Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts 'Hear From the Mayor' Radio Show

January 12, 2025

Gary Byrd: Well, good morning, Gary Byrd welcoming you to 2025. Yes, we are all the way live. And especially this morning, each and every second Sunday of the month, WBLS is proud to welcome the 110th mayor of New York City, the second mayor of color, and the first hip-hop mayor in the city's history. It's time for us to hear from the mayor, our brother, Mayor Eric L. Adams, on 107.5 WBLS. Mayor, good morning and welcome.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning, brother. And, you know, hearing from [inaudible], somebody loves you. I love them all, your listeners, all the folks in this great city of New York. It's good to be back on from here, from your mayor. And I'm your mayor, Eric Adams. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

If this is your first time tuning in, the purpose of the show is to do just that, just to communicate with you. And listeners should give me a call and hear directly from your mayor, who you elected. You can sign up to hear more from me by visiting NewYorkCity.gov/hearfromeric. And you can sign up on our website to Text with Eric and talk with me on WhatsApp. But today, just pick up your phone. If you've got a rotary, do a rotary. Many people don't know what that is anymore.

But you can dial 2-1-2-5-4-5-1-0-7-5. 2-1-2-5-4-5-1-0-7-5. I look forward to hearing from you. Really excited today, hanging out with one of my favorite commissioners. Always has a smile on our face. Always have great energy. And, you know, last week we shared our ambitious agenda to make New York City the best place to raise a family in the city. This was my fourth State of the City Address. And there's no denying that many New Yorkers, especially our families, are still anxious about the future.

And so we have to make sure that the greatest city on the globe is also the greatest place to raise families. And we know that we need to do things from keeping young people safe, to tackling street homelessness, from building more family-friendly neighborhoods, to saving New Yorkers millions of dollars. And we laid out an ambitious plan, a foundational plan, on how we want to accomplish this task. And nothing is more critical than securing our financial future.

Oftentimes, we want to make sure our children are physically healthy by feeding them the right food and just that visual aspect. But there's other aspects, you know, such as mental health. We have, you know, quiet moments and meditations in school and looking at what we're doing to deal with the mental stability of our children. But one area that we ignore a lot, financial security. And we need to focus on that financial security. And today, a real champion in doing that, the Commissioner of Consumer and Worker Protection, Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, who's here with us today. And she's going to tell us about an exciting new initiative that is just so important as we focus on financial security. Commissioner, welcome to the show.

Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much for having me with you here today.

Mayor Adams: You know, as I stated in my opening, talk about this announcement that we made around financial empowerment. Tell our listeners about it and how it's going to impact them.

Commissioner Mayuga: Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Let me just start by saying how much this initiative means to me. The CWP has, for a very long time, really provided free and professional financial counseling services for New Yorkers, like our financial empowerment centers. And those places have helped tens of thousands of New Yorkers already reduce their debt by more than $114 million and increase their savings by more than $13 million.

But these services have only been offered to adults 18 and older. So, for me, when I moved to New York City as a young adult, I didn't have financial plans. And I still live with the consequences of the financial mistakes that I made in my youth. I have two kids, and my oldest just started high school this past year. And I want her and all of our children to learn from our mistakes and give them the tools and resources to grow up to be financially healthy adults.

Our team at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection works hard every day to make this city more affordable for working-class New Yorkers. You've made that goal very clear to all of us. And under your leadership, this innovative approach is going to ensure we set up our children to pursue their dreams and be financially healthy adults.

Mayor Adams: You know, when I was a young man graduating from high school, and even when I became a rookie police officer, my girlfriend at the time, she used to always say, Eric, you've got to pay your bills on time. Your credit score would hurt if you don't.

And I had no idea what she was talking about, credit score, how it impacts you. And credit scores can impact your interest rates on your loans, your ability to be hired for a job also, as well as your ability to purchase a home. And not having this foundational understanding, you're really starting out life [with] two strikes. And what you are doing and what this administration is doing is so important to make sure it's done correctly. So what's the next step in carrying this out?

Commissioner Mayuga: A hundred percent, Mr. Mayor. We definitely want to provide the tools and make sure that our youth becomes financially savvy adults. And how we're going to do this is a multipronged approach. And it is something that just hasn't been done elsewhere, right?

