Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On NY1's 'Mornings On 1'

January 10, 2025

Jamie Stelter: Mayor Adams says he wants to make New York the best city to raise a family. He unveiled his vision for a safer, more affordable city yesterday in his State of the City Address. In an hour-long speech that seemed to say, I'm still here, federal indictment be damned, he laid out a plan that includes multi-year initiatives to tackle homelessness on city streets, create new housing through the City of Yes, teach students to save and spend their money and create family-friendly neighborhoods. The mayor says all of this will help keep working-class families in the city and that this is a critical time for it.

[Video plays.]

Mayor Eric Adams: But there's no denying that New Yorkers are anxious about the future. Extreme costs are forcing too many people, especially working-class families, to make hard choices. Between groceries or childcare, medicine or clothing, making the rent, or moving out.

[Video ends.]

Stelter: Joining me now to talk more about this State of the City speech is Mayor Adams, live from Gracie Mansion this morning. Mr. Mayor, good morning. I saw yesterday the music playing, all the smiles. How do you think it went yesterday?

Mayor Adams: You know, my mind is always on to the next one. People sit there and wallow if you climb the mountain, it's on to the next one. I laid out a plan, now I have to make sure we implement the plan and I'm going to just move forward. That's just how I have always been focused on that.

Stelter: I have a few questions about some of the details of the plan. You announced what's called the Manhattan Plan, all of this housing that you're expecting to build. And it sounds quite exciting. We all know that the city needs a lot more housing, but where exactly do you think all this housing is going to be built in Manhattan?

Mayor Adams: And that's a great question. We can't create more land, but we need to do a better job with the land that we have. And because of the partnership with the governor and the leaders in Albany, we were able to do the first phase of what we needed to do in rezoning, raising the FAR and allowing the conversions of office space into buildings.

And then we did the second leg with Adrienne Adams, the speaker, and her team with City of Yes. We're looking to build on every city property, like the property on Gold Street that we're going to be building housing on, libraries. I told and did an executive order with my entire city and all the agencies, look everywhere that's possible to be creative, to build more housing, and we're going to find that housing and we're going to build it.

Stelter: I want to talk a little bit about subway safety. You said yesterday in your speech, don't listen to the noise. Don't listen to the rhetoric. The city is doing great, but then, you did admit that people don't always feel safe here. You've been in charge now for four years. When it comes to some of the details that you announced yesterday, like more cops in the subway, is this the thing that's going to make the difference this time?

Mayor Adams: Well, let's look at where we have been and where we are. My primary job is to make people actually safe. That is the primary job I have, and I know matched with that job is making people feel safe. So, when you ask the question, Eric, did you live up to your commitment and promise? Yes, our subway system is safer than going back to almost 2009 sometime when you take out the COVID years.

So we've done the job of making the system safe with over 4.5 million riders, average of six felonies a day with 4.5 million riders. It has been overshadowed by those random acts of violence, and we're going to do a multi-pronged approach to address that so riders can feel safe.

But we successfully made the system safe, and that is the job that I'm calling on Commissioner Tisch and her team and using our PATH program, our SCOUT program. We have to deal with those who are on our system that are dealing with severe mental health illness. When you look at the crimes that have shaken New Yorkers, it is involving severe mental health illness New Yorkers.

Stelter: So yesterday you announced $650 million to help get mentally ill New Yorkers off the streets, off the subways, and provide them with housing and treatment. Again, sounds great. It's something that I think all New Yorkers can agree would be a wonderful thing if it happens.

But, whether it's involuntary or on their own accord, how do you get these people to not only take the help, but then stay with the help so that you prevent that cycle of going back and forth, whether it's from jails or shelters back onto the streets?

Mayor Adams: You are so correct, and I'm out there, and it is a challenge that you cannot imagine. When I'm out there with PATH or SCOUT teams, and I'm watching someone who has no shoes on, cold weather, yelling and screaming, and then you approach them, and they become emotionally disturbed over it, and almost violent in some cases, it is a challenge.

And that is why involuntary removal is important. But we also must change the mindset of those who are looking to give care to individuals. We can't continue the process of giving them medicine for one day and then let them back out onto the streets. So it's a combination of things. I like to say there are many rivers that feed the sea of homelessness. We have to dam each river.

That means passing the involuntary removal bill up in Albany. That means changing the mindset of our healthcare professionals to see drug treatment history as well as the mental health disorder that they're experiencing. And that means our on-the-ground team being more communicative, aggressive. To ensure those who need care, we've got to get them inside and give them care. And it's a combination of things. We all must be engaged.

Stelter: I want to bring up two words I don't think I heard yesterday in the speech. And it's fascinating because it's been one of the biggest changes to city streets and how New Yorkers move around since maybe the invention of the street grid here in the city.

You're laughing because you know what I'm going to say. Congestion pricing. Mayor, you're driving around the city. Everyone's talking about it all week long. It's not talked about at the State of the City. I know it's January and there's been some quieter commutes this week. We're not jumping to any conclusions, but are you prepared to admit when the data comes in that it's successful?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think we should allow the data to come in. And it's not about convincing me. It's about convincing New Yorkers. This was a decision that our state lawmakers made. The MTA made the decision to move forward. Federal support was put in place.

What I would have liked to see, to see this go to the city. I think this should have been done and negotiated through the City Council and the Mayor's Office, but we don't have those powers and authority. And so we're going to look forward to what the results are. We know we have to deal with congestion. We know we have to deal with the issues of environmental concerns. There was just too much traffic in Manhattan. And so let's look at the final results. But let's be clear. The mayor doesn't have the determination of what is happening on the streets where congestion pricing is actually in place.

Stelter: New this week, federal prosecutors say that when potential witnesses became known to you and your allies, that there were attempts to influence their testimony. I'm wondering, do you realize how bad something like that sounds?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, well, you know, so many leaks have come out of this investigation of, it's hard to keep up with them. The grand jury and other parts of the investigation are supposed to remain secret. I have a great attorney and our attorney, my attorney, Alex Spiro, he's handling the case. And I'm going to just really refer all inquiries to him. We did nothing wrong. I did not break the law. And I will continue to say that to New Yorkers. But my job is to do what I was elected to do, and that's to serve this city and move it forward. And we have accomplished that.

Stelter: I know that your Democratic primary for mayor is coming up soon. Wondering if you're hearing the murmurs that we're hearing that Andrew Cuomo is thinking about challenging you. When was the last time you had a conversation with him?

Mayor Adams: I speak to the former governor from time to time. And whenever I run a race, I'm not looking at others. I'm running against Eric Adams. I have to do what I'm supposed to do. I had it, Andrew, in my previous race, Andrew Yang. And when you saw Andrew Yang, he was up 13 points in the poll. But we remain focused. No distractions. We grind. And right now, we're not calling Andrew Yang mayor. We calling Eric Adams mayor. And I'm going to do the same thing this time around.

Stelter: Okay. Well, before I let you go, 10 days until inauguration, Mr. Mayor, are you planning to attend Donald Trump's inauguration?

Mayor Adams: The team, my scheduling team is looking at what I'm doing that weekend. As you know, that's also Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. It's extremely busy. So we are working out those details. And once we know what I'm going to do, they will formalize and notify the city and notify the public.

If it's possible for me to get there, I look forward to it. If not, I will send my congratulations. I look forward to governing with the incoming president. As I stated, my job is not to be warring with him. My job is to be working with him as we move the city forward with our vital needs.

Stelter: All right, well definitely let us know about your plans. We look forward to following along with that. Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining me this morning.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.

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