Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

January 7, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Good afternoon. Sorry for the delay. An amazing 625 officers' graduation of 39 different languages, 35 different countries, really reflected the diversity of our city. And as always, I said to them and I will say to all New Yorkers, public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity. And we're looking forward to continue our city decreasing crime.

Yesterday, Commissioner Tisch and I talked about that success. We continue to live on our mission. And when you think about 3,600 fewer crimes citywide, that's more than 3,600 less victims experiencing the trauma of crime. Not what we want to be, but we're moving in a direction that we believe we should be moving in. And we reduced homicides and shootings for the third straight year. They are down double digits in both categories since we took office. Hats off to the NYPD, the men and women who carry out this role every day and 625 more who are joining our initiatives to keep our city safe.

And hats off to Bill Bratton. I saw a tweet that he's talking about, we need more police. Bill, you're right. We never could have too many. I know when I was in the department and you were serving, we were at an area of almost 38,000. The more men and women we have wearing a blue uniform, it gives the omnipresence that's needed. We want to encourage young people to join the New York City Police Department so that you can serve and protect this great city.

In the month of December alone, we saw the largest one month decrease, 15.5 percent since February 2021, nearly four years ago. Really just good work by the men and women. And 2024 also marked the second consecutive year of declines in crime in our subway system. But I continue to say over and over again, from the days of policing the system, the numbers are not just the answer. We must match the numbers with the perception and feeling safe in the system. And one of the things that impact New Yorkers the most about feeling safe is really the large number of those who are dealing with severe mental health illnesses and participating, and just a disproportionate amount of random acts of violence. And so between our SCOUT program, our PATH program, our combination of mental health professionals and law enforcement officers, we have removed almost 8,000 people off the system to attempt to give them care. But it's a long-standing pursuit, and no one knows it better.

As of 2022, when I talked about this, we received a lot of criticism. And even now, we are constantly finding ourselves under legal challenges from those who believe those individuals who are dealing with severe mental health illness should have a right to remain on our streets, should have a right to live on the streets, should have a right to live in our subway system. I disagree. There's nothing humane about allowing people who are dealing with severe mental health illness to remain without the proper care.

As we move forward, another trademark for us is affordability, and nothing personifies that more than affordable housing. Last year, at the State of the City Commitment, we talked about our 24 in 24 plan to advance 24 affordable housing projects. Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and her team went far beyond that with 26 in 24. 12,000 units of housing across the five boroughs. We're going to continue to find ways of how we move our archaic housing laws and rules so that we can build more housing.

We have a housing crisis, and we have to address that, and that's why our new Charter Revision Commission will hold its first public meeting. I believe their meeting now as we speak, if not if they met earlier, and really want to take a hat off to Rich Buery, the CEO of Robinhood, who's going to be the chair of this Charter Commission, and we're going to continue to do more in this area. The City of Yes was not the only plan we want to land. We have more to do as we continue with a real aggressive housing program. And so I want to just open the floor now, move forward, and have you ask any questions?

Question: Mr. Mayor, I have two questions. The first one is as federal prosecutors have just said that they seem to have uncovered more criminal activity on your part, and they seem to be looking to file a superseding indictment. Your reaction to that?

Mayor Adams: Look, you know, even Ray Charles can see what's going on, and I have an attorney, Alex Spiro, is handling that. I've said over and over again, I've done nothing wrong. Let the attorneys do that. I have to run this city.

Question: The other question has to do with subway safety. I know that you've talked a lot about subway safety, and although the numbers have come down, people still don't feel safe. So the question is, I know you think that there should be new legislation from Albany to deal with getting the mentally ill off the streets, but what about the idea of, when the commissioner said that she's going to put 200 more cops on the subways, do they have to have special training? Should they be deployed differently? What are your thoughts of how that can work to make people feel that they're safe and that it matches the numbers that you're seeing?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and Marcia, if we go back to 2022, you remember when I was talking about that, how people- the perception is a problem, and everyone criticized me for saying that, but I fully understood that if you had no crime on the subway system, but if people felt unsafe, you were failing. And I knew that the perception must match the numbers. I just told you how well we're doing in our subway system, and people don't like to hear how well we're doing when we talk about it, but we need to be honest about the success.

