City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams: We must also double down on investments that provide stability for the people of this city. New Yorkers need affordable housing, healthcare, childcare, education and reliable government services that allow families to thrive.
[Video Ends.]
Kendis Gibson: That is City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams laying out a bold agenda with big promises to New York City today in her State of the City address. The plan’s contrasting with Mayor Adams’ more conservative approach to the city’s finances.
Arrianee Lebeau: Yes, we’re actually joined by Mayor Adams right now who attended the City Council’s speakers address today. Mr. Mayor, welcome to the show.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, thank you. It’s so good to be on with you.
Lebeau: All right, so Mayor Adams, this council is being praised as the most diverse and also the women majority. So, what’s the relationship between your office and the City Council?
Mayor Adams: Well, I think that the duality of our roles, of you know, look over at this end of City Hall you see a woman majority, five, for the first time deputy mayors. And I couldn’t sit in my seat I was jumping up so much clapping for the speaker. Listen, we are in alignment, and we must have two different approaches to balance out what we’re doing. You know, but the name of the game, her agenda is the same as my agenda. Lifting up working class people, that is what we did together in our first budget, we did it together in our second budget, and we’re going to do it again in our third budget.
Lebeau: So, mayor, let’s talk about some of that alignment. So, the speaker laid out a very ambitious agenda, fully fund 3K programs, hire more city workers, more services, more funds for nonprofits. And your office is usually more financially cautious. So, are you aligned in those areas and kind of in sync?
Mayor Adams: Yes, and she also mentioned that we’re seeing the sunsetting of stimulus dollars in the pre‑K and 3K. She said these are difficult decisions we have to make, and together we’re going to make the decision. And she also talked about city workers. She joined me when we did hiring halls in her district because we knew we had 14,000 vacant jobs that we could not get New Yorkers in the employment area, and we’re doing that.
She supported the decision we made of raising the salaries of 94 percent of city workers. So, we’ve been in alignment with that. We know the power of 3K, of pre‑K, we know the power of housing. She’s leading by example as she talked about the housing project in Aqueduct. As we’re saying, this should be a city of yes. Too many communities were not building affordable units. We are in alignment with these items.
Lebeau: And we know those city vacancies are now down to somewhere around 3,000.
Mayor Adams: Vacancy in the, which area?
Lebeau: The jobs, yes.
Mayor Adams: Are you talking about employment?
Lebeau: Yes, employment.
Mayor Adams: No, we still have a high number. We just lifted the hiring freeze. We’re getting ready to go into those communities where you see a high unemployment number, particularly around Black New Yorkers, the numbers are dismal. Communicating with Reverend Sharpton about how we want to move together and go into these communities.
We believe in taking these solutions to the street. We’re doing hiring halls in all of these communities. And trust me when I tell you, she’s going to join me in some of them like she did before.
Gibson: Mayor, Kendis here. How do you feel about the council’s oversight, generally, of City Council?
Mayor Adams: Co‑governance. I made this clear before. I believe in co‑governance not only with our City Council, but every senator is a co‑governor with me. Every assembly person, every district leader. We do not take the attitude that because we’re the mayor that we don’t need all of our partners. A group have traveled with us throughout this entire state.
And I think that’s the way this democracy was built in this. city, co‑governance. I have the obligation and responsibility of the large number of city agencies, but they are the ones that actually vote on the budget that we presented to them. And that’s what the founding mothers and fathers wanted, co‑governance.
Gibson: And mayor, you know, new today we kind of learned Westfield breaking its lease with Fulton Center due to crime, and other major retail chains also claim they are leaving the city because of retail theft. That Westfield deal, that was part of a $1.4 billion project. What does it say about your city when you have these businesses that are pulling out because of the crime in the city?
Mayor Adams: Well, it’s our city. We’re in this together. And we need to always be clear on that, and that’s what co‑governance is about. We need to make sure we pass the right laws. You saw the numbers in the transit system. You had a small number of people that I think it was 38 that committed over 1,100 crimes who were arrested for in the city.
So, we need to make sure that we have good, strong laws. We need to make sure our prosecutors prosecute. We need to make sure our DAs and our judges keep guilty people in jail. We saw a decrease in shoplifting in this city, and this is something our task force putting place in the beginning.
These are not victimless crimes. When you see repeated offenders, a small number of people, those shoplifters, I think the number was 385 were arrested over 7,500 times in our city. I think it was 572 to be exact. But look at those numbers.
And so we don’t want our retailers to leave. It’s just as some that’s leaving, let’s be honest here, there are many who are coming.
Gibson: Okay.
Mayor Adams: A lot of people have opened their headquarters here. This is an exciting place to do business with our diversity and people who are here. So, we know that public safety is crucial. You heard me say it over and over again, and we’re going to continue to go after those shoplifters.
Gibson: All right. Well, let’s talk about the state budget really quickly, because the state is leaving out an extension of mayoral controls of schools in their proposal. Does that mean that you could actually lose control of the schools? What [happens] then?
Mayor Adams: Well, listen, I think it’s like Yogi Berra, it ain’t over until it’s over. You know, I’ve been up there, I know what it’s like in Albany, I know how we go back and forth and negotiate.
What happened was there were two one‑house bills. The governor put in her proposal, the two houses put in their proposals. There’s a lot of conversation. What we don’t want to do, we don’t want to go backwards. We’re leading the state in reading and math because of what Chancellor Banks has done.
We have a national reading program that others are starting to duplicate throughout the state. We have our dyslexia screenings so we don’t have 30 percent of our inmates in jail because they’re dyslexic.
We are moving forward, and where we believe our partners up in Albany are going to look at what we have done with the school system and keep moving in the right direction. Pre‑mayoral control, we have 50 percent graduation rate record. Post‑mayoral control, we have over 80 percent graduation rate. I think it speaks for itself.
Lebeau: All right. Well, Mr. Mayor, we thank you for your time today.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.
March 13, 2024 Manhattan New York
Source: NYC.gov – Midtown Tribune news
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