Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on FOX5's 'Good Day New York'

January 10, 2025

Dan Bowens: Well, Mayor Adams delivered his annual State of the City address laying out his vision for New Yorkers as he kicks off his bid for re-election this year.

Rosanna Scotto: His two main focuses, affordability and safety in New York City. Mayor Adams joins us from Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. Nice to have you back on Good Day New York. Happy New Year.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be back and Happy New Year to both of you and all your listeners.

Scotto: Thank you. Okay. Very ambitious State of the City yesterday, talking about 100,000 new homes in Manhattan, talking about getting the mentally ill off the streets. People want a little bit more detail. Where are you doing this and how are you going to do it?

Mayor Adams: Well, it was very ambitious in 2022 when I talked about bringing down crime. We brought 23,000 illegal guns off our streets. We made our subway system safer. Physically, we know we need to deal with the anxiety from random acts of violence. We talked about building houses. We broke records in year one and year two. So being ambitious is who we are as New Yorkers.

So we talked about that 100,000 housing units. We were successful in Albany changing our zoning and allowing to raise the FAR and convert office spaces into apartments. We were successful in the City of Yes, the most comprehensive housing reform and zoning reform in the history of our city. And so, yes, these are ambitious calls, but these are challenging times for New Yorkers. We're going to get it done.

Scotto: But mayor, I'm looking for exactly where you're thinking you're going to put this hundred, you know, 100,000 homes and where you're going to house the mentally ill.

Mayor Adams: Okay, let's talk about the homes for a moment. We had to think differently. You can't grow or build more land. You have to build on the land. I sent out an executive order to my entire team and agencies and said, look at every governmental property that we could build on top of to start. We're doing that on Gold Street. It's an office building. We're going to be converting that into housing. We have a project where we're going to be building in Manhattan.

We have a library that we're going to be building on top of as well. So we're looking at every possible place that we could expand the use of our existing land to build housing. And you'll be surprised how much land we have to accomplish that task. And then we're going to use the rights that we received through the City of Yes, that's going to change the zoning and build a little more housing in every neighborhood that has not been done before. And we're going to carry that out.

Scotto: Mayor I want to ask you about the Elizabeth Street Garden, because I know at one point your administration was looking at that beautiful garden to do housing there as well. A lot of outcry in the community, because, as you know, having a little sanctuary in the concrete jungle is, you know, is coveted here. What are your plans for the Elizabeth Street Garden?

Mayor Adams: Straight ahead, we've got to build housing. The housing on Elizabeth Street Garden is going to go to our senior housing. The anxiety that our seniors are feeling is beyond belief. So we're going to build an open green space there as well. So people can still have a garden. But I got to use that space to build the number one concern that I'm seeing in this city. And that's housing, particularly for our seniors.

Bowens: And Mr. Mayor, if I could take it underground for just a minute here, because obviously part of your plan is trying to deal with the homeless and so many people seeing, many people who are unfortunately living down in the subway system. How does your plan address some of the issues that people are seeing down below?

Mayor Adams: And you know, when we think about the homelessness issue that is impacting our city and our country, we focus on just the role of the city. The city's doing our job and we want to do more. We opened a thousand new beds. We put in place two programs, our SCOUT and our PATH program, partnered with nurses and police officers to go in and engage those who are dealing with severe mental health illness in our subway system.

Moved 8,000 people off our system and put them into safe havens. But there are many rivers that feed this sea of homelessness and we got to dam each one. That's why we want the involuntary removal bill in Albany to take place. We got to build a new location for homeless individuals with mental health in our city. But it's a combination of state, federal and city to deal with this real crisis we're seeing in the city and in this country.

Bowens: And that bill you're talking about is what Governor Hochul has supported, which would allow the city to remove more people from some of those areas there. One of your potential mayoral challengers, city Comptroller Brad Lander. Speaking about that building that you just mentioned, said one building five years from now is not going to get anybody housed, not going to get it done. How do you respond?

Mayor Adams: Well, at least in one building, five years from now, let's acknowledge what we're doing right now. Right now, we put mental health psychiatric beds back online. Right now, we have SCOUT and PATH in our subway system with hospitals and nurses.