But with that honesty, we're not saying we don't have to deal with the perception. I mean, a burning of someone on the subway system, shoving on the subway track, a slashing, being punched, when you read that stuff, or you're in the subway system, you see someone yelling and screaming, walking down the tracks, you don't want to hear about the numbers only. So my job is to make sure I do the substantive things to bring down crime, which we have done. But I have to do the symbolic things that make people feel safe. And that's why I said we're going to give the commissioner- the commissioner announced 200 more police officers, because I said we need to give them more police officers to carry out the job.

And so what we must aggressively do, and whenever we talk about this issue, think about it for a moment, whenever we talk about this issue, what do we say? What is the police doing? That's what we see, when we think of public safety, we only think of the police. We don't see the policies that police must police in. We don't see those who are suing us to say people should have a right to stay on the system. So we're fighting to deal with not only the laws that allow people to say City Council passed a law to say people have a right to sleep on the street. People have a right for public urination. This is what we are policing in. And so when you see the perception, we automatically say, well, what are the police doing? We have to start asking the question, what is everyone else doing? The police, they're doing their job. Everyone else must start understanding the policies and rules that are made are connected to what people are feeling.

We did our job. We restored all public hospital psychiatric beds that were closed. We reinstated all of them. We doubled outreach staffing at the Department of Homeless Services. We expanded specialized shelters like Safe Haven, 1,400 new beds online. We connected thousands, 8,000, we took off our subway system and put into a shelter system. We are playing our role. But as long as the focus is just on the police and city hall and not the other rivers that feed the sea of this issue, then we're never going to solve it.

We have to start asking others, what are you doing within your span of control to help the perception that New Yorkers are feeling? And I just think it's unfair to say to those men and women who are on the subway system doing their job that why aren't you doing more? They are doing more.

Question: Why can't you try to get the other people to do their part?

Mayor Adams: And you're right. But the thing is, those other people don't read about themselves in the papers every day. We read about the police. And I think that if we start focusing more attention on the other parts of this system, you'll see a different response. But right now, the attitude is, well, they're only talking about Eric. They're talking about the police commissioner, Tisch. So why do we have to worry?

Everyone needs to be answering the question, what are we doing about the severe mental health crisis in our city that has a disproportionate number of random acts of violence, serious issues that are impacting their safety and impacting the safety of others. We need to start highlighting what others are doing. And I bet you, you'll get a different response and reaction.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. So today, MTA Chair Janno Lieber said that the MTA doesn't need to have their money management audited. He wanted to say that he was happy with how they were managing their money with this influx of congestion pricing funds that was coming in.

Now, you've been working with the MTA in Albany for three years now. You've come into office and you want to fiscally manage money in City Hall. Do you believe, running your city, that the MTA has managed its money properly? And are you happy with what it's been doing in the city over the last three years?

And then building on that with congestion pricing, you've repeatedly said, we need to get this right. We need to have- however it is, this is a moving target of summing up what you've said over the last few weeks. What do you believe needs to be adjusted? Are there exemptions that need to be added here? I know the fire units are coming out, the police units are speaking out about this. What do you believe needs to be adjusted here to make this work properly?

Mayor Adams: So let's deal with the money management part. The state and the governor must deal with the finances of the MTA. That's their job. I have 99 problems and I have to deal with what's in my portfolio. I always joke about the guy that stopped me on the street and said I'm getting a divorce, it's your fault Eric. When people get angry, it's the mayor.

When they do their off-topics, ask them that question. Find out from them how they're managing, how they're overseeing, what are they doing with the budgeting of the MTA. I have to budget this city and this agency. And we're doing that and we're doing a darn good job starting with our PEGs, being able to come up with $7.2 billion in savings so we can deal with the $6.5 billion migrants and asylum seeker crisis. We're managing our budget, landing our budgets, landing our interaction with the city council. So that's their issue. They need to figure the MTA out, figure out how it's going to be done correctly, and they need to work that through. And that's a question for them. That's not a question for me to speak on.

Question: But they operate in the city. You obviously have to work with them. They're building train stations. They're moving New Yorkers around. I mean, they are like the infrastructure in the city that fuels New York. So you have to have some sort of opinion on whether or not-

Mayor Adams: I do have an opinion. And remember, the capital budget that was put in place was voted down. You know, why try to pull my hair out- when I had hair. Why try to pull that out on something that's not in my control? There's too much I have to do within my control. There are parts of the government that must deal with the MTA. That is their issue. [What] was your second question?

