want to thank Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Senator Comrie for carrying the bill. But this is our method of putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. Those are the two. And lastly, discovery reform. All of the DA's now, they seem to be all on the same page of having real discovery reform. We think that now is the time to make it happen. 

Question: I wanted to ask about the review that Commissioner Tisch is doing at the NYPD. We're waiting on the results. And you said you're going to wait for the process to play out. I'm not asking about anything she's found, but I'm wondering if you can give us any more details about the review. What is she looking at? What's the criteria and how far down the ranks is she going? It obviously would be infeasible to do like the whole department, but I'm assuming she has some sort of narrow scope?

Mayor Adams: Well, one thing that I ask all the agencies to look at the overtime in our agencies. We were just hit with so much last year, particularly the New York City Police Department. Well, you have 3,000 protests, demonstrations. Some of them were very rowdy at the time. Subway enforcement to making people feel safe. So you have to go down and look at, you know, every layer. Like who signed off on the overtime slips? Was it done accordingly? So she's doing a top to bottom review, something that she's good at doing. She's looking at every aspect of it. And, you know, just about every day she'll reach out and say, Eric, here's my analysis. Here's what I'm seeing. Here's what I'm proposing. Hey, commissioner, move, move forward. Those things we want to do differently. We'll sit down and try to figure out what's the reason for it. And we say, no let's hold off on doing that. 

But she's doing a top to bottom review. And I'm coordinating with her to make sure we stay in alignment of what my campaign promises were. Keeping us safe. The department did a great job in keeping us safe. And we don't want to disrupt that. We want to build on that because we want to get safer. And that's how we're going to coordinate together. And she's going to do a department wide review. And everybody should be doing that this year. All of my deputy mayors should be doing a review as we go into 2025 on all of the agencies in their portfolios. And all the commissioners should be looking at their agencies and saying, okay, what could we do better? And how do we continue to deliver and push ourselves to deliver for New Yorkers?

Question: So going into the new year, it's going to be a big one for you. Re-election. Trial. You know, I'm just curious what you're most anxious, worried about, either personally, professionally, both, and also what you're most looking forward to?

Mayor Adams: That's you know, that question to me is a home run. You know, that's a good question. You know, I don't know what it was, some fable of the guy that made wings out of wax and one flew closer to the sun. You know, and what my trademark, someone was telling me the other day that I had dinner with, what my trademark. I don't get too high and I don't get too low. You know, when good things happen, I'm not up there celebrating, thinking that tomorrow something bad can happen. But when bad things happen, I am not saying that, you know, oh, my God, this is what life has to offer. I just stay at this mellow, even keel, wake up in the morning, pray, meditate, breathe and exercise, drink my smoothie and read the papers, when there's good news in it, you know. So I don't have this anxiety. I feel that, listen, life is going to come at you. You handle it and you just maintain your equilibrium. And that is just how I am. 

There are going to be good days, bad days. There's going to be days I wish I would have gotten out of bed, days that I wish I would not have gotten out of bed. You know, that is just life. And that has been my story that I've always looked. You know, what I find is that we typically spend 50 percent of our time worrying about things that could happen. Another 50 percent of our time worrying about things that have happened. Neither one of them you can control. 

So we spend all that time in the past and in the [future]. I should say, when [are we] going to exist in the present? Every day I'm in the present. I enjoy where I am and what life has to offer. And every day that I'm in even dark places, you know, mommy used to say dark places are not burial sites. They're planted, and you learn a lesson. And I'm pretty sure all of you, if you go through some horrific time, those are probably one of the periods where you learned the most about yourself. 

And sometimes the universe just tell you, listen, just be still. And so I'm not going into next year, 2025 with this anxiety. I'm going to 2025 to continue this amazing journey that I've had as a young man from South Jamaica, Queens. That's now the mayor of the most important city on the globe. And I'm just enjoying every moment of it.

Question: Two questions. You mentioned the Brooklyn Bridge. We had a report down there the other day and the vendors are back. There was no–

Mayor Adams: Where? I'm sorry, where? 

Question: Brooklyn Bridge. Illegal vendors were back on the bridge. He said the only police presence he saw, there was one of those little mini vehicles. Windows were smashed. There was no cop inside. That was the only sign of police presence on the bridge. You call the police off the bridge and you're going to put them back on.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, we're going to look at that because you've got to constantly, you know, in this business, you have to inspect what you expect or it’s all suspect. Wow, I haven't said that in a long time, you know. You know, so we have to. You can't just put an initiative in place and then walk away and think that is not going to follow. So you have to break the habits of people. And so we're going to... I'm going to look and see. Matter of fact, I'm gonna take a walk over there today and see if we are back to the state of chaos. And I'm going to reach out to both the A4 and I think that's the fifth precinct down here or the first. I'll find out. But no, we have to maintain what we put in place.

Question: You know, I know there's a big push to get lifeguards ready to pay it in twenty two dollars an hour. All the ocean beaches are going to be open. And will they be able to reintroduce swimming lessons at the city pools this year?

Mayor Adams: I hope so. Meera, you know, remembers what we inherited around lifeguards and how far we were able to take us. You know, we were unable to hire lifeguards. The union contracts were just, you know, just not doing the right thing. We weren't paying lifeguards what they deserve. And so Meera Joshi and Sue Donoghue and Renee Campion, the commissioner who negotiated these contracts. We were able to really get a large number and our numbers were pretty impressive this year. And we want to maintain that stride. But we also want to encourage more people to become lifeguards. And the governor's doing some good stuff around that as well. So we want to continue to do that.

Question: Do you know how many lifeguards you need to actually open for the city?

Mayor Adams: We’ll get those numbers. I'll get those numbers for you.