Right now, we are engaging people on the street. Listen, let's be clear. There are many of my colleagues that are calling for us to do more, but they're passing legislation that states people have a right to sleep on the street.

They're passing legislation that states that we should not engage those in doing involuntary removal. So the real complexities of solving the problem cannot be just in rhetoric. We have not been in rhetoric. We've been in action. And that is what he should support us to do. And others should support us to continue what we're doing here.

Scotto: Mayor, I'm wondering if you're getting any reaction on congestion pricing in New York City. I know I am. And I'm wondering how you feel about it and whether you would support President-elect Donald Trump saying that he's going to try to get rid of it when he gets in office.

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, there are different levels of government, the federal, the state, and the city. I have the city level of government. I had no authorization to determine if congestion pricing was going to be put in place or not. The governor made the decision. The MTA made the decision. The lawmakers in Albany made the decision.

What I must do is support the decisions that are made, implement them safely. DOT is going to do their job. The Police Department is going to do their job. We're doing an analysis to determine the outcome, where we need to tweak or tinker with it. We're going to do our suggestion. But it's the law of the land now. And I need to make sure that it's carried out correctly here in the City of New York.

Bowens: Mr. Mayor, earlier this week, we had the presidents of the firefighters union here on the show who said that there are about 1,000 firefighters in the city in this congestion zone who aren't getting a cutout, a carveout for them to be able to move their vehicles in. Would you support the MTA granting that? And if they don't, will the city possibly reimburse these firefighters who have to drive their cars into the zone?

Mayor Adams: Well, I saw the president yesterday. I was at Todd Shapiro's 60th birthday party, and I saw the president. And he gave me a brief tidbit of what his plan was. I'm going to reach out to him, and I'm going to sit down and hear him out. And if there's something that's reasonable and doable, I would be the first to reach out and see if we can get it done and speak with the governor.

I don't know the full plan, but remember, every individual that we waive, for whatever reason, it comes off that billion dollars that the law requires us to raise each year. And so if it starts with one group, it's going to continue to grow. So we need to be smart on how we move forward.

Scotto: Right, because the teachers also want a carve out. But, you know, you talk about safe and affordable city. How is that possible with congestion pricing? And now we hear that it's still not enough for the MTA. They want to raise taxes. How is this going to be affordable in New York?

Mayor Adams: All I can tell you is, in my span of control, we are doing everything possible to deal with the affordability issue with our money in the pocket series, $30 billion in the pockets of New Yorkers. That includes retiring medical debt for those low-income New Yorkers.

It includes the affordable housing we're building, free high-speed broadband for NYCHA residents. You look at reducing the cost of childcare from $55 to $5 a week. We're doing everything in our powers to deal with the affordability issue in the city. Everyone must be on the same board to do that. And I can only do it in my span of control, and I'm doing that very well.

Bowens: Mr. Mayor, you're pressing ahead with the city's business, but you also have these criminal allegations trailing behind you. The FBI this week said it, quote, uncovered additional criminal conduct when it comes to the case that you're facing. How do you respond?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, we've been saying over and over again these leaks. Just a besmirching of my character, I have an attorney, Alex Spiro. He's handling that. My job is to do what the people elected me to do, which we have continued to do. We're not listening to the noise. We're looking at the numbers. Let the process move forward. And Alex is doing a great job on representing me.

Scotto: All right. I know it's a new year, a new you. What are your resolutions? Are you doing anything different in 2025?

Mayor Adams: You know, you learn from every year that you leave, and you're excited about it. You know, I try to take care of myself as best that I can, you know, getting a lot of mental breaks, you know, from meditation to breathing exercises, spending time with Jordan, watching him as he's expanding his career.

He's in the school teaching now as well. So really just enjoying life and what life has to offer us. And being the mayor of the greatest city on the globe, I can't complain no matter what happens. This is a privilege to serve the people of this city.

Scotto: Thank you so much for talking with us this morning on Good Day New York. Mayor Eric Adams, appreciate it.

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