Question: Congestion pricing. You've said this needs to be right. So what is that?

Mayor Adams: They have to, by law, they have to reach a billion dollars. They have to reach a billion dollars. I'm a firm believer that we pushed for some waivers. We were able to get some waivers. We were able to get to $100 million for the environmental issues. I've raised what my thoughts were on this over and over again.

Again, the state lawmakers put it in place. The MTA did what they had to do. The federal government did what they had to do. I believe congestion pricing should have gone through the City Council. These are our roads and it's in our city. I believe we should have had a greater impact on doing it, but that's not the reality. That's the balance of government. I respect the process. You know, the powers I have, I use. The powers I don't have, I have to respond to those who have them.

Question: Hi. Two questions. First, are you going to be in Washington, D.C. for the week of the inauguration? Second, why didn't you do anything publicly on Sunday or Monday when it comes to congestion pricing, even just like an educational campaign? Are you concerned that it's politically unpopular?

Mayor Adams: No. A whole lot of stuff we do in government is unpopular and popular. That's the life of making tough decisions. I am not trying to bigfoot and overshadow those who are responsible for giving the right directions on how it should be done. And I think it wouldn't affect Monday morning.

We put a ton of information out there throughout the year when it was coming. We were clear and I've made several statements on this. I wasn't trying to bigfoot anyone. January 19th is Dr. King's, the acknowledgement of Dr. King's birthday. I have a few incidents, so we're still managing my schedule. My team is deciding where I'm going to be. And once we know, we always make my schedule public. So once I know what I'm doing that weekend, we're going to release the schedule.

Question: Mr. Mayor, back to the filing and the statements by prosecutors in writing that they have uncovered additional criminal wrongdoing by you, I just have two questions. One is, have you ever asked any potential witnesses in this investigation to delete any evidence? And you mentioned the list of 99 problems. Where on that list of 99 problems does that superseding indictment rank?

Mayor Adams: First of all, again, Alex, speak with my counsel. I do not tell people to commit criminal actions. So speak to my counsel to deal with anything with the investigation. I'm focused on running the city. Can I make that any clearer? I'm focused on running the city. I think this is clear what's happening right now. And I just need to stay focused.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to go back to one of your campaign promises, which was to significantly reduce police overtime. But now, we have a record of $1 billion in overtime spending last year. And now there are allegations of abuse in overtime. I've been speaking to a mix of former and current police officers, as well as the public advocate. And many of them blame you because they see this as a management issue.

They say that you basically empowered people who had personal relationships with you. And because they had these personal relationships with you, they felt that they didn't need to be held accountable. And that this really upset the chain of command in the NYPD. I wanted you to react to that, but also talk about why couldn't you bring down OT?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, and I hear this over and over again about personal relationships. The people who came on board had a depth of knowledge and experience. You look at the Chief Banks. Chief Banks was the former chief of the department. Former chief of the department. And you look at the countless number of other people who were on board. Commissioner Tisch. I brought Commissioner Tisch on board to run the Department of Sanitation. I brought Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer on board. Deputy Mayor Ana Almazar and the others. These are all the people that I chose to be part of the administration. And whomever I brought on had experience in those areas.

And so if you say that former police officers and former elected officials have criticized me from January 1st, 2022, was now giving you an opinion on management, am I supposed to take that seriously? All I know is that the city I inherited, we're a long way from that. From housing to returning our economy, to bringing down crime, to how we're managing everything, from putting $30 billion back in the pockets of low-income New Yorkers, to the most comprehensive housing reform in the history of the city. There's been a whole combination of things that we have done. We've broke records after records, over and over again. And so I think it's imperative that we don't have these billboards up for nothing. They're up for a reason. Hold on-

[Crosstalk.]

I'm not going to respond to you if you cut me off. Because whenever you ask me questions, I remain silent and I listen to you. So we got to do the same thing. And if you want to respond after, you could do that. But I don't want to cut you off when you're speaking, so please don't do that to me.

And so, yes, I'm responsible for whatever happens in the city. I'm the mayor. And, you know, you can't say, Eric, that you're responsible. And then when I go into my agencies and make things done correctly, you say, well, you're micromanaging. So we can't have things both ways. Yes, I'm responsible. But when you look at the overtime we had to spend, do analysis of it.