There's been bits and pieces of this initiative that has been done in other jurisdictions, but nobody has brought it all together for our youth. So what is this going to look like? First, let's remember our goal, right? Making sure that New York City, like you mentioned, is the best place to raise a family. And part of making sure we reach this goal is to make sure that every single student is able to learn how to save and spend money by 2030.

So what are the aspects of this initiative? We got three. Number one, we're going to be working with NYC public schools to place financial educators in every New York City public schools district to support teachers, provide counseling, and lead financial and consumer education workshops.

Number two, we're going to work with the public high schools and identify local banks. This is really exciting to participate in an in-school banking pilot program. Can you imagine having a bank in your high school? I think everybody's just going to start making that a requirement when they start looking for which high school to attend. Our research shows that nearly 10 percent of households in New York City lack a bank account. Mr. Mayor, that's more than double the national average. So we need to tackle this issue.

And finally, we're calling on the private sector and philanthropies. You were very clear during the State of the City message, right? We need everybody to be all in on this initiative and have that private sector and philanthropy help us give students the hands-on experience with managing money and establishing strong financial habits.

Mayor Adams: And this just really feeds into our total approach to financial security for young people, such as our early college saving plans and some of the other things that we're doing to give young people a great start. And so you don't have to look back later and say, wow, I wish I would have known this. And being able to ensure, you know, how do you make sure our young people have all the basic skills that they need to have a productive life?

And it fits into our $30 billion Money in Your Pocket series that we're doing because we want to put taxpayers' dollars back into the money in the pockets of New Yorkers. The money they earn, we want that to be the money that they spend.

You know, so when you look at everything from foster care children, we're now allowing foster care children, instead of aging out at 18, they're now going to have life coaches until they're 26 years old. When you look at that, we're going to be paying over $2 billion in medical debt relief. This is unbelievable. Number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt, high-speed broadband for NYCHA residents for free.

And now we're going to extend it to other low-income communities as well. We're finding ways of putting money back into the pockets of New Yorkers. And this is something we committed to from the first day in office. And, you know, when people think of this financial literacy, there's some real stats when it comes down to Black and brown people. Can you talk about some of those stats?

Commissioner Mayuga: Yes, it's very unfortunate when you start digging and pulling all the numbers and doing all the research. And one thing that we find out is that the average American loses $1,500 at least every year on making these financial mistakes. And we know that our Black and brown communities suffer even more, right? There's no average number to quantify those. And as I mentioned to you earlier, 10 percent of households in New York City lack a bank account. And what does that mean?

That means that when you get your paycheck, you're spending money to get it cash, right? That's money that you're leaving out somewhere else. Now, of course, as we're talking about our Black and brown communities, the households that lack bank accounts are located in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in our city.

And in the Bronx, as an example, we see rates of unbanked households over 17 percent. That is just way too high. We need to act. We need to make sure that we take this space in these banking deserts. And that's going to be part of the things that we're going to be accomplishing with this as we find our partners and start setting up partnerships with the high schools in these areas.

Mayor Adams: And it's crucial, commissioner. When you think about it, people say, okay, yes, I'm going to the check casher and I'm paying a couple of dollars to the check casher. But when you take the money you're losing out of your check paying on the check casher, then you take the money you're losing from paying higher interest rates, then you take the money you're losing because you're paying credit cards with high interest rates, you start adding that up.

Those are hundreds of dollars out of your paychecks. And when you say $1,200 a year for those who are unbanked or those who are making these financial mistakes, you're seeing the erosion of how they could be using their tax dollars better.

And that's why we went and reduced the cost of child care from $55 a week to less than $5 a week. That is why we're doing things like making the reduced fare MetroCard to a larger number of New Yorkers, building more affordable housing. They're going to allow you to keep money in your pocket. Now we want to make sure the money you kept, that you're not losing it by paying these additional fees for services that you should not have to pay for.

Commissioner Mayuga: Definitely. And mayor, let's just, you know, let's not forget your amazing accomplishment also in being able to convince the state to allow us to raise the contribution of the city on the earned income tax credit. That had not been done in 20 years. That is huge. Talk about putting money in people's pockets. So I think that's also something that we should remind our listeners to make sure that they're using our free taxpayer program and keep all of those dollars in their pockets.

