June 20, 2022

Bridget Quin: Mayor Adams joins us live on the 1010 WINS information line. Mayor Adams, thank you very much for being here.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks. It’s great to be with you.

Quinn: Mr. Mayor, I will understand if you are a little groggy talking to us. I know you said it’s something that keeps you up at night. The Supreme Court could rule tomorrow and make it easier to carry a concealed weapon here in the city. Clearly, gun violence is a huge problem for New Yorkers. We just had that shooting in Harlem this morning. Can any of your policies, city policies, make it harder to transport, to get more guns off the streets?

Mayor Adams: And that’s so important. And yes, it keeps me awake at night. I say it again and again. And it is extremely important that the Supreme Court make the right decision not only for New Yorkers, but also for Americans. I was in Harlem last night until about 2 a.m. after nine people were shot. One person lost their life. We will continue to focus on getting guns off the streets. We have removed over 3,000 firearms so far. We will continue to track down these shooters. And I’m glad to hear that the justice system is taking up some of these cases, but we need to go even further to ensure that dangerous people are tried and, if they are guilty, they serve their sentences. We will do our job as a police service, but we need our partners in the criminal justice system to help us.

Quinn: Mayor, I want to talk about rent and I want to talk about vaccines. But while we’re talking about crime, we spoke with you on Friday about the possibility of cops doing unique patrols on the subway to keep passengers safe. The PBA’s Pat Lynch was not nice, in response he said it would make it harder for the cops to protect themselves and the riders. He says it’s gonna make the cop exodus worse. How about that?

Mayor Adams: Pat has a heavy responsibility to protect the rules and regulations of his members. And I respect that and work well with Pat Lynch. Some things we agree on, some things we’re going to disagree on. But let’s be clear, not just when I was a former transit officer, we had one patrol. But it existed until two officers were murdered in Brooklyn. And out of an abundance of caution, they did the double patrols. That’s when it happened. Transit has always had assignments that were single patrols. During the midnights of the night, we will make sure that the agents are taken to safety. We are not going to do anything that will compromise the safety of officers or the safety of the public. It’s a strategic way, it’s not a cover that every mission is going to be a single patrol. There will be a good deployment of the police. Something I’ve said many times, we don’t deploy our police properly.

Quinn: And Mayor Adams, I guess, to put an umbrella on it, when it comes to making the streets safer, the subways safer, what, if any, are your policies would you say they’re getting results for that New Yorkers feel better about being here in the city?

Mayor Adams: Well, a combination. First, our neighborhood security team. As I said, over 3,000 firearms have been removed from the streets through the combination of the neighborhood safety team and the other community form of precision policing. We should also really thank the men and women of the HRA and the New York City Police Department and other entities for evicting those who lived in the subway system. New Yorkers have talked about having encampments on the subway. The first week, only 22 people accepted our offer to go to a shelter and other accommodation. We are now over 1,300 people no longer living in our subway system for a safe haven environment.

Mayor Adams: And then how we deploy our staff. If you look at our parades, you really see a difference in not having five or six officers standing in that corner for peaceful parades. They are used to have the omnipresence necessary to restore confidence in the safety of our city. And so you see the 30% decrease in shootings and homicides in April and May, you see a result of what’s happening in our city. We have over 30 years, almost 30 years, of arrests for those carrying firearms. You see the real activity of our law enforcement apparatus, as well as crime prevention.

Quinn: Mayor Adams, I want to talk about the rent, the board of directors will meet tomorrow. And it looks like we could see a 2-4% increase for two-year leases, maybe up to six years. How do you respond to New Yorkers who say, “I couldn’t afford it. I have to move. I have to leave town.

Mayor Adams: We want New Yorkers to be here and live in the city. We know inflation is devastating to hard-working New Yorkers every day. As you know previously, we were hearing numbers above nine percent. We raised our voices and pleaded for this to be unacceptable. And we hope that the Rent Guidelines Board, an independent board, will make the right decision for New Yorkers who are struggling, and then also take care of the small homeowners, the small homeowners who are also really devastated by inflation. And that’s very important as we make this important decision for New Yorkers.

Mayor Adams: So we’re doing our job of putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers, an earned income tax credit, as you know, helping with child care vouchers, as you know and really looking at how to help New Yorkers during this difficult time. And so our call was not to go to those high nine percent percentages, which we believe would have decimated New Yorkers, but to ask them to go considerably lower. And we believe the Rent Guidelines Board, they’ve heard the cries of New Yorkers and heard the cries of our administration, and hopefully we can come up with a rent increase that they seem to be indicating they’re going to do, but to do so in a fair for small property owners and everyday renters.

Quinn: Mayor Adams, last but not least, all those little New Yorkers who are about to get their COVID shots. I understand that the city makes a certain number of spaces available. But how do you convince parents to have their children vaccinated? We had a study that found that about 40% of parents say, let’s hang back and wait a bit. We’ll see how it goes.

Mayor Adams: To really show the data, to show the information, the vaccine is about to come out for children under five. We will be aggressive in disseminating information. We want to spread facts and not fear, we think this is crucial because we have taken vaccines against smallpox and other diseases that we have to deal with. We think it’s crucial that we give parents the information they need so they can make the right decision to save their children and ensure we don’t have the widespread pandemic impact that we have had. in the past.

Quinn: OK. And we spread the word about vaccination sites and websites. And Mayor Adams, thank you very much for speaking to us today.

Mayor Adams: Thanks. Enjoy your day. It’s a beautiful day out there in New York.

Quinn: Absolutely. Thanks.

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