We had over 3,000 demonstrations in the city, unexpected. They were unexpected. 3,000 demonstrations, large crowds. That causes, sometimes, overtime. We had a spike in January of crime in our subway system. I'm not going to sit back and say, well, we're not going to do additional overtime because I want to keep down numbers. No, safety is the top issue for me. So if people want to hold me responsible, they're supposed to. I'm the mayor. I'm responsible. I'm responsible for the safety of the people of this city. I'm responsible for the fiscal management of this city. And when you look at what the bond raters are saying, that Eric, you're doing a darn good job because we're going to not only to raise my bond, but they showed that they believe to continue to bond the bond raters where they are.

So yes, whomever said I'm responsible, tell them I agree. The mayor is responsible for this city and I'm also responsible for the safety of the people of the city.

Question: [Inaudible] abuse if it's abused.

Mayor Adams: Whatever happens in this city, I would not shun my responsibilities. The infrastructures that are in place are to ensure any form of abuse. And those who are put in place to do that, they should do their job. But the ultimate responsibility of the fiscal management of this city falls in the lap of the mayor of the City of New York.

Question: Mr. Mayor, following up on congestion pricing, your administration announced a proposal for some new rules on cracking down on license plates that are obscured or, I guess, illegal. What is the plan there? How much do you hope to raise? And then what's your intel on how congestion pricing has gone so far?

Mayor Adams: It's been one, two, three, Tuesday. It's been two days. They're going to do an analysis of everything from housing and parking, traffic flow, speeds. So there's going to be a whole analysis. This is new. And anything new brings about a certain level of anxiety and just opinions. That's just the reality of it. You know, this is something brand new. It has never been done in our city before. And we need to see how the process is.

There's going to be, no matter what happens here, trust me, there are going to be people who are for it, people who are against it. People who are going to tweet, thank God, good times are here. People who are going to tweet, pray for us, bad times are here. That's just New York. And so you follow the process. And I think once we do an analysis, we can determine are we getting what we were expecting to get. And my goal is to see some of those analyses. That's just the reality of it.

[Crosstalk.]

Bad guys are so tricky in everything they do. I was doing some research online over the weekend looking at the different ways you can block your plate. You could put different letters on your plate. There's going to be an entirely new industry on how to evade tolls. That's just the ingenuity of mankind, of humankind. And so DOT, NYPD, they're going to do their job to crack down on those who are enforcing, but every person who refuses to pay their toll is going to be taking it out of the pockets of those who are paying their toll. So there's nothing beneficial about doing that.

That's why when people looked and examined what we were doing about ghost vehicles, people didn't know the connectivity. Not only were these guys committing crimes, but they were also evading tolls. We partnered with the governor at the toll booth, and we removed over 80,000 illegal vehicles from cars, ghost cars, to mopeds, to three-wheelers, to scooters. That's an astonishing number, 80,000. We knew we had to get that under control. But there's always going to be someone that's going to try to circumvent the system. And we got to do everything possible to catch them, make sure the laws allow the confiscation of vehicles if needed, make sure the penalties are severe enough that it would deter them from doing it. But there's always going to be, trust me, there's right now as we see that somebody's trying to figure out a way to circumvent the process. I saw someone wrote an article today of how they put dirt on their plates, how they bend the plates, how they do all sorts of things. That's just how folks are.

Question: Mr. Mayor, two questions. First, can you assess Governor Cuomo's tenure in office first? And secondly, you had invited the public to send you videos and photos of police officers improperly, or I should say using their phones in the subway. Do you still want those photos and videos? And if so, how does the public get them to you?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and it was very- first, assessing Cuomo. I think everyone that serves, you have good days, you have bad days, you have good decisions, you have smart decisions. That's no different from the former governor. And that's no different than for me. Anyway, anyone that tells you they batted .400 while they were in office is just, you know, they're just lying. [Inaudible.] And so I don't even recall. I know I probably was .399 and he was not as high as mine. I had the Aaron Judges with some of my records. So I don't have- I think he had, like I said, he had some good days, he had bad days. That's just the reality of it.

[Crosstalk.]

No, I can't because I may have to use it one day. Your second question was?