Mayor Adams: And that feeds into our Axe the Tax for Working Class People. This is an initiative we are looking for approval from the state. Great partners in Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Senator Leroy Comrie.

People, what this means, if you are a mother that's making $31,000 a year and you have a child, you will be able to not have to pay any income tax, New York City income tax. This is huge for New Yorkers. It's going to save hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers from paying income tax, low income New Yorkers, as well as if you have family of four and you're doing around $46,000 a year. This is a big step forward.

And when you look at the team, what the commissioner is doing, what our other commissioners are doing, we are looking through all of our agencies and we're asking the question, how can we put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers? And you were also successful, commissioner, with our Deliveristas. You know, those men and women who deliver food every day, you were able to get them a fair wage. Tell us about some of that work.

Commissioner Mayuga: Absolutely. We know that delivery workers for the third party apps are some of our most essential workers in the city. You go back to the pandemic, everybody, you know, so many people, so many of us were privileged enough to be home and feel safe and still needing deliveries of food, right, that came because of these essential workers.

And thanks to you, your leadership, your steadfast commitment to working class New Yorkers, we are now at $19.56 hourly rate, minimum pay rate for these workers. It is a huge increase that is returning millions of dollars to these workers. We're talking about an average delivery worker is now earning $14,000 more a year to their pockets and being able to feed their family the same way that they're bringing food to others who are trying to feed theirs.

Mayor Adams: Every dollar matters. And that is our focus. And so, you know, I hear the music playing. It's not like my walk on music, you know, but I hear it coming on. So we'll be back to continue the conversation with our commissioner and some of the great things we're doing. Thank you. We'll be back.

Byrd: The program is here from the mayor. And as we say, the mayor wants to hear from you. Mayor Eric Adams is on your radio waiting for you to call at 2-1-2 5-4-5-1-0-7-5. That's 2-1-2 5-4-5-1-0-7-5.

[Commercial Break.]

Byrd: Good morning. Wherever you're listening from in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Long Island, Staten Island or Westchester. Well, as you know, each and every second Sunday month, it's time for Hear From the Mayor. Mayor Eric Adams is on your radio right now at 2-1-2 5-4-5-1-0-7-5 at 107.5 WBLS. Mr. Mayor, welcome back.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. And just a real good conversation. We were off the air talking about, you know, the whole credit card. And, you know, Commissioner Mayuga is just really passionate about this topic. And so we look forward to moving this forward. But right now, we want to hear from some of our callers. Let's go to the phones and answer some questions.

Question: Hello?

Mayor Adams: Yes, sir. You're in the air.

Question: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, sir. Good morning. Mayor, I don't really have a question. I just wanted to congratulate you, brother, on an excellent job that I think that you're doing as mayor. And regardless to all of the naysayers and the haters, for no good reason, you're doing your thing. And I honor you, brother. And I appreciate the work that you're doing. And like you said, you're not stepping down, you're stepping up, and you're doing it in a great way. Your whole career as a young man was for service to New York City. And that's all that the majority of us and those of us who see you in the honest light see you as, brother. So keep on doing what you're doing, and God bless you, man.

Mayor Adams: Well, really kind of you. And, you know, we hear that all the time when we're moving around the city. When you peel back all the noise and you look at the success of this administration, I said yesterday, a few days ago at the Apollo, you're going to define this administration as records.

The number of records we have broken around housing, around dyslexia screening, around returning our economy, more jobs in the city history, a second largest number of tourism to the city, more people moved out of shelters into permanent housing. You know, they're just some real clear records. You know, like the brother said, I know there's a lot of haters, but you know what? Your haters are your waiters when you sit down at the table of success. Stay focused, no distractions, and grind.

Question: Good morning.

Mayor Adams: Good morning.

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Sunday blessings to you. I have a complaint. I have been calling 311 over maybe three, four years with some trees that were planted against my fence. I have a vacant lot, and it's located at the corner of [inaudible] and Belmont. When the trees were being planted, we told them that it was too close to the property, and they said there's nothing they can do about it. Now the tree trunks are up in the lot, and I just don't know who else to talk to, where to turn. I've called 311 several times. I can give you the latest 311 reference number. I am so disappointed and upset. I cannot afford to pay to get those tree trunks removed from in the lot.