Question: You had invited-

Mayor Adams: And when I sat down with Pat Lynch at the time, and I wasn't even aware of it, our officers now use their phones like memo books. They use them like memo books now. They have department issue phones where they use a great deal of information. And Pat was the one that shared that with me, the former president of the PBA. And he says, Eric, you should go out when you see officers using their phones, you should go out and interact with them. And I did that. I went into the subway system and I would stop, you know, like, what are you doing right now? Are you talking to your loved one, family member? And they were showing me what they were doing on their phones.

So it's not that simple just to say that, hey, you're around the booth and you're just playing on your phone when you're playing video games. That is not that simple. They use their phones a lot under this modern day Police Department. They use their phones for a lot of communications, a lot of note taking, a lot of looking for suspects. And so what we must do, as I spoke with the commissioner about, we must ensure that as they go out to roll call, remind them on how to be- number one, safety, because you have three officers there and they're all looking down at their phones. That's a safety problem. We want to remind them on the proper use of their phone and not to abuse their phone.

Question: Do you still want the photos?

Mayor Adams: No, I don't.

Question: So on one front, I'm wondering, you know, one of your main criticisms of your opponents so far in the primary is that they're not mayor. They're not doing the job. You've been on the ground doing the job. When you came in in 2021, you had never been mayor before. I guess, is that a fair criticism considering you came in fresh like they are?

And then separately, you know, you've been saying related to the indictment, you know, it's obvious what's going on here. Can you give us a little bit more detail on what's obvious, what's going on here?

Mayor Adams: No, Alex Spiro. The greatest level of discipline that I've ever experienced in my entire life is not to respond to all of this. I have an attorney. He told me from the start, I need you to be disciplined, Eric. I know that you're used to your life fighting and defending yourself, but you need to be disciplined. And I trust him. To be the lawyer of Jay-Z, Baldwin, Elon Musk and all these other people. They trust him enough and I trust him enough. And so, reach out to my attorney. He's reachable.

[Crosstalk.]

What I'm sharing with you, as I did with Bill de Blasio, and Bill will tell you many times I will call him and give him support, give him my, particularly law enforcement, oversight, etc. What you're seeing from this crop of potential candidates is the idealism colliding with realism and just not understanding the fullness of doing a job like the mayor, particularly going through serious crises. COVID was a real crisis. 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers coming in, 8,000 a week. And then when you hear some of the things they're saying, it's clear they don't have a fullness of understanding of, how do you balance a budget, how do you run a city, and how do you make sure the quality of the city that you're in.

I mean, you know, some of these guys voted to legalize public urination. The average public [person doesn't] want to walk out their house and see someone urinating on their porch. Some of them pushed back when we set a 30-day limit on people staying in our shelters. We moved 170,000 people out of our shelters. And some of them were saying we were inhumane for doing that. Some of them fought against us taking encampments off our streets. That's not what the public wants. Who wants to walk out their door and all of a sudden see someone having an entire camp and cooking in front of their street? So when you start to look at some of the idealism they have, it collides with the realism of having to run a city this complex.

And some of the stuff they say is scary when you have to make these decisions. Defund [the] Police Department. Reduce the numbers. One said that we were over-policing the subway system. You know, we don't need cops on our subway system. Why are you putting too many cops on our subway system? It's just that they don't have a full scope of running a city and the needs of the complexity of running a city. That's what I was saying

Question: I think you cracked the joke, you know, Ray Charles can see what's going on. Yeah, it's funny, but I really don't. I can't play the piano, but I can see. I'm sure you've said it before, but what do you mean by that when you say even Ray Charles can see what's going on? I can't. What's going on?

Mayor Adams: Okay, [inaudible] that you can't. You're not Ray Charles.

[Crosstalk.]

Nope, you had your one. Go to the next one.

Question: Where were you on New Year's Eve when Gracie Mansion was burglarized and you weren't home?

Mayor Adams: What was the next question you asked?

Question: Where were you on New Year's Eve when it was burglarized?

Mayor Adams: We have a New Year's celebration, enjoying the city. There's no greater place to be in New York than on New Year's Eve. And we were celebrating the city with a whole host of fun, hanging out with my son and some other people, bringing in the New Year's with them.

Question: I wanted to ask, on the subject of involuntary hospitalization, you obviously have been, you know, calling for this for, for a while. Why do you think it took so long for the governor to come around to see eye to eye with you? What specifically might have changed her viewpoint?

Mayor Adams: No, the governor, the governor always felt that this was an issue. She thought it was important, that we-

Question: You were calling for it initially and her joining, right?

Mayor Adams: No, but it was part of our conversations in 2024 as well. Even in 2023, it was part of our conversation. And there were so, so many other, priorities in Albany. You go up with a list of priorities up in Albany and you try to get as many on as possible. But it goes back to what Marcia stated, that when people are asked, here's your role, here's what the city did, here's what the police are doing, but here's your role into it. People have to understand that they have a role.

And I keep talking about this and it's going to take a while before it resonates with everyone. We're closing Rikers. 51 percent of the people there have mental health illness. We're closing Rikers. We're building four more small Rikers. That doesn't solve a problem. You know, that's going back to the question that was asked about those mayoral candidates that just said close Rikers. There's some that are saying just empty Rikers. And that doesn't solve the problem of building four more smaller Rikers.

One of those facilities should be a state-of-the-art mental health facility for inpatient and outpatient. I've been saying this over and over again. Some have started to hear me and we've been having meetings to talk about that. But when we start highlighting the role of everyone else, you'll get a different response. Right now, we're not holding everyone responsible for these quality of life issues. We're holding just the police, which I think is unfair, instead of saying, what is the role that everyone is playing?

But the governor in 2023, we were talking about this issue. We talked about it in 2024. So she's always understood we had to do something differently. She helped with it, with the treatment beds. There were things that we did last year. Um, so she's always been there on this issue. Everyone else needs to be there on this issue.

Question: Just a second question, Roger Stone included you in his list of the best dressed men in 2024. I'm curious what your response is to that.

Mayor Adams: I don't know why, you know. I don't know why I was included. I just wake up in the morning, I dress the way I feel. Some days I just keep on a pair of sweats and some torn up sneakers. So everybody has different styles that they like. I just take whatever compliment I can get nowadays.

Question: So two questions, Vickie Paladino, on this launch of the congestion pricing, she tweeted that a high powered green laser pointer, like the ones you find on Ebay can destroy a camera sensor. So be sure to not point them at any cameras, kind of like suggesting for people to go out and buy green lasers and point them at congestion pricing cameras, just your reaction to that.

Mayor Adams: Those lasers do what?

Question: She says that they damage the cameras or whatever. So she was like kind of encouraging people to go buy green laser pointers. And I got like, you know, 3.2 thousand likes on Twitter. So just kind of your reaction to some councilmembers kind of making these comments about congestion pricing. And then also, an appeals court today denied Trump's appeal to delay sentencing for Friday. So just your reaction to this case proceeding.

Mayor Adams: Listen, it's a process. He has attorneys, his attorneys are doing what they believe needs to be done. And, I would let his attorney respond to that, you know, what their thoughts are. And I'm looking forward to the incoming administration to partner with them to make this city move in a direction that I believe it's in.

And, you know, an area of saying… any person that fails to pay their toll, it's going to come out of the pocket of those who pay their tolls. And I don't want to see an increase in the tolling amount because they are impacted by that failure.

And my understanding, the councilwoman says she was joking, and I would like to believe she was. And I just think sometimes we take each other too seriously all the time, everything we say. So you're almost afraid to crack a joke nowadays, all of a sudden you are demonized. I say folks need to just lighten up. We have become so boring that no matter what joke you make, all of a sudden you become this bad person.

I think she was joking. I think she was being humorous. And we're going to do our job. The PD is going to do the enforcement, DOT is going to do their job. We're going to do our job, but I would encourage everyone that anyone who fails to pay their toll is going to come out of the pockets of those who are paying. And that's just not right. That's not fair.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. On subway safety, I know you've been talking about it from the Police Department standpoint and also about mental health, but there's also some sort of structural ideas out there like subway gates on the platforms. There's a bill in Albany that would require more of those. Do you have any thoughts about whether that would be a good idea?

And second question, on just the Charter Commission. I know they're going to do their own work, but at this early stage, do you have any ideas of things that you hope they take a look at?

Mayor Adams: Independent commission, like we did the last time. People want to believe we put it in place to block things. That's not true. We did it the last time, I think five out of six passed. And we're looking forward. Housing is the issue. And Rich Buery is a well-respected leader from the Robinhood foundation, having him chair this- Charter commission, Diane Savino did an amazing job the last time. We're really looking to see how do we fix our housing issue and whatever else they come up with.