Mayor Adams: So can you give me the reference number, please?

Question: It's 311-213-52898. And the representative told me, oh, you can go ahead and pay somebody to have it removed, but I can't promise you that the city will reimburse you. I'm on a fixed income. How am I going to do that?

Mayor Adams: Let me look into that for you, okay? I'll check on that Monday morning. I'm going to have Commissioner Kreizman look into that. Let's find out what's going on there. Now, you have a vacant lot also. We could develop some housing on that lot, you know, so let's always keep that in mind.

Question: The builder said we cannot because of the tree trunks.

Mayor Adams: Okay. I don't know what builder that is, man. That must be- that's a strange reason, but let us look into it, and let me get back to you, okay? And we'll check into that. I'm going to call you tomorrow after I have someone look into it, okay?

Question: Thank you, sir. Have a blessed Sunday. Stay safe, stay focused, and positive.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Love it. Next caller. You're in the air. Okay.

Question: Hello.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Hello. How are you?

Question: Good morning. How are you doing, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Adams: Quite well. Quite well. Thank you for asking.

Question: Okay. I'm just here to commend you on your good work that you've been doing so far. And I must say, as a city worker that's struggling on a city salary, because I'm not quite sure why the Office of Labor Relations decided that city workers are undeserving of the salary that fits New York City. I mean, inevitably, I'm struggling with the high cost of living with rent on the brink of homelessness, eviction. But it's just so hard to survive in New York City on a city salary when you're a city worker, when you're giving of yourself to the city, but you're not able to make ends meet and maintain the high rent at today's market rate. Like, it's just ridiculous.

Mayor Adams: No, it is. Let me tell you, you know, the philosopher said it right, the rent is too damn high, and we need to do everything we can to build more low and moderate income. And that is why, you know, I cannot change the price of bread, but I can put bread back in your pockets and find ways of doing that. That's why we're doing this medical debt relief. That's why we're doing a increase in the number of people that can qualify for reduced fare MetroCard.

And even when we announced at the State of the City college loan forgiveness program. So we are finding ways of bringing down the costs. And when I negotiate with the unions of your union that represent you, we settled 97 percent of our union contracts, and they know that I fought to get them with the union representatives, particularly DC 37, to get them the wage increases that many of them were denied for years. So we know it's tough, sister. Trust me, I know it's tough. And we're doing everything in our powers to make sure that we can put more money in your pocket so you can deal with these challenging times that all of us are facing across the city and across the country. Next caller, you're in the air.

Question: Yes. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Adams: Quite well. Good morning.

Question: Good morning. I just want to commend you on the job you are doing thus far, even against all the odds that you're dealing with. And I also want to talk about an issue that's near and dear to myself and my family. And you mentioned today, because it's on your topic, of financial security. We have a home that's in Brooklyn that we actually inherited from our grandparents who are deceased, and we're working on that property to try to maintain it.

So my goal for that property, and I've been up against all opposition trying to fight for that property, is to build that property up so that I can put people in there that are disadvantaged. And that's my personal issue that I want to do. And I want to address those issues because we're dealing with a lot of obstacles. It's currently in Kings County Supreme Court, our case. And we've also, you know, addressed issues with the city in terms of violations that we were not aware of. So I would like to get in touch with someone from your office so that I can move forward on this property. Because it is a multiple dwelling property where we can have multiple tenants in there.

Mayor Adams: I love that.

Question: And that's my goal.

Mayor Adams: Okay, so first let's start with me. Give your number to the station, and let me call you so I can find out the particulars. And then I can point you in who you should be speaking with, because I like that goal that you have, because that's what we need.

We need small property owners like yourself to be able to move forward, you know, in dealing with, in the building of the housing initiative we have in our City of Yes. So let's look to do that. Thank you for your compassion on this issue.

We hear the music playing. That's our signal. Another conclusion, you know, thank all of you for listening. And I just want to thank the WBLS family. Again, let's continue to hear from each other, speak to each other, communicate with each other, and lift up that positive energy.

Byrd: Indeed, our thanks. He is the mayor of our city and standing tall, Brother Eric Adams. Well, thank you for joining us this morning at our broadcast.

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