These charter commissions, they give us an excellent opportunity to relook at our charter and figure out what we can do better in the city. No one can say we should not be doing something about the housing crisis that we're facing.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I presented something to the MTA back in my days at Borough Hall, you know, because I saw like in places like even the airports here, you know, you have those gates up. I think is long overdue that we have some form of gates that are up to prevent people from being shoved to the tracks. I spoke with the governor and the governor even mentioned that over the weekend when the two of us were communicating. But I think it's long overdue. I think, our city with the number of passengers we have, has some of these stations, you know, Grand Central during rush hour. The volume of people that you see on our stations, it is long overdue that we can put the gates up, but it's a capital cost to that. It's very expensive.

I think we can find a cheaper way to do it. Even if you do the stationary, the entire platform doesn't have to be movable but the stationary that are not where the doors line up and just put the removable gates where the doors are, I think is long overdue.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: We would love to talk about how we could be a part of that.

Question: Thank you. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Another question on the Supportive Interventions Act. This bill would codify the lower standard for removal that you announced back in 2022. My understanding is that lower standard has been in use since that time.

So by codifying this bill in Albany, what is your goal? What would actually change on the ground? I know the bill would do other things like expand who can make clinical evaluations, but what is the purpose of making this official if it passes in Albany? Would anything change with how the city, removes people, who they remove, if it's already in effect? Is it to sort of discourage legal action? What's, what would happen?

[Crosstalk.]

Do you want the CR, the Charter Revision Commission to look at ranked choice voting?

Mayor Adams: They are going to make the determination. The independent commission, I didn't, in any way, try to persuade them the last time. And even if they do look at rank choice voting, it won't impact the next mayor's race at all. And so they should make the determination. They should do an evaluation and figure out what's the best way to look at it. We've had it for a couple of cycles or one cycle, for citywide. So they should look at it and make a determination and I'm eager to hear what they're going to present.

What I found back in 2022, when we started to look at this mental health issue, you know, I use the analogy all the time that there are many rivers that feed the sea of something. That's the same thing here. There are just many rivers we have to damn on this. There are those who, they just have a philosophical belief that people who are dealing with severe mental health illness should have the right to live on the streets. They just believe that. And some of them are healthcare professionals.

Officers would tell me, mayor, we bring people in, they don't want to see them. They turn them loose right away. They give them medicine for one day and put them back out there. Some do the right thing and make sure they have the right care, but there's just a philosophical, disagreement on this issue. And many officers are afraid to take the appropriate actions because they don't know if this is codified in law correctly, if they can do. So, we need to give real clarity that we have the right to do involuntary removal.

And so Assemblyman Braunstein's bill, the governor's now, um, looking to put it in her, her budget and bills. I think right now this gives us an opportunity for everyone to get at the table. We're going to go to Albany and advocate. It gives us all the opportunity to get at the table and talk about this real issue. A lot of people are not dealing with the reality of this issue, this philosophical disagreement, you know, as I stated, we were just in court over this issue that, you know, removing people off from living on the streets. This is a national issue and I think New York can make the right decision. And I think this bill is the beginning step of doing what's right for people who can't take care of themselves and they're harmful to themselves and they're harmful to others.

Question: Janno Lieber in his announcement to the press conference about the congestion pricing, there were complaints about people that have to go in and out. And he said it should be the responsibility of the employers to give credits. Now, one of the big employers of police and teachers and fire and EMT is the city government.

Are you going to ask for some city tax credits for the people who have to come in and out of the zone and are essentially getting hit with a tax where a lot of the other people in their profession work outside of the zone don't get hit with it? I think it's a couple of thousand dollars a year for some.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. And, you know, two issues with the, every credit, every waiver. They have to reach that billion dollar number by law. It's number one. Number two, the question becomes, where do you stop? And that is a real challenge that we are facing, that every civil servant deserves some form of benefits that's attached to their union contracts. And so it's like, what do you stop? You know, which civil servant, do you tell, they should not have the credits that you're talking about?

Question: But you're an employer, would you say then that tough luck, you're not getting the credit?

Mayor Adams: No, we're not saying tough luck and that's not the goal to say tough luck. What you do, you do what's in your span of control. And I cannot say it any clearer, our state lawmakers and MTA will be the deciding factor of the shaping of this congestion pricing. That's not within my scope of authority. And like I said, I got 99 problems, brother, you know, and I'm not looking to take on new ones.

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